A cake fiasco! [and fondant recipe]

Of course I announced my return to blogging the week before Ladybug's birthday! Apparently I failed to consider the amount of work her party would require [but more on that later].

First of all, a picture of the birthday girl herself [how much happier can a toddler be with a balloon and a 'preeeeettttyy' pink skirt?!]:

I can't believe she's 2. Wow. I know time flies faster as you get older, and I'm constantly hearing moms say "oh, it seems like just yesterday my kids were that age", but really?! My son already turns 7 weeks tomorrow!

Ok, enough of that. Want to hear about my cake fiasco?! This is the main reason I didn't come here last week... I thought that I'd bake the cake in advance so last minute I wouldn't be stressing out. So, about 4 days before I made a cake. Well, since [as you can see in the picture] I was making a double layered two tier cake, I actually made four cakes. They were tasty, but extremely dense; they didn't seem to cook through the middle. So I made another [only two this time]. Looked great, cooked well, tasted bland and was crumbly. Ew. I decided I'd had enough for one night and looked for another recipe the next day.

The next evening comes around and I try another recipe. Another failure! [two more cakes]. I give up for the evening, and make buttercream icing instead.

2 days to go and I attempt another cake. I'm seriously ready to scream when it comes out subpar. I've made numerous delicious chocolate cakes... why on earth is a white/vanilla so hard to handle?! I try another variation [failure] then move on to lemon curd for the filling [this is the reason why I wanted to do a white/vanilla cake instead of chocolate].

***

Okkkay, calling a quick time out here from the cake fiasco [just 'cause it's a lot of text with no pictures!]. A request from Kimberly for pictures of my new little man got me thinking I should share... here he is!

***

It's now the day before the party, and not only am I prepping salads, cookies, treats, etc. [not to mention cleaning the house], but I'm back in the kitchen making another d*mn cake! This time I've given up trying to be Martha Stewart and have purchased boxed mix from the store. After reading about modifications I've also purchased pudding mix to add in. I am SO excited when the cakes come from the oven beautifully domed. I cut into the cupcake I made as a test and eagerly take a bite. UGH! It's fluffy and beautiful... but it's horrid! The flavour is lacking and it sticks to the roof of my mouth in a nasty thick lump. I give a bite to Fireman and he gives me a look like "What on earth happened here?!".

Ok, so I'm thinking 'maybe this brand doesn't like pudding mix!' I try again, this time following the directions to a 't'. I even time the mixer! Again, disaster. So, nearing bedtime, I send Fireman to the store to get a different brand. He comes home with something different than requested because the requested brand didn't have 'french vanilla', only 'vanilla'. He then chose an entirely different brand of plain 'vanilla'. Huh. I'll never understand his reasoning.

Anyway, third batch comes out. It looks good, it tastes a bit eggy, but it's late and I'm out of time! Fast forward through cooking time for the remaining layers to an emergency Safeway run at 11:50pm for more marshmallows for my fondant [thanks honey!], and I finally get to bed at 3 after making this:

All in all, the cake turned out ok. The lemon curd was delicious, I loved the icing [even the plain marshmallow fondant, flavoured lightly with lemon, was tasty!], and I'm glad it came together okay. It was my first time using fondant, and can I just say that there's a serious learning curve?! Don't look too close at the picture :P Ooh, and note for mamas planning to make roses for a cake: do NOT wait until the last minute! I made those roses about 5 days in advance. There's no way I could have pulled them off last minute and exhausted! Please learn from my experience.

Now I want to share my fondant recipe! I'd grown up thinking that fondant was a nasty hard layer that you peel off before eating the cake. I heard from my sister [an amazing cake decorator!] that marshmallow fondant is not only easier to make but more palatable... so I googled it! I'm so glad I did.

Here's the recipe I used [including my modifications]:

Marshmallow Fondant:

- 8 cups of mini marshmallows [or a 16oz bag. Can also use large marshmallows cut up]

-2-5 tbsps of water *modification: 2+ tsps of lemon extract! *

- 8 cups icing sugar, sifted before adding [or a 2 lb bag]

- ~ 1/2 cup of shortening

Melt marshmallows and 2 tablespoons of water [**or, lemon extract with a touch of water**] in a microwave or double boiler. If in microwave, stir between 30 second intervals. Mine took around 2 minutes total.

Place 3/4 of the icing sugar in a mixing bowl, and using the dough hook, mix in marshmallow goo. Add remaining sugar and mix until well blended. [This can also be mixed by hand, though it's considerably messier- take off your rings and coat your hands well in shortening!]

Coat hands and counter in a thin layer of shortening, and knead the fondant. Add paste colouring and knead/roll to combine evenly. Microwave for 10 seconds if it starts to harden, or add a touch of water [literally, only a drop at a time!] if it starts to feel a bit 'crusty' or crystallizes a touch.

