Kitties and Cakes and Keane, Oh My.

It's only been a week since we lost our Lucy Girl, but it already seems like a distant dream. There is just no way that could have possibly happened. We still see her lurking out of the corners of our eyes sometimes. A few mornings I've caught myself about to call for her in a sing-song voice, as I did every morning. Then I remember and my heart sinks. Oh. Damn it. We miss you, little lady.

We've been very appreciative for all the kind thoughts and cards that have come our way. We are grateful to have so many people in our lives that understand what it means to love an animal and the way they get into our hearts and never ever leave. You know who you are. And we thank you.

The past week has been a bit busy, which is probably for the best (had I nothing else to do, I would have spent my time moping about the house). The Amazing Willow and I are taking a cake decorating class, and this week we completed our first project.


Here it is, people...my first proper cake. You can tell because it says so! I couldn't think of anything else to write, so I just got straight to the point. Not too shabby for a first time, eh?

The class itself was $25, which sounded like a real bargain. It wasn't until after we enrolled that we learned we'd have to buy a slew of supplies and make all our own cakes and frosting at home and from scratch. So far, we're into this thing about $100.

My cake looks like it's worth $100, doesn't it?

Anyhow, between cake class and baking cake and making enough frosting to frost the pyramids in Egypt, I've been a busy bee.

Last night Willow and I went to the Keane concert. We had purchased the tickets quite a while ago but by the time this week rolled around I quite honestly wasn't feeling like going to a concert. But as it turns out, a great time was had and I think it was good for me to get out of the house and do something fun.

We almost became the victims of road rage, enjoyed a yummy dinner, hit a car in the parking lot and froze our asses off to meet rock stars. See? Fun!

It actually was a lot of fun (see here for full details). It'd been quite a while since I'd been to a concert and it was almost cathartic to stand shoulder to shoulder in a huge crowd, all singing as loud as we can along with the band. Keane is one of my all-time favorites.

Pretty In Pink

I rummaged through my cupboards last night looking for something to do. I found a cherry chip cake mix and two tubs of frosting, one cherry and one cream cheese. Perfect.

The cherry flavor frosting is very reminiscent of the old Bonne Bell cherry lip balm. I enjoyed it enormously.


Though really, you can't go wrong with classic cream cheese frosting. Delightful. Guess how many I ate...

When I wasn't baking and frosting and putting pink sprinkles on things, I spent the rest of my day purging. I sorted out all the clothes and make-up I'm not using, dividing it up between what will be donated and what is trash. I was amazed at how much stuff I have that I'm not even using! Half of it, I didn't even know where it came from and some of it still had the tags on. Nice.

As a result, I have six bags of clothing to go to the Road Home this week. There are plenty of women who could really use these clothes; it's wasted far too much time in my closet. I also went through our medicine and tossed loads of expired cold remedies.

Ahhh, I love purging! It's so therapeutic.

Superbowl Sunday Coca-Cola Cupcakes!

So hey, it's Superbowl XI something something something! How shall I celebrate? With baking, of course!

I'm not a fan of football. I don't know the difference between a field goal and a touchdown, nor could I tell you one single rule of the game (apparently it's legal to bash other players in the face with your elbow, I saw some of that going on). But we were invited to a Superbowl party with some family, and I figured if they would be there then perhaps I could tolerate the ludicrous display of testosterone that is football. And it was an ideal excuse to whip out the flour and sugar and add some girliness to the day.

Now I love themes. I make Red Velvet cupcakes for Valentines, patriotic cupcakes for the Fourth of July, etc. But what on earth could I do for the Superbowl? Then I found this recipe for Cola cake from the fine people at Coca-Cola. Perfect.

Our family does enjoy their Coke, and I figured a dessert made with a beverage that can rust a nail was about as manly as I could bake. Not to mention Coke would probably be featured in every other commercial throughout the game. It seemed like a match made in heaven. Well, in my oven.


Aside from the typical sugar, flour, egg, butter, etc., the recipe also called for marshmallows and buttermilk, and for the Coke to be boiled with the butter (along with the cocoa) before adding to the dry ingredients. Huh. I believe this was to melt the marshmallows, but it still took a good 10 minutes of stirring before they all melted.

When it was all said and mixed, the batter tasted rather strange. Not bad, just different. But when they came out of the oven....


