Easter Lemon Cake

Thankfully, after my Pintrest failure I had a back up for Easter Dinner!

This was right up my Alley....An awesome Cake that was super easy to make. It's not perfect, but thankfully it's MUCH better than the previous project.

My first attempt at Fondant. Which I must say wasn't nearly as horrible as I thought it would be. My only "issue" with it was I didn't follow directions. (Again..When will I learn there is ALWAYS a reason for a step) I didn't put a layer of buttercream under the Fondant. I just slapped it on. So....It doesn't have that awesome smooth appearance and it didn't really "stick" to the cake. Haha. Otherwise it was super easy to roll out and put on. I will use Fondant again for sure! (And I'll follow directions too)

The decorating consisted on green icing as the grass and the nest. (Which also helped cover up the bottom and my not so perfect cutting of the Fondant) And Cadburry Malt eggs as the eggs.

BAM! Done. Easy Peasy.

The Cake is a Lemon Cake with a layer of Strawberry Jam in between.

Lemon Cake Recipe:

1 c butter, softened
2 Cups of Sugar
4 eggs
1 Tablespoon lemon zest

1/4 c lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1⁄3 c all-purpose flour
2 ½ t baking powder

¼ t salt
1 cup milk

Set your oven to 350 degrees. Grease and Flour your cake pan. Mix the wet ingredients up and slowly add the flour, baking powderm and salt. Beat till well mixed and then pour into pan to bake.

I baked 2 8 inch round cakes for 30 minutes. the time will change if you are using a 9 x 13 pan. Bake it till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Approx 30 minutes.

The Strawberry Jam is good old Smuckers Strawberry Jam. That's it. ;)

The cake was great, and even Papa Baer who isn't a cake fan liked it!

(Take that you stupid ole' cake pops! LOL)

Pintrest Fail

I love Pintrest! I love creating all kinds of fun stuff from there. Although, I can now say that I also hate Pintrest.....Nothing like giving me a nice kick in the Ego to say....You suck Super mom.

See....I had this brillant idea I wanted to make these awesome Easter Egg Cake pops. I used this idea from www.bakerella.com who has the most adorable cake pops!

First off I must say....I am NOT a baker, nor am I really crafty and awesome. I like to fake it mostly. I like to find all kinds of ways to "pretend" I have super powers. So this was not a great idea from the start.

Second....I never actually followed directions. Nor did I even read the directions. LOL. I apparently am to cool for that. I just kind of followed what I "thought" would be done. I did ask a question or two from a friend who actually made them (And they looked super cute!) But otherwise....I just followed my awesome insticts to make them.

EPIC FAIL!

So...Here is the cake all baked and crumbled. Then I mixes about 3/4 of the icing with it...mixed it well and put it in the fridge. (FYI...do not follow any of my directions except as a list of things not to do)

Then I put it in the fridge and the next morning started my creation.

So far so good...(They "kinda" look like eggs)

Then that's where it went downhill. FAST!

The sticks wouldn't stick in them very well. Then after the melted chocolate (A very cool orange color which would have made adorable eggs) was ready I attempted to dip them.

Then my MIL tried to help and save them. LOL Not a chance. Everytime we dipped the entire cake pop fell apart. In pieces. Fell off the sticks, broke off, a disaster.

Thankfully we only started with a small batch of chocolate. (Thanks to my MIL) So we didn't waste an entire bag.

Here is our "ending" project:

We stopped there. I mean really...we surely weren't getting anywhere. And had I continued I would have needed a Xanax or something. And that's not cool on Easter. I just threw it all in the trash and chalked it up to a Fail!

EPIC FAIL!

Thanks Pintrest for making me feel like a total failure.

Now...If you really want to try them head over the Bakerella and follow their directions. I still think they are super cute. LOL

40 days of Giving up Clutter!!

Well, here we are on the last day of Lent for 2012!

During the past 40 days I've been giving up clutter. And it's been amazing! My friend over at www.whitehouseblackshutters.com Ann Marie heads up the project every year for us and I've been following along and sharing my progress each week.

First, I'm going to recap this last week. I didn't exactly get done what I was going to get done...or what my plan was. BUT....I still managed to rid 9 bags of of here this week!

I put together this toy cubby and went through the toys in the living room (That's it though...blah) I threw out 1 bag of trash. And I have 1 bag of baby toys for a friend.

Of course I had a "problem" on this project. (You would think I could manage to follow simple directions) I put it all together right...then nailed the back boards onto the front. *OIY*

Stupid...Stupid....Stupid

So....I bought some white duct tape (Who knew they sold white duct tape) and taped the edges carefully and Viola!

