Month: May 2011

Dirty Thirty, Cheap Booze, and Life Lessons. Oh My.

One day away from 30. 
And I agree that life is too short for PBR.  Just sayin’…

 



I’m 30. Should I feel…different? 
I guess I would feel different had I not been saying I was 30 for the last 3 years but I like to round things off. It makes me happy when things are even.


People keep asking me what I’m doing for my birthday. Well, I’m writing this here blog and reflecting, that’s what…and I’m baking some boozy cupcakes for myself. 


Don’t judge. 


Reflecting + booze cake has lead me to think back and take stock of some of the more important (and unimportant) things I’ve learned in the last decade. 
Since I’m the sharing type, you get to partake in the festivities. Enjoy 🙂

  • Family is always there. Even when you think they aren’t, there they are. Ready to get all up in your business and tell you things you don’t want to hear. It’s what they do.  
  • Friends come and go. It’s natural. People are busy and you really aren’t unimportant, you are well, just not at the top of their list. And that’s o.k.  If you have an issue with this, YOUR list probably needs to be a lot longer…just sayin’…
  • It’s perfectly fine to cry for no reason. I cry at puppies on youtube and I own it. 
  • Swear. A LOT.  It helps you relax. My favorite word starts with F. I use it as an adjective, noun, and verb. It really is quite handy when you have nothing left to say.
  • Dress up. For no reason.  Get all spiffy and go outside or just sit on your couch and eat ice cream with a friend and laugh so hard, you don’t even make noises. You just gasp for air and turn red. Those are the best laughs 🙂 
  • You can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to. People don’t change until they decide to do so.  It’s a losing battle and a HUMONGOUS waste of time. I wasted my early 20’s on it. Trust me, it sucked.
  • Children are kind of annoying. They drool on themselves, cry and scream for no good reason, ask for stuff when they don’t have jobs, and constantly want to eat things off the ground….but then they go and &  give you some terrible painting they did of you where your nose is on your forehead and those little bastards win you over every time.
  • If you want unconditional love, go see your mom. She HAS to love you. I don’t.
  • Hate someone.  Allow yourself to be hated.  Then get over it. Then allow yourself to forgive and be forgiven. It’s a wonderful feeling.
  • Try new foods. Gross ones, smelly ones, and just plain nasty ones. Things that made you cringe 5 or 10 years ago may actually be pretty damn tasty now.  Example: tripe. Yes. Intestines. I will chew on your duodenum and I don’t care who knows it.
  • Decide what you want and GO GET IT.  No one likes a wishy-washy-pipe-dreamer. It’s just annoying. Help me, help you….
  • Fail. Miserably. At anything. More than once.  It builds character and proves to you that nothing can break you so bad that you can’t recover from it.
  • And finally…surround yourself with good and good will come. I don’t know why this is true, but it seems to work. I’ve surrounded myself with good people, good food, good family, and good riddances.  
 
So far. 
So good.



Happy Dirty Thirty to me & all my friends this year.
Let’s do this.


Peace, Love, and CupCake Grease,
Patti

Stiff Vanilla Buttercream

So it’s about time I posted some pictures on here so I got down to some business. I turned off my phone, turned up the music, opened the window and, what the…

Wait just a minute…there is something wonderful going on here…the air is warm, the bees are buzzing… OMG, it’s summer. When did that happen?

Before you know it, a little voice in my head said:

Must. Go. Running. Shorts. Are. Unforgiving…

After telling said voice to gently shut it up, I weighed the costs and the benefits of exercise.

Now, I could go around and do squats all day or I could put on my ugly baking shirt (the one I loosely call “my apron” because I’m too cheap to actually go buy an apron) & bake something for your visual enjoyment.

Guess what. You guys won…like…by a landslide.

So here you go!!
Yellow Cake Buttercream Hydrangea CupCakes
 
Call me crazy (or just lame) but there is something absolutely and completely calming and wonderful about watching cake go from this:
 
 …and this….
…to this…
 
 
…and THIS!!!
 
