A Birthday Cake

Sorry for the delay in sharing with you the recipe for Nicholas' birthday cake. The lawyer in me had trouble posting a copy-righted recipe on the internet. I did some searching and I found some recipes posted online that are, essentially, uncredited versions of the same cake I baked from this book so I feel better about the whole thing. Be forewarned: this recipe uses a cake mix. I love to bake and cook from scratch, but scratch cakes are usually drier and denser than a mix. They are also usually not as sweet. I happen to love the taste and texture, but most people prefer the sweet and soft crumb of a boxed cake. The Cake Mix Doctor helps me strike an easy compromise. The recipes are ridiculously easy, too, so if you are a novice baker you are practically guaranteed success. This cake was a bit sweet for my taste, but absolutely no one else agreed with me-- so there you go. OK, enough talk. Here's the recipe for Snickerdoodle cake and Cinnamon Buttercream frosting I found online.

CAKE

1 Box Plain White Cake Mix
1 cup Whole Milk
8 TBS butter, melted
3 Large eggs
2 Tsp. vanilla
2.5 Tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour two 9 inch pans. Place all ingredients in bowl and mix on low for one minute, scraping down the sides as necessary. Increase mixer speed to medium and mix for 2 more minutes, again scraping down sides as necessary.

Divide batter into prepared pans, smooth down top with spatula, and place both pans side-by-side in the oven. Bake for 27-29 minutes, or until golden in color and the cake springs back when you lightly press it with your finger. Remove from pans after an initial cooling period of 10 minutes or so. Then take out of pans and allow to completely cool on racks, about 30 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the frosting.


CINNAMON BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

8 TBS butter, room temperature
3.75 cups Confectioner's Sugar
3 TBS milk
1.5 Tsp vanilla extract
1.5 Tsp cinnamon

Place softened butter in mixer and mix until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Add Confectioner's Sugar, milk, vanilla and cinnamon. Blend on low until sugar is incorporated. Increase speed to medium and mix until frosting is light and fluffy.

Frost your now cool cake layers as usual.

After the cake is frosted, place it in the fridge for 30 minutes so the frosting can stiffen up. After that, you can slice, eat, and store in the fridge for a week.

Enjoy!

Technical Difficulties

I am having problems with one of my sites, The Poem Company. Seems I put my money where I shouldn't have, and the person hosting my site fell off the face of the earth and took my money and our sites with her. I fully intended to remove my site to a different location this year, but didn't. Lesson learned: always trust your instincts. I'm trying to remedy this situation as fast as possible, of course. I debated posting evidence of my stupidity for all the world to see, but I figured my lesson learned can be someone's lesson spared. Besides, you've already seen me without my makeup so it's not like I have much dignity left.

Looking on the bright side, this just reaffirms my commitment to learn how to develop and manage my own website. It's never good to have all your eggs in one basket, especially when it's someone else's basket. Besides, Nicole can vouch for the fact I am impossibly fickle. I'll spare future designers from my personality by learning how to do a few of these things on my own.

In the mean time, click on over to The Poem Company and enjoy the "HEY LOSER, PAY YOUR BILLS!" message on display for all my clients to see. I love it. Especially since this loser paid her hosting bill 6 months ago.

UPDATE: If my email inbox is any indication, I am not the only one with this problem. I did get in contact with my old designer. Turns out she didn't fall off the face of the earth--just the internet, along with a handful of other sites. She explained to me there was a server problem and has offered to transfer over my files to my new host--an offer I gladly accepted. It's time I learn to work the back end of my websites!

Favorite Moment

You know what's great about crappy weeks? It makes it so easy to ferret out your favorite moment. For example, I knew my favorite moment this week certainly wasn't

1. Forgetting my Mikey's Valentine's.
   
2. Taking Nicholas to a pediatric urology appointment and getting questionable, if not downright concerning, news. (More on that later.)
3. Getting up last night at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:00, 4:15, and 4:30 to deal with dogs, children, and my own cough attack after going to bed at 11:30.
4. Stepping in dog poop during my 4:30 wake up call above and washing the floors for half and hour.
5. Checking my email and finding out that for some reason none of the pictures were uploading to the blog.
6. Letting Mikey carry into Target his really expensive sippy cup and arriving home later only to discover he left it somewhere inside the store.

No, there were a bunch of least favorite moments this week, which surprised me because Nicholas' birthday party went so well I thought for sure the good mojo would carry us through the week. Didn't happen.

I'll tell you what did happen. About 1:00pm today I was chatting with my friend Chrissy and lamenting the loss of the stupid sippy cup. It occurred to me that I brought it all on myself with my negative attitude all week. I decided that I was going to think positive thoughts about the cup, and imagined another mom finding the cup at Target and returning it to Lost & Found. Come Hell or high water, in my mind that sippy cup was coming home tonight. Chrissy agreed that was an excellent idea and said she would join me in the positive thought experiment. I called all throughout the day, but no one turned it in. The second The Mister got home I jumped in the car and headed to Target. I walked right up to Customer Service and the pimply faced 15 year old who is usually a bit of a punk was actually very kind and looked through all the bins. Nothing. I retraced my steps through Target, all the while imaging picking up the sippy cup and taking it home. And there, in a candy rack about 1.5 feet off the ground, tucked amongst the the fluorescent greens, blues, and yellows of Easter candy I saw it:

Ahhhh. Thanks, Chrissy! I should use this positive imagery more often. Maybe it will get me a tight ass and a million dollars.

