I know....

It has been just short of a month since I have posted anything - apologies to the three of you who read this! It has been a busy month with baby showers, family functions, a trip to ohio with my Dad for a family reunion, attempted trip to mexico, and working at Beachside community church for the brief time that I am home.

Elizbeth and I went to a cupcake shop in B'ham this summer and their slogan is "cupcakes make people happy" well of course I LOVED it. But one night perusing Etsy I came across this magnet and am thinking this might need to be my new adopted slogan.



(http://www.etsy.com/listing/52574157/jumbo-magnet-keep-calm-and-eat-a-cupcake?ref=cat1_gallery_26)

I know this isn't the most interesting post but I loved this magnet and just couldn't help but share! It has been a really busy time and we are also anxiously awaiting the arrival of Baby Bode - my first nephew - who could truly come any day now! Of course there will be more to come from that topic!

Red Velvet Cone Cakes

I got this recipe from "Down Home with the Neely's" and I thought they were so cute and would be great recipe for the fourth of July. Now unfortunately...the recipe didn't quite turn out perfectly for many reasons but a couple are...

1) the red velvet looks more like brown velour

2) it did not taste particularly red velvet - but a little more chocolate. This was no biggie..people ate them up and some thought it was brownie or chocolate cake but oh well, as long as they enjoyed it.



I baked the cake inside the cones - the tricky part of this was carrying them in and out of the oven without knocking any one over.



I used an ice cream scooper to place one scoop of the batter in the cone and then of course to place the cream cheese frosting on top. This is not the usual cream cheese frosting that I use but it was still tasty.



In some of the pictures you can see the festive american flag toothpicks that I added at the end just because - well we had them sitting around and what else are we going to use them for?



By the time everyone came over for the cookout- they had all tumbled multiple times and so I am very thankful that I took pictures as soon as they were done and not the next day because they were not nearly as cute.



The recipe can be found on theFood Network and always let me know if you would like any other recipes and I can point you in the right directions. I have really enjoyed getting to bake since it is difficult to do at school with the lack of resources =)

Have a wonderful day!

A shower for Bode

Holy Cow - Callie is now 35 weeks pregnant with Mister Bode Micah Mayville. Thus it was time to shower the momma with some swag. (all of those cupcakes that I posted before this were for the shower)

I am not going to comment on every picture...but they include a pic of the mommy-to-be, the dessert setup including the cupcakes and cake, the food, and decor, forgot to get a pick of the tasty blue punch though? =(
Enjoy!












It was a great shower and Bode got a TON of stuff and then the "good sister" that I am went and helped or attempted to sort through everything and do a lot of laundry. But soon enough Bode will be here and I am sure there will a ton of pics to follow.

A baking frenzy

Last Friday was ridiculous...but a lot of fun! Myself and my sister-in-law were throwing Callie a baby shower for Baby Bode and so I opted to do all the baking. I wanted to give a variety so I figured I would be adventurous and make three different types of cupcakes and then one basic cake. This all came from the "vision" I wanted it to look like. Soo here are all the pictures to show all of my hard work - it literally took me all day on Friday, but totally worth it!

These are the chocolate with peanut butter icing cupcakes garnished with a Reese's cup - these were my personal fave as far as aesthetic appeal.

This is a view from the top and thankfully it turned out just as I was hoping.

The whole batch of 'em.

Next up.. Carrot cake with whipped cream cheese frosting. These also turned out well, some I topped with nuts and some without. I didn't really have a vision for how these looked and so I just let the piping bag do the work and I think they turned out okay.

More of Carrot cake...this recipe was a little strong on the cinnamon they almost tasted like pumpkin - but hey top it with cream cheese whipped topping and it doesn't matter what the cake is. =)

We cannot forget the strawberry little ones also topped with the whipped cream cheese frosting. I have never been a strawberry cake fan....well, until now. I love these especially if they have been chilled in the fridge - Yummmmmmmmmyyyyy!!!

Individual of the strawberry...

Another individual of a carrot cake...

A tray of carrot cake and some leftover peanut butter and chocolate.

And, lastly...The cake, which is a chocolate cake with a chocolate frosting and mint filling in the middle. I have previously made this cake and I, again, found it very yummy!

I do think that cake decorating gets easier with practice and was very impressed with my icing of the cake and piping along the edges on the top and bottom of the cake.

But I will apologize for the writing because it was horrendous. I actually wrote something on it before this and had to skim it off and re-ice the top layer and so then attempted the initials of Bode Micah Mayville. The consistency was not very good for writing but oh well... there is always next time. Needless to say, on Friday night I was pooped. (and have been eating cupcakes for days...)