4th of July Cake

Of all days to decide to bake a cake, I pick the day that in my car was reading 108F.  What is going on with this weather. 

Tomorrow, our church is having a 4th of July picnic inside, due to the heat.  I feel as though I have been lacking in participation in activities due to school, I finished my homework and I let baked a cake.  So proud of myself.   Well, I let Kayla mix the cake, she was my big helper.  So glad to have her home from youth camp :)

I found a cake that seemed to be pretty popular on Pinterest.  I will link to it tomorrow after I cut the cake, just in case mine turns out ugly.  But for now I want it to be a surprise!!

I started with 2 white cake mixes and doubled the needed ingredients from the box. 

The ingredients!  Picture taken with instagram with a blue ambiance!

Kayla pouring the mix into the mixer!

Kayla posing for the camera

Adding a little red food coloring

Now a little blue!

Popped 3 cake pans in the  GE Advantium Over-the-Range Oven

Set the oven to cook at 350 for 35 min.

And that was it.  All three cake pans cooking at once.  They were all done in 35 min.  There was no pre-heating involved.  There was no heat being emitted like I would have in my regular oven.  There is no way I could have baked a cake in my range oven!  I probably could have taken them out sooner.

The GE Advantium Over-the-Range Oven allows for convection baking.  This lets you  to cook foods the same way as a range oven, using an
element to heat the air inside the oven. Any oven temperature from 250°F to 450°F may be set. A fan gently circulates heated air throughout the
oven, over and around the food. Because the heated air is kept constantly moving, some foods cook slightly faster than in regular oven cooking (and with no pre-heating).  (GE manual)

After I took the cakes out, I took the kids to Stevie B's for some pizza to give the cakes time to cool.  By the time I got home, there were ready to be frosted.

TA' DA!!

Tomorrow I will post a picture of the cake's insides!!  I can not wait to see it myself.  Kayla helped me in making a red, white, and blue bunting to top the cake.

Thank you GE for another perfect dish!!

How GE saved an almost bad night!!

My kids have been out of town this week!  Kayla went to Georgia Camp with the church youth and Brody and my mom went to her cabin at our other church  camp.  Had I not had homework projects I would have had alot of sewing done.

On Tuesday night, Jeff call to say he was running late and that he could pick up hamburgers on the way, could I call it in.  Well, anyone that knows Jeff knows he does not eat alot of red meat.  When he mentions it I get excited!!! 

Ever since our favorite place to get real burgers changed to a fish place, the closest place HE will eat a burger is 20 min away.  I am usually in charge of placing the order, so I called it in!

2 burgers, well done, no butter on the bread, no mayo, dry baked potato and steamed broccoli.  I have to make sure of the 1st 3 items - well done, no butter on the bread, no mayo.

About 45 min. later Jeff arrives home with our food and I am starving.  The first thing I ask was "Did you check the food". "Yes, you reminded me!!"  We had planned to watch a movie with our burgers.  Jeff took his burger out while I was piling the lowfat ranch dressing in my potato and took a bite!  And guess what!!! The inside was RED.... grosssss.... I couldn't eat it.  It was too late to go back and get a new one :(       (and there was mayo on the bottom of mine)

There are certain times of the month I will cry over food (pms), but not tonight!  I wanted that hamburger..... and I thought to my self... Duh.... the GE Advantium Over-the-Range Oven can fix this!

I put my hamburger patty in the oven and went to the pre-set speedcooker option.  In the food category I selected Meats -> Hamburger -> Well Done -> 1-2 pattys and pressed start.

Food category list from the GE Advantium Manual

Look how WELL and juicy this burger is!!!

In less than 7 minutes that hamburger was done.  There was no trace of pink in the burger and the burger was even juicer.

So, that night, Jeff and I were able to enjoy our burgers with our movie!!

THANK YOU GE!!

Gifts for my sisters!

I love giving gifts.  I always have.  Whether is something small just to say I love you or planning out a big surprise, I just love giving.  I like to let God know that if he provided me with more money, I could give more :)

I am a sucker for my family.  If I see something neat, I want it for everyone.  Right before Mother's day I scored big! on some really nice baseball caps.   Knowing what I wanted to do with them, I bought assorted colors that I knew my SIL's liked.  I knew these would be great to use at the pool, working in the yard, and watching Jessica (SIL #3) play softball.

I took the hats over to my single needle embroidery machine and crossed my fingers that I could figure out some way to add monograms to the hats with out needing any special hoops.

I flattened the hat as much as possible and pinned the hat flat to the stabilizer.

I added each SIL initials to the front of the hats. 
I used KK font from 8 Claws and a Paw Embroidery.

I think they turned out beautiful!!!  They all loved them!  Jessica's is pink, even though it looks red.

 

Megan's is burgundy.  This is to go with her gamecocks attire.  She is a huge fan!

 

Jennifer's is pink, she is sassy like that.  She loves all things pink!

 

For Nicole, I used a beautiful teal on Khaki.  I love these colors.

I did do one for my mom.  She has a navy hat with a white monogram.

Like always, I didn't make me one.  I do have more hats, because like I said earlier, these hats were too good of a deal to pass up.  I will be making one for Kayla as she heads out to youth camp next week.

I have plenty of more projects to post about.  This semester is crazy hard.  Who wants to know about Systems Analysis???  Not me!!!  But it is a requirement and I am in week 3 of 8....  I can handle it!