My current favorite song...

I don't know how to get the actual song up on here so I can only give you the lyrics. However, if you want to hear it go buy the new Chris Tomlin CD; Hello Love. As usual, Chris has a tremendously worshipful collection of songs that just make you want to throw your hands in the air and sing at the top of your lungs or fall on your face in adoration of The One True King. When I first listened to this song I couldn't help but cry.

All the Way My Savior Leads Me
Chris Tomlin

All the way my Savior leads me;
Who have I to ask beside?
How could I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my guide?

All the way my Savior leads me;
Cheers each winding path I tread,
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.

You lead me and keep me from falling.
You carry me close to Your heart.
And surely Your goodness and
Mercy will follow me.

All the way my Savior leads me;
O, the fullness of His love!
O, the sureness of His promise

In the triumph of His blood!

And when my spirit clothed immortal
Wings it's flight to realms of day,
This my song through endless ages:
Jesus led me all the way!
Jesus led me all the way!

All the way my Savior leads me.
All the way my Savior leads me.

Comforted...

Psalm 33

Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous!
For praise from the upright is beautiful.

Praise the LORD with the harp;
Make melody to Him with an instrument of ten strings.

Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.

For the word of the LORD is right,
And all His work is done in truth.

He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the goodness of the LORD.

By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deep in storehouses.

Let all the earth fear the LORD;
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.

For He spoke, and it was done;
He commanded, and it stood fast.

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever,
The plans of His heart to all generations.

Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD,
The people He has chosen as His own inheritance.

The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.

From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;

He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him,
On those who hope in His mercy,

To deliver their soul from death,
And to keep them alive in famine.

Our soul waits for the LORD;
He is our help and our shield.

For our heart shall rejoice in Him,
Because we have trusted in His holy name.

Let Your mercy, O LORD, be upon us,

Just as we hope in You.

Father God, I thank You for sustaining me today. I thank You that You are made perfect in my weakness. Your grace is sufficient for me. I thank You that Your steadfast love never ceases and Your mercies are new every morning. You say in Your Word that mourning may come for a night, but the new day will bring gladness. Bless me with a healing night's sleep. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Help me to stay on the path that leads to life.

Cake Blog

I have created yet another blog!

People keep asking to see my cakes so I decided to create a blog that is just cake photos. I figured this would make it easier on those looking to see them since they won't have to wade through all kinds of back posts to find what they want to look at. :) I may occasionally post a cake on here but I think for the most part they will go to the new one.

Hopefully I'll actually post something worth reading on this one from time to time! :)

Shannon actually named this blog without even knowing it: FranCakes (of course!)

Fun with Fondant...

I've been taking another cake class, this time on fondant. It's a type of frosting that is rolled out and has a kind of a chewy texture, sort of like a tootsie roll. I have made fondant out of marshmallows (tastes like marshmallows and powdered sugar) and I've made one with white chocolate (that tasted good!) I do plan to explore some of the other flavorings because I can never leave well enough alone. :)

This first cake is the class cake we did. It's my first ever cake covered in fondant and it was pretty fun stuff to work with! I took it to church and fed it to everyone there so I didn't even eat a piece of this one! It was white cake with raspberry filling and buttercream under the marshmallow fondant.

These next ones are baby shower cupcakes that I did for my Sister in law, Michelle. I loved making these little guys! I thought they turned out pretty cute too! :) The cupcakes were chocolate with chocolate ganache filling. I frosted them with regular buttercream then put the white chocolate fondant decorations on top.

Some are awake and some are sleeping...

They have little bitty binkies (star shaped cookie decorations)...

I did twenty nine of them total and it took me HOURS!!!!

All the blankets are different too...

My Birthday Present!

My birthday is this week and my darling husband bought me my gift on Saturday. We had stopped into Costco in Issaquah on our way home from a family memorial service. We can never seem to go into Costco and buy just what we came for. We always wander around and look at everything and inevitably something jumps into our cart that we hadn't planned to buy.