Boy, howdy! They weren't half bad! I chose to use prepared vanilla frosting, in lieu of the Cola frosting suggested in the recipe, purely as a time saver. Also, I just really like vanilla frosting and thought it would make a nice contrast with the dark cupcake and chocolate sprinkles. I do love sprinkles.

And people seemed to enjoy them. And, much to my own surprise, I kind of enjoyed the game. Kind of. I still can't say I care much for football, but I must admit that 100 yard run in the second quarter was pretty awesome.

So would I make these again? Probably. I definitely got some compliments on them. Though I would have liked to have had red cupcake papers, kind of like a Coke can. See what I mean about me and themes? I might also like to pipe the frosting on, rather than spread it. And maybe use some red sprinkles....I could go on and on.

Hope everyone had a great Sunday, whether you're a Steelers fan or not!

Holiday Fun In The Kitchen

I don't know about you, but nothing says Christmas to me like making festive holiday treats. Creativity, chocolate and making memories with friends...what could be more Christmas Spirit-y? Or messy? I love making a mess.

I was inspired by my new online love, Bakerella, to make these holiday themed cake balls. How fun are these? As far as I'm concerned, the funnest part of making holiday treats is decorating them. We had decorating gel, little candies and sprinkles galore. I even found edible markers. Genius.

And because Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without them, we even had these festive cow-shaped sprinkles! There was a cow in the manger or something, wasn't there?



Anyway, making the cake balls themselves was easy enough. It's basically a mix of crumbled up cake and frosting, rolled into balls. The unforseen challenge came when it was time to dip and decorate. It seemed relatively simple:
melt chocolate,
dip balls into chocolate,
apply decorations.

What could possibly go wrong?

Oh. Uhm.

Ka-blamo!

Obviously, there was a bit more to think about than we initially thought. We made the balls a bit too big, and with the added weight of the melted chocolate they were sliding right off the sticks. But, after some trial and error (and a lot of laughter!) we started getting the hang of it...

My sister Amy made this adorable Christmas mouse!
(Sadly, however, part of his head fell off. So she had to eat him. He was delicious.)

And I made this reindeer.


Remember that childhood game Cootie? This is our chocolate tribute to Cooties.


For a first attempt, I'd say not bad. A for effort, anyways. And we learned some things for next time. But most importantly, we had a complete blast!

Love you ladies!!

And A Cherry On Top

I made these for my sisters baby shower today. I had to buy two jars of cherries, one for the cupcakes and one for me. I just love those damn things.

Experiment: Blue Cupcakes

I'm currently in the process of planning a baby shower for my little sister. She'll be a first-time mommy and I'm really honored and excited to throw this shower! It's also another excuse for me to get in the kitchen and bake some cupcakes! I love to bake cupcakes.

Since she's having a boy, I thought blue cupcakes could be a fun idea. So I did a little experimenting today...

I love how the blue food coloring makes a swirly pattern while being mixed into the batter. At this point, I thought it was looking kinda cool.

Here are the cupcakes fresh out of the oven. Hmm. Doesn't look so much blue, more like mold. Yeah. These look like moldy cupcakes. Perhaps they'll look better once they're frosted.

Nope, they sure don't. They look like moldy cupcakes with white mold on top. They still taste great, but if I hadn't made them myself I don't think I would be so keen on eating one.

Okay, so lesson learned....blue does not translate well to cake. I think I'd be better trying white cake and blue frosting or maybe just some blue sprinkles. Nick made a good point, however...these grotesque-looking cupcakes could be fun for Halloween!

Peanut Butter Cookie Time!

Wow, am I a food blogger now? I guess so! It makes sense since it's combining two of my favorite things: photography and eating. And cooking. So three. It combines three of my favorite things. Oh, and writing. So four. Four of my favorite things.

Who wants cookies? I share with you!

How To Win Friends And Influence People

The "experts" out there will have you believe that their rules and books and step-by-step programs are what it takes to excel at winning people over. But there really is no need for all that. This, my friends, is your golden ticket to winning anyone over.

Olive cheese bread (recipe courtesy of the Pioneer Woman). It's food-gasmic. Food-vana. It's just damn good. You will shine at your next office picnic or pot-luck gathering and those who experience this divine creation will sing your praises. And who couldn't use a bit more of that?

I have been considering this dish for an upcoming event I am hosting and decided to take it on a test run at a small gathering of friends this evening. I didn't need to win these people over, they already love me! They were my unwitting test subjects from whom I was hoping to gain valuable feedback. There were no leftovers.

As I sat down to create my shopping list, I grabbed the first magazine handy to have something smooth and firm to write on. What an ironic choice. I guarantee this bread will do nothing for your waist line except expand it. But trust me, you won't care.

The ingredients are fairly simple. Two kinds of olives (black and those green ones with the pimentos in), green onions, butter, mayonnaise, a loaf of French bread and, the shinning star of the piece, shredded Monterey Jack cheese. An essential tool for the success of any recipe in this house is the purple squirt bottle filled with water, which keeps cat fur from infiltrating the process.

The completed mixture in my most favorite mixing bowl. I love this bowl in it's bright, sun-shiny yellowness. The most difficult part of this step was not eating every last bite of this mixture with a spoon. Because I easily could have.

Okay, I had a few bites. But I was able to successfully get the majority of the mixture onto the French bread, which was really the whole point of this endeavor.

While the bread is baking, take care to leave the dirty dishes for someone else to clean up, like a husband, for example, and go watch a favorite TV program or do some Yoga or something.

Actually, I did the clean-up myself. The husband was busy on an important project. I didn't mind.

Fresh out of the oven in all it's gooey, cheesy deliciousness.


Slice and serve to those who will be your eternal admirers. Or just keep it all for yourself. I won't judge.

Cupcakes!

I am out of control.

I think the apron transforms me.

Like when Peter Parker puts on the Spidey suit, only with cupcakes instead of ass-kicking.



Look, I had left over frosting! So I whipped up some red velvet cupcakes and picked all of the blue stars out of the jar of assorted cake decorations.















And when I ran out of frosting, I got creative with the confectioners sugar...

So....I've got three dozen cupcakes. Who wants some?

Happy Birthday, America!

I've been on a very creative streak lately. I've also been obsessed with food blogs. While catching up on my usual blogs this morning I found this gem of a recipe and decided I must bake today. I've been wanting to do more baking and decided a holiday was as good an excuse as any. This was also an opportunity to wear my new apron I purchased at a quaint little kitchen shop in Vermont. It's so cute, I just love it!

But gosh...my arms aren't what they used to be and this recipe calls for a lot of flour.

"Honey....I want a KitchenAid mixer."

"Okay, done."

"Really?! Sweet, can we go now?"

So off we went to the store....

I love my new toy, I've been wanting one for ages. And oh, it made mixing batter an absolute dream! Three cups of flour? Ha! I laugh in the face of flour!

So after a trip to the grocery store to procure several pounds of butter and cream cheese and sugar it was time to start baking (where others choose to say it with cards, I choose to say it with high cholesterol).

The gooey and ever so delightful batter.

Spreading and piping the made-from-scratch cream cheese frosting. There should be a surgeon generals warning on this stuff...it will kill you. But oh Lord, is it ever divine.

I know because I sampled some. Okay, I sampled a lot. My tummy feels sick.

Some fresh raspberry "stripes" and some blueberry "stars" and voila!

Happy Independence Day!

What Can Microsoft Office Do For You?

I love LOVE Amy Sedaris. She brightens my whole day!

I've Got Your Cupcakes Right Here!

My husband and I don't give gifts for Valentines Day. Or at least, not 'gifts' in the traditional sense. It pushes us to be more creative and we typically have a lot more fun at a significantly less cost.

The past several Valentines were spent having a floor picnic in the living room. A homemade pizza, a bottle of red wine and a cartoons. Yes, cartoons! Pink Panther, Loony Toons and Animainiacs have been the toons of choice. And they have been some of the funnest and most romantic of Valentines Days we've spent together. This year, I suspect, will be spent in a similar manner, with the exception of Doctor Who in place of the cartoons.

In an effort to mix things up, I decided to do something for my husband I don't typically do.

Bake.

I saw a recipe in a waiting room magazine for 'Red Velvet Sweetheart Cupcakes' and thought they looked fun. Consequently, I've spent all day in the kitchen:

The blood-red batter

Sampling....yep, it's good.

Fresh out of the oven.

Made-from-scratch buttercream frosting

Snoopy learned that if you get your face too close to the beaters, you get frosting splattered on your nose.

The frosted cupcakes. My frosting jobs tend to look like they've been done by a 5-year-old. Still, they taste pretty sweet!

Happy Valentines Day, Love!