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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Curly Chocolate Cake

One of my favorite dessert cookbooks is the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Book of Desserts.  I have made several cakes from this book and they all have turned out DELICIOUS!!!  Better than many cakes that I have gotten in restaurants or specialty dessert stores.  I am working on getting my results to "look" like they do in the book, but have been quite happy with how the results "taste".  That's the most important thing anyway, isn't it?  I have the 1991 version that I got from a little gourmet kitchen store where I used to work.


The first cake I made from this book was the Curly Chocolate Cake.  I made this for my good friend Kim for her birthday.  I wouldn't make this for just anyone...but Kim is a special friend.  A lot of care went into this cake and it was fun to make.  It was covered in chocolate curls which took some time to make.  Here are some before and after shots.




Kim was happy with it which made me happy!  She has always been extremely supportive of my baking hobby and I really enjoyed baking for her.  Baking with her was fun too!  We spent a couple of weekends baking and decorating millions (literally, it seemed like) of cookies!  I will post more on that later.  Miss you Kim :o)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Scrappin' Jubilee Blog Now Live!

So, I decided to create a blog for scrapbooking-related posts. It is called Scrappin' Jubilee and I just wrote the first post tonight (Well, this morning). I have been working on the design of the blog for a while. I know it looks pretty plain, but I wanted it to be white so that the focus is on the images versus the background. I played around with the html coding to make the columns wider too. I'm learning a lot about blog design, but it is time consuming!



Anyway, check it out! Please follow that blog, if you are so inclined!  No pressure! *please*


See ya on the flip side!


Steph

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Oh, Lolly lolly lolly...

Yeah, weekly lollipop pic my patootie! The summer is winding down and I'm feeling like I've got more time to post on a regular basis...but please, all 9 of you...don't hold me to it!

So, here's a lollipop pic for August. I thought they were sort of early fall-ish from a color standpoint. These are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops. They are allergen-free, casein-free, soy-free, dairy-free, kosher, pesticide-free, nut-free, organic-certified...yada yada yada. But do they taste good? Here's a great write up from thenibble.com where you can read up on the certain flavors. The ones pictured are cleverly named Orange Squeeze, Cheeky Lemon and Pomegranate Pucker. I guess they are less sweet than most l-pops because they use cane juice and are pretty tart. Other flavors such as watermelon and raspberry still need some work. Wonder if they have a sensory panel helping them with the flavor profiles {wink}. Available at Whole Foods and other fine food stores and health food stores. Let me know what you think of them.
P.S. I have not tried these nor do I endorse them, but I think the photo is cute!

Later!

Stephanie

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Summer Update

It has been so long since I have posted that I almost forgot how! This summer has been crazy busy and I have had little time to blog unless I stay up really late...and let's face it, I need all the beauty sleep I can get! I was on the planning committee for my high school reunion that happened in July. I barely survived and I think I'm still recovering. Planning an event like that is pretty stressful because people have such high expections for their reunion. I'd say it was very nice...the hardest part is managing the budget because you start off with $0. The entire event is paid for with registration fees. The other hard part was finding everyone. We only found about half of the graduating class and only about 1/3 of them actually came. Luckily it all worked out fine. I think most everyone had a good time.

Dad's knee is healing very well. He's been fishing and doing some yard work. He's even resumed cooking and grocery shopping...all is pretty much back to normal.

I have finished my Jamaica scrapbook and have moved on the the second book. I have been using my spare time shopping for "scrap crap" but not as much time actually scrapping. The hoarding tendancies are definitely working their way into this hobby. I have been resisting it for so long, but the hoardies have been unleashed. I will never be able to use all of the stuff I have purchased, even if I scrap day and night for a decade. Here is a picture of my first scrapbook page. I used DCWV Citrus and Travel paper and some miscellanous embellishments and bling. Cricut cartridges Life is a Beach and another one that I'll have to add later. Hope you like it! More to come, I'm just tired since it has now taken me 1 hr to complete this post!

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wow! It's been a while...

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post! So much for "lollipop pic of the week" too! I decided to scratch the "week" part of that and just post a new L-pop pic every month instead.

My dad had knee replacement surgery 2 weeks ago and I've been helping my mom out w/ the cooking, shopping, babysitting, etc. Whew! Talk about a 2-week crash course into what it will be like to take care of a family!! All in all everything went well. Grammie, with her dementia, has been a bit hard to manage and the little nephew and cousins are having one crazy summer! In addition to this, I've been working on the 20-year HS reunion which is coming up in 3 weeks. Gulp! I can't believe it has been that long...and I can't believe how behind we are in the planning!!!

