Let her make cake!

I made this cake for Sophia T. in my ward. She was having a pink puppy themed 5th birthday.
I auctioned off a fancy cake as part of a Relief Society service auction. Sister T. didn't win, but mentioned that she wished she had so Soph could have a pink Barbie cake. I'm a sucker, and I actually really like Sophia...so I said I'd do it anyway. When it came down to time to do it, Sister T. gave me this magazine clipping for a puppy cake. "Do you think you can do this? She really wants this instead of the doll cake now."
"Oh, yeah, no problem." Seriously? Luckily, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.



In fact, it turned out really well. I used just a boxed fudge brownie mix because I wanted it to be dense. My mom gave me the tip *freeze cake you plan to cut to reduce crumbling and give sharper edges.* Thank you, mom! I hadn't thought about that!

I used a six inch round pan to bake the brownie that formed the rear, head, legs, ear, and tail poof. The tail itself is just a piping of butter cream frosting. I used a little glass dish to bake the main body part.
The embellishments (ie. eye lashes and nose) are chocolate sprinkles. I just did a squeeze of frosting and placed the sprinks where I wanted them. The fur effect is pink colored coconut. I refrosted those spots and pressed the coconut into the still soft frosting.

I figured that the dog needed someone to walk it, and the brownie wasn't very big...
That and I really wanted to make another doll cake! I used a standard silver cake recipe for her skirt and baked it in a Pyrex type bowl. I didn't consider that the batter wouldn't raise the same way a box cake does, so she was a little short. Luckily, again, I'd made a small round cake for something else that served as an impromptu pedestal.

















I bought a little frame stand at Michael's so the pup would stand up. He turned out way bigger than the girl, but Sophia and her mom loved it, so that was all that really mattered!

P.S. Did you notice that I now know how to make grey icin'? Pretty cool. Now, if I just had the counter space...

Grr!

I just spent the last 20 minutes typing only for it to mysteriously disappear! Now I'm going to bed. I will try again later.

Man's best friend...Woman's little annoyance.

This is when I very first got her. She would sit and stare at me all the time. At first it was cute, then it was annoying, now she's gaining some courage and independence...so I miss it a little.

Today was the first really nice day here with her, so I left the door open to the balcony. She discovered the beauties of sunbathing!

Same song come back again.

Here's the flower pot cake made for the lady who gave it to me! We had a fun birthday breakfast with her the Saturday after. You can see Johnny was there too!

Grandma took the cake over the table at one point in the day, and she stumbled a little, and it looked like the cake was going down. Grandpa and I both reached and gasped, but good old Granny had it all under control. We laughed about it, but it was tense for a moment!

The colors turned out pretty cool since the pink didn't mix into the purple completely. The purple flowers have a bit of a pink splotchy quality. I liked it though and thought it added character.
I didn't really get the green to be two different shades, but it still turned out. I don't like the petal outlining, but the center stars turned out better this way than the other way. Give and take!





I used a strawberry box cake this time, which was delicious. My hand got a little tired by the time I put the words on, so it isn't my best work. That, and I was taping myself for youtube so I had some stage anxiety. Also, something funky happened with the frosting. I'm still not sure.

I really liked the color of the pot on this one. It was harder to do the pot frosting since the consistency was off, but it looks fine.

Table for One

Here is my favorite part of being single. Dinner. Not that I don't think "oh, I have no one to take me out to a nice restaurant, or even a super sketchy dive of a restaurant..." because I totally do. No, my favorite dinner is at home. My favorite part of it is that I can eat whatever I want.

Here are some things I've eaten for dinner that if I had a husband or children I wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) have.

1. Hot dogs with mustard and avocado. I know, sounds so gross, but maybe like it would be good. It is good. Nay, it is DELICIOUS!

2. Tortilla strips chips with chocolate chips as I waited for my cheese pizza to bake. Salt and sweet followed by a saucy/cheesy/carb loaded chaser? Yes please!

3. Three different kinds of cereal (the cheap brand equivalents of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Blueberry Muffin Top, and Cap'n Crunch with Crunch Berries). Popcorn for dessert.

4. Chicken Taquitos dipped in garlic dip (the kind for chips) and baby carrots.

These are just a few. Of course, every meal is accompanied by a pitcher of Crystal Light...and usually not a flavor that would compliment.

Here is some pasta... Penne noodles, alfredo sauce, olives, tomato, cucumber, onion, maybe chicken (I can't remember now!). Yum.

"I wish I had two hours to spend on that!"

Yes, this statement makes one feel really great about their life, or lack there of. In fact, it is pretty much a twist of the "oh yeah, you don't have a husband, or kids, or any serious commitment in your life" knife that's already sticking awkwardly ('cause really, how else could that knife stick?) out of your chest. The same chest that houses that big heart which encouraged you to do whatever cool thing no one else had time to do. Case in point: Happy Birthday friends at work!

It isn't like this was even very hard, or that I did a really spectacular job. I mean, I was proud of them, and they turned out really nicely, but seriously. A simply, "wow, great work!" is sufficient. Save the "You must have a lot of time on your hands..." comments for when I accomplish world peace, or cure cancer, or actually write a lesson plan. Then I will not be disheartened by those comments.

When's your mom picking you up?

I have a friend at work who goes to concerts all the time. Some of the staff (myself included) like to tease her that she's too old to go to rock concerts. Her response usually contains a curse word, so I'll leave that up to your imagination.

This last Friday we had a teacher in-service day. Beautiful, student free day. So, I'm sitting in meetings and I get a text from my friend Katrina. She invited me to go to a concert that very night with her. Now, I'm not big on "going out" or "hitting the town" or "having a good time" so I was hesitant at first. Then I remembered that my friend who was supposed to come down to spend the night totally backed out to "do homework" and be home taught. Fine, said I. I will find other entertainment.

So, we're sitting in a meeting and Amy (concert going work friend) says
"Hey, let's listen to some music! I'm going to the jack's Mannequin concert tonight, so I'll put him on."
"Oh," I reply, "My friend just texted to see if I wanted to go to that concert, she has an extra ticket."
"Text her back YES right now!" Amy shouted excitedly. And so, I went to the concert.

Now, this is my first real live stand around being excited rock concert. I've been to a couple Country concerts at the fair, and of course, Elton John at the Colosseum in Vegas. None of those prepared me for the hoard of obsessed teenagers who fought and pushed and shoved and made snotty faces while whining about not being able to see.

Seriously, 80% of the room was either shorter or younger than myself, and I tend to think most likely both. My Katrina friend mentioned to me that she felt like and old lady amongst the teeming teen crowd. Indeed.

True to our super oldness, we were totally not cool with the girls who shoved their way into a tiny crack of space in front of us and refused to move. I did my best to annoy them by coughing and blowing hot breath on their necks, "bumping" them with shoulders and elbows, and taking awesome flash pictures aimed at their faces. The one advantage to being so old and lame was that we got to go through the bar, which greatly expedited our coming and going.

The music was good. Do a Youtube search for:

"Bruised, Jack's Mannequin, Seattle" and select the video posted by issaquahwa. That's the best example of the incredible fan sing alongs.

"Satisfy, Vedera, Seattle" and select the issaquahwa video. If you watch the "Vedera, Goodbye My Love" video, you get a glimpse of Amy's fingers!

"The Gambler, fun. Seattle, WA" and again select the issaquahwa video. This was a beautiful song about his parents. I almost cried a little.

Check out Amy's Youtube channel for the whole concert.

http:www.youtube.com/user/issaquahwa&rclk=cti

Click on the Uploads tab and scroll down the right hand side to the Jack's Mannequin, fun., and Vedera videos from February 5th.