Kristen's Baby Shower Cake

My best friend, D, recently asked me to make the baby shower cake for her sister-in-law, Kristen.  Of course I was incredibly excited to do it!

Kristen's mom had chosen a book theme, and had found some adorable baby shower decorations with a Dr. Suess theme.

I had an awesome open book cake pan that Becky and Linda had gifted me a few years ago, and I was excited to get to use it!  I did two layers, one in the book cake pan, and another flat layer in your standard 1/4 sheet cake pan.

The cake was an awesome fudgy chocolate with ganache in between the layers.  Then I iced the whole thing with vanilla italian buttercream.

I wanted it to look like the book was coming to life (not in a creepy way), so I made each fish progressively more 3D.  Becky and Linda were kind enough to let me use their kitchen again, and Becky made those fabulous green fish!

We used a 50/50 mix of gum paste and fondant for the red fish and the mom and baby fish.  It was a little bit of a challenge modeling something 3D after a 2D image, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and was pretty cute in the end.

My oh-so-artsy Instagram shot of the cake

Totes M'Oats

Last week in PA we got some snow.  It was cold, it was hard to drive in, it was uncomfortable.  All of you out there who live in places like Chicago, Minnesota or Finland probably think we're a bunch of Pennsylvania pansies.  And we are, I will not argue that point.  I just really really hate being cold.

I went in to work last Tuesday before the snow started, and left at 1pm.  It took me 25 minutes to get off the campus where I work, and an hour total to drive the 13 miles home.  I'm not saying you should feel bad for me, simply giving the backstory.  Just call me Dr. Doofenschmirtz.

When it snows, no one wants to go to the grocery store.  It's one of the comforting things about winter in PA.  Once you're home, it's perfectly socially acceptable to not leave your house again until you have to do something important...  like shovel your driveway or go back to work.

Randy and I weren't low on groceries, or food, but we had eaten dinner and were binge watching season 8 of Supernatural.  I got in the mood for ice cream, but we didn't have any, and I was NOT going back out into that snow to get some.  I wanted something sweet with chunks of chocolate.  Then I came up with a plan using ingredients we did have.

Looks a little weird, huh?  It was SO GOOD!

I was thinking I could go for some peach cobbler, but I didn't feel like going to that much trouble, and what good is peach cobbler without ice cream?  So then I was thinking of this dessert we used to make at Girl Scout camp when I was little.  You take canned peaches, drain the juice, put some slices in some foil with part of a Hershey's bar and some marshmallows and throw it on a grill.  It all melts together into this gooey yummy mess.  I wanted something slightly more substantial, so I combined the peach cobbler and the chocolate/peach/marshmallow thing into one really fast dessert:

Totes M'Oats  (Instead of Totes McGoats.  Randy came up with it and it cracked me up)

1/2 cup quick oats
1/4 cup brown sugar (you can use white sugar too, the brown sugar makes it have a slight molasses taste)
1  ~15 oz can of peaches (don't drain!)
chocolate chips
mini marshmallows

I put the quick oats in the bottom of a casserole dish and poured in the can of peaches, juice and all.  I sprinkled the brown sugar over the peaches, then I threw in a handful of chocolate chips and covered the whole thing with marshmallows.  I baked it at 350 for 20 minutes, and didn't even preheat the oven.  It baked in less than an episode of Supernatural, even without commercials!

It was so good, but rich!  It made enough for 4 servings, so we each had two.  Just kidding!  We had some left over.  It was screaming for ice cream, so the next day I stopped off at the store on my way home.  Even though I just wanted to hibernate, I picked up some vanilla ice cream to scoop onto the reheated leftovers.  Totally worth the effort.

:)

PS:  My Mom put a post on Facebook this week asking what you WILL leave your house for when it's just too darn cold.  She got a lot of funny (and unusual) responses.  Her one thing was iced tea, and obviously mine was ice cream.  What's yours?

Felt Bird Ornaments

The felt bird ornaments were actually really nice and relaxing to make.  They weren't quick, but they were pretty easy and mindless and therefore kind of meditative.  I recommend this is you've had a stressful week at work and just want to veg in front of the fireplace with your Keller sandwich.

Between the tree and the fireplace, all four cats have been glued to the living room, and they've been uncharacteristically sweet with each other.  It's a Christmas miracle!

I created this template from an ornament I saw in the Mexico pavilion down in Disney back when Dad told Randy he couldn't run a marathon.