Looks perfect. LOL

Then I worked on clearing out some more basement items. I rounded up 3 bags to take to Thrift King and sent them on their way with Papa Baer. These bags were mostly Stuffed animals, old Easter baskets, and extra stuff I didn't need.

Thursday I worked outside almsot all day in my flower beds and planting herbs....But I started clearing out the shed....What a disaster that is.

Then Friday morning I decided the garbage had to go. So as the garbage truck was on the street above me I was loading up 4 more bags of trash to get out before they made it to me! Old junk, cardboard, and stuff that I have no idea was even saved.

All together this week I cleared out 9 bags. It wasn't in the areas that I wanted to work on. But, I'm still thrilled to have it gone. I can't believe today is the 40th day and this project is wrapped up for the year.

All together I have cleared out 54 bags (Trash bags people!!!) of Clutter from my home. I have half of a basement that is now functionable space. (The other half will get there) And my house is so much less cluttered. I have space...Space to enjoy. (Not junk back up)

I still have a long way to go, and I'm really hoping that my 40 days has given me a great head start. A few things I learned this year was really honestly evaluating if I needed "something" or not. I got rid of a lot of things I had been hoarding (LOL) for no real reason other than I could. And the clutter and junk was weighing me down. My closets are cleaner and my mind is focused!

So....Here's the final breakdown:

30 bags donated to Thrift King

8 bags given to friends/freecycle

3 bags sold

13 bags of trash

54 Bags! Seriously? How awesome is that?

Linkin it up:

40 bags in 40 days

Here we are at Week 6! Can you believe it? For those of you following along or giving up "clutter"for Lent with us. Here is my Week 6 update. This week I tackled my kitchen. Which was a much smaller project then previous weeks. But...the clutter was there! I cleared out my cupboards and silverware drawer. I got 2 walmart bags full of baby food out and freecycled them! And also threw away a half a bag of trash. Then I tossed another half garbage bag full of trash from the fridge!

Bye Bye Baby food!!

Organized and clean

Ditto!

Then I moved on to my 3 killer junk spots in my kitchen. And cleared them out! My two buffets and the top of my microwave also attract junk. All kinds of papers, mail, garbage, toys, on and on...

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

2 full garbage bags full of trash from those 3 places! Thank Heavens!! Now...I really need a better organizing system, or else those spots are just going to get cluttered again. But...at lesast for now they are clear!

Total for this week 5 bags!!

2 bags donated/freecycled

3 bags of trash

Total project so far:

46 bags!

One week to go my friends. :) This upcoming week I'll be working on TOYS TOYS and MORE TOYS.

I still have half my basement to do. That will never get done this week though. So, I have to allow myself the thought of being happy and proud of the 46 bags (so far) gone and not concentrate on the other bags that remain. Hopefully after Easter I can still keep working on it. Maybe it will take 60 days and not 40. LOL Work, School, and of course kids keep me busy enough.

Head over to www.whitehouseblackshutters.com and check out the other accomplishments that people are working on! It's so great to see each week progress with everyone.



Try it Tuesday: Kool Aid Colored Eggs!

So it's Tuesday again! And since Easter is right around the corner I thought I would "Try" the Kool aid Colored eggs that I have found on Pintrest! there are quite a few different pins about coloring your eggs with Kool-Aid. So I just picked one to get the general idea and Brother Baer and I experimented.

So...We started with 5 colors. Red (Cherry), Purple (Grape), Blue (Blue Raspberry), Yellow (Lemonade) and Orange (Orange)

We mixed one packet of Kool-aid with a half a cup of water and stirred them up! then set the eggs in to see what happened.

The yellow....Didn't work at all. Nothing. No color to it at all. The rest seemed to color pretty good. The purple is a bit more "brown" looking to me. Very very dark purple I suppose.

Brother Baer loved the Blue ones. And I really love the red ones! It was fun and really easy. They also smelled really good while coloring.

Putting them together with the other eggs we colored with food coloring and vinegar....They all look good and colorful! No real difference.

Some of our eggs have some crazy markings... But the little ones helped and they are adorable. You can see the purple eggs and how dark they look...not really a bright and cheerful egg.

So....That's it for Try it Tuesday! They worked and it was fun! I'm sure we could do some fun mixing of colors too and make up some awesome colors!!

One more Weapon in my Arsenal!

www.emeals.com

My Newest weapon in my Super mom arsenal! I have to share!! The question "What's for dinner" plagues me. Everyday. I sometimes lie in bed at night trying to get "organized" for the next day and figure out what's for dinner.

