Happy 31st!

My wonderful, fun, hard working, and sexy husband turned 31 Monday. Happy birthday babe!

I tried to make it a good day for him but he didn't get his official birthday dinner and cake until today.

Our little guy was pretty excited about the cake, even more so when we added candles and lit it; it was really cute :) He loved eating it too.

Hot Cup made a perfect choice of cake. It was really good, I'm glad it turned out! He picked it out of the cookbook CakeLove. It's a Black Forest Cake, brushed with syrup from the Soured Cherries, and topped with Whipped Cream with Cinnamon and Soured Cherries.

Hot Cup said it tasted like chocolate chip pancakes. He's not wrong.

(The ingredient list and the instructions didn't match each other on amount of sugar. I sort of picked a middle ground and since it was good I'm still not sure how much sugar is supposed to be in it.)

Happy 30th!

Hot Cup turned the BIG 3-0 on Sunday.  Happy birthday babe, love you <3

Saturday we had a celebration for him at my parents'.  In preparation for Saturday's festivities, Friday evening I put his birthday cake in the oven.  There was a violent thunderstorm going on outside and a few minutes later the electricity cut out for a few seconds.  I said "that better not happen again, I just put your cake in the oven!"  And of course it immediately did and didn't come back until Monday at about 5:30 pm.  Booooooo.  So anyway, my mom came through with a tasty angel food cake.  And my parents let us stay with them Saturday and Sunday nights.  I wish the power hadn't been out at home, but it was fun to spend a little more time with family.  My baby enjoyed himself and took his naps and went to bed without complaint.  I think that between last weekend, Gettysburg, and the Eastern Shore, he is more prepared for our bigger trips that are coming up.

My handsome husband ;)


Yesterday Hot Cup prepared a delicious Independence Day dinner for us.  He smoked a turkey breast and potato wedges and we used the turkey for thanksgiving-style sandwiches.  So good!


And we had fun in the pool.


And (back to the birthday) I finally made Hot Cup a birthday cake.  It was a Light and Lemony Cake with a lemon flavored Italian Meringue Buttercream frosting from the book Cake Love by Warren Brown.  If you've never thought about how much butter goes into a buttercream icing - don't.

The Car Cake

We kinda made a project out of the birthday cake for our little guy. We really wanted him to like it :)

PART 1: The Recipe

Chocolate Butter Cake by Warren Brown. You betcha.

We were shocked at how difficult it was to find superfine sugar. We'd never had that issue before.

PART 2: The Mechanics

I don't know if I've mentioned this (haha) but our baby loves cars. His favorite parts of his toy vehicles are the moving wheels. So Hot Cup decided that he could bring that to the cake. Brilliant! He also added headlights and tail lights.



PART 3: The Decorating

I mentioned to a friend that I wanted to make a car cake for his birthday and she offered to let me borrow her car cake pan! And then also all her cake decorating supplies. Plus an icing recipe and some tips from a Wilton class she'd taken. I don't think I'd realized how difficult it would have been without all those things; I'm so glad I had them!

Due to ... circumstances, I ended up frosting the cake in the middle of the night. So my hope that I could do better lies there. But I'm pleased enough with it. I rolled out Spice Drops to cover the lights. And the wheels are made of cookies decorated with icing and silver sprinkles.



PART 4: The Video
See the moving wheels, and the headlights and tail lights.
Of course I record the video the one time one of the wheels went slower. If I'd realized I would've recorded again. There was a lot going on. Oy.


PART 5: The Birthday Boy Has His Cake
He loved it -- success! Especially the lights and the turning wheels his dad did. (See the pile of icing under the rear wheels from him wearing out the tread with his fingers :)

Chocolate, Caramel and Coconut

I was looking at pictures from the beach and saw these photos I took of the yummy Samoas Bars I made for the trip.  Now I really really really want some.  They're so good!  Make some for yourself and you'll understand.


(Thanks for the recipe suggestion DeMom :)

Pictures of our baby's first beach trip coming soon!

Birthday Cake

My loving and sexy husband and the wonderful father of our little baby boy (whom this blog has come to be nearly entirely about) had a birthday! Happy Birthday Husband!


A few years ago the Smith Island Cake became the State Dessert of Maryland and we learned that "a girl isn’t considered a woman until she can produce a proper nine-layer cake." It's been a few years but we decided that it's time I become a woman. And with a husband turning 29(!), it's about time. I'm a little bummed that the layers didn't all stack up perfectly but I did it! And it was even kinda fun!

'Tis the Season

Or 'twas. Here are a few pictures.

The DC Temple.
Yummy Christmas Cookies.

Uncle Hot Cup.
The White House.


The Capitol.

Really Chocolate Chocolate Cake

Yesterday I made my first layered cake! It actually went pretty well, I think. I worried that it would fall apart before it was ... assembled, but my biggest issue ended up being the frosting.

I realized only a moment too late that I probably should have stuck to one style. Frosting it smooth around the sides but not smooth on the top made it look like someone’s hair that’s been shaved only around the sides/back but not off the top. Maybe I should have had it the same all over. I don't know. What do you think?

Also, I think I should have put more frosting between the layers. It could have used a little more. It worked at least. Overall I was pretty pleased with this first attempt. It was edible :)

It must have been someone’s birthday!