Now... does anyone have a white or vanilla cake recipe to share?! I'm determined to make a great one one day... maybe for my birthday next month! I'd also love to see cakes you've made- leave me a link!

Recipe request!

Hello readers!

I have a request for you...

Here in our household we're trying out a new diet. Well, not diet in the 'dieting' sense, but the general food selection that we eat from... we were a big red meat eating family, and due to furthering my education on vegetarian diets as well as realising how darn inexpensive beans/lentils are [WOW!], I've been testing out some new recipes to get more fibre and protein into our life without the animal fat or even the environmental damage.

In my recent recipe forages however, I've encountered a really wide variety. My first recipe was for a green lentil soup> Delicious! I was very pleased with the result, and it spurred me on to try more. I wrote down several more recipes and eagerly set out my ingredients to try them. I rinsed/soaked my beans and lentils, boiled away, and made several different dishes over a few days. While I'm pleased that my research left us with very little gas [from proper preparation!], my husband's latest comment has encouraged me to broaden my search. You KNOW it's not good when your handsome partner looks up from his stew and asks "This has got to be healthy?" [as in "we're only eating this because it's good for us, right? Because it tastes like poo"].

oops.

I won't be sharing that recipe!

So, I'm asking you. Please, if you have a great tried and true recipe using beans and/or lentils, please share! I'm also keen to try cooking with tofu, and any other vegetarian base that I'm inexperienced with.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

[send a link to your blog post, leave your recipe in the comments, or email me!]

Cheers!

I'm baaaacccck!

Hello hello and Happy Spring!

I know. It's been 6 months to the day that I stopped blogging. It wasn't exactly a planned end to my writing, it was more of a mental requirement! I've missed having a place to share things with others, so I'm testing the waters to see about coming 'back'.

I should mention now that my blog wont be the same. I'd love you all to stick around to see the progression, as I feel it'll be better than ever, but I wont be blogging for the same reasons.

You see, at first I started for two reasons: I was a stay at home mom in a crummy living situation, looking for somewhere to be heard, and I also saw so many other bloggers getting such amazing things sent to them to test out [and host giveaways]. I achieved both, and I was proud of my blog, but it started to change quickly... instead of being fun it was a hassle to make sure I met my set timelines, and became a daily chore! While I loved being sent things to try out, many times expectations of me were higher than I'd anticipated [or agreed to], and occasionally companies would send me additional products I hadn't agreed to... that I felt obligated to write about regardless.

So. I'm not saying no to product reviews, but I'm going to be choosy and I'm going to limit them. I know a lot of you were drawn to the blog for all the giveaways, and I'm hoping you'll give me a chance to see a 'real' blog at work. I may have giveaways in the future... but I'd rather they be the icing on the cake rather than the whole dessert itself!

Now it's time for a bit of an update:

-I'm a mama to two! That's right! Six months ago I'd just announced the pregnancy, and after a relatively uneventful pregnancy [minus the horrid morning sickness and the possibility of Down Syndrome], we now have a healthy son :D 'Ladybug' is a proud big sister. Hmm, I'm going to have to come up with a nickname for him!

I had a beautiful homebirth this time, and baby boy was born calmly in a birthing pool on March 3rd. For those interested, I'd love to share my experience!

-Ladybug is already turning two. Wow. Exactly one week from now she'll be celebrating her second birthday, and I'm having a hard time believing it. She's such a grown up little girl, and becoming such a sweet, smart little [tall!] thing, but she's my firstborn... how can I really believe it's been two years with her?! It feels so much more and less all at the same time.

Well, it's about time to wrap this up. For those who've read to this point, thank you.

Please come back soon to read more about my 'green' changes to daily living [yep, I've taken it even further these past 6 months!], my recent cooking triumphs [and failures!], and my favourite new crafts and sewing projects [oooh, and some truly wonderful blogs that feature fantastic tutorials!]. I'm looking forward to my 'new' blog!

Until I write again...

ooh, p.s... due to the spammers finding my blog in my absence, I have to apologise for adding word verification to my comments. If there's ever an issue with the word verification [not working, etc] please email to tell me! If I can find a better/easier way to eliminate spam comments, I'll remove the word verification immediately.

Down Syndrome Awareness month

Did you know?

Click through to learn more :)

Knowledge is power!

Smart Knit Socks review and giveaway

Remember my Smart Knit KIDS socks review and giveaway? Well... Smart Knit saw that I was so impressed with Ladybug's socks that I tried them on myself, and offered to send me a couple of adult pairs! Obviously I took them up on their offer [quite happily], so here's my review:

I love the material these socks are made of: they're soft, smooth, stretchy, and just altogether wonderful!