Loving What Ya' Got. Or not.

Sometimes you just have to improvise.

Immediately after Brow-Gate 2008:

(Me without makeup. And, apparently, Chapstick.)

A couple of notes:

1. Never again take a picture without makeup or Chapstick.
2. Or under-eye concealer. Sheesh! It's called sleep. Try it sometime. (Honesty check: I actually don't sleep as much as I should, but the dark circles are worse than usual due to congestion from that little bubonic plague I had.)
3. I have a scar above my right eye from hitting the corner of a coffee table when I was young; it is not a result of Brow-Gate. The wax job wasn't that bad.
4. I am not cocking my eyebrow, or looking at something curious. That skinny little ski-slop of an eyebrow with the corresponding stump of a parenthesis brow? Compliments of Mei-Lin, thank-you-very-much. I am particularly fond of the way the (my) right brow pulls away from the (my) left brow, as if it's afraid of the former swooping down for a bite.

(Me with makeup. And, apparently, looking into a mirror with water spots.)

A couple of notes:

1. Clean the mirrors. You weren't raised in a barn.
2. Get a better under-eye concealer.

The brow filler I use for my scar wasn't looking so hot when I used it to fill in Ski-Slope Brow. It was one of those "good from afar, but far from good" situations. Up close, I looked like someone filling in her brows. I also wear makeup once, maybe twice, a week. That's actually being generous; I'm more of a bimonthly kinda gal. If you've ever filled in your brows, you know it requires a full face of makeup to pull off. I just can't do that everyday, so I decided to initiate Plan B.

Bangs. With IKEA household scissors. In my bathroom.

A couple of notes:

1. Under-Eye concealer. Seriously.
2. Lots and lots of under-eye concealer.
3. More than 5 hours of sleep a night might also be good.
   

The Super Lousy Mom

Mikey doesn't have school on Friday or Monday because 63% of the US Presidents were born in February. This meant his class Valentine Party was today, which was no problem for me because I didn't sign up to bring anything. We showed up to school and I saw a couple of parents bringing flowers and presents, presumably for the teachers and teachers' assistants. Kiss asses, I thought, while mentally flogging myself for not thinking to do the same. Then I noticed some kids brought little bags, and that in those little bags were little Valentines. As in, Valentines for your classmates. Um, k-k-kiss asses? I already knew the answer. I forgot that because of the holiday on Friday the Valentine exchange would be today, Wednesday. Why it didn't occur to me that a Valentine exchange would occur during a Valentine party is beyond me. Hell, this morning I thought today was Monday so I'm just happy I didn't show up to school with an Easter basket.

I needed to get Mikey in class and figure out when this Valentine thing was going down. I walked briskly into Mikey's class and rushed the teacher.

JULES: "So," I said in that casual, offhand way people use to talk about the weather, "Are the kids exchanging Valentines today?" The last part ended up sounding rather shrill, so my plan to sound cool disintegrated in one brief, Peter-Brady-trying-to-sing-for-the-talent-show moment.

MRS. W: "We sure are! We're all going to put them in everyone's special bag they made earlier in the week! Mikey can just put his in his cubby until we're ready!"

(Whee! That's just flippin' FANTASTIC!)

JULES: "Uh huh. Yeah. Well. [ahem] And when might that exchange happen?" I felt myself rocking on my heels from side to side, like some Olympic sprinter warming up for a big race--in my case, against the clock.

MRS. W: "Oh, I don't know. Maybe 9:30?"

JULES: "Oh, really?" I managed to choke out. "In 30 minutes, huh?"

MRS. W: "Yes. But now that I have you here let me go over some paperwork real fast."

JULES: "Real fast."

MRS. W: "I'm sorry?"

JULES: "Oh, nothing! You were saying real fast?"

MRS. W: "I'm about to hand you Mikey's registration packet for next year. Now, it's really, really, really important that you stay and fill it out right now because spots fill up suuuuuuper fast for 4 year olds and you want to secure your spot!"

JULES: "He he he. Right now, huh?" A wave of Catholic guilt slapped me in the face. "IforgottheValentines." It all came out in a tumbled rush.

MRS. W: "Oh. Well, maybe you can get something and Mikey can just do the exchange at 11:30 during snack."

(Now there's a an invitation if I ever heard one.)

JULES: "Oh, that won't be necessary. 9:30 you say? And its...Oh! Look at that. 9:10."

MRS. W: "Don't forget the registration packet..."

JULES: "See you at 9:30!" Shit. Crap. Crappity-crap-crap-shit-crap. I am so flippin' screwed.

