Works for me Wednesday!

Once again it's Works for Me Wednesday over at Rocks in my Dryer.

Today's 'works for me' are a few cake making tips... yes, I'm sharing deep, dark, secrets....

When using a cake mix to bake a cake there are some tricks to getting a dense, moist cake with very little effort on your part.

1. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of pudding mix powder to the dry mix before adding wet ingredients. I have bulk cans of chocolate and vanilla pudding to use just for this purpose.

2. Replace the water with milk- same amount, just milk not water.

3. Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of sour cream to the mix.

4. Add an extra egg

5. Bake on 325 for about 10-20 minutes longer then you normally would if you were baking at 350. You have to watch it closer but the results are phenomenal.

These are some of my 'tricks' to making a cake mix taste 'homemade' (but better.) Hope it works for you!

Look what happened at my house today!!

We have a patio!!



Notice the flower garden spots on the side?




Also notice Corinne riding with Ashley? She seems to like it. But YAY!! Now we need a swing and patio furniture.... Grass and gardens should be coming in the next week. I'm so happy!!

You've reached your peak.... 30 isn't that old is it?

I hear that 30 is the new 20... of course I wouldn't know since I'm not there yet. Of course if 30 is the new 20 then I'm 17....

Here is the cake I made for a surprise 30th birthday party last night:



The cake was so much fun to make. The little man, rocks and tombstone were made from fondant (LOVE that stuff!)

Here is the veiw from the end- 'THE END'



Here is the tombstone:


Here is my baby eating cake peices off the floor:



and here is how my kitchen looks after making a cake...



Notice how every surface is covered and every cupboard door is open? That's how I cook. Drives steve nuts. Also notice the cleanliness and organization of the pantry... makes me feel good. If only I could get motivated to do that to the whole house....

Pictures galore... if blogger cooperates... My mom's house

Front door of my mom's new house (kids are mine though)




Kitchen living area (beautiful cabinets and granite countertops)and once again the kid is mine.


Kitchen

Things I need to do today

Bake and decorate 'over the hill' cake by 6:00- Cake is baked and cooling, filling (whipped chocolate ganache) is cooling in freezer, currently making frosting. Update, cake filled, torted, crumb coated, frosted- now I’m doing my favorite part- the details. FUN cake! I hope the birthday boy is a good sport. Cake done! Woo! Took me longer then I thought (usually does though) pictures soon.

11:00 take pictures of my mom's new house to post for family- pictures taken, will post tonight

Clean house that is a pig sty- which includes:
-clean out and organize kitchen cupboards so I can find stuff while baking- in progress, mostly done
-pick up toys in study and vacuum
-vacuum rug in living room
-FINALLY put away winter clothes for summer clothes
-take inventory of 3T clothes since annika's hips are too big for 2T shorts and Megan's hips are too small for 4T shorts
-clean all bathrooms
-fold and put away all laundry (mostly clean, just needs to be put away!
-keep children happy while I'm trying to ignore them- currently riding bikes together in the garage (and not beating each other- YAY!) They napped (yay! Regular occurrence though) and are now watching PBS kids and supposedly cleaning up the toy room.
-send out sticker club chain letter that my kids received. Any volunteers to get one??
-Blog about my first Bunco night.

If I can do these things today I'll be thrilled.... ready? GO! I'll be back to update!

I'm not sure why I try to do everything at once. But if I have nothing that I HAVE to do in a day I have a hard time accomplishing anything. But if I have several big things to do then I find it easier to do lots of other little projects that I've been putting off. Does anyone else have this problem??

In other news...

My mom sold her house in Utah. She's moving to Las Vegas. She put an offer (that was accepted) on a house that is a seven minute walk from mine. YAY! This will add a new dynamic to our relationship- we've never lived in the same town since I graduated from High School. I'm excited that she'll be close though- and she's excited too. It'll be great in so many ways.

The house is a year old and has never been lived in. It was bought as an investment from a couple that lived in CA. They recently moved to Arkansas and didn't leave a forwarding phone number- a situation that the realtor had never come across before. So the offer was put on the house on Friday and she just found out today that they accepted it.

It's 1888 sqft, 4 bedroom, 2 bath, tiny backyard (that will be easy to maintain) huge living area, beautiful kitchen with granite countertops... it's a nice house- in a nice neighborhood (mine). YAY! (Can I say that enough??)

Recent came from...

So I have stat counter. Lets me know how many hits my blog has gotten (currently 6868) and where people come from (links from other places) and which blog they came from. I've gotten some interesting google searches: contruction workers (note to self, fix spelling), bee hive cupcakes, graveyard cupcakes ect

The most recent links perplex me though. Most of the time I can see where people came from (email, message boards, links from blogs I know) other times I get links from blogs like this, and this and wonder where they came from.

Other times I get hits from random countries, Iraq, Israel, Switzerland.

All very interesting.

In other news, I just got a call from the concrete man. They're pouring my patio tomorrow!!