Life Lessons from Calvin and Hobbes

As I sit here on a Friday evening, still at work - don't feel sorry for me, I got in at 12:30pm :D I can't help but think about nothing, HAHA!  It's been a hectic week and I'm going up to see my family for the short/long weekend.  Fambam here I come!

I came across this great post and just felt the need to share it.  Enjoy!!

10 Life Lessons from Calvin & Hobbes

Here are my two favorite:

There’s Never Enough Time to Do All the Nothing You Want (aka Summer Will Always Go By Too Quickly) 

 The Most Important Things You Learn Aren’t From School 

Happy Friday All! :)

DIY Cake Banner

Here is how I put together the banner for the cake I made for my husbands birthday.  It was really easy to make and actually looked really cute (even though it was lopsided). 

Now, it's not the best looking banner, that's for sure. I ran out of twine and (being the procrastinator that I am, well, just been busy), I didn't have time to run out and get more. So, the banner ended up being slightly lopsided, but it fit nicely with the theme I was going for with the cake.

What you need:

• Colored paper (not construction, as it will be harder to fold)
• Tacky Glue
• Twine
• Coffee mixer sticks (or any stick really)
• Sharpie/pen
• Scissors

1. Draw out a triangle shape on a piece of a paper and use that as a guide to cut out more.
2. Fold your paper in half, so that when you cut you can get a long diamond shape, that's been folded over. Cut out as many as you need, in whatever color you like.

3. Write out your message on the small banner pieces you've just cut out.

 4. Add a dab of tacky glue on the inner side of the banner shaped pieces and fold them over the twine. 

5.  Attach the twine to the sticks, so that the banners fall nicely. I ran out of twine, make sure you have enough, so you can stretch out the words nicely and neatly. Cut off the excess twine on the sides.

Funfetti Cake Avec Loads of Sprinkles

It was my hubby's birthday over the weekend (so many celebrations all at once...yay) and I wanted to make a fun looking cake and decided upon a funfetti cake with lots and lots of sprinkles.  I thought it tasted really good and the hubby really liked it. 

The recipe is adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction, with some changes per my liking. 

The recipe listed here is for a one layer cake.  I wanted to make a two layer cake, so I made two separate batches of the cake, I was worried about doubling the recipe all at once (did that a few times for other cakes and it didn't turn out well). I am also currently addicted to my cream cheese frosting, so I had to make that frosting for this cake.  Omg, fabulous frosting! 

Cake Ingredients

1 and 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg (room temperature)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
3/4 cup milk
1 tbsp imitation vanilla
1/3-2/3 cup sprinkles (logged shaped, not nonpareils) - I felt 2/3 cups was too much.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting 

Sliced strawberries (to use as filing between layers)
1/2 cup butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 cups confectioners' sugar (powdered sugar)
1 tsp imitation vanilla
2 tsps cinnamon

Cake Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F degrees. Spray a 9-inch round baking pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
• In a medium bowl: mix together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. Melt butter in the microwave or over the stove. Whisk in the sugars vigorously, getting out any brown sugar lumps - mixture will be gritty. Whisk in egg, yogurt, milk, and vanilla until combined. Slowly mix in dry ingredients until no lumps remain. Batter will be thick. 
• Slowly stir in sprinkles, but do not overmix because the sprinkles will bleed their color. Just slowly fold the batter over itself a few times.
• Pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake for 20 minutes. Cover loosely with aluminum foil (loosely to avoid the top from sticking to the foil). My oven required me to bake the cake for another 40 minutes, but every oven is different) Bake for another 20-40 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Frosting Directions: 

• In a medium bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. 
• Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. 
• Frost the cooled cake. 

I wanted to make the cake look youthful and fun, so I decided to make a banner to add to the cake, rather than write on the cake. The banner got smooshed a bit during transport, but I think it turned out well. I'll post more on how I made the banner later.

Disheveledness

I've been feeling disheveled for the last two weeks.  Dead sleepy during the day, wide awake at night and and...being really bad when it comes to keeping with my workout routine and healthy eating.  Ya, so basically, I've failed my "diet" (my husband thinks that's funny...I don't know why). Basically, I've looked like this for the last two weeks:

But, the paper I've been working on, well actually a book chapter is now done and now I can get back to normal life.  AH!!!

Spam

Sheesh, I log into my blog today and there are over 100 spam comments on my blog.  It's been taken care of, but for those that want to leave a comment now, sorry, you have to register. It's a pain I know, but sheesh, these spammers leave no outlet unturned. 

Teal Quilted Coverlet

I guess you can call this a birthday present to myself, if you don't count all the other things I've bought my self over the past month :D, but this teal/seafoam colored coverlet from Thom Aaron attracted my attention and took my heart and I just couldn't part with it. Unfortunately, all the pillow shams were sold out, so I only have the coverlet, but I'm hoping I can somehow find them in another store somewhere.  The internet has failed me this time, but for now, I have my white quilted pillow shams from my previous coverlet set which seems to work well enough.

 

What do you think? Yay, nay, maybe?

The Best Delectable Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

I love carrot cake.  I don't know if I love it for the carrots or that amazing cream cheese frosting, but I love it.  It's also my brother's favorite cake, and so, it was only appropriate that I would make it for his 26th birthday (yes, our birthdays are very close).  Now, I have tried various "Best Carrot Cake" recipes out there, some that are too oily, too dry, too moist and just plain terrible.  This time, I decided I would take parts of various recipes I have tried over the past few years and make my own, and to also make a frosting that you normally don't find on a carrot cake (I have Sprinkles Cupcakes) to thank for that.  I am, if I haven't mentioned it enough times, in love with their carrot cake cupcakes, and well, very much in love with their frosting.  So, I decided I would try to come up with something that tasted as close as possible to theirs as I could.  And, well, I think i've found it.  If you've been following me for a while, you will know, I am a very harsh critic of my cooking and baking and I don't always love, if ever, my own cakes or food.  But this cake is by far the BEST carrot cake I have EVER HAD!  And, I mean EVER!  Now, I know everyone has their versions of this cake (there are a handful out there) and everyone always tweaks things to their liking, but let me tell you, this recipe is perfect.  I've tried this cake with coconut and pineapple and all sorts of other additions, but I think I have found the perfect mix of ingredients! :)

So, here it is:

 The Very Very Best Delectable Carrot Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Cake Ingredients

4 eggs - room temperature

1 1/4 cups unsweetened applesauce

1 cup white sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 tsps imitation vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking soda

2 tsps baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsps ground cinnamon

3 cups grated and finely chopped carrots

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tsp imitation vanilla

2 tsps cinnamon 

Cake Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. 
• Grease and flour 2 round cake pans - I sprayed mine with Pam.
• In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, applesauce, sugars and 2 teaspoons of vanilla. 
• Mix in the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. 
• Stir in the carrots. 
• Fold in the walnuts. 
• Pour into your prepared pan.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 
• Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool
  completely.  

Frosting Directions: 

• In a medium bowl, combine the butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. 
• Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. 
• Frost the cooled cake. You can also store the cake in the fridge overnight wrapped in saran wrap.  It tastes much better after a night of cooling. 

Note: In the past, I've always just added the grated carrots straight to the cake mix, but this time, I decided to chop them even further in my food processor and it made the cake taste so much better. Something about not have long strips of carrots I think added to the wonderful texture of the cake.

 

 

I used sweetened coconuts shavings and almond chips to decorate the cake, instead of adding them to the cake mix.

 

 Hope you all enjoy this recipe as much as I did.

Bon Appetite!!