Celebrating Support!

Every pretty piece of cake tells a story- here’s mine!

This past week has been a good explosion of crazy! It started out with another “success couple,” photo shoot for Eharmony- did y’all know that’s how Errol & I met? Then Thursday night Errol & I took our first three-day-trip away from our kids and went back to Detroit where he grew up to celebrate one of his college friend’s milestone birthdays! How many know you need a vacation from the vacation?! LOL! Then we got home Sunday and Blake- my almost 4-year-old was sick so off to the doctor we go AGAIN (for like the 5th time in the last month and a half)! Ugh!!!! Then Tuesday Errol’s off on a 48 hour business trip! Whew!!! Here are a few highlights of the chaotic and beautiful whirlwind.

Meanwhile, kids must be nurtured, everyone must eat and be bathed, diapers must be changed, the house must get cleaned and last time I checked there’s no app that will make the dishes and laundry get up and wash themselves!

People often ask how we, “do it all.” The answer is, “WE DON’T”. We’ve decided that me staying home grinding with the kids while Errol grinds to provide for our family running his business is the best way we can provide some calm to our crazy (at least for the time being). I limit our extra curricular activities to 1 sport at a time.  Really considering how your family utilizes its time can contribute to a Happier Marriage & home life. And even though I’m home- I’d be remised if I gave off the impression that I am some remarkable rendition of a one-woman- show! Yes I meal prep,  bake once a week, and take pictures of the clean parts of my house LOL!  I get a lot done when the kids nap or when Errol is bathing them and doing the bedtime routine. But mostly behind every pretty picture, trip or project someone is standing to fill in the gap for us.

This past week it was my husband’s parents who stayed with us for a week to help us get through a busier than usual time. And cake is the way I say, “thank you”. So we had a dinner party in their honor and I couldn’t agree with Julia Child’s more when she said, ” a party is just a meeting without cake.”

So if you are looking to celebrate a birthday or celebrate a supportive  person in your life try out this yellow cake with chocolate buttercream I made my inlaws.

THE CAKE:

Make your favorite yellow cake recipe. You could even use a box-cake mix but if you do make sure to add a cup of greek yogurt to get your cake extra moist and rich. I used three 6-inch cake pans to evenly distribute that batter.

THE ICING:

Ingredients: 2 sticks of butter, 3 tablespoons of vanilla, 1/4 cup of rom temperature coffee, 4 cups of powdered sugar & 3/4 cups of coco powder.

For this cake I made chocolate buttercream icing- but you could totally make the same cake with the chocolate ganache icing I made in my Easy Chocolate Bundt Valentine’s Cake  if you want a less sweet but more rich icing.

Directions: In a standing mixer I creamed two sticks of butter with 3 tablespoons of vanilla extract and 1/4 cup of room temperature coffee. In a separate bowl I mixed together 4 cups of powdered sugar with 3/4 cups of coco powder. I then poured the sugar and coco mix into the stand mixer and creamed all of the ingredients together.

This icing so easy to manipulate for piping and icing a cake.

DECORATING THE CAKE:

Start with filling a piping bag with icing using Wilton’s 2D tip or any star tip.

After you’ve iced the cake, use your hand to press sprinkles into the cake. Repeat a million times until you’ve completely covered the cake LOL. You’ll see I lost patience and did not fully cover my cake but still thought it was cute enough (insert side-eye smirk HAHA). This can get messy so I recommend  doing this process in an aluminum foil tin pan to collect sprinkles that did not stick to the cake. Finally pipe swirls on top of your cake. Easy enough if you have the patience to sprinkle your cake. I think next time I will try rolling my cake in the aluminum foil pan.

THE BALLOONS:

I got these mylar ballons from my sweet friend who has her own home décor business. The balloons can actually spell, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY,” HAPPY DAY,” “PARTY,” or, “YAY”.  They are super easy to assemble and do not require helium so you can blow them up in a sinch at home! Check them out here CELEBRATION MESSAGE BALLOONS!

For more dessert ideas checkout A Cookie Lover’s Dream as well as the other content under desserts on the blog!