Christmas

I hope you had an awesome Christmas!  We spent Christmas Eve in St. Augustine at their Winter Wonderland, which was kind of a let down because it was WAY overpriced & not as awesome as described in their ad.  The "ice slide" had no ice on it and everything was priced individually with no refunds.  So, when we bought the $3 tix for the iceless ice slide and then saw our youngest child was too short to ride, we were a little annoyed.  I took myself over to the ticket booth where there was a kind old man and I explained the situation; he gave swapped them for bounce house tickets even though he "wasn't suppose to".   Then, the bounce house- they could only pick one to bounce in out of 2-  They had 5 minutes to bounce and then they had to get up outta that.  Ice skating- it was okay but the kids didn't like it, not a bit.  Danny was a really good skater though & I told him he looked hot skating around on the ice like he did.  I wanted to ask him to be my boyfriend & then hold hands all night.  Then that night the kids watched Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and helped decorate a homemade gingerbread house {yes, homemade...} that they did not eat.  -_- 


Christmas a.m. they opened their gifts and we had breakfast and hung out until it was time to head to our Pastor's house for Christmas dinner, Italian stylez.  I brought along an amazing Peppermint Chocolate Cake, which got really good reviews that night.  The food there was a m a z i n g! ! !  Seriously, we've been eating leftovers for 3 days.  They had meatballs (the best I have EVERRRRRR HAD), a thin breaded chicken breasts, ziti, salad, bread, and another white pasta that was quite good. 


I bought some boots & was excited because I haven't owned a pair of casual boots- Can you believe this?? Yes, I am normally behind in things like this because I tend to put everything else first.  I love them- they are totally comfortable.  The only little problem is that I don't own skinny jeans which would look really good with them!  I need to post pics of things pronto.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

my 1st wedding cake

^ You are viewing a 3 tiered 6 inch red velvet cake and 120 red velvet cupcakes. I have to thank my husband for helping me tie the bow because I could *not* tie the thing! We watched a youtube video to learn how. This was my first time making anyone a wedding cake and I really hope they liked it. I did get a text message from someone at the wedding party saying I did a great kob on the cupcakes. Kob means job. And I can prove it...

J's 7th Birthday Partaaaaay

Jadon turned 7 on December 10th and I planned a sledding party. Yes, I know we live in Florida where there is *technically* no snow, but in the beautiful city of Mt. Dora every year they bring in 6,000 tons of packed snow/ice and dump it for the kids to go crazy in. It's free to the public & they also provide free sleds. I made the some festive pengiun table decorations myself out of 2 liter bottles and made the friggin' cutest party favors if I may say so myself! (Yes, I may.) I also made some unique party favors. I made Christmas tree sugar cookies decorated with royal icing & I bagged them ("The only way to bag a classy lady is to take her to the gun show"- Anchorman) and labeled them myself. I also did candy canes dipped in chocolate with nonparils.

We also had red velvet cupcakes. I don't have alot of pictures unfortunately because I wasn't able to take a lot since there was so much going on, but here are a few.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Here lieth the pumpkin caramel swirl cheesecake that I made for Thanksgiving.

And here lieth the link whereth you doth find the recipe for the pumpkin caramel swirl cheesecake and maketh it yourself: . . . . nevermind. I couldn't find it. Just go google "Epicurious Pumpkin with Caramel Swirl Cheesecake".

JULIAN SMITH - Grandma Like Whoa

Hillsong - From The Inside Out - With Subtitles/Lyrics

<3333

Viva Meh-he-co.

Ay Essay.... I made meh-i-can pizza last night, homes.... Eet twas sooo goot, ju know?
Eet was kind uf a miiix of taco and meh-i-can.

No habla espanol. Por favor.

Here is the recipe incase you would like to try. If you like Taco Bell's Mexican Pizza, you will like this.





- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
- 2 small onion, chopped
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 envelope taco seasoning (I use Taco Bell's)
- 1 prebaked 12 in thin crust pizza
- 1 can refried beans (about 12-16 oz)
- 2 taco shells or tortilla chips coarsely crushed
- 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 cup shredded mozzerella cheese
- 2 cups torn iceberg lettuce
- 2 medium tomatoes chopped
- 1 TBSP sliced olives (opt... I dont like olives, so there.)

Cook the beef & onion in a skillet until no longer pink & then drain. Add taco seasoning & 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat & simmer for 5 mins. Spread the refried beans on the pizza crust, and top w/ the taco'd ground beef mixture. Top that with your cheeses. I actually just buy Sargento's mexican cheese mix in a bag instead of using cheddar & mozzerella. I'm not part of that system!- Samberg.

Bake it at 400 for 10-15 mins until cheese is melty. Top with chopped tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream...hot sauce! Whatever! El CHALUPAAAAA!

Luv.

Over the past 36 hours or so, I feel like God has been really reaching out to me during all of the stuff I've been going through. I've seen it through signs, like people who I haven't spoken to in a while sending me a bible verse text out of no-where that I needed to read. And being reminded of a sermon that was preached 2 Sunday's ago that now seems really relevant in my circumstances. And then this morning, waking up and turning on Joyce Meyers on tv instead of I Love Lucy (Hey, I just wanted some funny background noise.... & I Love Lucy ROCKS) and hearing Joyce talking about abuse & betrayal and lack of trust. I was totally caught up in her when I heard her say the verse of Psalm 27:10, which says

"My mother and father have walked out and left me, but God took me in."
(The Message version)

"Even if my mother & father leave me, the Lord will take me in" - (Easy-to-Read Version)

"When my mother and father forsake me, the Lord will take care of me." - (New King James V.)

I've never even noticed that scripture before in the bible and it made me feel peaceful and loved my God. I felt like it wasn't a coincidence that I hear it; it was meant for me this morning. That no matter what I am facing, what the enemy [Satan] brings my way to destroy me and break me down, that God sees it and he will be there for me when I need His love.

I didn't end up making those Thanksgiving turkey cupcakes for J's class... I've just been seriously too busy & overwhelmed with stuff. Boo... I wanted to make them! Tomorrow I'm going to make a pumpkin cheesecake w/ caramel swirl for Thanksgiving at the Meyer's house. We were invited to have Thanksgiving with Mark & Mary Meyers; Mark is the pastor of the chuch we go to.


I hope everyone out there has a memorable Thanksgiving. <3

Thanksgiving

I am SO excited about making Thanksgiving cupcakes for Jadon's class!!! I already googled Turkey cupcakes so I could get some ideas on what I want to do and I think I found the cutest thing ever!!! Just looking at the pic makes me excited! I'm gonna make little Tom Turkey cupcakes. I don't know that I'll bring any for Micah's class though because I volunteered to bring in sweet potato casserole for the preschool "Thanksgiving lunch" & I don't wanna bite off more than I can chew.

I don't know what we're going to be doing for Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is the one holiday that I don't like being all alone with... Okay, well Thanksgiving AND Easter... Or, maybe it's just that I'm really family oriented and I love getting together at all holidays. ? Either way, I pray that God opens up a door for us to do something nice and be happy. I wanted to go to Disney World with my kids & husband for Thanksgiving because they do the holiday parades and stuff.. Plus my kids have never been to Disney. But the tickets are SO expensive. Well, we'll see..



Also, I've been asked to do a wedding cake! The design is really pretty for the cake and she wants 100 red velvet cupcakes with white edible pearls on top of the cream cheese frosting. The cake is simple- it's just one cake and then a million cupcakes on pedistals underneath. She wants red velvet covered in white fondant. There will be silk flowers on top, preferably roses that match her eggplant & silver themed colors. And then a beautiful ribbon around the bottom of the cake tied in a bow with a beautiful jeweled broach. I've never done a wedding cake before and I am excited. :) Peace out!

