Tulip Tuesday

Saturday we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival in Woodburn, Oregon.


Besides beautiful flowers, they have face painting, bungee hopping for kids, great food and way-way more. We saw steam engines

Then we walked the fields, shared an ice cream cone, bought flowers for the house and enjoyed the sunshine.

It was a wonderful way to spend a weekend.

Cake Challenge

I wanted to get a new cake pan. My husband didn't. He said, "The cake boss carves his cakes, you can do it too."

We disagreed.

I said I'll bake one cake using my new pans and you can carve one. It will be a cake challenge. So here's how I did it my way.

I baked the cake(s), two sides, front and back. Then I trimmed the bottom so it would stand up, and trimmed the excess where the two sides came together.

Then I started icing the cake(s) with simple yellow icing (just 2 pounds of powdered sugar, one cube of butter, and 1/4 cup milk (a little yellow food coloring). Super simple.

I used fondant for the eyes and painted the orange beak with a little orange frosting - just added red food coloring to the left over yellow frosting.

After it was all done, I decorated the platter with Easter Basket grass and eggs.

I think it turned out cute. And, he was a great addition to the Easter table.
And the kids liked cutting off his head and eating him
Here's how my husband did his...he didn't even try. It was a total no-show at the challenge. He wouldn't even compete. Not fair.

Next time maybe he won't argue with me when I want to buy a new pan :)

Next time I'll use decorating cake tips to pipe the frosting feathers. I ran out of time this weekend. And, I think this would be a great graduation cake for my son, Luke. He's a University of Oregon Duck! Go DUCKS!!!

Happy Earth Day

Today is Earth Day! And you might want to celebrate by spending some time out in the garden planting some sustainable vegetables or even beautiful flowers. This is a day we should all give back a little something to the Earth.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and don't forget to stop by Starbucks (with your own mug) to get a free cup of brewed coffee or tea. :)

Answer to the Word of the Day

Axiomatic means self-evident or obvious. If you want to read more, check it out here.

And thanks for playing along :)

Word for ...Thursday

Okay I'm a day late for Word for Wednesday but I still wanna play.

Guess what the word AXIOMATIC means.

Put your guess in the comments section, then come back around 3:00 to see if you were "write" or wrong. :)

Books for Children - and an EZ Way to Help Your Community

My son's gfriend teachers at the Saturday German School. So, when I went to the library sale this past weekend and saw a few children's books in German and one about the Bremen Town Musicians, I thought I'd pick them up for her to use in class--if she could. Our county library has a few sales throughout the year, at multiple locations.

So, if you know a teacher you might want to check with your local library to see if they have any used book sales too. You might want to pick up some inexpensive books/tools for teachers to use too. It's a nice/easy/inexpensive way to have a positive impact in the community and help your library at the same time.

Frosting to Die For

This weekend was a friend's fiftieth birthday! YIKES!!! That went by fast. So, I made cupcakes to help celebrate and this frosting was super-yummilicious. I think it was the best I've ever made. Then I put the frosting in a bag and piped some roses on top of the cupcakes.

Here's how you can make it too:

4 oz of cream cheese (softened)
1 and 1/2 pound of powdered sugar
1 cube of butter (softened)
1/4 cup lemon juice

Blend ingredients until smooth and eat...YUMMMMMMMM