Making a Dirt Cake Mountian

My thoughts for Reed's birthday cake was to make one that represented one of his favorite past times, motocross riding.  I got on Pinterest and found this site with the most perfect dirt hill cake Spoonful Site.  I mean, how much more perfect can you get?  I was super excited to surprise Reed with it.

I made a few adjustments to the decorations, feeling like I might be able to make it look better with more candy.

Dirt Bike Cake Recipe

• 4 (9-inch round) cakes
• 3 (16-ounce) cans chocolate frosting
• 7 straws
• Oreo cookies, remove the filling and crush
• Large Pretzel rods
• Chocolate cereal (we used Cocoa Puffs®)
• Whoppers 
• Reeses Pieces
• Butterfinger Bite Sized Pieces
• Fruit by the Foot®
• Thin pretzels
• Toy dirt bike and rider

1. 
   
2. Trim the cake tops flat. Cut 1 cake in half, and cut one third from another cake.
3. 
   
4. Assemble the cake as shown, frosting between each layer: 
5. 
   
6. Stack the 2 rounds, add the two-thirds section, and insert 3 straws, spacing them about 1-1/2 inches apart. Add 1 cake half (you can save the other for snacking) and insert 2 more straws. Add the cake third and the last 2 straws. Frost the entire cake.
7. 
   
8. 
   
9. Sprinkle on a cookie dirt trail, then add pretzel rods, cereal, candy, and licorice for log trail borders, rocks, boulders, and plants.  Add the rider on top.
10. 
    

I started following the recipe.  I decided that  and was so excited to start stacking my cake...and then this happened.

The whole thing just collapsed.  It was awful!  I was depressed.  The middle layer fell into itself.  How do you fix that?  I walked away.  I took Reed to the park where Scott and the guys were training.  Reed and I watched them for awhile and then we went back home.

I decided to not give up.  I went ahead and melted half a can of frosting in the microwave.  Doing that allowed me to pour the frosting over the demolished, crumbly cake. Then I added a messy layer of frosting.  Thank goodness this was a dirt hill, because the little pieces of cake that came through didn't ruin the overall cake concept.  

Once I had all the frosting down, I just went for it and started adding the rocks, the path and the plants.   I just kept adding more and more and the more I added the better it looked, at least to me.  It was a mess and it was "dirty" but it seemed to work.  I cut up the green pieces of the fruit leather and it made the best contrast of little grass coming through.  So, after running out of "rocks", I stepped back.

He loved it so much.  It definitely looks much messier but I have to say that it looks way more realistic than the original.  He loved it.

Valentine's Day Cards

Making Valentine's Day Cards

One year I decided we'd make homemade Valentine's day cards.  

So much more special and then it makes it less about a commercial holiday, and more about time I spend with my children, the thought put into a gift given to their friends and my ability to get to cut and paste something fun!

Sawyer made all the girls bracelets, and I told her I would make the boys.  She only has 17 children in her class, 6 girls and 11 boys, and I wanted her to enjoy the process so I agreed to take on the boys (plus I could finish 2 in the time it took her to do one).  

On Pinterest I found a cute cards I could print off and use, here for the Friendship Braceletes and here for the Stick 'em Up cards.

Reed's ended up being a lot of cutting and pasting, and the little pasting I let him help with, he was a pro.  Reed took guns to school with a piece of gum that said, "This is a stick up!"  Afterwards I am not sure if guns were the right thing to make, but it was cute and Reed's teacher liked them!

Decorating for Christmas

Needing to try something new for Christmas Decorations, I went with rustic.  I have always been a little partial to rustic anyway, and this just seemed to fit.  The best part, it didn't cost me a dime.

Reed and I went out searching for pine cones.  In Oregon, in the middle of winter, there is no way we were going to find dry pine cones.  But we looked anyway.  We found a bunch of closed pine cones, and they were soaking wet, but we picked them up anyway.

We came home and turned the oven on to 200 degrees and left them in there for an hour.  The house smelled woodsy and the pine cones dried out and opened it.  It was fabulous.

I found gold ribbon in my gift tag box .  With a hot glue gun in hand I started making the jars.

Christmas Jars

Large canning jars

sugar

tea lights

gold ribbon

twine

branch off the Christmas tree

pine cones

Really, they couldn't be cuter and they look like and smell like Christmas.  I used twine, more pieces off the tree and a cinnamon stick to wrap the napkins.  (Next time I will buy cloth napkins for this, but I was so happy to not spend anything on this project, I couldn't bring myself to drive to the store to do that.)

