Thursday, December 09, 2004

Has it really been over a week ...

since I last added a post? It's been a busy week for me. My mind has been on so many different things that it's hard to keep track of what I was last thinking about. For some insane reason I volunteered to make icing (yes, icing as in cake) for my children's school the ENTIRE week. They are making gingerbread houses and needed volunteers to help out at school and/or to make the icing. I guess I felt guilty about not selling anything in the numerous fundraisers that they've had, nor have I volunteered to chaperone on any field trips.

Anyway, the PTA president brought all the ingredients that I need over Sunday evening (including the plastic baggies to put the icing in). I am so glad that I only have one more day left. I'm not a bad cook but I'm not the one to bake on a regular basis. Therefore, my cookware does not consist of a large variety of bakeware/large bowls/heavy duty blender, etc. Here I am with this small hand blender mixing up 4 lbs of powdered sugar in a large bowl that, thank God, I just happened to buy one time when I'm sure it was on sale. I tried mixing it in 2 batches and believe me, that was too tiring. I would have quit 2 days ago.

For those of you who have never made icing or never really new the ingredients that goes into it, I'll enlighten you. For 4 lbs of powdered sugar you need 8 tablespoons of powdered milk, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon of cream of tarter and 1 cup of water. Last but not least, you need 3 cups of shortening (unmelted). Oh my God, how grosssss! I don't see how I can ever eat icing again. I prefer the whipped cream icing anyway. I wonder if it contains shortening. While I was blending everything together I was tripping at the thought of me eating icing in the past. Just imagine thick globs of shortening being mixed up with other ingredients and then spread over a cake or in my kid's situation, being used to stick candy on the gingerbread houses as well as to decorate the houses and hold the graham crackers together.

I will admit that I was tempted to take my finger and swipe up a bit of icing that was left in the bowl and eat it, but, I passed.

3 comments:

Nandi Yaa said...

When you break it down like that, I've gotta pass, too. LOL

greggy said...

LOL...sometimes I go several weeks before I post something on my blog and don't feel bad about it either...LOL.
So that's how icing is made...and to think how I almost murdered my younger sister back in the day on several occasions over the left-over icing in a cakebowl my mom was using...*making mental note to never ever never ever ever volunteer to make icing* LOL
Have a good week!

Donna J. Shepherd said...

Our Women's Ministry group made big chocolate Easter eggs one year, and I made the icing. Yuck! One thing that's good if you're making a smaller amount for a cake at home is to use the butter-flavored Crisco. But...it's still a big pile of grease. LOL!