Post Halloween Candy Dilemma, and Pumpkin Ice Cream Cake!

I haven't written in a while.

Things have been pretty tight lately as far as house funds go, so there haven't been any home improvement projects.

However.. I did make a super cute Pumpkin Cake for Halloween. It was not just any pumpkin cake... It was pumpkin shaped!!!

 I had such a fun time with this one, and it took waaaay less time than I thought it would!

Thats right... Chocolate Fudge Cake, with a Cookie and Cream Ice Cream core...

But thats not the only thing I made!!! We had a bunch of friends over on Halloween night so that we could go trick or treating without looking too creepy! Haha(we dont have kids yet). We also bought just enough candy for the number of kids that usually come through our neighborhood... The problem is that our friends that came over thought we wouldn't have enough... so they each brought a bag or two... meaning we had eight or so bags of candy left over!! Then to top it off, they didnt take their candy home!!! So what does a person do with all of that extra candy?? That person makes dessert out of them!! After eating all that I could, I made a bunch of it into a magic cookie bar-type thing!

 I used too many graham crackers... The recipe called for 1.5 cups, which was way more than I needed for a pan this small... and yet I convinced myself you couldn't ever have too much crust...

 So I used like.. 2.5 cups of crust instead!

In the end it was amazing anyway. 

Here is the typical recipe:

Magic Cookie Bars

1.5 cups crushed graham crackers

4 tbsp melted butter

1 can sweetened condensed milk

coconut, nuts, and chocolate chips

Melt the butter and combine it with the graham crackers.

Press mixture into bottom of 9X13 pan(oops mine was a 9"round pan!)

layer coconut, chocolate chips, and nuts on top
 and bake at 350 degrees for 30 ish minutes or until lightly browned.

Well first off... I did the whole crust thing. I made a super thick crust which would have been better if I had done it with chocolate graham crackers. Then instead of nuts, coconut, and chocolate chips, I layered on chopped up twix, crunch bars, almond joys, milk duds, and snickers.

This seriously alleviated me of about a quarter of the candy. I also gave about half the candy to a single friend of mine who didnt have kids to steal candy from. So this left me with only a couple of bags worth of candy... 

I think my belly can handle that!!

Time to hit the gym... mmmm nevermind, this twix looks amazing!

~S

Jeep Cake... Again!!

Another Jeep cake!! This one was awesome! It was patterned after a nearly black four-door wrangler! I am so proud of myself, and I even let B help with this one!

I used the same methods as last time. I baked cake pieces that were larger than what I needed, and cut them to size. I printed a pattern so that I could accurately form the bulk of the Jeeps body.

This cake was a gift for a friends birthday. He is incredibly supportive of everyone he meets and is constantly helping others where he can. It was the least we could do to throw him a surprise birthday party!!

I used over five lbs of fudge for the base. This was preferable to frosting because the fudge did an amazing job of keeping the supports in place. I was unhappy that I had to glue the supports down before I frosted everything last time around. The supports were glue to the underside of the cake board that was holding the main cake, and then stuck down into the fudge for a secure hold. I did half of the fudge using toffee bits to add to the dirt look, and the other half had peanut butter chips for those who do not like toffee.

It was an amazing night with a fun bonfire and s'mores after cake!

2012 Kia Sorento!!!

Now that I am coming up on my one-year mark of owning a brand new KIA Sorento, I thought I would share with you the pro's and con's that I have come up with!!

First and foremost... I am still in love with my car as much as the first day I drove it home! It has been perfect for me. I have adored the fact that everything works! Coming from an old, dying, sputtering, sad, electrical gremlin carrying car... this base model KIA was a major step up for me! So when you read about how entranced I am with this car, you kind of have to realize than nearly anything was a step up from what I had.

That being said, this is no car to snuff at!!! It is nearly as smooth and quiet ad the day I bought it! The only thing that rattles is the license plate and that is only because I am too lazy to add the bottom bolts! I always forget because it is such a minor inconvenience!

I have averaged about 25 mpg with about 40% of my time being around town, and the rest commuting on a turnpike about 20 miles away. This is awesome considering my road trip to Colorado was even better because it was nearly all highway! The mpg gauge resets itself anytime you put gas in the car, so my estimates are purely my recollection of my ending MPG for each tank. Some weeks I averaged nearly 30, and others only 22. This was also contingent upon my kindness to my car. If I ran her a bit hard, my average was low. If I was a granny driver, I averaged high!

