Lemon Cake with a Lemon Glaze

 

My husband loves all things lemon and for years bugged me to find a lemon cake recipe.  Not being a huge fan of lemon I didn't really care to find one.  One year he was working out of town in Colorado for a month and was coming home right after Father's Day.  I decided to try and find a lemon cake to make for him.  I stumbled across a few recipes but they were just so elaborate I just didn't have the time.  I headed to the store and found a boxed lemon cake mix.  Then I spotted the supreme lemon frosting but I decided I want something with more of a glaze texture so I decided to experiment a little..

First I started off baking the cake per the box directions and poured it into a fluted pan.

Once the cake is done let cool for about 5 minutes and transfer to a plate or cake stand lined with parchment paper.

I then placed the jar of frosting in the microwave and heated it up for about 20 seconds.  The frosting should be nice and runny.  I then slowly drizzled the frosting over the cake with a spoon.  I like to slowly do this a little at a time so the frosting has a chance to absorb into the cake a little.  What's nice about this recipe is you don't have let the cake cool very long and if you are impatient like me that is an amazing thing. I like to use the entire can of frosting so that it's completely covered and then carefully remove the wax paper.

 

I hope you try these super easy recipe and enjoy it as much as my family does.  It is so moist and delicious and just the right amount of lemon flavor.

Thanks for stopping by Christine:)

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http://whipperberry.com/2015/11/the-party-bunch-link-party-no-109.

Smores Pie

My boys love desserts.  Before my husband came along my son only had dessert on special occasions.  Well a Tuesday night is reason enough for my husband so we now have dessert quite often.  Sometimes there just isn't enough time so there is nothing I love more than a quick dessert that only has a few ingredients.  I was looking on line for some ideas and came across one for a Smores pie.  It had a lot of ingredients so I started trying to find a way to simplify it.  I came up with the recipe below.

1 premade graham cracker pie shell
1 2.1 oz jello chocolate pudding mix (I like the sugar free kind)
3 cups of cold milk
1 carton of cool whip
1 package of mini marshmellows

First prepare the chocolate pudding mix as directed.  Let pudding sit in the refrigerator until set.  Approx. 10-20 minutes. This step is hard for me as I am very impatient. Once the pudding is set gently fold in 2 cups of cool whip until completely combined. 

Fill the pie shell with all of the pudding mixture and sprinkle mini marshmellows on top.

  I took the torch that came from my Crème Brulee set and burnt the top of the marshmellows.  Be careful not to touch the pudding,  Once done place back in the refrigerator until time to serve. 

The boys loved this pie so much I caught my husband sitting on the couch with the half the piece in the pie plate and a fork.  Then he said if you want to make this again soon go right ahead.  Gavin asked me when I was opening my own bakery because he wants a job as a taste tester.

Thanks for stopping by Christine


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http://www.allthingsheartandhome.com/2015/11/five-fab-makeovers-monday-funday/
http://www.tipjunkie.com/post/tip-me-tuesday-happy-crafters-share-
http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2016/04/13/whats-cookin-wednesday-162/

An Unexpected Bathroom Remodel

Originally we had planned to hold off on remodeling the bathrooms until after the holidays as we have tackled several projects this year.  Then we discovered a leak in the wall behind the vanity which forced us into a bathroom remodel.  At first we were just going to remodel the vanity area but after seeing it finished we are so in love with it that within the next couple of weeks we are going to replace the shower tile and refinish the bathtub.

Below is a before and after from when I painted the walls in a blue / grey color and the cabinets in espresso.  This was a temporary fix until we could afford to fully remodel the space.

 

We decided to keep the espresso color when we ordered the new cabinetry.  The hubs designed the cabinet with a trash can pull out and more drawer space.  The medicine cabinet I saw on Pinterest and asked him to copy it. 

 

The countertop is a granite called Café Crème and the backsplash tile along with sink, faucet and light fixture all came from Lowes.  I love the way it looks far and am so excited to get the shower done.  The backsplash tile will extend through the shower along with some beautiful tumbled travertine tile.

Stay tuned for pictures on the completed bathroom.

Christine :)

 

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 http://www.theidearoom

 

 

Living Room Update

I can't believe our living room is finally finished.  This project seems like it took forever and was definitely the longest most stressful of all so far.  Here is a before shot from before we moved in.

 

Like every other room in this house the first project we tackled was to paint the entire room.  We even painted the fireplace since we hated the red brick.

 

This bought us some time until we could afford to tackle this project. We knew it would be expensive and time consuming. To save money my husband built the mantle himself and did most of the prep work himself.  He wanted the TV mounted above the fireplace so he ran all of the wiring and installed the TV mount.  The installer also suggested that we cover the existing brick with the new stone.

 

I was planning on going with a cultured stone but once the hubs took one look at the display of the natural limestone he was hooked.  We had multiple delays due to problems with the quarry.  But once it was finally complete we replaced the carpet in the room. Once that was finished the hubs moved onto designing and order the built ins to go on either side of the fireplace.  Those took quite a while as the cabinet supplier was extremely back up but in the end it's absolutely beautiful and I love it.

