Cake # 68 Almond Spice Cupcakes

Contractions! Yikes - seven months preggers and contractions are happening. Last night I had irregular contractions from 7:30 to 10:30 -- what bothers me is that because with Evie I never even felt Braxton Hicks contractions - in fact I never felt the real contractions until right before I gave birth - when I have Braxton Hicks now, I feel like I am going into labor! It is certainly a scary feeling. Possibly all of these contractions are a result of a busy Saturday. It began with Ted bleaching one of my only two pregnancy T-shirts, and became a whirlwind of activities after that. We left our house at 11:30 and did not come back home until 8:00pm that night, which if you have a two-year old, you know how hard that can be. We had to run some errands at Walmart, which we bought Simalac nursettes to start preparing for little Liam's arrival, and with my sister's five dollar manufacturer coupon, we only spent 1.88 per box of nursettes. Then we had to rush home and decorate the cupcakes that I made earlier in the morning.

Next, we went to a friend's house warming party that began in a part where they played beer kickball and Evie and I and our friend and her sons played in the park. This was probably the hardest part of my day - even more uncomfortable than the contractions because when you put your kid next to your friend's kids, you cannot help but to want them to be well behaved. Her boys sat when she asked them to, listened when she asked them to, and generally seemed far less crazy than my spitfire.  Now, I completely understand that all kids have off days, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing - or make you wonder what you could be doing to be a better mother.

After that Evalyn fell asleep in the car as we rushed over to Ted's sister's Tastefully Simple party. I started off feeling okay but by the time 7:30 hit I was having contractions and feeling nauseated. These symptoms are so new to me because with my first baby I was on the go all of the time and felt nothing - so I felt terrible that I wasn't more energetic for Katie's party and that I looked miserable. Also, I really wanted to eat the food - but I couldn't get anything in.

I cannot even tell you how my cupcakes went - because all I know is that my daughter ate two without even blinking - so I am guessing they were good.

Here is the book's picture (with the added bonus of my daughter's ripping of some of the page):

Here are my Almond Spice Cupcakes:

Even though I haven't been feeling too great- because of recent tragic events in our friend's life, Ted and I are reminded yet again how lucky we are to have our family, our kid(s!), and friends.

Cake # 67 Cherry Filled with Whipped Cream Frosting Cupcakes

While I know that the Childs's family is certainly getting sick of cake (gasp Ted sick of food?) I know that he will ultimately be sad when this challenge is over. In fact, he has been hinting at doing a cookie challenge next - which I laughed at first - and then I realized he was serious. On the up side, I do love cookies so at least I could help him eat more of weekly "challenges" if it were cookies.

This week Ted and I have been off of school because of spring break. We have had a lot of time this break to think about our next steps. Like everyone else in living in this economy right now, we are a paycheck to paycheck family, (which was why we choose these particular cupcakes for this week - because I already had all of the ingredients!) and with both of of us being teachers in Harford County we see no pay increase anytime in our near future. Since we have already refinanced once, we are wondering what is our next step because we cannot maintain where we are and have all of the new costs of baby number two. Do we refinance again? Do we try to sell and move into a cheaper area? (Curse us for being dumb first time home buyers and buying in one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Harford County). At the very least we are looking for a part time job to do on the weekends and/ or nights - so if anyone out there has any good prospects, hook us up!

Nonetheless, we were able to find incredibly cheap and fun things to do with Evie this break like: Dollar Store Easter crafts, parks, bikes, basketball, walks, My Little Pony, and bubbles. Today we also dyed Easter eggs and made the cupcakes. We are loving the little bits of extra time we get to spend with her, and we cannot wait until Easter Sunday when the Easter bunny comes and gives her an Easter basket - somebunny told me that My Little Pony might be in her basket-  just sayin'.

The cupcakes we made today are for the Easter party on Saturday with Ted's family. Evie was incredibly upset that she couldn't eat one before hand, but I let her have some of the homemade whipped icing and the batter of the cupcakes, which she took gratefully. The cupcakes called for candied cherries, flour, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla, eggs, milk, and butter.