So speaking of the gauge cluster, everything resets itself automatically except for the mileage odometer. There are two odometers that can be independently reset. The gauge cluster also records your average speed and time elapsed per trip. So each time you turn off and restart your car, it begins a new record of how fast you have gone and how long you've been in the car. This is especially useful during car trips because I tend to lose track of time, and time zones further complicate things when I am trying to figure out destination arrival times!

Another feature in the gauge cluster is the distance to empty screen. It tells me approximately how many miles I can drive with my tank of gas. The only problem I have with this is that it is very inaccurate below about 50 miles. I have never seen that gauge read less than 20, so somewhere between 50 and 20, it bottoms out and all of a sudden the car is telling you that you will be running out of gas in a matter of moments. The redeeming factor of this is that fact that it is inaccurate.. I have driven like this for nearly 10 miles after it has bottomed out without any trouble. I hate doing that, because I prefer to gas up when the car is still about 1/4 tank... but sometimes I can't help it!

So besides the gauge cluster the cup holders are amazing! Stuff never falls out of them! I have driven cars where I have had to hold cups in the cup holder as I go around turns! Not my KIA!!! There is a standard little rubber tray in the bottom that comes out for cleaning, and in nearly all of the little nooks and crannies in this car, you can find convenient cleaning shortcuts like this.

I can't really comment on the safety stuff because I am not an expert, nor have I crashed my beautiful little car, but I can say that I love the curve of the seats because they really hold my bum in place! I do not like flat seats because I slide around on them. I wish the seats had lumbar, and I am sure they do in the upper models, but mine is just base. I also have not regretted skipping heated seats because they warm up to my bum pretty quickly and the heat and AC work AMAZINGLY!!!! I LOVE the back seat vents, and those who have ridden along with me are super happy to see them every time they get in! Those rear seat vents have also helped out during cake deliveries on hot days!

I have only taken the dogs in the car one time, and their hair vacuumed out WAY easier than I thought it would. Plus there was more than enough room for them to be back there comfortably, but not so much room that I would worry about them bouncing around back there during a crash. I have a large, and an extra large dog, so this may not be the case for those who have smaller canine friends!

Speaking of trunk space, I never have to worry about whether there is room for luggage, or groceries, or Lowes goodies. I have never had to say, "sorry it wont fit!" That is not to say that it wont happen... it just hasn't yet! The other thing I love about the cargo space is that the seats fold down super easily for extra room, the carpets clean way easy, there are hooks for grocery bags, AND there is a secret compartment!

The secret compartment is the best thing about the car  --  by far! It is under the floor in the trunk. This space is apparently for when a third row seat is installed, but I don't have one yet, so I get to use it as secret storage! It is my favorite feature because I like to have emergency packs for inclement weather with me at all times. Oklahoma weather can get crazy and I am not interested in being stuck in the snow freezing myself to death. I store blankets, extra clothes, and sturdy shoes in the secret compartment all winter long. During the summer it has towels and a swim suit! (Hey, you have to be ready for everything, right??)

So moving on to the outside! The paint still looks beautiful and shiny. I wash it every single week... rain or shine... freeze or hot... The black panels on the front and back have a couple of scratches in them from someone bumping me in a parking lot, but are only noticeable if you really try looking for them. Ummm what else other than the fact that it is just such a pretty car!?!!?

Oh yeah... my two beefs.... The center console melted a checkbook and a pair of sunglasses... I drove to Dallas from Oklahoma City and when I drove back after the weekend I found them melted in there. My other beef is that the super awesome looking running boards that I got with my car are not very sturdy... I would not have allowed them to put them on my car if I had known they would be such an irritation!!! I am too tall to reasonably step on them to get into the car, and so is everyone in my family... So the first time it ever got stepped on, other than my by 4 year old nephew, one of the screws holding it on broke... Seriously... ONE time... and they broke... My husband stepped up onto the rear portion of them to dry my roof after he hand washed the car.... My husband is an average guy.... tall... less than 200 lbs. It would be nearly impossible to jump on them from the angle he had... and why would he??? Anyway I keep forgetting to say something to the dealership when I go in for my oil changes... I kind of want them taken off... I didn't really want them in the first place.


So thats it... I love it despite two minor irritations. I will probably drive it until I have either paid it off, or the warranty runs out, at which point I'll trade it for a new one! If KIA keeps up their great customer service, amazing warranty plan, and affordable prices, then I'll be hooked for life.