Well, this time it was an expensive kitchen toy for me. :) I have killed so many blenders that just my presence on the blender aisle of your local store will set them all to trembling! You can hear their glass jars rattling on their bases when I'm near! :D I've even had to replace parts several times on my Bosch blender attachment! If you have a Bosch Universal with blender you know that those are decent blenders and yet, I've maimed mine repeatedly. :(

Because of this unnatural skill for blender killing I have been eyeballing a Vitamix for some time. I never thought I'd get one because they are very expensive and my husband, as sweet as he is, just didn't know why you'd want to spend that much on a blender!

Until he saw the guy in Costco drop entire apples, oranges and other big chunks of fruits and vegetables into that big bad boy!! He topped it all off with a mound of ice and let'er rip! Even I was amazed and I'd been ogling them for months!

I think the thing that sold him though was when the guy said it spun at 37,000 RPMs. When Jon realized it went faster than his favorite router the power hungry tool man in him rose to the surface and I got a fancy pants new blender for my birthday! Yay me!!!

We love smoothies at our house so it will be great for those alone. Add to that the fact that you can make soups, gravies and a bunch of other stuff right in the blender and I'm in love! And when I say soup, I mean start to finish put whole vegetables in the thing and it will actually cook it! You pour out of your pitcher and right into your bowl!

We love those JetTea smoothies you can get at the local coffee stand so the first thing I did was head straight for Cash n Carry for my own mix. We had Caramel Apple JetTea smoothies last night (and at $4 each at a stand we will pay for my Vitamix with those alone!)

Know what's even better? This morning I made my kids smoothies for breakfast. I'll tell you what they ate but don't tell them! :)

I put the following ingredients in:

10 oz crushed pineapple and juice (it was canned)

1 small banana

2 whole carrots (peel and all, scrubbed)

2 TBS whole flax seed

1/3 cup flaked oat groats (that would be old fashioned oatmeal)

1/3 cup 2% cottage cheese

2 TBS Davinci's coffee syrup - Raspberry flavor

Ice

When I was done grinding all of that up it was silky smooth and they drank it while exclaiming how good it was. I have a new tool in my quest to practice vegetable subterfuge. :D

This concoction has:

213 Calories

3.43 g fat

.43 sat. fat

.40 poly.

.39 mono.

1.49 chol.

109 sodium

294 potassium

40.5 carbs

5.26 fiber

7.02 protien

And oodles of vitamins and minerals.

My family teases me that I already put nuts, twigs, rocks and small woodland creatures in the bread I bake but now nothing is safe in my kitchen! :D

If you come over I'd be happy to make you a smoothie but I have a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on what's in there! :P

(Mine is just the like the one pictured but it's white. I could have ordered the black one with free shipping for the same price but I wanted the instant gratification.)

I'm off to the produce stand!

Stuck in my head...

I've had this song running through my head for a couple of weeks now. We used to sing it at our home fellowship group but it's been over a year since I last sang it there. Maybe the Lord just brought it back to my mind because of the things going on around me lately.

It's been my song and my prayer...

Lord here I am
Nothing you should treasure
Still you do, I'm your child
Mercy beyond measure
Lord to will, and to do
All things for your pleasure
May the Heart of Jesus be in me

Jesus remind me
I live for your glory
Lord let the world see
Your Spirit inside me

Lord let me love them like you do...

I don't know if I have the words right and I suppose I could go look them up in Jon's song book but he's sleeping and I don't want to disturb him. At any rate, that's how I've been singing it. :)

I love the reminder that it isn't about me, it's supposed to be all about Him. I long for the world to see Him living through me. I hope they don't see me at all but I'm afraid too often they do.

But how comforting to be reminded that though I'm not anything to treasure, He calls me His child anyway. No matter what anyone else says or thinks, I am His child and He has mercy beyond measure for me.

I long to love people the way He does, with the same limitless mercy. How hard it is! Especially when they do hurtful things; to me or to people I dearly love. Mercy beyond measure, for me and for them.

I'll keep singing and praying because I'm not there yet, but He loves me anyway.

Lord here I am...

