lemon ruffle cake

I had so much fun making and decorating my moms birthday cake! My first ruffle cake, which for my first I am okay with the imperfections!

I started with 2 cake mixes, one yellow and one white. I like to doctor up my cake mixes to make them here is the recipe for my doctored up Lemon Cake!

1 yellow or white cake mix

4 eggs

1/2 Cup water

1/3 Cup oil

1 Cup Sour Cream

1 package of Lemon Instant Pudding

Combine ingredients and Bake according to the directions on the cake box. I used tow 8-inch rounds for each cake. Since I did one yellow cake and one white so 4 layer the cake would look striped when we cut into it. When making the White cake mix, I used only the egg whites.

For filling between the cake's layers I used Lemon Curd. I discovered a new way to make it so it doesn't need to be strained and ends up perfectly smooth!

4 TBS unsalted butter

3/4 Cup Sugar

3 large eggs

1/3 Cup FRESH Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

Combine sugar and butter in a glass bowl, and beat until fluffy. Then beat in the eggs. Add the lemon juice. Once it is all combined, pour into your stove-top pan and heat on low-medium until it gets creamy and thick. Be sure to CONSTANTLY stir the curd and don't let it boil! You can freeze or store it in the refrigerator.

For the frosting I wanted something light, but still lemon flavored. Here is the recipe!

1 pint of Heavy Whipping Cream

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1 package of Instant Lemon Pudding

Use your hand mixer to beat until it gets thick enough to pipe or spread, if it is too thick you can add a teaspoon or two of milk until it gets to your desired consistency. note* I should have doubled this recipe to make the ruffles work better.

Fifty is Nifty

My amazing mom turned fifty this week. My sisters, Dad, and I decided to throw her a big surprise party! We plotted and planned for weeks, trying to gather emails, make decorations, and order food.

The cake was my first ruffle cake! I will post more details about the cake soon!

We decided that doing a black theme was just too dreary! So we thought of something more cheery and bright and landed on lemons and limes!

We had mini Vanilla Cupcakes from Sweet Tooth Fairy. YUMMO. Best Vanilla Cupcakes ever.

We also had Coconut and Pistachio Macaroons from the Sweet Tooth Fairy. If you haven't ever tried a french macaroon, you must! They are light and fluffy and melt in your mouth.

Several of my aunts made gooey rice crispy treats. I love sticky melted marshmallows!

We got Citrus flavored and colored candies, and had them all over the table. Adding jars of colored candy helps decorate your party and adds an extra treat for your guests, especially if you have little kids! Using real lemons and limes in vases is a great way to decorate, inexpensive and pretty!

With the help of my Grandpa we gathered old photos of my mom and scanned them so we could make them black and white and order prints online. We used clothes pins and twine to hang them along the back wall for everyone to see.

Lemon water and Lemonade to drink, with grey striped paper straws. (which I found on Amazon for a great deal!) My sister printed out the cute labels using this free printable.

We used my silhouette machine to make the Happy Birthday Sign that we hung on the front of the table and the round paper streamers that were hanging behind the table. We cut our 150 scalloped circles and I sewed them together on my sewing machine!

Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

Color Me Purple!

A purple party!

I started gathering Purple Supplies months before the big day, with a baby on the way I knew I would need to be prepared!

I got the cupcake wraps, and the cake stand around Easter time at Walmart. They had plenty of purple, and other pastel colors available. I dyed the cake and frosting purple of course!

I also had purple Jello Popcorn, a yummy way to flavor popcorn! Here is the recipe:

8 cups popcorn, I used my Air Popper (my favorite wedding gift)
1 cup light Karo syrup

1 cup Sugar
1 small box of Jello (any flavor, I used Grape)
2 tablespoons Butter

Combine Karo, Sugar, butter, and jello in a saucepan on medium heat. Bring it just to a boil and then pour over popcorn, beware it will be hot!

And of course a little grape Fanta

Some chocolate dipped marshmallows, purple Peeps, grape licorice.

We also had Sandwiches on Purple bread (my local grocery store will do this in their bakery, any color!) We also had grapes, purple kolaid, and grape jello jigglers.

It was VERY purplicous.

I used This tutorial for my ruffled streamers, and my sister taught me how to make the tissue balls, but you can go Here to learn how!

