Breakfast/ Exercise/ Fitness/ Lunch

Thinking Outside of the Box

Happy Humpday everyone!

I’m feeling a lot better today—no more spilling tea and soup, I’m pretty much all caught up with my schoowork after finishing my make up practical last night. My chef instructor hasn’t graded me yet but by the time I get to class tonight he will have my grade. I think I made out pretty lucky because he is very laid back about the whole make up process. Last night we decorated our devil’s food cake with chocolate Italian buttercream (made from meringue) and we baked an almond sponge cake that we will use tonight. My dad is actually in town, he spent the night here at my place last night after a late flight into Orlando, and he is taking the cake with him to Miami (where he works) today for his office. He was quite excited about it! I have to admit, it does look pretty nice. Not to toot my own horn or anything but it’s definitely my best cake decorating job yet!

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This morning I woke up early, ate half a banana with almond butter, and hit the gym for some cardio. I did 25 minutes on the elliptical machine then came back to make breakfast for my dad and I. I made us each the exact same thing: 2 hempplus waffles with walnuts, maple syrup and bananas. πŸ™‚ We both loved it.

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For lunch I packed a very messy wrap, which is why all you can see is it wrapped up. It was SO messy that all I could do was close it and wrap it tightly but it is filled with leftover SBITK “chicken” salad and spinach. I also am packing a pear and some carrot sticks, and the puffins I didn’t eat yesterday for a snack later.

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My old roommate and her mom are coming in town today! She is packing up more stuff and will be here until Friday. Unfortunately, even though tomorrow is my day off, I will be QUITE busy because I have a big project due tomorrow night that I haven’t really had time to work on yet (duh). I get to design my own cake and bake it tomorrow night for my final practical! Now before you all get excited and think I am designing a cool vegan cake, wait a second. It has to be a cake we made in class! So….I decided to do a chocolate chiffon cake with chocolate swiss buttercream in between the layers and topped with a lavender infused Italian buttercream….decorated with dried lavender buds and buttercream rosettes! I seeped lavender buds all night last night to make the flavoring for the icing and I’m hoping it will work! In France I tasted the combination of chocolate and lavender, and they actually go quite nicely together. I’m very interested in the combination of herbal/flower flavors with chocolate. It’s a very European thing but I just love the flavor of rose, violet and lavender. I wanted to think outside of the box for this project because a lot of the other people are doing very simple things with chocolate and vanilla. We’ll see!

Have a great Wednesday—only a couple more days til’ the weekend!

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  • hk
    May 14, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    So nice of you to give your cake to your dad, enjoy your morning with him! You’re cake sounds like it will beautiful, and I, too, LOVE lavender!

  • Romina
    May 14, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Ooh that cake is gorgeous! It must be so tempting when you have it in front of you,hehe.

    I had some hemp plus waffles yesterday for the first time in a while, those things are darned tasty!

  • Cassie
    May 14, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    Your cake looks fabulous! Great job! Your family must love the fact they get all these treats! And your cake idea sounds very interesting- i think its great your thinking outside the box!

    Have a great Humpday!

  • NJ
    May 14, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    Dayum!

    The cake you are going to do sounds killer! As does the one you made here.

    The people at your dad’s office are going to freak out. Office people live for cake. I should know, I am one of them and as soon as there is mention of cake to celebrate birthdays (they do it once a month and list everyone who has a birthday that month on an email, so I afford myself the splurge) I run to the breakroom! Although, they completely pwned us with a WALMART cake last month (disgusting). Usually it is yummo Publix cake. Hopefully that doesn’t happen again.

    I get fired up about it; it’s the little things we live for in the office πŸ™‚

  • Allyson
    May 14, 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Oh the perks of having a pastry chef in the fam! πŸ˜‰

  • Betsy
    May 14, 2008 at 1:28 pm

    your special cake sounds so fantastic!!! i love the combo of chocolate and lavender.

    i’m jealous of your dad’s coworkers.

  • arimcg
    May 14, 2008 at 2:03 pm

    You are clever, that sounds like a great idea. And I’m also jealous of your dad’s coworkers.

  • VeggieGirl
    May 14, 2008 at 2:17 pm

    So glad that you feel better today – keep it up, girl!

    You deserve to be proud of that cake – it’s GORGEOUS!! Your cake-decorating skills are impeccable.

    What a nice breakfast that you enjoyed with your dad – waffles are always a great choice :0)

    Oh my goodness, you’re designing your own cake??? How fabulous!! I can’t WAIT to see those results!! :0)

    Have fun with your old roommate, and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!

  • Monica
    May 14, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    Your cake sounds amazing! I can’t wait to see how it turns out.

  • Kristie
    May 14, 2008 at 3:16 pm

    The cake you decorated looks gorgeous and the one you are going to make sounds absolutely AMAZING and creative. You have to snap a picture of it once it’s all done!

  • Heather
    May 14, 2008 at 3:52 pm

    That cake is lovely!

    I’m intrigued by the lavender-infused buttercream… can’t wait to see how it is!

  • Serena
    May 14, 2008 at 3:56 pm

    That chocolate/lavender cake does sound great. By the way, I made Lindsey’s infamous carrot cupcakes (without the frosting) the other night and they are DELICIOUS! I can’t believe I waited this long to try them – any of you who haven’t already really should make these! It really was as simple as mixing up the combined dry ingredients with the wet ones. They were so moist and are completely addictive – I had one for breakfast yesterday and one for dessert last night! I thought one cup of sugar sounded like a lot so I reduced it to 3/4 cup and added a handful of unsweetened dried cocunut to the batter – yum. Uh, though I only got 10 cupcakes out of it instead of 12. Maybe I filled the muffin tins too much!?

  • Becca A
    May 14, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    I love your idea for your cake project! I’m excited to see how it turns out! Great job on the devil’s food cake!

  • Ashliqua
    May 14, 2008 at 5:26 pm

    I love cooking for/with my dad! I think your cake idea sounds fantastic…I can just imagine the lavender flavor infused in the chocolate mmm…so I hope that works out for you!

  • Caroline
    May 14, 2008 at 6:03 pm

    That cake IS a work of art–bravo, Jenna!
    Good luck on your project. Your idea of using lavender sounds so elegant!

  • Anne P
    May 14, 2008 at 6:37 pm

    yum i agree on lindsay’s cupcakes being awesome! i also make mine without the frosting and only using about 1/2 or 3/4 cups sugar – one whole cup made them SUPER sweet.