May Birthdays

Well, I had two cake opportunities this month because Jon's birthday is the 13th and Gracie's is the 15th. For Jon's I just made a little 6" cake for our family. He asked for a caramel apple cake so the cake itself was a yellow butter cake. The first layer was moistened with apple cider syrup with butterscotch caramel spread over it. The middle layer was again moisted with apple cider syrup but then I sauteed some apples in brown sugar and butter and spread those on when it had cooled. The top layer was the syrup and butterscotch again. Then I frosted it with buttercream and topped it off with more caramel.

It was definately a diet buster but it tasted pretty darn good if I do say so myself! :) Here's a pic of the sliced cake (note the gooey caramel dripping down...)

Now Gracie's cake was a little bit larger. We had a few friends over to share it with us and did a very low key birthday for her. From the moment I got a certain cake book she had her heart set on a Tinkerbell cake (only she pronounces it "Tinklebell") In the book it was blue and purple but this being Gracie we had to change it to pink. It was a fun cake to make and she loved it.

It was a yellow cake with strawberry moistening syrup, a thin layer of buttercream and sliced fresh strawberries on the bottom layer. The middle layer again had the syrup with a vanilla meringue disk and a thin layer of buttercream. The top layer was a repeat of the first. Then the whole thing was frosted with more buttercream. I liked that one too and now I need to take up jogging or something! :)

Here's Gracie's cake:

New Profile Pic...

Well, I figured it was time I came out of the closet so to speak and showed you the real me. This is more likely how I'll look if you drop by unexpectedly (either that or in my PJ's!)

So, there you have it.

Me, threatening my husband with a rolling pin while he laughs at my "fierce" expression.

Yes, there is flour all over my kitchen. You can't see it but there was a lot of frosting around the place too!

Either this makes you want to live with me or run away screaming.

Vast

We scurried through our morning at church, got all of our details tended to and Pastor Chris drove us In to Seatac for our flight out. Too rushed notice any fear or excitement we dashed through this line and hustled through that one. Finally clear of all the different check points and with my shoes firmly back on my feet, I realized I was famished! Fortunately, the food selections are like hitting an upscale mall food court and we both found something we liked without having to take out a second mortgage on our house. Finding a seat in that crowded area was much more difficult but we did finally manage it. I felt compelled to finish my fish and chips quickly so I could give my chair up to one of the other souls wandering aimlessly with their food tray, hoping for a vacant seat.

We peered in all the little shops and gawked at the planes on the tarmac before finally wandering up to our departure gate. As we sat there waiting for our flight to arrive I couldn't keep my eyes off the little princess who kept dancing around in front of her mom and grandma. She was around my Gracie's age and I think they would have become good friends if that sparkly crown on her head was any indication of her love of all things pink and sparkly. I watched her for awhile, already missing my little chick before my eyes shifted to the older girls who were quite excited to be going to Disneyland. They could barely contain themselves as they heard someone say our plane had arrived. They were traveling with their parents, grandparents and their aunts and uncles. It was quite the production! I became good friends with their little 5 month old cousin. He had the sweetest little round head and drooly grin! I wanted to pluck him from his mommy's arms and squeeze him but that is generally looked down upon if you don't know the person. :)

My personal secretary Kim made the flight arrangements for us and since she loves me I got the window seat. ;) My poor husband was squeezed in the middle and feeling claustrophobic so I scooted over as far as I could to give him some elbow room. It must have been enough because he relaxed and leaned across me to peer out the window too. I never get tired of the view out that postage stamp sized window. As we lifted off and the ground fell away below us all the familiar landmarks grew smaller and smaller. The rivers withdrew until they resembled silvery ribbons strewn haphazardly across the landscape, but it's always the mountains that get me. Suspended there between the earth and sky I peered out at the mountains which now looked like rumpled bedclothes beneath us and I was in awe of my God. My view is usually restricted to what is right in front of my face. I deal with the here and now, day to day stuff and forget there is a bigger picture to be seen. But when you're 30,000 feet up and the usually majestic mountains now look like nothing more than fudgy ripples in a bowl of cake batter your perspective changes.

