A 'Cake-tastic' Time!

First of all, excuse the sheer amount of enthusiasm in this post - we are still running on what we like to call a 'cake decorating high'!!!! All day yesterday as we prepared for our last class, we were giddy, excited and could not wait to start on our final projects! Here's how it all went down...



Using our cake leveler to shave off the tops

We were tasked with bringing in our own cake already iced, set and ready to decorate. Now, this doesn't seem like a huge job, but icing a cake to Wilton standards is no walk in the park. After baking our cakes (chocolate and golden yellow - YUM) and preparing the buttercream icing, we set out to ice our layered 8 inch cakes. This is a very important part to cake decorating, as the icing should look as smooth and crumb free as possible. We had a bit of difficulty with our chocolate cake, as tiny dark crumbs oozed themselves into our clean and crisp white icing. We did our best to get these specks out, but weren't 100 percent successful. That's ok though...practice makes perfect. The hardest part is stepping away from the cake and admitting 'that's just how it's going to be!'. We have some issues with that last bit....and it's always that extra attempt with the spatula that seems to cause the biggest headaches!!! We managed though...here's our cake prep before class...

**SIDE NOTE: These cakes turned out PERFECTLY - no cake-tastrophe's this time, which was a relief - the right brand definitely makes the difference!



Icing all set and ready for decroating!!

Getting to class was so exciting as we got to see everyone's cakes! They were all in different colours and some people brought in flowers already made to use for decorating. FUN! Before we took to our cakes, we practiced some writing (which is EXTREMELY difficult and A LOT harder than it looks). We had originally planned on writing 'The Drive to 25' on one of ours, but quickly realized that this was not going to happen if we wanted our cake to look half-decent! So we scrapped that idea! Then, we learned how to make ribbon roses, which are also very hard! They take a lot of patience and delicate work - both of which we will need a lot of practice with. Our instructor told us that it takes at least 1000 roses to make a good one, so we have a LONG way to go!! They are fun though and do look very nice, if you get the hang of it.

Then, the moment came - we could decorate our cakes!! Yay!! Since we threw out our 'writing' idea, we decided to go with purple roses on one cake. We piped leaves, dots and a shelled border around the edges for added detail. It looked quite sophisticated and we were pleased!! In four short weeks, we were amazed at how we were able to create such a fancy cake!!! On our second cake, we decided to bring in an image of a sunflower to transpose onto our cake. We used piping gel to trace the image, then transferred the picture to our cake with parchment paper and piped in the lines with our yellow and green icing. Chocolate chips completed the centre of the sunflower and added a design around the edge of the cake. We weren't sure how this would turn out, but we were super happy with the end result!!! In the end, two cakes = success!!!! Working together on these cakes has showed us how much fun we have baking and being creative together. Who knows..maybe we can capitalize on this in the future...??

So there you have it! We are sad that the class is over - we had a blast and learned so much. We are soooo happy that we decided to make this part of our 'Drive to 25' - it's definitely something we had always wanted to do, and we're so glad we didn't wait any longer! Definitely a great lesson - don't wait to do things you've always wanted to do. For some reason things get in the way and there are always excuses, but why postpone? You'll never know what you'd be missing! For us, we just might sign up for the next course....who knows?! Baking is something we absolutely love, we feel so at home in the kitchen, and this class has only reinforced this and showed us some new and exciting tools. We cannot wait to keep practicing and experimenting - if you ever need/want a cake, let us know and we will be more than happy to show you our stuff!!

Here we are with our final cakes....Happy Baking :)

Cupcakes Galore!

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes - that was this week's theme for our Cake Decorating course! We were very excited to try our hand at crafting these fancy delicacies! Cupcakes are so popular these days, with so many new bakeries focused entirely on these mini treats, so it made sense to see the in's and out's of perfecting the 'cupcake'!

