26 April 2008

I like ice.

It's been an... interesting... week. So all the bday festivities of Friday were a welcome distraction from all that is, you know, life. HA! First up was Bridget's 3rd bday at Beanstalks in Saline (Saline folks: it's in the old Calico Cat [the old church] building -- what a difference!). All the kiddies seem to have a blast, Bridget got to blow out her THREE candles, and Brad and I got to bogart some pizza. Happy bday, Bridget! Oh! FYI: The kids are STILL calling Brad "Uncle Dan," which is hilarious, and kind of amazing that they are able to keep the joking going after all these months. AND, I got my own nickname. "Uncle Steph." Love it.

After a quick trip home to let the dogs out, it was time to head over to Jason and Krissy's for Jason's bday BBQ. As always, good times! Good peeps, good stories, good laughs. Pie-shooting machine gun? Magnifying-glass-burnt-ant electricity? Midget robbers? Damn, I love those guys. :) Krissy was nice enough to let me make Jason's bday cake again this year, and I spent a good two weeks researching something to top my dead heart/fly cake from last year. I must confess I was stumped, then Lisa Z. sent this website along: Zombirella. Thanks, Lisa! The bummer of this website is that she only posted a few times then let the blog die -- she was on to something here! Anyway, I was intriqued by these vampire bites. I didn't think I'd have time to assemble cupcakes so I decided to improvise and make a vampire bite cake.

I followed the gist of the recipe, although I just bought a cake mix instead of making it from scratch (hey, I had to work!). I bought a reduced sugar cake mix -- normally I try not to buy any artificial sweeteners, but I figured hey, cake has a lot of sugar! I also used egg beaters and applesauce instead of oil. Thursday I baked my two cakes and all was going well. I'm not a master baker, and I've actually managed to screw up many 'o cakes.

Anywya, Friday afternoon I got to the assembling. I followed the recipe for the "filling," as well as the frosting recipe. That's where I hit my one big snag. Who knew that cream cheese would lose all of its thickness once mixed with frosting? (PS I used fat free, maybe that had something to do with it?) Anyway, throughout the day, the cake and the frosting went into the fridge and freezer in random intervals -- that's the only way I could get the damn frosting to stay put! Anyway, the filling... I took the bottom cake and cut little holes all over and filled them with goo, just like the cupcake recipe suggests. It got a little messy. :)

I put the second cake right on top of the gooey mess and smooshed to secure it into place. Then I frosted the entire thing (like I said, this was an on and off all-day process! ha!). While I was doing this, I put my vampire together. Because what's a vampire cake without a vampire? I picked up a Little People (or was it Playmobil?) pirate set and removed as many obviously pirate items from the guy that I could. Then I clipped off the ends of two toothpicks and somehow managed to get the teeth superglued on there without getting superglue all over my island again.

I vant to suck your blood! Arr!

I let the cake set up some more, then made the final adjustments. Holes poked, blood shed, personalization done... And we have a vampire bite cake!

After some delicious food, it was time for cake! Jason was treated to a lovely birthday serenade by his birthday candle, and then he dug in. Check 'er out!

Unfortunately, because the cake spent most of the day in the fridge and freezer, the insides didn't ooooooze like I'd hoped. It still tasted good, though! And as long as Jason liked it, that's all that matters, right? :)

So this brings us to today... A whole Saturday to myself... What was I to do? Well, I actually did stuff! Go me! I haven't even turned the TV on yet. Nothing too exciting, but I did take Heidi and George to the dog park -- George's first time. He did SO good! They had a blast. And the two of them behaved like little angels in the car. George has always been a little scared of the car, and Heidi is a total maniac. But today, I opened the car door, they both jumped in -- and promptly went to what I suspect are their permanent spots. Heidi, of course, sat shotgun, and George hung out in the back seat. No one caused a bit of trouble. I'm so proud of them.

6 comments:

Alison said...

I am probably a freak for noticing this, but yea for manual transmissions! It's so rare to find people who drive them these days.

Stephanie said...

ha ha ha ha that took me a second... i was like how the hell.... Oh yeah. :) And yeah. Go stick! Woo!

Rachel said...

You'd be surprised how much I've gotten done with the TV in the kitchen all week, and I hardly watch it anyway! Damn thing rotting our schedules and brains. ;)

Liz said...

Beautiful bloody cake!!
And your dogs are so cute!! Heidi rides up front? ha ha. Clyde takes to sitting on the floor in the back, shaking like a leaf and Mabel gets the whole backseat. Yay dogs!!

Sara said...

I love little Church! Cute picture. :) And that's awesome that you're Uncle Steph. Matt was Aunt Matt. Abby would squeal it when he walked in the door...but it wasn't a joke, she was just too young to get it. Aunt Sara & Aunt Matt. haha. And good work on the cake! I thought you didn't bake?!?

Sara said...

Oh, and speaking of church, that was MY CHURCH! Where my parents accidentally showed Cujo to the middle school youth group and where I'd fall asleep on those hard benches during services. That was our building before they built the new giant Jesus church on Ann Arbor/Saline. haha. But I can't believe there is a ball jump thing in the sanctuary. Crazier than the Calico Cat but also more fun! Where's the new Calico Cat? I'm so behind the times.