This is a very sentimental time for me. Big changes are afoot at home and abroad! Kayla is graduating from High School and will be attending BYU Hawaii in the fall. (well maybe......she just got the summer conditioning schedule, and it it would make a grown man cry!)
Evan and Angie will be moving to Florida soon.....(well with the ARMY, you can;t count on any date....EVER....till you are gone!)
And one of my adopted daughters just got married.
Let me start back about 4 years ago. Kayla has played sports....yes plural, since she was 5. She started playing soccer with Orem city rec. league. She is such a driven athlete. Even at that age she bored quickly with that level of play. We then found her an accelerated team to play with. She played with them up until High school. She played JV soccer at Timpanogos as well. She also played rec. softball. This was more painful for her than the soccer was, so again we went in search of higher level of play!
Here I will insert, that as a parent, I am deeply in debt to all of the coaches that have influenced our lives over the years! What amazing, talented, committed, and SELFLESS people! God bless every one of you!
Kayla played softball all of the years she was playing soccer. I kept telling her that a choice was going to have to be made once she got to High School level. I cannot express strongly enough the AGONY she went through trying to choose! She loved each game equally, and would still be playing both if given the opportunity to be a clone.
She ultimately choose softball because there are so many girls that play soccer, she wisely believed she had better opportunities with softball.She tried out for the Timpanogos softball team. She was on the JV team, but dressed and played varsity. She lettered all 4 years. As a freshman coming to the High School just for the conditioning class and on game days, she was a little intimidated, but love of the game kept her at it.
enter two angels, Kalee Gonzalez, and Megan Bishop. they were so kind to Kayla and went out of their way to make her feel at home with the team. They became part of the family! Kalee's little sister Jodee and Kayla are the same age and have been the best of friends, playing HS ball and travel ball during the summers. Try as he might, Mark cannot adopt sons, but he has MANY adopted daughters:)
Kalee had been seriously dating, and I knew marriage wasn't too far off. I was shocked and honored that she would as me to make her wedding cake! I told her I had no doubt that I could make it taste wonderful, but I had serious doubts about making it beautiful!
I LOVE learning new things, and will try anything once! If not a complete failure, I will often try it again! I am fascinated by all the cake shows on the Food network! It amazes me that you can make sculpture out of cake!
when Angie graduated nursing school and got her R.N., I made her a cake of scrubs. It was fun....and not a total failure, so I made a softball cake for the High school team last year....again fun...and not a total failure. I really enjoyed the challenge, but it was all for FUN! When Kalee asked me to make her cake, I said Yes because I love HER, and wanted to do it for Dave and her. I believe I made that cake a dozen times in my dreams. I practiced with flavors, and with fondant. I have learned one thing through this experience....Commercial fondants are nasty, and hard to work with! I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant that you can flavor ANY flavor you want, and it is not only edible, but it is GOOD!!! And the added bonus of being so much easier to work with, and about 1/4 the cost of commercial fondant!
Mark said I could never make another one! (I was a wee bit stressed, and may not have been on my best behavior.) I wanted to cake to be acceptable for a beautiful girl, and a beautiful occasion. It was not perfect, but it was made with love. Thank you again Kalee and Dave for letting me be part of your wonderful day. I wish you nothing but happy adventures in the coming years!
I am including the recipe for the MM fondant. Please try! It's easy peasy!!
8 cup mini marshmallows
3 TBSP water
1TBSP flavor
9 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 heaping TBSP shortening
Directions
1. grease bowl and dough hook of mixer
2. Sift 9 cups of powdered sugar in a separate mixing bowl.
3. put marshmallows, water, flavor, and shortening in a microwave safe bowl. Heat at 30 second intervals. stir and continue heating till it looks soupy with a few lumps.
5. scoop 6 cups of sifted sugar into greased bowl of mixer and make a well.
6. pour melted mixture into the well. It's going to spread out and cover all the sugar, but puts it mostly in the center this way.
7. put one more cup sifted sugar on top of mm's.
8.start mixer on lowest setting to incorporate most of the sugar. after it stirs a little while you can move up speed a little. You will notice the PS on the sides of the bowl...leave it there. Don't scrape it down. It will be pulled into the fondant as needed.
9.as the mixture pulls in the sugar, it will start to climb the hook like bread dough. Do not let it get too stiff at this point. feel it with your fingers. If it is really sticky, add 1/4 cup of sugar at a time till it is just slightly sticky when pinched.
10.prepare a section of counter by spreading a coating of shortening, or using a silpat. dump out fondant and remaining sugar in bowl. grease your hands and start to knead fondant, working in PS 1/4 cup at a time as needed. It should hold it's shape for a few seconds when it is ready. shape into a ball and grease outside of ball. wrap in saran wrap or place in ziploc bag. it needs to sit overnight for best texture.
11. prior to using, just knead again to get to a silly putty like texture. Call add more sugar if still too soft, of knead in more shortening if too dry.