Surprisingly, during all of this, I've managed to get some scrapbooking done. I just completed pages 6 & 7 of my very first scrapbook endeavor. I am working on a book of my Jamaica trip from 8 years ago. It has been fun and I'm really getting into using different techniques and styles to support the images taken during the trip. I plan to post my pages soon. In the meantime, I'll just post another card that I did a while back. This one was for my cousin's birthday. I used the Four Dolls clear stamps from Hero Arts again. I just think they are so adorable, so I try to use them a lot!

For this card I also used the new Die Cuts With A View "Summer Dream" paper (purple floral) and solid textured cardstock in coordinating lavender and purple. The "celebrate your day" stamp was from My Sentiments Exactly! Cupcake B-Day clear stamp set. The glitter flower brads are Oriental Trading company. Hope you like it!
Stephanie

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Cake + Magnum = YUM!

This post is a special tribute to a couple of my blog followers, Fran and my Mom. But I hope you will all enjoy...the Magnum P.I.--Tom Selleck--Hairy Birthday CAKE!

Now, I wish that I could claim this as my own masterpiece, but the true artist is alicia policia and I swiped this from her very cool blog because I had to share it with you. I was so excited when I discovered this gem. Alicia is an artist illustrator who carries her talents over to the cake decorating world. I love it!

This post is dedicated to Fran and Mom because they both love Magnum (Tom). Fran, did you ever see the Magnum P.I. series finale? Is this not THE coolest cake you've ever seen? Sigh...jealously pours through my veins...I wish I was the one who created it! Way to go Alicia! Thanks for the eye candy!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Asian Girl Birthday Card

So, I haven't been very good at blogging more than once a week. Mainly because I've been busy making cards for friends and family who have birthdays this month! I have one more birthday and Father's Day to finish for June, but several more to come in July. Here is one that I did for my sister. Her birthday was June 1st, but we haven't celebrated it yet otherwise I would have given it to her by now. My inclination is to just keep the card because I have become very attached to it like it is my own child. I find that I am feeling this way about all of my cards...I take pictures of them so that I can remember them always. I'll probably end up making a scrapbook of pictures of cards I've made. Sad.


For this card I used Hero Arts Four Dolls and Asian Elements clear stamps and Oriental Trading's Build a Cake clear stamps, the paper is Oriental Trading's Far East. I used the Provo Craft Cuttlebug to emboss the moss green paper. The ribbon is also from Oriental Trading's Far East self-adhesive ribbon collection. Then added a little bling using a pink paper flower and jewel.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 4


Two of my favorite things...lollipops and cookies! Genius to combine them! These are Swirly Sparkly Cookie Pops designed by Meaghan Mountford as seen on her blog {the decorated cookie}. This girl is basically living my dream! She's a professional cookie decorator who has her own book, sells cookie kits, and has an extremely informative blog with awesome cookie photos of her own work (such as this one). I have her book "Cookie Sensations: Creative Design for Every Occasion" on my wish list! You can never have too many cookie books. NEVER.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 3


Eek! This is a day late! So sorry! This past weekend was not only ridiculously humid, but also very busy. I'll go into that in a sec. First things first...these cute l-pops. They are bright and summery and totally cute. Sometimes it boggles my mind how creative people are. I wish I knew how to make lollipops like this. I need to go through my cookbooks to see if there's a recipe or something.

Okay...speaking of cookbooks...holy mama! I HAVE TOO MANY COOKBOOKS. I know I have a bit of an unnatural obsession with them but it really became clear this weekend how crazy my obsession is. So, as I mentioned, this weekend was very humid. I recently moved back to this state and have all of my "stuff" in a 23-foot storage unit--okay...two 23-foot storage units. I have been worried about leaving certain items in storage all summer long knowing that it is awfully sticky here. I was particularly concerned about my photos. My mother and I went to get them out and discovered that a lot of boxes looked like they were caving in and sort of "soggy". The majority of these boxes were filled with books, books, and many, many more books. I opened a few and saw that some (my yearbooks!) were getting soggy! So, in panic mode, I packed up 3 carloads of heavy book boxes back home. I was sweating my patootie off! I loved it! Not. Anyway, I now have about 30 book boxes sitting in my living room. Cookbooks, novels, textbooks, yearbooks, magazines...sheesh! I would have to read for every second of the rest of my life and I still wouldn't make it through them all. So, why, why, why do I keep them? I have a sickness...a disease...it is so bad that yesterday I told a friend at work about the book fiasco and mentioned that I have a collection of cookbooks that I rescued and she said, "Oh! I have some set aside for donation. I'll bring them to you." Instead of declining them I said "YES!" All night I kept wondering which ones she had...I obviously didn't need them, but I was THRILLED to get them today. One was the reproduction edition of the Betty Crocker's Picture Cook Book originally published in 1950. Little did she know that I collect vintage Betty Crocker cookbooks and have been wanting this one! SCORE! I know I didn't need it, but I wanted it!! I'm sick!

