Happy Birthday, Dad!

Moving right along, next up was my Dad's birthday.  Between the end of May and the middle of July, we have 6 birthdays in my immediate family - 3 of which are in my little family alone!

My dad is a no-frills type of person.  It's hard to buy for him, hard to surprise him, hard to impress him, but easy to love him!  There are 2 thing he loves that I always try to incorporate into his birthday - his grandkids and nuts!  What a combination.

This cake was a conglomeration of 2 recipes and my own style.  I had every intention of making this Butterscotch Cake, until I read it and realized I didn't have butterscotch chips and the author didn't speak too highly of the outcome.  Just goes to show you that looks can be deceiving.

I decided on yet another yellow cake recipe and then looked to Annie from Annie's Eats for icing inspiration.  I had bookmarked her Pumpkin Cake with Butterscotch Filling recipe last fall and decided that was the perfect icing/filling combo.

After making the filling and seeing how much it made, I started to reconsider her frosting.  Time for some alterations.  I wanted the frosting to be more like buttercream or cream cheese frosting, so I went that direction instead.  I've linked to the 2 original cakes but I have to say that my final rendition was pretty darn delicious!  Since I had just finished Granny's cake a week prior, it was easy to compare and I have to say this one won in my book.

Butterscotch Cake
adapted from Annie's Eats & Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice

Old-Fashioned Yellow Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
1 + 1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 8-inch cake pans.
2. In a large mixing bowl sift flour and sugar, baking powder and salt.
3. Add butter, milk and vanilla. Beat with a hand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, occasionally scraping sides of bowl.
4. Add eggs, beat for 2 more minutes.
5. Pour batter into prepared pans, dividing equally among both. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
6. Cool in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Turn out and cool thoroughly on wire racks. Frost with cream cheese or whip cream frosting. If using whip cream frosting the cake must be refrigerated.

Butterscotch Filling:

¾ cup heavy cream

¾ cup brown sugar

¼ tsp. lemon juice

1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 4 – 1 oz. pieces

To make the filling, heat the cream in a saucepan over medium-low heat until hot (do not allow to boil or simmer).  Combine sugar and lemon juice in a separate saucepan and stir with a whisk to combine (the sugar will resemble moist sand).  Caramelize the sugar for 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk to break up any lumps.  Remove the saucepan from the heat.  Add the hot cream, one half at a time (be sure you are stirring as you're adding or the caramel will harden).  Add the butter, one piece at a time, stirring to incorporate completely before adding the next piece.  Cool in the refrigerator 45 minutes.  Place in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on high speed for 2 minutes, until light (but not fluffy).  Set aside.

Butterscotch Cream Cheese Frosting:

2-3 cups powdered sugar, depending on your desired level of sweetness

6 oz reduced fat cream cheese, softened

5 T. butter, softened

1/2 - 1 cup leftover filling

Begin assembling the cake by spreading the filling in between the 2 cake layers, leaving 1/2 -1 cup for the frosting.  In the same bowl, add the cream cheese and butter and mix until fluffy.  Gradually add the powdered sugar until you reach your desired level of sweetness.  (I never measure so the 2-3 cups was just a guess.)  Frost the entire cake and garnish with LOTS of nuts.  Enjoy!

Christmas Eve

This was the first Christmas Eve in many years that I haven't had to work.  It was a real treat to wake up and get to spend the entire day with my family.  After 8 hours though, I was ready for a change of scenery. We headed over to my mom and dad's for dinner.

After a yummy, belly-filling dinner, we exchanged gifts with my sister and her family.  It was organized chaos as paper flew, boxes were ripped open, and thank you's were exchanged.  It was all over in a matter of minutes and the kids were off playing with their new toys.  I prefer the one-at-a-time routine but there was none of that going on.

Everyone had a good time though and before we knew it, it was time to head home to get in bed so Santa could come.

Here are a few pictures from the melee, I mean festivities.

My beautiful nieces.

Colin with one of his favorite people, Grandpa!

Sawyer enjoying his after dinner snack - daddy's thumb.

Elise showing Foxx how to ride his new bike/car.

Sawyer fighting to stay awake on comfy Buff.

Christmas: Part 2

Christmas Eve we all went to my Mom and Dad's for dinner. My mom is a wonderful cook and I always look forward to getting to eat a home cooked meal from her. It's always good and best of all, I didn't have to make it!

We also opened presents with my sister and her family. My nieces are 11 and soon-t0-be 7 and are no strangers to Christmas and opening gifts. Within 5 minutes it looked like a tornado had passed through the family room, leaving behind nothing but paper scraps and boxes. They had a great time though and Colin enjoyed playing with the baby's toy - why do I even try?!

