The biggest TV ever

First, I'd like to prove once again that I'm an idiot and take a few minutes to brag on Jason. I agreed to bake and decorate a birthday cake for my coworkers little girl. She was having an 80's Roller Skate party - how fun! So after flying in from San Diego, I went home to bake and decorate a roller skate cake. Yes, I'm an idiot. But I do have a great husband - he saw my stress in trying to carve the cake and took it upon himself! He did a great job.

The next day we headed to DFW to see Jess, Jason & Joe and go to the Cowboy's preseason game. We spent Saturday hanging out and playing some Wii and once the sitter arrived, we headed to the stadium. I vaguely remember going to a Cowboy's game when I was younger, but I'm not sure if that really happened or I imagined it. So I'll call this my official first Cowboy's game.

And unless you've been living in a cave, you know the Cowboy's built a new stadium. A very expensive, very huge, new stadium. With a very expensive, very huge, new TV screen. Jason said it goes from one 20 yard line to the other.

I really can't tell you how excited my Jason was to go to the game. When we first started dating he mentioned wanting to own Cowboy's season tickets one day. Well, then they built this new stadium and tickets started going on sale and I had a moment of weakness and voila...we own 2 seats in that stadium. WTF was I thinking??? Oh yeah...I was thinking "it will make my husband happy." Remember how I stated above that I'm an idiot? :-) Just kidding - he'd ecstatic about the tickets and I'll enjoy a few games. Plus, it give me a good excuse to visit Jess. I was a little worried when we walked into the stadium that the players would look tiny from our seats, but I was able to follow the players and the ball from where we sit. But honestly, all I could really do was look at the TV. You really can't not look at it...

Happy Birthday Jett!!!

A few weeks ago my godson Jett turned two. The Terrible 2's. Really, though, how can someone so stinking cute be classified as terrible? I'm sure there is a way. I guess we'll find out in the next year. So, since Jett was sick with RSV last year, his mom had to cancel his first birthday party. Apparently RSV is pretty contagious to kids...and what fun is a birthday party without any kids? Poor thing - at least he didn't know any better.

Well, this year, his mom did it up right! A Mickey Mouse (or Mi-ey Mouse if you've heard Jett say it) party complete with cake, party favors, cotton candy and popcorn. And lots of wind. For the record, his party was supposed to be a "Jet Plane" party but apparently airplane party stuff is hard to find! So, the week of we made the switch to Mickey Mouse. Good call, because this kid was SO FREAKING EXCITED that Mi-ey Mouse came to his party!!!

And yes, being the really cool godparents we are - we bought him a rockin' Radio Flyer tricycle! I'm not 100% sure if he knows what it is or how to use it or even if his legs reach the petals, but I'm sure he thinks it's fun!

It is supposed to be fall.

Really. It is supposed to be fall. And in 3 days it is supposed to be winter.

However, my car read a balmy 80 degrees earlier when I went to lunch. 80 degrees. And it is HUMID. The crazy part - about 2 weeks ago it snowed. Yes, I still live in Houston. And yes, it did snow. We did not make that up. By Sunday it is supposed to be in the 40's here. I give up on being healthy.

Also, I finally figured out why I'm behind on my blog updates. I've actually be busy at work. And when I get home...I have a million other things to do, so the photos keep piling up and nothing gets updated. Until now. I predict a slew of updates next week, since it should be slow at work!

So, about a month ago when I was wishing for fall I pulled out my old "fall dessert standby." A Pumpkin Roll. I love these things. Mostly because they are easy to make and freeze well, but also because they are good! This recipe came from my mom...and I have no idea where she got it.

Pumpkin Roll

• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup canned pumpkin
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 t baking soda
• 1/2 t cinnamon
• 3/4 cup flour

Mix the ingredients above. Place wax paper onto a greased jelly roll pan, pour batter into the pan reserving 2 T for the filling. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. On a tea towel or pillow case (something that does not have a lot of lint), pour out about 1 cup of powdered sugar - enough to cover the area of the cake. Flip the cake onto the towel and roll up with the towel. Let the cake cool completely.

Unroll the cake and fill with the filling below. Roll the cake back up, slice and serve.

Filling

• 2 T cake batter
• 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese
• 3/4 t vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

As mentioned above, this freezes well! I double wrap it in plastic wrap and it tastes the same! I also realize this recipe is hard to follow. Or it sounds that way. I promise it is super easy to make!

