How to Make Small Gum Paste Roses

I decided to split the gumpaste roses post into two posts, small roses and medium/large roses. The post would be entirely too long if I kept them together.

The first thing you need to do is make the rose bud. Start with a small piece of gum paste and roll it into a ball.

Shape the ball into an egg shape by putting more pressure on one end.

Dip one end of a toothpick or floral wire into sugar glue then insert it into the fat end of the rose bud.

The rose bud should be slightly smaller than the width of a petal on the cutter. You will want to give the rose buds at least 24 hours to dry, maybe even more. I recommend sticking the toothpicks or floral wire in a block of styrofoam to allow the buds to stand while drying.

You will need a small five petal cutter, ball tool, small rolling pin, sugar glue or water, toothpick, thin foam pad and thick foam pad. You will use the five petal cutter to cut out 3 five petals out of gum paste or fondant mixed with tylose.

The small spatula, or knife, is needed to cut deeper petals.

Take your ball tool and slightly ruffle, adding pressure, to the edges of the petals. You will do this by keeping half of the ball on the petal and the other half on your thin foam.

Once you have ruffled the edges of your petals, brush a small amount of sugar glue, or water, on the inside of two opposite petals and up the sides of the other three petals. The dash (-) and asterisk (*) are the two petals you brush the inside with glue.

Poke a hole through the center of the five petals with the toothpick and wrap one of the completely sugar glued petal around the rose bud.

Take the other completely glued petal and cup the rose bud. Press on the sides of the petal and open the top a little if wanted/needed.

Start to wrap the other 3 petals around the rose bud. Keep one side of each petal tucked under the next petal while keeping the other side out. Look at the below photo.

The next steps you will do for the 2nd and 3rd set of petals. Ruffle the edge of the petals with your ball tool like before.

Use a toothpick and curl the sides of the petals to form a loose point.

Flip the petals onto your thick foam upside down and presses slightly in the center of the petals with the ball tool.

Brush the sides of the petals with a small amount of sugar glue or water.

Poke a hole through the center of the five petals with the toothpick your rose is on. Wrap the petals around the rose like before, tucking one side of each petal in while keeping the other side of the petal out. It might help to turn your rose upside down to do this part, especially if your gumpaste is soft.

The below pictures is what your rose will look like with the 3rd row of petals.

I hope I explained the steps clearly enough. If you have any questions, please leave a comment or email them to me. The medium/large roses are similar to the small roses, but they have a few additional steps. I will post the tutorial soon.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Anyone have any baking plans this weekend? –I’m decorating a birthday cake tonight and making cupcakes Monday night.

Is a Calorie Just a Calorie When It Comes to Weight Maintenance

Earlier this week, I read a study that questioned the effects of 3 diets differing in macronutrient composition on energy expenditure during the maintenance phase after weight loss. The article can be found in JAMA, Ebbeling et al.

The method:

There were 21 overweight/obese adults that participated in this study.

• For 4 weeks they followed their usual diet while being monitored.
• After the 4 weeks, they went on a 12 week weight loss diet, approximately 60% of their usual diet, that resulted in ~2 pounds of weight loss a week. The average weight loss was 31 pounds. This diet included prepared calorie controlled meals.
• After the weight loss phase, they went on a weight stabilization phase that included prepared meals at the reduced number of calories needed to maintain their weight loss.
• The maintenance phase consisted of 12 weeks where the participants went on 3 different calorie controlled diets for 4 weeks each.

The 3 maintenance phase diets had the same number of calories, but the macronutrients varied. The diets were:

• A low carb diet that consisted of 10% calories from carbs, 30% calories from protein and 60% calories from fat. It was made up of mostly meat, chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, vegetables and fruit. It cut out potatoes, bread, sweets, pasta and starchy vegetables.
• A low glycemic index diet that consisted of 40% calories from carbs, 20% calories from protein and 40% calories from fat. It was made up of vegetables, fruit, beans, healthy fats and whole grains. It was similar to the Mediterranean diet.
• A low fat diet that consisted of 60% calories from carbs, 20% calories from protein and 20% calories from fat. It was made up of whole grains, fruits, vegetables and cut back on nuts, oils, fatty meats and other high fat foods.