My first sculpted cake :)

First off, I'd like to say how freaking nervous I was about making this because it was a "carved" cake and I'd never really done one before. The director at Micah's preschool had a daughter turning 7 who wanted a dolphin cake & she asked me if I could do it.

In the end, it was actually quite easy except for the baking end. I had to bake 3 pound cakes from scratch to make this cake. I only ended up really using 2 of them though. I filled it with a chocolate mousse (it was my first time using the recipe and it was more like a chocolate fudge filling than mousse but that' s okay) and decorated with a buttercream vanilla frosting I made. Because it was a heavy sculpted cake, my husband had to make a plywood bottom underneath the cake board.

I got the SWEETEST email (and probably most exciting one I've recieved yet!) after the birthday party. She told me that people went back for seconds and that their 2 year old daughter (who doesn't like cake and normally tosses it on the floor) was eating it like "she was in heaven"! They asked me if I could do a Curious George cake for her 2 yr old using the same recipe. I also found out that after I dropped the cake off at the school, apparently there were some auditors there who saw it and went nuts & took my business cards! It made me feel good to know I put a smile on their faces.

Happy Day of Birth, Daniel!

Danny turned 29 on Nov. 1st! W00-hoo!

I made him Martha Stewarts "Everybody's Favorite Birthday Cake" (it's not my favorite, btw) with the chocolate cream cheese frosting, and I added raspberry jam filling. You'd better thank your sweet cheeks that I added the raspberry jam, because seriously Marthy, this cake was kinda dry! BOO! If any of you google that cake & make it, I HIGHLY recommend adding a simple syrup to each layer before frosting. Give it some moisture for the love of CAKE
I got him a Groupon for a 50 min swedish masssssage. It's gonna be great; I can feel it.

My sister came over and we had dinner & cake together.

Happy Birthday to the ground!!!!!! (and to my man)

Fall Festival & Halloween!

^ Darth Vader & Knight

^ Yoda, Knight, & Vader

^ Cupcakes = No Onion.

^ Homemade Jedi

^ Tall guy who made cool balloon

^ Funnel Cake & my Man

^ Face Painted Warriors

^ Getting Face Did

^ Face Did II

(FYI, The pics are all out of order & I apologize! I was having issues)

We took the boys to Micah's preschool for their annual Harvest Festival a week before Oct. 31st. They had their faces painted, went on a horse & hay ride, ate cotton candy, and bounced in bounce houses; Danny ate funnel cake like a boss.

Then, Micah had his Fall class party. Originally we bought him the Darth Vader costume he wanted but he said it was too big. So, I made him a Jedi costume with what I had lying around. It was pretty ghetto-rigged. (We wore it just for that day & then he ended up wearing the Vader costume when we went trick or treating.) I made cream filled cupcakes for his class & went in to help that day. I also made cupcakes for Jadon's class & went in to take them. One kid told me they tasted like onions. Another told me the buttercream frosting was spicy. Those kids are liars. I think their class grade should be docked at least 2 levels. The teacher said they were really good and UN-spicy. I think she should get a raise.

Lastly, we did Halloween with some friends from church. It was in the Pastor's neighborhood and we seriously got loaded up with candy. Micah got scared midway and wanted to go home; I felt bad for the lil' schmugg. Jadon was a Knight in Shining Armour & Micah was Darth Vader after all. The baby, Declan, was Yoda! SO CUTE!!!

Red, Red, they call me Red.

I had an order for Red Velvet cupcakes & cream cheese frosting for a baby shower. She wanted hot pink icing and I was a little concerned when I used my food coloring because I had neon pink rather than hot pink, but I guess it turned out fine. I didn't want to spend $8 on Duff's Ace of Cake color gels just for an "electric pink"... Also, on DC Cupcakes (TLC) if you've ever taken a look at their cute, simple decorations, you will find a flower or heart, etc. They make them out of fondant! So I finally found a cutter to make my own! I can't wait to try it out and make my cupcakes look adorable ::big eyes::

Here are the beauties... They were tasty, but I screwed up ever-so-slightly by not adding more powdered sugar (I think..?) to the pink. Cream cheese frosting is a wet frosting so maybe-maybe not. The frosting ended up losing some of it's puff height. You live & your learn. But how cute are these????

