More British-ness

Here are the rest of the pictures from my trip, enjoy!

 Caldicot Castle in Wales 

 Scary stairs (I had to turn my feet sideways to get down) 

 the ADORABLE cottage we stayed in (in Carmarthenshire, Wales)

 I could just live here. 

 Pembrokeshire Coast, sooooooo pretty. Can you see the roof of the little chapel at the bottom?

 St. Govan's chapel - from the 8th century 

 Random sign in Welsh.... it is so hard to pronounce 

 pub in Oxford where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien would hang out 

 The tower of London 

 St. Martin-in-the-Fields, we had an ancestor baptised there 

 changing of the guard 

 Big Ben 

 Covent Garden Market... some of the best shopping ever 

 St. Paul's Cathedral at night. Wow, just wow. 

 Gown of Princess Diana's 

 Hollywood costume exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum (I saw the ruby slippers!) 

 Shout out to Sorella Paige Wightman! 

 Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens 

 Italian Gardens in Hyde Park, Prince Albert had this built for Queen Victoria... awe. 

 tee hee. 

 changing of the horse guard 

 the Rosetta Stone 

Since tomorrow is Halloween, I give you the creepiest real mummy I have ever seen (they painted a face on it!) 

Trafalgar Square at night

Looking at all these pictures is making me want to go back. It was such a fun trip. I love British people and British things, I think I should just live there. 

You should go there. Seriously. You will not regret it. And when you go, eat some English bacon for me. And the organic yogurt. And then go sit by the Peter Pan statue for a little bit. And then bring me back a plate with Will and Kate's face on it. And then ask the Queen if I can have tea with her. 

Actually, I should probably just go with you. 

London Trip

I just got back from my London trip last night and needless to say, I had an amazing time there. I didn't want to come home, it was such a great trip!

I love British people. They are so great. I love how they say, "mind the gap" when you get off the Tube, or "I fancied a holiday..." ahhhh!!! It was all just so great.

It's going to take me a while to blog about everything I did, so I'll start with the first part of our trip, which was Bath. Here are some pics:

 Regency Tea Room at the Jane Austen Centre

 The Royal Crescent 

 Well's (not Wales) Cathedral 

ummm...something weird happened here. But this is the Glastonbury Tor... a place that is rumored to be the mystical island of Avalon.....? 

 view from the top of the Tor 

 Glastonbury Abbey 

 King Arthur's grave?.....

 Ok, this tree has a cool story behind it. The story is that Joseph of Arimathea would come to Glastonbury to sell and trade tin. After Christ was crucified, he took a branch from a tree, brought it to Glastonbury, and put the branch in the ground. When he did, it grew and blossomed. This tree only blooms on Christmas and Easter and the Queen is always given a branch from the tree on Christmas morning. 

 Annndd... this is the Chalice Wells Gardens. A place where Joseph of Arimathea is rumored to have hidden the Holy Grail, and the locals say the water is red from the blood of Christ

 Yes. you can drink the water. It tastes like rust. 

 The well. 

 Another sign about Joseph 

 The Roman Baths! 

 Stonehenge 

 Avebury Stone Circle (which is actually a little bit cooler than Stonehenge, in my opinion) 

 This was the Inn where Elizabeth met Darcy in Pride and Prejudice! 

 Castle Combe

Our b&b in Bath

There are the first few days of our trip! I will blog some more and post more pictures. 

Fall Tea Party

For Young Womens last week, I was unexpectedly in charge of the Laurel activity. I talked with the class president and we both came up with a really cute, last minute activity: a fall tea party!

For a craft, Maddie (the laurel president) found a great idea: we bought white teacups and decorated them with permanent marker, they turned out really cute. 

Menu:

Orange and Spice Tea

Bengal Spice Tea (you HAVE to try this)

Herbal Peach Tea

Hot Chocolate

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins 

The girls with their finished cups! Except... you can't really see them, but I promise they were cute. 

I think this fall tea party thing may have to become a new tradition

Zucchini Pizza

Need new cooking ideas for zucchini? Try a pizza! That's what we did last night.

It was SOOOO good. Go here and get the recipe. I pretty much did everything exactly like the recipe said, except I did 1/2 cup ricotta with 4 oz. cream cheese for the cheese sauce... I am not a big ricotta cheese fan.

Make it tonight. :)

Button Boots

I just bought these today at shoe carnival and as always... I am second guessing myself. Will you please tell me if I should keep these?

Going to England

So... I told myself I wasn't going to blog anymore.

But I was wrong, I miss it a little bit. And I need your help!

First, I need to tell you that I am going to ENGLAND in October! I am going with my mom and sister and I can't WAIT. But, we are having a hard time deciding on all the places we want to go, and that's where you come in.

Here's our plan so far:

Stay in Bath for 2 or 3 days, visit places around there.

Stay in Wales for 2 days.

Go to London for the last 5 days of the trip.

