As Promised I Present To You...

...my daughter's ELMO cupcakes!

They turned out really cute and I am just a little bit proud of them!

So let me give you the step-by-step on how I (with the help of my dear hubby who lovingly formed and colored the mouths at 11:30pm at night for me the night before the party) I came to create this cuteness!

I chose a really nice ready to bake chocolate cake mix by "Pamela's All Natural" I think it's called. I wasn't going to make the cake myself, just because I knew the faces would take up enough time to create. That cake mix is the bomb, by the way, the fluffiest and most chocolaty ever, much better than the Betty Crocker mix! I filled them into individual cupcake cups, not the cupcake pan, just because we made over 30(!) of 'em. Now, let me ask you: Am I obsessive/compulsive for making 30 cupcakes, if there are only 19 at the party?
So this is what it looked sans decoration:



I know, not that exciting yet. But wait, I'm building up to it! I decided to make it an all edible face (which was a bit traumatic for our youngest ones, who didn't like the idea of "eating" ELMO's face...) ELMO's nose and mouth were made of Marzipan, tinted orange and black respectively, and for the googely eyes I chose white Fondant (no, that's not wine), which turned out to be really easy to work with (I've never ever worked with Fondant and it turnes out to be a great medium!).
And here we have a very spooky looking assembly of facial parts:




And here I dear hubby, getting really into it! Thanks again for all your help, love!



For the frosting, I decided to make a cream cheese frosting, but added some Raspberry puree to it. Yes, I made that one from scratch, cooking, then pureeing it, in order to get all the seeds out. At first, I thought it would be easier to tint them red in the end because it's already red (which it did), but then I found out that it gave the frosting a really nice, tangy flavor, too! BONUS!! I wish it would have made the red a real ELMO red, but to tell you the truth, I was worried about putting that much food coloring into it...even though it's safe to eat, it just goes against my thinking. They did turn out a nice shade of red, just not THAT real ELMO red. I used a pastry bag for the "fur look". What a messy job!!

So this is one half of the final product. Cute, eh?





We had a lot of fun doing this, but it was a LOT of work! So please, don't come asking for ELMO cupcakes any time soon, OK?! Haha

Toodles,

Bettina

Does A Chicken Need A Rooster To Lay Eggs?

Call me stupid, but I just didn't know! Two weekends ago, we were invited to a 2nd Birthday party from one of my daughter's friends. It was on a huge farm in Los Altos, CA, called Hidden Villa. If you're in the area, or you live close by, you should visit once, it's a really nice place.
So we're there and we're getting a private tour to see all their animals, including their chickens and roosters. I was fascinated by it, because I've been dreaming about having my own couple of chickens in my backyard for fresh eggs. So I thought 'get all my answers straight from the experts', right? First, we got to feed the chickens, which was totally cute, I even have a video of it below!



Then, the friendly guide led us into the chicken coop, where we got to see where the hens lay their eggs and how they hatch them! This was my time to really embarass myself by asking "Do Chickens Need A Rooster In Order To Lay Eggs?" And the answer I got, and I don't believe I heard wrong, was "Yes"... I immediately saw my little chicken coop dream disappear, because of course, since we live in a residential neighborhood, I don't think it would be wise to have a rooster in my backyard! Nor would I want to have to live with the cock-a-doodle-doo day in, day out!!! I don't need fresh eggs THAT badly!!

Well, I did some 'research' of my own, and it turns out: You DON'T Need A Rooster For Your Hens To Lay Eggs!

Now, of course I don't feel so stupid anymore! And it turns out that you really can't ask stupid questions after all! HA!

So, I just asked my dear hubby if he could please build me a chicken coop of my own...well, yeah, you guessed his answer...it was no, but not a definite no, more like a "Not today or tomorrow, hon" kind of answer.


I have hope...

PS: As for the friendly guide...well, I guess I could go over there and educate her on her hens, but instead I thought I'd post this topic on my blog for all of you to read.

In Honor Of My Daughter's 2nd Birthday

She will be two years old (!) on Monday the 20th! Wow, I can almost not believe it!
But anyway, we are going to have a little birthday party for her this coming Sunday (not at our house, because as you may remember, the backyard is now torn apart from digging those darned roots!). It will be an ELMO theme, well, you know, we'll have ELMO decorations and party favors and of course ELMO cupcakes! I will be making the cupcakes and please come back to see the pics beginning of next week. I found a really fun way to make his face, but I'll explain once I've got the pics. I was going to have pizza with it (because it's ELMO's favorite food), but decided against it and go with Hot Dogs instead. We'll have all kinds of crazy toppings, such as guacamole, sour cream, tomato, bacon, chili, baked beans, as well as the traditional relish and sauerkraut! Yum! It's a fun way to get the people involved with their food and more fun to present than just pizza. But again, I will go into more detail next week.

So, while I'm starting to stress out over this party (because that's what I do, I'm a perfectionist...) I still somehow find a way to entertain myself! With this You Tube video about ELMO, which is so fitting... Enjoy!




Now, wasn't that fun??

Ross the Intern...gotta love him!

I just have to share this one with you guys! I blurted out "Pineapple! Pineapple" one time, I can't remember why, and ever since then I can't stop but think about this video with Ross the Intern (Jay Leno) when he meets Steve Irwin! I was never a big fan of Steve (rest in peace), meaning I never really followed his shows or anything, but after having seen this one, I'm sad I never did. Well, just go ahead and enjoy this one, it will make you laugh no matter how hard you try not to! God, I love this one: