Cupcake decorating / the best Groupon ever

How was your weekend? The weather is changing very quickly here in Joburg, from summer to autumn, which provided a lovely blend of sun and cool breeze this weekend (and at the moment: a dreary mix of clouds, mist, and cold). And the husband and I went on a date to a new, Thai restaurant (new to us) in Nelson Mandela Square and had such a wonderful time. We needed a catch-up.

Really cool lanterns hanging from the ceiling of Wangthai.

I promised a post on a cupcake decorating class last week and I did not deliver. My apologies. But here it is! :)

Two weekends ago, myself and three friends used a Groupon, purchased long ago, for a cupcake decorating class. The plan was to do a mother-daughter excursion when my mom was in town for our wedding, but things were just too busy. So, I took my mother-in-law along. :) We were all excited about the class but also had no idea what to expect. Well, six cupcakes and almost four hours later, I have to say: this was arguably the best Groupon I have ever bought.

The Johannesburg Culinary & Pastry School is an absolute delight and gives you a true culinary education and experience. The school, owned and run by Kelvin and Jarlyne Joel, provides group courses, couples classes, and exquisite cooking experiences that are fun, practical, and delicious! Our cupcake class, although we reviewed the red-velvet cupcake recipe that was used, focused on decorating. We learned techniques for frosting, sugar details, and chocolate shaping that I can totally do at home! The ingredients aren't exotic or expensive. The techniques take practice, but can be strongly acquired after not much time. Kelvin taught our class - it was an interactive, friendly, and enlightening experience. Also, The JCP School is ANOTHER cool part of town! Who knew downtown Johannesburg was so rapidly chaning?!

Really, I could keep raving, but just look at the pictures or sign up for a class yourself!

Bon appetit!
ef

The JCP School kitchen.

The school also serves cookies and cappuccinos to munch on, while you watch a class or read cooking books.

Nicole and I making red-velvet cupcakes. Kelvin, our chef/instructor, said he first learned of red-velvet cupcakes while working at Hyatt in America. He had never seen them before that; so, he was quite interested to hear what I thought of his recipe - it was great! :) 

Second mom, Michelle, and my mom-in-law, Charmaine.

Kelvin showing us how to create chocolate garnishes. Here, he mixed white and milk chocolate and spread it finely on parchment paper, then left it to harden.

Abstract shapes.

Of course, we had to taste a piece - or two. 

Perfect red-velvet cupcakes!

More chocolate garnishes. Here, Kelvin uses a tool to create squiggles in the chocolate before it dries. Then, when it does dry, you've got chocolate snake-like garnishes. (It's very cool - see cupcake below.)

He also showed us that if you add a certain type of baking "dust", you can add color to your chocolate. Upon letting it dry, you get a matte and a gloss look to the chocolate.

Ok, I don't know what you call this technique, but it's so cool and you end up with the extremely sweet, fishing-line-thin, caramel ball you see at the bottom. 

Three of the cupcakes I decorated. The techniques we learned can give you pretty abstract designs, but I think with more practice, I could create something...well, not so abstract. :)

My cupcakes. :) You must go!!

Mom dancing

Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I went to the most amazing cupcake decorating class that I'll post about later in the week. (Seriously, it made me wonder what I've been doing with my life up until now.)

Mondays can be a bit bleak, so I thought I would share a video that is sure to cheer you up.

I'm not a mom (and hopefully nowhere close to becoming one - love kids, want them one day, but not yet), but I have a number of mom friends and a wonderful mom who I Skype often and miss terribly. This is an ode to them. And honestly, who doesn't love Michelle Obama?

Hope this starts your week off right!

Love,
e.f.

Neighborhood Goods Market, Johannesburg

Happy March! It's autumn (Southern Hemisphere) and spring (Northern Hemisphere)...two really great seasons, and my birthday month. I think it'll be a good month.

It feels like it's been a bit serious around here lately, so I thought I'd write about something that I've discovered recently that makes me oh so happy: the Neighborhood Goods Market, "in town" in Johannesburg.

