We survived the birthday weekend, we survived go-karting & we survived the sweetness overdose that was my chocolate cake with vanilla coconut frosting. Nom nom nom. I used the same frosting recipe as I did for the cupcakes in my last post, but I cut down the sugar to only 1/2 cup & I toasted some coconut in the oven to sprinkle (generously) on top. Yum.

Here’s the cake recipe (from allrecipes.com? I’m not sure where I found it now):

Black Chocolate Cake

INGREDIENTS

* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 cups white sugar
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 pinch salt
* 2/3 cup shortening
* 2 cups boiling water
* 2 eggs, beaten
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan. Sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. Melt the shortening in the boiling water, then stir into the flour mixture until blended. Beat in the eggs, then stir in the vanilla.
3. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

I substituted oil for shortening & strong coffee for the boiling water. The only flour I had on hand was the whole wheat kind & it turned out great!

me & the boy at TBC Indoor Kart Racing – he’s #1

It’s the boy’s 13th birthday today, so of course I stayed up until the wee hours baking cupcakes (from scratch!) that he could take to school, cutting out letters to make a HAPPY BIRTHDAY bunting from my prettiest origami paper and blowing up balloons. Most of this was done in a failed attempt to distract myself that I am now the stepmom of a teenager. *shudder*

While I don’t want to even *think* about the sorts of shenanigans I was getting into at his age, I’m really enjoying watching him turn into a real little person. He shot up in height this year, plus dropped a few pounds from a pretty rigourous hockey schedule, so all of the baby fat in his cheeks has melted away. He looks less and less like a kid each week. He’s got girls phoning all the time. He’s allowed to hang out at the community centre to play soccer and eat pizza. And he still phones home almost everyday in that breathless I know I’m going to be in trouble for this way as he tests his boundaries, all of which have been absolutely fine, totally allowed and have become a running joke in our household.

ring ring

me: Hello?

the boy (breathless): pant pant pant So, um…I was just wondering…if, um…maybe…well, Daniel and Brad and Emily and Ryan are all hanging out the community centre after school because they’re, um…they’re doing a movie night and, um, well…I was just wondering if it was OK if I could come home at 7:30 instead of 7pm.

me: Uh, yeah dude. Whatever. Thanks for calling!

Pay no attention to the giant mound of laundry in the background. I swear I’m going to get it done today! We’re doing the big birthday party tomorrow and I imagine the mister and I will be cracking a bottle of wine when we get home. Spending an afternoon go-karting with 13 year old boys? Momma’s gonna need some quiet time people!

I’m still deciding on what recipe to use for the birthday cake tomorrow, but the cupcakes were a hit with the boy’s class. The frosting was absolutely delish – a recipe I found on Chowhound. The cupcakes weren’t nearly as good since I used whole wheat flour. I think I’d need to adjust the recipe a bit to add more oil or milk and/or take them out of the oven a bit sooner. They were still good, but definitely had a bit of a bread feel rather than that of super moist cupcake goodness.

Here’s the easy peasy frosting recipe I used (enough to healthily frost 36 cupcakes):

“I just made this today and have been making it for years, the only vanilla frosting I ever make. It’s a little unusual, but very, very good. I never make frosting with powdered sugar because I can taste the cornstarch in it and I dislike it intensely.

I think my grandmother got this from a cake decorating class, probably in the 50s or 60s.

Whisk together in a saucepan 5 Tbsp flour and a cup of milk. Cook over medium heat until starting to thicken and cook for a minute or two more– don’t let it get too thick or it will be too stiff when it cools. Turn into a flattish dish (like an old-fashioned soup plate) and let cool, stirring now and again. If the roux is lumpy when it cools, just press it through a fine sieve.

Beat together a cup of unsalted butter and a cup of granulated sugar until light (you really need an electric hand mixer or stand mixer for this). Beat in the cooled roux about two tablespoons at a time. As you beat and add the roux, the frosting turns creamy instead of grainy from the sugar (I don’t know how it does that! It’s like a small, wonderful miracle.). Add 1-2 tsp vanilla and beat some more until it’s light and creamy. Fantastic frosting. I filled and frosted a chocolate cake with it and put lots of coconut in the middle and all over the top and sides.”