Chocolate Pudding Anyone??

After a long day of helping a friend move, and chasing a dozen toddlers around my church nursery, I collapsed into my bed around 6pm. I was hungry, and tired, and feeling emotionally overwhelmed because the move for my friends was not by choice, but sadly out of necessity. Trying to salvage whats left of a burned home is not only physically exhausting, but emotionally draining as well.

As I lay on my bed, wanting nothing more than to have food magically appear before me, I started craving chocolate parfait... Chocolate pudding smothered in graham crackers and cool whip..... Oooh buddy!! I started thinking how easy it would be, and how satisfying the end result would be... And before I knew it, I was in the kitchen whipping up the pudding.

I put marshmallow cream in the bottom, graham crackers next, pudding above that, and then topped the whole thing with cool whip ans a graham cracker piece. It totally hit the spot, but now I need to go eat solid food because that was a lot of pudding!!

-S

Jeepin fun

I love food, as im sure you're aware... My husband, B, and I also love to go off roading, especially after a nice heavy rain.

We are Jeep people... Thats just the way it is. So when B had his "25th" bday last week (his age is relative ;) ), i decided to go all out for the big three-oh, and i made him a Jeep Cake.

It was a LONG process involving many props and supports under its frame. To give you the run down of how I did it, ill start with the base.

First I baked all the cake slabs i would need in 15"x15" pans
I hot glued some supports that were just the right height so that when i put the wheels on, the Jeep wouldn't be too tall or too short (no one likes a short jeep these days).

Then I started to assemble the cake on a cake board. I used two and 1/3 layers for the hood area, and the cab area goes up almost four whole layers. Each layer was nearly 2" thick.

After I got the general shape down, i started shaving off the parts I wouldnt need like the back of the cab where the Jeep soft top curves in. My husbands jeep has what is called a frameless top... Beyond the roll bar, there are no additional brackets and braces. This gives the back of the Jeep a more slanted look than in stock jeeps. There are a lot of companies that make them but ours is a rampage.***********

After the jeep got a slim down to be just the right size, I put refrigerated it for about 20 min, then put a crumb layer on it.

After the crumb layer it went back into the fridge to firm up.

I decided to use sugar sheets for the windows rather than trying to use two different shades of black for the windows and soft top canvas. The end result was INCREDIBLE!!!

Okay back to frosting it. I frosted the blue body of the Jeep first and let that set up in the freezer before adding the black for the soft top canvas.

After I got the whole thing frosted i smoothed it out using the viva paper towel method combined with my silicon spatula (which worked better in some cases).

After it was all smoothed out i started adding the details like the sugar sheet windows. I also used the sugar sheets for the grill i front as well as the body armor on the back fenders and side step areas. There are two sides to sugar sheets: a shiny side and a matte side. In the end they don't end up looking too different so i wouldn't worry about it.

After the windows and body armor, i added things like headlights, license plate, body armor rivets, and even a fondant Hi-Lift Jack.

Another thing about Bs Jeep is that it has after market fenders. The front ones don't hug the wheels like stock fenders do. This allows greater rang of motion, but also looks super cool. I made these out of triangular poured slab of melting chocolate. If I had the time, i would have tempered some real chocolate because it tastes better, but alas time was running out.

Once all of that was put together I slid the cake to the edge of the table and used a serrated knife to cut away the excess cake board so that it did not show. Then i put the cake on top of the cake board I had prepared with the hot glued supports (with the supports underneath pointing down toward the table). I then trimmed the excess from that cake board and put the whole shabang on top of yet another board so that there was a base, supports, and then two cake boards between the supports and the bottom of the cake. I did this to reinforce the cakes main platform to avoid any potential folding.

Anyway, after that I added the wheels. i made the wheels out of 4.75" sugar cookies. The original cookies were about 5.25" but i trimmed them with a cookie cutter so they would all for sure be the same size and there would be a crisp edge. I frosted them with black and plunked them on, securing them with toothpicks.

Oookay so after all that. I frosted the base with brown for mud and covered any visible supports with grey frosting for rocks! I splashed a bit of "mud" onto the jeep, wrote a happy birthday wish to the birthday boy, and called it good!!


If I had to do it again(which Im sure I will because it was a MAJOR conversation topic at the party), I would get the soft top angles closer to the actual thing. I feel like they're too slanty and it came off looking a little Jeep Liberty ;)

Easter Box!!

