Thirty * One
No I'm not talking about the home-party accessories line, although I do think some of that stuff is just adorable! I'm talking about my age! Eek, when did we get SO OLD!? I mean, I know that 31 isn't old when you compare it to life expectancy, or my 97 year old grandmother BUT when you still remember things that happened at 16, 18, 21, 23. . . like they were yesterday then, well yeah, 31 seems like an impossible age for ME to be. NOT that I'm freaking out about my age, more that I just can't believe how fast life goes! I've said it before and I'll say it agian, time flies - especially when you're chasing kids, er I mean having fun!! ;o)
A Wonderful Wednesday
Really it was a great birthday, although my fellow Mommy friends & I have concluded that each year your birthday becomes more & more like every other day of that week, and less like a "it's ALL about ME" kind of day. That point is always hammered home with the endless demands of kids, but it was still a wonderful day! I decided that I was going to get myself two things I've always wanted; a cake stand & a citrus zester - haha, yes I'm addicted to kitchen gadgets, but we ALL have our 'thing'.
And We're Off
So after doing a little research I decided that we could get all I needed between two of my favorite stores, Target & Bed, Bath & Beyond - and it was MY Birthday so I figured I could go to both stores since they are in the same shopping center. ~Remember this is my FIRST solo shopping trip with the boys since being put on bedrest over 9 weeks ago, so I needed to have a well though out plan so I could execute with as little extra energy as possible!~
It actually went pretty well. I mean doing anything with these two boys is exhausting, especially when it's more for me than them, but we only needed a few things at BB&B so we were in & out in record time. Then of course Target is a family favorite plus we needed some groceries along with my cake goodies, so I had 'bribe' food and of course the "IF you're good we can go look at the new Cars 2 toys" threat/promise - so I would say Target also went pretty smoothly. Of course leaving the toy aisle is another story, but for the most part it went without too much issue. Because my 2 store stop took over 2 hours we just decided to pick up a little Chik-Fil-A on the way home & that way everyone could head off to nap time once we got there.
Let The Birthday Fun Begin
SO as we were pulling back in the driveway I noticed there was something on the front porch, so we walk up there to see that there is a beautiful vase of happy little daisies & flock of purple, yellow & green with a Happy Birthday card on them. These were sent from my girlfriend Cat out in Colorado - I would LOVE to get to go visit with her, but it's a nice daily reminder of my friend and OH so thoughtful!! So I cart in my beautiful flowers, my self bought birthday presents and loot from my shopping trip and get the boys ready to head off to nap! Momma's got a cake to bake!!
I tied on my apron, turned on the oven and docked my iphone so I could listen to some "Taylor Swift" channel on Pandora while I got my baked goods under way. I really didn't want to invest all afternoon in this cake so I decided that I would take the advice of a couple different recipes, and like usual adjust for what I had & or thought would work well together. SO in my attempt to mimic some of my favorite food blogs I thought I would take the 'ingredients/before' picture. Although I did not take any 'during' photos cause, well it was just not that exciting! Ha!
Orange You Interested In The Recipe?
To make my cake I just took a box of vanilla cake mix and added a few teaspoons of vanilla extract and orange extract - cause I didn't want it to taste TOO much like a creamscicle - just a hint. Less is more ya know!? Then after the cake was out and cooling I got to work on the frosting. This was my first attempt at a cream cheese based frosting, plus I was incorporating orange zest & fresh orange juice as opposed to milk. The flavor was AMAZING!!! I let the butter & cream cheese come to room temperature then creamed them with both vanilla and orange extract then added in the zest of one orange. This gave the mixture a lovely pale orange color, which immediately made me rethink my polk-a-dot cake inspiration, I guess I should have removed a little of the white mixture and set it aside before adding the zest - oh well live & learn! Then I gradually mixed in 5 cups of powdered sugar, which made the mixture VERY thick and according to my mix & match instructions I could add either milk or orange juice & up to 3 tablespoons of either. SO I decided to go with the OJ, I mean I had already zested the orange, may as well use the fresh juice, so away I went juicing the orange and measuring out my liquid. I went with 1/2 a tablespoon at a time, but the mixture was very thick so I added almost 2 tablespoons by the end. At first it was a blessing - the mixture was just about perfect but then it got too runny, I think the acid from the juice began to breakdown the fats of the butter. . . At the time I thought it was from all the friction of mixing so much, and how warm it was in the kitchen, etc so I decided to plop it in the fridge and let it thicken back up. However, after the fact, I realized that I should have probably cut the butter down to a 1/4 of a cup (I used a whole stick = 1/2 cup) and add the same amount of crisco to help it keep it's form. BUT let me say again the flavor was delicious!! I had already put a blob of frosting between the two cakes & was attempting to frost with the runny stuff before I decided to chill it for a while and just for the heck of it I threw in a hefty spoonful of the crisco lard to the remaining frosting in the bowl to see if it would help & it did! So I am SURE that if you adjusted as mentioned above it would be great!