I will be positively amazed if anyone in the administration office can read one thing on that registration packet. I wrote it out so fast I shredded the paper with the sheer force I used on the pen clenched maniacally in my hand. I was out the door in less than three minutes. 9:13.

I peeled into the parking lot of the nearest Ralphs and all but threw Nicholas into the shopping cart as I ran into the store and flew into the Valentine section. Being the guilt stricken mom that I am, I scanned the racks for the fanciest, most expensive Valentines. Twenty-seven 3D Animal Valentines for $3.99? SOLD! I made a mad dash to the pen section for a red sharpie. I was willing to pay $52. I found a set of three for $4. Back down the aisle and now in a frenzied sprint to the self check aisle. This entire time Nicholas remained in the cart thanks to the centrifugal force caused by my running around.

It wouldn't be a deadline without a blue hair tossed into the mix. I just pulled out of my parking space when right in front of me appeared a 104 year old woman making a 65-point turn to get out of her parking space. She was in front of me the entire way back to school. I wanted to poke my eyes out with the 3D Valentines and use my red Sharpie to write "Move it, Grandma!" backwards on my windshield on the off chance she ever bothered to look in her rear view mirror.

Finally, finally, finally, I made it back to school. I parked in the closest space possible and called the co-room mom on her cell. (Yes, I'm the other room mom. The irony hasn't escaped me.)

JULES: "HOWMANYKIDSAREINTHECLASS?!?!?!" As I ripped open the Valentines and Sharpies with my bared teeth.

CO-ROOM MOM: "15. But put in two extras for the teache..."

JULES: "HOWMUCHTIMEDOIHAVE?! HAVETHEYSTARTED?!"

CO-ROOM MOM: "I don't know...it's 9:28 and I'm just turning in my registration packet..."

JULES: "I'LLBERIGHTTHERE.THANKS,BYE!"

I quickly wrote out 17 times:
TO: My Friend
FROM: Mikey

I tossed Nicholas, again, but this time into the umbrella stroller. I grabbed the Valentines, locked the car, and started running through the school. And here is where I get crazy. No joke, as I ran through the parking lot pushing the stroller I suddenly thought to myself, Hey. Check it out. I'm running an no one is chasing me.

HUH?!

I tore open the gate, ran down the short hall, and opened the class door. Mrs. W. looked up with a shocked look on her face.

MRS. W: "You're here! With Valentines! And we're just about to start! Wow. You are a Super Mom."

JULES: "Actually, I'm just a really good Super Lousy Mom. Let's get this party started, shall we?"

Housekeeping

I'm doing a little test. I switched off the comment moderation on the blog. You still have to enter the word scramble, but your comments should be immediate. Let me know if you have a preference one way or the other!

A Homemade Birthday Party

Our little Nico is now 1 year old as of Saturday. To celebrate, we had a little family party at the house on Sunday. It was perfect. Quiet, small, and full of handmade, simple decorations and food by yours truly and big brother, Mikey. I went with a Valentine theme. I figured I could get away with the more feminine decorations since he's only 1. Hey, humor me; I'm a mom of two boys. I don't get many opportunities to buy pink so I grab onto them when I can!

Mikey and I started off by making a sign in honor of the birthday boy. Mikey did all the coloring and the entire time we worked on it he would say, "My daddy is going to love this." He did.

For decorations, The Mister, Mikey and I set about creating a picture mobile of Nico's 1st year. Looking at those pictures of him as a newborn tugged at the heart a bit, but I know the best is yet to come. We hung pictures of Nico immediately after birth from the light above the dining table. The rest of the pictures we stretched along our impossibly long, 8 foot slider. I was a little nervous about how people would receive this idea, but it was a hit. Sorry for the lousy pictures. My house is notoriously dark so I had to use a bit of flash for the pictures to come out but believe me when I say it all looked much better in person!

For favors, we made Valentine Hershey's Kisses Crackers. (As in firecrackers, not yum! crackers) Mikey and I made the wax paper together. It had hearts, "N"s, and Nico's birth date randomly through out.

We had a simple lunch of homemade enchiladas and brought in rice, beans, chips, and salsa from a favorite (local) Mexican restaurant. For dessert we had cake, of course. I made a Snickerdoodle Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream frosting and Breyer's "Fried Ice Cream". No one here is a particular fan of cinnamon, but I am impossibly anal and had to carry the Mexican theme to the end. Snickerdoodle cake isn''t exactly Mexican, but it has cinnamon so I convinced myself it all worked.

Parenting Tip: I know it's hard in this day and age, but don't give your baby any candies, sweets, cookies, etc. their first year of life. First of all, they don't need the sugar--if they want something sweet they can have a fruit. But, mainly, it's so you can see the look of ecstasy when the first bite of cake touches their lips on their 1st birthday. The looks on Nico's face was priceless. He couldn't get the cake down his pie-hole fast enough. At one point he had the entire slice in both hands and was trying to shove it all in with one bite. We couldn't stop laughing, and ended up giving him another piece just because it was all so amusing.

All in all, it was a great day. Thanks for letting me share it with you.