We made a batch of vanilla cupcakes at home and buttercream icing (which we dyed blue, green, yellow and orange) to bring in. We used a tip to fill the cupcakes with seedless raspberry jam. After eating them, we realized that we could have put a bit more jam in, but seeing as the jam was squirting out while we were filling the cupcake, we were sure that there was enough! Oh well, live and learn! The jam was definitely a delicious added touch and nicely complimented the taste of the vanilla cupcakes! Now that we know how easy it is to add filling to a cupcake, our creative minds are bursting with the possibilities of future cupcakes... :) Peanut butter....chocolate...mmmm

During class, we learned a TON of different flowers as well as how to make leaves! Star flowers, swirl flowers, rosettes, pom-pom flowers, and shaggy mums (which we aren't big fans of) were all a little challenging at first, but with practice we got them down. They definitely take a lot of patience, time, and steady hands, all of which we are improving at week after week! Being the perfectionists that we are, it takes a lot of strength to step away from the flower and let it be - sometimes trying to change it will only make it worse (yes, speaking from experience...haha).

Overall, we were decently pleased with our results, but given that we were rather rushed at the end of class and were surrounded by an enormous pile of messy piping bags, tips, spatulas and icing bowls, we probably focused more on finishing faster than we should have. However, all that means is that we should practice more - and we're definitely ok with that!! The cupcakes did taste great though, so that's a good sign!



Our cupcakes



We can't believe that next week is our last class!! We get to bring in our own cake and decorate it however we want - a free for all! We're learning roses too, so that should be fun! We'll have to put our thinking caps on for cake ideas - any suggestions??

As of right now, we're not ready to open our bakery, as no one would want to buy our rather odd 'rookie' looking cupcakes...but we're getting there! Who knows - maybe one day?!

Baby Blanket Bliss

Today was a very special day - all of our 25 hand-made blankets were donated to Julliette's Place! Ever since we finished making the blankets this past weekend, we've been on a high, waiting to deliver them! Julliette's Place is a very deserving shelter that offers support services for abused women. The staff were so friendly and appreciative and we were so happy to support them. We know that the blankets will be well used in this location and ultimately that was our main goal. Just thinking about being able to help 25 little babies and their mothers brings a huge smile to our faces. We absolutely love the blankets, and we're sure they will too.

In the end, 25 blankets were made (yes, of course, sticking to our '25' theme although we would gladly make more!). They took on a mixture of colour combinations, ranging from white and green to pink and purple. We used extra fabric to tie them neatly with a bow - thanks Mom for your expert bow-making skills! We found an extra large box in our basement to put them in. We covered it with baby wrapping paper and extra fabric for that added touch! It was a tight squeeze fitting the box into our car, but we managed!!

It's a little strange to think that this project is now over....it was so fun and so fulfulling! If we've learned anything from this 'Drive' so far its that giving back doesn't have to take much time or cost a lot of money, what's important is the thought and the motivation. And, most of all, the rewards are long-lasting.

We owe a big thank you to Sue at Fabricland in Whitby for her support and generous donation of fabric. You helped to start us off on this project and we're so appreciative! Also, our friends Angela and Rebecca deserve a lot of credit for initially showing us how to make these blankets. Lastly, thanks to our parents for not caring that our basement was covered in fabric, scissors, blankets and lots and lots of FUZZ for several weeks. We will clean up....

So there you have it. 25 blankets = complete! But, for some reason we know that there will be more blankets in our future :)

A Fundraising Event!

Hi everyone!

Our 'drive' has been keeping us super busy, which is great. However, our fundraising has unfortunately suffered a bit. In order to raise $5000 by the end of November, we need to kick it up a notch! For this, we need your help!

We're planning on having a huge garage sale on May 5th, with all the proceeds going towards our Reading Room. Having moved last year, we have a garage full of things to contribute. We would also love to have a big 'book sale' along with it, to go hand in hand with our 'Reading Room' theme. In order to raise as much money as possible, we would love your support. If you have any items and/or books that you would be willing to donate to our garage sale please let us know! Maybe you've thought of having your own sale or have stuff that's been piling up for months that you're looking to get off your plate - if so, we would be happy to take that stress away!

