Baking Memories

Be Careful What You Wish For...

2009-01-23T21:18:00.003-07:00

I wish to go to Billings, so that I can see THIS!!

Just 2 more weeks yeah!

To Do or Not To Do...

2009-01-23T19:42:00.004-07:00

Should I...? What do you think? If so, any ideas? Thanks guys! :p

Oh yeah, I should add that I am quite literally obsessed with this show. And *maybe* Chef Duff.

This is just...wrong :oP

2008-12-02T14:29:00.002-07:00

I love love LOVE the Cake Wrecks blog. It never fails to crack me up. And this post...well, you'll just have to see it for yourself. Make sure to read the description too! Enjoy :)

Priceless

2008-11-28T18:09:00.009-07:00

2 struesel fruit pies, 1 pumpkin pie, 1 coconut cream pie, 1 toffee cheesecake, and 1 pumpkin creme brulee...

20 dollars.

2 cans of whipped light cream for topping the pies...

3 dollars.

Whipped cream artwork on brother-in-law's head...

PRICELESS :)

I've been tagged! Or "taygged" as they say around these parts...

2008-11-26T13:18:00.002-07:00

Super fun tag! :o) "On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me..."

1 embarrassing moment: I run into things. Like all the time. There is a desk at work that I have yet to manuever around succesfully, and the bruises to prove it.

2 best friends: Jay and Kim

3 things you buy regularly: Diet Coke, candy, redbox movies

4 places you want to go (and might actually REALLY go): Australia, Ireland, Harry Potter theme park in Florida (yep totally nerdy), Billings (the "big" city) for Black Friday

5 goals for the upcoming year (that you might actually do): start selling cupcakes again and work towards a bakery, have another kiddo, stress a whole lot less

6 things most people don't know about you: my rigth pinky doesn't straighten out all the way. all of the kids in my tumbling classes give me a hard time about it!

7 things you would never say: "No I don't want a diet coke", "No I won't make you some cupcakes", "I love going to the dentist!" "Getting up at 5 am is wonderful", "I like bugs", "Let's move to Alaska!", "We should go camping for a whole week!"

8 things you love about the Christmas season: Baking! decorating, giving gifts, wrapping presents, being with my family, Christmas lights, hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls, seeing Kalei's face on Christmas morning

9 things you say to your kids: "Guess what? I love you!" "You are a stinker!" ""Do you need to go potty?" "I'm gonna get you!" "You are one smart cookie!" "Huh?" "Are you sure you picked up your toys?" "What would you like for lunch?" "Show me a cartwheel!"

10 things you do a lot: Work work work, bake, drink diet coke, adjust/fix glasses, read, shop at walmart (our only option here), sleep, chase Kalei around, cook, stress!

11 things you would rather not live without: my family, my friends, my job, jay's job, my Kaleibug, diet coke, my baking cabinet, my bed, a shower, candy, my home

12 people to tag: Cindy, Tatum, Jessica, Heather, Diana, Michelle, Liz, Carrie, Mandy, Miranda, Tana, Katte

It's About Time!!

2008-11-22T19:05:00.000-07:00

A new blog post!! Woohoo!! Well, sort of... Long enough to say to expect a major overhaul in the next little while. I have been all computered out as of late. For one, it is in a dark distant corner of our basement. And right next to the laundry room, which admittedly I try hard to avoid going near most days! :) Add that to working two jobs, doing all of the usual mommy/wife/household stuff, my calling in Young Women's, and the all important sleeping and I am pooped most days! Other than using the computer to pay bills, I have pretty much avoided it due to its incredible ability to zap time in a serious way!

Today I did allow myself to get caught up on everyone's blogs though, and it was nice to feel connected again, I have really missed it. Reading them has inspired to me to make the effort to get back into blogging, even if it's just on a small scale. I definitely haven't quit baking, and I have so many cool pictures and ideas that I should have been sharing this whole time. So I guess what I am saying is, don't give up on me!

So...

2008-09-14T14:55:00.000-06:00

I'm at home sick for what feels like the 8 millionth time in a very short period of time, and I needed to laugh so I thought I would share this Jim Gaffigan funny with you all.

I love cake.

Part 2 - The Part Where We Gained 7 Kids for 3 Weeks

2008-08-07T15:36:00.000-06:00

When we first arrived in Miles City, we spent our time unpacking, setting up utilities, getting to know the area, all the usual things one might do after moving to a new place. The most fun thing about moving here though is getting to spend an infinite amount of time hanging out with my sister and brother in law, and all of Kalei's awesome cousins! Here they are from left to right: (top row) Curtis, Ethan, Jonah, Joshua, Zoe, (2nd row) Loundia, Cora, Tana, (bottom row) Sofie, Maizie, Lily, Jackson.

About 2 weeks after we got here, we had the wonderful opportunity to stay with 7 of the cousins (Cora, Jackson, Sofie, Maizie, Lily, Zoe, and Joshua), while Tana, Curtis, Jonah, Ethan, and Loundia went to Ethiopia to bring home 2 more family members, Beck and Teffy. It was such a blast and an experience we will never forget! These are pictures of some of the fun things we did :)

Cute girly girls at the park

The Olive Garden Breadstick Incident Reenactment of 2008

Maizie and Lily's school science experiment, which everyone got into. I love the look on Cora's face!

The men watching the NBA Finals

All the girls got to decorate (and in Cora's case, snack on) a princess visor, which they were THIRLLED about

The Man from Snowy Beard River

Mom, Dad! Look what I found in my nose! (At least the only medical "issue" that occured under our care was our own kid's... goodness!)

More snow!!!

Mcdonalds breakfast shenanigans

Just be sure to stay away from the YELLOW snow Joshua!

Welcome home, Teffy and Beck!

We sure are lucky to be able to live in the same town with these guys. They are such an awesome family and we have so much fun together!

to be continued...

Celebrate Good Times

2008-08-07T12:41:00.000-06:00

JAY PASSED HIS TEST!!! :D

What are we doing?!?

2008-08-04T18:25:00.000-06:00

So here's the story...

This past February, as I was on my way out the door to a primary Valentine's Day activity with Kalei, Jay stopped me and asked me to read an email we had just received from my sister Tana and brother in law Curtis. The email stated simply, "We want Jay to come and work with Curtis". So come to Miles City, Montana we did! In only a few short weeks we had our house and bags all packed and were ready to go.

My brother in law is an audiologist and has his own practice, Hearing Connection. He has been in the process of opening more offices in some of the neighboring towns to Miles City, and was needing someone to help run these other offices. So Jay has been studying full time for the past 4 months in preparation for the giant licensing exam that will allow him to start his training as a hearing aid dispenser. Once he is fully licensed, his main jobs will be to perform hearing tests and fit people for hearing aids who need them. We are so excited about this new opportunity and chapter in our lives, and I am so excited to be living right down the street from my sister and her family!

These past 4 months have been an absolute whirlwind of insanity! There has been so much to write about, but so little time to do it. But we have been enjoying the adventure immensely, and have the pictures to prove it. The pictures will speak louder than the words would anyway! So without further ado, I give you...

Miles City Adventure, Part 1 - Our Trip Here

Hooray for the end of the cleaning and painting!!

Goodbye hugs for Nana and Bubba

Both of these pictures are from a stop at the most bizarre gas station I have ever seen. But we had fun playing "jail" and getting to see a high-centered truck was pretty crazy!

Kalei LOVED the snow! It was her first time seeing it since she was still a baby and too young to care. Now she can't wait for winter! (I, on the other hand, am panicking... :P )

Our fun little house :) It is right across the street from the elementary school where Kalei will go next year, and also the school's playground. Yay!

Hopefully you have enjoyed this first installment of pictures! Stay tuned for part 2...tomorrow :)

According to Kalei...

2008-05-10T20:58:00.000-06:00

"The Prophet talks to us and has asked us not to drink kelp juice."

Good to know that she pays attention to both primary and Sponge Bob...

Long Lost Richwines

2008-04-24T16:25:00.000-06:00

Contrary to what many of you may be thinking, we really have not fallen off the face of the planet :o) Not yet anyway...

I know it has been forever and I have some SeRiOuS catching up to do! For now, here is the short version. We are no longer

HERE

We now live

HERE

So where is "HERE"? Miles City, Montana. And we are lovin' it!!

Valentine's Day Cupcakes - Special Dark

2008-02-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

I won't even waste any time jibber jabbering here, let's get to the recipe!!

SPECIAL DARK CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES
oven 350, makes 18 standard size cupcakes

3/4 C Hershey's Special Dark cocoa (you'll know you've got the right stuff because it is almost black)
1 C sugar
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
3/4 C buttermilk
1/2 C water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 C all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

GANACHE:

10 oz. Hershey's Special Dark chocolate
1 C heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla

Cupcakes:
Put the cocoa, sugar, buttermilk, water, and butter in a medium saucepan. Heat over low-medium heat and stir until butter is melted and the ingredients are blended well.

Remove from heat and allow to cool 15 minutes.

While mixture is cooling, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in a medium bowl, set aside.

Add vanilla and egg to the chocolate mixture, mix until combined.

Pour chocolate mixture into flour mixture in three parts, stirring until smooth after each addition.

Fill cupcake liners 2/3 full, and bake for 20 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.

Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, and then remove to rack to cool completely.

Spoon a small amount of liquid ganache onto each cupcake one at a time,and swirl to spread evenly over the top. Ganache will set as it sits.

Ganache:
In a medium saucepan over low heat, heat cream until it starts to bubble. Remove from heat, add the chocolate, cover, and allow to sit for about 5 minutes.

Stir until mixture is smooth, stir in vanilla and salt.

Ganache is ready to use!

My New Favorite Thing

2008-02-12T23:08:00.000-07:00

Chocolate plastic!! Or modeling chocolate, but chocolate plastic sounds so much cooler. I am sure this is old news to savvy bakers out there, but I had never heard of it until I got this awesome cupcake book from my sister T for Christmas, A Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes, by Dede Wilson. It is seriously the most fun stuff!! Normally I just use fondant for cute cutout decorations and stuff, but fondant is going to have to move over for my new best baking friend.

Here is the rediculously simple recipe, taken from the aforementioned book:

28 oz (2 packages) Wilton Candy Melts
2/3 C light corn syrup

Melt candy melts in the microwave, in a double boiler, or in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir in the corn syrup until the mixture blends well together.

Scrape out onto a large piece of plastic wrap and wrap up tightly (I used a large ziploc bag).

Let sit until cool and firm enough to roll out (or cheat and put in the fridge like I did)

That's it!! It is ready to play :)

You can use other kinds of chocolate as well, but I guess the candy melts are more foolproof since they aren't technically chocolate. I added Wilton icing colors to the chocolate when I mixed in the corn syrup, and it worked out very well. Pictures are coming...

Chocolate play doh. It just doesn't get any better!