I must say that I was hoping for socks just like Ladybug's... just bigger. These are different in that they have heels, and don't fit quite as snugly. Personally, I'd prefer them to be simply larger kids' socks, but Fireman quite liked them how they are!

If I hadn't been spoiled by gawking over Ladybug's, I think I would have been blown away by these socks. When you have a certain idea in mind though, it's hard to change it :)

I found that these socks fit looser than I was expecting: perhaps because there's such a difference in adult sizes, and each sock is meant to fit a range, they're built to fit the middle sizes... though they work with smaller and larger too.

I have a relatively large foot for a woman- size 9.5 approximately. Because Fireman's got a 10.5/11 mens, we chose to review the Smart Knit size Medium in Active everyday wear. These were a bit loose on me [though certainly wearable], and fit Fireman like a glove. He's since stolen them, and claims innocently that they were obviously intended for him!

Smart Knit has once again been very generous, and is offering TWO winners THREE pairs of their own!!

To enter:

Go to Smart Knit and tell me which socks [a different pair than what we tried] you'd like to test!

For bonus entries:

-follow Household Treasures on Google friend

-be an email subscriber

-grab my button [two bonus!]

Contest open to both US and Canadian residents until 6pm PST on Oct 6th, 2009.

Preggie Pops- review

Three Lollies sent me a package of goodies to try: a box of Preggie Pops, and a container of Preggie Pop Drops.

Naturally flavored with essential oils, Preggie Pops are meant to reduce nausea in pregnant women. Three Lollies also produces Queasy Pops/Drops for use with motion sickness and chemotherapy that work in the same way!

I found the Preggie Pop/Drops to be quite effective with slight nausea. I'm unfortunately a woman that gets hit hard by hormones, and I'm sicker than a dog early on, but these did manage to help quite a bit more than expected, even during the worst bits.

I got the most use out of them during car rides [a horrible experience while dealing with morning sickness!]- they were phenomenal, and I plan to get some Queasy Pops for the future, when Fireman's and my genetics pass down to Ladybug and the poor girl is sick in the backseat.

The Preggie Pop Drops were my favorite, as they were a selection of sours. Green Apple was my favorite by far, though the others were just as mouth watering [I'd have Fireman looking over my shoulder hopefully!].

The Preggie Pops themselves weren't as well liked: there were a few flavors that made my nausea worse [ginger and peppermint for example], and the boxes I had [a friend gave me another] both had the candies melting off the stick... this made for a sticky mess when trying to open, and basically pointless to have on a stick after a few minutes.

All in all, I'd definitely recommend the Preggie Pop Drops. They also come in Organic [yay!], and all are naturally colored, so no worries about dyes.

Music Box kids' DVD - review and giveaway!

Ladybug was sent a copy of Music Box to review.

Music Box is a children's DVD that's purposely different than any other children's movie out there- Benedicte Schoyen, the brains behind the idea, didn't want to 'dumb down' a movie for kids... she knows that children can learn to love Classical music [Ladybug does!], and purposely 'broke the rules' of kids entertainment by including it and slowing the tempo down. You won't have bright flashing colours or shapes in this movie- it's real people acting and dancing, and it's even more intriguing [to Ladybug anyways] than any cartoon or "children's" DVD we've seen!

Ladybug absolutely loves this DVD. We don't let her watch a lot of TV, though to be honest, when we have she's not interested, especially in shows meant for toddlers! I sat her down in front of the TV and pressed play, expecting to wrangle her back into position momentarily. Instead, she sat in place, and eagerly started wriggling when the music started! She pointed to the TV, quite excited, then relaxed back to watch. Several times I expected her to get up to walk away, but instead she was getting up to dance along!

It was really sweet to see her 'interaction' with Music Box- she would dance, wiggle to the music, and even waved goodbye at the end of the show. She loved all of the dances, though the 'port de bras' and the hip hop really got her 'grooving' along.

I am so impressed with Benedicte's vision for this. I am saddened by the lack of acceptance by the kids industry... they've told her that she needs to speed it up, edit to make it more visually entertaining [add bright lights, flashing colors, etc], and make the music 'lighter' [think pop instead of classical]. Benedicte has chosen to remain pure to her vision, and is wanting to show them that though they've been successful with their qualifications to date, they're not always right!

Benedicte's husband Ned Clark wrote all of the music you hear in Music Box; Benedicte got her education in dance from the Norwegian Opera, and now teaches UCLA Musical Theatre. You know with background like this that the movie has substance!

