My Easter Cake Fiasco (Pinspirational Post # 31)

I can't believe how many times I have been asked when I am doing another 30 Day Pinterest Challenge. Although I am really flattered by how many of you enjoyed following my antics last November the answer is, "Not until I forget how stressed out I was by the end of the last one!"... seriously...

Of course I have not given up on Pinterest, quite the contrary actually, my list of pinned projects grows every day! How did I get to sleep at night before I was able to spend 30 minutes pinning on my iPad before I turn out the lights? So I have decided to start a series of Pinspirational Posts starting with #31 because it is my blog and I can give myself credit for the original 30 posts from November.

Because of all my allergies and/or food intolerances I usually offer to make dessert for family gatherings so when we planning to visit my brothers family at Easter I volunteered to make dessert. I found several sites that had versions of this KitKat Basket Cake and except for the candy bars (which I could just pick off and not eat) I knew I could make a gluten free version to take as my contribution to dinner.

Now, I could lie and say that I used a fabulous GF recipe but the truth is that these were my ingredients:

You can judge if you want, I'm OK with that, I am many things but Betty Crocker is not one of them. I will say that the sugar in the air when I was making this thing was almost too much for me, I really don't have much of a sweet tooth. There are so many tutorials out there if you Google "KitKat Cake" that I'm not going to write another one but here is my finished creation:

Looks pretty good, eh? Well… here’s where the fiasco part comes in…

My cake survived the two hour drive to my brothers house and everyone thought it looked amazing (which it did), and after dinner I served it up to everyone. They all said it was delicious and I kept thinking “why is the cake so freakin’ dry?” “Oh, no!” they said, it tastes great! This is the point where I am beginning to wonder if I am imagining things or they are just being kind.


Later, as we are heading north again for the drive home I had a lightbulb moment when I realized that I had added the eggs and butter but not the oil to my cake! Duh!

Have I mentioned how much I love my family? Every last one of them ate the whole slice of cake and complimented me (although I wonder if they will still say yes when I offer to bring dessert).
Anyone want to share their dessert disasters? So I don’t feel so bad? Pretty please?

LOAD Blog Hop - Layout A Day 212

If you have been following my blog you may have noticed that I am an “all or nothing” kind of girl… like in November when I posted every day (all) or December when I posted once (nothing). I think that is one of the reasons why I love LOAD so much. For most of the year I am a sporadic scrapbooker (and by sporadic I mean I might do one or two pages a year).

 Except for a LOAD month…. (well, the ones I have actually participated fully in)…


Each day I look forward to that message from Lain in my inbox giving me a gently prod and a dose of inspiration to churn out a layout every... single... day... for a month. Yep, the whole month, every day, and I look forward to it!

If you are already committed to LOAD this February, you can read my post here for some tips to get you started. If you are just thinking about participating..read on…

I want to share with you a few of my personal favourite layouts from past LOADs and some of the things I have learned along the way.


I have learned to tell the little stories, the ones that live inside the big life changing events… the one’s that I am likely to forget but want to remember.


I’ve learned to document the everyday…


I’ve learned to not stress about making every layout perfect… sometimes a picture and some words are all you need.


I’ve learned it doesn’t matter what order you scrapbook in or if you have perfect photos. I am preserving MY memories here people so I get to make the rules.


Last but not least I have learned to have fun with it! Even if it’s a layout where you realize just before you post it that most of your facebook statuses talk about booze or coffee. It’s a month long journey where you will learn to stretch the boundaries of your craft, make new friends and actually finish some scrapbooking pages!

Now head on over to Heather's blog and read her take on the load experience.

There is still time to sign up if you haven’t yet! Just click here to learn more!

If you want to visit the rest of the stops on the Blog Hop, here is the full list:

Margie xnomads.typepad.com
Kelli scrapbookgirl71.blogspot.com
Jennifer atthebluebarn.blogspot.com
Lisa lisahausmann.blogspot.com
Monica scrapinspired.com
Kimberly kimberlykalil.com
Eileen thinkinkpaperscissors.weebly.com
Danielle acoffeeaddict.com
Pam dailypamage.blogspot.com
Katrina k84mansramblings.blogspot.com
Cate lifebehindthepurpledoor.com
Me lifeonlilypadlane.blogspot.com
Heather heathersdragonsden.blogspot.com
Gina randomthoughtsmindlessmusings.blogspot.com
Kristie kristiesloan.com
Janet khashabfamilymusings.blogspot.com
Lydia  lydiaink.wordpress.com

Meal Plan Monday

I don’t know if I’ve said it here before but I really don’t like to cook.  If I could afford it I would pay someone else to do all the cooking for me.  I am lucky that I married someone who doesn’t mind pitching in but if it was up to him we would live off steak… and maybe the occasional potato… or chicken cooked with a beer can…

Bottom line is that I need to plan ahead because if I don’t it’s just too easy to grab something unhealthy.  My secret weapon? Plan To Eat! I started with a free 30 day trial but it’s worth every penny to pay $39 for a year long membership. It stores my recipes, lets me schedule my meals and automatically creates a shopping list. I love it! I used to print off the recipes and keep them in a binder but now I just use my iPad:



Have I mentioned that I love my iPad? I know, I know you should love people not things but I LOVE my iPad! (Don't judge me)

Mondays are my days off and my favourite way to start the week is to plan my menu for the week, pick up a green tea latte and go grocery shopping! Seriously, it makes me happy to have the whole week planned out. If I have time (which I did today) I prepare as much of the weeks food as I can in the afternoon.

On the menu this week:

Monday: Baked Potato Soup
Tuesday: Crock Pot Chicken Taco Chili
Wednesday:Baked Chicken Parmesan
Thursday: Shepherds Pie
Friday: Baked Macaroni & Cheese

All the recipes this week came from Skinnytaste.com I haven’t tried a recipe from Gina’s website yet that wasn’t delicious!

Since cooking is not one of my top ten activities I put my “crooner” playlist on shuffle and poured myself a glass of wine (because really, everything is better with some Sinatra & Shiraz) and whipped up this:



Tonight’s soup with enough leftover for lunches this week, Thursday’s shepherd’s pie, and two baked mac & cheese (one for this week and one for the freezer). I also did all the chopping and grating for Tuesday & Wednesday! I love it when a plan comes together!

No last minute take out crap for us this week!

I’m linking up to: