Spring

The Unicorn Cake

AKA… the Cake that Tried to Kill Me…..

Before we get started on the cake that tried to kill me… Can I tell you a little side story? I couldn’t sleep last night. When I have things to do the next day, you know, a to-do list… I have nightmares about it. My brain won’t shut down and I lie awake wondering a) if I’ll get it all done and b) should I get up now and do it so I’m not wasting my time since I’m just laying here staring at the ceiling?

Although… sometimes food haunts me I think. After I watched Julie and Julia for the first time, I couldn’t sleep. All I thought about was food that night. Learning how to be like Julia. I think I have problems :). But last night all I could think about were the cupcakes that I needed to get done today. The icing, the decorating, the icing. Oy! For over an hour. Then I was hot, but my knees were cold… something weird with me… It can be 110˚ in the shade and my knees will feel like they just came out of the freezer. It hurts like hell! Pardon my language.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that out, we’ll call it confessions, let’s look at the cake that tried to kill me… btw I didn’t dream about this cake. Maybe that was my problem… (more…)

Unicorn French Macarons with a “raw” Cake Batter Filling

Did you know and realize my little girl is going to be 4 next Tuesday. How in the world did that happen? Someone please tell me and help slow down time! It’s flying by sooooooooooo fast. I remember as a kid they said it would but dang! Time really needs to slow down. I remember as a little kid how we wanted time to speed up so we could get our driver’s licenses, graduate high school, be of age to vote and drink and the list goes on. When I got to 25 I was done… that meant my car insurance dropped and I was okay with that. Then I wanted time to just slow down… but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

With Abug’s impending birthday (I use those big words for my friend Jody haha… Hi Jody) it was time to start thinking about and planning for her birthday party. Lately, she’s been all about unicorns. This has been an ongoing thing for oh I don’t know… since before Christmas. My dad found a pony we could make into a unicorn for her for Christmas but it was in Iowa, at least 6-8 hours away and we didn’t have time to drive up and buy him. I’m kind of okay with that… she does have Aloha after all. But that’s another story for another day… (more…)

Piña Colada Cake

I feel like I fell off the face of the earth last week. Last week was such a blur… I spent all day Tuesday making French Macarons and all day Friday making a Unicorn Cake. More on both of those experiences later… but first, let’s back up and look at the Piña Colada Cake I made a couple weeks ago. Boy was it yummy!

So why did I make it and how did it come to be? Good question! So I mentioned with the strawberry dulce de leche cake that I made, my friend Dan hit me up about making his wife a birthday cake for her birthday. Wow… is that a repeat. haha! Anyway… when I asked him what she liked, he told me chocolate and coconut. So I went on the hunt for something with either or both. I then proceeded to send him about 10 different cake recipes. (more…)

Strawberry Dulce de Leche Cake

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Dan hit me up about doing a cake for his wife for her birthday. He requested we bring it to dive club meeting last week. I said, okay… any ideas. He said no. I said, okay what does she like or what doesn’t she like? He told me chocolate and coconut. That immediately made me think of German Chocolate Cake. But I wasn’t sure, so I went on a hunt for cakes.

That lead me to send him 10 different recipe ideas. Okay, now, which one? He narrowed my 10 down to 2. One was a Cannoli Cake and the other was a Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake from Life Love and Sugar. I looked back and forth and finally decided on the Strawberry Dulce de Leche cake. (more…)

Funfetti Birthday Cake

Last week I described the cake on the left of the above picture. If you need a reminder, that’s a Chocolate Dulce de Leche cake. Yum! It really was an exceptional cake and I was extremely pleased with how it turned out. Although… maybe the bright birthday candles on it look weird… who knows.

Right now I’m sitting here watching recorded shows of Best Baker America. Their challenge was a mind-bending cake with Vanilla being present. Looking at my cakes above… I fail. Oh well! haha.

But today, let’s focus on that Funfetti cake on the right. And wow, there’s a lot of thoughts covered above in just a short period of time. haha… some days that’s how my mind goes. My husband jokes that I am the queen of Random! (more…)

Let’s Dish

Also known as… Let’s Chat :).

The picture above showed up in my Facebook newsfeed this morning. Now it wasn’t a still photo, it was a video, but it wouldn’t let me add the video, so you get a screenshot.

Those words, “Never stop trusting God and His plans.” Wow, they ring soooooooo true right now. Since December there has been a lot of ifs, ands, or buts in my future and it’s really been stressing me out. I’ve mentioned it a few times but said how much of a hypocrite I am because I wasn’t ready to talk but was asking for prayers. That’s the thing that annoys me the most when people do that. Yet, here I was, doing just that. Shame on me.

