An Easter Treat

After we colored Easter eggs Matthew had a baseball game. I stayed home with Andrew and Katie because Andrew was in need of a nap.  (A rare but occasional occurrence).    It isn't a holiday without some sort of cupcake or cookie decorating, so I got things ready for a little cupcake decorating.

Matthew and Andrew are actually getting pretty good at it!

Katie still subscribes to the piling technique....

(A side note: I took Katie in for a hair cut and took off a couple inches. Her hair is fine like mine and breaks so easily. The ends were really thin and wispy...it looks so much better. She was very excited to go get her hair cut and requested that it be "cut long.") :)

Even though the cupcakes were for after dinner.  Someone couldn't resist a taste!

I did some decorating too :)

We took advantage of the sunny weather and went for a walk around the neighborhood. It was SO beautiful out! We bought lemonade at a lemonade stand. Took cupcakes to our pastor's house. (Where Dan offered the insightful advice to our pastor and his wife, who is also a pastor ~ if they are stumped on their Easter sermon ~" a good starting place is to talk about Jesus"....Thankfully they know Dan and his sense of humor quite well. :) ) We met another neighbor for the first time.

We came home and watched the Blazer game (we recorded it) which was SO good!  I'm not a huge basketball fan, but it was such an exciting game ~ my brother, sister in law, nephew and sister in law's mom were there!  What a great game to see in person!  

We put Katie to bed after dinner and read the Easter scriptures to the boys.

It was such a nice day (I know everyone is wearing different clothes than the previous post ~ the kids changed into cooler clothes after we colored eggs, but it is the same day).  From start to finish it was wonderful.

Birthday Cake!

This was Kaitlin's third birthday cake. I tried a new technique called "quilting." It took a while for me to figure it out (I practiced on a piece of fondant before trying on the cake) but I did it! I was really happy with how it turned out...Dan said it was his favorite cake that I've done. :)

I made the pumpkin carriage out of a pumpkin from Michael's, some glitter and pipe cleaners.

The cake itself was the treat though. I found this idea on a baking blog ~ it's a neopolitan cake. They had done strawberry filling with it but I did a dark chocolate filling and it was so good. The pink cake is strawberry, made with strawberry puree. It was delicious. You can find the recipe here. If you're interested in giving it a try.  Dan said it was his favorite cake ever.  Most people really, really liked it.

The colors in the above photo look a little weird because there wasn't any natural light when I took the photo. But there are white, chocolate and strawberry layers. I used my own chocolate and white cake recipes and it worked great.

And this was Kaitlin's little cake. Very fun and easy to make. 

Shannon shared this tutorial with me and I found it very helpful. You can find it here.

Happy Birthday Isaiah!!

Happy Birthday Isaiah!!

We celebrated my nephew Isaiah's 8th birthday last weekend. 

(Yes, I'm a little behind on the blog! )

Notice Noah on the right?  

That shirt went right up over his face.  We love Noah.  :)

I can't believe Isaiah is EIGHT. 

At Eight, Isaiah is a sports fanatic. 

He had a "Portland Trailblazer" birthday party and I was lucky enough to get to make his cake. 

He requested white with cookies & cream filling. 

I was happy to oblige. 

This is my love note to my nephew.

I wasn't sure what to do on the bottom cake other than the Blazer logos, and mom suggested making it into a basket ball hoop/net. 

I thought that was a great idea! 

Isaiah liked it. 

That was all that mattered to me.

The above photo is Matthew, Isaiah and Isaiah's good friend Jackson. 

The three of them went to the Blazer game that night after the party was over. 

They had a GREAT time.

Isaiah and his cake...

Little ones and balloons.  

Always a happy combination...

When I think of Isaiah at Eight

It is easy to picture him smiling

Looking out for his little brother

Being sweet to Kaitlin

A cheerful friend to Matthew and Andrew 

He's an easy little guy to love.

And love him, I do.

Happy Birthday Isaiah!!

I love you!

A Spiderman Birthday!

My nephew Noah turned 5 and had a Spiderman/Super Hero birthday this past weekend!

