Another Birthday in the Books

So. I turned 32 on Wednesday.
My family celebrated me on Sunday afternoon.

Mylie isn't so good at sharing the spotlight. She likes to be right in the middle of all gift opening.
(It's blurry, but she's so cute!)

Like. RIGHT. IN. THE. MIDDLE.
She puts her ball in every single gift bag or on every present.
She wants to make sure that you know she's there.
We know Smiles, we know.

This is how I feel about sitting in the spotlight. Under a Dollar Tree balloon bouquet.
Also, blingy silver necklace is a Grandma gift. Came with an accompanying blingy bracelet.

 

American Idol the Untold Story, kitchen towels, a hand mirror, and a mustard yellow sweatshirt were also my Grandma Gifts.

I know it's blingy, but please don't mug me.

Also, mom made me come back and pick up my balloon bouqet.
Stay back there, fools.

 

And then my sweet friend Wendy & her two kiddos, who I have a standing weekly lunch date with,  made me a yummy cake. Both kids notified me of said cake upon my arrival. Surprises are not their strong suit. But being excited for birthdays definitely is!

And then on my real birthday, these ladies accompanied me to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

The second happiest place on earth.

Cindy gave me the coolest birthday card, it came with a "pocket hot dog" (yes.), which was a bit of a talker.

He got to come along too. 

After spending about 30 minutes taking the above jumping picture (there isn't much spring left in this chicken), we decided to head to the arcade to kill some time before the rides opened. We hit up the DDR, skeeball, and fun house mirrors.

And of course the photobooth. My favorite thing of life.

And then it was lunch time.
Corndogs. Underneath the Hurricane roller coaster.
Mandatory.
All other corndogs are imposters.

Followed by the carousel.

And then two times around on the Giant Dipper. Cue the whiplash. Cue the ibuprofen.

And the Sea Swings. Terrifying. Yet, the best photo op possible. Worth the defying of death just for this shot.

And no trip to Santa Cruz is complete with out a scoop (or two) of Marianne's.
I skipped my traditional 10-20 flavor and went for Burgundy Cherry. Which is more like purple-people-eater-cherry, but still delish.

And wrapped up the day celebrating with a few of my favorite little people, who made me the cutest cake (alongside their Mama), I'm pretty sure they were more excited about my birthday than I was. As they should be.

And one last outing with the pocket hot dog to my favorite local haunt, where I blew out one of those ding-dang-darn candles on purpose, for once.

Alright 32, let's do this thing.

The Rum Cake Redux {a dramatic tale}

So, let's set the scene.
Christmas Eve.
1pm.
And report that there will be no Sprinkles cupcakes for dessert tonight.

What's a girl (with a somewhat fully stocked kitchen) to do?
Check her pinboard for something that sounds delicious, and doable.

Cue this pin & recipe:

Source: browneyedbaker.com via Kim on Pinterest

Flour. Check.
Sugar. Check.
Butter, eggs, vanilla. Check, check, check.

 Instant Vanilla pudding, CHECK (or so I think).

 Dark Rum... Well... I have Malibu Coconut Rum handy. (because, um, I also have Diet Coke handy?)
And also Rum & Maple extract. I feel like I can make this work.

So I wisk. 

And I stir.

Pour. 

Mix.

You know, the usual.

Things are looking good.

Batter is looking like sand, as per the recipe.

And then, I realize the pudding I had on hand was Cook & Serve, not instant.

So at this point, I have the wrong kind of rum, wrong kind of pudding, wrong kind of milk. Cold and non-room-temperature butter.
Oh and the salt isn't kosher.

But, ingredients are combined, and we are at the point of no return.

I have committed to this rum cake.

And so, we go forward. And extract our little hearts out.

I pop the bundt (what is it? it's a bundt? but what is it? its a BUNDT! - name that movie) into the oven.
(Bundt in the oven!!)

And set the timer.

And then, I think to myself, "Self, what could make this potential disaster seem slightly less disastrous?"
And it comes to me, "Butterscotch Chips!!"

So I sprinkle, and then stir them in. And close the oven once again.

And then I wait.

And the bundt cooked.
And I flipped it.
And let it settle.
And pulled the silicone pan away.
And about half the cake "crust" with it.

Which, on the upside, meant I got to scrape away some delicious sample remnants from the pan.
And also I noticed I was supposed to already be making the rum syrup.
So I got to it. With appropriate substitutions.
And with the crust debacle, didn't really need to poke holes in the cake, as it was rather holey already.
So I poured, and soon, we had a not-so-pretty, but oh-so-tasty Homemade Rum Cake.

Full credit for the awesome recipe from the Brown Eyed Baker found here.
My additions and changes are as noted above.  And clearly, results may vary.
(I used 1 tbsp rum extract, 1 tsp maple, & 1/2 tsp almond, and just handful of butterscotch chips in the batter, and another tbsp rum & 1 tsp maple in the syrup. which i did not follow the instructions on how to make either)

The Oreo Cookie Weakness

The Oreo Cookie Weakness is a real thing.

You either have it or you don't.

And I have it.

Bad.

The other day, I found Oreo instant pudding at the store. So I bought it, without any specific plan for it.

The office prego suggested that it would make a really good cake filling.

Which got the wheels turning.

So, my next Trader Joe's run, I grabbed a few things to go with it...

Have you tried Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake mix?
It is the sweetest, to die for cake ever.
It is not white cake. Or yellow cake.
But Vanilla cake.

YUM.

It is so pretty, it even has little flecks of vanilla bean throughout.

So I made the cake as the instructions on the box...with a twist.
After it was all mixed up, I crushed about 9 Oreos (or in this case Joe-Joes) in a ziplock, and tossed them into the batter.

And then poured the batter into two 8 inch pans. The box didn't have directions for that size, so I baked for about 25 minutes, plus a few until the cakes were nice and golden.

AND - another twist.

I added a few whole Oreos/Joe-Joes into the cake itself.

Overkill?

Maybe.

The cakes REALLY wanted to stay in their pans - so assembly was a bit of a challenge - but I pieced it together as best I could - and layered the cakes with the pudding.

I used Trader Joe's White Frosting Mix - which I suspect is basically just glorified powdered sugar - and crushed up a few more Oreos/Joe-Joes (maybe 6-8?) and threw them in the frosting. 

Iced the cake.

And decorated with even more...wait for it.

Oreos/Joe-Joes. 

Seriously. If it wasn't overkill before. It is now.

I brought it to work the next day, for Prego's farewell.  It may have given me a cavity just looking at it. (Good thing my sister is a hygienist, she can work on that for me). 

So it's not the prettiest cake I have ever made.

And it wasn't MY personal favorite.

But it did seem to get some good reviews from the coworkers. And prego's hubby. 

So, I call it a success.

And tomorrow? Prego's Twins arrive! I can't wait to hear the report. 

Double the cookie!

Double the fun!

Welcome to the world little ones!

The Best Food Holiday

Well, most people would say that Thanksgiving makes the best food holiday. And yes, it is up there, however, the Superbowl might take the cake. Literally.

Last year, around Superbowl season, I began obsessing over the Williams-Sonoma Sandwich Cookie Pans - aka Oreo Cookie Cake. After trying to convince everyone I know to buy them for me, and getting no takers, I caved and just bought them myself.

Is it not adorable? It isn't exactly cheap. However, when you buy the pans, you get the cake and frosting mix for $10 more (normally $20 - YIKES!). So I decided to debut the cake pans for the Hope San Mateo 2010 Superbowl Party. With the help of Margaret, we diligently followed each direction to a T. Including the buttering and dusting of the pans with cocoa powder. We timed the cooling before flipping to the minute. We did everything the directions told us to. Unfortunately, the cake still stuck a bit to the pans. And even worse, after we assembled it, and left it in the fridge to chill, when I woke up Sunday morning, I discovered this:

Yes, an Oreo Cookie Cake Casualty. I wanted to cry.  After a few MacGuyver like moves, I made the broken top layer into the bottom layer, and no one was the wiser.

A few weeks later I baked the cake again, this time from scratch, as per the recipe on the box (which, by the way is delicious, but not as insanely amazing as the box mix). I carefully buttered each crevice of the detailed pans, dusted with cocoa and let cool appropriately. Unfortunately the cake stuck to the pans again, and came out in several pieces. I puzzled them together, and served the cake to my family, who didn't seem to mind.

Well the Superbowl has come again, and I was ready for a Oreo Cookie Cake Rematch. This time I was going to go with my instincts - the recipe calls for a Pioneer Woman amount of butter, these are non-stick pans, and with a little cooking spray the cakes should have no problem coming right out. I sprayed those suckers down. In the scalloped edges, around the COOKIE imprint, in each decorative design.

Good news folks, the Oreo Cookie Cake Pans were no match for my master Canola Oil Spraying Skills, they slipped out like a charm, and in one piece. I could not be happier with the results.

Hopefully, the people of Hope San Mateo were as well.

A Farewell to Cupakes

No, I'm not swearing off cupcakes for good. I wouldn't dream of it. I couldn't.

Nor am I swearing off my dear friend Margaret.

In fact, there isn't much swearing going on at all.

However, there is some cupcake enjoyment.

Today Marge and I had a little farewell lunch - because, I'll be leaving and sailing the high seas (on a quest to find the best Cuppa's along the Baltic Sea)...and she'll be headed down to Southern California for school before I get back. SAD DAY, right?

Anyhow, after enjoying our final Una Mas lunch, outside, enjoying the long awaited warm weather - we headed over to Nob Hill where we split a Red Velvet cupcake from the bakery. $1.99 is a pretty fair price! Would the cupcake live up to our standards?

Survey says...
YES.

Not the best, but not bad. Very dense, very rich, very chocolatey. Filled with cream cheese is always a welcome feature.

Adios Margaritaville! I don't know how much of the fun will be coming to me, since you will be living in a different half of the state.

And remember, daily email updates. Every day. The entire semester. Do it.

A Cuppa-Copenhagen?

Set the scene:
Kim & Margaret.
Saturday evening.
Burlingame Ave.
A long day of Horse Back Riding.
Starbucks pasta salad and hummus plate for dinner.
Shopping in Banana Republic.
Need to Pee.
No bathroom at BR.
But there is one next door.
You can't walk by that display case without looking.
$2.95 for a Red Velvet is proposed.
Accepted.
Split.
Cream cheese center!!!


And enjoyed.
A lot.