A cute cake plate/stand and a baking mix! Super cute and functional! My favorite type of gift to give and receive!

3 times in 3 weeks, I think! First was for a co-workers birthday (another story to go with that later on), second was a practice round with my mom for decorating her mom’s birthday cake, and I made them again last week for the potluck at work on Friday for the UL vs UK football game.

I have gotten it pretty down pat. I use a box mix for the cupcakes, but I have been making the icing from scratch. This time was cream cheese- just a block of cream cheese, a stick and a half of butter, 2 or 3 cups of powdered sugar, and a little bit of vanilla. The secret is in the mixing. I love my Kitchenaid mixer. It said to mix for several minutes. If I was doing it by hand, there’s no way I could do it that long and get it that smooth! It’s a little bit of a hassle to get it set up on the counter (my husband hates to have “rarely used appliances” sit on the counter), but it so so worth it! People always rave about them and it’s fun to have something that people request. It’s a 2 nights process though- first night is baking and cooling the cupcakes and the second night is mixing the icing and decorating.

I also made some chocolates! Using the Cardinal bird molds I got for Christmas. They are super easy!

Part of our assignments are to watch particular episodes of Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. We are watching the British version, which I think is even better than the American version.

I was doing some research and came across 2 blog postings about it.

10 things you can learn from Gordon Ramsay about running a business- #1 is about being simple. Ramsay has said that in EVERY episode!  I think all of these 10 things can apply to anyone running any type of business- not just a restaurant.

5 Lessons Learned From Gordon Ramsay- I liked #5, Passion! Constant trying and learning!

Photo Info: Food icture was taken in Spring of 2009 in Krakow, Poland.

They used cupcake liners and strung them on outdoor lights!!

I saw them on CraftGossip.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday. Most people go back to work tomorrow, but my husband and I decided that we wanted to take off work tomorrow too, so we have one more day off work.

Once again, I received way too much for Christmas. Our family (it’s large because it’s a very branch-y family tree) goes bananas! My husband surprised me with a Nintendo Wii and Mario game, my mom got me some kitchen stuff, earrings, and some cash. My step-mom’s family got me running, sewing, and kitchen stuff. My in-laws got me running and baking stuff! Way too generous!

This year I really used the Amazon Wish List and told 3 families about it. I got one duplicate because people don’t realize that if you don’t buy it from Amazon, you can still click an option that says something about purchasing it somewhere else. But all in all, it worked really well. People had ideas of what to get for me and I got what I wanted for the most part. Win-Win, thanks Amazon.com!

Features of the pan:

• TWO edges on EVERY brownie- 2 brownies have 3 edges, I think
• Circulates heat evenly- Fewer undercooked middles and burned edges
• Sized to fit regular box mixes and recipes for 9”x9” or 9”x13” pans
• Nonstick coating and round, easy-to-clean corners
• Spatula and recipes/instructions insert included

Here’s what you get (pan, spatula, and instructions/recipes):

Here’s how to pour it (I just tried to pour it evenly):

Finished pouring and in the oven:

Finished baking (It was a little uneven, but after cutting you couldn’t tell):

After cooled and first piece cut:

Yummy:

It was neat, although it was a little expensive since the pans probably aren’t mass produced. It seems to be a good, heavy aluminum pan. It was a gift and I would have spent that much anyway on something that he probably won’t be this excited out. For those that love the edges on brownies, this is a good pan for you!