During each of the phases, the participants energy expenditure, resting plus activity, was measured.

Before I get into the results, one effect weight loss has on the body is that the metabolism slows down. After weight loss, the body doesn’t need as much energy to function and maintain the weight as it did before dieting.

The results:

The results showed that the participants were able to lose weight and maintain weight loss by following a calorie controlled diet. The low carb diet had the least effect in slowing down the metabolism, the low glycemic diet had a moderate effect in slowing down the metabolism and the low fat diet had the greatest effect in slowing down the metabolism.

source

What this means is that people following a low carb diet would have an easier time maintaining weight loss than those following one of the two other diets. While this is great news, something to keep in mind is that a low carb diet appears to raise risk factors for cardiac disease and it is hard to maintain in the long run. It had the most beneficial effect on energy expenditure, but had a negative effect on physiological stress and chronic inflammation.

The effect of the low fat diet on energy expenditure would predict a regain of weight.

Out of the 3 diets, the one that is probably the best in the long run is the low glycemic diet. It didn’t slow down energy expenditure as much as the low fat diet and it didn’t raise risk factors for cardiac disease as the low carb diet. It is also easier to maintain over time.

Hunger rating did not differ between the 3 different diets.

Overall:

• If you want to lose weight, eat less.
• Cut back on highly processed carbohydrates and sweets.
• Readjust you calorie intake to maintain weight loss.
• Don’t forget to exercise.
• Stay consistent.

Marathon Training Week 5

So, last week’s training did not go as planned. I worked out for a total of 2 days. The good thing is I got 2 out of 3 runs in last week. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to be able to get all of my workouts in.

I had planned 2 HIIT workouts, a tempo run, a hill run and a long run. I skipped the HIIT workouts and the hill run.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday- Off

Thursday- 6 mile tempo

I ran 1 mile warm up and 0.5 mile cool down. Tempo run was 3x1 mile and an extra 0.5 mile. I also ran 2x0.5 mile recovery. The extra 0.5 mile was supposed to be part of the cool down mile, but I’m not good at running cool down miles. I don’t know why, but they seem to take forever. After my run, I did some squats, push ups and crunches.

Friday and Saturday- Off

Sunday- 11 miles long run

I seriously had to talk myself into this run. I waited until 7:30 am before leaving the house, which is too late when you live in the ungodly hot desert. My legs felt heavy and I felt blah. I almost turned around several times into this run. I decided to head towards the mountain to run up some hills. I wanted to get some hill in, since I skipped my hill run. I ran slow and steady up the hills. They were tough. There was also a strong headwind that didn’t help. Running downhill was the best part and I felt I earned it. I finished the 11 miles with strong and tired legs. I also didn’t eat before and during the run. It didn’t bother me, although I’m sure I would have ran better if I had eaten. Overall, I’m happy with this run.

Here are some pictures from Sunday’s run. I was hoping they would show the city and more of the mountains. I might go back this week and take some with my dslr. The views are amazing.

I ran through a shooting park on my long run. For the 30 minutes or so during this part of the run, the only thing I could hear was my music and gun fire. The noise brought back so many memories of my time spent at the firing range while I was in the military.

It definitely made me want to break out my guns and get some practice in. It’s been too long since I have been to a firing range and I could really use the practice.

Do you ever feel guilty for skipping a run or workout? –I did and then I got over it.

Have you ever fired a gun? –Yep, plenty of times both big and small.

Red and Ivory Cascading Rose Wedding Cake

Happy Monday.
My life is starting to get back to normal. Last week was spent working on the cake and taking care of my family. Everything else, including sleep, was put on the back burner. I even skipped most of my workouts and one of my runs.
I was so happy to finally have the cake completed and delivered.

The cake is french vanilla with dulce de leche filling, amaretto filling and strawberry mousse filling. The cake is covered in marshmallow fondant and the ivory roses are made from gumpaste. The red roses are fondant with tylose mixed in to make it similar to gumpaste.