There are so many things I want to catch you up on recently that I am going to try to just put the rest of it all in one post.

First off, I got the cutest boxes ever for my fudge!!



Also, I made an easter box with lots of yummies in it for a friend! I put in Oreo balls, easter rice krispie treats, pretzel mints, fudge, sugar cookie sandwiches, and whole wheat honey banana bread(thats a mouthful in more than one way)!!!

Here are some pictures of what I have been up to!


So my mom has had this recipe for pot pies that has been my favorite since I was a kid... So I made baby pot pies!! I froze them and now they are waiting for me to bake them and devour them!!! Yummmmmmm!! A friend of mine recently had a baby and I took some of them over to her so that she could thaw them and have a yummy meal when her husband was at work. I had some leftover filling so I made a big one in one of my pyrex dishes. Yay for pyrex!! It had the perfect filling-to-crust ratio!! I love filling!!!

I have had an ice cube tray fascination for a long time... I collect all kinds of trays from dead fish, to dentures, to pirates, to Han Solo frozen in carbonite... Some would say it is an obsession bordering on disease(it make have spread to my husband when I got the ak-47 ice cube tray)! The sad part is that occasionally an ice cube tray is amazing in theory, but doesn't quite work in practice... Han Solo is a perfect example of this. The ice just does not do justice to all the awesome details in the tray... So I tried it in chocolate form... OH MY GOSH SO PERFECT!!! I even did some with caramel filling, and I must say they are sooooo cool!!!

Crunchwrap Supremes from taco bell are a total weakness of mine... So I started making them. Incredibly good, and I have the flexibility to add extra meat and tomatoes!!! Here is the Pinterest page I based mine off: http://busymamabird.blogspot.com/2012/04/yummy-crunchwrap-supremes.html

Lets see... What else have I done in the past few months???

Owl cupcakes are adorable! I am not sure if I already posted them, but here they are!!!

M-I-C- -K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!

I LOVE cake decorating! I have not done a ton of cakes, but mostly because I can't stand to waste food and it is not very often that someone asks me to make a cake! So I am not just going to make a beautifully decorated cake for nothing and have it go to waste because there aren't enough people around to eat it! But the opportunity arose this past week and I made a Mickey Mouse cake! I must say, I am in love with it! It turned out just the way I wanted it to, with only a couple of minor irritations! I don't feel like I matched the reds well enough, and one of the ears on the smash cake kept twisting around so it was a little crooked sometimes after the cake was jostled and moved around. Quick fix though :)

Is it wood!? Is it tile!? It's Wood Tile!!!!!

Yep we finally did it!! We are right in the middle of re-tiling our front entry way, hallway, and office!! Whoopeeeee!! Bye-Bye ugly sky blue tile with nasty grout!!! Next stop, kitchen!!!!

We have been wanting to re-tile these areas since before we moved into the house. Before we decided this was the house for us, we felt bad for whoever it was that was stuck with such hideous tile! We lived with that tile for nearly four years, and this-years tax return helped out immensely!! We paid off a couple of student loans(one more to go) and treated ourselves to tile flooring!! Sometimes I wonder what took us so long, and then I realize how many other things we have improved in the meantime!

We also decided we wanted to raise the floor in the office roughly 6 inches to better define the space. We built a floor out of many many many 2x4s, two layers of 3/4 inch plywood, and a layer of cement tile board. Such a CHORE!!! We spent nearly two weeks just getting that subfloor put in to be sure there wasn't a single spot that flexed or creaked. Finally when it was aaaaallllll done, it looked ridiculous... I was so eager to get the tile put down to cover our odd cement board floor!


So a little background... You know how we got rid of our living room popcorn ceiling recently? That was the product of a deal I made with B... He called my bluff and went through with it... The deal was that if he removed all the popcorn ceiling and cleaned up the mess without my help(because i HATE that job), then I would let him rip up the tile in the hallway and live with bare concrete floors for however long it took for us to retile.... Biiiig mistake... I truly did not think he would take me up on it!!! Nearly four months later, we are finally covering up my mistake!! Hahaha I love that man.

Okay so imagine a concrete floor that had stain on it from when they originally stained the trim in the hallways, with a raised cement board floor... So ridiculous looking! I hope you enjoy the pictures!!!

We haven't completely finished because we still need to seal up the baseboard trim with caulking and repaint the trim etc, but i put up some pictures anyway to give you the gist of what we did :)