The Yellow Lego Birthday Cake

My kids always have very specific ideas of what they want their birthday cakes to look like.  You may remember the tie dye peace sign cake of earlier in the year.  This time it was Tom Thumb's turn and he requested a yellow Lego cake.  Here was the inspiration that he provided:

And of course the cake had to be chocolate.  Chocolate cakes are such a pain in the you know what to decorate because you always have brown crumbs trying to sneak into your frosting.  Anyway--- if you're looking to create a Lego cake of your very own, here is how I did it.

First, I baked a 9X13 cake using a mix and following the directions.  After the cake was done, I popped it out and cut it down into a smaller rectangle and reserved the leftover pieces.  I used a foil covered upside down cookie sheet as my work surface.

Next, I made a double batch of buttercream frosting following the Wilton recipe. 

To get the correct shade of Lego yellow, I used about 1 1/2 tubes of yellow gel food coloring with a few extra squirts of red.  It took quite a bit of trial and error to get the color just right.

Then, I free hand cut circles for the top of the cake from the reserved cake.  

This is the one change I would make in the future if I ever made this cake again.  My sister in the past has made a similar cake, but made a separate batch of muffins and cut off the muffin tops and used the muffin bottoms to make the circles.  I was trying to make it easier on myself by skipping the muffin making step, but it ended up just being harder.  I neglected to remember that as soon as you cut into the cake there are crumbs.  Crumbs, crumbs, and more crumbs!  Chocolaty crumbs that want to jump into my frosting!  In the case of the muffin bottoms, you have a mostly crusty baked exterior to work with; thus, less crumbs.  The moral of the story --- make yourself a batch of muffins for the circles.  You'll be happy that you did.  

Even with my error in judgment, I managed to pull it together.  Some crumbs got in the frosting.  Whatcha gonna do?

This is a cake and not a box so it did not look like a perfectly smooth and rectangular Lego.  I probably could have gotten a smoother exterior with fondant, but I am not a fan of the taste. I'm going to wait until the baking world comes up with a better tasting fondant before I give up my buttercream.  Needless to say, it wasn't perfect so my star tip came to the rescue to hide some of my mistakes, and I wrote the Lego logo with a small round tip on the top of each circle.

Happy 5th birthday to my little Lego maniac!

A peace party and the inside of the tie dye cake..

The party is over---phew!  Now Red is off with her friend's family at a soccer game and Tom Thumb is tucked away with his blue blankie for a nap.  The party was a big hit with the kids, but I think it's the first and last time I'll do a party as the only adult.  It was rough having to do all the backyard clean up and cooking alone.  The Cobbler is working at an event right now and has been gone from 7AM until 9PM for the past few days.  That schedule is going to continue through Tuesday except now he's staying the night at a hotel too so he's not home at all.  It may not have been my most brilliant plan ever to throw a party while he's on that schedule.  I know better for next time.


So...we ate our lunch and then we ate our cake.

For those of you waiting to see the inside of the cake (I couldn't wait to see it myself!), I give you the big reveal ----

The kids were amazed by it!  Quite frankly, I was amazed by it!  So easy and yet so cool!  Everyone also enjoyed making the peace sign key chain clips, although I had to do a lot of the pipe cleaner twisting.  The best part of the whole party was watching the kids sitting in the grass playing with Red's presents wearing their peace sign hats and licking their rainbow lollipops as the party wound down.  


Now I'm off to have a huge glass of water (it's hot out there, man!) and taking a breather.  Who wants to have a beer with me later? ;-)

Peace Sign Birthday Cake

I have to admit that it feels kind of weird posting after all this time.  As an update, the Phoenician purple dye project was an epic fail in terms of actually producing a long lasting purple color on anything.  No purple fabric.  No purple pasta.  It pretty much ended up this odd lavender grey color that was anything but color fast.  Kind of disappointing, but the kids didn't care.


I've spent my blogging hiatus doing a lot of work at Red's school and not a lot of housekeeping.  Ha ha!  I can't even tell you how many loads are lurking in my Mt. Everest of laundry.  I'm just happy to have everyone in clean underwear still.  At some point, I might post a few things about what I've been up to (including painting over 20 posters with Egyptian art for Red's ancient Egypt cultural play that was performed at school on May 31st.  Oy!  I just can't say no!), but for now it's all about Red's birthday.  