I realized again how great He is and how small I am. How could One so vast, so amazing see such a tiny little speck in the grand scheme of things? But He does and not only does He see me, He loves me. I was surrounded by people on that flight but for a time I forgot they existed. I was alone with Him as He showed me the beauty etched with His hand. I sat in wonder as He spoke to my spirit of the things to come when I finally see Him face to face.

I can't wait for that day.

"I will extol You, my God, O King;

And I will bless Your name forever and ever.
Every day I will bless You, And I will praise

Your name forever and ever.
Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised;

And His greatness is unsearchable.
One generation shall praise Your works to another,

And shall declare Your mighty acts.
I will meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty,

And on Your wondrous works.
Men shall speak of the might of Your awesome acts,

And I will declare Your greatness.
They shall utter the memory of Your great goodness,

And shall sing of Your righteousness."

Psalm 145:1-7

Time for Tea...

As far back as I can remember my grandma had a beautiful collection of dainty teacups. When spring break or Christmas vacation would roll around us kids would be shipped off to her house and I would head straight for those colorful cups and saucers. Over the years she'd given up trying to clean them, the arthritis that curled her fingers in like talons made it nearly impossible to wash one without dropping it. Finally, when I was sixteen and had driven myself to her house I was deemed worthy.

The only thing I've ever washed more carefully than those teacups was my first newborn child.

After my grandma passed away all of us girls split the teacups amongst ourselves. The four that I chose were the beginnings of my own collection. I didn't really plan to have a teacup collection I just loved the four I had, but one day my mom noticed them and gave me two of hers. Then my aunt found out and she gave me one too. My husband, picking up on all my "oohing" and "aahing", began to buy them for Mother's day and birthdays and slowly my collection grew. So did the number of people buying them for me as my friends got in on the act too.

I decided that I had better somehow make note of who gave me what so I went through and labeled the bottom of each saucer (because I am getting old you know!) My grandma never used her teacups and except for our yearly Ladies Christmas Tea at church, neither did I. My daughters were much like me, always admiring from afar but never allowed to touch.

Something changed over the past year though. I have decided there is no point in having beautiful things if you're afraid to use them or share them with the ones you love.

~

Our church had a time period where we didn't have a youth group. Since my girls are at that early pre-teen/teen age I really wanted to make sure there was something happening for them regularly to focus on their spiritual growth so we came up with "Disciple Night". Originally the girls and I had planned to go to a coffee shop and have some time together praying and doing a book study. We've found that the intimacy of our dining room table creates a far sweeter time for us. We put piano music on the CD player, dim the lights and spend our discussion time in the flickering glow of candles. We drink tea and eat cookies or whatever other sweet confection is on hand and just enjoy the moment.

When we began doing this they used coffee mugs but tonight I told Jessica and Arielle to pick which teacup they wanted to use. The look in their eyes was a hard to describe combination of excitement, love, awe and a touch of reverence; probably the same look I had when I finally got to wash my grandma's teacups.

Jessica chose a gleaming white cup with one large pale blue rose edged with the tiniest bit of pink and accented with lush green leaves. Arielle's selection was a creamy colored cup with tiny rosebuds strewn all around it. The one spray of rosebuds inside the cup sets it apart. I was amused with how clearly their choices reflected their personalities. Jessica prefers understated elegance, feminine but classy. Arielle is a typical girly girl and loves pink and ruffles. I had a hard time choosing but in the end settled on a delicate alabaster white one decorated with small bouquets of roses trailing elegantly around it. I might be a bit of a girly girl myself. :)

We prayed together, read our chapter and discussed it and prayed again. We laughed and giggled, we talked about God and being content with what He's given us. We enjoyed each other immensely and when we were done we washed those cups and carefully put them back in their places.

I look at all those delicate, flowery teacups lining my mantle and covering our entertainment center. Perfectly positioned and placed exactly so; beautiful to look at but mostly unused. But when we washed them and brought them to the table and used them as they were intended, they turned an ordinary moment into something extraordinary.