The hearts were carved to look like a puff heart pillow.



My dslr battery died after a couple of pictures, so I had to use my phone. Hopefully, I was able to get a couple of good pictures on my dslr. If I did, I’ll post them later. I haven’t edited them yet.
I have another fondant cake to make later this week. I have an idea in mind, but I’m not completely sure what I’m going to make. It is for a milestone birthday. I’ll post pictures of the birthday cake next week.
Have a great day.

Home Workout: Full Body

Happy Friday. My Friday is going great, but not as I had planned. Yesterday during my run, I had planned out exactly how I was going to tackle today. I planned to wake up early, get in a hill run and have my cake 80% completed. Well, I haven’t done any of that.

Last night, my husband made sure my wine glass was always full and turned on a funny movie I couldn’t resist. He was deliberately trying to keep my up. So, unfortunately I ended up sleeping in late.

Now I need to figure out if I want to do my hill run on the treadmill, which means I won’t get any downhill training. Or I could run some hills as part of my long run and run an easy treadmill run today. Hmmm. What to do?

While I try to figure that one out, I thought I would share a full body HIIT workout. This workout requires an interval timer set on 15 rounds with 10 seconds rest and 50 seconds work. Complete each exercise as fast as you can while maintaining proper form. And don’t forget to log your results in your workout notebook.

Tomorrow, I’m deliver the wedding cake. Yay. I cannot wait to have it completed and delivered. I’ll post pictures as soon as I get a chance to edit them.

Have a great weekend.

Any running plans this weekend?

Do you ever rearrange your running plans when life gets in the way or do you skip the run and pick up where you left off?

Marathon Training Week 4

Happy Wednesday.

I had every intention of posting this on Monday, but I have been busy working on a cake. In the past few days, I have made 33 roses with 8 left to make, I made 12 layers of cake, 2 batches of fondant and 3 different buttercream/fillings with 1 more to make. Once I’m done with the prep work, hopefully today, all I will have left to do is put the cake together.

I did take a lot of pictures this morning of my process in making gum paste roses. As soon as I get some time to edit the pictures, I will post a tutorial on how to make small, medium and large roses. 

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This past week’s marathon training went well. I missed one of my planned HIIT workouts, but manage to fit in an extra day of running. I also tried running without fuel this week. It wasn’t too bad.

Monday- Off

Tuesday- Off

Wednesday- Negative Split 6 miles (2, 2, 2) in 57:49

I was very uncomfortable during this run because my stomach was full of coffee. The run went well.

Thursday- 3 mile run in 28:11

This was an extra run. I also did a 15 minute HIIT workout.

Friday- Speedwork 4.44 miles in 41:32

Part of this run was at the track. I meant to do 800’s, but ended up doing 400’s. I didn’t have time for breakfast, which caused me not to have any energy. Halfway through my workout, I had to rush home to get the kids up. After breakfast, I finished the run with 1/2 a mile warm up and two 800’s, 4 minutes each.

Saturday- Off

Sunday- Long run 12 miles in 2:03:43

It was really hot outside and I had to conserve my water intake. I didn’t eat breakfast before and waited until mile 9 before I ate anything. Eating definitely helped, but what I really wanted was to chug water. For probably half the run all I could think about was drinking ice cold water. Next week, I plan to wake up earlier and bring more water with me.

This week, I plan to do 2 HIIT workouts, a tempo run, hill run and long run.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I’m pretty sure the title says it all. This has been a crazy busy week and it’s only going to get busier.

The wedding cake I’ve been working on is due next Saturday and I’m up to my elbows in gum paste roses.

I think they are pretty, but extremely time consuming. I know in the end it will definitely be worth it. Right now, I’m focusing on getting these roses done since they will need a few days to dry. Then it’s on to baking 12 layers of cake, making frosting, fillings and fondant. Sometime in the next couple weeks, I will share how I made my gum paste roses.

Have a great weekend.

Anyone baking this weekend?

Anyone have a long run planned? – I’m running 12 miles tomorrow with “hopefully” the 6 mid miles at race pace.