The Stats Don't Lie

Well, it's official. I've been checking out my blog stats and my most popular post is..... Tasty Tuesday: Dinosaur Cake! It has 150 views! Yeah, that's right. I said 150. Don't laugh at me. I have a small-town blog. Actually, it may be more like a village. No, what's smaller than that? A hamlet? My blog is a hamlet. No politics or religion found here! (Seriously, that's the difference between a village and a hamlet; look it up!)

Slowly rising to star status!

Anyway. My second place post only has 30 views, so I'd say my dinosaur cake is the winner by a long shot. If you are unfamiliar with that post, go check it out and maybe I can make it to 200 views! It's not surprising that 8 out of the10 keyword search phrases that led to my blog have something to do with making a dinosaur cake. The majority of the traffic for this post happened this past January, so some lucky kids must have had some dinosaur birthdays to celebrate last month! Let's hope their cakes turned out better than my last birthday cake did!

And one of my top traffic sources? One Blonde Girl. (Thank you, OBG. Even though you don't comment, read, blog, or even essentially exist anymore, at least you are still good for something! XOXO).


P.S. Can someone please tell me how to include the "You Might Like" feature at the end of each blog? I'm looking at you, OBG!

Wordless Wednesday (Kind of): HAPPI...

My birthday was on January 17th. This was my cake:

You may be thinking, Awww. How nice. Owen decorated a cake for his mommy!

And you would be wrong.

This lovely creation was (primarily) decorated by someone who does not plan ahead to make sure there are sufficient cake decorations in the pantry. In a word, Daddio.

(With some help from Owen).

Wordless Wednesday: Let them eat cake!

Tasty Tuesday: Dinosaur Cake

I was having a very difficult time deciding what theme to choose for Ben's first birthday, (but technically his second party). I asked the boys what I should do for his (second) cake and Sam said a dinosaur, while Owen said a house (which is what we did for his first cake). Sam won and for whatever reason, I was feeling very adventurous and decided to make the cake myself. I found some directions and templates online at two different sites (here and here) and sort of did a mix of the two. Here is a step-by-step of what I did:

What you will need (for MY version):

*Two different cake mixes
*Two 8-inch round cake pans
*Four cupcakes
*Frosting
*Food coloring
*Decorator's frosting in a tube
*Graham cracker crumbs
*Patience

Step 1. Prepare cakes according to package directions. (I used 1 dark chocolate and 1 classic yellow mix, but this is completely optional, as you can make this same cake with just one mix, but I chose to be complicated by having more than one flavor cake). Pour half of each mix into lightly greased cake pans. (I used the rest of the cake batter to make cupcakes to freeze for another time). Bake according to package directions.

Yin and Yang

Step 2. Allow cakes to cool completely. (There may be a SLIGHT chance that I put more chocolate batter in the pan than yellow. But no biggie; everyone knows chocolate is better anyway.)

Step 3. Cut each cake in half. Use frosting (I used a can of classic white frosting) to join the two cakes together, round sides facing out. Frost the flat side before placing on a tray to ensure the cakes stay firmly in place. Seal both cakes together with frosting, (See photo in Step 4) to even out any inconsistencies in cake size. (This is especially important if your chocolate cake turned out twice the size of your yellow cake). This will also help to seal in any lose crumbs before applying the final layer of frosting.

"Two players, two sides-one is light, one is dark."