life of a carrot cake

One of my roommates (roomie I) had her birthday a few days ago so the rest of us decided to make a carrot cake for her. Fun times in our apartment! We used this recipe that I had used before except without pecans, and currants instead of raisins. After some carpal-tunnel-inducing carrot grating (thanks to roomie J and myself), we got the batter together.


It baked up pretty nice, but the darned thing wouldn't come out of the bundt cake pan even after I banged on it for forever.


However, it eventually did come out thanks to roomie D and a knife, and roomie D then whipped up the icing and sprinkled it all nicely with Halloween sprinkles. Cute, eh?


It was yummy. It got devoured pretty fast, leaving only a little bit for the fridge.


After the above picture was taken, roomie J opened the fridge (which isn't very organized) and the cake came tumbling out. Sad. So yep, the rest of it basically ended up in the trash.

Thus ends the story of this carrot cake's life. We still have extra carrots left, so carrot cake #2 might be on its way soon. Because it was yummy.

glass jar + paint = jar-o'-lantern

A while ago I had seen this Martha Stewart project for Jar-o'-Lanterns and I thought, I got jars and I could easily get paint. So voila.


I decided to make my little jar-o'-lantern be a happy little guy, so I just freehand drew his face on with a permanent marker and let it sit so the marker would dry. Then I headed down to Michael's to buy orange paint. I probably should've gone with the recommended oil-based enamel paint ... but the orange acrylic was cheaper. And whatever, it looks fine. Oh, and the wire was just some normal silver 16-guage I picked up at the local hardware store. Simple and cheap - why does Martha have to make it seem so much more complicated?


Right now I've got him on our table in the living room, hanging out with our plastic pumpkin (filled with chocolate) and our real pumpkin (which is waiting anxiously to get carved). Now if only I can find some green ribbon to tie onto the silver wire, I'd be completely satisfied with it. In total, I only spent about $4 for the project since I only had to buy paint and wire. Yay!

cinnamon swirl bread success

Woot! I finally got around to making bread in the bread machine AND remembering to take pictures. I got a Cuisinart bread machine when I first moved to New York and I've been making the cinnamon swirl bread that's in their recipe book. Pretty yummy.


I've been making the 1.5-pound loaves, and it basically fills up the entire thing, so I don't know how this thing is supposed to make a 2-pound loaf (although it's an option). It's just so easy, I love it. Back in Texas when I made bread by hand I always had trouble getting it to rise correctly, but never once had a problem here. I have a jar of yeast and a whole thing of vital wheat gluten, but goodness gracious flour goes fast.


This time the swirls came out better than the last time, but since we don't have a rolling pin, it's not too perfect. Plus, more cinnamon sugar would be better because ... there should always be more cinnamon sugar.


I made the bread as a procrastination tool while writing a paper. And whaddaya know? It makes a great breakfast paired with coffee after an all-nighter! Woot! This slice was further down into the loaf so the swirls are way different. Must had "rolling pin" to the list of stuff to buy.

More bread needs to be made though, because two days after getting baked, it's almost gone. Sadness. On the other hand, the paper got done and even though it wasn't the best, it got done. Now I just need to get going and start all my other assignments.

line squiggles

I've been procrastinating again ... just a bit. I still need to do readings for class, I still need to go through and print photos from last year, and I still need to do laundry. On the other hand, I've gotten back into line drawing and short story writing. Yeah ... it's productive in a not-very-productive sort of way.


I did some shopping for craft supplies today, so I have a few things in the works for Halloween coming up which will be quite fun. I've also been working with my bread machine and it's making some yummy stuff, which is also good. Now if only I could get to be as excited about reading architectural theory, I'd be set.