Tomorrow is her 7th birthday party with her friends and she is having a peace sign themed party.  Who knows why this kid loves peace signs so much, but she is addicted!  She has peace sign decals on the walls of her room, a peace sign backpack and lunch box, and draws them on everything!  So it was decided she would do a peace sign party.  We ordered all the goods from Oriental Trading.  Here are the cute paper goods and favors.  The favor is a peace sign tote bag with a peace sign bucket hat, a peace necklace, and a rainbow lollipop.  

I found this awesome method online of making the inside of the birthday cake look tie dyed.  While the original recipe maker made the recipe fat free, I had no need to do that (my children are sticks as it is) so I just made up two boxes of white cake mix as Betty Crocker intended and then colored them.  Here are the results after coloring:

It pretty much ended up being a little over one cup per color.  Then I put them into the two cake pans in rainbow color order---red then orange then yellow in one pan, purple then blue then green in the other pan.

It baked up CRAZY tall  (I guess that's what happens when you put 2 boxes of cake mix in two pans that are only intended to hold one box) so I had to level them a bit before I stacked the layers.  

Red wanted the cake to look like a peace sign.  My solution ---> SKITTLES!  I frosted the cake with white buttercream frosting, divided the Skittles by color and then mosaic-ed them to the top of the cake.  Love the results!

The party plan for tomorrow is eating cheese pizza, veggies and dip, fruit salad, and tie dye peace cake.  Then, we're going to make these cute peace backpack clippies (another Oriental Trading find).  Here's the sample I made to show the kids:

Then, it's presents and PLAY!  Tomorrow's supposed to be sunny but hot so I'm hoping for the best.  Counting the days until school is out!

Total Mom Makeover: Week 2, Day 3 and performing a book club miracle...

Hannah Keeley has stolen a page from the Flylady play book!  Not like Flylady has a monopoly on the word "zone" and decluttering for a limited period of time (Flylady has "You can do anything in 15 minutes" and Keeley has the "Ten Minute Tidy"), but it seems awful suspicious to me that the tasks for today involve dividing your house into zones and then decluttering the first zone for the rest of the week.

Because I have been a Flylady disciple on and off over the years, I already have my house divided into zones:

Zone 1: Foyer/Front Porch/Dining Room

Zone 2: Kitchen

Zone 3:   Bathrooms/Study

Zone 4: Bedrooms

Zone 5: Living Room/Family Room/Laundry Room

Even though I have gotten rid of so much stuff in the last year, we still have way too much.  As fast as I can get it out, more stuff comes in!  I just need to say no when someone offers me their crazy old Christmas vest (yes, this actually happened and yes, I took the vest...stupid, stupid, stupid).

Today I'm feeling pretty exhausted.  I committed to too much this week.  I spent the morning being Red's teacher's copy girl (2 1/2 hours of copying, labeling, and laminating), I fed Tom Thumb and put him down for his nap, and in one hour I have to pick up the carpool.  I have no food in the house...which brings me to book club.

I performed a miracle last night --- I hosted book club at my house without going to the grocery store first and only using what we had on hand from when I went shopping a week ago.  The one thing I was a little bit embarrassed that I didn't have was decaf coffee, but everything else came together.  I ended up baking my mother's plum kuchen and a batch of gluten free chocolate peanut butter cookies for my GF friend in the group.  Here's Tom Thumb helping with the cookies yesterday.  He's squishing them flat with a glass:

I had some raw carrots and broccoli and the ingredients for dill dip.  Then, I cut up some cheeses and served it with crackers.  The big winner that came out of this exercise was when I figured out something I could do with crescent rolls that didn't involve running out to purchase baby wieners.  I found this spinach pinwheel recipe and amazingly had all the ingredients!  Everyone loved them too!

I have some serious assessing I'm going to be doing over the next few days regarding afterschooling with the kids.  I'm hoping to have a plan together before the end of the week.

Here's to Wednesday!

The wedding is OVER!!!!

Vel and Christy (wearing the veil I made her!)

My little sister is finally married!  Despite the groom apparently gritting his teeth in this shot (I think they were just sick to death of photos at this point), a good time was had by all.  On my end, I had such a busy weekend I still feel like I could take a nap for a week!

It all began when the Cobbler got home from Europe on Thursday afternoon.  He had a productive trip and a good flight, but it took us an hour to collect him at the airport because of a Serendipity moment.  Just like in that movie, we missed each other.  As Tom Thumb and I walked into the international arrivals area, The Cobbler walked to the curb.  He called me repeatedly on my cell, but I didn't have service inside the terminal.  After 20 minutes of that nonsense, we finally had the same idea---he came back in as I was going out.  Luckily, we sort of saw each other through the revolving doors as it happened and finally connected.

