sponge bob cake

I was asked if I would make a cake for the 4 year old of a work-friend. It was more time consuming than I thought it would be...I would have wanted (had I had more time)to put arms and legs on..
I made 2 different cakes. The first layer was vanilla. Second layer was chocolate. I put a strawberry filling in the middle and made buttercream frosting in the yellow, white and brown. The rest was fondant and I had that in a package but had to add food coloring.
I only had one evening to work on this so I think it turned out pretty good.

my favorite chocolate cake recipe

12 Tbsp unsalted butter, soft(plus extra for greasing pans)
1 3/4 C. all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting pans)
4 Oz. unsweetened chocolate, coarsley chopped
1/4 C. Dutch-processed cocoa
1/2 C hot water
1 3/4 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 C buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
4 Lg eggs, plus 2 lg egg yolks

oven: 350 degrees
grease 2 9" round pans and dust

combine: chocolate, cocoa, hot water in medium bowl
Set over saucepan w/ 1" simmering water and stir with rubber spatula until chocolate is melted (~ 2 min). Add 1/2 C sugar and stir till glossy (~1-2 min)
Remove and set aside to cool.

Whisk: flour, baking soda, salt in bowl

Combine: buttermilk and vanilla in sm bowl.

In bowl for mixer fitted w/ whisk: whisk eggs & yolks on med-low speed until combined. ~10 sec.
Add 1 1/4 C sugar, beat on high until fluffy and lightened in color ~2-3 min.
Switch to paddle.
Add cooled chocolate to the egg/sugar and mix until blended ~30-45 sec
Add softened butter gradually
Add 1/3 of the flour then buttermilk then flour then buttermilk then flour.

bake 25-30 min until toothpick comes out clean.

Last summer getaway

We just celebrated out 17th anniversary. Origionally we were going to leave the kids at home but my mom and sister were both out of town so we decided to have a family trip. This was the last weekend before school started...we tried camping in Yosemite. We drove the whole way there only to find the entire park full, plan b: we drove to a hotel(full), c: another hotel(full), d-?: etc... finally in Oakhurst we were told, at yet another hotel, that all lodging from Yosemite to Fresno was 'No Vacancy'.
I love being spontaneous, but it sucks when everyone else has a reservation.
So we went home that night.

Saturday morning I got on the interwebs and made a reservation for a hotel in Berkley. We decided that everyone was in the mountains so it might be safer to go to the coast. We spent the first day in Berkley walking around, had a lovely dinner and Saturday evening took the kids to the IMAX theater to see Harry Potter in 3d. Sunday we spent at the ocean. We went to the Pt. Reyes light house and spent the rest of the day at Drakes Bay Beach. The weather was a perfect 60 degrees. The sand was warm. The water was cold. We had fun drawing on the sand, the kids had fun picking up shells. I was barefoot all day. We drove home in the evening - back to the 90 degrees.

Summer shorts for Riley

Camera Bag/Simplicity 4391

I made 2 camera bags.. They turned out very cute. I didn't use any d-rings and strap adjuster pieces that the pattern called for, so the strap is not adjustable. The thicker straps looks more 'camera bag'like but I think I prefer the thinner strap a bit better. I think I would make the flap shorter if I made this one again.




this last photo Im adding 8/12, after a weekend trip. Riley brought this along to use as her own camera bag.

Land of painted caves

I was so excited when this book came out. I bought it in march or April, right around the time when my thyroid medication was lowered and I started having problems because of that. One of the problems is that I get brain fog and I can't focus. I read a paragraph over and over and can't hear what I'm reading so I have to put the book down. I picked the book up last week when I started taking the correct dose. I red the whole book in 3 or 4 days.