I had the honor of making the cake & birthday hat. I love to do this for the kids. It was a little nervewracking because I was using a new brand of fondant and was imprinting it to look like brick...I thought it would be a piece of cake. I think I warmed the fondant too much and it was too pliable and well, it was a big mess. And it was too late to go get more fondant so I had to get creative with covering up a lot of mistakes. It was a little hairy there for a while but I think it turned out okay.

We went to a place called JJ Jump that has all sorts of huge inflatable bouncy houses and slides. The kids LOVE it.

Between the kids being on the go and there being no natural light, my photos weren't great, but the subjects were as cute as ever.

I had fun going down the slide with the Bug. She LOVED it. She looks like this in every picture!

However, I was traded in for Aunt Michelle as the Bug's preferred sliding parter. Kaitlin loves Aunt Michelle. I'm so glad. Girls are scarce in our family--we need to stick together! :)

I have a lot of blurry, half in the frame/half out of the frame photos of Andrew and Noah from this part of the party. This is the best we could manage of the 2 of them. Dan took this one.

The boys were all so sweet with Kaitlin. I overheard them disagreeing over who got to help her up the stairs of the slide.

At one point Isaiah took Kaitlin's hand to see what else she might like to do.

Here's Isaiah. Big brother and protector of the birthday boy.

And the birthday boy himself when he saw his cake. See that smile? That's why I love to make their cakes. (Thank you Mike & Michelle, for letting me do this!) It's a love note from their Aunt Kathy.

Noah received lots of great gifts. I love this picture because you can see his sweet dimples. I don't think he could get any cuter if he tried.

I know some people have children who will sit and smile for a photo.

This is not the case in our family. The cousins despise group photos. The best we can do is gather them together (sometimes bribe them) and in this photo I just gave them the option of making a silly face. The goal is to simply get them into the same photo all at the same time.

I have extremely low expectations. And while this photo would probably be deleted in some families, this qualifies a "success" in ours.

Happy Birthday, sweet Noah!

We love you so very very much!

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

I just finished this little cupcake tree for Andrew's pre-school class. (The idea came from the Wilton website and is SUPER easy.) They're having a birthday party for Jesus tomorrow. It's not often that you make a birthday cake for the Messiah. A tall order for sure. I hope He likes it. I do know 10 little people who will.

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

It's a "Major Award!"

Have you seen this movie?

Dan and I love this movie. The line when the Dad is admiring his trophy leg lamp in his living room window and the neighbor asks, "What is that?" He replies,

"It's a major award."

That's become a tagline in our house.

When I came home from my final cake decorating class (Gum paste and fondant) Dan saw my certificate and the first thing out of his mouth?

What else?

"It's a major award!" :)

And here is my cake that I made at class....

That would be a "fantasy flower" and two very sad attempts at carnations. The great part though, was that I learned a daisy, which will play a very important role in Kaitlin's second birthday. So, mission accomplished.

Happy Birthday Isaiah!!!

We celebrated my nephew, Isaiah's 7th birthday this weekend.

Seven.

It just doesn't seem possible. I so clearly remember getting the phone call around 2am that Michelle was in labor. We drove to the hospital full of anticipation. This was the first grandbaby. We were all SO excited. Boy or Girl? We didn't know.

I remember sneaking down the hall and standing outside the door of Mike and Michelle's delivery room and listening for the sound of a baby. :) I heard a cry! And I ran back to the waiting room to report!

Shortly thereafter, Mike came down with a camera and showed us his new...son. Isaiah Edward. We saw him and were certain he was the most perfect, beautiful baby we had ever laid eyes on.

I remember going to the bakery to get a birthday cake with my Mom and stading there debating, "How do you spell Isaiah?" We had no idea.

We spelled it wrong.

And now, Isaiah is seven. He's a handsome little guy, with a friendly smile, a fun personality, a love for sports, and a sweet little heart under it all. When I picture Isaiah in my mind I picture him smiling. I think that says a lot.

We celebrated Isaiah's party at a local rec center and the kids had a ball playing with footballs, basketballs, and Dodge Balls. They ran, ran, ran, and then we stopped for some pizza, presents and cake. (Which I made and I'm sorry to say, was incredibly dry. I had the WORST time trying to bake these cakes! I forgot to put the baking powder in the first batch. The second two sets had their own issues--that made them not so great, but the filling was so good. Cookies & Cream! My new favorite.

