Better Than Sunday School Cake

After a very long hiatus finally a new post. I HAVE to share this recipe. And the story behind it. Last year about this time I was sitting next to a friend waiting for Sunday School to start. We were talking about food of course, and cake in particular. She said she wished there was a Christmas version of Better Than Sex Cake - a pepperminty one. So I went home and invented it. Another friend renamed it for me. Rather fitting.

INGREDIENTS

1 (18.25 ounce) package devil's food cake mix 1/2 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk 2/3 C Hershey's syrup

6 crushed candy canes 2 C white chocolate chips 1 1/2 C whipping cream 2 t peppermint extract, divided

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Bake cake according to package directions for a 9x13 inch pan; cool on wire rack for 5 minutes. Poke holes across the top of the cake, making sure not to go through to the bottom.
2.	In a saucepan over low heat, combine sweetened condensed milk, 1 t peppermint extract and Hershey's syrup, stirring until smooth and blended. Slowly pour the warm topping mixture over the top of the warm cake, letting it sink into the holes. Let cake cool completely.
3.	Meanwhile, warm whipping cream to almost boiling and pour over white chocolate chips. Let sit about 2 minutes, add remaining 1 t peppermint extract and stir until all mixed in. Chill in fridge for a few hours. Then beat with a mixer until consistancy of whipped cream. Spread on cake and sprinkle with crushed candy canes. Enjoy!

3 cakes, 1 week

And a bunch of wedding sheet cakes this week.....

Mad Hatter cake. From the new movie. Oreo cake. Yum!

My niece's 4th birthday cake. As requested by her. Invented Peanut Butter Ganache for the filling. Double Yum! Can I just say that Ganache is one of my favorite words to say? It sounds awesome, and always means something delicious.

My nephew's Iron Man Mask Cake.

Change

This announcement is for family/friends that are not in our ward or immediate family and therefore didn't get the email....

Paul was called to be 1st Counselor in our Bishopric today. My feelings are plentious and varied, to say the least. I'm not going to get into that, just wanted y'all to know.

Just pray the pre-teen tendencies my daughter likes to bring out in sacrament meeting don't cause me to carry her out kicking and screaming like a toddler some week. Other than that I am clinging to the faith that everything will work out.

Indoctrinated

So I am a huge fan of Michael Buble. I got to go to his concert in SLC a few weeks ago. It was awesome. Paul is supposed to email me the photos we took on his phone. If he does, they'll be part of this post. If not....I'll post them later.

I have made fans out of two little boys as well. Zander was playing games on my IPod the other day and wanted to listen to music. So he went into the music and my playlist with songs from assorted artists was up. He kept skipping through the songs saying "I no like that one." Until he would get to a MB song, then he'd say "Michael Buble!" and listen for about 20 seconds (that's all the attention span he has) and then start the process over again. I'll have to teach him about Bon Jovi, Josh Groban and Gavin Degraw later I guess.

Then today I had to run to Michael's for some cake-ing stuff. Payton asked what store we were going to. We pulled into the parking lot and he asked if that was the 'Michael Buble' store. Uh, no. But I did wear my MB shirt there.....And I may have hummed a MB song there....

There he is! We were in the same room!

Okay, that's enough of that.
That is when he moved to a smaller stage and sang 'Home'. Just him and the guitar. Beautiful! He also sang Stardust on the way out there with Naturally 7.

The whole night was just amazing. Paul asked before it started which songs I wanted him to do....I told him it really didn't matter I like them all (well one exception - but isn't there always?) Two of the songs in the encore were probaby my faves of the night though. 'Feeling Good' (Not sure why but as much as I like that song, it was a thousand times better live.) And then I was just really impressed with 'Song For You' when he left the mike and sang the last of it without it. The crowd went silent and it was an awesome effect, for sure. I'm sure even the people in the back could still hear, he was that powerful.

This is Naturally 7. Just as their name implies, seven guys, all natural - no instruments. I hadn't really heard of them before, and I am not likely to buy their albums... even though they were spectacular and incredibly talented. More of an act you should see... I don't know that you could fully appreciate them just listening. Oh, and the guy who does their bass? - I'm pretty sure pure testosterone flows in his veins. How LOW can you go?

