Ombré Birthday Cake... Yum!

My nephew Justin turned the big 3 in early January of this year. Now, he's the very first grandbaby in my family so all of our lives pretty much revolve around this kiddo and any Holiday. He's the most adorable blue eyed stinker there is! But I may be a little partial.

For Justin's small family birthday party I decided to make a different version of the beautiful purple ombre cake I, of course, found on Pinterest. It's incredibly beautiful and my fingers were crossed that I'd get it right!

This is the cake that got my heart pumping and mouth drooling! Purple Ombre Cake

I started with my grocery list. I pretty much made up my entire recipe after seeing the beautiful purple ombré cake.
You need white cake for this to work. If you think yellow will work, you are wrong. It will look like baby poo... trust me. You can make this cake with any filling or frosting you like, I decided to make a cream cheese frosting for the outside and a banana cream cheese frosting for the inside (between the cake layers). 

Shopping List
2 - white cake
2 - cream cheese block
Powdered Sugar
Unstalted Butter
Vanilla
Eggs
Food Coloring (Any of your choice)
Sprinkles (Any color that coordinates with your food coloring choice)

Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

4 ounces unsalted butter, softened

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, beat together the butter and cream cheese with an electric mixer. With the mixer on low speed, add the powdered sugar a cup at a time until smooth and creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract.

For the banana cream cheese frosting center I used the same Cream Cheese Frosting recipe from above and added 3 medium mashed banana's. Super easy, super yummy. 

I made the two boxes of cake  mix in one bowl and then divided into 5 bowls as evenly as I could without actually measuring.  You leave one alone and don't add any food coloring. I chose blue because this cake is for my adorable lil nephew and what's more boy-ish that blue?! I started by adding 5 drops to the 1st bowl, 10 drops to the 2nd, 15 drops to the 3rd and 20 drops to the 4th. Then from there I mixed each and added more as I saw fit. I really wanted my darkest layer to be vibrant so I added quite a bit to that specific batch.  Then you chose any pan size you want, I went with 10" round just becuase I had 3 of them. It made it the easier.  Just bake each cake to the directions on the box and let cool.  I had to use cooling racks because I didn't have 5 pans. :( 

Once cooled I added my banana cream cheese frosting between each layer, not too thick becuase you don't want your cake to get soggy from the banana's.  I went lightest on the bottom to darkest food coloring on the top. You can decide which you like better.

Then add the regular cream cheese frosting on the exterior of your cake and add sprinkles! Looking back I think the cake would have looked much better if I had trimmed each layer to make sure the circles stayed really round and together. But I'm still pretty happy with it! 

I got some really nice compliments from the family and even the little guy loved it!

DIY - Pallet Wall Shelf

So let me start by saying I absolutely love Pinterest, just as most bloggers and DIY'ers do.

I found this Pallet Wall Shelf project on Pinterest and decided to do it myself.  First of all, on Pinterest I did NOT read the description on how to install it, I just "pinned" the image and decided I could do it. Good thing I have a nice hubby, because you really need muscles for this!

Start by choosing a Pallet of your choice, they come in all kinds of colors and even sizes. Personally, I wanted something more rustic. My house and style is not really rustic or country but I thought doing this would bring a sense of warmth into the house, do you think I accomplished by goal?

That's about where my "hard work" ended. Who knew a pallet was so heavy!? I had to send in the troops for this project. My husband found the studs in the wall and hung it for me, while I supervised and told him whether or not it was level. Good thing I went to college, I don't think I could have handled this without it. haha (oh - there's some sarcasm for my readers!)

Once he got it secure against the wall I wandered around our house and dug through my surplus of home decor to find items that fit well into the display.  Then presto, it was done!

I've found quite a different pallet projects that I've liked since completing this. Don't be surprised if you see another one down the road!

On a random note, a week or so after we completed this project I had some water pipe samples in my car from work. (It's too long to explain but let me just say I work in construction - not in the field, in the office) Back to my story, I had these pipe samples in my car and my husband noticed them. He quickly said "what the hell kind of project are you doing now?!" I cracked up! No hunny, that's for work. LOL

One post down...

Here I am, blogging.  I don't even know where to begin. 

I guess I'm going to start with why I am here.  I need a place to collect and process my thoughts.  I tried a diary but I end up crossing everything out and re-writing my thoughts.  (Have I mentioned I have a Master's Degree in Secondary Education - English/Langauge Arts?) So yeah, I "red pen" myself until I got so frustrated I gave up. I tend to do that in many areas of my life (but I don't give up).  As I post I'm sure my anal OCD tendancies will come through.  I like to think I'm incredibly determined but it definately has its flaws... 


My hope is this blog lets me clear any random thoughts and share fun ideas.  I'm open to comments and opinions, just please be kind. 

Yes! 1 post down... LOL