Things You’ll Need:

• • Friends
  • Decorating tips
  • Turntable
  • Cake Pans
  • Parchment
  • Knives
  • Icing Spatulas
  • Cardboard Rounds for Layers

Instructions

This Wedding Cake Serves 148 Guests

• Decide how many people are coming to the wedding to determine how much cake you will need to bake. Go to the library for wedding cake books and look online to see the guidelines for cake quantities. Now is a good time to check to see if any Wilton decorating classes are offered in your area. You can practice using the decorating tips with the help of Wilton experts. Recruit friends to join you. Many hands make light work in this project.

The Farm Kitchen - Available to Rent

• Ask your church or local hall if you can rent their kitchen to bake and decorate your cake. Check to make sure their oven holds its temperature properly. Working in a commercial kitchen gives you more work space, allows you the use of larger ovens and equipment. Ask for help if you are unfamiliar with any of the equipment before you begin.

Cake Decoratings Tips and Pastry Bags

• Wedding cake pans are available to purchase online and elsewhere. Look at local wholesale bakery supply companies or restaurant supply stores for the purchase of your pans, icing spatulas and decorating tips to savemoney. I found many of my wedding cake pans at thrift stores for a dollar each. Purchase individual decorating tips rather than a set. Buy the individual food paste colors you need for your cake. At cake decorating classes the instructor can guide you in these decisions.

Check www.wilton.com for Cake Recipes

• Decide if you are using a commercial cake mix or baking the cake from a recipe. Commercial cake mixes have more even baking results. Flavorings like almond, orange and lemon can be added to the cake mix. All the layers should have at least 2 internal layers along with the filling . Remember to make each cake layer between 4 and 5 inches tall. All finished layers should be as close to the same height as possible.

Serrated Kitchen Knife for Splitting Cakes

• Use special care when removing larger diameter cakes from the oven. Do not immediately remove the cake from the pan. If your cake has domed in the baking process, place a piece of parchment on the cake and press it down to remove steam and flatten the cake. If your cake is still badly domed after cooling, slice the dome off with a serrated knife and eat it.Yum.Allow 10 to 15 minutes for your cake to cool on a rack. Place each layer on a cardboard round matching the diameter of the cake.

Simple Fresh Flowers Decorate the Wedding Cake

• Create a filling for your cake that is flavorful and complements the flavor of the cake. There are many recipes for fillings including butter creams and mousse. Avoid runny jams and fresh fruit that make a cake soggy. Once the cake layers are filled, you can crumb coat them. Crumb coating is a thin layer of your frosting covering the sides and top of the cake. Once the cake is sealed in this frosting, the cake is refrigerated before final frosting and decoration. The cake may also be frozen at this time. Wrap the cake in several layers of food wrap and freeze.

Simply Elegant Wedding Cake

• Decorating the wedding cake takes time and patience. Create decorations ahead of time and store in a sealed container. Place each layer on a turntable to decorate. Plan a schematic drawing of each layer for you to review while decorating. Make tiny score marks in the frosting for symmetric decorations. Decoration requires time and patience. For first time wedding cake makers, avoid using rolled fondant. Rolled fondant requires professional baking and decorating skills.

Dowels placed in Wedding Cake Provide Support

• Assembling your cake is done once the cake arrives safely at its destination. If your cake has multiple tiers, you may support it one of several ways. Wooden dowels stuck between the layers make the easiest weight support. You may also purchase plastic pillars to support the layers.A new tradition is placing wedding cake charms between the cakes attached with colored ribbons for each one of the bridesmaids to remove. Check your cake for any needed touch up and take a picture of your creation.

Tips & Warnings

• Always bring bags of touch up frosting and extra decorations in case of…
• Assemble Wedding Cake After Carefully Moving it in Car or Van
• When using Fresh Flowers on cake, place parchment beneath to avoid pollen touching the cake
• Consider Buying Wedding Cake Boxes to hold each layer
• Whip Cream Frosting + Humid Weather Do not Mix
• Refrigerate your Cake Away from Strong Food Odors It Can Absorb

(Source: eHow.com)

Halloween is the time when you can really go out of your way decorating things. Your house, car, food, kids or anything else you can think of are all open for some spooky modifications.
Baking and decorating these festive treats can liven up any family activity or children’s Halloween party.