Here is a picture of the book's cupcakes:

Here are my cupcakes:

I hope everyone likes them at the party this year (anything has to be better than last year's cake!) Evie just woke up from her nap, so it is time to see what other mess we can get ourselves into!

Cake #66 Rich Pecan Square Cakes

Miss Evalyn Lucille woke Mommy and Daddy up at 6:30 am this morning, considering we get up every day at 5:00am anyway, we were hoping for a little bit of cat eye this weekend. I guess we should be thankful for the extra hour and a half. Fortunately though, our family got to enjoy cake for breakfast because I was able to make it so early. This week I made Rich Pecan Square Cakes. Since we did not win the Megamillions, we figured we would eat our richness in cake. This cake is a warm cake that uses light brown sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, butter, sour cream, coffee extract (which by the way Ted is becoming the expert at making it), and chopped pecans. 

Here is my cake:

Here is the book's picture:

The best part about making this cake was the fact that I got to use my Christmas present, a square bar cake pan, for the first time. The cakes came out perfectly and I topped them off with a sour cream and maple syrup drizzle and a pecan half. Evie enjoyed it so much she ate two pieces! Plus she had a bowl of cereal. I cannot understand how she can eat so much and still have her pants fall down her waist when she walks.

Next week is Easter, and just like Christmas, Halloween, and Evie’s Birthday, this will be the first Easter that Evie will be able to remember. We haven’t decided if we are going to get her picture with the Easter Bunny yet- she didn’t do so well with Santa Claus, but we will see. I am very excited for her to wake up on Easter morning and get her basket from the Easter Bunny! We told her if she was a good girl we would put in a good word with the Easter Bunny and ask him if he would get her a “My Little Pony” as well in her basket – which is her newest love. Fortunately, we have a plethora of dresses to choose from because my sister gave me all of her daughter’s old dresses, which is a big help because as true for everyone, times remain to be tough. However, Ted and I were just talking about how lucky we are to have such an amazing daughter and soon to be a beautiful baby boy. We are so excited and cannot wait to meet him! I am six and half months pregnant now . . . not too much more to go!

So next week ,I will make an Easter cake- but not the disaster of an Easter cake that was last year- something much more tasty that does not involve the flambéing marzipan! 

Cake # 65 Chocolate Cherry Gateau

After an incredibly long work week, we celebrated this end of this week and the end of the Speech and Debate team's winning season with - well what other than cake? My students have been bugging me to let them try my cakes that they hear about. Because at school we have a policy about not bringing homemade food, I have never brought in my cakes for them to try. However, because Wednesday night, and I mean I did not get home until 10:00pm, gotta love 15 hour work days when you only get paid for 6 1/2 hours, was our final tournament for Speech and Debate, my co-coach and I decided that we should celebrate on Friday at the end of the school day. So, I thought this would be a good time to bring in a homemade cake. So Thursday night I made my cake of the week, a Chocolate Cherry Gateau. Gateau is a fancy French word implying a cake with a lot of cream, or icing, and it is often made with almond flour -as my cake was made with. Besides almond flour, the ingredients were eggs, sugar,vanilla, butter, baking soda, heavy whipping cream, unsweetened cocoa, shredded chocolate, powdered sugar, and cherries.

This is the first cake that I have made that Ted did not even get to have a slice - the kids ate the entire two layer cake in less than fifteen minutes! It is a good thing that neither Ted nor I like to eat cherries, because not only was there no cake left for us, but there was none for poor Evie either, though I am sure she will survive with one week without cake.

Here is my cake:

Here is the book's:

So you will notice that my cake uses maraschino cherries and the book's cake calls for real cherries - because real cherries are not in season, I could not find any at the store and had to make it work.

Next Saturday Ted may be going to a hockey game with his friend- so I will have to figure out what kind of cake to make that he can take along!

