ornamentation

I called my blog "Ornamental" Confectionery, because in addition to general baking, I also like decorating cakes and cookies.  A decorating project can be a nice distraction--a very concrete and exact thing to focus on in contrast to the very abstract and fuzzy stuff I do as my Day Job.  I think that is what I really love about baking.  I'm not even that crazy about eating stuff (which is why I don't really read many "food" blogs).  I like making things, and I gravitate towards the largely unrelenting exactitude of baking.  In baking and decorating, it has to be right.  Your measurements and temperature of ingredients have to be correct.  When decorating, your icing needs to be the proper consistency; your cakes must be balanced just so, with this consistency of filling, in order to remain stable.

That's not to say there isn't some room for improvisation--especially in decorating, you have to make things up on the fly all the time--but you have to have a really good understanding of what will work and why before you can predict what will work. 

All that is to say:  I haven't really decorated anything in a looong while!  As I am winding down the Abstract Project To End All Abstract Projects, I'm thinking I need to come up with a reason to decorate soon.  TWD is already providing me with more baked goods than I can eat or dispose of--as of right now I have a serving of Cran-Apple Crisp, about two slices of chestnut cake, half the spice cookie dough, and mini cakes from this upcoming Tuesday's recipe in my fridge.  I fully expect the upcoming cookie doughs for December will also find homes in the freezer.  And most of the recipes aren't really conducive to decorating, at least not the kind I do, with lots of piping.

That said, watch this space.  I'll come up with something.  I think.