Ben's Birthday Cake!

So, if you know me, you that I'm not much of a baker or really any cooking for that matter... but the city I live in, if I want "western" food,  for the most part I have to make it myself.  Well, for my hubby's birthday he asked for Red Velvet cake... I did NOT have a box for Red Velvet Cake!  What was I gonna do?   Really make Red Velvet Cake from scratch?!?  I could have just said, "Sorry, pick what kind of cake you want and show him the box cakes that we have" (from people who sent them from the states!:), but I know he deserves better!    So here's how I made it with Paula Deen's help.  :)  I used a different icing though, her's called for a marshmallow icing & I wanted a cream cheese icing.  

Ingredients:  1 teaspoon vanilla 

1 cup buttermilk (Had to make this. 1 cup milk w/1 T white vinegar = buttermilk)

1 teaspoon salt 

2 1/2 cup cake flour 

1/2 lb (2 sticks) butter 

2 ounces red food coloring 

2 tablespoons cocoa 

2 cups sugar 

2   eggs 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda 

1 tablespoon vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs; add sugar.

 Sift together flour and salt.

 Mix cocoa and food coloring.  Add butter and egg mixture; mix well. Add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Blend in vanilla.

 In a small bowl, combine soda and vinegar and add to mixture. 

 Pour into three 8-inch round greased and floured pans.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until tests done.

Be CAREFUL to NOT take the cakes out of the pans before they are cool!  I had some cake left behind on the first one.  (Didn't really bother me too much, since I got to snack on it! And I knew it would be covered up by icing. :)  This is what mine looked like:

FROSTING!

 1 pound cream cheese, softened

 4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar 

2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup), softened 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Once the cakes are COMPLETELY cool, throw on the frosting, one layer at a time!

1.

2.

3.

 My options to write on the cake were pretty slim, so I made the best of it.  Then Braidynn was in charge of the sprinkles!  (The cake was for Ben & a local friend.)

and, VOILA!

My hubby loved it and it was pretty yummy if I do say so myself!  And it truly wasn't that hard to make.  :)  

Poppa's coming to visit!

I'm sitting here, both kids taking naps, Ben out on a bike ride (in our beautiful eternal spring city), and I'm thinking I should nap too.  But I need to update you guys!  


Can you believe that THIS Thursday is Thanksgiving?!  I CANNOT believe it.  Crazy.  We are SO PUMPED, because in less than 2 weeks Ben's dad "Poppa" is coming to visit!  We are just beside ourselves!  This will be the first family member to come see us on this side of the world.  Not only are we just excited to see him, but also excited to give him a glimpse of our life over here.  It's so different, that you really can't fully understand until you are actually here.  Also, man, it's tough living over here so far from our family, specially around the holidays.  So, him visiting is bring us a little of home away from home.  :)


We are also preparing for a team coming in mid-December, who will be here for about 10 days.  This is such a blessing and we are really looking forward to them coming and coming along side of our work here.  


Braidynn & Aben are doing great.  Growing non-stop.  Braidynn's Chinese is incredible and I continue to be amazed by her.  Aben is almost 5 months and has started grabbing toys, babbles non-stop, smiles non-stop, and laughing.  One of my favorite things right now is watching Aben watch his big sis and listening to him laugh at her dancing and jumping around.  Braidynn loves to play with Aben, and tells me that she will take care of him for me if I need to do something.  ha!    


Let me leave you with some recent pics of the kids. 

Braidynn on playground by our apt.

Already 4 months

Feeding her baby, the way mommy feeds Aben.  :)

At the park, with a new brother!  (Notice the Rold Golds, I brought back from Hong Kong!)

Momma's baby

Growing too fast!

Braidynn LOVES to do crafts!

And she LOVES ice cream!

my sweet boy, ready for his nap

Aben & mommy (I do realize I look pretty scary here, but I love Aben in this one.  :)

the cutest boy in the whole world :)

blue eyes 

Dance.  Travel.  Floss.

Pinterest

Pinterest.  Is it not just amazing?!  I've created, crafted, cooked more since Pinerest has been around than I have in my entire life!  :)  I love it.  Ok, and I admit it.  I just went over to Pinterest to get the logo to put on my blog and yeah...I was there for 30 minutes before coming back over to blog.  URG!  It's so addicting!  People are amazing, and I love learning how to do the amazing things they do!  Look what I was just looking at:

I mean this is just a few of things that are great tonight or today (depending on where you are in this world!)  Some stuff just makes me laugh, some are inspiring, and others make my whole family happy because I cook it!  :)

This past week I made Citrus Enzyme Cleaner, homemade coffee creamer, homemade ice cream (without an ice cream maker!), tried the sock-bun thing, and made a cute calendar!  I'll have to show you my progress with all this stuff soon.  But not now, not tonight.  I'm off to bed.

FYI, I'm still not happy with that stinkin header at the top of my blog.  I will fix it soon.  I keep saying that. Maybe I'll search Pinterest for a tutorial!!!

Before I go I want to leave you with one last Pinterest happy:

hahaha!