Here's some towns and side trips we're thinking about going on:

First: Glastonbury - a town where Joseph of Arimathea is rumored to have hidden the Holy Grail and also where King Arthur is rumored to be buried?

promising so far.

Second: Chawton - where Jane Austen wrote several of her books

How quaint. 

Third: Stourhead Gardens (I'm pretty sure I NEED to go here)

lovely, isn't it?

Fourth: Wells (not Wales)

hmmmm....

Fifth: Lacock - old village where Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter were filmed.

Sixth: Pembrokeshire Coast in Wales (pretty sure I need to go here)

Other ideas: the "Jack the Ripper" Tour in London, Canterbury, Oxford, Bath (for sure), and other places I don't remember.

Anyone have ideas or must sees?? Where would you go??

To Make a Wedding Cake

Hello everyone! I have been absent for a while... and now that I am back, I decided to write about everything that goes into making a wedding cake.

I just did a wedding cake for some friends who got married 2 weeks ago... and the experience made me never want to make one again. It's just a long process with lots of steps that are easy to forget about. I don't mind birthday cakes or cupcakes, so I'll stick to those.

Sean and Robin's cake 

I wish I had pictures of each step... but I don't so I'll do the best I can to describe each one. If you don't get bored and read this whole post, I'll make you a wedding cake! Except... not really.

Day 1

1. Mix your cake

You triple a recipe that makes enough to fill 1- 12" pan, 1- 9" pan, and 1- 6" pan.
If you are making a chocolate or white chocolate cake, you also need to melt your chocolate on the stove

2. Grease your pan.

Not with cooking spray, but with a layer of shortening and then cover it in flour. This can take me a good 20 minutes (I'm a bit of a perfectionist)

3. Poor your batter into your pans

4. Bake
There isn't exactly a time frame to let these bake, you just have to watch closely

5. Repeat steps 1, 2, 3, and 4

6. Let finished cakes cool

7. Level the cake tops and eat the parts you cut off (yum). 

8. Take each cake out of the pan and wrap well with saran wrap (putting cardboard underneath the cake helps it not break when you flip it out)

9. Freeze your cakes overnight
This makes your cake easier to frost and also gives the cake some extra moisture... I think. And so does my mom.

10. Go to bed


So there's Day 1, if you have just a 3 tier-cake, this takes about 4 - 5 hours, if you're my mom. If you're me, it takes more like 5 - 6, and the sleeping part adds another 8 hours.

Oh my, I'm getting sick of wedding cakes just talking about it. I'll try to hurry through Day 2 of cake-making.

Day 2


1. Make your icing

2. Trace and cut out your foam-core circles to go under each cake tier

3. Take your cakes out of the freezer and take a veggie peeler and peel off all the icky-shortening-covered parts on the sides of the cake. And also get off the burnt ickiness anywhere you may see some.

4. Start with your bottom half of the tier, frost the top, then place the other half of the tier on top of that to frost.

5. Frost... frost... frost some more.

6. Go back and make your icing smooth (if you need smooth icing for fondant, or just want a smooth cake)

7. Repeat 3, 4, 5, and 6 with each tier.

8. Decorate with whatever it's supposed to be decorated with
-Sean and Robin's cake had fondant, so we had to roll out the white fondant for each tier, then put it on the cake and smooth it out... I had my mom do this because I was going too slow. :)
-I also had to die the dots for the cake, which were made of fondant. To do this, you need to "knead" your food coloring into the fondant like it's bread dough, it's a good time. Then cut out the dots with little cookie cutters or whatever, and let them sit to harden for a minute.
- Before putting the dots on, we pinned ribbon at the base of each tier, which is great because it's super easy.
- Then we filled a pastry bag with icing to stick the dots on randomly.

9. Cut your dowels. Ugh... this is the most annoying part.
Stick one dowel in the middle of your bottom tier, then you cut it, and then you measure the other dowels and get them all to be the same height.

10. Get out your yoga or non-stick mat and place it on the floor of your car and put another one on a giant cookie sheet. 

11. Put your cakes on the yoga mat covered baking sheet and take out to the car.

12. Pack whatever things you might need for set up (frosting knives, extra frosting, flower clippers, etc) 

13. Drive......

14. Set up your cake... this is my favorite part. Put flowers on and everything

*a word about flowers... usually people ask for flowers or some sort of decor on the cake... so don't forget to add this step, whether you make it or buy something.

15. Clean up your junk

16. Enjoy the wedding.... if you're supposed to be there. 


This can take anywhere from 5 - 15 hours, depending on how elaborate the cake is... and whether or not you have your mom helping you.

Here are some pictures of the other cakes I have done (with help from mom):

 Matt and Abby's cake and groom's cake, this was fun because I did it with my mom and another friend

Mallory and Wren's cake. Swoopy frosting like this is soooo easy and so pretty. I loved how this cake turned out. 

And that's the end of my cake story. I hope you enjoyed it.