Marzipan Griffin

I'm currently in the midst of feast prep and thus continuing to be a bad blogger. So, I figured I'd let you see some of last year's feast.  I didn't get any pictures last year, but Mistress Birgit Birka snapped this one as I was starting to arrange my dessert subtlety.

I added some more "gold" to the nest before it was served, and the ramikin supporting the wings got removed as well as more mint being added, but you get the general idea.

The griffin itself is made from a honey marzipan. As it was mostly being used for sculpting and not much eating was going to happen, I used bulk almond flour rather than grinding my own. The colors were added with Wilton cake decoration dyes. The bluish things to the left are supposed to be roses. They didn't look too bad in person, but I was unhappy with the color. The queen on the throne at the time was anti-red roses. White wasn't working and the griffin was already yellow, so I tried for a pale blue hoping to have it look like a shadowed white and it just didn't work. The beak did look a great deal less ducklike and more eagleish from the side as well.

The gold (as griffins guard their nests of gold according to myth,) was candied lemons I'd made (very tasty,) purchased dates, shortbread cookies stamped with the Provincial device, candied chestnuts (soooo yummy,) and lemon curd tarts (you can just glimpse a couple of them under the mint up top.)

While I was running around like a madwoman getting feast done there was a shortage of A&S entries. Since I had documented several of the recipes for the comfits and crazy marzipan sculpting is totally period, this got entered at the last minute with a combination of verbal documentation and what I had written out for the recipes, and I won Provincial A&S Champion. My oldest daughter also did a little competing of her own and became the Province of Arrows Flight's bard.

Just to add to the crazy of the day, here's me getting my Golden Pillar (Artemisian AoA level service award.) I'm exhausted just thinking about it, and I'm just over a week out from doing another feast. Now, I better get back to making bread and prepping desserts. The weather is perfect for baking.

Heraldic applique

My evening in front of the tv project has been appliqueing my local area's device onto a banner. Our old banner is fine, but doesn't get used that often since we are a Province. That means we don't have ceremonial representation, but have all the responsibilities of a Barony in the SCA. It also means that there isn't a specific individual to display the arms. They get put up at our own events and at one or two events a year where we have a large local encampment, but don't get flown on a particularly regular basis since it is more usual for us to have one or two or five members at any event and it is a pain in the butt to go to the storage shed and get out the banner for smaller groups. I thought it would be nice to have an extra to carry with me or lend out so we could have symbolic representation at more events.

This is just basic period style applique. Unlike modern quilt applique where the edges are turned under, period style is to couch gold cord or gilded leather over the edges. I was a bit worried about the edges of the green's tendency to shred, so I ran a small machine zigzag down first before couching over the top. I wish I hadn't, because it isn't as well hidden as I'd hoped. Not to mention the fact that the green is still a bit precarious. I got the idea and bought cheap materials and I'm paying for it. This thing won't last long. Oh well, I'm chalking it up up to practice, and if it gets used and demonstrates a need, I'll make another one from better materials.