 

The mantle since my husband made it with left over material and stain from the kitchen cabinets only cost us about $4.00.  You can't beat that price and it's exactly what I wanted. 

It's such a drastic change from the before picture.  I have so much more storage and more space display things I can't wait to decorate the area for Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by

Christine :)

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http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net

http://www.thriftydecorchick.com/2015/09/crazy-awesome-before-and-afters.html

http://www.lifeonlakeshoredrive.com/

                                                        http://www.cozylittlehouse.com

http://whipperberry.com

http://www.stonegableblog.com/the-scoop-188/

 

Minion Cupcakes

For my Nephew Jaycers 6th birthday party he requested Minion Cupcakes.  I made these for my son's birthday last year after a trip to Universal Studios.  He became completely obsessed with all of the Minion desserts that were all over the place.  So I already knew what I was going to need. 



I first baked the cupcakes and while they were cooling I prepped the minions.  I started with unwrapping the smarties candies and remove all of the white ones and placed them in a separate bowl.  I then took 12 of the twinkies and cut them in half.  This required buying two boxes of the twinkies.  I placed them on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

 

I then took the black gel and put a small dab on the back side of the white smarties and arranged the eyes using the black gel as a glue to keep the eyes in place.

 

 

 

I used the same gel to outline the candies making them look like their googles and straps down the sides.  I piped small dots in the center and sides of the candies to make the eye or eyes and piped the mouths.

 

 

I then took the white icing and tinted it blue.  I fitted a zip loc bag with a large star tip and filled it with the icing.  I piped a small spot in the center of each cupcake as a glue to hold the Minions in place.  I piped the outer edge of the cupcakes and set the Minions in the center. I forgot to pick up chocolate sprinkles but if you wanted to you could insert a few into the tops to look like hair. 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Jaycers I hope you love your cupcakes from Auntie Tine.

 

 

 

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Guest Bathroom Update

We knew when we bought this home both of the bathrooms would need to be completed gutted.  We also knew it would be one of the last projects we would do as there are other rooms that need to be addressed first.  This was driving me nuts so I decided to at least give our guest bathroom a minor makeover.  When we bought the house all of the rooms were painted very odd colors the bathroom was no different.  It had sort of  pink shade of paint and matching tile.

 My husband had his heart set on the tile that looks like wood flooring.  I often refer to my husband as Mr. Tightwad but not in this case.  Even though I work in the construction industry and was able to take advantage of a lot of discounts it was still pretty expensive.  We decided to extend the tile into the bathroom since it's right off the main living area.  I knew eventually we would replace the cabinetry with espresso cabinets so I decided to try and paint the existing cabinets.  This way at least when guests come to visit they aren't looking at the old worn out walnut cabinets when they use that bathroom.  The hubs took all of the doors, hinges and drawers off.  We used a sanding sponge and lightly sanded everything down.  These cabinets are over 30 years old so the finish was pretty worn off already.  Thank goodness because I hate sanding.  While everything was drying I decided to paint the room as well.  It's primarily my son's bathroom who is currently in the teenage everything needs to be black or grey phase.  We found a compromise and went with a blue grey color.  I feel like just in changing the few things that we did it drastically changed the look of the bathroom and bought us some time until we are ready to completely gut it.

I love the way it all looks for now but I can't wait until we can completely update it.  We have a lot of great ideas for granite countertops and a really nice tile backsplash.  So stay tuned for more updates!

http://www.classyclutter.net/category/creative-collection/

Thomas The Train Cupcake Cake

A friend of mine asked me to make a cupcake cake for her son's 3rd birthday.  He is absolutely in love with Thomas the Train and visits a train park in our area almost every week.  So it was pretty much a given that it would be a Thomas theme party.  She mentioned that she had seen some cupcake cakes in the shape of numbers on Pinterest and wanted to know if I could come up with something.  I searched all over the internet for ideas and finally came up with a plan.  Let's just say arranging all of the cupcakes into a 3 was not the easiest thing to do but I think it turned out pretty good.  It took a lot of tweaking.   I baked about 4 dozen chocolate cupcakes in all.  I arranged everything until I had it just right and covered the cupcakes in green icing.  I put the remaining green icing in a bag with a grass tip and piped all around to make it look a field.  For the track I used mini Kit Kats which are faced down and I piped black icing along the sides of the track.  I filled in the areas in between with crushed graham crackers to look like dirt.  I searched all over for candy rocks but couldn't find any so I used some larger graham cracker crumbs and chocolate covered raisins for the rocks.  I purchased the trains at my local grocery store but I couldn't find any rail road signs anywhere.  I decided just to print some out and attached them to tooth picks.

I knew there would be a lot of adults and figured they might not like the green icing so I made some more adult friendly cupcakes. I covered them with white frosting and I picked up some Thomas cupcake picks at the party store and inserted them.  It was great to see his little face light up when he saw everything.  He was so happy and couldn't wait to dig in.


http://notsosimplemama.blogspot.com/2015/07/thomas-train-cupcake-cake.html