The Latest in Cake

So, I've been asked to make the wedding cake for my friend Katie's wedding in June. Since my skills are still very limited I'm happy that she wants me to make only the portion her and Peter will cut into and not enough for 250 guests. : )

Katie sent me a bunch of photos from The Knot of cakes she likes. I asked her to narrow them down to 3 and she narrowed them down to...8. Haha. These are just ideas and I'm still not sure what route I want to take.

KATIE'S FAVES:

She thinks the cutest is the one with orange flowers in the bottom left corner.

 

 

 

LIZ'S FAVES (Not that what I think matters when it is her wedding!)
I like both the first one and the bottom one with buttercream the most.

 

So many ideas are swirling in my head. The cake will be either 1 or 2 tiers. I am leaning toward 2 small tiers. I am also one of Katie's bridesmaids, so that is the main reason I don't want to take on more than I can handle. I'm not sure if I want to do a finished-looking all frosting cake or attempt fondant. 

When I saw Katie's dress it gave me an idea for the cake that would mimic her dress. The cake would be an all shimmery champagne color on the bottom layer and the top would be ivory and mimic lace. Just an idea.

What do you think? Which cakes do you like? Do you have any cool ideas or amazing cakes you've seen that would be good inspiration?

In other cake/cupcake news:

• Using one of my many Michael's gift cards, I signed up for a beginning cake decorating class. It was kind of a process because I had to wait for them to print out all of the documents. I just kind of assumed the class was on Tuesday or Wednesday. When I got home I looked at the flier and the class is on Fridays from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. I am not going to take 4 classes on a Friday night! Boo!
• My friend Sarah had a gathering for high school friends a couple weeks ago. She recently made her own kitchen island (crazy awesome) and joked about it being an Island Party. I took this as a reason to make island-themed cupcakes. I was also filled with longing for Hawaii at the time. Check out the results on Sarah's blog. Here is a photo Justin took:

 

Masters in Indecision

A few months ago it dawned on me that I should go back to school. Well, it probably dawned on me a while ago, but I started taking it seriously then. I feel like I am setting out to get my Masters in the fall, but don't really know if it is the right next step for me.

I do not like school. Some people really like school and seem to make every attempt to keep going to school forever. I, however, found college to kind of be a waste of time at certain points. I am somehow smarter than the average bear, but have a great degree of difficulty retaining information. College is not organized for people like me. You are expected to learn a lot of often unrelated things in a short amount of time.

Since I don't like school, I am really only considering getting my Master's so I can 1) further my career 2) hopefully learn more about a specific field and 3) feel superior to other people (j/k!!). Unlike most people considering a Master's program, I am only looking at one school. Justin works for KPLU NPR & Jazz, which is affiliated with PLU in Tacoma. Since he is an employee I receive 75% off tuition as his spouse. Not a bad deal! PLU has an abhorrent selection of graduate programs, but they do have a MBA Program. In an ideal world I would love to go to UW because they have an amazing MBA program, but I'm also cheap. $40,000 vs. $12,000

Since I love bulleted lists, I'd like to show you the pros and cons of going back to school

PROS

• Relatively inexpensive. The discount I get through Justin makes it only about $12,000 for the whole program
• More experience and overall knowledge 
• PLU's program includes an international trip
• Evening program that meets 2 days a week would make working and schooling quite possible
• Opportunity to advance my career

CONS

• Still costs money. If we plan to buy a house next year life will be expensive
• I don't like school. Despite always being a good student, I find it hard to pay attention and retain knowledge sometimes
• Not sure PLUs program is all that good. Wasn't terribly impressed at the January info session
• Will involve Math. Math is bad and I think I have to relearn all of it
• Is the program right for my needs? What are my needs?
• Not sure it will help my career. What am I doing with my life?
• I don't want to lock Justin into working at KPLU for another two years, so I can get a discount

When it comes down to it, I think I want a Master's degree just to have a Master's degree. I guess there are worse reasons. So far, my first steps have been attending the info session and enrolling in South Seattle Community College to take a Statistics pre reg in the Spring. Next steps: applying and taking the GMAT

What are your thoughts?