Blue-Eyed Baker: Evan's Pre-School Graduation Cake

Last night my littlest brother, Evan, graduated from pre-school.  Now I know it's not really that big of a deal but he asked for a cake a few days ago and this was a good excuse to make one.  I don't really like making cakes just out of the blue because I feel the need to decorate them and I like to have a theme going.

However I didn't really keep to a graduation theme because he asked for Manny from Ice Age to be on it.  So I did my best and here's the result.

Not my best work but I did all right.

I used the "Cake Boss's" recipe for a vanilla cake.  I haven't tried a vanilla cake recipe that I loved just yet so hopefully this will be the one.

Buddy Valastro's Vanilla Cake
Yields: 2-9 in cakes

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cups vegetable oil or 1 1/2 sticks of butter
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 4 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup whole milk

Directions:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees

In the bowl of a stand mixer add the flour, sugar, butter or oil (I used oil), vanilla and salt.

Mix the ingredients on low until combined.

Increase the speed to med-low and beat for about a minute.

Decrease the speed and add the eggs one at a time.

Add milk 1/2 a cup at a time with the mixer still running.

When the batter is fully mixed (no more lumps) divide it into your greased cake pans.

Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes.

 Let cool and Enjoy!

The icing I used was a vanilla butter cream.  I'd never tried it before but it had a nice consistency.  You can find the recipe here.

I'm writing this post on Thursday so the cake hasn't been eaten yet but I'll let you know how it turns out.

Happy Friday and Happy Baking!

The Silver Linings Playbook a.k.a. The WORST Movie Adaptation EVER

Last night I watched "The Silver Linings Playbook" and a week ago I read the book with the same title. The two should not have the same title.

When a movie comes out that was originally a book I usually make it my mission to read the book first. I like to be "that guy" that compares the book to the movie and usually get mad because the movie was nothing like the book.  Sometimes whoever is in charge does a pretty great job of doing the movie adaptation.  I think that the Harry Potter films are probably the best.  The books will always be better but the person/people in charge of those movies did an amazing job.  Kudos!

The same cannot be said for whoever took it upon themselves to make "The Silver Linings Playbook" into a movie.  At first I wasn't even going to read or watch "Silver Linings", that was until Jennifer Lawrence (who I have a huge girl crush on) won the Oscar for Best Actress.  So I ordered the book and LOVED it.  I was really excited to watch the movie because the book was so good and I thought you could totally make a great movie out of it.  Well they didn't, in my humble opinion.  They completely changed EVERYTHING.  They changed the characters, they changed major events and they changed what the story was really about.  The movie should have been called "I have nothing to do with The Silver Linings Playbook, I'm a piece of crap".  Okay, that's a long and contrived title but the movie was sh*t.  If you haven't read the book you might be okay, it actually could be a good movie.  But I went in having read the book and expecting the movie to be like the book and I was very disappointed.  I don't even know how the author of "Silver Linings" let it happen but maybe he didn't have a say.  I'm not really sure but I am sure that the movie version of "Silver Linings" is terrible.

That is all.  Happy Wednesday.

P.S.  Work was better today, my boss said she was impressed with how well I can ice a cake.  SCORE!!!

The New Job

Today I started my new job at a local bakery.  It was interesting.  I hope to god none of my coworkers and/or boss stumble upon my blog because this isn't going to be a "nice" post.

I like working there.  Let's start with that BUT, there are some serious short-comings in that bakery.  For instance, I never thought I would walk into a bakery and see them use a box cake mix.  I know my friends, Micah and Nicole, will rag on me later about another rant on box mixes but SERIOUSLY?  I could never imagine charging people for a cake that I made if it came out of a box.  They don't even add anything extra.  It's just the mix.  I was like super stunned when I saw that.  Now she (my boss) does make everything else from scratch, I think, but still.  It's not hard to make a cake from scratch; I do it quite often.  I feel like you're probably costing yourself more money by purchasing the mixes individually.  I'm sure it'd be much cheaper, not too mention authentic and possibly tastier, if you bought all of your ingredients in bulk and made things from scratch. But whatever, it's not my bakery.