• Find your favorite sugar cookie recipe and make the dough as directed.
• Roll out the dough with a rolling pin.

• Cut out cookies with Halloween cookie cutters: pumpkins, witches, ghosts, bats, broomsticks and so forth. If you do not have Halloween cookie cutters, use a basic round cutter to make cookies that can be decorated as pumpkins or faces.

• Bake the cookies as directed and let cool.

• Decorate the cookies using colored frosting, candy corn (great for a jack-o’-lantern face), thin licorice strings, jelly beans, shredded coconut or an assortment of cake-decorating candies.

Fried Pho with mushroom sauce

Ingredients:

-         200g of Nam hai san (seafood), Nam dui ga (Coprinus comatus) and Namtai heo; 200g of Banh pho (rice papers); pasty sauce and a dash of seasoning.

Preparation:

-         Clean mushrooms.

-         Cut Banh pho into square pieces, dip them in flour and fry until they become crispy.

-         Prepare for the sauce from oyster oil and soya-sauce and then put the mushroom and fried Pho into the sauce. Cook for a few minutes.

-         Served hot with rice.

Address:

Asayu Restaurant – Hanoi

- 51 Ly Thuong Kiet Street – Tel: (84) 439412139 / 0912377247

- 12 Lang Ha Street – Tel: (84) 439945002 / 0982993286

Story by Bich Van

Instructions

Step 1

Well of course, to eat at a restaurant you must pick out a meal! My favorite is Pho Dac Biet because it has all sorts of meat in it. It has tendons, beef, meatball.. and I forget what else.

Step 2

Upon delivery of your Pho, the waitress/waiter should have given you a plate of mixed vegetables. I can’t describe exactly what because many restaurants are different. But tear off the lives off the basil and add into your soup. The stem doesn’t go in. ;p Just keep that one in mind. Also, squeeze the lime juice into your soup.

Step 3

Then you can add the Sriracha Sauce or Hoisin Sauce to your taste. The Sriracha is the spicy sauce.. if you happen to have added too much of this, you can even the spice with the Hoisin Sauce. I normally but just a bit of both.

Step 4

You can also ask for a small plate for both Sriracha and Hoisin sauce to use as a dip for the meats in your soup.

Step 5

Now mix and enjoy

Source: eHow.com

• Take half a pound of beef(few bone and few boneless pieces). Cook it at high heat for maybe 5-6 minutes. Once beef is cooked add 4-6 cups of water, add half a cup of apple cider vinegar, half a cup soya sauce. Let it come to boil, and let it boil for 4-5 minutes.

• Add two cups of chopped cabbage, put the lid on the pot and turn off the heat. Let it sit maybe 2-3 minutes, cabbage will get cooked and soup is ready. Traditionally you can add some rice noodles to this soup, but if you are trying to lose weight, maybe not adding noodles is a good idea.

• Now you can serve the soup in soup bowls and garnish with bean sprouts, cilantro, lemon/lime quarters. If you like spicy food, you can add garlic chili sauce, but that is optional. To enhance the taste of soup one table spoon of hosin sauce can be added to the bowl of soup.

• Add basil leaves and Enjoy the soup. Replace one meal, preferably dinner/supper with this soup, you will lose weight and inches.  If it works for you, gradually do it more than one day a week.

Good luck with weight loss. <source: eHow.com><Photos by Zensoft.vn & Google Images>

Things You’ll Need:

• 6 medium potatoes
• cheddar cheese
• lettuce
• tomato
• my salsa
• corn tortillas
• garlic salt
• oil

• Turn your stove on medium heat. Fill a pot half way with water and put it on the stove. Peel your potatoes and cut them up in bite size pieces. Add the potatoes to the water. Boil potatoes until they are soft. Make my salsa see resources below.

• Shred your cheese. Cut up your tomatoes and lettuce in little pieces.

