Cake!

This is a cake I made a while back for my nephew.  It was a lot of fun and my first "fancy cake"  This is the cake that gave me the confidence to try things I thought were too complicated.  This cake was so easy so I thought I would share how I did it.
This was chocolate sour cream cake with mini chocolate chips. YUMM-O!  I used 10" and 8" round which was a little more cake then I needed but everyone went back for seconds so it worked out.  I crumb coated them, then iced them with a basic buttercream, stacked them and started decorating.
I used those coffee piroulines that come in a can.  I thought they kinda looked like bamboo or something tropical.  I broke them in half(ish) and added them to the bottom layer.  They weren't exactly the same, which I liked.  Then I piped grass with a Wilton 233 tip.  It was pretty simple.  Just straight vertical lines.  (Leave a space for your waterfall)
Next, I added the sand.  To make the sand I used my food chopper to crumble graham crackers then blended it with brown sugar.  I sprinkled it on the beach areas. 

Now it's time for the waterfall! I outlined the space I wanted to be the waterfall and simply covered the buttercream with Wilton's blue sparkle gel. I wasn't sure about the sparkle but it was all they had.  I think it made it look more like water.  The final touch was shredded coconut to look like the plunge pool of the waterfall.

Next, I cut toasted coconut marshmallows (I got them from Walmart but I just posted that so you could see a pic) I just cut them in irregular pieces to look kind of like rocks or sand piles or something. They do have candy coated chocolate in colors and shapes that look like rocks but I didn't think they were big enough.  I lined the waterfall with them but it's not necessary.  Then you can decorate with whatever you want.  This was my first cake so I did use a couple things that were inedible- the palm tree and the flowers (they were plastic barrettes that I cut apart)  and I added the teddy bears

This is the smash cake I made to go with it for a swim themed birthday party. I partially mixed blue icing coloring so that it would give me a little color variance when I iced the "waves" in the water. I used coconut as if the water was rushing the beach. and the sand I made for the cake above.
For the fun part... the bears! I used teddy grahams and iced on little goggles, snorkels, swimsuits, trunks and even bikinis with royal icing. I used gummy life savers for the little floatie rings. Then I cut fruit roll-ups for the beach towels on the beach. Finally, I added some colored goldfish crackers in the water. This cake was so fun and the birthday boy loved it! 

Here is a better view of the top

Please excuse my kitchen. I am a very messy baker!  Actually, I'm a messy everything.  I use every possible gadget and appliance and it makes clean-up tons of fun. I hope you like the cakes.  I know they aren't "professional-grade" but I'm proud of them anyway.  This was the start of a hobby for me.  It has been so much fun creating cakes, very rewarding to be able to give them to my friends and family and DELICIOUS, if I do say so myself.  I have improved along the way but not to a level that I would want to or even could do this professionally.  I'm adding this to a very long list of hobbies!  Thanks for looking!!!

I have a new kitchen creation!

I can't exactly call it a recipe so I will just call it a creation.  I have to thank my good friend Angie for the great idea!!!  It's a lot like my chocolate sour cream cake but the flavors are changed. 

1 box devil's food cake
1 small box vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oil
2 packages of Lindt's Lindor truffles

Mix the dry ingredients then the wet and put into cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Bake on 350 for 5 minutes. Unwrap the truffles and put them in the semi-baked cupcakes and bake for 13 more minutes (18 total).  I recommend topping with your favorite cream cheese icing.  The fudge or chocolate BC is just too much.  The cream cheese icing recipe I use is 1 stick butter and 1 block cream cheese creamed together well, then add about 2 cups or so of powdered sugar.  I know it's not exact but I just add more until I like the texture and taste.  Unfortunately I have to taste the icing each time I add more.  You know, like quality control.  It's a painstaking process but I will make the sacrifice.

These cupcakes are so good and so easy.  Everyone will ask you for the recipe!  I've made them a few times now and people are always floored.  They are very rich so beware ;)

I think I'm going to try this with my white velvet cake and add dark chocolate truffles and then maybe do fudge icing.  What do you think?  Please let me know if you make this.  I want to know if you like them as much as I do!

A Very Merry Unbirthday

Olivia is 2!!!  Well, she's been 2 since the end of April but we just had her party a few weeks ago.  Between Easter, wedding showers and my parents traveling more in April then they have in the last 5 years, we had to postpone her party.  It gave me more time to get party stuff done study.  Yeah, I had all these cute ideas and I didn't get to do half of them.  I decided that all you really need for a birthday party is a kid and a cake.  Well, that and great favor bags, handmade by me, and a few little touches to personalize the party.  I thought it turned out pretty well, thanks to Nic, my MIL Evie, my sisters and my mom giving me margaritas.  Apparently, I'm a little high strung.  She thought the margarita would help.  I'm not sure if it did but the 2nd sure did the trick ;) 

It was so fun! We had Lawrence the "clown" and by clown I mean a guy who wears a tye-die shirt and paints faces, oh and makes balloon animals too.  We didn't play any games but no one noticed.  I think the food was pretty good.  My mom made her famous chicken salad on croissants.  I've asked her for the recipe and she told me to get some chicken, grapes, apples, walnuts, curry and something else and just throw it all together.  When I get more specific measurements and instructions I'll post the recipe. 

