Strawberries-n-Creme Cake

This week I have decided that my mother is in need of an extra special blessing, so my son & I decided to make her a special cake.  Yesterday she packed up her National Boards box and mailed it off....in an extreme mix of relief and nerves.  For those of you that don't know, to be named a "National Board Teacher" is probably one of the highest, if not THE highest level of recognition a teacher in the US can receive.  However, with the huge honor of being recognized comes an ever HUGER (is that a word??)  amount of work to get there.  Hundreds of pages of typed reflection, lesson plans, explanations, student samples, video taped lessons and who knows what else is required to be boxed up and mailed off by March 31st by National Board certified hopefuls, my mother being among them this year.  She lives 20 minutes away and I've seen her maybe 3 times since Christmas.  Her entire life had revolved around working and compiling the contents of this box for the past 3+ months, so I know she is so excited to finally be done.  Couple that with her birthday 2 weeks ago that she didn't have time to celebrate...I'd say that a cake is in order.

A Strawberries-n-Creme Cake 

to be exact.

For the cake, I decided to use my favorite almost made from scratch White Almond Sour Cream Cake.  This cake is simply my very favorite basic cake recipe.  First I gathered the ingredients.

Then I let Buddy Boy (5) mix all of the dry ingredients together while I separated out 4 egg whites.  After all dry ingredients have been mixed, I added the remaining ingredients and beat on medium for about 2 minutes, or until well mixed.  Then we poured the mixture into well greased cake cans (in this case I used 3 9" rounds) and bake at 325 for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  I let them sit for just a couple of minutes, then removed them from the pans to cool completely.

While the cakes cooled, we assembled the ingredients for the filling.

While the cakes were baking I washed, cut, and lightly sugared the strawberries and them placed them in the refrigerator until we were ready to make the filling.  First we beat the cream cheese (which had been sitting out to soften) with about 1/3 C of sugar.  Once it becomes smooth, we added the softened whipped cream and mixed well.  Finally, we gently folded in the glazed strawberries and added this filling generously to the top of one cake round.

Then we topped it with the other cake round.

Next we (or I guess I should say 'I'.  Buddy Boy lost interest in cake making and was happily seated with his brother eating glazed strawberries by this point!)  gathered my frosting ingredients.  There is NOTHING better than homemade buttercream icing, in my opinion!!

Very important side note here: Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT attempt to use margarine for buttercream icing, as I obviously did here.  I was distracted by the boys & dinner cooking simultaneously and grabbed the margarine tub instead of the butter sticks.  Let's just say I threw away a whole bunch of runny icing before finally making the good stuff!!

The icing is really simple.  All you do is beat together the butter (REAL BUTTER!!!) and vanilla until smooth, add the sugar, and continue beating until well combined.  Then add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until it's light and fluffy.  If you mistakenly add too much milk and it gets runny, add more powered sugar to thicken it up.

YUMMY!!!

Finally I was able to frost the cake and embellish with fresh strawberries!

Of course I made a smaller version of the cake (I used the 3rd cake round and sliced it in half) for my family, so we got to sample it last night for dessert.  YUM!!

I hope my mom enjoys this as much as we did!

White Almond Sour Cream Cake

2 (9 ounce) boxes white cake mix

1 C all purpose flour

1 C granulated sugar

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 C water

1/8 C vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp almond extract

1 C sour cream

4 large egg whites

Place all dry ingredients in bowl and stir together with a wire wisk.  Add remaining ingredients and beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pout into grease cake pans, filling a little over 1/2 ful.  Bake at 325 until cakes test done (about 30 minutes of 9" rounds).  

Strawberries-n-Creme filling

1 block cream cheese, softened

1/3 C granulated sugar (more or less to taste)

1 tub whipped cream

strawberries (washed, cut & sugared if desired)

In mixing bowl, cream together cheese and sugar.  Add in whipped cream and beat well.  Gently fold in strawberries until just combined.

Buttercream Icing

1 C sweet cream butter

1 tsp vanilla

4 C confectioner's sugar

2 tbsp milk

In large bowl, crem together butter and vanilla.  Add sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in milk and continue mixing until light and fluffy.  Cover until ready to use.

In Loving Service to the Lord, my husband, and children,

the Busy-at-Home Mom

I'm linking up to Feasting in Fellowship at 

Comfy in the Kitchen

But as for me and my household...

Today in my quiet time I sat down with a hot cup of coffee and a toasted slice of my homemade bread with honey butter to dive into the Lord's Word.  My reading today was Joshua 22:1-24:33, and man did it hit home. Don'cha just love it when the Lord speaks exactly what your heart needs to hear, even if it does step on your toes a bit.  And man, are my toes feelin' sore this morning!

