Piper's Birthday Cake: Cinnamon Cake with Cream Cheese and Pear Frosting

This cinnamon cake with cream cheese and pear frosting was Piper's birthday cake.  It was very good.  Almost like a coffee cake - it would have been a wonderful breakfast treat.  Really easy too.  I used angry chicken's Friday Cake recipe as our starting point.

Cadence helped me make the batter.  Actually, it felt like all I did was gather the proper ingredients and read the recipe.

 The frosting was an experiment and I'm so glad it turned out well!  All you need is cream cheese and pear preserves.

Into the mixer!

I just whirred up the cream cheese and pear preserves on high speed until the preserves were pretty well incorporated.  If I had chopped up the pear pieces in advance it would have gone faster, but this was less work for me.

When the cake was cool, I just spread on the batter, then sprinkled it with some cinnamon and a bit of brown sugar.  I really liked that this cake was dense, and the cinnamon flavor was lovely.  I also loved that the frosting was not too sweet.  A good birthday cake for a one year old.

Cinnamon Cake
(adapted from angry chicken's Friday Cake recipe)

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup melted butter
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix it all up in a bowl and pour into a small round cake pan.  (I think we may have used a glass pie pan - it worked too.)  Bake at 375 for 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool then frost with...

Cream Cheese and Pear Frosting

• 4 oz. (half a package) cream cheese, softened (I almost always use reduced fat)
• 1/2 cup pear preserves

Whiz the cream cheese and pear preserves in a stand mixer on high speed until pieces are broken up and texture looks good to you.  

I think we'll try this cake again (possibly for Cadence's upcoming b-day).  For her, I'd sub cocoa powder for the whole wheat flour and strawberry jelly for the pear preserves.

 

Here's Piper enjoying her slice.

I think it's safe to say it was a hit, since she's shoving it into her mouth.

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Piper is one!

 

I feel like I should say this year has zipped by, but it didn't feel that way. I think we really got to enjoy this year, with each season and phase, even though going from one kid to two was much, much harder for me than I expected. Nonetheless, Piper is a great little girl.

So what's Piper like at 1?

She LOVES food. Any food. She will steal it off your plate at any opportunity. When I was planning her birthday dinner I asked Matt what her favorite food was. His reply: "Food." So true. For her birthday we went with macaroni and cheese, mashed sweet potatoes, and peas.

We're going to go ahead and call it for her first word: "Hi." She's been using it in context for a few weeks now. Also uses Dada correctly. She just started saying Mama. (Thanks a lot, kid.)

Her newest trick is giving a high five.  It's super cute.  Wait, no.  Her newest trick is climbing the stairs.  She went all the way up them yesterday, with me following behind her of course.  We're going to have to order one of those baby gate fences to keep her off them because she is so fast!

More pictures of birthday fun stuff to come.  We're throwing a joint birthday ice cream party for both girls this weekend.  And I made a really tasty cake for P's bday - I'll be sharing the recipe soon!

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First Day of Preschool!

Well, a very excited little girl went off to preschool this morning.  Wearing her new sparkly pink shoes and a nervous grin.  Now Piper and I have to figure out what to do with ourselves two mornings a week.

{this moment}

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the best homemade pizza! (i've ever made)

I've been making homemade pizza for awhile and have been using a pizza crust recipe I think I found on Money Saving Mom.  It was good.  It's whole wheat.  It came out thicker and chewier than we prefer, but it mixed in the bread machine, which was nice.  Then, I got this idea to use the artisan bread in five minutes a day dough (I make this sometimes, I blogged about it here - so go there if you want to read how I do it, and you can see the recipe and read about the details here, or buy the book) as pizza crust and oh.my.goodness.  It's better than good.  Thin and crispy like we like!  And SUPER EASY.

The artisan bread in five minutes a day dough is so easy - water, flour, yeast stirred up and thrown in the fridge - it's kind of ridiculous.  If you like bread, you should try it.  And I have to say now that I am sure I can use the dough for pizza, I'll be making it more.

Here's the dough rolled out on the pizza stone.  I liberally sprinkled the stone with cornmeal before slapping the dough on there and using my (floured) hands to shape it.  The big circle is for Matt and I and the small loafish piece is for Cadence. Because she's picky.

Cadence's is topped with ricotta and a shredded cheese blend.  The grown-up one has ricotta, sliced tomatoes (from the garden), fresh basil, pepperoni, and a shredded cheese blend.

I baked it at 450 for about 20 minutes.  Which may have been a bit long, looking at the cheese, but it was still super yummy.

Nom. Nom. Nom.  The leftover pizza has been in high demand.  

Linking up to: A Glimpse Inside Catch a Glimpse Party and Tatertots and Jello's Weekend Wrap-Up Party

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama, {this moment} is a single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Mama & Me Decorating: Tissue Paper Decoupaged Stool

We have this little white stool that has seen better days.  When Cadence was around 16 months maybe she started flipping it over and scooting it along our tile floors, so the top was pretty roughed up.  Since then, I wanted to decoupage it and when we started our sun themed activities last week, it was the perfect opportunity to snazz it up.

This was a zero cost decorating project too!  Our only supplies were tissue paper out of our gift wrapping supplies and some decoupage medium we had (you can make your own decoupage stuff with white glue and a little water too).  We decided to decorate the stool with a sky background, and clouds, and of course, the sun. We got started by tearing up the tissue paper. 

Cadence brushed on the decoupage medium and stuck on the tissue paper. 

I would say that this was a much more mama-directed art activity than we usually do, even though Cadence still did most of it.  I especially encouraged her not to make the clouds too big and I tore most of the pieces for the sun, then let her decide where to put them.

Once we finished, you can still see some of the stool, particularly the rough edges, through the paper, but I'm okay with that.  I coated it with polyurethane, which we had on hand.

 

 

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Today's Harvest

"When I get bigger, I'm going to eat giant tomatoes." ~Cadence

{this moment}

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first day: august

 

Theme of the Week: Sun

Reading: Hello, Sun! : A Morningtime Tale of God's Great Care by Walsh, The Sun is My Favorite Star by Asch, and Sun Up, Sun Down by Gibbons

Music: Have a "Mr. Golden Sun" parade!  Outside, in the sun, of course.

Letter Awareness: S is for Sun

Art: A paper plate sunshine inspired by this one here, and a fun decorating project where we will make-over her little white stool with some sun artwork.  There's another post about that coming soon- here's a preview pic!

Linking up to: No Time for Flashcards and Tuesday Tots