Monetary donations will also be accepted at the sale, however, you can always donate by following the steps on our blog's 'Donate' page.

To contact us, feel free to email us at thedriveto25@hotmail.com. Also, if you have any other fundraising ideas, we'd love to hear from you!

We're excited about this fundraising event and look forward to hearing from you and seeing you there! Let's get the community involved in this amazing cause!

We made the paper!

If you happen to come across the Clarington This Week paper today (Friday April 13th), you just might stumble upon US on the front page!! Ahhh....so exciting!

You can check out the article online at http://www.durhamregion.com/community/article/1329598--courtice-twins-launch-year-of-fundraising-and-adventure if you don't get a copy of the paper.

Thanks again for everyone's support! We look forward to the upcoming adventures and fun!! Let the 'Drive' continue :)

Cake Decorating Success!

Let's just say that we were beyond excited for Wednesday, April 11th. Not only was it the opening game of the Stanley Cup playoffs for our Vancouver Canucks (we won't mention the result...), but we were actually going to decorate a cake in our cake decorating class!! Whoo hoo!

The class was surely a highlight and we came out of there on a big 'high'! Getting to our end result (which we were SUPER happy with) was not all fun and games. We had some serious cake baking issues, which doesn't happen very often! One of our two 9 inch cakes loved the pan so much that it stuck to it...leaving us with a chunk missing! Not sure what to do, we brought both to class to see if we could perform some magic! And magic did we perform!

SIDE NOTE: Our awesome instructor Michelle warned us that certain store bought mixes are better than others. Let's just say the store we went to only sold the brand she advised against - but it was on sale and convenient, so we thought, 'what could go wrong'? Well, did we ever find out! So from now on, we will err on the side of caution and either make one from scratch or use the preferred brand....

Anyways, back to the good stuff. After consulting with Michelle, we decided that our best option in order to avoid a 'cake'tastrophe was to layer the two 9 inch cakes on top of one another, with a filling of buttercream icing. The cakes themselves would have been too small to torte, which was supposed to be the lesson, but oh well - we managed! In the end, we made one larger cake instead of two, but it was actually quite fun working on it together!

 

The first step involved setting the icing on the cake, which was VERY difficult due to our crumby, crumby cake (not as in bad tasting, but as in actual crumb pieces!). This was all a direct result of our poor choice in brand name cake mixes, so we have an excuse this time! We dyed our icing a deep purple (the pictures don't do the colour justice) and used our spatula to CAREFULLY slab/spread/smooth it around. This is clearly an area we will spend time working on, as the 'smoothness' of our set icing was far from perfect. But it was our first try, right? We can only get better!

The icing is all set - as good as it's going to get!

Making the cupcake design was the most fun. We lucked out with free-handing the cupcake image - it worked great! Just kidding. We used piping gel to trace and transfer the image onto the cake and then outlined and iced it with pink and white icing. We must say, we were extremely pleased with the results! We finished off the decorating with some round pink dots along the sides and some white elongated shapes along the bottom. Using colour is so much fun and definitely makes things 'pop'.

Our pink icing!

Finishing touches on the cupcake!

So there you have it - our finished cake! After only two classes, we are quite surprised at the results! You know it started badly when at the end of class, our instructor said, 'Good save, girls!'. haha. We think we may have the cake decorating bug - we want to keep practicing and experimenting! Next week - cupcakes! Can't wait!

Our first cake!!!!!

Let the Gardening Begin!

It's been decided - we're planting a garden! For the longest time, we have always wanted to have our own vegetable garden. Unfortunately, we never had enough time or backyard space (both of which are poor excuses!). However, this year is different. We're taking bull by it's horn and are getting it done. With the help of our parents, we're going to make this part of our drive a family affair! Seeing as we will all benefit from the fruits of the garden, we're all going to work together to make this happen!

