Eggnog Gingerbread Trifle

I love Christmas. I love almost everything about Christmas. I especially love the food.

Last year, I came up with a super yummy chocolate mint trifle recipe. Sometimes, it's all about the chocolate.

But not this year. This year, it was all about the eggnog. This recipe is simple to make and SOOOO GOOOOOOD! And almost too cute to eat . . . almost.

The first layer is gingerbread cake. I used Krusteaz gingerbread cake mix. It's easy and good. Bake it, let it cool, and crumble it into bite-size pieces.

The second layer is eggnog pudding. Use 2 packages of instant vanilla pudding, but instead of using milk in the pudding, mix it up with 3 1/3 cups eggnog and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg. After the pudding has set up, lighten it with about a pint of unsweetened whipped cream. Fold the whipped cream into the pudding and set aside.

The third layer is raspberries. I used frozen raspberries that I thawed and drained in a colander overnight. They worked fine, but were still a little seepier (is that a word?) than I wanted. Fresh would be better. At this point, I also started decorating the sides of the trifle bowl with Pepperidge Farm Ginger Family Cookies.

The fourth and last layer is sweetened whipped cream. I used about a pint for the whole dessert.

Repeat the layers a 2nd time to the top of the trifle bowl, then top the whole thing with finely crumbled gingerbread cake and raspberries.

It turned out so cute that we almost didn't want to eat it . . . until we had the first bite. Then there was no stopping us. It's GOOOOOOOOD!

LEAH'S BIRTHDAY . . . oh yeah, and steve's

Has it really already been a year (plus a month!?!)? Sheesh . . . time seems to be blowing right by me. Leah loved her first birthday party.
For her, it's all about the food.

It's traditional for the birthday girl (or boy) to get her own cake on her first birthday.

Note to self: next time(?), don't decorate the cake with choking hazards.

It does not make for a happy birthday girl when you have to keep taking her cake away to clear off dangerous candies.

Even with the choke-able Sixlets distracting her, she made a pretty good dent in her cake.

Steve thought maybe she'd had enough; Leah vociferously disagreed.

Thanks Sam . . . way to help a girl out!

Even though she's only a year old, she's very good at communicating her needs. See how she clearly says, "I'm done! NOW!!"

Bath time! (another first birthday tradition)

(Please look past the built up soap scum and grime. I had such good intentions when I put that scrub brush there.)

It's hard to believe these two are related. Leah's eyes are so dark, you can hardly see the pupils. Sam . . . well Sam is almost see-through.

Since Leah had her own cake, and it was Steve's birthday, too, I had to make a 2nd cake for the rest of the party. I found the recipe for Chocolate "Peanut Butter Cup" Cake on Bakerella's website.

This cake is to die for, no exaggeration!!! The only thing I did differently was to double the recipe and bake it in 3 10-inch cake pans. We had lots of people to feed. And the leftover batter made awesome cupcakes.

Warning: Be sure to have plenty of milk on hand before eating this cake.

16 Layer Cake for a 16th Birthday on the 16th

A few months ago, I was looking at Bakerella's site with Anna, and we came across her 14-Layer Cake. Anna immediately and enthusiastically said we should make it for her 16th birthday, but with 16 layers. I, in my postpartum and ongoing mental fog, agreed. Honestly, I didn't think the day could possibly come, at least not as quickly as it did. I'm not old enough to have a 16-year-old! Aaaack! I remember too well being 16 and all the raging hormones and emotions that went with it. I'm not ready!!

Of course, the day came. I wasn't sure I'd be able to muster the time or will or ability to get this cake done. I talked to Anna about it, and she, in her usual sweet and unselfish way, told me, "That's okay. You don't have to make it. Just make a sheet cake. That'll be fine." That sealed it - how could I possibly not at least make the effort for such a sweetheart?!? But I knew I couldn't do it alone.

I enlisted the help of the other Anna. (To avoid confusion, the other Anna will henceforth be referred to as Lanna (little Anna) and my Anna will be referred to as Banna (big Anna).

We started with 16 disposable cake pans. Banna and Lanna helped cut parchment paper circles and grease and flour the pans. I'd never used parchment paper before - I always just resorted to begging and pleading to get my cakes to dump out in one piece. Parchment paper works much better.

We spread just over 1/2 cup of cake batter in each pan. That was maybe the hardest part. The parchment paper wanted to slide all over the place.

I was able to bake them 4 at a time for about 12 minutes per batch, so it took less than an hour to bake them all. That's no worse than making cookies. Then we dumped the cakes out of the pans, stacked them up with Saran Wrap between each layer, and stuck them in the freezer. FREEZING BEFORE ASSEMBLING WAS VERY HELPFUL!

The next morning, I made the chocolate sauce to go between the layers. I could have used a bigger pan - it expands a bit while it's boiling. Thank you, Shauna, for your help with this part. It was so yummy - a religious experience all on its own!!

We all got to sample it, and although we all wanted to, only one of us kept screaming for more.

It was Banna's job to keep the screamer happy with mouthfuls of chocolate sauce.

She had mixed success and ended up with chocolate smeared all over her cute white shirt.

Lanna pulled a few layers out of the freezer at a time and got them ready for me to sculpt. Some of them were a little uneven or a little thicker than the others, so I used a long serrated knife to level them out. That's why the freezing was so important. It made them much much easier to sculpt.

Lanna and I kept stacking and sculpting and drizzling, . . .

. . . trying to build a stack that didn't lean too far in any one direction . . .

. . . until, finally, we had 16 layers.

I poured the rest of the chocolate sauce over the top of the cake and spread it up and down the sides. I liked the way it looked at this point, but Banna wanted to follow Bakerella's suggestion to hide all the layers. That way, slicing into it would be a yummy surprise for all the cake-eating guests.

So I iced the cake with chocolate buttercream icing. I put in 16 tall candles, . . .

. . . lit the candles, . . .

. . . and we sang to Banna. We sang our little hearts out.

Notice the 4 sympathetic blows going on behind her.

Banna cut the cake.

Serving it up was touch and go until we figured out how to use my wide, straight-edged scraper to prop each piece against so nothing toppled.

Isn't that a pretty cake!?!

It was so yummy and moist. And it was fun to make!! It took some effort, but I'll definitely make it again.

With All This Loveliness . . . the House and Two Step

Do we really have to go home in just a few days? I could stay here forever . . .

. . . and watch the sunset

. . . and hang out with my family

. . . and catch geckos (oh wait, that wasn't me)

The sunsets from up on the hill overlooking the ocean are spectacular.

Do we really have to go home?

I could stay here forever.

Place of Refuge (Two-Step)

This is a fun beach for us.

The tide pools are shallow and warm for the babies.

There are plenty of salt water saturated lava rocks to chew on.

It's not just babies who like the tide pools - I'm not sure about the salty rocks, though.

Jumping in from the two steps is easy and fun.

The snorkeling is awesome. What a great variety of beautiful sea life! One friendly diver even wrote "ALOHA" on the bottom of the ocean with cinder blocks.

Getting out on the steps is almost as easy as getting in.

All the family is having fun together - hardly any fighting. Of course, it helps that I told my kids if they fight with each other, they will only be allowed to play with each other (no cousins).

When Sam got here, he got right to work.

He's working on his plumber skills.

Smiling for the camera looks so painful. Cheese.

The pool is huge, 3 or 4 times the length of a normal pool - it has no deep end, but it's deep enough to swim in and still touch bottom the whole way across.

The yard is full of all sorts of flowers and fruit trees.

like coconuts

and avocados and mangos

and lots of giant hibiscus

Yep, I'd be happy to stay here forever.