Even more roses, and a cake

I promised to post pics of what I did in the edible rose workshop that I got to go to as a birthday present, so here they (or their links!) are. It was a great workshop, really fun, and I learned quite a lot. I now need to get a couple of fragrant rose bushes for the garden though, to put into practise things like Rose syrup. Mmmm.

We started out by crystallising rose petals with castor sugar. At the end of the workshop we reassembled those petals into a mini-rose on a cupcake. This is quite a cool effect, and one I would never have considered on my own.

We also got to do fondant (plastic) icing roses. Mine wasn't great. I started out by making the centre much too big, and that kind of stuffed it up from the start. I'll need to practise.

My favourite edible rose decorations for the day were the little roses made from Jelly Tots. I liked these so much, you don't even have to go browse for the pic :).



Next up:my birthday cake. I wanted to do a chocolate log with little woodland creatures all around it. But it didn't happen. Maybe next time. The cake is a chocolate roulade (recipe and cake instructions from this book), filled with double cream and hazelnut spread. The ends are homemade almond paste, and the bark is chocolate buttercream, which is not light and fluffy, no matter what I do!

Done!

I finished the Wild Rose Blanket just in time. The teacher loved it. (I loved it too). It looked really good, and the colours worked really well. Since I don't consider myself to have a great eye for colour I was very pleased about that. Each time I added a new colour (the yellow border, the green extra interior border, the pink join) it just made the other colours brighter and more beautiful. I used Elle Gold DK (courtelle) for the main part of the blanket, and I was really surprised at the difference between the dusty rose and the yellow. The dusty rose colour is much harsher and feels thicker, although they are both double knit. The pale yellow feels really really silky. (Click pic for bigger version)


There are a couple of other pics of the work in progress on flickr.

Now I am using the left over yarn to make a hat for M. I was going to do a wild rose hat, using the same pattern for embellishment as the blanket, but when I asked her if she wanted a woolly hat to wear, she said "Yes, I'd love a duck hat!". So I am making a dusty rose hat with a yellow duck face inset.

My daughter's idea of what a project should look like and mine are often poles apart, so it's really really important to get her to clarify exactly what her mental picture of something is before making it. (This goes double for cakes!)

I've also finally finished my brother's wedding sampler. I am never ever again doing a "me to you" bear sampler. The backstitch fur was horrible, and the colours were so similar that I could only work in daylight. That's a severe limitation on a crafter with kids! Admire. It has taken 3 years! (I stitch really slowly, but I don't give up!) (Again, click pic for full version if you can't see the whole thing).