She's 23!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

It's my daughter's birthday today and I can't be with her. Last year either. But this year I was at least able to make sure she had a cake from Mom, even though I didn't make it myself. Those of you with kids in college who won't be home for special occasions might check out the University's offerings - Dani's school will deliver a cake, a snack care package, a chocolate assortment, and other choices - to the student's dorm room or as in my daughter's case - charge you a bit more for off-campus delivery. Very nice. And a surprise as well! And hopefully I didn't ruin any plans her boyfriend had because as Dani said "It's okay, if Dan has a cake for me he's so positive he would say 'oh good! TWO cakes!'" He also loves sweets so that may play into it.

Happy Birthday Honey! Yes, I AM putting the Sweet Pea cake on my blog. You love it, you know you do :)

Off to get the laundry out of the dryer.

No, I didn't forget to put the stockings away, I just miss Christmas and all the decorations already. But yes, these have been boxed up and put away for next year.

And here, on my cluttered kitchen counter, with fun-fetti forced into the frozen frosting on top and smoking candles - is the cake. THE cake. Isn't it sad? It's the first time one of my kids did not have their name on their cake (it was melting) and the first time one of my birthday cakes has ever looked even close to inedible. It's also the first time I did not put all the candles on one of their birthday cakes as well, but the time element and closeness of fire (warmth) seemed prohibitive. While I learned a lot about what NOT to do if I attempt an ice cream cake again, and it looked downright nasty, it tasted fabulous! Chocolate cake with Fannie May mint melt-away ice cream. Mmm-m-m...

This is what I have been doing the last two days. Going through beads and sorting the good stuff from the not-so-good - threw a lot out and organized a lot. Discovered there were beads I bought more than once because I couldn't find the ones I already had. Mostly spacer beads and stuff. But - I will be organized soon!

Oh, and the snow? I'm not sure how much we actually got, but they are predicting more tomorrow when I AM going to work. And this is my car in the deep freeze - if you look close there is even a layer of ice across the grill. If I were smart I would have warmed it up and cleaned it off when the sun was shining this afternoon, right? Not that smart.

Br-r-r-r-r!!!!

Martha Stewart I'm not.

I have been somewhat MIA lately, messing with my new computer and dealing with a virus I downloaded from somewhere. Ugh that makes me mad! I think it's gone now though, after trying every kind of malware, spyware, adware, virus killer, stomper, demolisher out there. Holy cow, some kind of Trojan that was giving me pop-ups out of nowhere. Made me nuts. At least the pop-ups themselves weren't obscene or anything.

Yesterday was my son's TWENTY FIFTH birthday, WHEN did he get that old??? But, he had to work so we decided to "do" his birthday today. I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to make him a special *cough* cake. It's only him and me, my daughter is back at school. And since Andy will normally have 1 piece of birthday cake and then concentrate on the ice cream for the rest of the week, I decided I would make him an ice cream cake! That way he would actually help finish off the cake instead of leaving it all for me. Oh yes I would. Nothing better on the weekend than a piece of birthday cake for breakfast!

All I can say is that the next time I attempt to combine baked goods with frozen ingredients, I will not make a round layered thing. Maybe a sheet cake that remains in the pan. I baked the 2 chocolate cake layers last night. Formed the mint ice cream layer last night as well, popped it into the freezer to harden. I'm thinking I should have frozen the cake layers as well. A little while ago I thought I would give the assembly of said ice cream cake a go. It could have been an I Love Lucy episode.

I frosted the bottom layer - might have been a bad idea. Frosting is slippery. Didn't think of this. Frosted the top layer on a piece of wax paper so it would be ready to pop on top. Took out the ice cream layer, carefully unwrapped it and placed it on top of the bottom layer, placed the top layer on top of the ice cream, and voila! Right? Not exactly.

I decided I should try to frost the ice cream layer - I could do it reallyreally fast and maybe it would stick. Uh huh. NOT. Not only wasn't the frosting sticking to the ice cream, but the top 2 layers started sliding off the bottom layer. I would push it back one way and it would try to slide off the other way. The only thing left for me to do was to freeze the whole kit 'n kaboodle and hope it all held together in the end.

No room in my freezer for that - so now Andy's cake is freezing (hopefully solid) in a tupperware cake-safe in the garage, with a Samsonite cosmetic case sitting on top of it to make sure it's safe. I'm hoping there aren't any critters at all in my garage but you never know. Took me a minute or 2 to find a spot in the garage that was actually level but as I walked away all layers were in their appointed places. Cross your fingers for me. It's 26 degrees outside and the temps will be dropping lower than that soon, and it will be at least 5 hours before I need to actually cut the cake. Maybe time is on my side.

I can only hope, right? I'll let you know how it turns out. Um. . . I doubt there will be pictures.