My side of Ambition

   Every art piece tells a story and we can interpret art very differently from one another. My latest cake project was the infamous Icarus from the band Led Zeppelin. The cake was a Led Zeppelin inspired cake and I knew right away that I wanted to incorporate the very symbolic figure to represent the band. but as I was designing this cake topper I wanted to learn more about the mysterious angel that I was molding out of chocolate. 

    To my surprise, it wasn't an angel that I was recreating at all. This little figure that I was holding in my hand and had been starring at on paper all day was named Icarus. If you know the story of Icarus you will know that it's a common myth that is associated with failed ambition and the demise we set ourselves up with when we don't take the time to believe in ourselves. You see, Icarus' father was a very talented craftsman and had made his son beautiful wings made of feathers and wax so that he could fly out of a prison surrounded by great walls. When his father took the opportunity to fly the wings first, he said to Icarus that all he had to be careful of was to not fly too close to the sun nor neither the sea but to follow his path of flight. The sadness creeps in when Icarus becomes over joyed with his new set up wings, get's caught up in the sun and realizes that his wax wings have melted and now is falling to sea and drowns. I know, intense right? But, that's the beauty in myths and legends; they always tell the perfect story with a truthful ending. This little figure that I was molding out of chocolate was giving me more self realization in 5 minutes than in the last 5 years. When we truly believe in ourselves we can honestly accomplish anything we put our minds to. I know, we both have been hearing this for years; "if you can dream it, than you can do it." But it's true. There is too much failed ambition out in today's world and I believe it's because we don't give ourselves the chance to be successful. We are constantly flying off of our path to compare ourselves to other people, false images, made up stories and especially the media; the biggest lie of all. (That can be the sun in my story). And when we fly to close to the sun, naturally we get burned and fall to the sea. Okay, so not literally, but if you think about all of the negative thoughts we fill our minds with day in and day out than it can begin to feel like we are flying out of control and falling in to a big. deep. dark. sea. 

It's very possible that I looked far to into this little man I was holding in my hand (which at this point may of started to melt, no symbolism intended). But, let's be honest with ourselves. When we can learn to accept who we are than we can fly the path that was intended for ourselves. Follow your natural talent and don't let anyone make any decisions for you. It's that simple. Maybe I should get into therapy instead of cake styling. ha ha! Also, don't beat yourself up too badly if things don't work out for you; this gives your more opportunity to find the things that will eventually make who you already are now. Did THAT make any sense???

Have a great night everyone and try not to look too closely into cake like I do, you may end up writing a blog about a melting man in your hand, failed ambition, and the love of cake. 

-J 

Winner winner!

Today I chose a winner of my "Favourite Things" Giveaway and funny that the first time I decide to do a WORLD WIDE giveaway, the winner is from London, Ontario AND I went to culinary school with her! It's funny how things like that happen! 

Congratulations to Shawna! 

I love doing giveaways! I think there totally fun and you can be really creative with them! SO, that being said, I think my next giveaway will be when I hit 1000 likes on Facebook! It's going to be a good one! I promise!! ;)

Have a great day!!!

-J

Grasshopper Cheesecake

My very close friend, Katie is moving away to South Korea this Monday and on the Friday of this past weekend we held a small going away dinner for her at the Blue Duby here in London, Ontario. The dinner was exceptionally good and I would recommend this establishment to anyone. The days leading up to the dinner I knew that I wanted to make something special for Katie. At first I thought I would make her one of my fondant cakes and decorate it like a book (Katie is a Librarian and studied Library Studies in University and will begin her PhD this coming year!!), but than I realized that I always make cakes such as my idea and decided to try something a little different.

Katie LOVES anything grasshopper flavoured, or in layman's terms is anything flavoured mint/peppermint. The first thing I thought of of course was the obvious and that was Grasshopper pie, but quickly changed my mind when I thought of CHEESE CAKE. How delicious would mint cheese cake be covered in a rich, dark chocolate ganache? Done and Done.

First, I would like to say that any time you plan on making a cheese cake, be prepared. I honestly believe I over thought the method and that's when things began to stress me out. The cheese cake method that I chose was to whip your egg whites to a soft peak and than fold them into the egg yolk/cheese mixture. That's fine and dandy, but when I finished pouring the batter into the pan, it was completely level with the 3" sided cake pan. "Oh well" I figured, "I will worry about it later." It was exactly not until later that I decided to check on the cake (about 1/2 hour or so into the cooking process) when I saw that the whole entire cake has rose at LEAST 3-4" above the entire cake pan. It look like a massive marshmallow sitting atop waiting for the next best thing. I panicked! I took the cake out of the oven and with out any thought, I sliced the whole entire top off of the cake. Now, there is marshmallow fluff (or cheesecake top) all over my counter, and not to mention that it is coloured green because of the "mint" flavour. So, I have green, marshmallow fluff all over my counter, a wiggly jiggly cake under cooked and only 1 hour until dinner. (Yes, I know, I like my cakes to be FRESH, ha ha ha). To say the least, I  stay calm and put the cake back into the oven and hope to hell that it cooperates with me and continues the cooking process, but this time without growing massively large.

I leave the oven trying not to stress myself out and continue to work on the ganache. I don't worry about making ganache anymore. Ganache and I used to be terrible friends, mostly ganache always being unreliable. I worked on that relationship (figured out the appropriate ratio) and now we are the two best friends that we ever had. At this point, I take the daring step to look over at the oven and open to see what is inside. A perfect, well cooked, light brown in colour cheese cake, sitting ready for me to take out and ice. THANK YOU!

I left the cake out on a cooling rack to cool enough for me to pour the ganache over top twice (that is 2 cups of rich dark chocolate ganache, yum!).

I was so excited that everything had turned out how I had planned! I packaged the cake and went off to enjoy one of my last dinner's with Katie (until we meet again).

The cake was delicious! Soft, creamy, minty, chocolatey and rich, very very rich. Most of us could hardly finished the last two bites, but since I was using the cake as a cheat meal, I devoured my entire piece with out thinking for even a second.

I have included the link to the recipe for you right here: http://www.zimbio.com/Recipes/articles/U92Swo0obr7/Grasshopper+Cheesecake

At the end of this weekend, I had to say my final "See ya laters" to Katie. It was really hard to do since Katie has become of my closest friends; she was there for me my entire pregnancy with my daughter right through until the birthing room and holding her in her arms after she was born. Katie has been a fantastic listener, adviser and most of all been there for me when I needed her most. We have definitely created some amazing memories together and although we won't be together for the next little while, I will take her advice when she says, "we have Skype!"

Have a fantastic trip, Katie and all the best, and all my love to you! You are going to do amazing! :)

xo

J 

I'm back!!

It's been a while since I was committed to this blog. I won't lie; I did forget that is was up and running only because I concentrate on running my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/jonesinforcake). BUT, it is a September goal of mine to bring it back and focus on keeping up to date.

I recently asked you what you were interested in and the answers were very common; you want to see more decorating tips, funny baking stories (my mishaps, which by the way happen ALL THE TIME!) and more portfolio pictures. I can offer all that to you through my online blog! I want to start documenting each cake that I make and decorate so that you can follow along for the ride.

If you have any questions, always remember that you can ask, I am SUPER friendly and love to hear from all of you!

Talk with you very very very soon,

-Jessie
xo