Although we may be a bit behind in the seeding season, we're still hopeful for a successful yield! So far, we've planned out the space in our backyard, we've bought the seeds, pots and soil and are ready to get a jump on things! We're veggie people and love all sorts, but we've decided on experimenting with the following - tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, green/yellow beans, snap peas, lettuce and rhubarb! We also plan on planting raspberry bushes a little later on in the season. Yay!



Our fancy gardening gloves



Our crops




Our pots ready for seeds!

We still remember having a small vegetable garden when we were little. It was so exciting to go look to see if the carrots had sprouted! That was much too long ago...probably about 20 years...scary! When we were at school in Kingston, there was a Farmer's Market every Wednesday, which we loved to visit. So, as you can see, this is long overdue and very exciting for us! There's just something so satisfying about eating your own produce - it's local and healthy at the same time! What's also great about this project is that it's impact will be long-lasting - our garden will remain long after our 'Drive to 25'.

A big shout out to our friend Brett for his awesome expertise on everything garden related!! Thanks for being our go-to guy - you're the best :)

We'll keep you posted on how things go - let's hope there will be lots to update on!





Blankets, Blankets, Blankets!!!

Wow - what a productive weekend we've had!! We planned on spending a lot of time making some baby blankets, but didn't think we'd be this successful! Our grand total now sits at....wait for it....17 blankets!!!!!!! Woo hoo!!! Only 8 more to go! We would have finished, but we need more fabric!! So that's the plan for this week - get more fabric and FINISH! Yes!!

We couldn't be happier with the results - the blankets are ADORABLE! The colours are soooo cute and ironically very Easter-y! We thought we'd post some pictures of the process to show you how it works and the results!



Here's the blanket - all cut and ready to be tied!



The tying has begun! It's starting to take shape!

 

All complete!!



One side pink, the other green :)

 So there you have it! Our blanket weekend was a smashing success! We're almost there and it feels so good! Happy Easter :)

Baby Blanket Update!

Our baby blanket process has officially begun! Today we finished our FIRST blanket - SO exciting! The little pink and purple blanket is adorable and so cozy! We are anxious to continue; this weekend while eating Easter chocolate, we'll be crafting our little hearts away!

We couldn't be happier to be donating these blankets to Julliette's Place, an emergency/short term shelter for abused women with or without children in Scarborough. We know they will be put to good use there and that's the ultimate goal. For more information on 'Julliette's Place', visit their website http://www.julliettesplace.org/.

So there you have it! A sneak peak at our very first baby blanket! 24 to go..... :)

By the way - a BIG thank you to our friends Rebecca and Angela for a friendly reminder on how exactly to make these blankets! We really appreciate it :)

Cake Decorating 101

Well, well, well.....last night was our FIRST ever cake decorating class and boy are we in for some FUN! If last night's class was an indication of what we're going to learn over the next 4 weeks, we are stoked!!

Since we were told to bring flat cookies and a tub of icing, we spent yesterday morning baking sugar cookies! We found a very simple recipe and were extremely pleased with the results! They were SUPER easy to make and rolled out like a dream. Here are the cookies ready to be baked in the oven:

We had a bunch of supplies to bring to class, including a kit with a ton of cake decorating essentials like couplers, piping bags, decorating tips to make flowers, stars etc, and even a spatula! Everything we need to get off to a creative start! We were also given a Course 1: Decorating Basics Manual, which is AMAZING! It's so informative, with a ton of step-by-step instructions on how to do everything from make the best icing to filling a piping bag, to crafting the perfect rose! Too fun!! It also gives us a sneak peak at what the rest of the course will entail - there are some pretty incredible creations in store - a little daunting but we'll work our way up!

Maybe we'll be making this for Mother's Day??

