Puppies: 5 days old

The pups are now 5 days old and everyone is doing well. It's amazing to see just how fast they've grown in these few short days. Their bellies are nice and plump and for the most part the litter is all growing at the same rate. There's one female that is a little smaller than the rest, but not by much. Enjoy the photos!

(Female)

(Males)

(Female)

The Puppies are here!!!

Dharma Whelped 7 puppies today... yes, 7! That's a big jump from her last litter of.... one. There are 6 surviving pups (the first one didn't make it). 4 females, 2 males all black and silver in color.

Mom and babies are doing GREAT!

Cake Mania

I think this is the first post that's NOT been about Wyatt. Sarah Nafziger, Emily Baer and I took a Cake Class in Toledo for the past four weeks. We learned all kinds of things, like how to properly frost a cake to piping. Before all of this I just figured you opened a can of frosting, slapped it on the cake and called it good. In reality decorating a cake takes time, lots of time... sometimes a few days in order to let your decorations dry correctly.

The above photo is of some cupcakes we had to do. We learned drop flowers, figure piping, how to make a clown out of frosting (and let me tell ya, it takes A LOT of frosting) as well as some writing techniques.



Ah, the "Wilton Rose". The crowning glory to any cake. ha ha. Let me tell you it's not all that easy at first. Who knew that the consistency of the frosting would play a big part in making our decorations. It was crazy. After practicing a few times though, all three of us got the hang of it. My roses started off looking like cabbages, then transitioned into carnations and finally started looking like roses. Whoopie!







I wasn't too keen on the color of my cake, but the taste... oh my. It's dark chocolate fudge cake with a layer of chocolate mousse in the middle. The frosting was espresso butter cream with dark chocolate decorations. I added some dripped chocolate ganache to the outer rim. mmmmmmmmm... heaven.

So all three of us passed the class with flying colors. I'm planning on taking the 2nd course once I get some free Saturdays again.

I've been itching to put my newly learned skills to use, so with some help from Wyatt (he helped mix the cake) I made a Good Luck cake for their forthcoming tournament game.

It's a white cake with white buttercream filling and frosting. The blackbird is dark chocolate that I piped and filled. The stars are also dark chocolate.

It was delish! - They forced us to stay and have a piece of cake and some icecream. :)

I'm really enjoying making cakes, so if anyone has a birthday or special event and you'd like a cake, I'm for hire!

The next American Idol...

I'll let the videos speak for themselves; but I have to say, my son is a bit of a Ham.