Now, in most large cities, downtown is a happening, exciting, glamorous, and thriving place to be. (Don't you have Petula Clark's "Downtown" playing in your head already?) You've got the talents of theatre, the high prices (and bargains) of endless shopping, the world's largest businesses seeking great fortunes, and foods to satisfy every culinary desire. Not in Johannesburg. The CBD (central business district) of Johannesburg, and most of its immediate surrounding areas, are not where you want to be. They are worn down, smelly, dangerous, and will make you feel claustrophobic. There are meat shops with whole cow's heads, license plates being sold on the streets, and every time I have to go down there, I carry my tazer and my pepper spray close to me. (Yes, I own both of those. My husband bought them for when we were dating.) Until recently, I loathed going into downtown Johannesburg.

But recently, I was introduced to the most charming, delicious, reminds me of America market; a visual and culinary oasis in a desert of mono-culture and dilapidated buildings.

Neighborhood Goods Market.

Every Saturday morning, this market, filled with Etsy-style individuals selling culinary creations (and some crafts and thrifted clothing) gather in the first floor of a building that I can see serves no other purpose except to host this delightful, Saturday event. Everything from breads and sauces, to chocolate and cupcakes, to paella and homemade beer, to cheese and samosas (I could keep going) can be found, freshly made.

One of my best friends here, Nicole, introduced me to Neighborhood Goods; so we ventured out one Saturday with a new friend who moved here from the US. I fell in love so hard that I took my husband the next weekend. If you ever come visit, I will take you. If you have visited before: my apologies for not knowing of this sooner. Come back and I promise we'll go. :)

Love from the now autumn season in the Southern Hemisphere,
EF

Handsome husband who is about to find that he'll be hooked too!

Right: Homemade beer. Husband loved it. I don't like beer and it didn't taste any different to me from any other beer. Sorry.

A live Jazz band plays on the roof top every Saturday. The music is stellar and the musician's dancing is pretty entertaining too. 

Thrifted jewelry at a really cool shop down the road from Neighborhood Goods.

Nicole and Monika: my city exploring friends. 

God has a plan + our vows

Today has not been the greatest day and the hubs and I are in the middle of some pretty big decisions; so, those weigh on me. It's scary, to be honest - making big decisions, that is. But at the same time, I am reminded of the fact that God is so kind and he has GREAT plans for our lives.

Great doesn't necessarily mean lots of money. Great doesn't necessarily mean easy or super fun and adventurous all the time. I think what it does mean is that God promises us growth, hope, and whatever is best for us. I've learned in my (almost) 25 years of life that what is best may not be what I want. But I've also learned that ultimately, the results of "best" is definitely what I want...so I can deal with the how to get to the result. I'm kind of just writing here to encourage myself - I need to be reminded of these things.

G and I wrote our own wedding vows. We both felt that we wanted something very personal and thought through, but also something that we really meant. I thought about what I was committing to, to make sure I was willing to do it (ha!) but also because I thought of Gordon and our relationship specifically. And he did the same.

You might wonder what that has to do with anything I just said - and with the way my brain seems to be working today, in the logical world, it may have nothing to do with all of that. But I find myself being encouraged and content remembering the vows we made to each other and the growth, hope, and whatever else is best for us that we are discovering, as we grow in fulfilling these vows.

I think a lot of people look at vows as a ball and chain, a burden, a "why would you do that?!" kind of thing. But we've only been married about three months now, and I am filled with hope (and gratitude for God, his scriptures, people that help us) as I see us learning and growing in how to be married and how to be a husband and a wife. I recently heard someone say that a good marriage is not having as little "fights" (bumps, arguments  disagreements...whatever you want to call them) as possible, but rather getting better and faster at resolving them. I loved that and have been so encouraged by it! :)

We didn't read our vows to each other before the wedding; the ceremony was the first time we heard them. But we had them printed on a canvas for all our guests to sign at our wedding (my mom helped us do this so we didn't see them). I loved the idea of everyone acting as witnesses to what we were vowing on that day and to be able to remember them the rest of our lives. The canvas, with everyone's signatures, now hangs in our house. :)

I've had a number of requests to read a copy of our vows, so here they are. (Sorry for all the caps - I just copied and pasted from our canvas template.) And I hope my earlier ramblings make sense - in the midst of big life decisions, things don't always come out quite so clearly.