Make that...

2008-02-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

five earthquakes.

It's Over It's Over!!!

2008-02-11T20:32:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a pretty much a tv junkie, so I am ecstatic about this news.

In other news, we keep having earthquakes here. I go my whole life (including several years in various parts of California) without ever experiencing one, but in the past 3 days have been through 4. And those are just the ones I have felt...there have been many more small ones. Anyway, I have decided that I really don't like them! Fortunately Kalei hasn't noticed anything weird going on.

We have a super busy week this week, one of those where I am not even sure how to fit it all in. I have 3 cupcake/cake projects to complete, visiters coming this weekend, and I just started my new 3 day a week babysitting job. We are also babysitting for a couple of friends so they can go on Valentines Day dates, and we are going on a date of our own as well. Then there is a Valentines Day party at the Family Treehouse to attend, and it's Jay's grandpa's birthday this weekend. Tons of fun stuff, but my brain is scrambled just thinking about it!

Expect some new pictures and recipes in the next few days as I work on my baking projects. I have a super yummy cupcake recipe I have been working on and I can't wait to share it!

How are all of you doing? :o)

4 Year Old Drama

2008-02-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

Last night, about 10 minutes after I had tucked Kalei into bed, I heard her calling out "mom, mom!!" (yes it's Mom now, no more "Mommy" :p ) So I go back into her room, just inside the doorway, and she is crying, yelling "I don't want my Sally Halloween costume anymore, I want a Foofah costume!" The funniest part about it is that she was actually asleep, a rather creepy habit of hers... It's ok Kalei, go back to sleep! :o)

Party Time and Yo Gabba Gabba Cake!

2008-01-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

Kalei had so much fun at her surprise Chuck E. Cheese birthday party! It was crazy, loud, chaotic, silly, and everything a great birthday party should be.

There were lots of friends, and lots of food, most importantly her "taste playdough" (fondant) Foofah from Yo Gabba Gabba cake!

Kalei was also able to work on her mad air hockey skills, ride the rocket ship, and lead Chuck E. hand in hand all over the restaurant.

All in all, a great day. I love having a 4 year old!

Slacking...again

2008-01-01T21:46:00.002-07:00

I am so behind on this blog! It's been such a busy holiday season, and while I have been baking up a storm and have taken a ton of pictures, I haven't taken the time to share any of it :( But I promise, I am getting there! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2008 has started off great. My first New Year resolution - keep this blog up to date! :o)

I Love My Sweet Kalei!!

2007-12-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

Normally when Kalei sees a camera, she immediately stops whatever cute thing she had been doing. We sure lucked out with this!! Kalei has been singing this song non-stop. And she has also managed to tinker out the notes to the song on the piano too. She just loves Foofa on Yo Gabba Gabba, and I love her sweet little voice!!

Making Christmas

2007-12-16T18:13:00.000-07:00

our FUN evening decorating and baking!

Kalei had such a blast, she was very serious about where she wanted to put each ornament

Great job Kalei!

She was so proud :)

Rolling out gingerbread dough...YUM!

My little baking buddy

One happy family

Think Tink

2007-11-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the cupcake display I made for kalei's friend H's 3rd birthday. H is super into princesses, and her face just lit up when she saw her cake!! (I know, Tinkerbell is a fairy and not a princess...) It was a lot of work, I won't lie, but I had a blast with it and it was so worth it to see how happy it made her!

I used a new and improved vanilla cupcake recipe I have been working on, and a Swiss meringue buttercream icing. I had never made this type of frosting before, and holy cow it was good!! A little time consuming, as it requires about 15 minutes of beating (thank you Kitchenaid for your glorious stand mixers!!) but totally worth it. And it can be frozen and used later too, bonus!! The Tinkerbell dress is covered in marshmallow fondant, and her head, hair, and body are entirely made of fondant, all skewered together with, well, a skewer :o) I made her wings with Wilton Colorflow, which I think is similar to royal icing, but was a lot easier to work with. (I first attempted the wings with royal icing, and they just shattered). It is hard to tell in the picture, but I painted the pink part of her dress with Wilton shimmer dust to make it sparkly. It looked really cool!

You can find the frosting recipe at this site, http://www.dyannbakes.com/. I love this site so much!! Her videos are so awesome and helpful, especially for a visual learner like me! If you like to bake, and want some good tips, you should definitely check it out :o)

Happy "leftovers" eating!!

Hot Chocolate in the Desert

2007-11-16T20:07:00.000-07:00

I love how it is getting extremely close to Christmas, and yet it is still too hot here to wear jeans. I know I complain about this often, but dangit, I want to wear a sweater this year. Just once... I remember last year, standing outside waiting for all of the kids to get off the bus at the school where I worked, and being freezing every morning! But that was Yuma, and El Centro is still just HOT.

But not too hot for Hot Chocolate Cupcakes!! The inspiration for these came from the insanely good hot chocolate that Jay makes for us every year, with cinnamon, nutmeg, milk, and double the chocolate. YUM!!! So of course this had to become a cupcake too. It turned into a sort of tweak-as-I-go-along recipe, as I wanted to get the taste as close as possible to that of the real thing. I think this is pretty close to what I ultimately came up with.

