halloween ghost cookies

I made some ghost cookies for my friends this year.


These are simple sugar cookies with royal icing.


I even made some vegan ones for my vegan friends this year!

OK I sort of cheated when I was making the vegan ones... my friend Andrew got me a vegan sugar cookie mix and vegan butter, so I made it according to the box. I didn't have regular soy milk around the house, so I used the peanut rice milk drink we had in the fridge. The cookies turned our really well! I found a vegan royal icing recipe online, which was pretty much powdered sugar, corn syrup, and water and vanilla all stirred together. The finished icing worked very well, too.

Hope everyone is having a safe and happy Halloween!

tall bike joe

I've seen guys on tall bikes around the city, and always wondered how exactly they do it.

The other day Joergen came into the shop, and right before that I noticed he was locking up his ride that day... a tall bike!

After he had his siphon coffee and we chatted, I asked how he got onto his tall bike, and how he stops at lights and such, and he said he'd show me. Of course I had to grab my camera and catch him in action!




Don't think I'll ever try to ride on a tall bike myself, but Joe looks super cool when he does it.

a small little fondant cake

For the last "Fondant and Gum Paste" class I made a small little cake for the class project.

This past week had been slightly hectic, so I wasn't able to dedicate some time to making flowers for my cake. I only had the flowers made during class time, which weren't many.

As I was about to bake a cake for the class, I thought, maybe I should just bake a small one, so I don't have to use too many flowers to decorate it.




The cake was just over 4 inches in diameter, and about 1.5 inches tall.

I covered it with green fondant, and cut out circles of brown fondant, along with rolled green, brown, and white fondant balls to decorate the side and bottom of the cake.

I tried to place ALL of my flowers on the cake, but it just didn't look right, so I only used a pink rose and a small leaf I made in class last week.




I really like how this cake turned out. Now that all three cake decorating courses are finished, I am ready to utilize what I've learned and hopefully make cute cakes all the time! :D

goodbye, the tiny little love of mine.

We said goodbye to Ginger, our tiny little Siamese mix last Monday the 18th.


Ginger was really small as a kitten.

How small was she?


Really small!


She was really small as a full-grown cat, too.

I will miss her dearly, but I was glad she was not in pain when we let her go.


I will miss having her sitting by me when I surf online late at night.


I will think back at the time when she liked the bread I made.


She really liked the bread I made.


I will also remember how, the day before she said goodbye to us, she came out in the front room and enjoyed the bright sun coming through the window.

gift box cake

For the second "Gum Paste and Fondant" class the instructor had us bring a squared cake. She was going to teach us how to cover it with fondant.

We had made a bow the week before with a gum paste and fondant mixture. Since I had a white bow, I figured I'd just make my gift box white, too.



I didn't have enough fondant to make ribbons or decorations for the four sides of the gift box, but I thought the cake turned out pretty cute anyhow. :D


At least Yama thought so.


Details on the bow.


Yay for fondant-covered gift box cake!

yamaha music tin

I saw this Yamaha tin at the secondhand store. I had one that looked exactly like this when I was little and attending the Yamaha music classes.

There were magnetic music notes and such, and you'd "compose" on it, or work on little music projects with it when the teacher asked you to do so. You'd also store your small music sheet notebooks and crayons in them.

Of course I had to buy it.

There are only two each of the Flat Key Signature and Sharp Key Signature symbols left in the box, but I was still really excited to have a cute tin that reminds me of my childhood beginning piano lessons.


Now I store my little colorful and patterned/decorative tapes in it.

I love this tin!

square sugar cookies with pink and white icing

My first batch of decorated sugar cookies for the shop!



I think they are really cute in pink and white, and they are tasty, too! :D

birthday at Bambara

It was John's birthday last Saturday, and we went to one of his favorite restaurants in town - Bambara, to celebrate.





It was a happy happy birthday dinner! :D

baked pork

These days John likes to bake marinated pork in the oven with spices rubbed into and/or sprinkled on it.



I don't even ask what he marinates the meat in, or what spices he uses anymore, because it always turns out super tasty!

neighbor

We've had a few different neighbors in our (caffe d'bolla) building since we opened. There was a skate shop, and a couple record shops along the way, but no one had stayed around for long.

Our new neighbor is Cathedral Tattoo. The tattooers/artists there are all so talented and cool. I think it's a great location for them!

A couple weeks ago they had their grand opening, and we stopped by after work to check out the shop.


There were beautiful vintage artwork on the walls.


And the vibe is really chill and cool.

There were a lot of people at the opening night, so I didn't snap too many shots around the shop, but it's a really nice shop! The guys are super nice and the artwork is amazing. I say you go and check it out some time.