Kjell's Train Cake and Party

When you make your children have "Black & White" and "French" themed parties before they have any say-so, and when they're old enough to care they stick diligently to "train party" for months before their 3rd birthday despite your strong nudges toward "Volcano Party", I'd say you had it coming.

Does anyone not love ice-cream cake? I decided to make one for this event and since an ice-cream cake can't sit out for an hour whilst it's decorated, I knew it was time to pull out my candle-making skills from my college job in the basement of a lovely South African family with three of my best friends in our swimsuits. But I digress.

Candy trains, cardboard trains, and conductor hats were all super inexpensive elements of the party (more to come on the possibilities of cardboard).

I liked the idea of having the kids bring the tickets they received in the mail and My Buddy thoroughly enjoyed punching and stamping them. These beauties were created by Pink Piggy Design. Megan, I loved how they turned out!

last 2 images by yan photo

Nola's Birthday Cake

Today I'm running around prepping for my baby girl's first bday party. Everyone discounts first birthday parties because, "they won't remember it," but aren't babies so deserving? I'm excited to see my little nugget (who suffers a milk allergy and has only known Oreos and Jelly Bellys) eat. some. cake.

Along those lines, let me share with you some images from my friend Kelsey of her Muffin's birthday and a little cake I made for her.  Isn't Nola sweet?

Kites

I love flying kites. I love flying kites on the beach even more...but that's another post (it's not really).  Seeing a kite in the sky and holding the other end of the string is a magical feeling! I'm wiping away magical tears right now. We live near and dear to a windy park and it seems like any day of the week we could get our fly on.

an innocent bystander in magical awe

Maybe you've seen some of the kitey celebrations circulating Blogland, but here are two of my faves.

what tops homemade kites?

 

Tracy Lau

 Ashley Rose via Green Wedding Shoes

Noah's Hoedown

My nephew had an Autumn Harvest birthday extravaganza I wanted to share with you lovely celebraters. His mother had all manner of sweet farming, hoedown happiness happening. Everywhere you looked there was farm fun, which is perfect since they live in a beautiful rural bubble in the middle of the normal world. And If you can't tell, we had a blast.

I supplied some pumpkin pie-pops. Stay tuned this week for a pie-pop tutorial!

I don't believe you've met My Buddy

The hilarious birthday boy

My farm-loving family

Recipe: Whole Wheat Bread

If you read the label of your store-bought bread and wonder if any of the ingredients are edible, here's an easy bread recipe that is tasty-times. I've been making it about once-a-week and eating it with jam, butter, honey, microwaved for a few seconds, my kids will eat it...it just keeps giving.

This bread takes me back to my childhood. My dad religiously made whole wheat bread, toasted a slice, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, cubed it, and ate it like cereal in a bowl with milk...?....
His wheat grinder was a staple on our kitchen countertop. Dad and the Little Red Hen were in an elite club. Now that I'm feeding little humans, I appreciate the value in each step you can do yourself to ensure quality and the real-foodness of it.  But I still buy my whole wheat.

The recipe makes 3 loaves. I like to make one monster loaf for sandwiches and the like, and 2 shrimpier ones for snacking. It comes from one of my favorite sites, All Recipes.


Ingredients

• 3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup honey
• 5 cups bread flour
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix warm water, yeast, and 1/3 cup honey. Add 5 cups white bread flour, and stir to combine. Let set for 30 minutes, or until big and bubbly.
2. Mix in 3 tablespoons melted butter, 1/3 cup honey, and salt. Stir in 2 cups whole wheat flour. Flour a flat surface and knead with whole wheat flour until not real sticky - just pulling away from the counter, but still sticky to touch. This may take an additional 2 to 4 cups of whole wheat flour. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface of the dough. Cover with a dishtowel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Punch down, and divide into 3 loaves. Place in greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pans, and allow to rise until dough has topped the pans by one inch. I put it in the oven at the lowest heat (170) to make it rise faster.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 25 to 30 minutes; do not overbake. Lightly brush the tops of loaves with 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine when done to prevent crust from getting hard. Cool completely                 

Chili's Molten

My SIL recently asked if I had pickier tastes than I did before my cake life began. Because I am such a cake aficionado, I wisely responded, "Yes. I don't like ice cream with my cake anymore." She was probably unimpressed (rightly) and followed up with, "I mean, I remember when you loved that Chili's cake." I took the conversation by the reigns at this point and made it perfectly clear that my love for the Chili's Molten Chocolate Cake was strong and true. I think I said something to the effect of, "There's just something about magic shell." While I declared this unashamedly, the experience was a humbling one and caused me to commit to never forget my dessert roots.

As if a reward for my loyalty, my mom stopped by this afternoon with a Molten in tow. Bam! That's good karma.

Introducing...

Shall we blog? We shall. Or at least I shall. So folks, we all know why you're here. You've come to see the monkey dance. And dance I shall. You know, if you say "shall" enough, it starts to sound really weird.

Back on topic. If you don't know me personally, let me just fill you in. I'm a mother of 2. Utah girl married to Mr. California (not in a pageant sort of way; in the I-love-where-I'm-from sort of way). We're those annoying friends that you don't want to see a movie with because afterwards when you ask, "Did you like it," instead of saying, "Most definitely," we'll start in on our newest novel entitled What I Did and Didn't Appreciate About the Movie. Here's the good news: we'll make it up to you when you come over for dinner and there is always dessert.

Speaking of dessert, I'll be posting pictures of my cakes, my experiments, my good finds, and a little of my life. Brace yourself.