I wanted to make six birds, one for every household coming to Christmas plus Bryan and Ashley (they were celebrating with Ashley's family this year).  I created templates for each part of the bird, extending each one out a quarter inch.  I folded the felt in half to double each cut, and cut out 6 sets of bird pieces from different colored felt.  I wanted the beaks to all be yellow or orange, so I just cut out multiple beaks from the yellow.  I also cut all the eyes out of acceptable eye-colored felt.  Forgive me, but I think pink eyed birds are a little creepy.

Then I pinned them together with a sewn-together beak tucked backwards between the bird "faces".  I sewed along the mid back, around the head and half way down the tummy.  I had to leave it open enough to turn it inside and outside for embroidering (maybe I should have done this first?) and to later stuff them with fiberfill.

Now they're starting to look like birds!  Notice for the yellow one I used an orange beak to keep things colorful.

Then I sewed on the wings using...  my grandmother would be so disappointed...  a slip stitch I think? and embroidered them according to the template above.  I just did it freehand with no guide since I wanted them to look imperfect, like folk art.  Then I stuffed them with fiberfill and added long pieces of different colored felt for the tail.  Finally, I held the tail pieces inside the back end of the bird (sorry for the mental image) and sewed a straight line across the tails with my sewing machine, connecting my tails and closing up my bird.  Then I made little parallel cuts to the end of the birds to create feathers into the end of their tails.

I tried to use all different shades of the colors to get some diversity into my tail feathers :)

I got the mini piñatas and red and green maracas from Oriental Traders (.com).

As it was, I got my six birds done by the skin of my teeth Christmas Eve, but I would have loved to have more birds on the tree.  

How was your Christmas/Hanukkah/Festivus/Christmakkah?  Did you make any home-made ornaments?  We would love to see them!

Its Gonna Be A Long Walk Home

Finally, Randy has returned to blogging!

While you read this post, I recommend that you listen to the Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch" and "Long Walk Home."

If you live in the northeast region of the United States, you are experiencing one heck of a winter cold front. Thursday, as some of you may have experienced, was a snowy night.

This is my story of Thursday evening.

One of my coworkers brought in cookies. He had one left, so I took it for Jodi. She likes cookies.

I had decided to leave work on-time on Thursday. For those that know me, you may find that statement hard to believe. But, I wanted to be home before the snow started. Smart idea, huh?

By the time I got to the final stretch of the drive, it had yet to start snowing. So I decided to go to the gym. In subsequent posts, I will describe the training for another marathon. But I had wanted to begin the training again. Why sit at home, right? It wasn't snowing. How ironic.

During my workout, I saw that it was snowing. So I quickly changed and left. But, Jodi and I needed a few groceries... and with a Wegman's across the street from the gym... how long would it take?

The snow wasn't bad when I left. I had made it up the first of 2 major hills. I can get home, right? And so, the story begins...

My car slid out on the second hill. I smelled the transmission heating as my car tires failed to make contact with solid, dry road. Now, for the first time in my driving life, I was afraid. I called Jodi. I told her that I'm not driving home.

I made a K-turn on a highway. The traffic going in the opposite direction was very heavy. Luckily, my direction had no cars. Gee, maybe it was because it was impossible to drive. A man driving a utility truck stopped traffic to let me enter. I told Jodi that I'm going to leave my car in a neighborhood. So I turned right into the next street, found a good spot, and turned off my engine.

Jodi asked where I was. I have no idea. I walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A little dog barked and a man opened the door. Soon, his family (wife and 3 daughters) showed up.

"Sir, my car won't make it up the road. Do you mind if I leave my car in front of your house?"

"Do you want to call someone? Can someone get you?"

"Yeah, I'm currently on the phone with my wife. But I can't have her drive here considering I can't get home."

The mother: "Would you like to stay here for a while?"

The oldest daughter: "We're gonna watch Sharknado. Do you want to watch?"

I said, "Actually, I've seen Sharknado. And I appreciate all your kindness, but I just want to leave my car somewhere safe so I can walk home."

The mother: "You're going to walk?! Would you like to stay here?"

I said, "No, I really appreciate it, but I'd like to go home. I can walk. No big deal."
The mother: "Let me make you a sandwich. Let me give you some boots. Look at your shoes! You'll fall."

I said, "No, I really do appreciate it, but I'm gonna head out."

