"Brandi's going to be the best mom ever!!

That's what I overheard a co-worker say when she found out that I was the one who made the cupcakes for our holiday work party. She has no idea how happy that made me! My own mother worked nights and never showed interest in baking and whatnot (although she always makes my favorite dinner dishes when I go visit!!) So, I've always liked to think I would enjoy being the class mom and all that jazz!! Of course, that's a few years down the road right now so my lovely co-workers are enjoying being my guinea pigs!! haha I enjoy baking for them because they are always so appreciative, which makes me excited to make them something else...it's nice to have a good cycle in such a viscous cycle kind of world!

These were simple and fun to make! I already had most of the ingredients in my pantry, just needed the m&m's for the nose! The recipe called for redhots (which I did have on hand) but my husband thought they would taste gross on a cupcake and when I made him do a taste test on a redhot to see if it was still good...he about broke a tooth because he thought they were supposed to be soft! haha He didn't want the same thing to happen to my co-workers so we went with the m&m's.

This is another recipe from the cookbook my mother-in-law bought me, I really like this book! I've been having a hard time with the cake on the front cover...I've tried making it twice now and it looks NOTHING like their picture!! I know that's pretty common, but I can usually get pretty close with these recipe's! I think the next time I try at it, I'm just going to put it in a 13x9 inch pan so it can't melt as easy!



If you think these are cute then you should head over to Bakerella's website...snow globe cupcakes?! Is that possible?? For Bakerella it is!! Check out these adorable and festive cake pops she did here. mmmm I love Christmas, don't you?!

Speaking of Christmas...if I don't get back on here before then....

Merry Christmas to you and your loved one's!! I hope those who are traveling make it to their destination safely and have a wonderful holiday season!!

X's and O's,

Brandi Sue

If at first you don't succeed....

I stared at it for weeks. Waiting for the perfect time. When I get into a book...there's nooo getting me out of it until I'm done. That can take hours, days, or weeks even...and in this case it might take years! No, I'm not talking about the Twilight Saga!! Although, I did get sucked into that collection recently. Ha...pardon my pun, I'm not usually that witty! ;)

Recently my wonderful Mother in Law purchased a cookbook for me and it fueled my newest passion. Okay, so it's not really something new but it's something I have finally begun to invest time in! I'm no Martha Stewart though and I have NO desire whatsoever to begin making up my own recipes. Nope, I'll follow along...precisely along...with the ones the baking Diva's have already put out there for me to discover!

The perfect time finally came around Halloween...but since that's already past I'll move on to the second perfect time! haha After making the pumpkin cake, I decided that I then wanted to go back to the beginning of the book and start there and bake my way through! To my delight, the first one was an oreo cake...yummy! So here the baking begins...

*All the yummy ingredients needed to make a masterpiece for my mouth!*

I quickly discovered that this recipe called for two 9" round cake pans...so I went out and bought them along with the neat gadget that will slice off a thin layer to even out the top of your bottom layer. (yes, I was informed that a bread knife works just as well but where's the fun in that?!) I greased and floured my pans per instructions and baked them according to the box. Luckily, I checked them way earlier than I had planned because they were done sooner than the box said! Making a mental note for future reference, I gently took both out of the oven and noticed my first mess up. Since I didn't have the cakes in the middle of the oven, they baked lopsided. Oh well, I thought to myself...no biggie since I was going to cut off the top of one layer anyway and add icing to the other!

When it came time to take them out of the pan I noticed another mess up. Surely, I somehow didn't add enough cake mix because this layers were thin! I thought there was no way that I could cut the top off one layer because then there wouldn't be anything left! So I decided that I would just add extra icing in the middle and leave it be. Wrong! The gap that was created from the two layers not meeting perfectly caused me some trouble icing the cake! When I was trying to ice the sides, the icing would fall into the gap! I couldn't keep it just on the outside. So I decided to take a step back and cut off the top layer...with icing on it already.

I didn't even get that far since the top layer started falling apart when I tried to take it off...stupid moist cake! I gave up and decided I would just leave the layers be and keep trying to ice them. Well, that didn't work now either since I had cracked part of the top layer. Since it didn't have the support from the bottom layer directly beneath it and the icing wasn't thick enough...it began to fall.

In my disappointment, I almost just threw the whole thing away. Then I debated making cake balls out of it all! (mmmm cake balls, I need to try those again soon) But finally decided that my co-workers probably didn't care what it looked like...free cake is free cake after all!! So, in the end, I did manage to take off the top layer and I iced them both. Then I placed the cookie crumbs and poured them over the top rather than on the side like the picture in the cookbook. Here's my final result...

*moist cake!*

A few days later, my husband told me about "Pig out Friday" at his work and asked me if I would make him something to take. He wanted finger foods but I was already thinking about Round 2 with the Oreo cake!

I initially planned to just go ahead with my new gadget no matter how thin the cakes were this time, but then a co-worker told me how she turns the bottom layer upside down so that the flat side meets up evenly with the bottom of the top layer. Brilliant!! I baked the cakes separately this time to ensure they would be even. (a patient of mine has since told me that if you wrap a wet hand towel around the cake pan, it will bake evenly. I have not tried this yet!) The rest of the baking went smoothly without incident! The only thing I noticed was that I am in need of cute cake/round platters to serve my cakes on! Although, I wouldn't have wanted him to take a nice one to work anyway. (I bought a pretty platter 1/2 off at the Wishing Well during black Friday so I'm good to go now!)

*Soooooo much better than the first time right?!*

Devin did not get to try out the cake at "Pig our Friday" because it was gone already when he went to get some! He called me earlier in the day to tell me that he overheard a co-worker telling someone that it was the best cake he had had!! And he didn't know that Devin brought it so he wasn't trying to suck up, it was an honest opinion! That made all the hard effort well worth it...although I can't take too much credit since it's not my own recipe haha But I thought I would share that with you in case you are debating on whether to purchase the book yourself.

*Cell phone pic of the inside of the one I made for Thanksgiving*

For Thanksgiving we were in charge of two desserts so I had Round 3 with the Oreo cake and then attempted cake #2 in the book. The second one appeared to be a diaster and didn't make it to dinner that day. His family all said they liked the Oreo one though. Some mentioned it was really sweet...which was probably my fault. I got carried away with the Oreos you crush and put in the cake mix! haha His Dad really liked it with milk. Devin and I have yet to try it! I think I'm done with this one for now though. Since I "failed" at cake #2 it's time to try, try again! Stay tuned!

X's and O's,

Brandi Sue

p.s. If you are curious what cookbook I'm using...go back up to the second paragraph and click on the hyperlink associated with the word "cookbook"