Most of the women I know are like those teacups; they come in an array of beautiful shapes and colors with every flower imaginable represented. Some are being used in the capacity they were created for and they shine and sparkle with purpose. Others remain on the shelf, unaware of their latent beauty; thinking perhaps they resemble a coffee mug more than a finely detailed work of art. They watch the others; wishing and afraid to hope, not realizing that they too were created by the Master for a purpose.

True beauty isn't revealed by self help books, diets or because we've painted ourselves to look like what we think is acceptable. We will only recognize our worth when we see it revealed by Him. He created us exactly the way He wanted to and He doesn't make mistakes. He made you a beautiful work of art; will you allow Him to wash the dust and grime away to reveal the beauty He placed there?

He is worthy and I promise He won't drop you.

Sir Josh!

Josh's 8th birthday was a couple of weeks ago but as sometimes happens when you have a busy life we just had the party yesterday. Since his mother likes to decorate cakes the boy decided he wanted a castle cake he'd seen in a cake book. To his young mind there was no question as to whether I could actually pull it off or not!

His whole birthday party was planned around this cake.

We invited his friends with a pronouncement of "Hear Ye! Hear Ye!" written on scrolls we'd made. All the "squires" were invited to the "trials". If they successfully completed them they would be knighted by King Jon at the end of the party.

We had them decorate tunics with their crest (they colored clearance pillow cases with fabric markers and then put them on. We tied brown rope around their waists for the leather belt.)

Next they went outside and decorated their shields which were made of cardboard. When that was done they began the trials. The first thing they had to do was run the obstacle coarse. They started in the back yard where we paired them up. They had to run from the back yard, around one side of the house where there was a "log in the forest that they had to jump with their horses" (we put a board down that they had to jump over). From there they traversed the great desert (the front yard) and ran until they reached the "castle" which blocked their passage into the back yard again. They had to climb over or through the castle, run back to the starting point and use the "lance" they'd been carrying to slay their dragon. (The dragons were two saw horses with a green balloon stuck to the end. The lances were foam pipe insulation with a pin stuck in one end).

They had to rescue a maiden (while keeping a balloon aloft with their sword) and they had to find the King's treasure which someone had stolen and scattered throughout the land. And of course their was the opportunity to just sword fight (again made from foam pipe insulation).

I had so much fun watching them! Today we taught Sunday school and several of the boys were in our class. We've heard a few times that it was the best party ever! That makes a mom feel good!

I just hope he doesn't want a party next year because I'm not sure we can top this one! lol

King Jon did knight all the boys (like his crown? We sacrficed a gift bag! lol) Gracie decided to get in on the act and started knighting people too!

Nothing left

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

That's how I'm feeling today; just a teeny, tiny bit overwhelmed.

The e-mails have been rolling in like one demanding tsunami wave after another and I began to feel like I was drowning in a sea of "did you? would you? have you? when are you?"

I called Jon to hear a friendly voice and maybe talk myself down from the wall I was about to jump off of.

I told him I'd like to be a cat; they lay around all day sleeping and eating. If they do decide to get up it's to pounce on another cat or walk over to a nice lap for some loving. Mine are laying around like little rugs in front of the woodstove slow roasting their bellies.

I'd definately like to be a cat! He just laughed not understanding how overwhelmed I was feeling. I think he got it when I got all weepy though. He tried to reassure me that we'd get it all figured out and I appreciate his efforts, but that wasn't quite what I needed.

I asked him to remind me of who was in control so he did. He reminded me that God is in charge and all we need to do is seek Him and let Him direct us. I know all of this, I just need to be reminded now and again. I take my eyes off my Lord and get them on the storm and my sinking boat and just like those disciples I start panicking.