Everyone had a great time and had to get home to get in bed in time for Santa. I really enjoy being with family and wish the night didn't have to end so soon! Here are some pictures of the bedlam. As the camera woman, I managed to escape it all but Wes, the videographer, reassured me that he zoomed in to get a closeup of my bum on camera. Gee thanks!

Foxx doing a little light reading.

Elise, the diva.

Kiara, with her beautifully newly straightened hair.

Buff, cheesing about something.

LC, Foxx, and Colin all looking thrilled to be there.

Colin opening his baby doll (he requested it multiple times).

Playing with the baby's toy.

Foxx showing his mad arm skills and his 3 new teeth!

Deep thoughts with Megan - she's going to love me for this picture!

Random Thoughts

Since I have several stories, none of which would merit their own separate post, I thought I'd do a hodge podge post. My first story, or rather announcement, is that I'm going to be an aunt again! My sister is due with a baby boy March 6th, however it looks like the little guy will be gracing us with his presence much before then. We've all taken our guess as to the arrival date and I've chosen February 28th. I think that's going to be pushing it (ha ha) but we shall see. More details and pictures to come.

Kids say the darnedest things. I look forward to the days when Colin starts putting things together and comes up with his own funny stories, although I'm in no hurry. For now, I get to enjoy my niece, Elise (6), and her hilarity. She was baking cupcakes with Grams yesterday to give to her class for her birthday. Grams asked if her science teacher was back yet and if she was feeling better. Elise said yes but her music teacher has been absent. Grams asked what was the matter with her and Elise's precious response was, "She's having her pencils taken out."

She has a tendency to speak very matter-of-factly and this was no exception. Grams asked, "Her pencils?"

Apparently pencils = appendix to a 6-year old!

Lastly, don't forget this Saturday is Valentine's Day. In case you haven't read my posts on certain Hallmark holidays, I'm not generally a fan. But if you need an excuse to do something special for your loved one, so be it and get to work, you've only got 5 days! Do something out of the box for you - perhaps a surprise, a home cooked meal, a personalized coupon book?? If you start the trend, your loved one is surely to follow suit...eventually!

The Making of a Great

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching my youngest niece, Elise, play basketball with a team of 5 and 6 year olds. I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry. One minute I was as proud as her own mother as I watched this precious little girl follow all instructions and yet be so helplessly lost. I just wanted to run out there and help her. Mind you, she was certainly not the only lost sole out there, they all were. She actually knew more than any of her peers and showed a lot of promise. The coaches turned to her every time they gave instruction. She's a great listener and very athletic, so things come naturally to her. It was a barn burner - 4 to 6 (although no official score is kept). Her team lost but she scored one of their only 2 goals and she also had a steal and dribbled the ball all the way down the court without any mistakes. The whole event was basically mass chaos but I think the kids had fun and that's all that matters. Elise looked so grown up and as I looked at her out on that court, I kept thinking to myself that one day that would be Colin out there and then I'd really be an emotional wreck! It seems like just yesterday Elise was this toddling little girl and now she's the tallest one on the court and has more energy than I do in an entire week! Here are some pictures from her first big game. Mark my word, this little girl is going places!!

In the first picture, she's in the middle in blue. I just loved her stance in the second picture and I love that they have their names on their jerseys. The last picture is an action shot of her dribbling down the court, in the right direction I might add, since that was a big challenge for most of them!

Made for Movies

Mark my word, one day this child will be on television in some fashion. She says the funniest things, while maintaining a straight face. One of her recent tales that I find particularly hilarious was on her way to preschool this week. She told my mom, "Don't tell Mommy but if you see a white cup on the side of the road, it might have a bomb in it." Now she was quite serious about this and so my mom, holding back her laughter, said, "Ok, I won't tell Mommy." Now please tell me where in the world she pulled this one from? Colin enjoys the ride with Elise too because she is constantly educating him. She has taught him to tie his shoe, how to fix his hair, and how to dress. The day she taught him to tie his shoe, she asked him if he knew how to tie a shoe. Of course he just looked at her, to which she replied, "You just loop this one, then this one..." She looked up at him to make sure he was listening and then said, "Oh Colin, it's not hard, there's not going to be a test or anything!" Duh Colin, how could you even think such a thing?!

Last weekend was her preschool play. The theme was around the world and she was an islander of some sort - which was perfect for her since she LOVES her bathing suit. Since I wasn't able to capture her actions, I'll try to describe them. The song was something like, "north, south, east, west" and they did arm movements pointing in the corresponding directions. She just tilted her head to one side and looked bored to death as she did it. Well then there was a part of the song where they had to shake their hips and boy howdy, she came to life for that part! So I'm guessing she'll be a dancing comedian!