Train Cake

Made this cake for my nephew's second birthday:

Ok, it's not a cake but it is crafty ;)

I made this wreath last Christmas.  I used silver pot scrubbers, a grapevine wreath for the base, some silver bells and balls and some ribbon that I already had.  All items were purchased at the dollar store - total cost about $5.

Milk & Egg free cake

Since my middle daughter is allergic to eggs, nuts and peanuts - among other things - all of my recipes have been adapted.  I have discovered over time that no matter what I do to a box cake mix it just does not work!  So I have given up on convenience and now solely use this cake recipe for all my birthday cakes.  It is a bit denser than a box mix but everyone who has had it loves it!  An a lot of people have had my cakes!  lol






White Birthday Cake

This makes a basic white layer cake
Prep time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 25 to 30 min

2 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup veg oil
2 tsp vanilla
2 tbsp vinegar
2 cups water


If you would like a chocolate cake just add 6 tbsp cocoa powder.



Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round cake pans.

Sift dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients; beat with mixer at medium speed until smooth.

Pour batter into prepared cake pans. Bake in preheated oven for 25 to 30 min or until a wooden pick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pans for about 10 min before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Decorate as desired.

Cookies :)

Love these snowman cookies!  These were soooooooooo easy to make and turned out so cute!

The kids devoured these ones!

I made these flower sugar cookies for Sara for her last day of school last year.

They were, again, super easy and tasted great!

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake/Muffins

Lemon Blueberry Pound Cake/Muffins do NOT last very long around here!

They are super awesome!

Have made these with both frozen and fresh berries and fresh is definitely better but in the winter season frozen will be just fine!

This was originally a pound cake that I have turned into muffins.  Works well either way :)  Makes one loaf or about 22 muffins.

1 cup butter or margerine - soft

1 cup sugar

mix these together

4 eggs - I use 1 cup of applesauce (about 3 sm apples processed in the blender) and 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp oil & 1 tsp baking powder instead of eggs

3 tbsp milk

the zest of one lemon

1 tsp vanilla

add these to the butter/sugar.  mix well until creamy

Add:

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

mix well

Fold in 1 cup blueberries (you will need another 1/2 cup).  Put aprox 1 large tbsp of batter in each muffin cup and top with remaining blueberries - 4 or 5 each muffin.

If doing a loaf - fold in 1 cup blueberries and fill loaf pan then top with remaining blueberries.

Bake @ 350 aprox 20-25 min for muffins and 1 1/2 hrs for a loaf.

Prepare Lemon Syrup:

1/4 cup sugar

juice of one lemon

mix together - microwave for aprox 30 sec until sugar is dissolved. 

Remove muffins/loaf from oven.  Poke holes in tops.  Brush with Lemon syrup.  Let stand until cool, eat, enjoy :)

Rachel's cake 2011 and Sara's Birthday Rainbows in a Jar

Rainbows in a jar for Sara's birthday!

These were really cute and simple to do.

Have done them twice now and the second time I used smaller jars and they were more cupcake size.

Have also done apple crisp in a jar- was a perfect serving size :)

Rachel's tie-dye peace sign cake.

this is the inside:

And this is what it looked like cut:

Top view:

Side view:

Some more cakes I did this year :)

Soccer ball cake that I made for my cousin and his son.

I must say that I think this one is amazing!  It turned out so awesome!

When I dropped it off the little one (who turned 8) said 

"Did you really make that yourself?"

Excellent compliment! imo

top view:

This was made for my "4th daughter" Kennedy - who is my middle daughter's best friend.

She wanted a cake at her party that Emily could eat so she didn't have to bring her own cupcakes.

She told me she wanted the WalMart smiley face.

This is what I came up with: