Pillows and Cake

Here are a few other recent projects. I saw pillows like these a few months ago and I had to make them for my mom. So I made them for her birthday. They took a lot of work and time but they were worth it. Jonny cut out the letters and did an excellent job.

And another cake. My coworker was turning 30 and when I asked him what kind of cake he wanted his response was Elmo. So that is what he got.

It also took a lot of time and work but I think he turned out pretty perfect. There is no question that it's Elmo.

Jolly Birthdays

I was a little slow on updating for my birthday so I am just going to combine mine and Jonny's. I didn't take as many pictures for these as I did for Karleigh's sorry. The 8th was my birthday. I only had to work until noon (so nice) so I came home and took a nap. That night Jonny, Karleigh, Kirstin and I all went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. It was amazingly delicious as usual! When we got home I opened my wonderful presents from everyone. (Also I bought the dress I am wearing in the picture a few weeks ago for like $15 and I have been waiting to wear it so I was happy it was nice enough on my birthday.)

Then we had pazookies (spelling?) and I got candles that said "24" haha. Unfortunately, shortly after getting home I started to feel pretty sick to my stomach so I didn't actually eat any but I did blow out the candles.

I blame the upset stomach on the terrible cold I was getting over. Then we all watched the new Karate Kid movie. I liked it a lot. It was a really great birthday minus the feeling sick part.

On to Jonny's birthday on the 12th, a quarter of a century for him! We had people over to his place to watch the BYU/SDSU MWC championship game, not the outcome we were hoping for but oh well. Then we went out to dinner at Rumbi. We had fun there telling old stories and laughing a lot. Then we came back to my place for him to open his presents.

Then it was time for cake. Now I'll have to explain the story behind the cake. For years Jonny has been telling me about the amazing cake his friend Isaac's mom used to make back when he lived in Washington (so about 3rd-7th grade). It was an ice cream cake in the shape of a giant Oreo. So this year I contacted Isaac on Facebook and got the recipe and surprised Jonny with it. I told him I was making him Snickers cupcakes so I actually bought Snickers to keep up the image and then we put the candles in the Snickers bars and brought those out.

He was a little confused until I ran back in the kitchen and grabbed the real cake. He was pretty excited so that made me happy.

We ended the night with some Kinect Sports and dancing and now he is playing Call of Duty Black Ops (my present to him.) So now the March birthday craziness is done. Now it is time to look forward to the Bon Jovi concert on the 22nd! (our birthday present to each other)

Karleigh's 21st Birthday!

And so the March Birthday craziness starts. Karleigh turned 21 on Tuesday! I can't believe she is already 21. We went to dinner with Jonny and Kirstin at California Pizza Kitchen. We were totally stuffed after eating our yummy pizza and drink TONS of lemonade.

So yummy and pretty- Kiwi, Mango, Strawberry and Peach

After dinner we went back to my apartment and Karleigh opened her presents (the ones that had shown up, American Eagle is slow at shipping.)

Then we had cake. I had jokingly told Karleigh I was going to make her Kalua cupcakes but I decided I couldn't make myself spend money on alcohol so I came up with this alternative. So she still got her fancy drink when she turned 21.

Then we played our dancing and sports games on the Kinect. After letting our food and lemonade settle for a bit we had one more surprise for her....

21 shots of Dr. Pepper.

I told her I didn't think she deserved to be deprived of this tradition just because she didn't drink. I'm not sure how she did them all, especially after drinking so much lemonade, but she did. We ended the night with some Beatles' Rock Band. It was a good night. I'm so lucky to have an awesome younger sister who I get to celebrate with.

Catch Up and Cake

I haven't written in awhile. Last weekend we went to the BYU game again. This time we won, by a lot! It is nice to be winning again!

After the game Jonny, Kirstin, her roommate Ariel and I went to Broiler Express. This restaurant has been closed since I moved out to Utah but the building has never changed. The signs have stayed up and everything. Jonny and I have always wanted it to reopen and it finally did! The food was okay but to be honest we probably won't go back.

Now the real purpose of this post...cake! A few weeks ago Karleigh and I were talking to Jonny's roommate Eric and found out his birthday was coming up. So of course Kars and I jumped at the chance to bake a cake. He probably thought we were joking when we said we would make him a cake but of course we weren't. Karleigh found a recipe for zebra cake so thats what we made. The pictures are the best part so here they are...

The birthday boy in the middle.

And the reason it is called zebra cake. We think it turned out well. The pictures don't really do it justice.

This is Halloween

To start out our Halloween celebration Jonny and I went to a pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkin. We found a pretty good one. At the pumpkin patch they had a mini petting zoo. They had a kangaroo which I thought was awesome.

It was REALLY windy if you can't tell by my hair.

Jonny and I had been trying to decide what to be for Halloween this year and we couldn't come up with any ideas. I finally decided I was going to be a witch but we still had to come up with something for Jonny. Then I came up with a great idea (if I do say so myself.) He should be Mr. Fredrickson from UP! I decided if he was going to be a character from UP! I needed to be one too. So I decided to be Russell instead of a witch. After countless trips to DI, JoAnn's, WalMart, and Michael's and a quick trip to West Valley for a cane, Jonny and I put together what I think are pretty awesome UP! costumes. You can't really tell but Jonny even has his Ellie badge and I'm missing one merit badge. We paid attention to detail.

Katie and Reed had a party at his parents house on Saturday so Jonny and I went there. We played games and watched Young Frankenstein. We had a good time hanging out with everyone. We went and showed Kirstin and Karleigh our costumes. We also had to pick up some groceries so we went to WalMart in out costumes. It was funny listening to everyone figuring out our costumes. "Look at them! I get it they're UP!"