Jon and I finished up and I felt a little better. Not much, but a little. Josh and Arielle were sitting at the kitchen table finishing up their lunch and reading bible verses to each other. Arielle said something to me about what they were doing and I replied, "I'm having a nervous breakdown!" She asked me if it would help if she read me a bible verse and I said sure, try to read one that's comforting.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5-6

If you know me, you know that is my life verse. It's the one I cling to when I feel overwhelmed, unsure or out of my league (which pretty much describes me today!) As soon as she began to read I started to laugh. God is not a God who is far off. He is nearby waiting for us to call on Him for help. He's not unaware of my state and He has all I need to do what He's asked of me.

It was like He reached down into my kitchen and tenderly lifted my eyes off my storm and back to His beautiful face.

Thank you

It appears you want to remain anonymous so I hope you read this post.

To the person who placed the gift in my purse the other day, thank you for allowing the Lord to use you to bless us. Not only did it meet an immediate need but it encouraged me greatly.

You have no idea how much it was appreciated.

:)

Note to self...

I frequent an online bulletin board and someone posted this there; it's a question to flylady and her response. Unfortunately I will occasionally indulge in this stinkin' thinkin' so I thought I'd copy and paste it here as a reminder to myself . :)

"Dear FlyLady,
How do you stop the martyr feelings when they start to come up? I find this stinking feeling sneaking up on me at times, especially during those busy/stressful times. How can I stop them right away?

Dear Friend,
You said it yourself, "especially during those busy/stressful times. "The secret to stopping those martyr feelings is taking care of yourself. I know you don't believe this. I use an acronym to help me HALT! Don't let yourself get too Hungry, too Angry, too Lonely, or too Tired. When you feel those martyred feelings creeping up on you, I want you to stop and find out which one of these things you have allowed to take over your body.Routines are the key to keeping your brain from going into that martyred stinking thinking! One other thing is the second you realize this is happening to you; BITE YOUR TONGUE! DO NOT ALLOW THOSE MARTYRED WORDS PAST YOUR LIPS. Then go set your timer and take care of yourself. Take deep breaths and focus on what needs to be done. Being a martyr is just another form of whining!- FlyLady"

Ooh, that last line has teeth! It hurt! lol I would add that if I am not in the Word and spending time in prayer then I am much, much more likely to indulge in those "I'm a martyr" thoughts. I've read Unappreciated by Damian Kyle many times because of those thoughts! If you've never read it, do! And then remember exactly who you're serving because when we remember that it's the Lord we serve (not ourselves) we can let go of worrying if anyone has seen all the work we're doing. We don't have to be concerned that we haven't recieved our fair share of attention or applause because we know He sees.

On the WOW Hymns cd Chris Tomlin has a version the hymn Take My Life and Let It Be that I absolutely love. I don't know how to link the song to my blog (And though I'm sure I could figure it out I have to go grocery shopping here in a minute!) So here are the words with Tomlin's refrain. When I sing this song (at the top of my lungs) I sing it as a prayer because if we lived our lives this way, the only martyrdom that would happen is the real kind, where we lay our lives down in service to Him.

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.
Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.
Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect, and use every power as you choose.

Refrain:
Here am I, all of me
Take my life, it's all for Thee

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne.
Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

Oh Lord, please make my heart right before you and help me to remember exactly who I serve. That it isn't me and it isn't for the praise of men but only to hear "Well done my good and faithful servant" the day I look into your beautiful eyes. Take my life, it's all for Thee.
Amen

Willow Tree Wedding Cake

Well, it's finally done! Elaina and Peter are now Mr. and Mrs. Scougle! I'm so happy for those two and what a beautiful wedding! I do hope though that someone caught the ringbearer's antics on film. What a little ham! If you missed it, he was up there squinting at the audience and scolding the flower girl for something. (I never did figure that one out.) The funniest part though was when he took his two fingers and did the "I'm watching you!" thing (you know, when you point the two fingers at your eyes then at the person you're watching.) Hmph, glad it wasn't my kid!

Oh wait, it was! That boy! lol On one hand I wanted to throttle him (I am the mom afterall!) On the other hand I was trying hard not to giggle! (Again, I am his mom!)