• When the potatoes are soft drain all the water out. Take a glass cup and crush the potatoes. Don’t use a mixer you don’t want them like mashed potatoes. Add some garlic salt for taste.
• Put as many tortillas you are going to use in a plastic bag. Then put them in the microwave for about a minute and a half to soften them up.
• Turn your stove on medium heat. Pour some oil in a medium size frying pan. Take a corn tortilla and put two scoops of potato and fold it like a taco. Fry it on both sides until it is crunchy. Then add your cheese, lettuce, tomato and salsa.

• It’s important to do your research. There are many mugs out there to choose from. Decide ahead of time what thickness is right for you. Some people like their insulated mugs extra thick to hold coldness in for longer periods of time. There is a wide variance of thickness, so decide what works for you.

• Size is another important factor. Do you want one monster 126 ounce mug to last you the entire day. They make ‘em. Or would you prefer a smaller 32 ounce mug that you fill up two or three times. It seems the smaller the mug the less water you spill down your shirt. But if you like the cool breeze generated from said spills, a bigger mug might be right for you.

• Do your pricing research. Insulated mugs are available at almost every gas station around. Some like them big, some like them small, and some gas stations like them all sizes. So browse around. It might take 5 or 6 trips to different gas station to find the perfect fit. But maybe, just maybe, if you are especially lucky, you’ll find it at the gas station closest to home.

***Insulated mug browsing is best done during the day to avoid any dodgy customers that can often be found lurking around gas stations after the sun goes down. <Source: eHow.com>

This recipe is a powder which is used to prepare cappuccino.

Ingredients:

• 500 grams of instant milk powder
• 50 grams of instant coffee
• 1 tablespoon of powdered chocolate
• 1 tablespoon (coffee size) of bicarbonate

Procedure:

1. Place half of milk powder, instant coffee, bicarbonate and chocolate in the mixer and beat until blended.
2. Add that to the rest of the instant milk powder, use a spoon for easier mixing.
3. That´s it… you are ready to prepare your capuccino.
4. You can drink this with hot water or milk.

While most people choose to drink something with the brand on it, like Coca Cola or Pepsi, creating your own soft drink can be a good change of pace for your own special party or dinner. It doesn’t really take much money or time to do this so you might as well make the drinks yourself. The ingredients for this recipe are fairly simple. All you need are:

• chocolate syrup,
• whole cream milk, and seltzer water.

Here are the steps to creating your own chocolate egg cream soda.

1. Store a tumbler or glass in the refrigerator freezer of chiller for about forty five minutes before proceeding with the other steps. This would be like freezing frosty mugs – drinking from an icy, cool glass or tumbler adds to the fun. Make sure that the other ingredients for this creamy and delectable sweet drink are very cold as well. The milk and seltzer water should be thoroughly chilled beforehand as well.
2. With the use of a measuring spoon, pour about an ounce of chocolate syrup into the chilled glass. Do not prepare this beforehand – you have to do the pouring just when you’re ready to serve it. You want to keep the drink really cold so make sure that it stays that way. Also, pouring the chocolate syrup into the glass before chilling might cause the chocolate to

1. Next, measure an ounce of the chilled whole cream milk and add this to the chilled chocolate syrup in the glass. Since the syrup can tend to be viscous when cold, you may have to stir the glass to allow the milk and syrup to combine as one liquid. This will be the base of the drink and most of the flavor come from this combination. This is why it’s important that you buy the best possible ingredients for this recipe.
2. Pour the seltzer water into the glass. Stir the drink vigorously as you are gradually pouring the seltzer water. Do not pour the seltzer water all at once. You have to properly mix the flavoring agent to the soda water gradually to ensure that the flavors are fully and well-distributed throughout the beverage.
3. With the right amount of stirring, you should be able to make foam form on top. This froth is a very sweet and light treat to the person who will be drinking it.

It’s quite a radical departure from Sprite and the other brands of soft drinks. But creating your own soda concoction can be fun. You can even adjust the amount of ingredients to taste, such that it will surely hit the spot every single time.

As a budding investor, I recently learned how important it is to read up on buying gold right now.  And if you have owned it for a while, now is the time to also learn strategies for selling gold.