Sorry, I got excited with the bolding and exclamation points. I just thouroughly enjoyed making these cakes.
I have to credit both Martha Stewart with the recipe for the yellow cake (with a few of my own modifications) & Glorious Treats with the decorating idea & directions!   I also modified my usual recipe for buttercream frosting because I needed something that would hold it’s shape at room temperature.  This kind of buttercream is also called “crusting” buttercream. I’ll let Martha tell you about the cake, but the frosting, oh the frosting!!!!
 
It’s Business Time

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Yield: Enough Frosting for 12 standard cupcakes

It’s Business Time

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar

Instructions

  1. In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with paddle attachment or regular hand mixer. Add vanilla.
  2. Gradually add sugar, a little at a time while mixing on medium speed. Make sure to scrape down sides and bottom of mixer to ensure all ingredients are incorporated well.
  3. Beat on medium speed until frosting is light and fluffy.
  4. To add color to frosting, use a toothpick dipped in gel food coloring to gradually add color so as not to water down or "over color" the frosting.
https://patriciaspatticakes.com/2011/05/its-business-time-html/

Do What You Love & You’ll Never Work a Day In Your Life…

Well, ain’t that the truth. I’ve been talking a good game about scrapping this whole medical career and making cupcakes for a living…but talking a good game is way different than actually being on the team.

So I decided to make a dozen or so cupcakes for craps and giggles and take them to some friends celebrating their school year being over.

I stayed up all night, played with every tool in my new “ultimate baking kit” my boyfriend (and biggest cupcake supporter) bought me last week from Wilton, turned my hands all kinds of different lovely shades of the rainbow from food coloring and came up with 24 perfect little red velvet works of art.  I put them all in fancy little boxes and off I went.

The ooh’s and aaaah’s from his classmates were comforting.

Good job me.

*pat* *pat*

(That’s me patting myself on the back in case you missed it.)

As we barhopped and trolled the streets of Old Town Pasadena feeling warm, fuzzy and happy that summer has officially begun, something wonderfully awesome began happening…

Praise. From EVERYWHERE.

The customers, the waitresses, the bartenders, the owners of restaurants…one by one, they came up to see what was in these little boxes.

“Where did you buy them. How much were they?  They are so pretty!  How did you make the little flowers and patterns in the frosting?”

Not being used to all that attention, I just KNOW my ears turned a god awful shade of red and I must have looked like a deer in headlights.

They asked me for my contact info, asked me where my shop was, how much I charged, and if I would be interested in working something out with them…

Umm..well, you can email me at [email protected], umm…my shop is also known as my 6×10 kitchen and uh…I have no idea how much to charge, but hell yes, I’d be interested in working something out that allows me to cover my hands in flour and paint for a living!

Great entrepreneurial answers, I know, but this was supposed to be for fun and was already 3 Modelo’s deep.  Don’t judge. It was a celebration.

Who knew the product of a fun night of frosting, fondant, and edible glitter dust would turn into a business meeting.  (Insert “That’s what she said” comment HERE).

Before I knew what hit me, here I am.  On the verge of something big…well, maybe not yet…but tell you what if I don’t feel like something game changing just happened.

Wow.

This is REALLY happening.

And I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing…

But hot damn if I ain’t doin’ it. 🙂

Peace, Love, and Cupcake Grease,
Patticakes

Just Breathe….

The reasons I am here are many. 
 
The reasons I may fail are pretty, well…real.  
 
Still, here I am.  Geared up, with my big girl panties on, ready to do this.I’ve been told I’ve got balls.  I don’t know whether to be offended by that or say thank you??? 

Either way, I’ll take it.
 
I guess it takes balls to think that this blog will be read by anyone, balls to think that I can make a living out of something that I love & balls to leave it all behind and start over.
 
And there you go.  The birth of an idea. BAM.Welcome & Enjoy 🙂