On Little Kids and Amusement Parks

This is less a Dane-centric post and more one of my traditional rants inspired by something I noticed.

Yesterday I went to LEGOLAND in Billund, Denmark, which is about three and a half/four hours from Copenhagen.  It was a) totally awesome and b) full of small children, because that is what amusement parks generally are.

Which led me to notice how many of these small children looked absolutely miserable.  Which got me thinking -- How much of "children loving amusement parks" is really their parents WANTING them to love amusement parks?  I'm sorry, but your two year old doesn't want to be here.  Your two year old is too small to ride most of the rides, is probably overwhelmed and distressed by the number of strangers, and would probably rather be taking a nap than coming to Legoland where they cannot eat or poop on anything, which, from what I gather, are babies' favorite pastimes.

I always had a love-hate relationship with amusement parks, especially when I was younger.  As much as I love the lights and sounds and games and park food, I was always really terrified of most park rides which meant that I was stuck either going on rides that scared me (and crying because I was miserable) or waiting for everyone else to go on them (and being bored).  As much as I did genuinely enjoy going to amusement parks, there were parts that sucked, parts that I couldn't really vocalize the suckage of until I was much older.

So take your kids to amusement parks when they're seven and can tell you whether or not they really like it.  Don't drag them there when they're too little to have any fun or to tell you that they're not.

Yours exhaustedly after a long day at Legoland,
Rachel Leigh

On My Life As a Domestic Goddess (Or: Cupcake-Decorating 101)

This post is completely unrelated to what I normally post, but then again, I normally post whatever anyway.

If you know me, you know I like to bake.  If you REALLY know me, you know I worked as a cake decorator for four years and still take my decorating very seriously (especially on my cupcakes).  As such, I've gotten a couple questions on everything from the materials and techniques I use to the virtues of professional training.

So, here are Rachel's Tips and Tricks for decorating:

1. Buy cheap pastry bags and good decorating tips.  A cheap decorating tip will warp, bend, clog, and generally be a pain to work with.  Invest in sturdy ones.  Pastry bags, on the other hand, are disposable.  Even if you take excellent care of them, they rip, fray, and stain after a couple uses.  If you have to choose where to splurge and where to save, splurge on the decorating tips.  If it comes down to it, you can even use a Ziploc bag with the corner cut off to save money on pastry bags.
2. Know your materials and how they behave.  Cold, stiff frosting is harder to work with, but it holds up better than a warmer frosting, which wilts, melts into the cake, and falls apart if you look at it funny.  Don't try to use cookie frosting on a cake -- they behave completely differently and serve different purposes.
3. Practice and experiment.  It took me a good six months before I could pipe a frosting rose that didn't smoosh up or fall apart the second my hand moved.  Everything from learning the amount of pressure needed to pipe certain shapes and patterns to deciding if a design that looks cool in your head actually works in reality requires practice and a willingness to experiment.
4. Don't be afraid to get messy.  I worked one shift in high school where I had to leave immediately after to go set up and help out with senior class graduation, and it took me 12 hand washes and a shower to scrub all of the food coloring and icing off of my hands and arms.  You WILL end up covered in food coloring and having to wipe down your work station a lot, but it gets neater and easier with practice.  Don't wear anything you'd be horrified to see ruined until the mixer and food dye is safely away.

That's it for now.  If you guys like this kind of post, let me know and I might do more of them!  In the meantime, here is a picture of the cupcakes I made yesterday:

Letting them eat cake,
Rachel Leigh

On the Best Advice I've Ever Gotten

On of the best pieces of life advice I've ever gotten was delivered to be as part of a speech the summer when I was 13 years old.  It was my first summer at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth at their site at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA.  Our then site director, Bret, was discussing the CTY Honor Code.

The Honor Code was kind of all-encompassing -- be tolerant, do your work, go to class, don't lie, don't break stuff, don't have sex anywhere at any time because you're all 16 or younger and we don't want to explain that to your parents, etc.

But the good advice that I got came when Bret said he wasn't going to read us the whole Honor Code because it boiled down to one thing: "Don't. Be. A. Jerk."  Before you do something, think about if it's something a jerk would do, and if it is, don't do it.  All the other rules, he felt, naturally followed from this one.  Making trouble for the RAs meant being a jerk to the RAs.  Not respecting someone's religion, sexuality, etc, meant you were being a jerk to them.  Not going to class made you a jerk to your instructor.

And it makes sense.  This rule is kind of fundamental -- just don't be a jerk.  We usually know what makes us a jerk to somebody, and it's a good, simple rule to follow.

I'm reminded of this because of a struggle my friends who are still at CTY are going through, trying to hold on to some traditions that the administration is trying to ban.  My heart goes out to them.

Wishing you a three-tiered layer cake of Safety, Learning, and Fun
Rachel Leigh