I moved my work computer and Xbox 360 (I just bought it at lunch) into the trunk with my groceries. I gave the key to my car to the family. I gave the cookie to the mom. Yes, it was for Jodi, but it was the only thing I could offer for her kindness.

And I was off. Flyers' ski hat, leather jacket, and gloves.

Jodi was on the phone (with my earbuds so I didn't have to carry it). She was on Google Earth helping me navigate. She was awesome.

I walked about 100 yards and fell. I laughed. The mother called it!

I am the luckiest person in the entire world. For all the doors I could have knocked on. Most houses... the people would hide from the unknown. They wouldn't help. Wouldn't want to get involved. But, I am so thankful that this family... a name I will not post... helped. And offered me more. All I took was a parking spot in their driveway.

So, the first song I thought of was Bruce Springsteen's "Human Touch." He sings, "There ain't no kindness in the face of strangers. Ain't gonna find no miracles here." But, as much as I love Bruce, he got this one wrong. There is a kindness in strangers.

I'll be honest, I felt really comfortable walking. I had no fear of being behind the wheel. No fear of hitting someone or being hit. I had my feet.
Let me tell you, it was 19 degrees, 15mph winds with wind chill at about 0 degrees, and 4 inches of snow and growing. This was the complete opposite of the marathon.

It wasn't a bad walk. I got to take some shortcuts because Jodi was navigating. She got me to Target. I needed stuff.

First, I bought 2 pairs of boot socks. My feet were wet and cold from trudging thru the snow. From my military trained friends, I was told to always change your socks when you have a chance.
I bought an extra large hooded sweatshirt because strangely, Target doesn't sell men's scarves. My neck was very cold from the wind. Look, I get teased for being cheap, but I'm not gonna risk frostbite over a few bucks. And I bought active wear long johns... blue... so I look like Spider-man. I changed into my new clothes and put my wet socks in my pocket. I was very toasty.

I started walking again. This time... the cold did NOT bother me.

Jodi and I had two very funny moments. Again, Jodi is on Google Earth. She sees where I'm going from a satellite photo. But I have eyes too. So, I'm walking and Jodi says, "Go through the trees."

"Uhh, that's thick brush."

"No, it just two trees thick."

"Uhh, you're not seeing what I'm seeing."
I did find a space and slid thru on my butt. It was too steep to try to walk... and heaven help me if I turn my ankle or something.

Now, I'm walking through someone's back yard. I'm through parking lots. I'm on side streets.

The other funny moment, "you know, Jod, the snow is actually pretty. I wish you were here."

"Shut up! Can I pick you up?"

"No, not yet... let me get somewhere closer. The roads aren't plowed yet. I'll tell you when you can come."

Finally, I got to the Wawa about a half mile from our house. I said, "Ok, now you can come get me."
I had walked about 6 miles... after my 2.5 mile run at the gym. Even when I got into Jodi's car, I didn't feel comfortable with being in a car. I wish I could have finished my walk. But, it was nice to stop walking.

First, I called the family to tell them that I was home. It was so nice that they were worried.

Next, I emailed my bosses that I was not working on Friday. I told them that I left my laptop in my abandoned car.

And then, I couldn't get Bruce Springsteen's "Long Walk Home" out of my head. No, its not about walking home in the snow... but the chorus seemed to be the easiest to fit into my adventure.

After all the stress that Jodi went through, she was not amused with my self-proclaimed "Tale of Huckleberry Finn and Samwise." She and I made cupcakes for the family.

The next day, she took me to my car. We had shovels in her car so we could shovel their driveway. We got to the house and I said, "Sonvabitch!"

Not only did the family shovel their own driveway, they wiped the car off my car and reversed my car so I could easily get out. Can you believe that -ish!? Who the heck do they think they are?!

Jodi and I gave them the cupcakes and they returned my key. And we were off again. And I drove home with no issue.

I'm still sore from walking.

Mexican Christmas!

So Randy and I haven't been very good about blogging lately, but we're back!  I've recently started a new job (same company), but now I'm a supervisor.  As if that isn't exciting enough, I'm the supervisor for a team that is a new initiative at my company, so it's kind of like a start-up and very entrepreneurial.  It's super challenging and really fun, and I love it, but when I get home from work every day, I'm drained.  Randy has something similar going on at work - not a new position, but he's working on a new objective for his company too.  We're both getting confused about what day of the week it is because we've been working Saturdays, but have a random Friday off...  I'm not making excuses, I don't believe in excuses, but I thought I owed an explanation at least to myself.

