GUESS WHAT???

This week starts off with quite a compliment.  I have been asked to give a canning class at my church.

Still thinking it over, likely I will do it.  I am still waiting on the winnings from Ball that I won at the Sonoma County Fair.  Can't wait to see what they send.  Hopefully something worth sharing with all you wonderful bloggers.

Have a blessed week.

Four of these are for amature Photography Division in the fair.  The two green ones the Yellow one and one of the light Pink ones.  The remainder are for Jams and Jellies.  I am still waiting for the rest of the awards from The Ball canning products company that have not yet arrived.  All of this was done this year which was my first year in these types of competition.  I wanted to share these with you and might later show the pictures that I entered.  Thank you for viewing my blog and please join and come back often.  It is a pleasure and blessing to share with you.

Here is just the start of the awards

 Well today we went to the fairgrounds to pick up all the awards, Ball did not have my awards other than the certificate ready and it may be another two weeks before I receive the remainder of the prizes, Here though is some of the ribbons and the Ball Kerr certificate for the Ball Kerr Award.  I wanted to at least get these up before it got to late this evening.  I hope you enjoy also getting to view the jars of jams and jellies that were entered.  It is something I am proud of.  Thank you to those who have congratulated me on these achievements.  It is a blessing to share with all of you.

I bring home the ribbons later today

Hello, and welcome to a new week,  Thank you to those who have so graciously joined my blog, it is wonderful to share with you.  Remember to invite your friends and colleagues.  Later today I will be bringing home the jams, and jellies along with the prizes / ribbons and will try to have them on the blog within the day or evening.  I look forward to sharing them with you.  Thank you for visiting and joining my blog.  Catherine Kennedy

End of week update and message

We have almost finished another week.  I can hardly wait to post the ribbons next week for everyone to enjoy seeing.  I already am underway for next years competition.  I like to get things done early.  Please join my blog if you are reading this so I may share with you in the future.

Fair competition pictures and desciption

 Above is the Certificate for being the winner of the Ball Kerr Award which is a high honor, This being my first year of competion and winning this award came as a big surprise.                            As the lady telling me about all the prizes I won that come with it also mentioned she had been trying for that award since 1962 and never received the honors.  That comes to 50 years of trying.  So I was blown away when I learned all this.
The canned item that is mine is the one with the green cloth on the lid.  Those pickels  in the background won the award in that division, however they are not my product.  Maybe next year or the year after that I will give those a try.  I kept to jams and jellies this time.  

I had several entries 8 total, I won six plus / in addition to the grand award of Ball Kerr.  I put a lot of work and dedication into my products.

Next week I will be adding all the ribbons I have won into my blog to share them with you.  Thank you so much for visiting my blog and I hope you will join my blog and see what I have to share with all of you.  God Bless...

Easy Lady's Hat Cake

This cake may seem like a major project, However I feel it only takes a careful hand and the right tools with your own imagination, and some short cuts if you feel the need.  It took two cake mixes to make this creationI used an orange cake mix and a lemon cake mix, follow the directions for mixing the cakes and only make one at a time so the layers are separate.  I chose to add Marmalade to the orange cake mix to create an orange upside down cake which made it moister.  I allowed the cakes to cool completely on a wire rack.  To make things even easier use a spring form pan for each cake mix and use the cooking time for the bundt cake you will find on the box.  This assures the right amount of time in the oven.  Be sure to test it with a toothpick and make sure it comes out clean and not doughy. Prepare the fondant or go to a cake or craft store that has cake making / decorating supplies and buy the fondant if you fear not being able to make it yourself.  Also you can buy the candy buttons in a candy store.  Use the leaf tip and a cake decorating bag to make the leafs.  I made a butter cream frosting from scratch, however if you choose you can use a firm frosting mix already made and dye it green.  I am not good on the roses yet so I purchased them from the cake decorating isle of Micheal's craft store. They also carry the tips, bags and if you need it fondant, Not sure but they may also carry decorator icing, they also sell the dyes in that section.  I decided that I wanted to make orange frosting for between the layers, and then topped it with Shaved lemon peel for extra flavor.
I frosted the outer cake with the frosting I had made to decorate with.  I held out some for the leaves and used green frosting dye for the leaves.  Before doing the flowers or buttons, I rolled out my fondant which was dyed blue.  I made it really thin and used a ruler to keep it straight and form.  I made it in three sections using the ruler and applied them carefully.  To cover up the ends, I used fondant and made the bows, two on the front and one on the back.  I used the candy buttons for the inside part of the bows as shown.  Then I went on to create my leafs using the leaf tip.  I did three leafs for each rose as you can see.  After making the leafs I inserted a rose firmly in from the top of the cake.  I repeated this around the cake making the first four at each quarter mark of the top of the cake.  Then I made the final four in between them.  Then I used the sugar buttons to decorate the hat to complete it.  You can also finish the hat off if you have the material with a bit of lace, it just is not a part of the cake you can eat like the rest of this cake.  I did not have a piece of lace available or I would have added that touch.  You do not have to be a pastry chef to make beautiful creations, just a little time, patience and the right materials.  Have fun and be creative. It was a blessing to be able to share this project with you.  I made this for another of the Lady's Power Prayer Breakfast meetings and it was a hit.

I want to share with you a really nice idea for potlucks during the summer that really is not as hard to do as you might think, In fact you do not have to be an artist or have any special talent to make this Watermelon fruit basket and it is a hit.  I took a medium sized watermelon, a honey dew melon, a cantaloupe, some mint from my garden and some blueberries and created this for a potluck.  The comments people made were:  You should start a catering business, Wow you have talent, That is really neat it must have taken you a while to make, How did you do that it looks so pretty.  Anyway you get the idea.   I took a melon ball tool and made the melon balls from the cantaloupe and the honey dew the night before, then I refrigerated them as well as to have the water Mellon cool I refrigerated it.  This works best with a seedless watermelon.  Then the next morning I removed the watermelon from the refrigerator and drew on the outside outlines for the basket.  I then cut out the top sides and set them aside.  Then I carefully carved out the area under the handle, Note do not pull on the handle at all or it may break.  If it does use tooth picks to set it back on.  after carving those areas, I scooped out Mellon balls from the inside lower part of what would be the basket. Then I cleaned it with scraping carefully with a spoon.  Then for the zig zag appearance I carved out triangles along the edge.  Once all this was done I took mint I had grown in my garden and used toothpicks to hold it in place along the handle.  To cover up the tips of the toothpicks which I had broken down to be half to one third their size to hold on the mint, I covered them by adding small berries.  I believe I have shared the idea with you and given you the start to create your own Mellon basket.  You could also before begining the basket part carve pictures into the outer rind to be even more creative than I was using carving tools and pictures from a carving book from your Halloween pumpkins.  Be as creative as your imagination will allow you.  I hope you enjoy this and happy creating.  It was a blessing to share this with you.