Just for fun, here are some pictures of my Betty Crocker cookbooks. They are so cute! The photos inside the books are so old fashioned and poor quality, but I love that about them. The cute red & white one in the top right is from my friend. Thanks Ann!

The one below is my favorite. The Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, Copyright 1963, First Edition, spiral bound.

Monday, May 17, 2010

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 2

Cute little lollipops all in a row. I love the bright, refreshing colors! These look like Dum Dum Pops to me...not sure of the flavors. But, yum! I love Dum Dums, especially when you get the "Mystery Flavor". I read that the Mystery Flavor is the resulting combined flavor when the production line switches from one flavor to another. For more info about Dum Dums (I know you are all interested) go to their site. You can take a DDP trivia quiz for fun! http://www.dumdumpops.com/DDPGames/trivia.php

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Kim's Baby Shower

This evening I thought it would be fun to post some pictures from my friend Kim's baby shower. I wanted to create something wonderful for her since the poor girl had spent a good portion of her pregnancy on bedrest (she was given permission by her doctor to attend her own shower--phew!). We knew she was having a baby girl so I wanted to give her a shower that was sweet and girly. The white cake was in the shape of a onesie that I carved out of the Wilton T-Shirt cake pan. I frosted it with buttercream frosting and free-handed the outline of the onesie in purple, then added a few flowers. As you can see, I'm not really skilled with the icing tips yet...maybe someday.


I had enough cake batter left over to make cupcakes too. I just played around with the decorating...just winging it as I went.

I also made some sugar cookies in the shapes of duckies, baby buggies, bottles and baby feet. I decorated these using a powdered sugar glaze because it sets up well. I found some tiny Wilton baby cookie cutters and made little cookies to adorn the cupcakes with. Pinks and purples and all the super girly stuff that Kim loves so much ;0) Little Peyton Julia came into the world a tad early, not too long after this shower!




Monday, May 10, 2010

LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK...week 1


Thanks so much to my first few followers...you're what we call "early adopters" in the marketing world. Really, you're just cool friends! Those who know me well know that I am not much of a phone talker. This blog lets me to "talk" to my friends in a way that not many other outlets do. Facebook is cool for quick hellos and comments, I still don't get the Twitter thing and texting hurts my thumbs!

I have a lot of plans for the blog...I hope I will be able to stick to them. I'll be posting pictures of family, talking about my hobbies, posting recipes I've made and some I'd like to make, discussing movies and music, reminiscing about old times, good times, bad times, crazy times. Comments are always welcome! And of course, I'll always be recruiting more followers.

For this second post, I am introducing the LOLLIPOP PIC OF THE WEEK. I love food, especially anything sweet. I love food photography, especially of anything sweet. I think lollipops are adorable--so they've become my theme. Every week I'll pick a new l-pop.

This is a RAINBOW Lollipop in the popular and super cute layered swirl pattern. This could be my favorite type...I say that now and it's only week 1! We'll see...


Sweet dreams everyone!
Stephanie

Sunday, May 9, 2010

First Lollipop Jubilee Post

On Friday, May 7th, 2010 at about 6:15 pm on my mother's birthday, she told me that she wished she had a blog to share her scrapbooking projects with her Cricut chat friends. Neither one of us knew anything about how to put a blog together, so as a birthday gift (and Mother's Day gift) to my mommy, I've spent most of the past 52 hrs* learning how to create cute blog sites for each of us. By Googling and searching and checking out other cute blogs I came across some AWESOME sites such as Shabby Blogs, The Cutest Blog on the Block and LeeLou Blogs. I was able to pull elements from each of these sites to "create" blogs that represent both of our personalities and styles. FOR FREE!!!

{added May 12, 2010} Just realized that both of the designs that my mom and I chose for our blogs were designed by Michelle Underwood. Just wanted to give her a proper shout-out. She's really talented! We obviously love her stuff!

*Note: Several hours were dedicated solely on deciding what our blog names should be. We both love the word Jubilee and so we both wanted to use it! It think it is great because it ties us together, just as scrapbooking, collecting (a.k.a. hoarding) has done in the past. ;o) Love you Mom! Her blog name is Jubilee Bliss and mine is Lollipop Jubilee. Check her's out too!

So, after hours of "research and development" I am happy to say that we both have published our first posts. So what if we are the only ones reading them?! We're still figuring this whole thing out! I think it will be a fun outlet to share and be creative. Followers will come later...hopefully!!!

Stephanie (still need to find out how to get a cute signature)

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