I'm All Grown Up Now...ish

My 24th birthday was a couple of weeks back and I am now finally getting to writing about! Especially now that the stress of wedding cake season, and Ashley's wedding is over!

So back to my point...

I am 24! Whoop.

I was entirely spoiled by all of my lady loves at work! They take such great care of me and made me have the best day ever! We ordered giant pizza's from Bellagio's for lunch... and they were SO darn tasty!

I love all things jalapeno, so of course we got a jalapeno pizza and jalapeno bread sticks! Haha do they know me or what?





Robin and Beth made me a fantastic birthday cake... banana is my fave! Banana cake filled with whipped cream and fresh bananas and frosted in chocolate whipped cream!





Thanks to my ladies at work for taking such great care of me on my birthday! And also thanks to the health inspector for NOT coming on my birthday, unlike LAST YEAR!





And also a HUGE thank you to my very special Mr. Johnson for spoiling me like crazy on my 24th! He took me out to a fantastic and beautiful dinner followed by mass shopping! It was a really great evening!



Have a great week and love the sun because soon it will be 8 months of total downpour.

So close...

Boy am I a busy lady lately. So much work and planning for my VACATION! Yes! I get a whole week of vacation coming in two weeks.

I am going to Salt Lake City and American Fork for the most part of my vacation. My girlfriend Ashley is getting married on the 13th of August and I am doing her wedding cake. It will be at the gorgeous Joseph Smith Memorial building! So lots of work has been going into getting prepared!

And also it is wedding cake season in the bakery! Which means lots of sweat and hard work.




Just a couple of quick cakes...


Yellow with cream cheese filling



Chocolate cake with a pastry cream and ganache layered filling



Chocolate cake with raspberry buttercream filling



We have been spending lots of time at the orchard house, picking lots of fresh fruit. We have raspberry bushes, 10 apple trees, and a huge cherry tree. So much good stuff. Hy spends a lot of time messing around in the orchard, while I lay in the grass and read. Good stuff!

It has a couple of really run down old buildings on the property, which I love to explore.




One place I wont go down however, is the wine cellar. It is super creepy with dirt floors and no electricity. Pitch black... no thanks.



After further review, we have decided that the people we rescued Rueger from were not entirely truthful about his breed...SHOCKING RIGHT?!

We have finally decided that he looks like a Pit Bull/ Rottweiler mix. The features are spot on and when we looked up some dogs of that mix... it was pretty dang close.

I understand why they would want to keep that under wraps though. Both of the breeds by themselves have a bad reputation...

But this little boy



He is the toughest of them all...



Yeah right! What a sweetheart.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week! I am hanging on for 2 more weeks until my vacation!!

Life Long Friends

I am so happy and so tired this weekend! I just spent the last 5 days with my oldest friend on the planet, who is also my first cousin, Sarah-Beth! We went all over and did so many things, and now I am pooped. And also sick. *Thanks for the cold Sarah!!

We went to breakfast in Portland at City, State, Diner. It was so tasty. Although we had to park a few blocks away. But it was alright because we found this...



We made cupcakes for a BBQ in Portland on the 4th. It was at my girlfriend Rachel's house, who is not only a fabulous chef, but a fantastic hostess as well.

-Spicy chocolate cupcakes with a salted Dulce De Leche BC





- Lime cupcakes with rum BC and either salt or lime




The BBQ was really fantastic. It was a fiesta!


Us on the way!



Loads of Hula hooping





Totally tasty food



And great company!





We lit off lots of fireworks and enjoyed the show!









The next day we headed to the beach, by way of the back roads...




It was a gorgeous day and the company was EVEN BETTER!














Jeeze what else did we do?

We got pedicures



Sat around and ate cheetos



And ate out way too much!





I did a few goodies for the holidays and other cakes, but that will have to wait for another day! Have a good night!



*Strong in the Broken Places*

Busy Bee

Let's see, where to begin? Wedding season has gone into full swing in the bakery! Along with the craziness of father's day,graduation,and getting ready for the 4th of July!




Speaking of work, I was making pie dough on the 60 quart mixer with the blade attachment, and to make a long story short, I got my hand caught. It's been a week, and I am finally getting some of my flexibility back in it. The bruising has slowed down but my hand is still swollen. I can't wear my wedding rings, but I guess it doesn't really matter seeing as they were so bent that they had to be sent away. I won't get them back for another week at least! Lame.



My garden has been blowing up and everything is looking really gorgeous.



I bake for Hy every Sunday before he heads out for the week, so he always has goodies while he is away. (He is done being gone for a little while!)

This time I made chocolate cheesecake cupcakes. The cake is a vegan chocolate base, the center is a cheesecake base with chocolate chunks. No frosting necessary. We love them and I am working on different varieties!

*Ignore my overworked cupcake pans! Ahem Santa...





What else??

My very wonderful friend Ashley came to visit me! She is living in Seattle and took the 3 hour drive to our house so we could play! I am doing her wedding cake in August and after getting down to business, we were able to play in Portland!

We had lunch at Joe's on the river. It was uber tasty. It was also Ashley's first foray into crab!



She liked it!



This is her fiance David. He is a very nice guy and they are fantastic for each other!







We went to the Rose Garden, which wasn't very bloomed. Although, what was bloomed was lovely!











After that, we ran all over and played!





I'm SO glad that they came. It was such a nice break!

Puppies are good! Rue is a weird little sleeper! He prefers to only sleep on his back. On his back and between us in bed is his very favorite!



But sometimes he is so tired it doesn't really matter where he sleeps!





-Sarah, my cousin and wonderful friend, is coming on Sunday for 5 days! I am so stoked!
-The Blues and Jazz festival is happening next week! Major score!
-I am in love with this cake right now




Have a fantastic week!