Kayaking with Casey

Is it already Sunday night? Why must the weekends go by so fast? It's been a pretty good one, though admittedly pretty lazy.

Yesterday I went kayaking with Casey. See, she bought a kayak but none of her friends have one and the kayak rental place isn't anywhere near the convenient kayak drop off place. This resulted in both of us sitting crosslegged in her kayak facing each other as we took turns rowing to the rental place. Hah, good fun, though we had a few people staring at us. (We also had a scare when I sat on the back and it started sinking.) We saw tons of turtles, two snakes, heard the bats under the bridge, and at one point got stuck in a really shallow spot. I filmed it for your (okay, really for my) entertainment. My arms were burning by the end; I had to have Casey row us all the way back from the rental place, hee hee.

Afterwards we ate at Chuy's (I love their "Mexi-Cobb" salad) and then went and donated blood. Because that's what Casey and I do for fun. I came home tired and determined not to do anything for the rest of the day. I rented Remember Me from RedBox (yes, that movie with Robert Pattinson) and it was actually really good. I napped after the movie then read my book (I'm currently reading A Breath of Snow and Ashes) with the dogs curled around me for the rest of the night. Life is tough.

Today I woke up early and took the dogs around Town Lake. I felt bad keeping them cooped up inside yesterday. Tinker pooped out about a third of the way through, but they had fun playing in the water and getting out. The rest of the day was spent eating and sleeping and playing with the rats (who are currently sleeping somewhere in my closet). I had all of these plans to study today, but I guess I'll do a cram session tomorrow for my Tuesday test. It's hard to get motivated on lazy, summer days.

Checkerboard Cake

Last Thursday I was showing off my Fourth of July cake to a classmate while we were waiting for the HPLC to run. She then asked me if I had ever made a checkerboard cake, which apparently involves using a special pan insert. I asked if you could just make separate cakes and cut them up and assemble them - but she said that would be way too hard. I don't know about you, but to me that sounded like a challenge. She also had problems making a chocolate/vanilla checkerboard cake because the chocolate was so much heavier than the vanilla, so it would sink under the insert and mix with the vanilla.

Friday morning I made two 9" French vanilla cakes and two 9" Germain chocolate cakes. (Very international huh?) I leveled both to 1" and after some calculations grabbed a bowl and a cup to use as stencils for the two circles I had to cut out. (The cakes turned out to be 8" after baking, so the math was slightly more difficult than 9 divided by 3. Don't lose faith in me!)


I stacked the cakes, cut a small inner circle using the cup, and a larger outer circle using the bowl. I then switched them up and assembled the pieces, using buttercream frosting in between each layer.



Then I got a tad bit fancy and frosted the outside in two flavors - chocolate and vanilla. I figured it was only fitting since the inside represented both flavors too.


Cutting into it was the funnest part!


Eating it was pretty fun too.


And if you are ever at a loss for what to do with the cake top scraps and extra icing, I have an idea for you.


Make a mess! (A delicious mess.)

Wordless Wednesday

Dad's Birthday

It's my dad's birthday today. He would have been 57. I wish he were here. I would give anything, anything, to get that look from him again. And here's another picture just because it is hilarious.

mmm... Freedom.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I'm still on my baking roll. I saw this at i am baker, an idea inspired by 17 and Baking.

Just an ordinary white cake...


Or is it?



My family seemed to enjoy it. I think just about everyone asked how I made it, and I fumbled through an explanation of layers and cutting. (If you want to know how it's done look at 17 and Baking's blog post.)

My baby cousin having the first taste.

Hope you have a fun weekend. Enjoy your freedom and stuff. :P

p.s. I used Duncan Hines classic white cake mix and homemade buttercream frosting. The frosting recipe is here. i am baker suggested adding 1 tsp of almond extract, and it was gooooood.

American Pie

I saw this idea over at Mommy Topics and I had to try it. They are cupcakes with a little twist in honor of the Fourth of July. The cupcakes in the tutorial look way better than mine, but I bet mine taste just as good!

First, I baked little short cupcakes. Aren't my cupcake papers festive?


Next, I filled the tops with canned fruit. I went with cherries and apples. I absolutely love cherry pie!!


Then I piped frosting on to make them look like little pies. Aren't they cute? I didn't get many good pictures of the finished product. I was so tired by then; I made a lot!



I wasn't too tired to try one though!


mmm... gooey deliciousness!

Thinking of You Cookies

I made some cookies today using "i am baker's" sugar cookies recipe and her frosting recipe. These are for some family friends whom I thought might be going through a tough time around now; just a little "thinking of you" gift. I actually make them cookies a lot. I hope they aren't too tired of them!

I made a few different sized flowers and outlined them...


Then I filled them in with a lighter pink frosting.


Some finishing touches and they were done!