I am keeping up with my vow to practice more to not embarrass my friends at their Halloween wedding.

I baked two cakes from the Cake Bible (delicious), a cake and Swiss meringue buttercream from Baking: From My Home to Yours (delicious), two dozen chocolate-raspberry cupcake "roses," and six dozen vegan, Star Wars-themed cupcakes for my son's birthday.

(On a side note, let me tell you what a score the vegan cupcakes were -- not for the birthday boy, but for his classmate who is allergic to eggs. I don't understand people who won't accommodate kids (and adults, but really kids) with food allergies. Can you imagine what it's like to worry that something you absolutely must do three or more times a day could send you to the hospital if you don't have the vigilance of a Marine sergeant during a surprise inspection? How about not eating the cake at every party you go to?)

Conclusion: the cake itself will be the easiest part. I am good with cake. Separating, sifting, whipping, folding, beating, creaming, measuring, alternating, melting -- all those verbs in the cake recipe? I can do them, no sweat. Sure, I sift my dry ingredients into a bowl and promptly drop it on the floor, overfill the rose tube pan and turn it into a cake batter volcano, and occasionally set things on fire. But in general, batter and I have an understanding.

Icing and I, on the other hand, have yet to reach detente. My icing still has swoop marks and small pot holes; it's not even close to smooth. The Swiss meringue was smoother and easier to work with; future practice might concentrate on that.

Then there are my piping skills. I'm about as proficient with a pastry bag as my kindergarten-age son is with a pencil. Smooth, swooping curve? Sustained pressure? No. Instead, the pastry bag of royal icing exploded on the rebel logos I was flooding, then fell to the floor. A teacup full of icing fell onto three Chewbacca cupcakes. The uninjured Chewbaccas did look more like wookiees than shar peis, but just barely. A week later, I fell back to creating roses with a large, closed star tip.

Flooded icing decorations are out (that's the technique people decorate sugar cookies with), but fondant is still in the game. After making three dozen lightsabers, the attraction is clear: fondant is sugar-based playdough. It's so sweet as to be inedible, but damn, it looks good and is easy to work with! If I can't get a smooth icing, the bride will just have to settle for a fondant-covered cake.