Making Rainbow Cake!!

This past week, we celebrated something really fun in our family!

Hunkahubby got his very own ART STUDIO and we had an opening reception/birthday celebration for him.

To commemorate the event - the kids and I decided to bake an extra special cake.

I had seen this rainbow cake online several times and wanted to try it (because I LOVE tie-dye) and thought this was a great opportunity to try it.

So following are some pictures from the cake making and then a few pictures from the reception!!

I cheated and didn't use the recipe listed in the link above - I just bought vanilla cake mix and butter cream icing.  Yum!

Divide the cake batter evenly into six bowls. 

Use Wilton food coloring gel and dye each bowl of batter to the desired color.   

I used rainbow order:

Red (not picture), Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple

For one pan, start with purple and pour in half of the mixture.  Pour in half the blue, half the green, half the yellow, half the orange and half the red.  Do not mix it up!

For the other half of the cake, do the opposite.  Start with red and go to purple.

Bake the cake per the instructions, let it cool and then ice the bottom half and stack the top half.

I was very sad to cover up the pretty colors!

To explain this next part - Jackson Pollock is one of Hunkahubby's favorite artists.

Here is an example of Pollock's work - "Galaxy":

So - I 'decorated' the cake with this in mind . . .

Big fun mess, right?

Also - Hunkahubby has a sculpture - HERMAN - who has appeared in several paintings

since his creation.  We love Herman.  He holds great meaning.

So I thought Herman should be on the cake.  Hunkahubby and I did our best to make

a Herman out of fondant and toothpicks.

Then HE got painted.  Herman is a part of the art, ya know!

I had bought an extra box of cake mix and the kids wanted to do their own - so we only used red and blue this time (Spiderman cake, in their words) and they helped ice and decorate a small flat cake and some cupcakes.

I was so excited to cut into the cake and see how it looked!  I was not disappointed! 

Here, my dear friend Mary is modeling the cake:

Taste the Rainbow, Mary!

The cake was a hit. 

And the guest of honor and his studio were a hit, as well!!

Here he is in front of his studio sign.  (Find out more at sketchbookdiaries.com).

And here we are - the whole family.

We are so proud of you!!!

Check him out!

I love my Hunkahubby.

Sketchbook Diaries

Update on Hunkahubby's Gorgeous No Matter What Face

In an earlier post I talked about Hunkahubby's diagnosis of Bell's Palsy. I thought I would show you how it has affected him so far - he is doing so much better, but you can tell it is not 100% back to where it was.

Here is Hunkahubby in July of 2008.



And here is Hunkahubby a few days after his diagnosis - this was probably the worst it got. In this picture he is trying with all his might to smile, but as you can tell, one side of his face is overcompensating, while the other side is doing nothing.



This is Hunkahubby today.



He still has issues with one of his eyes, and he isn't completely back to the way he was - but I think he is more beautiful today than he's ever been. We are so thankful that it wasn't something worse than it was.

Take time to tell the ones you love that you love them - and count your blessings - as even in stressful times . . . there are many things to be grateful for.

-Izzy

I'm so behind . . .

I'm trapped under a lot of papers. Can someone dig me out?

Until then - I'll give you a few pictures to update you on our lives . . . can someone please get me out of here? ;-)

A short recap -


a month or so ago - my oldest ended up in the hospital overnight with pneumonia. I had such fun sleeping on a hospital cot with a night nurse who I swear was typing a novel on the room computer at 3 a.m.

A couple weeks after that - my Daddy had to go and scare us all and have a mild heart attack. He is doing TONS better now and we are all really glad he is still here to be ornery and make us laugh.

About a week later, Hunkahubby woke up with no feeling in one side of his face, which was (after a fun trip to the ER) diagnosed as Bell's Palsy. (Of course, he is still sexy even when half of his face isn't cooperating.) He is doing better - and if I can get him to hold still long enough - I'll add a current picture of him.

Somewhere in all of this - we destroyed a turkey. (And boy was it GOOD.)

My children decided what they want to be when they grow up.

My awesome talented husband participated in two art shows.

We had another baby.

I got a BLUE tree in my bedroom this year. (YAY!!!)

And I grew out my hair . . .

Okay - a couple of these aren't exactly correct . . . but it makes life interesting, right?

Hope you are all enjoying this holiday season - and just in case your friendly neighborhood retail clerk hasn't told you - I will . . . MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Belated Birthday Post

So - Hunkahubby had a birthday this week.

And I've been too busy to post about it -- so I'll let you see the highlights . . .

Here he is on "party" day. Isn't he handsome??

Opening an ornery gift from my Dad.

the cake

the cheese bread (which accompanied the pizzas)

the brownies (are you hungry now? I am!)

the opening of presents (just for Sandy!)

Grandpa and Grandson (just cause they are so cute with their matching hair)

And a glimpse into what I gave Hunkahubby for his birthday on Monday.

I hope you had a great day honey! I love you so much!!!