"But be very careful to keep the 

commandment and the law 

that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: 

to love the LORD your God, to walk in 

obedience to him,

 to keep his commands, 

to hold fast to him and to serve him 

with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Joshua 22:5

Wow, talk about gettin' in my face, Lord.  This verse literally stopped me in my tracks as I read it, and caused me to pause, asking myself each of these questions.  Do I love the Lord?  Absolutely, 100%.  That one was easy.  A++ for me!  Do I walk in obedience to Him?  Well, I certainly try to be obedient, but if I'm honest with myself, I must admit that I often fall short in this aspect, especially when His path and mine don't quite line up.  Do I keep His commands?  hmmm....I'd like to say yes, but again, I'm falling quite short here, too.  (I'm starting to feel nervous about my 'not so much' answers here!)  Do I hold fast to Him?  WHAM!  Hit me square in the forehead, why don't ya?  No, I often don't hold fast to Him.  What I hold fast to is my desires, my plans, my wants.  Do I serve Him with all my heart and all my soul?  Nope, not even close.  If I can't walk obediently, keep His commands, and hold fast to Him, there's no way I'm able to serve Him with all my heart and soul.

Man, that hurts to admit that.  

So, what's the reason for all of my not so much answers?  Simply put, it's me.  Little ol' me, with all of my selfish pride, need to be in control, well laid plans and organizational strategies, To-Do lists and calendars, play dates and Mom's Nights, everything I do gets in the way of what the Lord wants to do for me, if only I'd step aside and let Him work.  All I have to do is seek Him and obey.  That's it.  Strangely enough, it's exactly what I tell my children.  "All you have to do is listen to what I say and then do it.  It's not that difficult"  hmmm............insert bruised toes here.

After my reading I watched Wendy Pope's vlog and she noted:

"Joshua recorded the “recommitment” 

of the Israelites in the Book of God’s Instruction.  

Do I record my recommitments?"

So after being convicted so thoroughly this morning, I decided I needed to record my recommitment right here on this blog for everyone (no one really, as I don't yet have any followers)  to see.  Actually, the only one who needs to see it is me, to remind myself visually of God's will for my life......God first, husband second, children third, everything else (including me!!) last.

 “Now fear the LORD and serve him 

with all faithfulness. 

Throw away the gods your ancestors 

worshiped beyond the Euphrates River 

and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 

But if serving the LORD seems undesirable 

to you, then choose for yourselves 

this day whom you will serve, 

whether the gods your ancestors served 

beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, 

in whose land you are living. 

But as for me and my household, 

we will serve the LORD."

Joshua 24:14-15

In Loving Service to the Lord, my husband, and children,

the Busy-at-Home Mom

I am Super-Mom....see me bake!

So, I've been reading blogs of other ladies for months who make their own bread, and make it look surprisingly scary easy, so I decided Today is my day to take on the world...err, stove.  I was headed to Wal-Mart already this morning, so I added yeast to my list and headed out with Monkey (my 2 year old son) in tow.

After coming home, eating lunch, and putting Monkey down for a nap, I gathered my ingredients, rolled up my sleeves, and began to tackle the monster that is homemade bread making.

  

I quickly discovered that mixing the dough is no easy feat, moving quickly from mixer, to mixer with dough hook, to hands, to a spoon....none of which seemed to do an efficient job at mixing.  Somehow I finally got it all mixed and turned it out onto the counter to begin the kneading process.

Wow....I had no idea how difficult this would be, not to mention the fact that I wasn't even sure what "smooth and elastic" actually looked like.  And my moving kitchen island wasn't helping.  But somehow I managed to do a decent job at the kneading and set the dough aside to rise.  An hour later I returned to punch it down, roll out into loaves, and place in the pans to rise again.

After another 45 minutes of rising, the loaves were finally ready to go into the oven, accompanied by a small prayer that the 3 hours I'd invested into these 2 tiny loaves had been worth it.  25 minutes later my labor of love was rewarded by 2 beautiful loaves of fresh-baked bread.

Don't let the picture fool you.  I very quickly cut into the loaf on the right  to sample it  (and then placed it strategically so you couldn't see the missing slice in the picture).....you can't serve your family something you aren't sure is top quality, now can you??

I made up a quick bowl of honey butter to go with it and served it with dinner.  All 3 of my boys (the hubs and both of my little guys) tore into it.  My super-picky eater (and super snuggler) actually ate bread crust for the first time in his entire life and requested a PB&J with it in his lunch box tomorrow!  GO MOM!  (this is where my self-appointed title of Super-Mom comes into play).

My husband asked if I could start making this all the time instead of buying store bread.  Ego-boost & added chores all in one....thanks, honey!  :)  I'm very proud of myself for stepping outside of my comfort zone in the kitchen today and find a new way to serve my family.  At the end of the day, there's nothing more rewarding than sitting at the table with your family watching them so thoroughly enjoy something you lovingly prepared for them with your own 2 hands.  

I did learn 2 very important lessons today, though.

1)  I very, very , very desperately want NEED a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer.  My Target knock-off stand mixer just doesn't cut it when it comes to mixing dough.  

2)  Kitchen islands on wheels were not intended to be kneading stations.  Period.

How have you blessed your family today?

In loving service to the Lord, my husband, and children,

the Busy-at-Home Mom

Time-Warp Wife