Farewell, 2012…

I can't believe it's been a year since I wrote these two sentences: "My New Year's Resolution is to attempt to master as many cake decorating skills as possible, and to share what I learn here. I have a wild idea that I might be able to come up with 365 posts by this time next year." When I wrote that I was being pretty serious; I rarely come up with resolutions I don't think I can stick to, because in my mind a resolution is like a Lenten vow that lasts for at least a year (which is why you'll never hear me resolving to give up caffeine or be asleep by midnight every night or some other impossible goal that I'll fail at by January 2nd). 

When I started this blog, I made a little side-bet with myself that I'd post something, ANYTHING, by midnight every day, which I'm sure was annoying to my subscribers, who probably got used to posts that read something like "Sorry today's post is all photos; I SWEAR I'll write in the instructions later." That gum paste Easter lily I was working on during the thunderstorm haunts me to this day; I STILL haven't written the directions to that one, but I figure I have a couple months before people start bugging me for them (I'll have to check the calendar to see when Easter is in 2013). I'm dreading that a bit, because I haven't worked with gum paste in FOREVER. I got kind of burned out on gum paste. I don't care what you've heard about it being edible; it tastes vile and has a revulsive consistency. I think for a thing to be considered edible it has to at least be palatable as well (and how that stuff earned the Kosher symbol is beyond me). 

If you've followed along with this blog for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that once I got into royal icing, I never looked back. I thought of my nearly exclusive focus on royal icing like this: if you want to learn how to make things out of gum paste and fondant, head for Amazon and pick up any one of the gazillion books on those substances or watch any episode of Cake Boss or America's Next Great Baker; just watch and learn (almost every project/challenge has SOMETHING to do with fondant). If you want to learn how to do tricky things with royal icing, stalk my blog for an hour; surely you'll find SOMETHING to do with that huge Tupperware tub of icing left over from your Wilton class. I still haven't given up on the dream of someday publishing a book on royal icing; I'm hoping the title will be something descriptive like Easy Royal Icing Projects, as opposed to Eddie Spence's book which might as well be titled Insanely Challenging Royal Icing Projects (don't get me wrong; I love this inspiring book, but can't imagine ever being competent enough to attempt half the things in it. Oh, and that link will probably be stale in about a day, because it's out of print and only available on Amazon Marketplace right now, sometimes for as much as $500). So, here's my plea: if any of you "know somebody" who might be able to help me turn this blog into a book, please write me! 

Here's what's next for The Iced Queen (both the blog and the person): a sizable break. As I think of new projects or acquire new skills, I'll certainly blog about them (I'm keeping the sweet domain name theicedqueen.com forever; if you found this post because you're trying to buy it, move on; I doubt you could afford the amount I'd surrender it for). I might add a little more to this post, if I think of an anecdote or two that should have been here. I actually really feel melancholy right now; this is the first evening in months that hasn't involved me sticking "a square of parchment paper to the flower nail with a dab from the glue stick"; my dusting pouch is probably wondering where I am. Anyway, I want to thank you for visiting this blog; I'm grateful to you whether you read one post or 300. 
Happy New Year! 
XO, Denise