Wilton Course 3 - Class 4

I'm finally finished! With this course, at least. I've both dreaded this one and enjoyed it. Each class has been sort of painful though...I guess I wasn't always in the mood. Especially with this last one. I, as usual, waited until the last minute to actually start making the flowers. I had intentions of making them on Monday (Memorial Day) but ended up with what I think was a 24-hour bug. I felt horrible all day long. So I had Tuesday after work to bake all of the cakes AND make 20-25 fondant roses. Yeah...right. Fortunately, I have a very helpful husband who did help as much as possible. In the end, I've enjoyed the classes. Getting ready for them seemed to be the hard part.

For class I always just use boxed cake mix - it's easier and a lot less expensive when you get them on sale. I still have plenty of the boxed fondant, so I haven't attempted that either. The bottom layer was a plain yellow (Jason's favorite) and the top is chocolate (my favorite!).

I had a really hard time with the roses. I figured out what several of my problems were, but the result was that the petals kept cracking. First, the fondant had dried out and I forgot that you could microwave it. We were also rolling the fondant too thick to begin with. I made a few more yesterday before class with a fresh bag of fondant and they were a lot easier to work with!

I'm really caked out right now. I used three cake mixes so I had an 8" round and a dozen cupcakes left over. Those have made it to the freezer...I'm going to attempt cake truffles. But not for a while! My next adventure will be the 250 mini cheesecakes I have to make for my mom's wedding. What really scares me is that I'm not nervous about this. I should be, right?

Wilton Course 3 - Cake 1

I was really excited to take course 3 - FONDANT!! Now, the first and only time I worked with fondant turned out to be a disaster. I was still in High School and we bought the Wilton Yearbook with this cute pink cake on the front in fondant. So my mom and I decided to try it out, even though we had no idea what it actually was! After kneading the fondant to color it we ended up with a streaky pink and white lump. Then we tried to roll it out and it kept tearing and falling apart, so it ended up in the garbage and we went with the trusty old butter-cream frosting.

Finally, after about 12 years, I decided to tackle the fondant again. I will say that I was really lazy this week and did box cake mixes. I do have a good excuse - I fell down. HARD. I was helping my mom move plants and managed to trip and land right on a wooden bench. I have a large palm-size bruise on my right side, directly under my ribcage. Nice. So with the pain, I dug out some boxed mixes and went to town. Oh, and to top it off I had two different one - so the bottom layer is a nice fluffy white cake and the top is a cute yellow and chocolate marble cake. Eh, people will eat it anyway!

I have also decided that I will probably never frost a cake in butter-cream again! I've been having issues with my last few batches (apparently you have to use the paddle attachment!) and they seem to have lumps in them. So now I'm all about the fondant. For smaller cakes, of course. I'm a little timid with the bigger ones for now. I'm also pretty thrilled about no more freaking stars to fill things in! Woohoo!

Cake!!

My cousin graduated this weekend with his Masters in Education and, me being the idiot I am, said I would bake and decorate a cake for his party. Yes, I'm crazy because decorating cakes that will be seen by the public (i.e. other than Jason and I) causes lots of yelling, foul language and tears. I'm a perfectionist and Jason is more of the...wing it type.

I just used a basic cake recipe for this and the Wilton Buttercream Frosting.

By the way, his name is Nick...but the nurses nicknamed him "Bear" at birth because he was a big baby! The name stuck...and he's still a big guy.

I've become my mother

Growing up, my mom decorated cakes. It wasn't a business...just a hobby and a way to raise extra money. She did them for all of our birthdays and did the same for most of our friends and family. My sister and I always helped, but never really took classes.
My first attempt was last year - a coworker found out she was having a baby and asked me to do her shower cake. I don't have pics for a good reason. I thought it was a disaster! Everyone else thought it looked ok, but had my mom not been there to bail me out...I think a trip to Kroger would have been in order!! After that, I decided lessons were a must.

My first Wilton class involved three cakes. Not good for the waistline...well not mine, but Jason sure liked it! All of my cakes for class have been boxes. There are just too many chances to take with a cake from scratch, plus since I was making almost one each week...I needed something easy!
The first cake was pretty simple - frost and decorate with the "star" tip. The baby (said reason for the cake classes) had his first frosting taste! The first few licks were not so great, but once he figured out that a sugar rush would accompany frosting...he was all in!

My second cake - clowns!

I don't have pics of the third cake (final one in the the first course) for two reasons. One, it was roses and I am really bad at making roses. Seriously. Two, they are on a friends camera and she has not sent them to me. :-)

The second course was all about Royal Icing and flowers. Lots and lots of flowers! We made flowers for three weeks...then put the cake together. I could have grown a garden!