It was fun to have the kids together. They always love to see each other. It's wonderful to see their little relationships growing.

Happy 7th Birthday Isaiah!

WE LOVE YOU!!!

And a few other photos from the party....

Noah, reviewing his options. "Hmmmm, To Throw, or Not To Throw?"

Dan playing with the little boys. Not sure who had more fun. (I think Daddy).

Kaitln loved running, running, running. She thought this was a GREAT party.

Got it!

Dan reliving his college football "Glory Days" in his Idaho Vandal Football jersey.

Go long, Boys!!

Cake Recipes

I had a request for the cake recipes that I use. Here is the first one. I have a couple other friends who like to bake cakes and we all agree this is the best chocolate cake recipe we've tasted. It's from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook" (a GREAT cookbook by the way...Costco will probably start carrying it again soon for Christmas. I'd recommend it).

I typed the recipe as it is in the cookbook except I omitted the coffee (Dan doesn't like it). Also, the only thing I do that is different from the recipe is follow the recommendation of Bakerella, (a really divine baking blog) and wrap the cakes in plastic wrap after they come out of the oven and they are still warm. Let them cool in there (and I actually put them into the freezer because I make the cake a day or two before I decorate it to help with time management). But it really makes a moist cake that way. We love this recipe and I hope you do too! Even Dan likes it, and he's not a fan of chocolate cake.

If you're doing fondant make sure the cake is at room temperature before you try to cover it.

I'll try to get the white recipe up tomorrow. It's time for bed now. I'm turning over a new leaf and trying out this thing I heard about called--sleep.

All-Purpose Chocolate Cake
Makes Two 8 or 9 in layers or one 9x13 in sheet cake
Serves 8 – 12
Total time: 45 min plus cooling time

You will need about 3 cups of frosting to frost either the 2 layer cake or the sheet cake.

Ingredients
2 c. all-purpose flour
¾ cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 ½ t. baking soda
½ t. salt
12 Tablespoons (1 ½ stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 ¾ cups sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups whole milk, at room temperature

1. Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat two 8 or 9 in round cake pans or one 9x 13 in cake pan with vegetable oil spray, then line the bottoms with parchment paper. Whisk the four, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.

2. Beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3-6 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until incorporated, scraping down the bowl and beaters as needed. Beat in the vanilla.

3. Reduce the speed to low and beat in one third of the flour mixture. Beat in half of the milk. Repeat with half of the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining milk, and finally the remaining, flour mixture.

4. Give the batter a final stir using a rubber spatula to make sure it is thoroughly combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top. Bake until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cakes come(s) out with a few crumbs attached, 20-25 min. for the round layers or 25-30 min for the sheet cake, rotating the pan(s) half way through baking.

5. Let the cakes cook in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a paring knife around the edge of the cakes to loosen, the flip out onto the racks. Flip the cakes upright, discard the parchment and let cool completely before frosting, 1-2 hrs.

To Make Ahead (which is what I usually do)
After the cake has cooled, it can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and kept at room temperature for up to 1 day. Or, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, then foil, the cake can be frozen for up to 1 month. Defrost at room temperature before unwrapping and frosting.

Noah's Cake

I have a friend heading out of town that is anxiously awaiting a picture of this cake. I made it for my sweet nephew Noah's 4th birthday which was at the zoo this past weekend (which I am excited to share more about later). A big thank you to my brother and sister in law who indulged me and let me make this cake. It was really fun for me to do and a labor of love for Noah bean. I get to do Isaiah's cake next month and I'm really excited about that too.

As usual, I have several posts to get caught up on...Matthew's first bus ride, his last T-ball game, Noah's birthday and Kaitlin's 19th month update--we're hitting milestones left and right.

But Andrew actually exclaimed tonight when I asked him to put his clothes in his hamper,

"Whoa!!! Massew!! Look at that!!! Mama you need to take care of the clothes before they touch the ceiling!!"

It's pretty bad. I have one more day before the family is in an underwear crisis. So the posts must wait. Will catch up soon.

Hope you all have a happy Monday!!