So anyway, let's jump into Christmas!  It came quick this year, didn't it?  With Thanksgiving so late and Hanukkah so early, it really threw us for a loop!  But this is the Christmas we have been waiting on for a while...  Mexican Christmas!  And we're hosting!  And I can't stop exclaiming!

You might remember Southern BBQ Christmas last year at my brother's house, and Cajun Christmas in 2011 at Randy's brother's.  We have a tradition of hosting a themed Christmas every year based on a chosen culture.  Since Randy's family is jewish, and mine is catholic, we decided to start creating our own traditions together rather than make Randy's family fit into our traditions.  And I was totally fine with giving up the ham on Christmas day.  Sorry, Mom.

So for Mexican Christmas, which later became Merry-achi Christmas, we started with this.  I found the star at Target.  It was pretty rustic looking, and it was $5.  Sold.

Instead of our traditional red tree skirt with snowmen, I wrapped our Penn State blanket around the tree Linus-style, which the cats loved.  If the cats puke on it, it washes very easily, unlike our tree skirt.  I wanted to stick to the Mexican theme as much possible, so anything overly American I left in the christmas boxes.  That means no red suited Santas, no snowflakes (does it snow in Mexico?), and no snowmen.

So Randy, Keller and Rocky took a break while I sorted through our ornaments and pulled out all the colorful ones, all the folk artsy ones, and the ones that could look sorta Mexican if you squinted at them sideways.

Who do you think he's talking to?  I can't remember, but if I had to bet money, I'd say his mom.

So then our tree looked like this:

Feliz Navidad, right?  Wrong.

Even with Camille posing for the camera, the tree just wasn't complete.  But she is cute, isn't she?  I ordered some mini maracas and piñatas from Oriental Trading Company, and DIYed some cute felt bird ornaments.  More to follow on those.

In the meantime, I got the nativity set up, or as I like to call it, La Navidad.

Aaaaaaand just because, here is a picture of Keller when he cuddles with Randy.

 He's such a sweet little monkey.

Anyone else celebrating a non-traditional Christmas this year?  Have any cute kitties that like to snuggle by the tree?  Awwww c'mon, who can't resist these little toes!

Tessa and Tom's Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

Last weekend, Sugar Whim was hired to make a cutting cake and 150 cupcakes for the country wedding of Tessa and Tom.  Tessa is the youngest in our buddy Carl's family (The Carl combination was named for his birthday cake a few years ago).  Tessa is the last one of the 4 siblings to get married, and the 3rd sibling to have a Sugar Whim wedding cake!

You might remember Kat's cake from last October, or Billy's cutting cake from a few years ago.  When Tessa asked me to make her cake, I was extremely excited!  It takes a lot to get this:

from this:  

But it was worth every second.  With such a large order, I usually enlist the help of some friends.  Linda and Becky recently had their kitchen redone, and it is GORGEOUS.  Like seriously the most beautiful and functional kitchen I have ever seen.  We will need to go and crash their house some day so you can see how fabulous it really is...  these crappy iphone pictures really don't do it justice.  So when they offered to let me use their new kitchen AND help out, I jumped for it.  I mean seriously, I have some of the best friends ever.

Here is Linda pouring out the batter for the cutting cake:

And her daughter, Becky, taking a break from mixing cupcake batter to snap some pictures with her phone:

The chocolate cupcake batter had all three of us hopping at some points - we had to melt chocolate and butter on the stove, mix our dry ingredients and measure our buttermilk all at the same time to keep production moving!  

The batter came out thick, like chocolate pudding.  It took a lot of self control to not stick our fingers in to taste the batter!

Tantalizing, isn't it?

After we baked them and mixed up the icing, I packed up all of my cupcakes (we also made italian cream cupcakes), cake layers, icings and fillings, and Randy and I drove up to State College to Hannah and Derrick's house.  I woke up really early Saturday morning to fluff up the icings in the mixer and frost my cupcakes and cakes.

Hydrangeas have been blooming around here, and I am amazed at the colors - pinks, blues, purples, whites...  but they're not solid, their beauty is the the layers of color.  I didn't want to have flat colored cupcakes, so I mixed up a few different colors.