Two Hours in the Life of Me

Alarm goes off at 6:30. Paul is long gone. I'm reluctant to get out of bed as last night we discovered that our furnace was not working. Too late for a repair person to come. So we borrowed space heaters and we slept fine, but the rest of the house is going to be cold. It takes 15 minutes, but I do get up. Bundle up and head to the kitchen with the space heater. I start some hot chocolate and mix up some buttermilk pancakes. 7am now. Get the kids up. Take their space heater downstairs so it'll be warm when my preschool kids come at 9:30. Start the pancakes. Get the kids up again. Kiara goes and gets dressed. Kegan goes and spends 10 minutes in the bathroom. Tell him to get dressed and take his bedding downstairs as his bed wetting alarm is broken AGAIN and I have to do a batch or more of laundry EVERY day. Fix Payton and Zander's pancakes and pour hot chocolate. Yell at Kiara and Kegan that if they don't hurry their food will be cold. Kegan finally goes and gets dressed. Kiara arrives and starts eating. Kegan comes. Takes a few bites and then goes back to the bathroom. After fixing Payton and Kegan seconds I wolf down a few pancakes. Now time to cattle prod Kiara and Kegan into making their lunches. They ask me to make them, I politely refuse, I have the kitchen to clean and preschool to get ready for. I realize that it's trash day and due to the furnace issues last night we forgot to do it then. I take the garbage out in my jammies and socks. Discover the can is in the backyard. The gate won't open from the outside. I go through the house to the backyard and open the gate and get the garbage out. Back inside. After hemmming and hawwing and many suggestions from me Kiara gets done with her lunch and I almost have the kitchen clean. And I put together little boxes with kisses in them for my Valentines to the preschoolers. Kegan has only got a pudding out for his lunch. I suggest getting a baggie of chips. He does. Then starts complaining that he doesn't feel good and he doesn't want to go to school (just part of the daily ritual). But he informs me he has diarrhea. I actually believe him and get him some Immodium. Coach him on how to swallow a pill. With helpful hints from Kiara (who still can't do this) he finally gets it done. Now it's 5 minutes to 8. Knowing it will take Kegan 15 minutes to find and put on his shoes I send him to that and I finish his lunch. Phone call. Paul needs me to find some pictures for a presentation he is giving to day. If I can find a moment. Ha! I'll have to MAKE a moment. While talking to him I am filling up water bottles and putting them in the fridge. As I close the fridge the sugar cookies for preschool fall off the fridge onto the floor. (Yes I swore - which I'm sorry about. It was unwarranted. Now if the tray had shattered, well then swearing would have been fine.) Say a terse goodbye to Paul. Most of the cookies landed on the plastic wrap so were fine. Not pretty anymore, but edible. Do 3-year-old's care anyway? It sugar, that's all that matters. Now Kegan begins his full-out 'I hate school, I'm not going, you can't make me.' I ignore him and tie his shoes. Tell him he's going to be late and to get his coat. "Where's my sweatshirt. I hate my coat. I'm looking for my sweatshirt." Me-it's still dirty. Kegan goes and looks for it anyway and can't find it. I hand him his coat. He hates that one. So I search for his other one. Finally they are out the door, and only 10 minutes later than usual. They'll make it. I finish setting stuff out for preschool and turn on cartoons for Payton and Zander. I discover that Kegan did not take his bedding downstairs after all. So I do it. Did I mention our furnace was out? So he had extra blankets. All of which are wet. I start laundry, making sure his sweatshirt is put through too. Although he'll just find something else to complain about tomorrow.... Now get Zander dressed. He has been wearing the same thing for about 36 hours because he didn't want to get dressed yesterday (Superman jammies are awesome!) and I chose not to fight that battle. Now time to find pictures for Paul. Done. Phew! Now time to vent on my blog for 30 minutes before the preschoolers come. Only so I am somewhat normal for them. And that was just the first two hours. I won't mention my extensive to do list for the rest of the day......

I love being a MOM! (and that is not sarcastic - well, only a little)

Slacker, but only at blogging

Man, I've been slacking here lately. Blame facebook, blame life being busy, blame my new IPod, but here I am. Briefly. Just to let you know I'm alive. And well, busy! As shown by the following pictures. Enjoy!

I know, not cake. But they were so pretty.....

Ahoy Matey!

This is for a friend. My kids are getting tired of not being able to eat my cakes. Luckily I have no more cakes on my schedule. Time for a break! I need a good book to read or a sewing project. Or I could do my laundry.....hmmm. Any one wanna recommend a book?