first attempt at fondant

So, the Connor turns 9 tomorrow. He requested that his birthday cake look like a wrestling ring. Here are our final results (it's a chocolate layer cake with a strawberry buttercream filling).

Sweet little piggies

I saw the sweetest thing today.

Let me go back and say that we have 5 (yes, 5) adorable guinea pigs. We have three siblings (one male, two females), their father, and George Clooney. We did have their mother, but she recently passed on.

Our father piggy is going on 5 years old. Their normal life expectancy is 4-7 years, so he's pretty old for guinea. I had walked in Mason's room where the boys' cage is and found Inky (the son) - who very quickly outgrew his father - laying in front of the food dish with Flippy (the father) standing on top of him. He was helping his dad reach the dish. I stood there and watched them for the longest time and even got a little tear in my eye because I thought it was so sweet. Those two are really two peas in a pod.

Here they are out in the yard (Flippy is in the front of the photo, Inky in the background).

I'm a winner!

Just a quick entry as I'm being requested "on stage" - a.k.a. my living room (we got Rock Band last week). I logged into my email to something that excited me very much yesterday. It was a message telling me that I had a comment on a recipe site I joined. I went to go view said comment and this is what I saw:

One of my food photographs won me $100 Amazon gift certificate!! I'm still bouncing off the walls here! It's the second photograph in the french toast cupcake entry.

Now, what do I buy? LOL

mmm strawberries

I can't resist a good juicy strawberry, and what better way to use one than in my latest obsession - cupcakes!

I got out my KitchenAid mixer and all my ingredients last night and had the kids hovering over me the entire time (they like strawberries almost as much as I do). Here is the end result - a white cupcake with little bits of strawberry goodness mixed in with a strawberry buttercream frosting. Yes, they taste as good as they look!

French Toast mini's

Maple French Toast cupcakes with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.

My house smells SO good right now!

I'm also covered in powdered sugar because the dog barked just as I was turning my mixer on to incorporate the sugar into the frosting and I turned the mixer up too high - but it was worth it!