Love,
ef

Gordon's vows to me:

I VOW TO BE A MAN THAT LOVES GOD WITH ALL MY HEART, TO BE FAITHFUL TO GOD, TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY WALK WITH GOD AND TO PUT GOD FIRST. I VOW TO BE A MAN WHO WILL LOVE YOU THE WAY JESUS LOVED THE CHURCH—SACRIFICIALLY AND WITH ALL OF MY HEART. I VOW TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU MY ENTIRE LIFE, TO NEVER LEAVE YOU, AND MAKE SURE YOU MAKE IT TO HEAVEN. I VOW TO NEVER INTENTIONALLY HURT YOU, AND TO BE ONE IN OUR FIGHT AGAINST OUR COMMON ENEMY- SATAN. I VOW TO CARE FOR YOU AND WORK HARD TO THE BEST OF MY ABILITY TO PROVIDE FOR YOU AND OUR FUTURE FAMILY. I VOW TO BE FAITHFUL TO YOU WITH MY EYES, MY HEART AND MY ACTIONS, TO ALWAYS GET HELP AND TO GROW. I VOW TO ALWAYS LOVE YOU NO MATTER WHAT, THROUGH WHATEVER LIFE THROWS AT US, TO BE A TEAM AND FACE IT TOGETHER. I VOW TO STRIVE TO STAY EMOTIONALLY CONNECTED TO YOU. I VOW TO ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU, TO LISTEN TO YOU, TO LET YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOU ARE LOVED BY ME AND HOW IMPORTANT YOU ARE TO ME, AND FOR YOU TO BE MY BEST FRIEND FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. 

My vows to Gordon:

I vow to whole HEARTILY love and follow God above all else, and above you, until he returns or calls me home. I vow to stay faithful first to God and then to you – with my heart, my eyes, and my actions. I vow to strive to follow you as the church follows Christ. I vow to never stop learning and growing as a follower of Jesus and in life itself. I vow to be fun and spontaneous and try anything at least once. I vow to hug you and kiss you and hold you as much as you need when you are hurting, when you are hard-pressed, when you are happy, and when you are old. I vow to follow you wherever God leads you - where you go, I will go; where you stay, I will stay; and your people will be my people. I VOW TO LOVE YOU FOREVER – THROUGH EVERY WONDERFUL AND AMAZING MOMENT IN OUR LIFE, THROUGH EVERY CHALLENGING AND TEARFUL TIME; WHILE WE ARE YOUNG, WHEN WE HAVE KIDS, AND IF THERE’S EVER A TIME THAT I CAN’T REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE OR YOU DON’T KNOW WHO I AM – I WILL STILL LOVE YOU. I WILL LOVE YOU UNTIL WE ARE STANDING TOGETHER BLAMELESS BEFORE OUR LORD.

And in our home: 

Our wedding - the ceremony, part 2

In part 1 of our ceremony pictures, I featured the start of the ceremony up until Gordon and I saw each other and were standing together. Today's photos highlight most of the meat of the ceremony - the message and our vows. These really are some of my favorites, as you really see the emotion of the day.
G and I wrote our own vows. It was such a moving and surreal experience to be saying these things (we didn't tell each other our vows before hand) to each other, in front of so many people we love - and it was real! It was happening!
Throughout our whole relationship and engagement, there were times when I wondered, "Am I sure?" "Is this God's plan?" Not because I didn't love G with all my heart, or because there was someone else I was thinking of - not at all! But because it is SUCH a big decision. And as we stood there, vowing these words to each other, and has they now hang on a wall in our house, and as we grow in our marriage and our love for each other, I only become more and more convinced that I married the right person. I married my best friend, the man I am and have been in love with, and the person who helps me grow the most spiritually and will get me to Heaven.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. :)

Love,
E.F.

We had a moment in our ceremony where we turned around and thanked our parents for their love and support and guidance and exchanged hugs. We were going to give the moms roses, but somehow those went missing. I'm actually so glad we did this. It was so wonderful to hug them and I think it meant a lot to them. And to take this brief moment out of the normal order of things really helped me to take it all in.

I love how expressive he is!

I feel like this one of the various moments where I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is real!"

I loved these photos of our parents. :)