Next point, the health inspector would have a field day with that place.  It's a mess.  While I was standing around all day with my thumb up my ass watching people teach me how to make a cake out of a box I wanted nothing more than to clean.  It was dirty and unorganized.  I personally wanted to just shut it all down.  Robert Irvine (for you Restaurant Impossible fans) would be appalled.  I'm not the neatest, most organized person in the world so when I say it's bad then it's definitely bad.  I don't know how they've survived for so many years without being shut down.

One more thing, I understand that when you own a business you get to do things your way.  I understand that you have the freedom to be a little particular about things.  My boss however is super particular about EVERYTHING.  She yelled at me today because of how I washed the dishes.  Puh-lease! That's a bit ridiculous.  Also, I hate the way she ices her cupcakes, it'll never be a problem I'll just do it the way she wants it but for the record I think it looks stupid.

When she told me that I could feel free to put in my opinion I wanted to say so many things but I don't think she'd like to hear them.  I still like my job but I no longer think that I'll be going back next summer or anything like I thought I did at first.

That's all, end rant.  I'm sure I'll have more to say on the subject later.  Happy Tuesday!

P.S.  My sister, Mercedes, says hi!

Military Monday: Memorial Day

Most days I come to the conclusion that I despise the military and it's all because the person I love decided to join the Navy.  Before this decision came to be I never had any reason to not like the military.  They keep us safe, they keep the bad guys out, mostly everything they do is good.  (We can't lie to ourselves and say that the military has never done anything wrong).

Last week I didn't even want to talk about anything regarding the military and I still don't because I've been in a slump.  I really don't want Kyle to go to the Navy.  It may seem selfish but I think I should be able to think that way.  It's only thinking I'm not telling him that he can't join and if/when he does join I'll support him all the way and we'll figure something out.

Today though isn't going to be a tip on how to cope with your S.O. joining the military or a list of vocabulary words that the Navy and possibly other branches use.  Today is about my respect for the military.

The only ties I have to the military are my great-granpap and grandpap on my mother's side.  I never met either of them they were both gone before I came along.  So it's safe to say that I don't know too much about the military except for what I see on TV and learned in school and it's safe to say that sometimes those resources are biased.  Recently I've been more interested in what my grandpap did because my grandma lived through basic and deployments and PCSes.  But having not known a lot about the military earlier in life gave me a choice to support or not support our troops.

I can't even begin to think of the stigma you would put on yourself if you didn't support our troops.  Sure sometimes on TV you hear about the crappy things they do.  But there are I guess probably millions of troops out there and only a few doing those really crappy things.  I'll never let the actions of a few dictate my opinion of the many.  I think our troops are great and I can't thank them enough.  Without them I wouldn't be able to sit here on my laptop and tell you all about how I feel everyday.  I also wouldn't be able to do a lot of other things as well.  In my mind our military personnel, past and present, are the reason for our freedom.  Sure there are others that have helped that haven't been a part of the military that I respect as well but today is not their day.  Today is a day for our men and women that fight for our rights and the rights of others.

I want nothing more for our boys (and girls) than a safe trip home someday.  So for all of those that are deployed right now and for those that may be fighting stateside, stay safe, we all want you to come home.

I hope you're all enjoying time with your families and thinking about how much the military has done for us.  Happy Memorial Day!  And thank you to every military man and woman, past and present!

Winter Weather in May

For the past two days here in PA it has been frigid.  It's May.  It's supposed to be warm.  We're about a month away from summer.  What the heck?!

I'm ready to wear my shorts and tank tops and work on a tan.  I do not want to be bundling up to brave the cold.  I also didn't pack for cold weather.  I brought a couple sweaters and pairs of jeans but I wasn't expecting this.  I should have brought my winter coat back.

If you can't tell I'm really fed up with this weather.  It's been two days of chilly now and that just doesn't cut it.  Plus it's Memorial (Day) Weekend, we should be barbecuing and honoring our troops and vets in warm weather.  This just blows.

In other news, today is my sister's dance recital.  I'm excited to see the show because she dances quite well and I'll finally see some other dances besides the competition ones.  Also I'll be spending the day with my grandmother which is always a treat.

I hope it's not too cold where you are. Happy Saturday!

30 Day Challenge(s)

On Monday I was watching the show The Doctors.  The premise of the episode was several different 30 day challenges.  One was to be vegan for a month, one was 30 days of sex, one was no TV for a month and another was go on a walk once a day for 30 days.  This episode inspired me.  Actually it did more than inspire, it made me feel kind of bad about myself.