Squeeeeeeee! I’m so excited to see this movie. There have been rumors & drama all throughout the making of Where the Wild Things Are and seeing the trailer just totally put my mind at ease. Or, more accurately, a state of complete excitement and joy!

Like millions of other children all over the world, I loved this book. It was adventure and fear and mad at your parents and pretty dark for a kids’ book. I worried that a film adaptation would be too sanitized and Disney-fied, losing the original feel. I didn’t want to see CGI monsters belting out musical numbers. And this trailer looks so good that I actually felt myself tearing up a little bit. (For the record, I’m also PMSing right now, so that may have something to do with it. Movie trailers don’t usually make me cry. Honestly.)

And if you want to restock your kid cupboard, Amazon has the book for around $12, plus some cute puppets & plush.

I really need to get more on the ball with posting pics to my blog in a timely fashion. I tend to snap pics thinking it would make a great blog post, keeping my parents & grandma in the loop of what my daily life is like, and then I don’t upload the pics for a week. Blog posts titled “Look How Pretty It Was 19 Days Ago” just don’t really work now, do they? Seeing as it’s now Wednesday evening, I would normally skip over posting shots from my perfect Sunday afternoon except that it was absolutely the most perfect THIS is why we live here kind of afternoon.

With spring is in the air, the sun shining & my craft fair wrapped up, the mister and I walked the puppies down to Granville Island. Everybody was out on the seawall that day; we Vancouverites come out in full force when the rain stops.

After a lovely stroll, stopping to sniff a wide assortment of other dogs and kids, we arrived at the market & found a sunny spot along the water. I stayed with the pooches, who were quite happy with the hustle and bustle of it all. With so many different food vendors to choose from, people were chowing down all around us, so the pug was sure *somebody* would eventually drop *something*. He looked so cute looking out on the water, just itching to get down to where all the sea gulls were.

photo credit: I Love Food Blog

The mister returned with a delicious piping hot bowl of seafood chowder from A La Mode, which basically makes everything into a pot pie. By the time I ate through the crust I didn’t really need to eat the rest of my soup!

I’m so happy to say goodbye to winter and welcome longer days of light. I love spending time in my studio & on my computer too, but it feels great to get outside, stretch my legs and squint into the sun bouncing off the water. Even better when I have a warm hand to hold & puppies to scamper along with.

The aptly titled Etsy Spring Fling went off without a hitch on Saturday & I had a great time putting a face to the name on some old (& new!) favorite Etsy sellers.

Creating for a living can be quite a solitary life & selling on the internet makes it even more so; opportunities like this one to get together with other crafty folk are a wonderful change of pace. Getting to meet your customers in person? Pure joy. I do a little happy dance every time a new order lands in my inbox & I see the money receipt email sent from Paypal, but it’s not quite the same as seeing someone look at my work in person, smile & then tell me they love it. Just like the grinch, my heart grew 3 sizes that day!

We lucked out with beautiful weather, which always helps for walkable areas like Main St. in Vancouver. I should note that this shot is first thing in the morning while we were still setting up – not an action shot!

The new Scrabble tile pendants I was working on last week (& complaining about on Twitter) were a big hit. I’ll be listing the few that didn’t sell on Etsy this week & getting out the resin again to make another batch. The critter ones sold out completely!

my  helper monkey Jen & the über talented Melissa of Poodlebreath

I was lucky to have some great helpers to carry boxes, bring me coffee & cupcakes, plus give me a chance to run to the restroom. Right on cue, I recovered from my cold just in time for allergy season to start up and stepping away from my table to snort Dristan seemed like a good idea.

me & my mister

I wish I’d snapped more pics as I was walking around to check out the other sellers’ wares, but fortunately Rita of Smeeta has got me covered. She’s got a great blog post up with tons of pics & links to the other Etsy sellers. Plus she posted it the SAME DAY OF THE SALE. She is officially my new hero. And? Her ninjas are really freakin’ cute!

Oh oh! Found another write up of the sale with more pics over at Akane Designs. I bow down at the blogging prowess of these two chicas.