Cookies & Thinking. . .

I totally cheated & made some box Funfetti cookies tonight. It was a mix between a bribe to get my kids to eat their chicken pot pie (EWWWW, YUCK...It has VEGETABLES in it!. . . Kids are WACK.) and also a way to meet my need for something sweet for a quick minute.

Anyway, while I was making them I was thinking about the season and about how there are so many upcoming birthdays. Danny's is Nov 1st (and then we've got some family all up in that in between) and then Jadon (Dec 10th) & Micah (Jan 19). . .

Originally, I thought about combining their birthdays & doing just one big party. I thought about Green Meadows Petting Farm, which is over an hour away but is really great. You go on like a 2 hour tour through this farm with friendly animals. You get to chase & hold chickens & dugs, milk a cow, and go on a hayride, horse ride, and a train ride. We've been there once. But then as I was looking at the colors in the cookies, I was thinking about how much Jadon loves comics. Not really like Super Hero per se, but he loves Captain Underpants & he loves to read the comics in the Sunday paper. He would freak out if I could throw him a Comic themed party. He spends most of his time making comics, at school & home. We've even had a few notes from his teacher because he would turn letters into comics... like one time he was practicing the letter "f" and he made it into an evolving flower, which we thought was very creative despite the comment in bold red letters saying "NO DRAWING-PLEASE PRACTICE LETTERS!"

Anyway, there's not much out there for themes like this. If you go with something like this you pretty much have to come up with everything and it's totally unique... it isn't matchy-matchy like most party themes. I thought about blue & white polka dot tablecloth with Sunday comic papers down the middle of the table, and on top of that I have no idea... just making our own decorations as cool as possible. And maybe since it's comic themed, every kid comes as their own comic character. (They can make up their name & be whatever they want). That's a pretty cheap alternative since they can add on all the dollar store crap they want to be a unique character. Jadon would probably want to be Captain Underpants. And of course, we would play some games (something we've never done at any of our other bday parties).

Sometimes it sucks a little that both of their bdays are in the winter though. In Florida, we get alot of warm days in December, but sometimes they're windy and all the stuff wants to blow off of the tables if it's outdoors. I don't have a big enough space in the house to pull it off. Welps, I'm just rambling but I wanted to get my thoughts out there, floating around. . . :)

Mm-hmm.

My Carrot Cake is mo' betta.

Dry Like Toast

I am in search of an excellent white cake & yellow cake recipe. I've been doing alot of internet searches and saw that most people said the same thing about white cake from scratch- that it comes out like cornbread most of the time! I totally agree because last Thanksgiving I made Ina Garten's (The Barefoot Contessa) Coconut Cake from scratch. The picture looked amazing and it was a cream cheese coconut frosting... I mean, totally YUM. But I was TOTALLY disappointed after I made it; it was totally dry- I mean, seriously, I was like choking through each bite. The frosting became my saving grace to help me get it down the ol' hatch! -_- I was bummed because it wasn't a cheap cake to make, having done it from scratch. So, yeah, never again. So after reading all of these thoughts on it, I see it wasn't just me who's had issues with homemade white cake. I really hope I find something though!!! I need a good basic recipe for cake & cupcakes. I got one recipe from Martha Stewart...it's called Everyday Birthday Cake. It's a yellow cake & I'm definately going to try it. It's a recipe they use in a popular bakery out there somewhere (can't remember if it's in NY or what). We shall see.

Stuff.