Yesterday I posted a few goals I want to meet over the summer.  None of them were super specific but I really want to meet the one that called for less technology usage in my life.  Now obviously I'm still going to use my oven and my microwave but I'm constantly surrounded by my phone, laptop, TV, and or tablet. Now the tablet isn't so bad because I usually only use it to read and rarely have a Wi-Fi connection on it but the other three are almost addictions.   I can sit and watch TV for hours on end and be just fine with it.  I can check facebook over and over and over again and end up reading the same status updates 10x each and on my phone I almost have a routine, sulk because I have no texts, check facebook, twitter and instagram, and play Candy Crush.  Honestly I'm tired of living like this and so my first 30 Day Challenge is:

Only watch 1-2 hours of TV a day, use my computer for an hour a day and only use my phone for calls and texts when necessary.

Now I should try to cut it all out completely but there are people I need to contact and I want to keep blogging.  Also in a house with so many other people it will be hard to completely cut out TV but I will try to keep busy if the TV is on unless it's a show I'm really interested in watching.

I also mentioned in a previous post that I wanted to exercise more over the summer.  It's really hard for me to stay motivated to exercise so maybe if I challenge myself I'll actually do it.  Also if I maybe tell myself if I complete the challenge I can reward myself that will keep me motivated.  So my second 30 day challenge is:

Go for a 30-60 minute walk everyday.

I think it's safe to say that I previously set my "work out" goals too high.  I never explicitly laid them out for you but they were goals that were probably unattainable for me.  So a walk everyday should be doable.  The first few days will probably be hard for me to be motivated to get up but maybe coupled with my low tech challenge I will actually get up.

I'll keep you posted.  Happy Friday! 

Note: I wrote this on Tuesday.  My mom and I started walking but the technology thing isn't going as well.

Things I want to enjoy this Summer

When Summer begins I always make grandiose plans.  I'm going to workout, eat healthier, be more active, go more places, attend more concerts, et cetera, et cetera. I already told myself and blogged about how I was going to workout and all that business and I'll be honest, it might not happen.  But I do have some places I'd like to get to and I would like to make the most of the summer so I'll post this now and at the end of the summer we'll see what happens.

Ohiopyle

Cucumber Falls

I talked about Ohiopyle when I was home for what I thought was only a week and I didn't get to go because it rained all week.  I don't think it will rain all summer and I hope to make it to Ohiopyle several times over the summer with or without my Sadie dog.

Camping

I love to camp.  I should spend more time outdoors seeing as I love it so much but I never do.  The internet and TV are just much more convenient.  I hope to go camping at least once or twice this summer.

Less Tech

The blurb above brings me to "Less Tech".  I'm almost always near a TV, computer, tablet or my cell phone.  I would love to cut down on my usage of all of those things over the summer. I'd like to cut down to about an hour a day on my laptop and an hour a day of TV.  I'm sure my cell phone will still always be on my person but I'd like to cut down on how many times I check Facebook and play how much I play meaningless games like Candy Crush.

The Beach

Now I know I will knock this one out.  My family is going to Wildwood, NJ for my sister's dance competition this summer and I'm also supposed to visit my aunt in North Carolina in August so I know I will get to the beach.

Kennywood

Most of you probably have no idea what Kennywood is.  Well, I'll tell you, it's an amusement park in Pittsburgh, PA.  I've been there about 8 million times and it really hasn't changed too much.  I'll still go every summer though as long as I live in PA.

Emotional Independence

Now this one's a bit more serious, I recently realized that I'm pretty emotionally dependent on the people around me.  I don't think I was always this way so I'd like to work on making me happier which I think is always a good goal.

Books

I love to read and usually I do a good bit of it.  I'd like to find a few new favorite authors this summer so I don't keep limiting myself to Stephen King.  I will always love King and will always be a die hard fan.  One day I will make it to Maine and go to all of the places he describes in his books.  However, I've limited myself the past few years to reading only King books and in all honesty I'm kind of bored so this Summer I'm going to find at least one new person to add to my list of favorite authors.

I think these are pretty manageable goals and I'll be sure to update you all in August.

Happy Thursday!

P.S. Baking is not on this list because I will be baking almost everyday at work.  Whoopee!