HOT CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES: Makes 12 standard size cupcakes

1/4 cocoa powder

1 packet Nestle rich chocolate hot cocoa mix (dry)

3/4 C all purpose flour

1/2 C sugar

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1 large egg

1/4 C plus 2 TBSP warm water

1/4 C plus 2 TBSP buttermilk

2 TBSP canola oil

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 C Kraft mini marshmallows

1/2 C semi sweet chocolate chips (I used Hershey's Special Dark)

2 tbsp light Karo syrup

1 TBSP butter

2 tsp heavy cream

1 C heavy whipping cream

1 - 2 tsp sugar, to taste

1/4 C chocolate shavings

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line muffin pan with 12 cupcake liners

In medium bowl, combine cocoa powder, hot cocoa mix, flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices.

In a glass measuring cup, whisk together the egg, water, buttermilk, and vanilla.

Add milk mixture to the dry ingredients, and mix on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes.

Fold in the mini marshmallows.

Divide batter evenly in the cupcake liners.

Bake for 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center of a cupcake comes out clean (a few crumbs are ok).

let cool for 5 minutes in pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Fill cupcakes with fudge filling, and top with sweetened cream and chocolate shavings.

FUDGE FILLING:

Melt chocolate chips, butter, and Karo syrup in small pan over low heat. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from heat and stir in the cream. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before filling the cupcakes.
Note - putting the fudge in the fridge will harden it, if this happens, just reheat to soften.

SWEETENED CREAM:

In large bowl, beat cream on high speed just until soft peaks form. Stop mixer and add sugar. Continue beating on high until thick enough to hold its shape. Dollop or pipe on cooled cupcakes, top with chocolate shavings.

I wasn't too sure what the marshmallows in this recipe would do, whether they would stay put and create pockets of gooeyness throughout, or just melt into the batter. Turns out it was the latter, which made for an all over gooey moist cupcake. I have to admit I was a little confused though when I bit into the cupcake and all the marshmallows had dissapeared... :)

Lazy Day

2007-11-11T22:02:00.000-07:00

It has been kind of a lazy past couple of days (which is a always a nice change!) Kalei has not been feeling too great, so we have been taking it easy. Yesterday we were able to go and see the Bee Movie with Kalei's friend L and his family which was super duper fun. It was too cute, L called Kalei on the phone to ask her if she wanted to go with him. Seriously, I am planning their wedding already. He is the cutest thing ever! So of course we had to dress Kalei up super cute :) Much grouchiness ensued after the movie however, so we were not able to get a picture of both of them :( The movie was great though, and the kids absolutely squealed with laughter all the way through. I don't know what is up with the negative critic reviews, I thought the movie was really good and funny, and it definitely kept the kids attention, and there wasn't anything offensive in it. Oh well...

Kalei and Jay were both up most of the night due to Kalei tummy troubles (while I slept blissfully on, unaware of any of it - I know what kind of mommy am I?). We stayed home from church today so that they could both get some needed rest. It was nice just to relax and hang out together as a family. Jay is taking the rest of his personal time for the year off these next few days ( he won't be able to use it once the holidays start) so we are really taking advantage of the time to have fun together. Tonight we took Kalei to the park to play and get out of the house for awhile, and we had a blast. Jay brought along the slackline so we took turns with that for awhile. Jay has gotten really good at it and can walk all over the line now, frontwards and backwards, and can even turn around. I, on the other hand, am still getting the hang of just balancing once I am up. I did manage to take an actual step a couple of times today though. Woohoo!! Kalei loves walking on it too. I am amazed that she is not completely freaked out by getting up there. Her balance is pretty amazing!

Kalei is in bed and I am just hanging out making cupcakes (surprise surprise!) while Jay is out with his dad, who is staying with us tonight after a fun weekend at the dunes with his brother. I had some left over glaze from a earlier cupcake project that I didn't want to go to waste, so I decided to experiment with a new cupcake recipe tonight. It's not nearly as much fun to do the same thing twice as it is to try something new :o) I am really excited about them! Assuming they turn out, I will post pictures and the recipe tomorrow when they are all finished :)

Baby Shower Cupcakes

2007-11-11T09:15:00.000-07:00

I made these cupcakes for a surprise baby shower for a friend of mine last week. It was so fun! This idea came from the Wilton 2006 Yearbook, the same one that featured Kalei's "lollipop" cupcakes. In the yearbook it uses pink for the blankets as well, but since my friend is having a boy, I just made more of the other 3 colors. I haven't used much fondant in a long long time, because I just don't think it tastes good enough to warrant all the work. When I found this recipe for marshmallow fondant however, I decided to be brave and give it a shot. The recipe made it sound like it was going to be pretty time consuming and messy, but actually, it was a really quick and easy! (Especially with my mixer :o) And since it is mainly made from marshmallows, it is much cheaper and tastier than the regular kind too. Kalei had fun playing with it as well. After I let her taste some of it, she started calling it "taste playdough". :oD

At least these babies didn't take 9 months to make!

Simple and YUMMY Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

2007-11-10T21:55:00.000-07:00

Chicken pot pie is not the sort of thing I typically think about eating, let alone making. Just way too high in fat and calories and all that stuff I would rather save for candy, chocolate, cupcakes, cookies, um that list goes on and on! But for whatever reason I have been CRAVING it lately. A quick search on the web produced countless recipes of course, and I found one that looked like a good balance between being simple, quick, and edible. I wanted a recipe with a homemade gravy, since I am not a huge fan of most cream of ________ soup bases. Anyway, I made this recipe for dinner tonight, with a few small changes, and holy cow it was awesome! I will definitely be making it again.

DELICIOUS CHICKEN POT PIE: from
Recipezaar

1 C potatoes, diced

1 C chopped onions

1 C celery, diced

1 C chopped carrots

1/3 C melted margarine ( I used olive oil instead, it worked great!)

