Wilton Cake Decorating Class

As evidenced by this cake , I had very little experience decorating cakes, so a month back Neha & I started the Wilton's Cake Decorating Course One, needless to say, it was a lot of butter cream!

I started the course with some basic cake decorating knowledge and now I almost feel like pro ;) We learnt a whole variety of things - butter cream icing, borders, flowers, dots, and hearts and not to forget the rose.

However I have really mixed feelings about my whole experience. I surely did feel like I learned things, but my biggest issue was our instructor Lisa. She is a nice lady and I wouldn't have disliked her so much in a normal day to day environment, but I hated her as a teacher. She was uninterested and uninspiring and never explained things as well or as detailed as she should have. She would also rush us through our classes. All in all, she didn't teach well.

But we had the book and time to learn by trial and error and we surely did a good job at that.

Class One

Neha and I attended our first class on 7th Sep 2010 and it sure did make us giggle a lot because we were probably the only two people out of the 10 students who had no experience in cakes, icing or anything like that ;)

Anyways we managed to suppress our giggles and learn all we possibly could about how to prepare a cake for decorating; from baking, leveling, torting, filling and icing the cake. Lisa also showed us how to make some stupid looking fishes (yeah personally i felt the fish looked like it had a bad lip augmentation done). She also showed us how to make some creepy looking clowns; Yeah, I'm not a big fan of the clowns especially not after those scary clown movies :(

Later we were asked to frost and decorate some cookies :)

Class Two

While first class was more of an introduction to how to make frosting and a discussion of what the class would cover, second class was all hands-on, and we had to ice and decorate an 8"cake.

First we learned how to smoothly frost the cake. We also learned how to do a pattern transfer, using piping gel and then fill in the pattern or rather just a few of us learnt since Neha and I chose to make our own designs (see I told u I was already practicing to be a pro). We also learned how to make "scary" clowns for like the hundredth time (she taught us to make clowns in every class).

Here's the finished cake and I surely don't think it's too bad for a first attempt. It went to work with Subhash a day after and they all liked it or at least that is what they all said ;)

Class Three

For the third class, we were asked to bring six cupcakes. During this class, we learned how to make shell borders, drop flowers, rosette, shaggy mum, pom pom flowers. Since my frosting was a little thinner, it was easier for me to make these on the practice board, in fact my icing was soo thin that my pom pom flower fell out of the flower nail while all i could do was sit there and stare at the disaster.

Once we had practiced well we were asked to fill in our cupcakes and decorate them with the classic swirl or the flowers we had learnt that day. Well not to forget we also had a session of making the infamous clown (Please stop it now!!!)

Here is what I managed to do with my cupcakes in the 15 minutes that Lisa gave us to decorate the cupcakes.

Class Four

So when I first signed up for cake decorating class, I knew the one thing I had to come away with was how to make a rose and this was like my dream day

In this class Lisa (Well she was a very different lady today, all sweet and helpful ...hmmm) showed us how to make the ribbon rose, But for some reason it took me over an hour to get the hang of making my ribbon rose. I don't know what it was but I just could not get it to work for me (I kept envying Neha who made awesome roses like a pro). Anyways by the time I managed to kind of make a ribbon rose the heat kicked in and my icing started melting and the so my “not so ribbony” ribbon roses fell apart. Anyways I was able to save 5-6 roses which I put on the cake and the final cake looked pretty good.

On a concluding note all the stuff we learnt in our 4 week course is surely not rocket science, but it's also not something that most people can do! During the last one month I practiced, and practiced, and then practiced some more (yeah even while sleeping). I'm not kidding, at one point Subhash wanted nothing to do with the site of frosting and trust at that time i was not even half satisfied with my skills ;) However like I said earlier, as of today I feel like a pro, well maybe not good enough to compete on the Food Network Challenge, but I am surely very proud of my small achievement!

Differently Settled

Today Pappa (my uncle) celebrated his 60th b'day! Wishing him made me sit back and think where would I be at 60 ?? What would I be doing ?? How successful would I be ??

In today's world one's success is measured by how much wealth one has accumulated. In other words whether he/she has “settled in Life”.

Well this definition of "settled" has changed from time to time. There was a time when taking up a Government job was considered being settled. It dint matter what job he/she did as long as it was for the Government. Then came the era of brain drain, when being an NRI or being married to one was considered to be "settled". Well we still see the shades of that in our society today. Thanks to the recent debacle in the software industry nowadays people measure your success based on whether you have a H1 or Greencard or you are a Consultant !!