On Sunday Jonny and I made chili and "scones" (I use quotes because we have an ongoing disagreement on what scones are and these are his scones) for dinner. It is an Anderson Halloween tradition. Jonny really did most of it and it was delicious. And of course what would a holiday be without cake pops? I made cake pops and took them to work on Friday. I think that the little Frankenstein's are my favorite. I also made some more for dinner on Sunday along with a cake. What can I say baking is my addiction. Happy Halloween!

Addicted

I have an addiction to cooking and baking. I am always thinking about what I am going to make next. I look through cookbooks and cooking blogs to find my next "fix." I don't know what it is but I love to do it. The other day I was looking at the cakes on Food Network's Web site and I found one I am dying to make. It is a ice cream cookie cake. It is cookies and cream ice cream sandwiched between two layers of chocolate cake and topped off with ganache. Does that sound amazing or what? I wanted to go home and make it right away. However, I realized that I had no reason to make it and to make it for just me and Jonny seem kind of silly. So my solution to not making that cake? Make this one instead!

I made a chocolate cake mix and then added coconut. I made the cake at about 10:30 pm so I let the cake cool overnight (I like to stick it in the freezer, I think it makes it easier to frost) and then decorated it the next day. I think it turned out kind of pretty. I just used chocolate frosting then topped it off with coconut. After I made it, I realized I still had a cake for just me and Jonny. However, this one didn't seem quite as crazy because it didn't have the layer of ice cream. But it's still an entire cake! So if you are in the Provo area and want cake come see me. haha

I told you I'm addicted. I figure there are worse things to be addicted to. I guess I should be happy I enjoy cooking and baking since it is an important part of having a family. If you have any recipes send them my way! Recipes for anything, not just cake.

Happy "Birthday" Dave!

My cousin David's birthday was a few weeks ago and I wanted to make him dinner and cake but he was in California for his birthday so we celebrated on Sunday. We had a BBQ at a park. We had burgers, potato salad and cupcakes. Luckily the weather was nice, cloudy but still warm. It was lots of fun. I was lame and forgot to take pictures of all of us. I did, however, take pictures of the cupcakes. I have been wanting to make these for a few months now and Dave's birthday gave me the perfect excuse. They are Bakerella's s'mores cupcakes (recipe here). You put graham cracker cake on the bottom, then you put in half a marshmallow, then put chocolate cake on top of that. You top it off with a graham cracker and brown sugar crumble and bake. Once it is cooled you put on chocolate ganache, a marshmallow and more of the graham cracker topping. I think they turned out well. Very yummy and I just thought it was a fun idea! So here are are some pictures.

Before the ganache and marshmallows.

Most of the marshmallow melts away but some of it comes to the top. You can see it in the picture below.

And the final product. Yummy!

Happy Easter

Here are a few really cool Easter things I found for Easter. Enjoy!

Cute Easter cake. That becomes even more awesome when...

(Pic)

How cute is this?

This one you will have to follow the link. It is a peep diorama competition. The first one is the winner but I think the third one is my favorite.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2010/03/29/GA2010032903934.html

Hope you enjoy them! I'll post pictures of my Easter festivities later! Happy Easter!

My Man's Birthday!

Birthday number three... Jonny! Jonny's birthday was on Friday. I had to work in the morning but had the rest of the day off. I had decided to attempt a 14-layer cake for his birthday cake. I got the recipe from Bakerella (found here.) I was really nervous about it working and tasting good. Luckily I had Karleigh to help me. Thank you to her I wouldn't be able to do it alone. Unfortunately, Jonny had an Econ test and Stats homework to do on his birthday, but at least that kept him occupied while I baked. Basically you make a massive amount of batter (it barely fit in my biggest bowl) and then scoop it into 14 pie tins.

We baked for at a time and it is only 12 mins each so it didn't take too long.

Then you make the chocolate icing. This was the scary part for me I was worried I would scorch it or something. At one point it almost boiled over. And then you start stacking and stacking and stacking, layering icing in between. No they are not pancakes.

Now according to the recipe the picture below is what it looks like done but like Bakerella I didn't like the look so I added frosting.

Jonny took a break from school work and we went out to dinner with Kirstin. Then we came back to my place and Katie came over for presents and cake.

He got clothes from my parents and me, an N64 game from Katie and a game from Kirstin. Kirstin and I had fun wrapping her present to him. We used three different wrapping papers and went around it 3 times with each. Showing off all the paper and his present.

Then time for cake. I couldn't wait for him to cut into it! He gets his wish!

And here it is, 14-layers...

It actually worked! It tasted good too! None of us could even finish a piece though!

On Saturday we went to dinner with a bunch of his cousins. I had texted them all the week before to get them together for a birthday dinner. We went to Rumbi at The Gateway. It was so much fun! I think we were done with dinner after about 30 mins but we we hung out talking for like 3 hours.

I think overall he had a pretty good birthday. One year older and wiser!

Happy Birthday to Karleigh

And the month of birthdays begins! Karleigh's birthday was yesterday but we went out and celebrated tonight. We started out at California Pizza Kitchen. We pretty much went there to get one specific pizza: The California Club. It is amazing. It is pizza with a mayo sauce and then chicken and bacon and topped with lettuce and avocado. (Not the best picture but you get the idea.)

It sounds weird but it is delicious! We told the waiter it was her birthday so we could get free ice cream.

And Steven came to visit for her birthday. He got here on Saturday and will be here for the week.

Then we came back to my place for presents and cake. My mom sent lots of presents, all of which were adorable. I got the idea for the cake I made from a picture on Ashley's blog. The cake in the picture had all 7 colors of the rainbow. I didn't go that all out but I still think it is cool.

The color in the picture is a little dull and it is far from professional photography but it was the best I could do with the apartment lighting.

So happy birthday to Karleigh.