1/2 C all purpose flour

2 C chicken broth

1 C half and half

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

4 C cooked chopped chicken

2 pie crusts, store bought or home-made (I used store bought and they were good)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.

2. Saute onion, celery, carrots and potatoes in butter for 10 minutes.

3. Add flour to sauteed mixture, stirring well Cook one minute stirring constantly.

4. Combine broth and half and half

5. Gradually stir into vegetable mixture

7. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until thickened and bubbly

8. Stir in salt and pepper; add chicken and stir well

9. Pour into shallow 2 quart casserole dish and top with pie shells

10. Cut slits to allow steam to escape.

11. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and filling is bubbly and cooked through.

I halfed this recipe, and used crust on the top and bottom because it was just easier. I also added some frozen peas and corn, because I like a lot of veggies. I think next time I am going to either use milk instead of half and half, or up the broth and cut down on the half and half. Maybe that would offset the "badness" of the pie crust a little... :P

Enjoy!!

Promises

2007-11-10T19:19:00.000-07:00

So remember the chocolate cupcakes with strawberry mousse I had promised? Well, they happened, however all of my pictures turned out blurry. Darn it, I guess that means I will have to make them again... Hehehe :o) I for sure will though, because they were, as Kalei would say, "Totally boss!!"

And the other thing I promised - check this out!

It's so pretty!!! I LOVE my mixer!! Basically I owe my sister a lifetime supply of cupcakes, and more. I have used this thing several times a day, everyday. It has made my hobby/obsession/insanity even more fun! YAY!!

We're Back :o)

2007-11-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Actually, we have been back for quite awhile... but trying to get caught up after a trip is always a challenge! Kalei and I had TONS of fun in Mesa. We were able to hang out with many of our friends that we haven't seen for over a year. It was neat to me that Kalei had such a great time playing with all of her old friends. We miss all of you so much!!

We have always known that Kalei just loves puppies (or any other animal really) but as you can see from these pictures, she is actually CRAZY about them! It's so cute :) As long is there is a puppy around to chase her, wrestle with her, and give her kisses, she is one happy kid.

Kalei and Spud. Spud seems pretty happy to play with her too!! Maybe we should get a dog too...?

Kalei and me with Spud's mom and dad (Kalei was not happy about leaving!)

Kalei and her friend K. When they weren't arguing about who is bigger, faster, stronger, etc. etc. they had a lot of fun together and got along well...

REALLY well! Apparently, Kalei likes boys too!

Kalei with her friends J and E. She was trying really hard not to smile for the camera.

Now that's more like it!

We are really fortunate to have a kid who is GREAT in the car! I love taking road trips with Kalei. She is so patient and happy when we are driving. She sings songs and tells stories, which keeps me entertained too! I am also greatful for the invention of the portable dvd player... Kalei and I only made one bathroom stop on the way to Mesa. The trip home was a different story. We made several potty stops, a lunch stop, an Ikea stop (I NEEDED Ikea meatballs!) , and a stop at the pizza place in Yuma by our old house to get pizza and breadsticks to eat for dinner that night. Phew! We were both pretty crazy by the time we got home :)

A Little of This, a Little of That, but Mostly a Lot of Pictures

2007-11-01T21:41:00.001-06:00

Kalei and I are leaving for a weekend long trip to Mesa, AZ tomorrow, and at the moment I am trying to pack, post all of my pictures, and watch Grey's Anatomy all at the same time. There are so many fun pictures to share and I wanted to make sure and have them all up before we left! Since I am so short on time, I will just let the pictures do all the talking, and that way you don't have to listen to (or rather, read) my endless ramblings :) Enjoy!

OUR WARD TRUNK OR TREAT PARTY:

Kalei getting ready to go

Playing carnival games

Sliding down the bouncy slide for the millionth time :) She was fearless on this thing!

Kalei and good friend L aka "Nacho"

HALLOWEEN:

Kalei checking out her treats from Greatpa and Omie Jet

More treats

Getting ready - as my mom would say "You have to suffer to be beautiful!"

She just loves being Sally!

???

EVERYTHING ELSE:

My birthday girls night out! I had such a fun birthday :o)

Haircut day + 2 days in a row off of work = mohawk

Cute picture of Kalei on "Mohawk Day"

Stay tuned for my next post coming up after my trip...Dark chocolate cupcakes with strawberry mousse filling + strawberry cream cheese frosting, and pictures of my new kitchen gadget. 3 hints - it's blue, it makes cupcakes at a wicked speed, and it came from my awesome sister!! See you in 3 days!

I'm not dead!

2007-10-29T18:39:00.000-06:00

Just resting :o)

I have been so busy these past couple of weeks - I don't even know where to begin!! I swear Halloween season starts, and the craziness does not end until after New Years. It is a little confusing for me though, because it is still in the 90s here! It just feels wong to be carving pumpkins and decorating for fall when it is still too hot to hang out outside. Oh well what can you do?

I guess I will break up everything we've been up to into several mini posts. And since people have been asking me "where are the cupcakes?!" I should probably start with that first!! I had a fun day yesterday baking for several hours after church. I made some mini batches of cupcakes from recipes I had wanted to test, and also a couple of different types of icing. I also got some new fun cupcake stuff from Michaels over the weekend, and I wanted to try some of it out. For the most part, the experiments turned out great. And my sweet hubby cleaned up the huge mess I made in the kitchen!! Can't beat that!