And of course everyone wore purple, We painted nails purple, and I found some amazing purple things at the dollar store to use, Fancy hats to decorate, Purple beads and bracelets, purple socks, and purple brushes, purple candy jewelry, all in little purple bags!

My purple princess sure enjoyed her special day!

Ruffles...

I have been trying to plan everything for Eliza's purple birthday before this baby comes, especially because baby sister is due the day before Eliza's birthday. I have seen these gorgeous ruffle cakes EVERYWHERE and I wanted to make a purple one for the birthday party, well I found a tutorial on youtube! So much easier than it looks, and so pretty and girly!image source


image source

Also, Anyone have any Ideas I could use for a Purple birthday? Games, or activities, etc? HELP!!!

You are the Bru to my chetta...

So, I LOVE Bruchetta. Maybe it is because I love tomatoes. I made this a few weeks ago for dinner and it was so pretty I had to take a picture! I marinated my chicken in vinegar, basil, garlic, onion, salt, pepper, and lemon juice. Basically Bruchetta without tomatoes. Then grilled the chicken, and when it was almost done cooking I added Mozzarella and Bruchetta. Then put it on toasted rosemary bread. YUMMY sandwich.

What is a Spaghetti Sandwich?!?

It is the only way to eat leftover Spaghetti!!!

Here is how you do it, and mind you it is carb-o-licous, but so de-o-licous!

Bread and Butter. Salt and Pepper.
Butter the bread, add a little salt and pepper.

Leftover Spaghetti, Mozzarella Cheese.
Warm the spaghetti up with a handful of cheese on top, so its nice and melty!

Place on buttered bread....

Give it a good SMASH...

And dig in. This sandwich will probably change your life.

Seriously.

Festive Food...

This recipe came from my sister in law, but I changed it a little...

Raspberry Lemonade Jello:
Filling:
1 large box of Raspberry Jello
1 small box of lemon cook and serve pudding
Topping:
1 small box of instant lemon pudding
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 cup milk
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Raspberries for garnish


Make Jello as directed, then cook pudding and add to Jello. Mix well and put in 9x13 glass pan. Let it sit for several hours, till it is set up. Whip remaining ingredients (except raspberries) and add a little food coloring if you want it festive. Spread on top of jello, and garnish with raspberries.

BBQ Spare Ribs:

Boil Ribs for 1 hour
Place Ribs in baking dish and cover with your favorite BBQ sauce. Bake ribs at 300 for 1 hour
Grill ribs with more sauce for about 15 min, the time really depends on your grill and how hot it gets. Just don't burn them!

Oven Fries:Wash potatos and then chop them up. Place them in a Large zip lock bag. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil and a few shakes of stake seasoning. Place them on foil lined baking sheet. Add a little salt and more stake seasoning, then bake for 30 min at 400.

Cakin' & Cupcakin'

I totally took the easy way with the actually cake itself... and used Betty Crocker's fun-fetti mix. Its fun and colorful, plus it tastes good! I made all the cake about a week early and stuck it in the freezer. It made it nice and moist!
The Fondant:

I used the recipe by Brittany on Make it and Love it. One of my new favorite blogs. She does an entire Make-a-Cake series. Here are her Fondant directions. I have made it twice, and do it just as she says, she knows what she is talking about!!!

The Butter Cream Frosting:

I ALWAYS use Wilton's recipe, you can make it any flavor you like! Even Chocolate!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine softened
• 1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
• 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar (approximately 1 lb.)
• 2 tablespoons milk

In large bowl, cream shortening and butter with electric mixer. Add vanilla. Gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often. When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry. Add milk and beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. Keep bowl covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.

For best results, keep icing bowl in refrigerator when not in use. Refrigerated in an airtight container, this icing can be stored 2 weeks. Rewhip before using.

Homemade Marshmallow Madness

This weekend my sister and I decided to tackle some home made marshmallows! First, it wasn't as hard as I thought. Second, they turned out YUMMY! I recommend you all try it sometime. You wont be disappointed.

How cute and fluffy are they!?!

Ready to be gifted.

We used THIS recipie from Smitten Kitchen. Her post about how she made them was so funny, and now I totally can relate to her first experience being a 'big mess'. Literally, its messy, they turn out, its just messy!