He was so cute (I'm a little biased but whatever! :) )

Okay, now for the cake. Peter and Elaina are diehard chocoholics if their cake is any indicator. They wanted a chocolate cake with bittersweet ganache filling. We had a few changes to the outside since they initially wanted ganache flooding the tops of the cakes. They changed their minds though and went with a bittersweet Italian Meringue buttercream for the top and a milk chocolate frosting for the sides. To get this effect I frosted the cake upside down.

No really, I did! I made a template for the size cake I was frosting then taped it to a sturdy surface. Then I taped a piece of parchment paper over that so I could see the template (a big cirlcle.) I filled in the circle with bittersweet frosting and built the cake on top of that, upside down. When I was done with all the cake layers I frosted it with milk chocolate and chilled it for awhile before flipping it over. Then I peeled off the parchment paper and Voila! A two tone cake that actually looked decent.

When we were planning it I realized that the only cake stand I had wasn't going to look good with all that chocolate since it was silver. So I asked my darling husband if he would build me something that would complement what I had in mind. Being the nice guy he is, he said yes and made this beautiful creation:

It was so chilly outside that the cake was pretty firm. It was a little difficult to cut because of that and the slices didn't all look very pretty but they tasted okay I think. Elaina liked it anyway and that's really all that mattered, right? She told me that when she tasted it she thought she'd died and gone to heaven. And I know she loved how it looked. Mission accomplished! Phew!

Okay, I posted two pictures because I wanted you to be able to see the tops of the cake but I also wanted you to be able to see how pretty Jon's cake stand looked. Oh, and those are truffles around the base of each tier.

Oops! I forgot this one...

I completely forgot to post Elaina's shower cake when I made it. I think it was my favorite combination of flavors yet! In fact, I liked it so much I don't think I will make it again for a looooong time! ;)




It was a yellow cake with rum flavored moistening syrup. The filling was white chocolate with toffee pieces folded in; and the frosting was milk chocolate Italian meringue buttercream.

I will be working on the wedding cake over the next couple of days (so don't call me! lol) I'll post pictures of that one Sunday or Monday (depending on how quickly I recover!)

Some helpful tips...

It seems that just about everyone I know is on a diet lately so I thought I would post these helpful weightloss tips. (I feel it is my duty to share my knowledge in this area since I am so obviously successful at dieting. :P )

I have personally tested all of these...

1.If you eat something and no one sees you eat it, it has no calories.

2.If you drink a diet soda with a candy bar, the calories in the candy bar are cancelled out by the diet soda.

3.When you eat with someone else, calories don't count if you don't eat more than they do.

4.Food used for medicinal purposes NEVER count, such as hot chocolate, brandy, toast and Sara Lee Cheesecake.

5.If you fatten up everyone else around you, then you look thinner.

6.Movie related foods (Milk Duds, Buttered Popcorn, Junior Mints, Red Hots, Tootsie Rolls, etc.) do not have additional calories because they are part of the entertainment package and not part of one's personal fuel.

7.Cookie pieces contain no fat-- the process of breaking causes fat leakage.

8.Things licked off knives and spoons have no calories if you are in the process of preparing something. Examples are peanut butter on a knife making a sandwich and ice cream on a spoon making a sundae.

9.Foods that have the same color have the same number of calories. Examples are: spinach and pistachio ice cream; mushrooms and white chocolate. NOTE: Chocolate is a universal color and may be substituted for any other food color.

10.Foods that are frozen have no calories because calories are units of heat. Examples are ice cream, frozen pies, and Popsicles.

11. Foods eaten while watching a major event on television do not count. Major events include: Superbowl, Hockey Finals, Indy 500, Jerry Springer show.

12. Powerbars and other type energy bars make you thinner. In all my years of exercising (at least three times a year) I have only seen thin people eating energy bars. Ergo (therefore) they must make you thin.

13. Snickers is the same as an energy bar (see #12)

14. Tasting other people's food does not add to your calorie count.

15. Containers of food that list the number of servings as greater than one are lying. Every container includes one serving. Half gallon of ice cream, box of cereal, bottle of soda, bag of chips are all one serving.

I hope these tips help you all in your quest for weight loss. Now I must go finish the cake for the wedding shower I'm going to this evening (see number 5 above).