I have tried menu plans, lists, lists, and more lists. I have searched and downloaded hundreds of recipes and I STILL find myself not knowing what to cook for dinner.

Then there is the whole....The recipe looks good, but the 100 ingredients it takes to make the meal, or the fact that my kids won't eat the meal....Leads me to never actually trying the new recipes that look so awesome.

SO...my girlfriend told me about this website! (Thanks Stacey!) and I searched it out and I am in love! www.emeals.com is their site!

First....it gives you choices of stores that you can shop at. And they develop the menu for the week (Kid friendly, mom friendly, easy to make recipes) and then provide you the store list...for YOUR store and gives you the breakdown on the cost even.

Seriously it could not get any easier. :) Yesterday I signed up! Printed my weekly list....marked off 2 meals that we don't need (Since I only need to make dinner for 5 days this week) and went to the store this morning. DONE! I spent a total of $48.00 for the week's meals. And that included Cat litter and paper towels. (That we obviously can't eat) and so I am so excited about this meal plan not only helping me solve the dinner dilemma but saving me money too. (Now I did have a lot of the basics in my pantry already...their estimated costs of weekly meals are between 65-80 a week for a family of 3-6)

They also included an Easter menu (With store list) for free right now! I downloaded that too and honestly will make some of the items and follow the list. (some things I have to make traditional)

So jump on over to www.emeals.com and check them out! They have special dietary meal plans as well. Including Gluten Free, and Whole foods options. While you are there you can sign up for a FREE Lemon Cake recipe and try it out.

WOOHOO!!! It's Finally Friday! I've been working on the 40 bags in 40 days project with my blogger friend Ann Marie over at www.whitehouseblackshutters.com And every Friday we link up all our awesome progress for the week!

The idea really stems from Giving up "Stuff" for Lent. To Spring Clean and purge all the stuff that weighs us down. Giving us a chance to live a simplier, more free life! Clutter around here never seems to end. And this week was really no exception. I seemed to be taking 2 steps forward and 3 steps back this week.

It seemed that I brought more into the house then I purged. I did clean out my car! Cleared out all the winter junk that accumulated...hats, gloves, toys, on and on....So cleared out my car...but brought 3 bags of stuff INTO the house. *sigh* It's really not supposed to work that way. LOL But Everything that came in found a home, so that's a plus I suppose. and I did get one bag of trash!

Then I gave away Baby Baer's infant seat with 2 bases. YAY!!!! That counts as one. right? I surely don't need it anymore and it was taking up space. Then I gave away a bag of dresses of baby baer's to a friend...WOOT WOOT...that's 3!

Then came the migration. Winter clothes out and summer clothes in. Here is what I cleared out of Baby Baer's drawers and closet:

Nice Clean and empty drawers to fill up with cute summer stuff (I did save a few outfits out just in case Mother Nature decides to stop taking her meds.) Seriously...Summer clothes out and being used in March? In Pittsburgh? AMAZING!

and her other drawer:

Then I rid the boys drawers out. All together I got 4 bags of clothing from winter gone. I passed along the 3 bags from the boys to two of my friends for their kids. And got 1 bag back! LOL So...3 given away, 1 given back.

I still have Baby Baer's bag of clothing. Hoping to find a home for them with a friend. If not they will go to Thrift King. (My pile is bigger now! 7 bags ready to take to Thrift King)

I then gained a bag of Summer clothes for Baby Baer for next year...So again....3 bags gone, 2 bags in. *Round and Round* I do have to say I'm super thrilled that I have a circle of awesome moms and our kids can trade clothes every year. It saves us all tons of money so I can't complain about getting bags back in. And I suppose I'm losing stuff I can't use and gaining stuff I can. That helps right?

All in all this week I purged 4 bags through it all. (purged 6 and got 2 back) and then I got over 40 bags of stuff IN! Seriously....I collected 2 different donation drives this week that were on going to Mended Little Hearts of SWPA - A Non profit that I run from my house) One from a local hospital:

And another from Brother Baer's Cub Scout Troop. Here are the boys all proud of their donations they gathered! (The stuff is all hidden behind the cute boys. LOL)

So, I've been spending a lot of my week putting away the bags. So, I haven't had a lot of time to purge my stuff this week. Oh well. I'm doing well and that's all that matters.

I'm officially at 40 bags as of this week!!

27 bags donated

5 bags passed along to friends

3 bags sold

5 bags of trash

So, all in all I'm doing well even though I haven't got to a lot of the important spaces I wanted to. I really need to clear my kitchen cupboards and I'm going to try hard to make that my priority next week. I also have spaces in the basement that still need decluttered.

For now though I'm off to enjoy this sunshine!! Happy Spring all!