Diaper Cake

My sister is having a girl at the end of February, so we are having her baby shower next Saturday. I have heard of diaper cakes before and apparently they are all the rage. So I did a little research via youtube and a miscellaneous of websites to find out exactly how to make one. Isn't it so wonderful that they give a few simple instructions and poof magically appears the finished product that looks flawless. What they don't show you is that this is really a two person job, and even then it can get a bit sketchy. Luckily I had my brother there to help construct the cake. And after a few failed attempts we finally got it right.



We choose to do the flat swirled look. It just looks so much better than the other one in my opinion. And daisy's are such a friendly flower, who could resist?

Cake Decorating

Several years ago my sister Katie took cake decorating courses at Michaels and became very good at it. Recently Kiersten, also my sister, purchased a cake decorating kit and wanted to learn how to use them. So we went over to Katie's and decorated some cakes.




This is the cake that I did. It turned out pretty well for my first lesson. But the purple stripe down the middle of a cake haunted me right from the moment I put it on there. But live and learn.

This is the cake that Katie did. Unfortunately I had to leave to go to work before she finished it, but it still looks really good. No wonder she is the master of cakes.




This is the cake that Kiersten made. She put on several bouquets of flowers after I left. It looked really good. Who knows, maybe cake decorating is an inherited trait!

Paula's Design

Erik has had a long time obsession with food networks one and only Paula Deen. It has reached new heights with the addition of cooking magazine. So today we tried out one of her recipes, Strawberry Coffee Cake. We added out own addition to the recipe because I had never heard of a coffee cake without streusel. Isn't that the best part of a coffee cake, the secret reason to make one? I will take a firm stance and say yes I demand streusel!

So this morning when I arrived at work we immediately began baking. It took lots of hard work and help from Erik but we finally got it in the oven.


As I always do, we set the timer for the cake less than directed so that it would not over cook. We checked it when the timer went off (which is Erik's job to tell me when it does) and it was not done. So we put it in for 3 more minutes and checked again. We must have done this at least 5 times because each time it was still not done! But when it finally was cooked we discovered that it was well worth the wait.




Doesn't that look delicious?! Oh yes, streusel definitely makes the cake. Well the strawberries and almonds don't hurt either.

Black and White

Yes, it has been a long time since our last post. We try to post more often, but are at a lost to know what to write about. Then I realized that i have not posted any of my charcoal pictures for a while. This is mostly because my camera has been broken for quite a while, and it seemed like such a hassle to borrow one, transfer the pictures, yatta yatta yatta. But the day has come to where I have run out of excuses, so here they are. This first picture I did of my Great Grandmother Nessie. This is a picture of her soon after she was married.



This is a picture I did of Erik's niece. For my internship, we are having a fundraiser, the biggest one we are hosting for the year. At this fundraiser we are having a silent auction, so I decided to do a charcoal drawing to donate. This is the one that I decided to donate. I'll be excited to see how much my picture will bring in!




This picture was very interesting to do. When I tried to take a picture of my drawing, I didn't want to use the flash because then there would be that rather annoying circle of light centrally in my picture. So just imagine it a bit lighter.

It Only Happens Once a Year

Oh yes it has happened, I have become one year older. Put one more ring around my tree trunk. For this year I did a slew of things spanning over several days. Who says a birthday can't last more than one day? So on Wednesday, my actaul day of birth (August 5), I went out to breakfast with some of my dear friends at Ihop. I was going to go somewhere else, which will remain nameless, but apparently Ihop is the place to go. It is a well known fact that I am a bit camera shy, so only one picture was taken to document it.

So on Friday the I had a little party. Invited to this party was Erik and his family of course. For the past 14 years of my life, whenever I had a Birthday party, it has always been a swim party. So for this year my mother through out having a pinata instead, mostly in a joking manner. But the idea really took flight and yes ended in having an actualy pinata at the party!

My nephew Parker came to the store with us to pick out the pinata. He instantly loved it and even tried to ride it in the store. We were worried that he would be devestated when we started to hit his new found friend until he split open. But there must be something about little boys, put a stick in their hand and their instincts take over. Exibit A:

And of course the night could not end without a little Guitar Hero.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

We have all heard the phrase when you are given lemons make lemonade. Well what if someone doesn't like lemonade, that seems quite exlusionatory. So in lieu of that we have an new avenue to explore, the world of culinary excellence. Oh yes, cupcakes. We have discovered that lemon cream cheese frosted cupcakes are exquisite. Definitely a perfect lightweight summer delight.

Just another day in the life of Erik and Amanda.

The Library

Ever since we are just wee children, our teachers have told us to not waste our summer on trivial things, but to use this time to get ahead. I always scoft at this in my mind. But there is no scofting now when prizes are involved. The local library is doing a summer reading program. Normally this would not be very exciting, but when prizes are involved it always seems to peak peoples interest, young or old. So Erik and I have been making lots of trips to the local library. If they think they can put an age limit on who gets these prizes, I say think again. Erik and I are both planning on getting a very extravagant prize by the end of the summer. Oh ya!