We had some other fun food but my fave was the dessert table. I made cupcakes with my sour cream chocolate cake recipe with fudge icing.  They were delish!  I was disappointed that I wasn't able to make her a fancy cake but the cupcakes were so much better for an outdoor party.  They were super easy to decorate, which was important b/c I was overloaded with tests and care plans- oh and trying to get my house ready for guests.  I bought these cute owl images from the Trendy Butterfly on etsy and put them on everything from the flatware we didn't use, to cupcake toppers and wrappers on the muddy buddy chex mix (my fave).  I made the cupcake "stand" It's just a bunch of boxes wrapped in pink gift wrap with some ribbon from HL.  I just played around with different boxes until I got the look I wanted.  Also, if you look at the bottom 2 pics you can see just a bit of my owl favor bags.  They were super easy and a lot of fun- just a bunch of circles and white paper lunch sacks. I think the favors inside were pretty cool too.

I'm the worst!

I am the worst blogger! I had every intention to blog every day or at least every couple days.  It has been much longer than that.  I know I don't have many readers but I'm often asked "what happened, is everything ok?" So, in short I will just say nursing school is kicking my butt! I was taking 13 hours this summer which was killing me. 
I hated it and so did Olivia.  My heart would just break every time she cried "Don't do homework, mommy.  Come sit with me pleeeeeeeeeaaaaassee" or "I don't want you to go to school" so I have decided to go part time.  It puts graduation off another year but I don't mind.  I would rather enjoy my life and my family and take a little longer.

So I didn't finish blogging my 30 day challenge but I did complete it.  I lost just over 10 pounds!!! YAY me! I'm going to start "running" again.  I want to find a race but it is so hot.  I may just spend this time training and do a big one in the fall.  I know the super 8 is coming up so maybe I'll do that one again.
I've had a lot of things going on... birthday parties, showers, weddings, playdates, homework, tests, kitchen experiments and more. I'll try to write more often and post pics.
I also have a ton of recipes I've been working on.  I'll post the better ones soon.  If I have any readers left out there, thank you! I hope to be around the blogosphere a lot more now that I have more time.

BTW, we had some pics taken around OU a couple months ago.  The pic on top is one of them.  If you're on FB I'm sure you've seen them.  If not check them out.  The photog's name is Kelly Morris.  I thought she did a really good job.

What day is it?

I really thought I would be able to blog everyday when I started my 30 day challenge but, as you may have noticed, I did not.  I guess I really underestimated 3 things.
1.  My ability to procrastinate
2.  The amount of crap interesting things I would have to get to do for school
3.  How much the first one affected the time it took to do the second one
But here I am! I have been working out so I haven't given up on the challenge.  In fact, I have lost 8 pounds so far! (YAY me!!!) I have just been so busy and what little spare time I have I spend with Olivia or watching the DVR after she's gone to bed.  Then, I stay up too late and sleep in when I'm supposed to be at bootcamp at 5:30am.  So then I go at 6:30 7:30, barely make it back in time to get a shower, dry my hair and make my 3 eggs and 2 pieces of toast.  Then I am so rushed that I overfill and overtamp my espresso so my latte is gross.  Then it is off to class- death by powerpoint with no caffeine which makes me cranky.  I think what this really means is- no, not that I should skip the DVR and go to bed earlier. no, not that I should get up the first, or second, or third time my alarm goes off. but that I really want need a superautomatic espresso machine.  So, St Nic... If you're reading this (and I'm sure that you are not) this would make an excellent mother's day gift! And really, it's a gift for you! 1- You drink as many lattes as I do and 2- I won't be so cranky :)

CUPCAKES!!!

I have been working out really hard and trying to watch what I eat.  I know, I know... It's good for me but I haven't had a cupcake in weeks! So, I thought I would do a little experimenting in the kitchen. 
These are my ideas:

lemon chiffon
strawberry lemonade
strawberry daiquiri
margarita
mint chocolate chip
and some coffee flavor with a creative name
or I could just keep trying to replicate Cuppies' boom boom pow

I'm not sure where to start.  Which one sounds best to you? After I create my recipe I will need some guinea pigs... um, I mean taste testers.

I HURT!!!

So, I went back to bootcamp... bad idea! I can't even describe what I am feeling right now.  It's a cross between sheer pain and numbness.  We did something called lungicide.  It's just what it sounds like- siucide by lunges.  OUCH!  Also, it kind of sucked because absolutely everyone in there was thin and beautiful... and totally in shape.   I will say that I am proud of myself for finishing though.  I was panting and groaning just to make it through.  By the end, everyone was cheering me on.  I felt like I was on the biggest loser or something except that I was the only fat one. 
I can hardly feel my legs but when I move, like to stand up, I feel pain.  No pain, no gain, right?  Oh, and my arms... Some of it may be from last night but they hurt too.  Between our lungicides we had to do pushups, which I still suck at.  I can type but it hurts to move the mouse so excuse me if I don't spellcheck.  Is it too early for a nap?