Happy Birthday to Brent and Joanna!

My Sister-in-law Lisa invited all the family over on Sunday to celebrate Brent and Joanna's birthdays. I have been thinking for a long time what kind of cake to make Brent for his birthday and I decided to do a lemon cake. I have no idea what his favorite dessert is because he likes everything! He likes lemon, so I thought this would be a good option. I used the same recipe that Ashley used to make our cupcakes for our wedding. (It works out because today was our 6 mo anniversary too :)

Anyhow, back on topic...Ashley made cupcakes, but I wanted to try my hand at a double layer lemon cake with lemon custard deliciousness in the middle. I am always skeptical, because I can mess up anything really well...I would almost go so far as to say it is my gift haha. It was pretty fun to work on Saturday night because Brent had a bachelor party he went to so I got to have the night to baking by myself! I learned that when you put a cake on top of the custard it manages to ooze out the sides. It was really quite an adventure, but I really enjoyed taking lots and lots of time to make the cake, filling, frosting, and candied lemons. It was definitely worth the time too because it was nothing like an ordinary cake. I am not a fan of cake, but this is a whole new ball game. I am so so glad that Ashley shared her masterpiece with me...and I will share it with you. If you like lemons...do yourself a flavor and try this :)

Triple Lemon Cupcakes

24 cupcakes

*I used Duncan Hines Lemon Supreme cake mix… but any lemon cake mix should be fine.

Filling:

3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 T lemon zest
2 eggs
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 large lemons)
2 T butter

Combine sugar, zest, and eggs in saucepan over medium heat, stirring with a whisk. Cook until sugar dissolves and mixture is light in color (about 3-5 minutes). Add lemon juice and butter; cook for 5 minutes (whisking constantly) or until mixture thinly coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat, pour into container. Cool to room temperature. Cover and chill. The mixture will thicken as it cools.

Frosting:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
4 T lemon juice
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp lemon zest

Beat together butter, cream cheese and lemon juice on medium-high speed until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating on low speed until incorporated. Add lemon zest and increase speed to medium-high and beat until smooth.

To assemble:
I used a Wilton #230 round tip to fill the cupcakes (I bought mine at Walmart in the wedding supply isle). Fill a piping bag fitted with tip 230 with lemon curd, and pipe into the center of each cupcake. It can be tricky to know HOW MUCH to pipe- but just squeeze a little bit in until you notice the cupcake puff up a little bit. You will know you’re using too much filling if a lot of it leaks out, or the cupcake explodes. If some filling leaks out the top- don’t panic, just wipe it softly with a dry paper towel.

Fill a second piping bag fitted with a large star tip with frosting and pipe a swirl onto the top of each cupcake.

I want a Bosch...oh wait I have never made bread before

One day I decided that I want a Bosch mixer. Why you might ask? Hmm that is a good question and I am not sure that I know the answer but I can tell you that it feels right. Until you look and see how much one costs and then I am not so convinced anymore. Before I can get a mixer I need to have a plan of how to use it, so I decided I am going to make bread. This bread making endeavor is two-fold. One, we have already discussed- I like the idea of a Bosch. Two, what's not to love about a sammich made on home made wheat bread with all the fixin's? So with those two combined I head to the store to get my whole wheat flour. (Thankfully I married a genius who told me it would be cheaper to buy the whole wheat flour for $3 instead of buying a grinder and wheat for $XX before I knew if I would actually like making bread lol.)

I found a "no fail" recipie online, and I was feeling pretty optamist about all the raving reviews. I head to the grocery store and pick up my whole wheat supplies and I call Brent on the way home and tell him about my scheme. His only question to me is, Gaylene, how are you going to make it, we don't have a mixer. My only response to him was, if they could do it back in the day, then why can't I?!?!?!?!? (I have to admit, I kinda forgot that I didn't have any way to knead the bread, but it has now become a part of my exercise plan lol.)

Here we go... I have made bread three times and it has worked out every time!!! I could not be more proud of myself. I am pretty mediocre and all things I do, but I want to be good at something darnit! You know, the lady who can make pies, or the lady that can make bread ect. Well I can't make pies so I had to move on to something else that I could do. Brent is really good when it comes to most things in the Kitchen so I kinda wanted to be successful at one thing...I not asking for a lot, just one thing. Now that I am writing this I am sure I will never be able to make bread again because I will have jinxed myself, but trust me, I know I have a lot to learn still. I am just banking on beginners luck and a "no fail" recipie. (check it out- http://allrecipes.com/recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/detail.aspx )

Here is a picture from batch #2 (btw it has melted butter on top to make it extra delicious...it's not waxy)

It's amazing what a little success will do to your spirits. I am really starting to like this bread making business!

Christmas Day

So here it is January 16th and I am finally getting around to writing about Christmas. My huge problem with writing in a journal or anything of that sort is I write a lot of details about one thing, and then I get behind. Here I am again...behind haha.

I already wrote about Christmas eve, but I left out the details of my retardedness and I wanted to include it, becuase it became my favorite memory of our first Christmas in the Johnston family :) Christmas eve Brent started to not feel well. Everyone was getting sick, so it was only a matter of time before we got sick too. We have church at 10:00am and since Christmas was on Sunday we still got to go to Sacrament meeting. We have learned that if we want to wake up on time for church we cannot stay up until the weee hours of the morning playing video games (and by we I mean Brent lol.) We are getting ready for bed and after we say our prayers Brent decides that he wants to play video games. It does not make sense in my mind because it is late, he is sick, we have church early ect. ect. I am trying so hard to not be mad, but I am not very good at that yet. After laying in bed for about 10 minutes I hear Brent go into the other bedroom and I realized he was not playing video games, but wrapping presents. Man well who felt like a retard now!!! Yep that would be me. Sadly, that was not the first time I got upset at Brent for trying to surprise me, but I think I am starting to learn my lesson.

This is what Brent was working on setting up while I was trying to go to sleep without him. I can be a sentimental sap, and this is definitely the best gift I could have received. It is a gift that I can remember each and every year.

I woke up on Christmas morning all by myself because Brent was too sick to get out of bed and I had time to go and take a few pictures of our Christmas. My nativity is my favorite because it has all the right things in focus...meaning Jesus and our tree and gifts are in the background. That is how I always want my Christmases to be.

But on a side note, Brent really took lots of effort while wrapping- even making sure that all the lines matched up!

Sadly I went to Church all by myself, but I was able to spend some great time with my little sicky later that afternoon. Christmas evening we went to Brent's mom's and got to hang out with most of the siblings. I am so grateful that the kids can all play together and destroy the house while the adults can talk and enjoy each others company...and I am grateful its not at our house haha! Seriously though, I feel very blessed for the small things from Christmas. It's not about my cool sewing machine or lunch bag that I picked out...it's about spending time with those you love and serving one another through those small act of kindness.