The first recipe I made was a vanilla cupcake from Amy Sedaris's book which can be found
here. I wanted the cupcakes to be really dome-ey on top, so I filled up the liners a little more than I usually would. I ran the risk of overflow this way, but they actually stayed put!! I only ended up with 8 cupcakes in the end (I had halfed the recipe) but a pretty 8 cupcakes they were. I should have taken pictures of the "naked" stage :o)

I wanted to make really pretty cupcakes this time around, so I topped these with my favorite color combo, pink and lime green. The flowers are made of tinted rolled fondant, cut with a mini cutter and dotted with buttercream in the center. The icing is Magnolia Bakery's vanilla buttercream recipe, which I love!! I swear you will never go back to grocery store shortening - laden cupcakes after you taste this buttercream. Yum!!!

The other cupcakes I made were Martha Stewart's One Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes and for such a simple recipe they are TASTY! I am in love with these cupcakes. They are awesome even without icing! But chocolate cupcakes require chocolate frosting, so i topped them with Billy's chocolate buttercream, and a single jumbo confetti sprinkle. Cupcake heaven!! So enjoy the pictures, and then go make some cupcakes :o)

It's TV night

2007-10-25T13:13:00.001-06:00

I have been so busy this past week, and therefore completely slacking on writing anything lately. Unfortunately, today is no different, I am running around like crazy, but I just had to post a link to this article about Daniel Dae Kim from LOST. All I know is they had better not kill off Jin this season! You'd think the actors on this show would learn something from their coworkers, but apparently not! Anyway, the readers' comments following the article cracked me up. We will just have to wait and see what happens I guess. :o) Only 4 "short" months to go...

TV Guide Article

I Love Halloween!

2007-10-20T13:52:00.000-06:00

And candy, and dressing up, and jack o lanterns, and scary movies, and candy, and more candy... So of course when I saw this I knew I had to create a cupcake based on halloween candy!

When I was little, See's Candy used to make these really awesome orange and black striped licorice/orange flavored sugar sticks during Halloween time (they still make the sugar sticks just not the licorice ones) and I could not get enough of them! I know, it it's a weird thing for a kid to like black licorice! So since sadly I can't get those anymore, I wanted to make a cupcake that would resemble as closely as possible the flavor of the candy sticks. I used a white, egg-white-only cake base, to which I added white chocolate and anise extract. I made the icing with marshmallow cream to give it a creamy, candy-like taste, and used orange juice to thin it instead of milk.

I knew I was kind of taking a risk making these, as there really just aren't too many people I know who actually like black licorice. But it also meant I had nothing to lose :o) Jay and I both really liked how they turned out! The orange and licorice flavors blended really well, and they really did taste like candy. Kalei was brave and tried one, but she hates black licorice, so she was pretty annoyed with me for giving her a "yucky" cupcake lol! So if you love black licorice, give these a try, if not, you are missing out!

BLACK LICORICE CUPCAKES WITH ORANGE MARSHMALLOW ICING: Makes 12 cupcakes

1 1/3 C cake flour

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

8 tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp anise extract

5 tbsp butter

2 oz white chocolate

¾ C sugar

5 egg whites at room temp

¼ tsp cream of tartar

Melt chocolate and butter in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water, or in the top of a double boiler. When completely melted and combined, stir in the sugar, and set aside to cool slightly.

Meanwhile, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in separate bowl.

In a large glass measuring cup, mix together the milk, vanilla, and anise extracts.

Transfer chocolate mixture to the bowl of an electric mixer, and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the milk mixture in 2 parts, starting and ending with the flour. Beat just until ingredients are combined after each addition.

With clean bowl and beaters, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar on low speed for one minute,then on high until soft peaks form.

Transfer 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the batter bowl, gently fold to combine. Fold in the rest of the egg whites.

Fill cupcake papers to ¼ inch from the top rim. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
Allow the cupcakes to cool slightly in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

ORANGE MARSHMALLOW FROSTING

1 stick butter

3 cups powdered sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 7 oz. jar marshmallow cream

2-3 TBSP orange juice

Cream the butter and powdered sugar together on medium speed for 1 minute. Mix in the vanilla and orange juice, and then add the marshmallow cream. Continue to beat on medium speed for 2 minuted. Mixture should be smooth and shiny, and thick enough to hold it's shape a bit.

Top cooled licorice cupcakes as desired. (I tinted some of the icing orange to make the spiderwebs, and the spiders are plastic Halloween rings.)

He Slimed Me!

2007-10-15T15:56:00.001-06:00

A couple of days ago I went to a Halloween themed Pampered Chef party, where we made all of this food that looked icky but tasted yummy! Inspired by this, and also from watching Ghostbusters too often lately, I decided I should come up with a "gross" cupcake for Halloween - Slimer Cupcakes :o)

The flavor of this cupcake was totally an experiment for me. I wanted something super kid friendly, since the look of these cupcakes would probably appeal more to kids than adults. I have also really been craving banana cream pie, the kind made with vanilla pudding, Nilla Wafers, bananas, and Cool Whip. I took my usual vanilla cupcake base recipe, added some mashed bananas, and replaced part of the flour and sugar with vanilla wafers I crushed up using a food processor, then dyed the batter bright orange. I was really nervous about whether or not the ingredients would cooperate well with each other, but the texture of the cupcakes turned out just perfect! Light, moist, and fluffy, with a good banana flavor that wasn't overly sweet. I really liked the resulting shade of orange, it stayed nice and bright!