Anyways, enough dreaming, let's get back to what we do know! Our first lesson involved using the 'star' tip. We made little star designs on our cookies with our buttercream icing (yum!). It took a couple tries to get the hang of it, not only to make the star, but to even just use the piping bag correctly. We've discovered we're two-handed pipers (that sounds strange, but it's true!). After a few atttempts, the star started to take shape, although it's obvious that 'pratice makes perfect'. The more we try, the better we'll get - and we're ok with that! Here are some finished cookies (we'll try to add some colour next time to jazz it up!)

So, overall, Week One = success!! We're so happy that we're finally taking a course like this - definitely something we've wanted to do for a long time! Next week - we get to bring in a real cake!! Bring it on!

Sporting our awesome aprons!



Our Laos Connection

Some of you may be wondering why we've chosen to build our 'Reading Room' in Laos. This is not a random decision. We have a very personal connection to this Southeast Asian country. Here's a little more about our 'Laos Connection':

Mai - 5 years old

Imagine looking at this little girl's eyes everyday for 2 weeks. That's exactly what we did this past November while working for World Vision's Child Sponsorship Christmas Campaign. Everyday we would stand amongst so many children, just like Mai, who have so much potential but lack the resources to reach their dreams. After thinking about sponsoring a child for several years, we knew this was 'our time'. We decided to co-sponsor a child for our 24th birthday, as presents to ourselves. What could be a better gift? Choosing our little girl, our new 'sister', was easy. There was something about Mai's eyes that connected with us - we just knew the moment we saw her that she was meant to be a part of our lives.

We couldn't be happier to support Mai and her country. Receiving a letter from her for the first time was so exciting and emotional! We hope in the future to be able to visit her in her community to witness first hand the impact that our donations are making in her life.

So, when we discovered that Room to Read worked closely in Laos, we knew we'd found our match. While helping to raise money to build a Reading Room in Laos, we are not only promoting literacy and education in this nation, but at the same time, we are supporting the country in which our 'little sister' lives. We hope to one day have the opportunity to visit Laos to meet Mai as well as to see the Reading Room we had a part in funding. What a full circle moment that would be (will be!!).

So there you have it. Our Laos connection. A year ago, we knew very little about this small country in Southeast Asia. Today, not only is it a part of our 'Drive to 25', but it will always have a special place in our hearts.

Meatless March Recap

Well, it's now April (can you believe it?!), meaning we're already more than one month into our "Drive to 25" but also that our month long Meatless March challenge has now come to an end! We stuck to our goal and did it!

In the beginning, we took out several books from the library to check out new recipes and read up on vegetarianism. We enjoyed looking through the recipes and learning new things! Obviously the cookbooks with the pictures were our favourites! Why do they even make cookbooks without pictures anyways?!



Here's our library of books!

 We didn't think it would be very difficult to go one month without eating meat, and it really wasn't.
We bought coucous and really enjoyed making that in a variety of ways. Hot, cold, different mixtures of veggies and beans, all combined for delicious meals. One person who did not enjoy couscous was our Dad, claiming that it tastes like sand... (not sure when he's tried sand) but that's ok, more for us! We also tried quinoa, and although the first time we didn't quite make it properly... we did enjoy the flavour and the versatility of it. We've had veggie burgers before and enjoyed them this month too, especially with tzatziki! Yum!

Another easy option that we used to get protein was by adding nuts to our salads - there are so many different kinds of nuts, so there's always a huge variety to choose from! Bulk barn was great for this! We love that store! Obviously we frequented our peanut butter jar as well, since it's definitely one of our favourite things!

Basically, we learned that substituting meat is not as drastic or difficult as it sounds! We know that fish/seafood would have been a good source of protein, the only problem is that we can't get over the smell. So, for us, that wasn't an option... Overall, even though we aren't going to stay full-out vegetarians, we have gained a lot of recipes and knowledge of meat alternatives which we will certainly use on a regular basis.

If you've ever thought of going vegetarian, even just for a week... give it a shot - it's fun! You may even be surprised with the results!