We went from there to the fast food drive thru, then to pick up Red at her friend's house, and on to the first rehearsal at the hall.  That one was only for the bride, groom, and the kids because no one else was in town to practice yet.  They just wanted the kids to get a feel for the place since we wouldn't be able to see the venue the night before because the wedding was on a Sunday.  Four of our eight house guests moved in that night.  The other four arrived the next day.

On Friday, my sister Andrea and I started working on the cake.  My mother had baked all the tiers, but we had to level them, stack them, and do all the decorating.  I spent three hours making butter cream frosting and then we started the work.  I did all the decorating that covered most of the cake (i.e. the scallops, lace looking frosting inside the scallops, etc.) while Andrea focused on making dozens of butter cream roses.  Here are some of the shots:

Ultimately, we had about 15 hours of decorating into it.  

Then, we had a debacle with the cake topper.  All along my sister had planned to use a Lladro bride and groom figurine that belongs to my parents as the cake topper.  At the last minute, we realized that it was too tall.  The only solutions were to either take off the top tier of the cake or get something else.  Here's what they ended up with:

 The groom is very into sci fi and Star Trek so here we have Mr. Spock (he's a Hallmark ornament.  I ripped the communicator out of his hands) presenting a La La Loopsy doll (meant to represent my sister since she's an elementary school teacher) with his heart.  Thank goodness for hot glue.  Everyone thought it was very cute and very them.  And here's the cake at the hall---

Andrea and her husband transported it in their Mountaineer.  She told me there was a lot of screaming involved on the drive over.  I guess their marriage can take it after seven years.

On Saturday, my sisters and parents went to the farmers' market to get the flowers while I finished up the cake.  Hopefully, I'll get some decent photos of those eventually.  I was so busy all the time that I barely took any photos!  We carried some amazing orange and blackish red dahlias with berries.  We put the bouquets together on Sunday morning.The real rehearsal dinner was at my house on Saturday night, complete with 40 people that my parents invited.  Luckily, my mom made most of the food, but it was still crazy.  Here's a few photos from that night---

The bride and most of the bridesmaids

 The groom and the groomsmen (plus the bridesmaid missing from our above shot)

Tom Thumb couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep in the Cobbler's lap.

 Christy and her ribbon bouquet from the shower 

 The madness continued on Sunday with the making of the bouquets, the transportation of all the stuff to the hall, the decorating of the hall, and just getting ready in general.  I did Red and her cousin Scarlett's hair, my sister Lisa's hair and makeup, and my own hair.  Here are the little girls ready to rock and roll.  I thought they looked darling!

 The ring bearers and flower girls

The flower girls goofing off before the ceremony

The ceremony was a Macedonian Orthodox ceremony (the groom is from Macedonia).  We stood for the whole thing, and it was an hour and five minutes long.  Everything had to be done in threes --- the blessing of the rings, the crowning, and then going around this table in circles while they held some candles and the priest's stole at the same time.  The groom's brother passed out during it (that was exciting.  My cousin said everyone was taking bets about who would drop first up there), but we all survived in the end.  Well, maybe everything excluding our feet survived.  Then it was on to the reception!

 Lots of circle dancing.  I am an expert Macedonian circle dancer now!

 With the exception of the bridal party dances, the CDs with the American music that my sister spent so much time burning didn't work in the Macedonian band's equipment so there was very little American music.  We did dance to Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me twice. :-).  By the end of the night, we were all toast.  The Cobbler had taken the kids home earlier, but had to come back for me, Andrea, and the gifts because there wasn't enough room for us in the remaining cars.  

And then it was over...  A whole year of work and planning is finally over.  I'm thrilled for my sister and her new husband.  Welcome to the family, Vel!

Recipe: Double Chocolate Banana Cake

I got a request in my comments from The Reader at Musings on the Move for the recipe for the chocolate banana cake I made for Tom Thumb's birthday.  The recipe is from the Entertaining! Fast and Fancy cookbook by Renny Darling that my mom gave me a million years ago.  Her own copy from the 1980s is worn out!  


The recipe said the cake didn't need frosting and it really didn't.  It was that moist!  Plus, it was easy peasy.  You can't ask for more when it's 7 o'clock at night on your kid's birthday and he wants a chocolate banana cake.  Here's the recipe:


1/2 c. butter, softened
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 1/4 c. sour cream
2 t. vanilla
2 c. flour
4 T. cocoa
1 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
pinch of salt
2 bananas, coarsely mashed
1 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips.


