Tag Archives: family

I think I can, I think I can….

Martha, your enterprise is safe. For now….

Our youngest turned 9 last week and since I had the day off for her birthday, I agreed to make the cake she requested: Red velvet with cream cheese icing AND chocolate with chocolate icing….layered up. OK. No prob. I am sure her vision was something like this:

OK, maybe we watch too much Cake Boss….besides she knows me too well. I don’t even have a tiny square pan like the top layer!!

**image by yumsugar.com

More likely, her visions were of this type of cake…(just imagine some chocolate layers between the red velvet….)

I actually HAVE made a few layered numbers sorta, kinda similar to this. Really. I just can’t find the pictures right now…..
Image by southernliving.com

Off to Publix I went. And lo and freaking behold, there was not ONE red velvet cake mix. WTHeck!??! So, I went on my phone, pulled up a recipe (which took FOREVAH–the signal is lousy in that store!) and procured the ingredients. Confident of my preparations and time frame, back home I went.

Turns out, between the two cake batters I had enough for cupcakes, too! BONUS! This was going to be a spectacular cake.

When I began to smell burning cake (8 minutes before the timer went off) I quickly removed the pans and checked for done-ness. With the exception of one pan, everything was ready.

The problem was that the red velvet layer cooked too quickly on the bottom. So I brought out my serrated knife to cut off that portion. The cake itself was moist and lovely, hence…the darn thing began to crumble as I cut off the burnt portion.

Crumble-palooza, Summer 2012!!

The issues continued as the second pan didn’t QUITE come out intact (apparently I missed a spot with the spray…)

I decided on making the best of it. I cut the red velvet layer in two, turned it upside down and began to frost. Then layering with the chocolate layer and “gluing” it together with frosting–there is no such thing as too much frosting, by the way. Topped it with the red velvet layer and then used cupcakes to hold the darn thing together and up (as for some reason it was now leaning to the side…).

As I surveyed the ~~damage~~ final result, I pondered running back to Publix and purchasing one of their ready-to-go FANCY SCHMANCY cakes, but my husband said, “it will still taste OK.”

As our daughter arrived home from VBS, I Happy birthday-ed her to death, oohed and ahhed over her 9-year-old self and buttered her up for the sell. She paused as she took in the confectionary conundrum, listened to her sister as she assisted in the sell (God LOVE that girl!!!) and turned with the biggest smile ever, “That is so COOL!!!”. Phew. Crisis averted.

**on a side note, my girlfriend recently revealed to me that she often enjoys “Cake in a bag”, the result of an ALMOST thrown away iced cake (can you even IMAGINE such a travesty!?!?!) and that yes, indeed, even if it looks awful, it DOES still taste good. I was clinging to that hope.

So. For now. Martha Stewart has nothing to fear. Give me time and perhaps a little patience, attention to detail and a concern about what other people think…..and look out. So, until then….VOILA!

ZEE Masterpiece, non?

Throw a bunch of candles on it and there you go! Smiles!!

The leftover carnage….and yes, it was AWESOME! (especially the red velvet part)

To recreate this baking WONDER, I pulled the Red Velvet recipe from HERE. As for the rest. Any chocolate cake mix. And throw all your cares out the window and let ‘er rip! Bon Appetit!!

Galations 5:22 -23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

18 years and we still got it!!

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18 years ago, my 24-year-old self became a June bride. My husband would turn 25 on our honeymoon in the Dominican Republic. It was the “Year of the Wedding”…not just ours but with many of our friends getting married as well. We joked we belonged to the Wedding of the Month Club. It was a fun time. Expensive, I’m certain, but at 24 who really dwells on that? I certainly don’t remember losing any sleep over it. For our own wedding, my girlfriend and I attended a bridal show and I won the GRAND PRIZE as we were leaving. It consisted of a wedding gown, tux rentals, limo rental, wedding cake, hotel room, flowers and a bunch of other stuff. All I know is…… SCORE!!! (and boy were my parents happy!)

Fast forward 18 years, 4 kids, 1 townhouse, 3 houses, 2 dogs and 1 cat later. We are but a glimpse of the smiling young couple you see above. Not in a bad way. In a roll-with-life way. Kids change you. Growing up changes you (NOW finances can cause you to lose sleep!). Jobs change you. Life changes you. For us, I am happy to say that we still enjoy each other’s company. We still laugh. We still fight. We still love. So much has changed and yet, most days, in my heart, I still feel like the bright and happy 24-year-old.

Anyone that’s married can tell you, it’s not easy. And either no one tells you that before you get married or you choose not to hear it from those cynical old biddies. After you’ve been married awhile you see the humor in the jokes and understand what those people were trying to tell you. It’s worth it though. A marriage requires an effort. A marriage requires TWO people to be engaged. If you are in it for the long haul, be sure to pack some humor, compromise, forgiveness, hope, dreams and lots of love.

It’s been quite the ride and I’m looking forward to the rest of it…achy bones, graying hair and all!!

1 Corinthians 13:13

¹³But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the ^[a]greatest of these is love.

Sleepy Sunday

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8 a.m. OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! I don’t remember the last time we ALL stayed in bed so late. YIKERS!!! Even Hubby (to which our youngest said, “Good job, Dad!!”–since he’s usually up and gone early in the week and then has the routine of the week waking him early on the weekend as well.

Since this is our forecast/radar today….all that GREEN heading our way (supposedly not until later today), it could potentially be a super LAZY day today! I have lots of little inside projects, or a nap, or a new book to read. We shall see what the skies show after Mass…but I’m getting excited about a little rain (and so is our poor crunchy grass!). **So excited I just learned to screen save AND screen save a ‘specific’ area on the screen. It’s the little things….

There are only a couple of days left in Blog-Every-Day-in-May. We are most certainly past the “Love” portion of the month into the “Hate” portion of the month and rejoicing the silly daily blogging is almost done!!! I

t’s a long holiday weekend here in the States as we observe Memorial Day, a day/long weekend, we remember, in gratitude all fallen soldiers serving our country in all wars to protect our freedoms that we certainly take for gratitude on a regular basis.

Based on the long weekend, there may be a smattering of posts along the way…but be sure to check them out! Happy Sunday and blessings to all!!

Laura

Lynnell

Apurva

Brite

Amanda

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