And for Dessert: Diabetes!

     It's no secret that my husband drives me insane.  I mean, I've given y'all several examples on this blog alone of how much he makes me question the reason I agreed to let him annoy me for the rest of my life.  But I think it's also fair to say that I would do anything for that crazy, slightly annoying husband of mine.  And apparently that's a fact he's not only discovered but has decided to exploit.  For example, today is his birthday.  A few weeks ago while I was writing up my grocery list, I asked him and Monkey to flip through my "Taste of Home: Fun Food" magazine to come up with ideas for her school lunches.  While flipping through the pages, she and J came across a rather elaborate picture of a cake decorated to look like the classic game, CandyLand.  J excitedly pointed the picture out to me and requested that I make it for him for his birthday.  I laughed, thinking he was joking, and said something witty that amounted to "no".  But then something happened.  He kept bringing up the cool CandyLand cake, and mentioning how much he liked it, and he'd throw in the fact that his birthday was coming up after all.  So what did I do?

     I made the darn cake for him!  I'll get to how to make your own in a minute, but in the mean time let me tell you what my sweet, but oh-so-chokable husband tells me as I'm buying the last bit of candy to make his dearest birthday wish complete.

Me:  "Hey baby, do you see any rock candy?"
J:  "No; you don't need that"
Me: "It's for your cake.  I wanted to include the Ice Palace, so I was going to use blue rock candy"
J:  "I don't know why you're even doing this"
Me:  "What do you mean?  This is the cake you've been asking for."
J:  "Yeah, I was just messing with you.  Then you ran with it, so I figured I'd let you."
Me: .......................................You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart.  You can't strangle him in Walmart!

    Well, regardless of how he finagled me into making the cake, it's made now, so I might as well share a quick how-to with y'all.  Here's what you'll need:

Cake mix (can be any flavor; I used a recipe from Better Homes and Gardens for a White cake)
White icing
Green food coloring
Starbursts
Peppermints
Mini marshmallows
Rock candy (or Jolly Ranchers, crushed)
Lollipops
Chocolate cupcake, iced
2 mini snickers
4 ice cream cones (cut the tops off of 2 of them)
Blue cookie icing
Purple cookie icing
Black cookie icing
Multicolored sprinkles
Chocolate sprinkles
Cinnamon sprinkles
Sour Patch Kids (I used 4, one in each color as the "players")

    Bake your cake mix according to directions on back of the box for a 9x13 cake.  Let cool completely before icing.  Mix white icing and green food coloring in a medium sized bowl, use this to ice the cake.  Top cake with Starbursts, making sure to keep a pattern so no two colors are next to each other.  For "Mr. Mint"'s corner, arrange peppermints (or peppermint candy canes, if they're in season) in a cute pattern, and sprinkle cinnamon sprinkles around them.  Add an area for "Princess Lolly" by using a few crushed Jolly Ranchers to mark the spot.  Next add the lollipops or various sizes (I used 2 Dumdums, and 1 Blow Pop).  Next I added the chocolate cupcake (complete with chocolate fudge frosting and chocolate sprinkles) for "Chocolate Mountain".  I set a pair of mini Snickers next to the cupcake, one on each side, and sprinkled a few extra chocolate sprinkles around the base of the "Mountain".  Next I added a mini-marshmallow "bridge" between two of the rows of Starbursts.  Finally I erected the "CandyLand Castle" by inverting the 2 whole ice cream cones side-by-side, and then I placed one of the halved ones in front and one in the back, upside-down.  Next I added the windows and doors by using purple cookie icing.  Then I topped the castle off with blue cookie icing roofs.  I spread a rainbow of various-colored crushed Jolly Ranchers around the base of the "castle". Next I piped out the "Happy Birthday" on the Starbursts using black cookie icing.  Finally I sprinkled the entire cake with multi-colored sprinkles for good measure.

    There were two big bonuses for this cake: 1)  There really isn't a "right way" to decorate it.  If you look at the way CandyLand has changed over the years, you can really throw any type of candy on a cake and call it good.  2) Monkey was able to help, and we both enjoyed that. :-)

   
     To top it all off, J really enjoyed his Diabetes-inducing CandyLand Cake.  And I discovered that my husband turns into a Disney Princess when he makes his birthday wish before blowing out the candles.

     Anyone else see it?  Anyone?  No?  It's just me?  Fine!  Keep wishing, Babe.  Maybe one day your prince will come (but he probably won't make you awesome cakes).

Halloween Leftovers

     You know what daylights savings time means to me?  It means I now wake up at 7 instead of 8.  I don't know where people get the idea that we gain another hour, because my internal clock is all, "Nope!  Get up, lazy bones, and be productive this morning."  Unfortunately, she didn't come with a snooze button. Yet somehow my husband manages to snore on next to me, and the sound of morning colors won't rouse Monkey for another 30 minutes.  I should be adding another 1667 words to my story for NaNoWriMo, but I don't wanna.  I made a mistake in my story yesterday, so I have to rewrite part of it, but I don't want to delete anything from my word count :-(  I'll tackle it after my run.  That'll give me time to rewrite it all in my head.

     It's November y'all; do you realize how crazy that is?  This year is almost gone.  I swear ever since I had Monkey time has been moving faster and faster, and this year feels like it's approaching warp speed.  Before I know it, it'll be next August, and Monkey will be starting Kindergarten.  Yikes!  I wouldn't mind skipping ahead to graduation, though.  Mine; not hers, of course.

     I'm rambling, aren't I?  You can thank J for that.  If he would wake up, I'd talk his ear off instead.  Oh well; I do have a recipe to share with y'all, though.  Because Monkey racked up on candy Halloween night, I've bee trying to find recipes to use some of it up.  This website, Something Swanky, has a list of 50 things you can do with leftover Halloween candy.  It's pretty awesome.  Last night I made these:

Brown Butter Milky Way Cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark brown sugar (can substitute light brown)
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup flour
1 cup + 2 TBS old-fashioned rolled oats
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups Milky Ways, chopped and frozen (I used regular and dark chocolate)

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Stir constantly, remove from heat immediately when butter starts to turn brown (about 8 minutes).   Pour into a shallow dish, and chill until it becomes solid, but still soft.  (I popped mine into the freezer for about 15 minutes).

In a large bowl, cream together butter and both sugars.  Add egg and vanilla; mix until combined.  Slowly mix in flour, salt and baking powder.  Stir in oats manually.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.  Roll dough into 1 1/5 TBS balls.  Press 4 pieces of frozen Milky Way into each ball. Bake 9-10 minutes, until brown on the edges, but still soft in the middle.  Cool for 3 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to a baking rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!