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First lesson: never post to your LJ that work is going to be good and ahead of schedule. Cuz Friday? SUCKED. Found out that the vendor's little install script only runs on Linux and Sun Solaris...and our IT Services group only support HP/UX. Heh. I lit up quite a few phone lines to bitch about THAT little stunt. Anyway, we'll find out Monday whether or not this means a 6 week or a 1 year delay in my project. *sigh*

Second lesson: when the cookbook says to use a candy thermometer - don't try to use a digital meat thermometer, even if it has a "candy" setting.
Trying to make fondant at home for the first time in my life yesterday. Each attempted used 3 cups of sugar. I tried 3 times before I finally got it right...and thank God DH was helping because otherwise I would've thrown the third attempt down the drain too...but he rescued it. The method that worked was:
Put the marble slab in the freezer.
Boil 1 cup of water.
Take it off the heat, stir in the sugar til its "mostly" dissolved.
Put it back on the heat and bring to a boil at mid-heat (setting 6 on my stove).
Sprinkle on 1/4 tsp of Cream of Tartar, stir it up really quickly, slap in the candy thermometer and turn the heat down to about 4.
Let it boil for about 5-10 minutes, slowly turning up the heat to 7.
Take the marble slab out of the freezer and put the metal cookie tray on top of it on the counter. This makes the tray nice and cool.
When the thermometer reads 235, start dropping bits of the liquid into cold water. When it stays in a malleable clump in the water, then its at "soft ball candy" stage, then pour it onto the cookie sheet (face UP, not inverted as the recipe book says).
Wait until the liquid turns almost solid (you can push a dent into it with your finger).
Use a STIFF spatula (not a floppy rubber one) to mix for a long dang time...more than 10 minutes, I think. Eventually it will turn into crumbly sugar that is white.
Then knead with the confectioners sugar until it becomes a smooshy lump that you can pick up in a solid ball.
So, I THINK I have fondant in my fridge now. :)
Unfortunately, this killed 3 hours of my day yesterday, so not much else got done.

Don't ask why, but I served "afternoon tea" today to/with my SIL. It was so fun! She made the sandwiches (smoked salmon/dill/cream cheese and cucumber/butter), and I spent the last 467 hours of my life making petit fours for the first time ever.

First I made the "Lady Cake" ...never again. It was weird to assemble, and required too many mixing bowls and blenders. But it was a rich, lightly lemony cake, that I then baked in a 3/4" deep cookie tray (my cheater jelly roll pan).

This morning I sliced the cake into thirds then split each piece in half for stuffing. Then I made "true Buttercream" filling...which I've never made before. It involved making "simple syrup" (water, sugar, and cream of tartar), boiling that...pouring it into egg yolks to cook them while blending them...then blending 24 tablespoons of butter into this mixture, one tablespoon at a time. It took nearly half an hour, but MAN was it yummy. Then I spread that in the middle of the cake, put it between two cookie trays to compress it, and refrigerated for about 4 hours.

I wanted to make fondant for the top, but after I looked up the recipe, I realized I needed to start that last Thursday. :\ Instead I decided to do a chocolate glaze...again, which I've never made before. So I bought 6oz of bittersweet baking chocolate...got home and realized I needed 8oz, so I tried to make up the difference with cocoa and oil. This resulted in "moon sand" chocolate...NOT a glaze. *sigh* So, a quick run to the store, spend $5, get more bakers chocolate, this time made a better glaze...though it was a tad too thick in the end.

I cut the cake into shapes...this was an adventure too since the cake was sticky and wouldn't come out of the cookie cutters cleanly. Then I spread warmed strawberry jam on the cake/buttercream shapes, cooled it til the jam solidified again, then spread the chocolate glaze over top and let them harden.

In the end...YUMMMY! But OH SO much work! Luckily, I only used up 1/3 of the cake/buttercream layers, so I can do this again with much LESS work involved. :) Combos I'd like to try:

- thin layer of buttercream over the cake, and vanilla fondant over top
- orange marmalade over the cake, and chocolate glaze, thinner this time, over top

Guests coming to 4th of July picnic, beware - you might be asked to try these out :)