Cake Topper

Just For You

Here . . .

I picked a good one.

Go on - take it! It's just for you!

Independent Leah

My mom always says I have the most independent kids. If Steve and I were to leave home for a month, the house would be trashed, but the kids would be fine.

Case in point:




Leah, not quite 18 months old here, knows exactly where to go to get a snack.




Aha! Caught red-handed!! So this is why there is always bread or chips or cereal on the floor!




But how can you get annoyed at a face like that!? You can't! It's just simply not possible!

Some Recent Samisms

Oh, how I love this boy. He's a constant tease. He terrifies me regularly. He makes me want to pull my hair out. He makes my head spin around in circles. But mostly, he makes me LAUGH.





He wants to be an army guy and wipe his own bum when he grows up.

He has a great memory for names. He told me a few days ago, several weeks after the fact, that dad wants him to call him the Constructionmeister.

When asked, on his birthday, how old he is, Sam said, "I'm 4, so now I get 4 minutes on time-out." The joys of growing up.

Sam says, complete with sound-effects, "Wild cats think we're dewicious! Shhwwlllurp!"

When we drove by Chuck E. Cheese, Sam asked if we could go to Chucky Jesus'. Makes you wonder what is going through the kid's mind every time we pray.

Sam woke up a few mornings ago and climbed in bed with me. I had just started wondering about these weird gasping noises he was making when he said with alarm, "My laugh is gone!!! H...h...h... See?!? I guess I used it too much. We have to get some more!" A couple hours later, he came running inside laughing and excited to show me that his laugh was back!!!

A few days ago, Sam was very concerned that the black chick was being mean to the other chicks. He said that we don't want a mean chicken. I agreed and said, "Maybe we should eat her." He was horrified and reprimanded me very sternly! "Mom!! We don't eat chickens!!" I tried to explain to him that of course we eat chickens; it's called chicken. But every time I bring it up, he very sternly tells me the rules. "We don't eat chicks, and we don't eat chickens." Then this morning, he came running to me and said, all scandalized, "The black chick just stepped on the other chick!! Maybe we SHOULD eat her!"

Sam keeps hearing growling noises in the garage. He's very concerned that it might be a big snake that will bite Daddy's legs off.   He told me all about it - "Then Daddy will turn into a snake and you won't be able to be married to him anymore. But we'll still keep him in our family. He can be our pet."

So even though he was on time-out at least 8 times yesterday (4 minutes each), and even though he pops the childproof door-knob covers off the doors to escape outside, and even though he sometimes doesn't want me to look at him because he's creeped out by my green lizard eyes, and even though he told me not to "play dumb" when I thought I was being serious . . . I love, Love, LOVE this kid.  I'm gonna try to keep him 4 for a very long time.  Wish me luck.

Rainbow Cake and a Pot of Gold

Anna and I had so much fun decorating this rainbow cake together. Not only is it a rainbow on the outside, but it's also a rainbow on the inside. It was so much fun to cut into and expose all those colorful layers. And the best part of all - it looks impressive, but it's EASY to make.



You start with two boxes of white cake mix. Prepare them according to package directions, and divide the batter equally into 6 bowls. Using gel food colors, color each of the 6 portions a color of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet).



Since I have one oven and 3 pans, I did just 3 colors at a time. Use parchment paper in the bottoms of your pans, and the baked cakes will drop out easily and without any tearing. Also, if you bake them at 325 degrees instead of 350, they will rise a little more evenly. Just increase your cooking time a little bit - the cakes are done when the edges start to pull away from the sides of the pan. It also helps to freeze the layers before stacking them - they're much easier to work with. Just stack them with plastic wrap or wax paper between the layers.



Start with purple and, if necessary, trim the cake with a long serrated knife to make it level. Ice the top with a thin layer of buttercream frosting (recipe at the bottom of this post). Repeat with the next layer . . . and the next . . . and the next . . . until all 6 layers are stacked. Finish it by icing the top and sides with buttercream frosting. I used 10 inch round cake pans, and to ice between each layer and finish the outside of the cake, it took a quadruple recipe of buttercream frosting.  That's a lot of frosting!!!



We had this cake for a party that was the day before St. Patrick's Day, so what better way to decorate it than with the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. To make the decorating easier, I drew in the larger parts of the design with the point of a small sharp knife. Then Anna and I filled in the design with colored icing (more buttercream colored with gel food coloring).



My FAVORITE decorating tool is these squeeze bottles. I use them for sugar cookies, cakes, etc. They're so much easier to use than an icing bag. If you can draw a simple, child-like drawing of a cloud and rainbow, then you can decorate with these squeeze bottles.  They're sitting in cups of warm water to keep the frosting liquidy enough to squeeze out of the bottles easily. By about the 5th time a cup of water got knocked over, I decided that probably wasn't the best method for keeping the frosting warm.



We used a leprachaun candy climber and turned it into a tree by adding branches and leaves. Anna made a lake surrounded by cattails with ducks swimming (and even diving) in it. She also did the plaid pot of gold and the butterflies.



We had so much fun working on this together.



I didn't get a good picture of the inside of the cake, but this one is a bad picture of the cake when I made it for Abby's 8th birthday. Appropriate for a Mormon girl's 8th birthday, no? (I Like to Look For Rainbows . . .)



Nana's "Browned Butter" Buttercream Frosting

• 1 stick salted butter
• 1 pound powdered sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• enough milk to make it a spreadable consistency

1. Melt the butter on the stove, and keep it on the heat long enough for the butter to get light golden brown.
2. With an electric mixer, mix in the powdered sugar and vanilla
3. Add enough milk to make the frosting the consistency you want

Which Celebrity Do You Look Like??

Do you see it? No? It's all in the nose and hair. Maybe if you look at it a little squinty?

This is too hilarious!! Thank you for the laugh, Kristin - I had to pass it along.

Go to myheritage.com to see which celebrity you look most like. I hope you get a laugh out of it, too.

Leah's a Climber

Leah's a climber. She takes after Anna who I found on top of the refrigerator when she was 2. Her most recent "Everest" is the gate that blocks the basement stairs, the one that's supposed to keep her safe. This morning, she scaled that sucker so quick and so high that her entire upper half was hanging over into the vast space of the stairwell just tempting fate. Feel free to feel very sorry for me. I'm predicting that I'll be at least 50% gray by the time she's 3.

On the plus side, sometimes she gets stuck and is too scared to move. Then, if she's not in any real danger, I get a little break from chasing her. She gets stuck on the piano bench over and over. It's just tall enough that when she tries to climb down, her toes dangle about an inch from the floor. As far as she knows, she's 6 feet high and is usually too scared to budge.

This is what she looks like when she finally works up the courage to stretch for the floor. The picture's fuzzy because I only had my phone camera at hand, but can you see the stark terror in the whites of her eyes? Getting to laugh at her is my reward.

Overheard By Steve . . .

A brief but telling conversation overheard by Steve as he passed Sam's room:

Sarah (11) in a very peeved voice: Sam! No no!! Don't do that!

Sam (3): I said duck (His tone clearly said, "Sheesh, what more do you want?")

Yep. That paints a clear picture for me.

Poor Sarah. The things a big sister has to put up with . . .

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.