Beat the Heat!

It is ridiculously hot here.  We had no nice transition into summer, just jumped in with both feet apparently.  So here are some things we are doing to beat the heat:

This morning I made a "tent" of sheets in the backyard so that the girls could play in the water without getting burned.  It really worked quite well!

Lb didn't wear clothes all day!  He also has a cool, wet washcloth he is chewing on, for coolness as much as for his teeth.


I made this frozen hot chocolate as a treat when my friend Cheryl came over for lunch.  It was good, just need to make sure the ice chunks are small enough:)  I want to try it with the hot chocolate I was making this winter!

Do you have any suggestions for keeping cool???

Happy Memorial Day!

We had a fun day with family, but it was long so I'm not going to do a real post until tomorrow:)

Salted Caramel Milk Chocolate Cake

Saturday we made the mistake of watching Dessert First.  She made this cake, and I had to take a dessert Sunday and Joel voted for this.  It is quite involved but really delicious.  It is quite rich so a little goes a long way.  And, of course, I cannot get cake to come out of cake pans nicely, so we ended up crumbling the cake and mixing a little icing in and then covering the top with icing in a 9 x 13 pan.  So anyways, on to the recipe!

Icing
18 oz milk choc, chips of finely chopped
10 oz semi-sweet or bittersweet choc, chips or finely chopped
1.5 c sugr
2 1/4 c heavy cream
1/2 t fine sea salt
1.5 sticks butter, softened and cubed
sea salt flakes

Put your chocolate in a bowl.  Combine sugar and 1/2 c water over medium heat.  Stir until sugar dissolves and bring to a boil.  Stop stirring and let boil 8-10 minutes until a dark amber color (making caramel).  Turn heat down.  Wearing hot pad, add cream very, very slowly, stirring with a spatula constantly.  Do not be impatient and add too fast!  Once smooth, add fine sea salt.  Remove from heat and pour over chocolate.  Whisk until all melted and then refrigerate for an hour.  Once chilled, beat with hand mixer until spreadable.  Add butter pieces and mix until all combined.  Refrigerate for another hour.

Cake
2 sticks butter, softened
2 c flour
3/4 c cocoa powder
1.5 t baking soda
1/2 t sea salt
1 1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 c sugar
4 eggs, room temperature for 30 minutes
1/3 c semi-sweet choc, melted and cooled
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 c buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350.  Butter two 9-inch pans.  May want to flour too so the cakes come out of the pans easily.  Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together on wax paper or in separate bowl.  On medium speed, cream butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes in mixer bowl.  Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing until completely incorporated between each egg.  Mix in chocolate and vanilla, combining well.  Turn mixer to low and slowly add dry ingredients, alternating with buttermilk, in 3 batches, starting and ending with flour.  Mix thoroughly and make sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula.  Split between pans and smooth tops.  Bake about 25 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.  Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes and then loosen edges with a knife.  Turn onto rack and let cool completely.

Ice bottom layer and sprinkle with sea salt flakes.  Stack next layer and ice top and sides.  Sprinkle with more sea salt flakes.

What We Have Been Up To

This post is going to be full of photos to catch you up on all the things that are days have been filled with and tomorrow I will post a recipe for a really delicious cake we had.  But first, the pictures:

Last Friday, we made strawberry muffins, and the girls chopped the strawberries with butter knives.  They loved it!  Then they helped put the muffins together.  They enjoy baking just as much as I do!

Yesterday we went to the usual playground, but there was a field trip there so we walked over and climbed some rocks they have.  Then we went to one of the memorial areas, and the girls danced.  LB and I watched and were entertained:)

He gets tired just watching them!

And finally, today was all about the superheroes!  My MIL found that shirt for LB at a yard sale...pretty cute!

I hope you got to take the time to enter some of the giveaways!  I enjoyed it and am thinking about participating in November when they do it again!  I need to go eat an orange now.  We had a really late end to a softball game, and everything is all shifted off time-wise!

Blogger Was Down

Blogger was done last night so I couldn't post.  I'll do a regular post later!

Giveaway Day!

No blog post tonight because I have spent my entire night doing giveaway day at Sew Mama Sew.  I love giveaway day...a real time suck though:)

The Girls!

So I've been bad about taking pictures of the girls lately.  I usually take pictures of LB when they are sleeping, and they enjoy taking pictures of him more than having their picture taken.  However, I got these a little while ago:

 Joel got the outfit Pnut is wearing at a yard sale for FREE!.  It is Little Miss Muffet I'm guessing and has the bloomers and everything.  Quite cute and room to grow:)  Pilly is wearing her birthday Minnie outfit that she loves.  Such a sweetie.