My color scheme was blues and purples, so I mixed up a light blue, and blue purple, a purple and a pinkier purple, along with using plain white icing, and I layered them in my icing bag to get all the different layers of color.

I used my fat cupcake swirl tip to ice all of the chocolate cupcakes to look like hydrangeas, and I used the same colored vanilla italian buttercream to make forget-me-nots, roses, and sweet peas on the chocolate iced cupcakes.

It was warm and humid, so my cake started to develop some condensation, but overall held up great in the heat.

The chocolate iced cupcakes were italian cream cake with chocolate chip cookie dough centers.  I used condensed milk to give it the doughy consistency without using raw eggs!

I think these white and blues and white and purples are my favorite.

 Tessa and Tom liked it too!

I got some absolutely beautiful cake cutting pictures, so I can't help but share them here.

 Aren't they an adorable couple?

The cupcakes were completely decadent and wonderful, and the flavor combinations were excellent choices by the bride and groom.

Congratulations, Tom and Tessa!  Thanks again for hiring Sugar Whim, and for making that one-of-a-kind cupcake stand!!!  It was a beautiful display.

A little visitor

A funny thing happened when Randy and I were working on Mom and Dad's powder room:  One day I was waiting for Randy to help me measure the walls (it's a 2-person job).  I was sitting in the living room looking out the window, and I see this snaking through the flower beds onto the front porch, and nearly had a heart attack.

For those of you who have known me a long time, you understand.  For those who don't, this back is the spitting image of my first cat, Van Gogh, who passed away a few days before Randy and I were engaged, and is buried in the back yard.  Before you get to thinking this is a zombie tale (tail, ha ha), I saw her face.  Definitely not Van Gogh.  Phew!

She walked up to the front door and started pawing at it.  Who is this cat?  Do Mom and Dad know her?  So I did what any other pet owner would do, I went out on the front porch to see what was going on.

The cat's name is Ursula, and she had a number, but no address on her collar.  I figured she was scared and lost, so I got her some food, and Randy called the number.

Randy talked to the man, whom we call "Ursula's Dad".

Randy told him where we were, and Ursula's dad came and got her.  I was holding her in the kitchen, thinking she might get scared and run away before her dad came to get her.  He came, I handed her over, he says, "Ursula wanders, but she's never walked into anyone's house before..."  Ooops.  She didn't come in, I carried her in because I thought she was an indoor cat that got out!  Ursula is an outdoor cat!  He put her down on the porch, and walked home.  Ursula followed him like she was on a leash.

So a couple days later, I get a call from my brother, Bryan.  The first thing he says is not "hello", or "hey, it's Bryan", it's "So I hear you met Ursula."  Bryan did the SAME THING I did, was over at Mom and Dad's checking in on the house, and he met Ursula.  He called Ursula's dad, and said he had his cat.  So Ursula's dad says, "I think I talked to your brother or dad or someone last week."  Ha!  Randy was so offended that the guy thought he might be Bryan's dad!  So Ursula's dad says she'll come home on her own.

A couple days later over the next weekend, I see Ursula sunbathing on the front porch.

I open the door to say hello, and Ursula walks into the house!  Like she lived there!  She goes into the kitchen, looks all around, walks into the dining room and into the living room, and jumps up into the window through which I first saw her.  Of course I understand this is completely my fault.  I should have recognized that she was an indoor/outdoor cat, but I didn't because my cats are indoor cats, and none of Mom and Dad's immediate neighbors have outdoor cats.

I knew Mom and Dad's cats, Tango and Foxtrot, would be upset if they came home to a new cat smell in the house, so I wrangled Ursula and gently took her outside.  I slid shut the rolling screen door, and with one flick of her paw, Ursula snapped it right open again and walked right through.  I didn't like doing it, but she's not our cat, and she has a good home, so I had to put her back out and shut the front door.

I walked by again, she was still there.  I walked by again a little while later, and she was gone.  Whew!

Until we went out back to use the miter saw on the back porch, and she was drinking out of the pool!  She got through the fence!  So we e-mailed Mom and Dad, and told them all about Ursula, how friendly she is, that she's a wanderer, but she has a good home, etc.  Mom was excited to meet Ursula, but since they got home, we haven't seen her since!  Has this ever happened to anyone else - you think you're helping out a lost pet, and you find out they're outdoor pets?  Better to be willing to help someone who doesn't need your help, than to not be willing to help someone who needs it, right?