I highly, highly recommend you look into this DVD if your children watch TV. You'll be amazed at how receptive they are to it, and how much better you'll feel about letting them watch something 'real'. Boys as well as girls will like this, and as there's an high number of male dancers [and no, they're not 'girly'], you can be reassured that even the most uptight about gender roles will approve.

Benedicte has very generously offered THREE of my readers a copy of their own!

To enter:

Go to the Born to Play website and tell me something you've learned: it can be something else you're interested in, something new you didn't know/realize, etc.

To get bonus entries you may:

-follow Music Box on Twitter!

-purchase the DVD! [get 10 bonus entries- leave separate comments for each]

-blog about this giveaway or send an email to three friends> Make sure to include the link, and with the emails CC: laura@householdtreasuresblog.com [3 bonus each]

-follow Household Treasures on Google friends

-be an email subscriber

-grab my button [2 bonus]

Contest open to both US and Canadian residents until 6pm PST on Oct 5th, 2009.

mortal friends - book review!

mortal friends is written by Jane Stanton Hitchcock.

I was sent a copy to review, and immediately sat down to take care of the task.

Jane did a wonderful job pulling me into the story, and overall I quite enjoyed it. The ending had a terrific twist [that for once I didn't see coming!], so I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not sure that I loved the book enough to go find more stories by the same author, but I may read this one again.

Worth checking out of the library? I'd say so.

ISBN: 978-0-06-117370-7

Bravado Nursing Bra review and giveaway!

Let me start with saying that this bra isn't just for nursing moms. I'm pregnant, and loving it! It's so comfy and supportive, but let me just get on with the review!

Bravado sent me a Body Silk Seamless Bra to review: targeted towards both expectant and nursing mothers [because of it's incredible comfort and give.. and support!], I thought it'd be a good one to try.

First of all, I loved the color. 'Lip Gloss' is a fun, fresh pink that's not so bold it pops through your clothing. It's fun, and I love it.

Beyond that... I was drawn to the Body Silk because of the description: "designed to melt onto your body, and give you comfort unlike any you've experienced from a bra before- nursing or not!" How can you not try it?!

It is so soft and fluid. It's made of microfibre, and is very stretchy. It felt reminiscent of an old sports bra of mine, which actually concerned me, as the sports bra didn't give any support [hence the 'old']. I was greatly relieved upon trying the Body Silk on! My tatas are significantly larger and heavier than usual [thank you hormones], and starting with a rather substantial set to begin with, it's difficult for me to find ultimate comfort and support all in one bra.

While I wouldn't wear the Body Silk on a jog, it's terrific for day to day, and a dream to sleep in. You know those bras you wear to bed, and everything just kinda slides together? Somehow this expertly designed bra holds things where they're supposed to be- no more sweaty uniboob! [even lieing on your side!!]

The bra is double thick, as there's a pocket inside to hold the molded foam cups. The cups are optional, and in my experience, weren't favorable. Perhaps it's because I'm constantly up and down, giving them more opportunity to shift, but I found I could see the outlines of them occasionally. As the double thick layer [still quite thin I'd like to say] disguised the worst of my nipple shows, I was quite happy to remove the pads [they're designed to take out], and Ladybug's been enjoying wearing them as hats since. :)

I was really enjoying my bra when I found out... Bravado is a Canadian company! Woo hoo! As a proud Canuck I had to share this information. These really are top quality.

The sizing is easy too: I have a hard enough time trying to find a bra that fits instore... so online shopping scares me! Luckily their bras adapt to fit many sizes/shapes, and they've got really helpful guidelines on their website. They've also got a number to call, to reach their certified fitters if you're still unsure! How's that for service?

Here's the most exciting bit... one reader gets to win their own!!!

To enter:

Go to Bravado and tell me what your favorite product is and why. If your favorite is the Body Silk, please also tell me another product that catches your eye!

For bonus entries:

-sign up for Bravado's newsletter: you'll receive contest and sale alerts!

-be an email subscriber to Household Treasures

-be a Household Treasures blog follower

-grab my button [two bonus!]

Contest is open to both US and Canadian residents until 6pm PST on October 5th, 2009.

Body Systems' Avocado Butter- review

I was sent a container of Body Systems' Avocado Butter to review.

I love, love, love the list of ingredients. Here, I'll show you:

-Avocado Nut Butter

-Avocado Oil

-Vitamin E

Yep, that's it. YAY!

I've found this Butter best used after a good soak- whether a long shower or a intense dishwashing session. It's also a great night-time treatment!

As the Butter is exceptionally moisturizing, I've found using it for minor dryness not ideal- it can be a little greasy, but if you've got time for it to soak in and work its magic, it's terrific [wearing it under socks to bed results in silky smooth feet!].

Body Systems has a whole line of Bath, Body, Baby, etc... you can check it out here.