Too Hot For Pugs and an Apple Berry Crisp

I took Crockett for a nice walk in the park mid-morning today and it was too hot. Spring and Fall are perfect Pug seasons. What I will have to get back into now is waking up with the sun on the weekends to take him for our walk before it gets too hot.

My walks with Crockett are one of my favorite things in life. They renew me and I know he LOVES it.

Even though it was warm this afternoon & I didn't really want to turn the oven on, I wanted to make an apple berry crisp for dessert.  It is my Mom's recipe. It doesn't look as good as hers does but if it tastes as good as it smells then I hit a home run.  

Birthday Cake FAIL

Today is my Mom's 78th Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

She is spending it with my brother & his family so I decided to make

a nice cake for them to enjoy with what I'm sure will be an awesome BBQ.

This was my inspiration.

Source : Google Images

So, I made 4 cakes.

I know, 1 is a different size.

I thought I needed a bigger one for the base.

After they cooled down,

I sliced my pieces from each cake.

They all cut quite well.

I put them in the fridge for a hour.

I think the colors came out well.

The yellow was my favourite.

Probably because it looks the most like cake.

The icing was where I felt myself go to bits.

I started to panic as my kitchen was so hot.

The window was closed due to the humidity outside and the sun

was beaming in the window onto the counter right where I was working.

I cracked open a Mott's Clamato Caesar (see Project 365) and carried on.

I trimmed the edges and I must say at this stage, I am happy with my cake.

When it was finally iced, I was disappointed.

The cake was the perfect temperature to ice but the icing itself was too hot.

I wanted it to be a perfect smooth white block.





I camouflaged my messy cake with funky candles & dolly mixture.

Sadly, the color of the cakes could be seen through the icing :(

I was hoping for a "wow!" reaction when the cake was cut.

Oh well, this was my first try at this kind of cake.

I know my Mom will appreciate the effort.

They swung by about 15 minutes ago on their way to Phil's to pick it up.

I'm looking forward to their critique.

Until then, I'll have another Caesar!

Apple Loaf

I had an uncomfortable day Saturday.

Bruxism got the better of me and I woke up

with my shovel to the face feeling headache.

On my last visit to the MD she gave me a prescription for something

a little stronger than OTC pain relievers.

Sadly, the prescription is sitting in my drawer.

3 doses of Extra Strength Motrin didn't do it.

A hot facecloth on the forehead is in order.

Note to self:  Stop procrastinating.

I wasn't really in the mood to cook anything for dinner.

Adam did himself a fast fry steak so he was good.

I settled for a bowl of porridge.

Sadly, I added too much water & it was more like oatmeal soup.

As I had to stay in the kitchen to watch and stir my oatmeal in the

hopes it would thicken, I decided to bake a cake.

My Mom gave me the cookbook: 

Company's Coming: Muffins & More

by Jean Paré

I decided on this, only I don't have a loaf pan.

Since I used a square pan, I didn't bake it for 60 minutes.

I reduced it to 40 minutes and it was perfect.

Also, being that I'm allergic to nuts, I left them out

and didn't substitute them with anything else.

It came out of the pan cleanly and solid.

The top is good and crunchy and the inside with the grated

apple is really moist.

It cut really well and both Adam & I enjoyed it.

If I can create this while watching and stirring my oatmeal

almost non-stop, ANYONE can do it.

I'm 2 for 2 lately with my baking!

Nothing burned and completely yummy.

Which is good, because my oatmeal never fully recovered

and was not quite edible.

I had a square of Apple Loaf for dinner.

Sunday's breakfast?  Oatmeal.

Something I've started to do recently is write in my cookbooks

on the page, the date I made the recipe.

I don't know why.

Just because.