What's for dessert?

Well, those of you who know Cora know how much she likes spaghetti. So much in fact that every time we go to her house for dinner, guess what we have? Yep, spaghetti!

Now, this is okay as she makes it very tasty but the last time we went over she promised; no spaghetti. What's a girl to do? It's tradition to have spaghetti at her house!

So, here's what we had for dessert:

Spaghetti and Meatball cupcakes! Don't worry, the "meatballs" were ganache rolled in graham cracker crumbs, the "sauce" was red food gel and the "noodles" were frosting. The kids had a good time helping me make them too.

Scripture Exchange!

I was reading my devotional this morning and it was talking about celebrating God's word in your life; how it's impacted you and that type of thing.

So I thought why not host a scripture exchange?

Now if you were at my house I would have a plate of cookies and some tea. We'd all write out a verse on a card and put it in a hat then take turns pulling one out and talking about how that particular verse had impacted us.

But we're not at my house so here's what I'm going to do.

First, go get a cookie if you have one! :)

Second, I'm going to type out a scripture that God is currently working on in my life and share a little about that. If you want to play along you can comment on the verse I've posted (what He's done with it in your life). Then you can post a verse of your own and the rest of us will do the same. If you've already posted a verse you don't have to post another when commenting on someone else, but you can if you want to.

I hope this doesn't seem silly. I just thought it would be a good way to see how God's word has impacted our own life and maybe even gain insight from another. (And hey, it's a good excuse to eat a cookie!) I'd do this as a blog tag but I'm not quite sure how that works.

Here's my current verse:

"A gentle answer turns away wrath,
but a harsh word stirs up anger."
Proverbs 15:1 NIV

Lately I've noticed I've been a wee bit snappy. (Okay, convicted is the word! I don't like the sound of my own voice!) I was praying about it and this verse popped into my head. I'm sure it was the Lord instructing me on how to respond when I feel like being snappy. So that's what I've been working on, and trying to impress on my kids (because they model my behavior whether I like it or not!)

It's amazing how well this works. :)

With my kids and my husband both I've had opportunity to choose to say something gentle this week. I admit, it was something I had to choose at first because my inclination was to snap back. But after seeing the immediate impact gentle words made they come much easier!

You can literally watch the tension drain from a person when you respond with gentleness and kindness. When we're snapped at and respond in kind we end up creating an argument where we could have avoided one.

Practially, here's how this is playing out in my marriage: When he comes home from a long day and seems a little grumpy I'm making the decision not to take it personally. The amazing thing is, my doing this seems to wash away the grime of the day and he suddenly seems refreshed. His mood improves and he's actually happy to see me!

Proverbs 31:10-11 says, "Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain."

That part about the "heart of her husband safely trusts her" is, to me, the most important part of the whole Proverbs 31 woman section. I can buy stuff, sell stuff, have a clean house and well dressed kids but if the heart of my husband doesn't safely trust me then I don't think I've succeeded in being a good wife.

Answering gently (especially when he doesn't deserve it) is part of that.

**

Okay, your turn.

Audrey Hepburn Wedding Cake

This one was made for a friend of my sister in law. Her son was getting married and they liked the other cake I did well enough that they wanted me to do the one for their son's wedding. The wedding was patterned around Audrey Hepburn (the bride loves her). The bridesmaids wore green dresses with black tulle peeking out of the bottom. The men wore suits and fedora's and the bride was beautiful in her white dress. I didn't get to see the wedding itself but what I did see was very cool and I loved it.

The cake was fun to make even if it was a lot of work. We were going to put green hydrangeas on it but they are poisonous so I piped 250 apple blossom flowers and then glued them (with more icing) to wires. Then I used floral tape to put them in little bunches (I was trying to make them hydrangea like). I didn't end up using all of them so if you need a green flower (or many!) I have some to spare!

If I were to do this one over again I would make the design a little closer together and near the bottom (not so spread out) but I was mostly happy with the look of it. The mother of the groom was very pleased so I'm happy. :)