The Candy Land Birthday Cake for Ava was a hit; the kids loved it. Just as I suspected though, the peppermints actually started melting in the humidity & falling off of the cake. We cut into it fast enough though, and after the kids starting picking all the candies off it really didn't matter. Here's a picture of the birthday girl admiring her cake. . . :)

Today I made a lemon yogurt cake, which is soooo delicious! It's covered in a lemon glaze at the end... it's magnificant. I'm going to take some tomorrow when the kids and I go meet my dad at a park for lunch. They don't have school so I thought it would be nice to try to visit with him. He rarely calls & never comes over so I just have to make the best of it all. It will be a sweet visit with the lemon cake & probably the rest of the german cupcakes that were leftover!

Taste-testers always welcome :Behold, Lemon Yogurt Cake. . .

^ Before Glaze/ After Glaze

Candy Land

Yesterday night I started working on a Candy Land themed cake for this little girl turning 4. Her mom is a friend of mine & they're moving to Chicago this weekend... they're having a mini party for her today at a park. Anyway, I did the cake. It (again) stressed me out, but not as bad as the normal stuff because I didn't charge her for it. I did it as a gift so I guess I figured if it was shyte it was on me anyway... HAH. The only thing that REALLY sucks is that the cake is going out in the Florida heat & humidity and I have a feeling that the peppermints are going to start falling off. . . they started doing that at the end of the cake before I popped it into the fridge. Again, it's a gift, so I won't feel so bad. . . I wish I wasn't so critical of myself!!!!

My kids (who weren't listening to me all night long) kept coming out of their rooms to see the cake & they were freaking out. So, hopefully I will get lotsa smiles & it will be a hit. Huggles.

Germans.

So, today I had to fill an order for a woman who works at the insurance company we used to work for. She wanted german chocolate cupcakes with a caramel coconut filling and topped with chocolate frosting. I've never made german chocolate cake before, but I found a reliable recipe and started on it this morning. (I always do the cakes in the morning that way if they dont turn out right I have some time to try to fix it or re-d0.) I was really nervous while they baked because I had this fear of them sinking in the middle. That happened to me once before when I was making an order...they totally sunk in like a serious sink hole. I had to re-make another batch and use a new recipe!

Anyway, this recipe was crazy busy... it called for like egg yolks, egg whites (that I had to beat to form stiff peaks and then gently fold in at the end)... and the instructions were shady about the German chocolate at the beginning... it said to heat 1/2 cup of water & the german chocolate together until it melts & then let cool. Well, I've always heard you can't add water to chocolate because it jacks the chocolate ALL up. So, to be safe, I did a double boiler and just melted the chocolate alone and added it to the batter. In the end, I did end up adding the 1/2 cup of water, so I guess next time I will melt the water & chocolate together... they will be in a big, hot pot of love together. Opposites attract? I guess so in this instance.

I was praying through the whole baking process that they wouldn't sink because the ingredients were NOT cheap. Here they are coming out of the oven. . . .

<- no sinking! Yay!

Then I started to make the filling. I had to let it cool before I could fill these bad boys, but I realized really quickly that my fill tip wouldn't work; the coconut would totally clog the tip. I thought I was outsmarting it when I decided to use a regular frosting tip that was really big & round (the biggest I had), but alas, epic fail. I was starting to get kinda panicky about the whole thing, but I ended up using a cannoli tube to hollow out the centers of the cupcakes & then filled them with the stuff using a spoon. It took me a while since I was doing it manually but <- Caramelish Coconut Filling

whatever... it worked!

Afterward, I piped on some chocolate buttercream that I made for it the day before & topped them with some toasted coconut. She didn't ask for the topping but since it's a German chocolate cupcake (coconutty!) I thought it was appropriate. ;P I taste tested one (or two...don't judge me) and I thought they were quite yum.

Ze end product. . . . (drum roll)

^ Mini Butterfinger Trifle's for a birthday gathering


^ Cake Truffles I made as a birthday treat for Micah's preschool teacher



^ Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream

^ Apple cupcakes with Vanilla Caramel Buttercream

^ Key Lime Trifle

< These are the chocolate pb cakes

^ Black Bottom Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream

^ Micah with Grandnana's birthday cake