After letting the cake & remaining frosting chill for about an hour or so I finished frosting it & went with the haphazard 'fluffy' whipped finish. NOT quite the polk-a-dot beauty I had hoped for, but if there is one thing I have learned in my years in the kitchen, it's BE FLEXIBLE or LOSE your damn mind!!
More Sweet Birthday Love
Can it be possible that on top of the great morning & afternoon I'd already had that there was more goodness in store for me!? YES!! I should mention that the boys took two and a half & three hour naps, respectively. Which meant quite a stretch of delightful quiet time for ME! Then of course there were my new kitchen gadgets that I'd already gotten to enjoy and then just as I was finishing up the cake and getting ready to head to my friends house, the doorbell rang. Can you even guess what was waiting for me on the front porch!? It was Shari!!
Well OK it wasn't actually Shari herself (no I have NO idea who she really is, but she knows her way around some berries, that's for damned sure!) but her berries were waiting in a very neatly wrapped package & I couldn't wait to try one!
These were a gift from another of my girlfriends Mirela - well she is more like a sister then a friend, but you get the idea. She had called earlier in the morning to serenade me with her version of the "Happy Birthday" song and she said, "there is something coming for ya, but it's not flowers, I figured since you're pregnant you need to eat! I'll save flowers for when you're trying to lose weight!" HA! Gotta love that Mir & really that is SOUND reasoning!! I have mentioned before my delightful midday nausea, yeah it's still there, but I decided 'ah what the hell' and horked down one of the dark chocolate chip strawberries. It was delightful! REALLY. Although the resounding heartburn & swell in nausea I could have done without.
Let Them Eat Cake
Since going out to eat for dinner with the boys is absolutely OUT of the question, Dave swung by one of our favorite restaurants Roasters Chicken on the way home and brought me dinner! Not having to cook & getting one of your favorite meals on your birthday = double bonus!! And as if by some crazy coincidence Dave & Kaiden were talking about what kind of cake they were gonna make me for my birthday, and Kaiden suggested they make me a Halloween cake - yes, my 3 year old is already getting excited for the holidays, and Dave decided that instead of trying to bake & ice a 'Halloween cake' after getting home from work, he would just swing by the bakery and get a black & white cake to bring home to me. YES, if you're keeping count that is TWO cakes & ONE box of chocolate covered strawberries!
 |
| LOVE this picture - you see Kaiden's little finger sampling the icing?! |
 |
| My boys & their 'Halloween Cake' for Mommy |
 |
| This was ALL that was eaten of the cake!! It's dark chocolate & buttercream - yum! |
All in all it was a GREAT birthday!! Oh and I forgot to mention that Dave got me a day at the spa for prenatal massage loveliness!! Can't wait for that indulgence!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST
So it was subtly brought to my attention (well if you call a "Did you forget about MY present?" text subtle) that I over looked a fabulous birthday gift I had received from none other than my Mom. I guess because I had already shown it to a girlfriend and told a second about it on the phone that I had mentioned it here too, but just to cover all bases & to let my adoring fan base (which apparently includes more than just my 4 blogging friends) know that I DID actually receive a gift from my Mom!
I have seen these picnic baskets around for a while and I've always thought they were adorable - well she had one custom embroidered with my initials in green on a black picnic basket - a very cute combination! And the funniest part is that last year on one of my trips to GW fashions (aka The Goodwill - I LOVE that place! There is NO shame in my game that I shop there occasionally! Especially where we live, there is never a short supply of brand name & boutique children's clothes, Coach & Prada bags & awesome things for the home from a multitude of fancy schmancy places - including pottery barn, pier 1, crate & barrel and the list goes on. . . ) Anyway on this particular trip to the GW they had one of those picnic baskets - it was brand new, with the tag on it, it worked & it was black with a green logo of the state of GA screen printed on the front. This particular picnic basket was the one with the waterproof lining and the zipper, so I could use it as a cooler - how great is that? So now with the addition of Mom's fabulous birthday gift I have a matching set (what a coincidence) of cooler bag & picnic basket! Thanks Mom - and a thousand apologies for overlooking your gift in the first go round of this post!
No comments:
Post a Comment