{"id":8057,"date":"2017-09-03T10:35:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T09:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=8057"},"modified":"2017-09-03T10:35:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T09:35:47","slug":"i-learn-a-new-skill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/australia\/i-learn-a-new-skill\/","title":{"rendered":"I learn a new skill"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Meeting this cutie was definitely research. Who knew calves came with such pink noses?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s amazing where book research can lead you\u2026 and what new skills you can develop along the way.<\/p>\n

On my recent trip to Australia, I was in the beautiful Hunter Valley, checking locations, taking photographs and talking to the locals about the lovely place where they live.<\/p>\n

And somehow that led to coloured icing, roses and records.<\/p>\n

I was staying at the lovely BelleBrook B &B<\/a>, happily writing like mad to the sound of kookaburras and the early morning conversations of the nearby horses.<\/p>\n

The B&B is owned by Scone\u2019s Cupcake & Cookie Lady<\/a>. While I was there, she took delivery of a pack of… wait for it.. more than 60 (that\u2019s SIXTY ) Russian icing tips for piped icing. I don’t know why ‘Russian’ – unless perhaps that’s where they were invented.<\/p>\n

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Aren’t they just fascinating? I still have no idea what most of them do – but they look fabulous.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019d always wanted to have a go with piped icing, and so we spent an entire afternoon playing with icing. I always thought it looked hard \u2013 and I have to say it\u2019s even harder than it looks!<\/p>\n

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I got to practice on baking paper. No-one was going to let me near an actual cake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My first efforts were pretty bad. My next efforts were still bad \u2013 but slightly better than before.<\/p>\n

The secret is the texture of the icing. Not too hard. Not too soft. And there are tricks to doing multi-coloured icing that mostly involves wrapping icing in cling film\/glad wrap (depending on which country you are from).<\/p>\n

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Looking at the tip, it’s hard to see what you’ll get.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As well as icing flowers, the Cupcake and Cookie lady let me play with fondant icing. This was much easier. The icing almost did what I wanted it to do.<\/p>\n

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These toppers are supposed to look like old vinyl records. Not too bad, I guess, for a first try.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, there is no eating as you go along. Oh no. Absolutely not!<\/p>\n

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I stood back and watched someone who knows what they are doing get to work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next day we had this magnificent cake to share. Not that any of it was my work you understand \u2013 I was a mere bystander watching in awe as the creation took shape. Getting to taste it was an added bonus.<\/p>\n

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It tasted just as good as it looked. I sadly accept that I will never be able to do anything this pretty!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So now I am home, and the book is nearly finished. No, it\u2019s not a book about a cupcake shop. Nor does anyone in the book ice anything (other than perhaps a drink). But you never know\u2026 should I ever decide to have a character so inclined, I think I can write them now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s amazing where book research can lead you\u2026 and what new skills you can develop along the way. On my recent trip to Australia, I was in the beautiful Hunter Valley, checking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-my-travels"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8057\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}