Video Interview: Tom Mora Head of Womenswear Design @JCrew

This week has been the craziest and most devastating for my family, friends, and many communities in Calgary and most of all my home town of High River. The sheer chaos of the flood water has left thousands displaced and an entire town wondering 'when can we go home? and can we rebuild?' Currently my parents are staying with me, more like trapped in limbo. Trying to comprehend the damage to their business, home, and multiple vehicles. Though many things lost were only material the business was their source of income and the home contained many irreplaceable items that are truly missed. I am so grateful for the many people taking care of our city and making it a safe place for people to go home. It makes me appreciate Calgary seeing all the people volunteer and band together in this time of destruction. Rather then cowering away in fear hoping it will pass. This is not something that will pass easily for those affected so all the help and care people are giving is a relief and gives me hope that in time we will be complete again.   

On a happier note here is the highlight of last week before the flood hit. The J. Crew event at its first Calgary location in Chinook Centre and view my video interview with Tom Mora!

Sweater : Bracelet // J. Crew

Necklace // c/o J. Crew

The Wonders of Marshmallow Fondant and Robotic Hearts

Confused by the title? Well let me explain... a few weeks ago I created a special cake for a very strong and amazing person to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of her heart surgery and 'robotic' heart. As an avid baker I have learned many lessons working with different ingredients and the focus of this cake was the icing. What would I use? classic buttercream? fondant? be understated and un-iced? unfortunately the last option would have only worked if I actually had a heart shaped pan but in this case it was 2 -8 inch rounds hacked into a heart looking shape. as you can imagine not the prettiest for presenting to a friend. Moving on, are you wondering what I used to make the smoothly finished cake below? Marshmallow! surprisingly easy to work with and a million times more tasty then traditional fondant and not to mention cheaper. With the use of some colour gels and a little imagination the marshmallow fondant was ready. <recipe below> 

And here is my friend KD with her finished cake! (unfortunately the lighting was wonky, but she sure looks happy!)

1 Package (500g) white mini-marshmallows (use a good quality brand)

2 to 5 tablespoons water

1 Package (aprox 500g) icing sugar

1/2 cup Crisco shortening (you will be digging into it so place in a very easily accessed bowl)

Instructions:

NOTE: Please be careful, this first stage can get hot.

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted. It usually takes about 2 1/2 minutes total.

Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle. (By the way, this recipe is also good for your hands. When I’m done, they are baby soft.)

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands. What are you doing Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking.

If the mix is tearing easily, it is to dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake. It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible. MM Fondant icing 

will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks. If I know that I have a cake to decorate, I usually make two (2) batches on a free night during the week so it is ready when I need it. Take advantage of the fact that this fondant icing can be prepared well in advance.

Now it’s time to start. Your cake should be baked, and completely cooled. If you have a shaped cake, you can trim it now and then place the cake on a prepared cake board. In other words, you are assembling the cake puzzle on the board. You can also place the cake on the board first and then trim (you must be extra careful not to damage the covered board). I personally find that shaping first is the easiest and then transferring the cake. 

Give the top and sides of the cake a nice thick 1/4-inch coating of Buttercream Icing (click on the underlined for buttercream icing recipe). NOTE: At first I was wondering why I needed to bother with this step. Well, there are a couple of reasons: The buttercream icing helps the fondant icing to “stick” to the cake and this cushion of undercoating icing helps to give you the beautiful smooth nearly perfect finish that you are looking for.

When you are ready to use the rested fondant icing, the first thing you need to do is decide what size you will need to roll your icing to.

Pre-shape your icing into approximately the shape of your cake. For a round cake, make a disk shape. For a rectangular make a log shape. 

For more details and pictures of rolling icing onto your cake visit Whatscookingamerica.net

Also, if you are wondering what the the cake inside was.. a double chocolate flavour with vanilla icing and caramel. Recipe coming soon!

Hello, J. Crew

J. Crew at Chinook Centre officially celebrated its opening last night with a store filled with summer colours, vibrant prints, and champagne! Though it has been open for 2 weeks already they were unable to get Tom Mora until now. And what could be better then getting a private tour with the Head of Women's Design for J. Crew? there's shopping and then there's shopping with Tom Mora and a 30% discount. 

Flying conceptual art created by ACAD students Dylan Manson, Kelsy Hughes, Laura Sand, and Nikki Stephens is titled 'Now Arriving' stretches across 4 windows and is made from paper airplanes banded together.

 

Great selection of scarfs and hats. The one above I'm in love with and might have to go back for!

 

Wearing my new Corey Lynn Calter Top from Anthropologie. I didn't own anything from J. Crew at that moment but I sure do now.

 

 Beautiful statement jewelry. Tom totally recommends every women should have a statement necklace, and I completely agree!

If you have not already get yourself to the new J. Crew! their summer collection is filled with colour and great basics or get some work staples if you pessimistic about the current state of the weather.

Also, stay tuned for my video Q & A with Tom Mora coming soon! 

 

Interior Love

Here is another design post for you lovely readers if you didn't get enough in February. As my site is about lifestyle and the things that happen in my life it absolutely includes my love of interior design and DIYing art for my home. Not that is has seemed that way in the last couple posts, FASHION OVERLOAD! Anyways, the last couple of months have left my apartment in chaos and, well frankly it still is in chaos. Pieces are slowly being added and existing things are being moved around. My roommate has been a good sport about all of this and labels it as my 'Zen' moving around. Haha, all I can picture is a wispy ectoplasmic version of myself floating around my apartment. Since I'm neither dead or in-between worlds, my mind tends to envision strange things, time to get back in gear and finish the decorating. Oh well, here are some design inspirations that are helping me finish decorating.   

 I'm in love with the above plexi glass cases! finally found a storage idea that would showcase my records.

If only my desk was this clean, but that will never happen.

For more interior inspiration follow me on Pinterest The Mavric

Summer Whites

 I'm pretty impressed and afraid of some of my new purchases. Yesterdays shopping excursion included predominately stark white and this concerns me as most of my wardrobe is black, grey or some other dark tone. So I better be careful of spills. Messy eater alert! It was also varied in style but considering my style is dependent on how I'm feeling that day it's good to have some choices from sexy rocker lips, stylish peplum, and the ever needed bohemian dress that will be worn for stampede and picnics.

 

Word of Mouth t-shirt - Winners

 

Corey Lynn Carter top - Anthropologie

Red Snap dress - Winners

June Playlist

May was an amazing month for new music. A personal favorite, Vampire Weekend came out their new album Modern Vampires of the City and that album has been playing on repeat on my laptop, iPhone, and in my car. To be honest every album they have released has been one of my favorites, but this one is totally a good if not great one! if you didn't already guess from my current gushing rant.. Others to mention are Daft Punk, She & Him, and The National. I'm also eagerly waiting for City and Colours next album out this Tuesday. My ears are in euphoria! and I sure hope yours are too, so take a listen!