Thanksgiving...cake

I made a cake!!!This was an order I received. It is for a boy's birthday party; which will be held on Thanksgiving day. I wasn't completely happy with the result, but I guess it's not too bad. Did you know that soccer balls have two different shapes?I had no idea. The black shapes are pentagons and the white are hexagons. AMAZING!!! You learn something new every day...hehe! I'm still not sure whether I like the border I put on it :/ The picture makes the cake look crooked, but it really isn't...I promise!

I'm sure you all are wondering why there isn't a Thanksgiving cake or any Thanksgiving dessert for that matter. Bethany volunteered to make all the desserts for our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, so I am not making a thing. Can you believe it??!?!? It has actually been hard to resist making things like pumpkin rolls, pecan pies, apple crisp, pumpkin cheesecake, or even just fresh pumpkin pies!

I don't really have much else to write today. Sorry.....Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!!!

I'm an aunt!!!!!

I can hardly believe it. Summer Anne has finally arrived. She entered this world at 1:54 in the afternoon today. She is 21 inches long and weighs 9 pounds 1 ounce. Both mom and daughter are doing very well. The first thing Luke said to me was, "She has big feet"(referring to Summer). Hehe! I know he loves her despite. She is going to be wrapped around his little finger before he even realizes it :)

Dear old Pappy got to hold her for about a half hour during his visit. He is overjoyed at being a grandfather. Once again, Summer will be spoiled by him as well. Poor girl...hehe....Oh! Pappy is my dad. He has requested to be called Pappy. I think it's kinda cute :)

Uncle Ethan was elated at the chance of holding his new niece. He went to bed singing, "I'm an uncle and you're not!" I did inform him that I am an aunt and he's not.

I'll have to post some more pictures later. My computer is acting funny, so I'm going to end the post here. Been in prayer for Luke, Janelle, and Summer that they can get some much needed rest tonight. They arrived at the hospital at 1:30am, so no one has slept much.

Yay...More baking!!!!

Well, I got back into baking. I am not sure how much longer I could have gone without baking anything. I got home from class on Thursday night and baked up a storm! Almost everyone was in bed, so I had the kitchen to myself. I made:



....Mocha Cake...................Maple Pecan Muffins

........Berry Pie.................Chocolate Chip Cookies


I even got to bed before 1 am. I enjoy baking late at night, but I am not quite sure why. Mommom and Pop call me the "Midnight Baker". They go to bed one night and wake up the next morning with baked goods everywhere. Normally, I don't wait for things to cool. I just leave them on the counter with a dish cloth over them. Sometimes, I clean up the dished other times the kitchen is a disaster in the morning.

Back to Thursday's baking escapade. The Mocha Cake was a repeat from about a month ago. It is amazing!!!! I had never made the Maple Pecan Muffins before. They were actually from a muffin cook book I received for my birthday from Janelle. It has 100 muffin recipes all from 1 basic recipe. It's pretty neat. They are all fairly easy to make. The Berry Pie was another repeat, but definitely worth making again. I use a bag of frozen mixed berries like blueberry, strawberry, and raspberry. Of course, I had to make chocolate chip cookies. I have them down to a science. I can make 1 batch, which equals about 60 small cookies, in 30-40 minutes. I always use parchment paper because I hate to clean up. Well, here are the leftovers as of today:



I don't have pictures of the muffins or chocolate chips cookies because I never got to the cookies before they were eaten. So the picture before is their current state. I only took a picture of one muffin, but by the supply left today I can tell you they weren't a a huge success. Until next time.....Au revoir!

Where did all my hair go?!??!

I got my hair cut.....10 inches!!!! It's a big difference, but I'm getting used to it. The reason I had never gotten it cut before was because of my dad. He loved my long hair and said that it looked like my mom's. I suppose it's reasonable, but it was starting to get pretty annoying. Some how my grandmother (his mother) convinced him to let me get it cut. I wasted no time in making a hair appointment! Just four days after he had conceded, my hair was 10 inches shorter.

I donated to "Locks of Love". Now I have been wondering if I will ever be able to donate again or not. Should I just grow my hair back out or should I keep it shorter from now on? I know if I wasn't going to donate it, I definitely would not have gone quite as short. I would like it about two inches longer than it is.

Sorry, I haven't baked anything lately. School and work have kept me pretty occupied. I'll have to get back into the kitchen for some baking this weekend. It's been nearly 4 days since I have baked anything. I am beginning to go into withdraw. This isn't good!!!! I should start stocking up on white chocolate chip cookies for Luke and Janelle. I'm sure that baby will be here soon and they asked for cookies as soon as she's born. Summer Anne, I sure can't wait to meet you...please hurry!!!!

Boot or Dress?!?!?!

I made this cake for my (soon to be) sister-in-law's lingerie shower. You may be wondering about my title and upside down picture. I'll explain. You see, when I first cut this cake to shape my grandfather said it looked like a cowboy boot. I couldn't really see it that way but whatever.By the time I was finished, he did agree that it look like a dress.

The cake was made to look like the party invitations. The cake was definitely a huge success. I was very happy with my work. I baked a half sheet cake of my standard yellow cake. Then I cut it to shape. Usually, I draw a sort of template out on parchment paper and then use that as a guide to cut the cake. I attempted to do that for this cake but I never was happy with the drawing, so I ended up doing it free hand. You can definitely tell that the sides are not symetrical, but oh well. I certainly don't think it looks too shabby :) I did discover that we need our kitchen knives sharpened. They did not cut the cake very straight. It nawwed up some of the sides. I had to straighten them out with a small, sharper knife.

One other problem I encountered was during icing the cake. I had to use a good amount of food coloring to get the icing the right color. When I iced the cake, I got some icing on the cardboard that the cake was sitting on. Normally with icing, it just wipes right off without leaving a mark, but because of all the food coloring it made pink marks on the cardboard. After fully icing the cake, I decided I would have to transfer it onto a new board. I got out two of my dad's giant spatuala's he uses for grilling. I put placed one under either side of the cake and successfully transfered it with very minimal damaged. I even impressed myself. It probably wasnt' too wise, but it worked!

This cake was quite an adventure and a whole lot of fun. It turned out wonderfully. Transforming a boot into a dress was no small feat, but I accomplished it. I believe I did it quite well too!

P.S. Anyone know how to sharpen kitchen knives??!??!

Thanks Bakerella

Bakerella, you have inspired me. I so much enjoy reading all your blogs that I decided to start my own. I related so much with your passion for baking and fresh new ideas. After just the first day of finding your blog, I had already tried your "Cake Pops" made famous by the Martha Stewart show. I don't know what kind of journey this blog spot will take me on, but I'm sure it will be an exciting one. Let the fun begin!!!
(Thanks also to Melanie, for showing me the Bakerella blog :)