Only one of the many reasons why I love this show

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

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!!!

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...

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

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...

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!