When the cupcakes were all cooled, I filled each of them with instant french vanilla pudding that I had dyed a radioactive shade of green. The colors looked so gross together, but that is exactly what I was aiming for :o) I topped the cupcakes with green Cool Whip, and sprinkled them with some really cute Wilton Ghost Mix sprinkles.

Later today I plan to deliver these cupcakes to various places, inlcuding Jay's work, The Family Treehouse, and to some friends. They were so much fun to make, I already can't wait for next Halloween!

SLIMER CUPCAKES RECIPE: Makes 20 cupcakes

2 C cake flour

1 C finely crushed vanilla wafers

1 C sugar

1 TBSP baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

1 C (2 sticks) of butter at room temp

3 eggs at room temp

1 C whole milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 C mashed ripe banana

1 small box french vanilla pudding

1 1/2 C cold milk

2 containers of Cool Whip, thawed and tinted green

Using a food chopper or processor, finely crush enough vanilla wafers to equal one cup. Transfer to a small bowl, and add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix until combined.

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Add the mashed banana and vanilla, beat until well incorporated.

In a glass measuring cup, stir together the milk and orange food coloring.

Add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating adding the milk in 2 parts. Mix on medium speed just until blended after each addition. Start and end with the flour mixture.

Fill cupcake papers 3/4 full of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes, or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on wire rack before filling or frosting.

SLIME FILLING:

Follow the "pie filling" directions on the box of pudding. Tint as desired with green food coloring.

To fill the cupcakes -

Using a small sharp paring knife, cut a small cylinder in the top of the cupcake. Cut off the bottom half, reserving the top half to replace after filling. Using a pastry bag or small spoon, fill cavities with about 1 tsp pudding, then replace cupcake tops.

Top cupcakes with Cool Whip and sprinkles.

Devour - while contemplating how something so yucky looking can taste so good!

Slimer Cupcake dissected

Happy Halloween Time! Only 16 more days left!!

Only one of the many reasons why I love this show

2007-10-14T21:59:00.000-06:00

All 3 of us in our family absolutely love Yo Gabba Gabba (Nick Jr. tv show). There are so many things that are good about this show, I could go on and on, but most of all I just love that Kalei loves it so much! It gets her up and dancing and singing. She just goes crazy when it's on! She loves all of the music and always announces what band is coming on or who the guest of the day is. It's pretty darn cute! There is this hilarious part in one of the episodes where Brobee drops his sandwich, and upon trying to eat it anyway, is promptly stopped by Plex the Robot, because it is now covered in germs. They sing a song that goes, "We are the tiny ugly germs! We are ugly, and we stick! We will make you sick!" Afterwards Plex, tells Brobee to put the sandwich in a better place (the trash).

Tonight while Kalei and I were eating dinner, she broke off a piece of her banana that she did not want to eat. She said, "Here, you eat it!" but dropped it when she tried to hand it to me. I said, "No, I can't eat it! It's covered with tiny ugly germs!" She responded, "That's ok. Lets go put it in a better place!" and took it to the trash. This totally cracked me up! :o)

Russian Tea Cupcakes

2007-10-14T18:14:00.000-06:00

I have been making all of these cupcakes but so far have not posted pictures or recipes for any of them! Well that's about to change...now. I give you Russian Tea Cupcakes. Russian Tea is a super yummy (word of wisdom approved!) spiced and citrusy "hot drink" mix that Jay's family introduced me to. I thought it sounded like a perfect flavor for a cupcake! Unfortunately, I don't have the exact recipe that was used to make the batch of it I had on hand when I made these cupcakes. However, many russian tea recipes can be found on the internet. Just pick the one that sounds the tastiest to you (and just leave out the instant tea called for in many of them).

It is a good thing I gave most of these away, because I could have eaten them all. The fact that I made them tiny, one-bite-size did not help either! It's kind of like when you buy a bag of bite size snickers, milky ways, etc. etc. and feel justified in eating 20 of them in one sitting because they are so little... or is that just me that does that? :o) Anway, on to the recipe!

1 ½ C cake flour

½ C sugar

½ C Russian tea

½ tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 stick unsalted butter, at room temp

2 large eggs

½ C milk

½ tsp vanilla

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream the butter, sugar, and russian tea together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until well incorporated each time. Mix in the vanilla.

Alternate adding the flour in 3 parts, and the milk in 2 parts to the butter and sugar mixture (start and end with the flour.) Mix on medium speed just until incorporated each time.

Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until toothpick or cake tester comes out clean. Allow cupcakes to cool completely on wire rack before icing. Makes 24 cupcakes or 48 mini cupcakes.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature

3-4 C powdered sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

In medium size bowl, combine the butter and cream cheese on low speed until smooth. Mix in the vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, one cup at a time, beating until fluffy with each addition. Start with 3 cups of powdered sugar, if frosting is too soft, continue to add up to 1 more cup of powdered sugar until the frosting reaches desired consistency.

When I made these I also drizzled each one with melted dark choclate before piping on the frosting. They are tasty both ways!

She naps!!!

