Icing, icing and more icing!

So I learned a new skill last weekend... CAKE DECORATING!

Richard's sister and I decided that after years of attempting to decorate cakes with various levels of success, we'd take a course. So, last Saturday we went to Artistic Cake Design and took Cake Deco I.

It was great! Within 15 minutes of learning how to make icing, I felt I'd got my money's worth. No matter how much cookbook following or internet reading a person does, you never seem to get the whole story. For example, did you know that decorator buttercream icing doesn't actually have butter but butter flavour? That's why if you make it with butter it won't stand up into nifty shapes.

Anyways, we learned how to make character cakes (I'm available for any Dora, Disney Princess or Lightening McQueen cakes... or anything else Wilton sells pans for really...) and we learned standard borders, lettering, outlining and roses. The roses took the longest (no surprise there, really...) But, we ended up with a cake to take home, which my friends and coworkers demolished in no time!

And yes, you eat WAY too much icing... all those little finger licks add up. I think I'm cured from icing cravings for a long, long time!

Are you ready for it? Drum roll please......

What I did with my holiday Monday...

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone had a safe and happy long weekend, and that the Easter bunny was good to all! I spent a good deal of my weekend with family... eating. I'm not complaining - it was awesome. I think I just need to have a break from rich food for a while. But not from chocolate, that doesn't count. :-)

I spent my holiday Monday at an amusement park of sorts... Costco! Why was I there? Well, I'd always been a little resistant to the idea of buying more toilet paper than one person can reasonably use and becoming swamped in a small house with insufficient storage. Then my friend Elli told be about the incredible price they have for lactase enzyme pills. Probably the most annoying part of lactose intolerance, outside of the physical symptoms, is the price of the lactaid pills. I do try to avoid milk products, but I'm not prepared to give up cheese and ice cream entirely when there are pills that aid with the digestion. Okay... I'm rambling... Bottom line: $18.99 for 60 pills at the local drugstore, $18.99 for 120 of the exact same pills at Costco. So, even with the $55 membership, 3 bottles of pills, and it's paid for itself!

The place is just nutty. So much stuff! And it's so random: bathing suits next to chocolate bars with a short walk to desk chairs and if you hang a left before the chairs you've reached the organic salad. It's brilliant! I think my membership was worth it just for the amusing time I had poking around looking at everything!

So, now I'm home, with a $55 membership and 36 jumbo rolls of toilet paper, 180 laundry loads of detergent and fabric softener, 3 cucumbers, 6 sweet peppers, a whole big bunch of grape tomatoes and organic salad greens, 24 bags of SmartPop popcorn, 24 mini packs of Munch'em snacks, 2 bottles of Jergens Natural Glow moisturizer (I had to get something fun on my first visit!) and three 120-pill bottles of lactase enzyme. (They were on sale! $4.00 off!) :-D