So little time these days to spend time in front of the computer to actually get it all down. This past week was Thanksgiving and my youngest son’s 5th birthday. I co-chair a charity event for the library that Mark Twain started a hundred years ago which is happening this Friday. About 500 people are expected to come to the champagne gala and buy fabulous art by many local artists. Then the following week I’m co-organizing a holiday party for 75-100 people. Then several days later I’ve got our cooking club going to a demonstration by a local chef in a neighboring town.
Ok, so then I also work from home, have 3 kids with growing homework expectations and a teething puppy. I am not doing so much come next year! I won’t be doing the library gig. I will try to turn over some of the other event planning stuff to others (it’s not like I’m getting paid for any of this). And then I will give more time to my family, my house and getting my business off the ground.
Well, the one thing that has really suffered is my attention to this blog. I have wanted to take the time, because I love to write and I always hope by sharing that I will inspire others to cook.
One thing I created this past week (besides a wonderful turkey feast on Thanksgiving) that I was very proud of was the cake I made for my son’s birthday. 
If anyone would have suggested that I could have made this a couple of years ago, I would have thought they were nuts. I’d never been the baker or cake decorator. I’ve surprised myself many times now over the past year and a half so now I think I can take on a lot more challenges. But what I cannot still get is ice cream cake. I just am not giving myself enough time to make sure the ice cream is frozen and stays that way until we cut into it.
My son wanted a Mario cake (as in Mario from the video games) and I would have probably bought a store made one if I could have found one. I don’t like all the ingredients usually used but it’s for a rare occasion; plus I did use food coloring on my cake. I made three layers of cake with vanilla ice cream in between. I made two layers of vanilla cake adapted from a Magnolia Bakery cookbook recipe and one layer of chocolate cake that I made from a Trader Joe’s box. I then made a butter cream frosting (crumb frosting) and dyed some blue as Mario’s overalls. Then I made a fondant out of marshmallows. I divided the fondant and colored sections to make up Mario’s face, hat, shirt, mustache, hair and the buttons. This took time. A lot of time. I did lose patience with the kids because not only did they want to help, which was fine earlier for other parts but this— nah. And then they were bickering and the dog was needing attention. So I lost it but once they were busy again elsewhere with my husband I could get back to it.
My sons loved it, especially my birthday boy! The cake itself tasted great. Now to learn how to make ice cream cake that won’t melt away. Maybe I’ll find time to read a recipe.
