Jack-o'-Lantern Cake

I made another cake à la i am baker. It's a pumpkin cake, just in time for Halloween!

There is a special surprise in the middle, just like the fancy fourth of July cake I made in the summer. I used a cookie cutter and a knife to cut a hole in three layers of my red velvet cake. Then I baked a million (27) cupcakes so that I could use three for my cake. I used two white cupcakes for the bottom three layers, and made a yellow one to put in the top layer and act as the pumpkin's stem.


Then I "carved" the cake into the shape of a pumpkin.

After dying the frosting, which I think may be one of my least favorite things to do ever, I had some fun decorating. It was so hard to make a semi-decent green! (It turns out, you have to add some red.)


The inside was the coolest part! These cakes are so fun. I believe I jumped up and down when I saw that it had worked.

I took it to work, and everyone seemed to like it. It was gone in about an hour. (I made sure to have a huge slice myself.)

The BFFs were over while I was decorating the cake. (I believe Casey suggested the red food coloring for the green frosting. She is now my official frosting dyer.) I told them they had to decorate the left over cupcakes. They are very creative...


Time to go enter into my food coma!

Wordless Wednesday

Juries, Dogs, and Yarn

Hi there!

So, I have this post-it note. And on it is written a list of things I need to do. There's stuff like, "clean rat cage" and "give the dogs a haircut" and "go to Goodwill." But all of these things are crossed off and finished. There is only one thing left on my post-it note. And it says "Blog." So here I am!

Last week I had jury duty. *boo* *hiss* It was really just jury selection, so I had to listen to lawyers for 4 hours ask everyone a bunch of questions. I didn't say anything, just sat and played with my little number paddle. When the defense attorney started cracking jokes I made sure to keep a straight face... you know, let him know that I wasn't going to play along with his little games. I also said "don'tpickmedon'tpickmedon'tpickme" over and over again in my head when they were making their final selections. I think all of these things played a very significant role in my not being chosen. (By the way, you can borrow my tricks the next time you get summoned.)

On Thursday, my BFFs and I had craft night. (Why yes, we are cool, thanks.) Casey made bows for headbands, Stephanie crocheted, and I started undoing a blanket I had started months ago. I never finished the blanket because it was looking like a trapezoid as my stitching became tighter and tighter. I've decided to knit sweaters for the dogs. Hopefully I can figure out how to make them; it's a cable pattern. (yikes?)

Saturday was spent crossing off my to-do list from my post-it note, but Sunday was fun! I dragged Stephanie to Waco to spend a day at the ASCA nationals. (ASCA stands for Australian Shepherd Club of America.) We saw stock dogs herding cows, sheep, and even ducks. We also caught the final conformation awards and a little bit of the agility. I was going to take pictures of all the pretty dogs we saw (and there were so many!!) but I was too self conscious. I took one picture:
Ah, well! It was fun anyway, and now I want one of these dogs more than ever! (I also want to learn how to work stock. Am I too much in the city for that sort of thing?)

Okay there. *crosses off item on to-do list* I'll try to bore you again real soon! Byyeee!

Food and Books. Typical.

Thursday the BFFs came over and we baked! We made the Chocolate Biscoff Cheesecake Bars that I've made before. I've had 3 slices in the last day and a half. (They are really good.)


Other than that I haven't been doing much. I've poked around my room, adding stuff to my Goodwill box. I also finished a few books, which makes my 2010 book list look like this:

1. The Other End of the Leash by Patricia McConnell, Ph.D.
2. Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal
3. The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon
4. Food Rules by Michael Pollan
5. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
6. The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney, Psy.D.
7. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan
8. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
9. A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
10. An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
11. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
12. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
13. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
14. Don't Shoot the Dog! by Karen Pryor
15. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I know I have lots of things I could do today but I can't seem to think of a single thing. Nap time?

Wordless Wednesday

I Blog for People.

Hi there. I'm exhausted; how are you?

Yesterday was my cousin Melissa's baby shower. It was a lot of fun (you know... in terms of baby showers), and the food was delicious. I snapped a few pictures. I was feeling a little rusty with this whole camera thing; I haven't taken pictures in forever!

Here's my favorite of the day, Papa Coach and little Dylon:


I didn't get any pictures of Melissa (well I took one, but I took her by surprise and she would skin me alive if I posted it anywhere), but I got two good ones of Shannon (hehe):


I wonder what Dylon will think of his new baby cousin:


We spent the night at Jane's house. My aunt DeeAnn and cousin Tim, both of whom I never see, were there and it was really good to see them. We all got together in Grandmommy's room and helped her with her puzzle. We almost had it finished, but we were missing one piece. The puzzle was set up on a drop-leaf table, and when Jane was in the other room looking for the missing piece, the side of the table was knocked down and the puzzle crumbled to the floor. Everyone thought it was hilarious; we were so close to finishing!

Later we went to Cracker Barrel for pancakes, followed by an ice cream cone at Marble Slab. (I got Birthday Cake with chocolate sprinkles in a waffle cone... ohmy it was good!) We stayed up the rest of the night in Jane's "scrap room" as Tim taught Jane how to use her photography umbrella and DeeAnn and I suffered through being the models.

And now it is already Sunday! I have to get up early tomorrow to run off that ice cream. All in all though, good company, good food, and good laughs... I declare this weekend successful!