Cake #64 Banana Whiskey Cupcakes

Saint Patrick's Day is my husband's favorite holiday. He is a part of the Friendly Sons of Saint Patrick, he works at the Irish Festival every year, and for the majority of his life he walked in an Irish parade. In fact, he showed up to school on Friday in a kelley green blazer. He is Irish through and through and when our daughter was born with red hair, he had recieved his Saint Patrick's day present for years to come. This Saint Patrick's day we are six months pregnant with our first son, and we are naming him Liam, which is another amazing gift for Ted, a boy with an Irish name that is a variation of Ted's own middle name, William.

So, it should not have come to a surprise to me that when I went to make my cake of the week, a simple banana cupcake, that he would want to made some adjustments, like dying the batter green and adding a bit of Michael Collins to the batter as well as to the glaze on the top. The cupcake itself was simple, eggs, flour, sugar, cornstarch, butter, vanilla, baking powder, and bananas. Then we add a shot of whiskey to the batter and for the glaze we mixed honey and whiskey, topped with a sliced piece a banana and viola we have Irish Banana Whiskey Cupcakes, or as Ted called them, the "Michael Collin's favorite".

Here is the book's original Banana Cupcakes with a passionfruit glaze:

Here is our Irish modified cupcakes:

In a couple more months our Irish boy will be born and I can only hope he loves my cupcakes as much as our Irish princess...

Cake #63 Berry Crunch Cake

Of course when you are extremely busy, the only thing to do is to add more to your plate. So with Evalyn’s party only a day away, cleaning looming, and a whole lotta school work to be completed – I decided to make my Saturday cake, a Berry Crunch Cake. This cake was a lot of fun to make and is very colorful. It consists of flour, sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, raspberries, blueberries, and ginger snaps. The cake was filled with the berries and then the rest of the batter was mixed with crushed ginger snaps to create a cookie crumb topping. Ted has been so gracious today to do a lot of the cleaning and I have been on school and baby duty. Which I think I got the better of the deal; because, who wouldn’t want to spend more time with my beautiful daughter, who as she will tell you herself, is TWO! (Well she is almost correct, she will be two on Monday). She also knows that she is going to have a party and that means cake and that she blow out candles, which she has no problem with as we found out at her great-grandfather and Aunt’s recent birthdays. However, I think I am driving him crazy, because if I were the one cleaning I would pay much more attention to other details, but since he is doing it and I am watching Evie – I need to make sure to keep my mouth quiet and be happy that is he helping!

Tomorrow may not mean anything to my daughter, and she would much rather have her daddy and mommy to play with today as oppose to cleaning for her party tomorrow- but to us it means another year with a truly smart and beautiful little girl. To me, it means that she is no longer my baby- which brings tears to my eyes as I type this, but that she is my little girl. Who incidentally is sitting next to me as I am typing this and having a full conversation with her Ariel doll.

This time next year my one cake a week challenge will be over – but I cannot imagine what will change in my little girls life in the year that is to come.  I do know one thing. Even if the cake challenge is over – there will be cake!

Cake # 62 Blueberry Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting

This weekend's cake had more to do with convenience than anything else. We had left over blueberries and an orange, some powdered sugar and sour cream- and bazonga we get our blueberry cupcakes.

From swollen feet, chocolate fairs, birthday dinners, and church- I am worn out - and gasp I almost did not make the cake Saturday morning. As Evalyn is flashing her belly because her 2Ts no longer fit her, I am definitely feeling the pressure of her second birthday coming up in eight days. Pressure is not the right word, more like, oh my god, where did my baby go? Who is this girl? And why is she so tall? (Check that- we all know why she is so tall.) So the cake had to be a no-brainer- I made it, baked it, frosted it, and ate it all in thirty minutes, so this cake definitely won out for its speed.

Besides blueberries and orange rind, the cake called for flour, butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and baking powder. The frosting was powdered sugar and sour cream- and the cupcakes were topped off with a single blueberry.

Take a look!
Here are the book's cupcakes:

Here are my cupcakes (I did more powdered sugar than sour cream for the frosting... it just seemed nasty to do too much sour cream).

Off to wrap presents for Evie's birthday!