Cake!

It's my birthday today! Let's drool over these cake photos, ok?!

Over the weekend we celebrated my husband's grandma's 88th birthday! (February is a great month for birthdays, by the way!) I made her a cake and I wasn't planning on sharing it on the blog since I decided what I was going to do somewhat last minute, I didn't know how it was going to turn out, and I didn't take in process photos. Well, I ended up making the.best.cake. I have ever made and it got fantastic reviews! How could I not share that! It must have been all that butter, chocolate, and love.

I don't have in-process photos, but I'll share where I found my recipes and some techniques. It went so well that I thought it was too good to be true. The only thing was though, that I took far too many trips to the grocery store. It must be like how my dad says,  "it always takes 3 trips to the hardware store" when working on a project.

The cake was a marble cake made with 1 box of Duncan Hines French Vanilla cake mix and 1 box of Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake mix. I used 9 inch cake pans. I cut out parchment paper circles and made sure the pans were nice and greased up so that the cake came out without fuss. There was about 2.5 cups total batter per pan. I made 4 cake layers.

For the filling I made 2 batches of raspberry cream filling using a recipe from Une Gamine dans la Cuisine. I still have some leftover.

I found the dark chocolate frosting recipe on the blog, Bakeaholic. This frosting was so fantastic to work with. It worked well spreading it on and piping it on. I also love that it's not too sweet. The dark chocolate is a nice contrast to the very sweet raspberry filling. Beware, chocolate frosting some how gets everywhere! I made 4 batches and this was way way way too much!

There is a great tutorial on assembling a layer cake from the blog, Whisk Kid and then also one for doing a crumb coat and frosting your layer cake.

I got the inspiration for the piping from a cake seen in an anniversary party featured on the blog Oh Happy Day. As far as piping frosting goes, this is very easy to do. It didn't take too long and looks impressive! I used a Wilton #21 star tip. Start at the bottom of the cake making continuous clockwise circles/swirls going straight up the side of the cake, overlapping each one ever so slightly. Use consistent pressure and size. Sorry if this is hard to understand I don't have photos or video of it.

 My favorite part about making this cake was that Grandma was over the moon about it! It makes the time and energy put in to it so worth it :) It helps that everyone else loved it as well!

Cheers to birthdays and cake! Does anyone else have a February birthday?

We bought a duplex!

My husband and I are super excited to announce that we bought a duplex yesterday! We are so blessed!

The lower unit (which we'll be living in) is 3 bedrooms 2 baths. The upper unit (which we'll be renting out) is 1 bedroom 1 bath.

I can't wait to share more pictures with you and the updates we'll be doing. And boy will there be updates! What I'd call it now is maybe 60's kitsch - wallpaper galore, a faux brick wall, yellow kitchen countertops, and a cringe-worthy bathroom!

We'll be moving in in about 2 weeks. We've got to do some packing!

P.S. Can you believe it's August already!?!

Birthday!

It was my birthday yesterday! I had a wonderful weekend - time with family, tasty food, so many hugs, antiquing, and crazy kitty entertainment. So much love! I am grateful.

A big hit of the party was this cake my mommy made! (based on this)

{excited to see what the inside looked like!}

My husband got me this wastebasket for my craft room at an antique mall we went to on Saturday.

{it even has a lid so our little garbage snitching kitty, Elwood, can't steal anything!}

And Jake, he's such a party animal!

He loves straws too so we tied one to a helium balloon....so hilarious!

Guest Post - Suitcase Stories: Great Grandma's Hat Box

At Christmas I received a suitcase that belonged to my great grandma, my sister also received a something special that belonged to Great Grandma!

From my sis -
"Like Michelle, I also received one of Great Grandma's suitcases for my Birthday (which happens to be close enough to Christmas so I got it then). Auntie K loaded up this lovely hat box with some fun sewing supplies including a new iron, fabric, thread, and new scissors! She always spoils me!"

 Love the stripes!

Suitcase Stories: Great-Grandma's Suitcase

The best and favorite Christmas gift I received wasn't something that was on my list. It wasn't something I was expecting. I didn't even know it existed. And it's perfect.

It's a navy and white (one of my favorite color combos) suitcase that belonged to my great-grandma!

One of my aunts held on to my great-grandma's suitcase because she always loved it and wanted to display it somewhere, but never found the spot. So, she passed it on to me. I'm so incredibly grateful that she kept it! I have so many suitcases, but this is the only one with a family connection. It's is never going anywhere.

{I love that it still has the travel tag with her handwriting!}

My aunt also included this fun photo of my grandma, great-grandpa, and great-grandma (from left to right).

{check out all that tinsel!}

Cider Pressing - Fort Atkinson, WI

My in-laws own an apple orchard in Fort Atkinson, WI. (Am I the luckiest girl or what?!?!) Towards the end of apple season we get together to make cider. This is what we did last weekend.

{bushels and bushels of apples}

{crank it!}

{laughter is necessary to make good cider}

 

{the goods - liquid gold}

Let me tell you will never find anything like this in the store. It's like you're eating an apple, but actually you're drinking it. Straight up apple juice. YUM.

{tasty}

I Heart Faces - Hands

This week's I Heart Faces challenge is hands. Here's my entry!

{my dad in his role as sailboat captain}

One of the Reasons Why I LOVE My Marriage

Fresh Produce!

{fresh peaches with homemade yogurt and honey}

My husband's family owns some fruitful land out in Fort Atkinson, WI. Boy am I ever lucky! My mother-in-law visited the other day and brought fresh peaches, sweet corn, cucumbers, apples, tomatoes, and some canned pickels a couple of the dozens of batches she has been making. The apples are the first of the season and are really making me look forward to autum. I can already taste the apple pies and freshly pressed cider.

What's your favorite summer produce?