2007-10-10T17:47:00.000-06:00

It's a miracle! Kalei is actually in her bed, napping. I almost don't know what to do with myself! Granted it is almost 5:00 pm, and I am not going to let her sleep for too long, but I will take what I can get! :o)

Last night Jay and Kalei returned home after spending the past 4 days in Sierra Vista with Jay's family. They had such a great time! Kalei does not get to see her cousins on that side of the family nearly enough, and I know she had a ton of fun with them. I stayed here this weekend so that I could babysit for a friend of mine while she and her husband went on a trip to Magic Mountain for her birthday. It was a little odd but super fun to have a a little boy around the house for a couple of days! It is not very often that Jay gets even 2 days off from work in a row, let alone 4, so I am really glad that he was able to go adn visit his family. It would have been awesome to have been there with them too, but I know Kalei really enjoyed having that special Daddy-Kalei time. And it meant I got to have a couple of days at home all to myself! It was wonderful! While I did spend a lot of time just relaxing and enjoying the quiet time, I did manage to get a fair amount of cleaning projects done, and of course I made lots of cupcakes too! I sure was happy to have them both back home though. I miss them so much when they are gone :)

Jay brought home some really cute pictures from their trip so of course I have to share them!

Kalei and her cousins at the pumpkin patch

Kalei and Daddy cutting the cute baby pumpkins she picked out

Yay cousins!

With cousin C. I love their identical poses...

Kalei and Daddy being silly at Oma and Opa's house on the sky chair

Hugs...

and kisses!

The Title...

2007-10-02T19:38:00.000-06:00

About 2 years ago, I started baking. Like super hardcore, making cakes and cupcakes everyday all day. I was taking classes, buying equipment left and right, and when I wasn't baking or decorating the cakes, we were eating them. (sooo bad!) I even considered starting a home based cake decorating business for awhile... It all started because I saw the cover of the 2006 Wilton Yearbook and just knew it had to be Kalei's 2 year birthday cake! Was she old enough to care? No. Could I have bought her a cake from the grocery store that would have worked just fine? You bet. Did I care? Nope!

Long story short - It took me a week to make. A week!! Don't get me wrong, it was a total blast, and turned out pretty awesome. Kalei was so super stoked that each of the cupcakes had it's own lollipop on top, it was definitely her favorite part. It was really fun to make something that she enjoyed so much!

About 1 month ago, Kalei was looking through my cake decorating books and said "mom, can we make the cupcakes with the lollipops?" Sure enough, she was talking about the ones on the cover of the yearbook. When I explained to her that they were the cupcakes I had made for her second birthday, she said, "Oh! Well can I turn 2 again so we can have them again?" Too funny!! Since then she has been telling everyone that she is 3, but that when her next birthday comes, she is going to turn 2 so that she can have the lollipop cupcakes again. Smart kid!

So, that is kind of where the inspiration for my blog name came from. I love LOVE baking, and spend so much time doing it, that it seemed like I should keep a record of the fun stuff I make. I have been focusing more on cupcakes than other things lately, mostly because cake decorating is just too time and resource consuming. Over the next few weeks I will be posting some pictures and examples of the recipes I have been creating. If anyone has any ideas for a crazy new cupcake flavor, send me an email and let me know and I will see what I can come up with!! :o)

Singin' in the Rain

2007-09-21T21:59:00.000-06:00

Yes rain! Tons of it! And cold and thunder and lightening and puddles and splashing... It was awesome :o) We actually had our windows open last night, which hasn't happened since, I don't know, last January? Jay went running early this morning, and about 20 minutes after he left we started getting dumped on, and I just laughed and laughed! He came home drenched, but loved every minute of it. It's amazing how little it takes to cheer us up by the end of the summer here!

Jay closed at work today, and spent a good part of the morning out, so Kalei and I pretty much just stuck around the house today and just enjoyed the fresh air coming through the open windows and doors. I did some laundry, made potato soup to eat for dinner later, and vegged out with Kalei while we watched The Corpse Bride for like the tenth time since we purchased it yesterday (which is just fine with me!) I was also FINALLY able to find Kalei a halloween costume. Kalei has only mentioned 3 things she would like to be this year: The MC Bat Commander, or as she put it, "the aquabat with the mustache", Foofah from Yo Gabba Gabba, or Sally from A Nightmare Before Christmas. The first option her daddy has already chosen for himself, and the second would require much way-too-hot-for-this-weather fabric, not to mention a pretty decent ability to use a sewing machine which I just don't have! So Sally it is. Fortunately, after several days of eBay watching, I managed to score a buy-it-now deal for $14.99 on a ridiculously cute Sally costume from ... drumroll... Hot Topic. Too funny...! A lady at the Disney store was even a little confused when we asked her whether or not they stocked Sally costumes in toddler sizes, she explained that "that's more the kind of thing that the teens are into this year". I really can't explain to anyone why "Pumpkin Movie" - (Nightmare Before Christmas), "Chocolate Treats" - Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), and Corpse Bride are her most favorite and requested movies, other than that she is just her mommy's girl!

Just after it started to get dark tonight Kalei and I bundled up and went for a walk in the rain. She was so excited when I asked her if she wanted to go, she said, "Sure! I would love to go with you! That makes me so happy!" So dang cute! And even cuter was the way she looked, with her pink sweatshirt hood up on her head, jumping and splashing in the puddles, tilting her head back with her mouth open to catch the raindrops. There are times when she absolutely makes me crazy because she never slows down, but at times like this her unfaltering zest for life just makes me smile! She is truly a one of a kind kid. :o)

Everyone else is doing it...

2007-09-19T17:50:00.000-06:00

So here is my blog :o) I am horrible at keeping a journal up to date, but I take a ton of pictures, so I thought that maybe this way I could combine the two and have more success... we shall see!!

The look of my page will probably change frequently, at least until I figure out how this whole thing works and pinpoint what direction I want to take. In the meantime, enjoy the randomness!