But one aspect that I’ve been dealing with, I’m finally ready to talk about. I told you I would and I’m going to try and do this as openly but as honestly as I can without whatever. I’m not really sure, I don’t want it to sound like I’m petty and childish or something. But… Here we go. Bear with me! I’ll give you some back details too. It’ll help fill in some of the dots missing.

Backstory

When my parents bought the property they (we) live on, we became really good friends with the neighbors. At that time, we lived in a rental house just on the west side of the property. That house shouldn’t have had tenants living in it 20+ years ago, yet we did and more people have since then. Another story for another day.

Around 2009 he was losing the house to the bank. At that time, my dad told me I should have bought it. They wanted something like $67K for it. I was afraid then, being a single girl, that I couldn’t make the payments. The guy I was dating wasn’t close to even proposing to me and I wasn’t about to live with him, unwed. So I had no one to help with the bills. Needless to say, someone else bought it. Looking back, I should have bought it, but with what I made at the time, I couldn’t do it and didn’t want to get myself into a bind.

Jump forward a few years

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Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake

I made Dulce de Leche last week. Guys, it’s EASY! It takes a little time, but it’s super easy. Why oh why haven’t I done this before? Oh that’s right, because I didn’t have any reason to, until now. Now? What changed? Well… let’s start at the beginning.

Deb’s birthday was last Thursday. Every year on Memorial Day Weekend we find ourselves at the lake right around Deb’s birthday. We usually have a group dinner on Friday night, but Saturday night tends to be the BIG shindig. Then Sunday night we eat leftovers from the first two nights. It’s a lot of fun.

This year, plans stayed the same! I told everyone I was bringing the birthday cake. We also have another birthday that falls during Memorial Day Weekend, but I’ll focus on that cake later. Today, let’s talk about the Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cake because, oh. my. gosh. it’s amazing! (more…)

Dear Pillow

Dear Pillow,

I think you need to take a hike.

Signed

Tired in Misery!

Ugh! Try the My Pillow they said. It’s the best they said. Who is this they? I really want to know because I want to tell this they that they are CRAZAY. Holy cow.

I guess Pillows don’t last forever. This one has hardly lasted over a year. It sucks and I have two. They don’t support my head. They are almost like a feather pillow and they didn’t start out that way. Yuck! By the way, I can’t do feather pillows. They don’t give my head any support at all.

If there’s one thing I hate doing, it’s Pillow Shopping. Hate it with a passion. I think the best way to pick a pillow would be to lay down on the floor and try to sleep with it. But that’s part of the problem… have you seen public floors in stores. Yuck! I was annoyed the other day when I lost my balance at Sam’s and fell on the floor when I squatted down. I shuttered.

I might have a slight phobia of germs. Not a bad one, but yuck! (more…)

We got a Filly!

Guys! WE GOT A FILLY!

I just mentioned the other day that all we ever seem to get are stud colts… but we got a filly! WE. GOT. A. FILLY!! It’s pretty darn exciting! For the last 5 years (at least) all we ever seem to get are stud colts. I swear, our stud likes boys. Wait, that sounds weird. Should I explain? Maybe I better!!!

Okay, so as we know from Biology, the male produces the gender of the baby. So… when friends of mine have nothing but girls, I always tease the dad that he just always wanted to be surrounded by pretty girls. Clear as mud? Okay! Anyway… moving on…

One thing I need to point out… The mare who has thrown fillies in the past, you’re looking at her. This mare right here. So far, Blondie and Sis (although we sold her last year) have never thrown fillies since we’ve owned them. They’ve always thrown stud colts. This mare though, she’s thrown 3 fillies now. A sorrel, a dun, and now a Bay. (more…)

Woooo Pig Sooie! UofA Sugar Cookies

Do I have any University of Arkansas fans out there? No? Bueller, Bueller? haha.

A couple weeks ago I was asked if I could do some U of A cookies. I thought, well maybe, what do you have in mind. We discussed it back and forth, she sent me a few ideas and bam! the magic began. Okay… well, the “magic” began a couple weeks later because obviously, I had a little planning/prep time.

Now, if you don’t know, U of A’s mascot is the Razorback. And apparently at all football games anyway (or sometimes just in a large crowd of Arkansas fans), you hear them yell Woooo Pig Sooie! Truthfully, I have no idea what that means, but it’s funny to hear a crowd of them yell it. I kind of assume it’s a lot like being at a Chiefs game when all of the fans start chanting the Tomahawk chant. A few years ago, at a Houston Texan’s game when we shut them out, you could hear Chiefs fans on the tv. I assume, the Woooo Pig Sooie! might be something like that. Just a guess. (more…)