Meeting Some Goals

I'm glad to finally be able to say that I've broken the 6 minute per mile mark.  I ran this on a Monday and by Wednesday I ran 5:46.  I am pretty sure that I have a 5:30 mile in me...just have to mentally prepare for it.  The seconds seem to be just falling off of my times.  

I ran 4 miles outside at a 6:30 minute pace.  I have an app on my iPhone that updates me on my time and pace every mile.  So one day when I went to run outside on my own, I was so shocked when my phone said I was running that fast.  Never one to back down from a challenge, I had to keep the pace up for 4 miles.  My run was suppose to be 6, but I wasn't sure if I would ruin my time by pushing it too much at first.

 I am giving my new dedication to Centergy and Yoga all the credit for my marked improvement in my times.  I have been happy with the new found flexibility and the fact that we do so many planks that I can do push ups like crazy now.  The most beneficial part has definitely been the flexibility in my hips.  I am running with a lot less issues and although my IT bands reacts when I run hard ( faster than an 8 minute pace) for anything over 6 miles, it's been getting better and I'm confident that with continue commitment to Centergy it will help alleviate my issues.

My next goal is to run a half marathon at a 7:30 minute pace.  Interested to see how long my new goal will take me. 

Cherry Limeade Cupcake

Pinterest has made me a cupcake fanatic.  I have always loved cupcakes, but now I just can't get enough of them.  There are so many flavor, so many cakes, so many frosting flavors.  I have no idea how I'm going to maintain my weight if I don't continue working out EVERY DAY!

These yummy things I found at Annie's Eats and it may be one of my favorite cupcakes ever.  It is just the right amount of sweet and tart combined.  And anything topped with a maraschino cherry has to be fabulous.

Cherry Limeade Cupcakes

Yield: 24 cupcakes

For the cupcakes:

3 cups cake flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup plus 2 tbsp. limeade concentrate

3 eggs

3/4 cup milk (I used 1%)

For the lime syrup:

3/4 cup limeade concentrate

1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the frosting:

3 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

1/2 cup butter, softened

4 tbsp. (or more) maraschino cherry juice

red food coloring

For decorating:

maraschino cherries

Directions:

To make the cupcakes, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Line two muffin pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl combine the cake flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir together and set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter until smooth.  Add the sugar and beat on medium-high speed until creamed.  Add in the limeade concentrate and mix to incorporate.  Add the eggs one at a time, scraping down the bowl between additions.  Add in the flour mixture in thirds, alternating with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Mix ingredients just long enough to incorporate but no longer.

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared cupcake liners.  Bake for about 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Allow to cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then remove to a wire rack over wax paper to cool completely.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, whisk together the limeade concentrate and confectioners’ sugar in a small bowl to make the lime syrup.  Poke several holes (at least 6) in the top of each cupcake with a skewer and pour the syrup over the cupcakes, allowing it to soak in. (The more you use the moister the cake).

To make the frosting, combine the confectioners’ sugar, butter and maraschino cherry juice in the bowl of a stand mixer.  Mix on low speed until sugar is incorporated, then increase to medium-high speed and beat until smooth.  Add more maraschino cherry juice as needed to achieve desired texture.  Add red food coloring if desired.

Frost cooled cupcakes.  Garnish with lime slices and maraschino cherries, if desired.

Yummy Pesto Sauce

This is just a one day pick from my garden.  I have had the best luck this year with everything but my tomatoes.  In fact I have more basil than I know what to do with, so I've been making pesto.  I absolutely love pesto and I was so happy to find out that you can make it with other nuts, not just pine nuts.  I have pecans and walnuts on hand all of the time, but not pine nuts.  This pesto recipe worked great and I loved the flavor.

• 
  
• Fresh Pesto Sauce
• 
  
• 3 cups packed fresh basil leaves
• 4 cloves garlic
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup walnuts
• 
  
• Combine in a food processor.
• Blend until smooth.
• Enjoy.

Stuck in the Intro

I had tried to read The Pillars of the Earth twice, and both times I was so bogged down by the introduction that I just moved on to a different book.  I had no idea why people were so interested in this book.

On my 3rd attempt at reading it, because I had just finished

Half Broke Horses, which is a fantastic read too, and did not want to research which book to read next, just picked one on the Kindle.  So I skipped the introduction and was hooked by the very first page.  What an amazing book this was about dreams and goals and facing down your demons...even when they continued to resurface.  I was so enthralled with it, that I was not ready to have it end.  In the 1100's life was so much different than it is today, and yet you can see that people struggle with life no matter what the year is.  Life always comes full circle, and I really enjoyed reading a book that fulfilled that promise, even when at times it seemed like things were too bleak to ever come around.
What a great read, and I am excited to start on his second  book about this place!