Welcome Gentle Readers

This blog tends to wander from its main purpose -- updates on my fiction. I do have updates and excerpts of my work. But I also write about my obsessions -- food, friends and pop culture and my weird life in Los Angeles. Enjoy!

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Wedding Cakes, Sugar Lace, and Jane Austen

Jon and I didn't have a wedding cake. We had Elvis, singing Klingons and a really great seafood buffet, but I just couldn't arrange a reasonably priced cake in Las Vegas for our wedding. The hotel where we had our reception (in that we ate the seafood buffet that was already there) wanted a cake cutting fee of $10 a slice! Um, no. Thus, for our 20th anniversary (geez, really?!), we want a proper wedding cake. That means making our own. I thought we'd make some small cakes in various flavors and styles and see which one we like best. I also suggested that Jon take some of the cakes to his job to share so our apartment wouldn't be full of cake all summer. You'd think I'd suggested he gut the office cats. I suppose that means there will be a lot of cake in the house. Maybe we'll get visitors. Special visitors.

Sugar lace and its mold.
Aside from a wedding cake, I'm not sure how else we'll mark the occasion. We'd love to go to Philly if only for a few days. That is something we're looking at closely. If we stay here, it's a conundrum. Our place is way too small for a party. There is still time to figure something out. Right now, we this cake to figure out.  I'm going to learn a few new skills. There is such a thing as sugar lace, and it can be made at home – allegedly. Fortunately, we live steps away from a lovely Cake and Candy supply shop called Gloria's https://www.gloriascakeandcandy.com/. Thus, we can easily ask a lot of questions and shop for everything required.

Ours will not have the chocolate on top.
Our first candidate will be a Tiramisu-layer-cake https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/tiramisu-layer-cake-3612574. We've had such a cake from the local supermarket and liked it. However, I'd need a frosting that could stand up to decorating. The recipe I found on the Foodnetwork has a buttercream frosting made with mascarpone cheese. I could decorate that. Don't worry. There will likely be photos. There may even be a video!

Personal Updates


Since the Month of Fun, I've been busy running around to the quarterly medical appointments. There isn't anything dire afoot. However, my docs are finally looking into two painful problems that have bedeviled me for a few years now. I don't understand why all of these places I need to visit are as spread out as they are. But I'm glad to finally have these issues addressed. I'm not complaining. These physical limitations have made me somewhat frustrated that I can't do as much cooking in one go as I'd like. I still have a list of dishes from the Southern cookbooks that I want to try. And my friends keep sending me new cookbooks to look at with many tempting things. So many mouth-watering goodies. Some of them will even appeal to Jon. Sigh. Still, I am determined to get to them all. This may take a while. Yes, there will be photos. I really have to get better about showing the stages. These problems have also made long-distance travel challenging. And I have many places (and people) all over the world I'd love to visit or re-visit. I shall not be deterred!

Writing Updates


I feel like I'm back in high school. My essay for Jane Eyre is overdue, and I'm hip deep in Jane Austen research. Though vexed at my tardiness, I am enjoying the work with these texts from days of yore and researching the lifestyles of the real people from that era. The documentaries can get to be a distraction, but I think it is having a positive influence on the pieces I'm writing. The artwork has had a vast improvement with the latest version of Photoshop. It has a feature that literally will not let you draw a shaky line. I've been able to do the line work on my sketches in minutes. Whoa! That is quite a breakthrough. All in all, I can say that all of my planned works for this year are progressing though not as quickly as I would like. My apologies for being so vague. It is difficult to talk about my work and have it free of spoilers. More details to come. Stay tuned!






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