Beat together first five ingredients until blended.  Stir together the next five ingredients and add, all at once, beating until blended.  Stir in bananas and chocolate chips.


Place batter into a greased 10 inch springform pan and bake in a 325 degree oven for about 65 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center, comes out clean.  Allow to cool in pan, and cut into wedges to serve.  Serves 10.


Note: Do not mash bananas to a pulp, or baking time will be slightly longer.
1/2 cup walnuts (optional) can be stirred into the batter.


Obviously, we passed on the nuts because my kids hate them and I'm nut sensitive, but we didn't miss them.


Here's to cake!  Cheers!

It's a gluten free miracle!

The Cobbler has dabbled with eating gluten free on and off for over a year.  He doesn't have a diagnosed gluten allergy or celiac disease, but he does find that he feels significantly better digestion wise when stops eating wheat.  In the past, I've tried all kinds of recipes for gluten free baked goods and pancakes and my results have been less than stellar.  In fact, sometimes the results have been just plain gross.  I recall a loaf of bread I baked last winter that was so awful we threw it outside for the birds and squirrels to eat.  In our neighborhood, the squirrels are not at all picky.  We have some of the most obese squirrels I have ever seen, and even they wouldn't touch it.  That loaf of bread sat out in the snow for about two weeks before they lowered themselves to eat it.

A couple of weeks ago I checked out 1000 Gluten Free Recipes by Carol Fenster from the library.  My expectations were pretty low, but I figured I'd give it a shot.  I decided to start with the Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  This one is similar to the one I used in the cookbook, except I used the magic ingredient "Carol's Sorghum Blend" instead of Bob's Gluten Free All Purpose Baking Flour.  To make "Carol's Sorghum Blend" you mix 1 1/2 cups of sorghum flour, 1 1/2 cups of potato or cornstarch (I used potato), and 1 cup of tapioca flour.  I have to say up front---the sorghum flour was very hard to find.  The health food store didn't even have it.  I finally found the elusive ingredient at a local specialty grocery store.  The cookies turned out surprisingly good.  They were more fluffy texture wise than what I'm used to, but the taste and chewiness factor were very good.  One of Red's friends helped us make them and she deemed them "really good" and took some home with her.

The real miracle happened this morning.  I decided to try her pancake recipe (I used vanilla almond milk instead of the buttermilk).  It was completely amazing.  It tasted just like a regular wheat flour pancake.  I cooked like a regular wheat flour pancake.  It looked like a regular wheat flour pancake!  And it was delicious!  The Cobbler and I called it a stunning success.

Now I'm excited.  What should I make next?  Scones?

Yummy chocolate chip pumpkin cake & machine quilt binding

This is what is left of the chocolate chip pumpkin cake I brought to dinner at my aunt and uncle's house last night.

It was absolutely delicious.  I did a little modification to suit my dietary issues (NO NUTS!!!) and put the layer with the melted chocolate in it on the bottom of the cake instead of the top (I was feeling lazy and melted the semi-sweet chips I had leftover instead of using unsweetened chocolate), but I thought it turned out awesome.  Here's a link to the recipe.

On a separate note, the quilt is DONE!!!  Photos of the finished product will be forthcoming.  I did my first ever machine binding and it turned out pretty great (my expectations were very low).  I turned the binding under like I normally would if sewing it on by hand and then machine stitched a decorative stitch over it.  Here are some photos:

Now I'm off to cook dinner and then I have an appointment with a personal trainer at the gym tonight to help me come up with a plan.  It's a new adventure everyday, right?

Neither deceptive nor delicious...

I recently purchased the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld on the recommendation of one my friends whose children refuse to eat vegetables.  My children don't refuse, but are picky.  And who couldn't use a few more vegetables in their diet, right?

Last night I made the banana bread recipe which includes a 1/2 cup of cauliflower puree.  It should have clued me in when the baking bread had a distinct scent of cauliflower.  The Cobbler and I tried it last night and had a good laugh.  Granted, it wasn't completely horrific if you weren't thinking it was supposed to taste like banana bread.  This morning Red ate it and said, "Why does this not taste like banana?  Next time put banana in it, Mommy."  (Keep in mind that there were TWO bananas in it)  Tom Thumb ate it, but insisted that every piece was doused in honey.  So much for the cookbook.  I wonder how the brownies are with spinach in them...maybe not.