Castle Cake

I've baked another cake! Neil's birthday is coming up, so I made him a Castle Cake. This one was not nearly so exciting as the last one. I used two cake mixes because one just did not look like it was going to fill the pan and it completely overflowed and dripped onto the burner in the oven. Now it stinks whenever we use it. Probably better clean that. I also way over estimated how much icing I needed and made three batches. But, hey, I think the final product turned out pretty well. It's nothing like the picture, of course, and that always frustrates me, but I am going to be taking a cake decorating class at the local craft store starting next month, and that should be really fun.

Putting the Spice Into Life

Last night, after the girls went to bed, I was feeling really bored and hungry. I took out a bag of mini marshmallows and ate a couple. Then, I looked over at Dusty. He was just standing there. A perfect target. So, I threw one at him. And then some more. Pretty soon, we were having a full scale marshmallow war! It was the most fun I can remember having in a while. It was great. The dogs ran around eating up all of the discarded marshmallows (not the best dog food, I know, but they enjoyed it.) We were laughing our heads off. At the end, I put a whole handful of them right down the back of Dusty's shirt. It was tucked in and they went all the way down and out through the legs of his pants (after some rather comical shaking on his part.) Good times.

The Epic of the Duckie Cake

Talia's first birthday is in just a couple of days! For her cake, I bought a really cool 3-d cake pan in the shape of a duck. Yesterday, I set out to bake the cake. I started at about 9:00 am. I took out the mix I'd bought, which just happened to be a Funfetti-type mix. I mixed up the batter and poured it into one half of the duck mold. There wasn't enough to fill it! I didn't have another mix, so I pulled out a cookbook and mixed up half of a yellow cake recipe. I wanted it to match the other batter, but I didn't have any assorted colored sprinkles to mix into it. I did have, however, some from Halloween that were orange and black, and some from Christmas that were red and green. Close enough, I thought. I filled up the duckie pan, covered the bottom rack of the oven with aluminum foil (to catch any seepage [as per the instructions]), and stuck it in the oven. There was left over cake batter, so I decided to make two little heart cakes with some pans that I've had for a while. An hour later, the duck was done, so I pulled it out and put in the hearts. The directions said to cool for 5 minutes, take off the top half of the mold, cool for 5 more minutes, then to put the top half back on, flip it over, and remove the bottom half of the mold, then cool until it was completely cooled. I pulled off the top half of the duck mold. Beautiful. It looked great! But then, I flipped it over to take off the other half. The cake plopped onto the cooling rack and began oozing all over the counter. The bottom half had completely failed to cook!! Into the trash. I pulled out the heart cakes, but when it came time to turn them out of the pans, they crumbled into bits. Complete and utter failure.

So... I washed all of the bowls, beaters, and pans. I got my cookbook back out and make another yellow cake batch (12:00 by this time). Thank heavens I got a stand mixer for Christmas (thanks, Mom!!) I was a lot more nervous this time. I left it in for the longest time the recipe allowed (you know, "bake for 50-60 minutes at 350".) I let it cool for the first five minutes, then nervously removed the top mold. So far so good. 5 more minutes, and I flipped it and started trying to get off the bottom mold. It would not come off for anything! I had greased it, but it just would not come off. As I was trying to get it off, it started pulling apart, and I thought I saw some still raw batter in the middle. Nervously, I put it back together, and back in the oven. I even baked it for an additional 20 minutes. Finally, it was time to try and get that stupid mold off. The long and short of it is, it wouldn't come off. I finally just pulled the stupid thing off and a whole layer of wet cake stuck to it. There was also a big hole in the middle, presumably from letting it cool and then re-cooking it. The plus side was that I now had half of a duck cake, because the top half had, once again, come out beautifully.

Okay, this is a learning experience, I've never done this before. Try, try again. But if it didn't work this time, Talia was getting only half of a duck cake for her birthday. Or store bought. I washed all of the bowls. Again. And the beaters. Again. And the pans. Again. I mixed up my fourth batch of cake batter for the day. Suddenly, inspiration! Maybe that layer of foil on the bottom rack of the oven was preventing the bottom half of the cake from cooking! I took it out, and (prayerfully) put my cake in. And, finally, finally, finally, it worked!!! I was so sick of cakes, and hand-washing dishes, and dumb ducks, and most of all cooking, but, a mere 10 hours later, I finally had a duck cake!

Time to cook dinner.

Today, I decorated the cake. Here are some pictures of the finished product.

Where Did She Get That?

Petra did the funniest thing yesterday. I was sitting at the computer doing some schoolwork and she came into my room.
"Mom, can I watch TV?"
"No."
I went back to my school work, and she went over to my dresser and started messing around, but I wasn't paying very much attention.
"Mom, repeat what I say."
The only way to keep her reasonably entertained so that I can accomplish anything is to play along.
She said, "Mmmm mmmm"
I said, "Mmmm mmmm."

She said, "Mmmm Ahmmm."
I said, "Mmmm Ahmmm."

She said, "Yes!"
I said, "yes."

She said, "No!"
I said, "no."

She said, "I can watch TV!"
I said, "No you caaaan't!"

Lol. As we say about her almost every day, "Where did she get THAT?"

Christmas Tree Fun

Last night we decorated our Christmas Tree. We bought it on Monday, but last night was the first chance we had to decorate it. It was pretty fun.

Around 1:30, we heard a sound like a note on a low note on a harp. Dusty went to see what it was, and the tree had fallen onto the piano! The 8 cups of water in the stand spilled all over the carpet. Dusty and I tried to stand the tree back up, but every time he tried to fix it, it just fell back over again! So, we took a string and tied the tree to a hook in our ceiling left over from one of those 70's lamps that hangs on a chain. It's a temporary fix, but we just could not figure out why the stupid thing wouldn't stand up!!

Kabul Beauty School

I just finished one of the best non-fiction books I've ever read. It's about an American beautician that goes to Afghanistan right after the Taliban fell to help. She gets this idea to open a beauty school for Afghan women so that they can have a way to earn more money and have a marketable skill. I think that it is really amazing what she did. I don't think that most people would realize how much a beautician could really help! It is fascinating and heartbreaking to read about the Afghan women's lives, before, during, and after the Taliban. It is also quite humorously written. I would definitely recommend it to anyone.

No More Cast!!!!!

Today, Petra and I took a trip down to Shriner's, and she got her cast off!!! HOOORAYY!!! She has a little brace to wear on her thigh for the next 2 weeks, just until her muscles get a little stronger, but it easily comes on and off so she can bathe. Tonight, she spent half and hour in the tub, and she didn't want to get out! Her lips were blue because the water had gone cold, she was shivering like crazy, and all she could do was laugh and say how much she loved baths! Also, Dr. Carroll said that she would like to do a bone density-type test, but we have to wait three months, because her bones need to recover from being in a cast. If it turns out that her bones are weak, she will have to have a phosphorus-calcium IV medication every 4-6 months. I am SO happy that they are finally DOING something about this! Hopefully, we won't ever have to go though this again. Also, tonight, she tried sitting up on the floor, and she did it! She hasn't been able to do that since they put her hip in the socket!! I'm exhausted from spending eight hours in a car, but it has been a good day.