Well this is not anything new for Indians like me who have forever been taught "survival of the fittest (read best)". We have been told again and again that "settling down" is nothing but getting a good job, getting married, having children and so on. And that is exactly what almost everyone is busy doing because failing in any of the aforesaid would mean being "unsettled", "unsuccessful" ...

So is "making a living" the only yardstick for measuring success ... what about doing something you love, something that makes a difference, something that only you would be remembered for ?? What if people like Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and many such others had decided to just be "settled" in life ??

I am not hinting that one should not get a good job or get married and have kids and so on. What I am suggesting is that while "making a living” we should surely find time to “make a difference”. We should all be like the farmer who is supposedly the biggest devotee of Lord Vishnu, because he would take time to pray and worship the lord inspite of his very hectic work in the fields. We all should indulge ourselves in doing something that we love, something that will add value to our existence, something that we can be proud of at 60!

All in all 30 years from now I want to be living (read making a difference) rather than merely being "settled". Am gonna call it being "Differently Settled" ;)

Some like Sunday, Some like Monday, but I like my Birthday ;)

Birthday, a day of rejoicing, fun and light heartedness. A day full of love and affection for all those that send in feeling and wishes and warmth; a day of family and friends calling in. Subhash and me quietly brought in my 27th birthday last night with a cake, candle and a birthday wish.

When I woke up in the morning, my first thoughts were my parents. I tried to create their image in my mind and think about them. No matter how many new friends or new experiences I have, on birthdays, it all comes back to my parents first.

The day then became festive with calls and card - half of them now arriving as electronic messages, from friends and family. In the evening a few friends (Sachin, Ranjana, Shashank, Amit, Renuka, Nithin, Lakshmi and Isha baby) came over for dinner. Nothing extravagant or loud, a mere warm collection of friends, light banter, some Wii sessions and now going back to bed.

As we all know life being what it is, my birthday had a few moments of sadness too. Its been just two long weeks since my uncle passed away. When life ends it takes along so many moments and memories in one swift cruel move. Lips still have prayers for him.

We need to understand that when we remember birthdays, we remember what we did, and who we were with. We don’t necessarily remember the presents. This shows us what is important to us. Hoping to have some more such wonderful birthdays sans the sad moments.

God's fingers touch'd him, and he slept.

Yesterday I lost my uncle, the Father like person in my life. Today i sit here and send in a prayer as I sit in my room across seven seas, quiet and in contemplation. There is no one around me today and there is a sudden sense of being alone and isolated. But trust me sometimes it is good to be yourself and be by yourself.

I have been moving about for the past 30 hours in a delirium almost, not knowing what to do, where to go and what to say. My brain demands that I be involved in something; Absolutely anything because it believes that the more occupied I will be the more faster will i recover; But my heart, still lingers around the sweet memories and the pain this incident has bought into my life. All am capable of doing now is to sit here and let my mind and heart battle it out.

I feel a stong a sense of ‘not wanting to do anything’ and this is surely not a healthy state. But even if I want the time to stop here and rewind back I know that life will do otherwise and move me forward. Something inside me still feels that perhaps tomorrow when I wake up all this will be a dream and the pain will cease to exist and life will once again be full of happiness and joy but unfortunately thats not true. I know that for the rest of my life I have to live with a tinge of this sadness.

My father was an angel sent down to take care of me, protect me, guide me, correct me when I was wrong, to love me unconditionally, to laugh and cry with me, to stand up for me, to make me feel good about myself ... to just be there for me always ... Well even if I dint believe in angels earlier I just started to, because i realise he WAS an angel to me who dint expect anything in return ... Maybe just a phone call or a visit once in a while ...

As i sit and reminisce the time spent with him I realise that in the daily hustle and bustle of our life there is very little that we usually sit and absorb. However it is only in the advent of such an event that we understand the importance of these special moments and the importance of admiring and respecting them. Today his entire life flashes before me and trust me it surely is worth watching.

I know that for the rest of my life every time I step into Swapna Sree I won't be greeted by his warm smile or hug. All that I'll be able to do is spend a few odd moments with his picture, his books and glory. He has gone far away from us, but the way to keep him alive is to never stop loving him; To be strong and smile so that every time he peeps in to see how I am doing he feels happy for what he has made me !!

My father - strong and malleable, wise and understanding. I will keep him thus forever and ever in my heart and memories !!