Catching a baker in the middle of a creation can seem like chaos.  Cookies spread across every open space, flour dusting the walls next to the mixer, or frosting painting the countertop can give the illusion of a crazy mess.  But every baker out there will tell you it only looks like that for a little bit and in the end there is something delicious.

To give you a little look into the mind of a baker, I’m breaking down a photo from my kitchen recently.  To the unsuspecting eye, it looks like I’m only working on a heart shaped cookie (a prize reward from my other blog.)  But in actuality there are a few baking projects going on at once in different stages.

1.  There is the obvious project of the heart cookies.  They were the main attraction and take most of the room.  Please note the lower right corner where the royal icing recipe is.  Even though I have made several batches, I still need the directions.  No “Cookie Wars” for me.

2.  The other cookie project is the blue dresses.  On the other blog (the one where I’m a writer wanna be) I do Young Adult book reviews.  Included after each review is a baked good representing the story.  This one was for a book called “Ditched: A Love Story.”  I knew as soon as I picked up the book what cookie I was making.  But the real challenge came down to the corsage idea I had in my head.  In the center of the picture you can see the different attempts at the floral arrangement.  I piped royal icing, but it wasn’t right. Next was the royal icing ribbon rose, but that wasn’t elegant enough.  I went with gum paste for a delicate feel, but it’s still too new for me to do it right.  This left the fondant I’ve had the resolution this year to learn to work with.  After a couple trials, I cut out mini circles to create the three small roses.  How small a circle?  I used the green striped straw at the bottom to cut them.  How did it turn out?

3.  The whole bunch of new Wilton packaging up at the top is the gum paste flowers I want to learn.  I’ve watched many tutorials of artists creating the most amazing lifelike creations.  I really want to do that.  This kit is supposed to inspire me.  I guess it should be out of the bag for that.

4.  The white hearts are the base of an owl for my kiddos’ teachers.  Although there is a story behind what I thought they looked like, here is the finished project:

All the other things are the miscellanea of living a baking lifestyle.  Powdered sugar is brought in by the pounds and right now a fifty pound bag of flour I never thought I would get through a couple months ago is slowly reaching the bottom.  This isn’t chaos, this is love.  And no matter how it looks, in the end it’s delish!