Happy Halloweeeeeeeen!!

One of my favorite days of the year! I get to wear orange and black striped tights to work, eat tons of candy, and see adorable children in costumes. Also I'm keeping up a tradition I started for myself when I moved into my current house 7 years ago of watching Hocus Pocus and ordering Pizza Hut. BEST NIGHT EVER!!

Today is also my little sister's 25th birthday. TWENTY-FIVE. She's old and I'm OLDER. waahhhhh. But We always have a great time together and I wish her the BEST birthday ever! (Though I guess it can't be that great if I'm not there to celebrate with her.) HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSEA!

Just because this video will never not crack me up. 

I hope everyone goes out and has a shockingly good time tonight! Happy Halloweeeeeeeeeen!

Groom's Cake - Vroom Vroom

One of my good friends Mary got married in September. I offered to make a grooms cake for the reception. Her husband is really into racing so we decided to try to incorporate his car into the cake.

This is an actual picture of his car that I lifted off of Facebook and then used as a model to make the fondant miniature.

I wasn't 100% sure how I was going to make the car. I bought red fondant in case I wanted to mold it out of that, but I wasn't sure how to get the white stripes on the side, so in the end I decided to mold it out of white fondant and paint it. I used AmericColor edible paints.

The inside of the cake is probably my favorite. I bought a checkered cake kit a while back and never knew what to use it for. When I asked what kind of cake they wanted, the bride said she liked white cake and the groom liked chocolate. I thought, I can do BOTH! And added bonus, it looks like a checkered racing flag. #Winning.

This is what the set looks like. (Bonus: hidden Mickey!) Pretty simple.

You fill the outer and inner most circles with one kind of batter...

And then the center ring with the opposite. Once all the rings are filled, you slowly remove the plastic...

Tah-dah! It's a little messy, but not as bad as you would think. Then you bake the cakes normally.

I made the almond butter cream frosting to fill between the layers.

All three layers ready to be frosted!

Then I rolled out some green fondant I bought (I used the Fondarific brand because I think it tastes the best out of all the ones I've tried) and covered the frosted cake.

Next I trimmed off the edges and added a black road, the fondant car, and some mini fondant cones I made.

Here's the cake displayed at their wedding! The ribbon around the bottom was money. It made the cake look 100 times better. It's a simple and easy way to make the edges look smooth.

Here's what the inside looked like. Now I want to go eat some chocolate. Probably going to have to buy my trick-or-treaters some more candy because I don't think what I have is going to last until Halloween!

Friday Musings #40

Last weekend I went to NYC to celebrate my parent's 35th wedding anniversary. We had a fantastic time and I got to see two AMAZING shows. Saturday night I saw Cinderella with my parents. I grew up watching the Lesley Ann Warren version on TV and LOVE the music. (I apologize to all of my coworkers because I've been singing it non-stop around the office.)

The costumes in the show are fantastic. I mean, just FANTASTIC. Cinderella's costume changes are mind blowing. I heard that the costume designer used to work for Siegfried & Roy so there's definitely a magical element.

I mean, look at that. HOW!?! (note: this was not how it happened when I watched it, her dress changes when she's still at her house, so I don't know if that was a permanent change, or temporary. It was still really cool.) This play just made me so happy. When you watch it you just get that child like sense of wonderment and really believe that anything is possible.

On Sunday I went to see Once with my friend Kristen. I was a big fan of the movie so it's definitely been on my list of shows I want to see. Of course when I heard that Arthur Darvill was in it, I knew I HAD to see it ASAP.

The show was awesome. You have to be so talented to be on Broadway in general, but I feel like you have to be extra talented to be in this show because everyone it it can sing, dance, AND play an instrument! The set is a bar and during intermission, you can walk up to order drinks! Also before the show, all the actors were just jamming on stage and they let the audience members also stand on stage to watch. It was so cool! Unfortunately we had tickets in literally the last row so we just went straight to our seats. The whole show was great.

Kristen was super patient with me after the show as me and about 30 other fans (most Whovians) waited to get our playbills signed. I even got to take a picture with AD!! IT WAS AWESOME.

If you're in NYC I highly recommend both of these shows. And if you don't have plans to go there anytime soon, then I suggest you make plans!

And just because I really love Rory Williams/Pond, here's one of him punching Hitler for the road.

A Royal Baby Shower Tea

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I thought it appropriate on Prince George's Christening day to talk about the baby shower my friend Virginia and I threw in his honor.

Virginia made a delicious punch, chocolate mousse parfaits, and chicken curry balls. 

Chocolate mousse parfaits... mmmmm

I have silicone teacup shaped cupcake holders that I thought would be perfect for the occasion. 

I made red velvet cupcakes and iced them with cream cheese frosting. Luckily England and the USA have the same national colors so I could use the red, white, and blue non-pareils from the Fourth of July to decorate!

They didn't come out of the silicone molds too easily unfortunately. Next time I will definitely be putting some cake release in first! I also made butter cookies. Which are sooooo delicious and pretty easy to make, though a little crumbly. They didn't have the perfect oval shape I was hoping for. 

I made three different types of tea sandwiches: egg salad, the traditional cucumber, and then my favorite, ham, apple, and brie.

We encouraged our guests to bring baby gifts which we then donated to a DC charity - the Sasha Bruce Youthwork.

Me with my lovely co-host Virginia!

Everyone loves an excuse to wear a hat.

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I heart you Kate!! And happy Christening Georgie!

Lazy

I haven't posted anything of consequence in quite a while. I blame work for blocking Facebook. Now it is way harder to get the photos I want. What's that? I could just upload them when I get home? Well, that'd be true if I wasn't so busy!

Truth is I just never think about it when I get home. I'm going to try and get better about this. We'll see how that goes. In the mean time, I'm gearing up for the 7th annual Arlington Gold Halloween Extravaganza!!!! It's going to be LEGIT.