Pineapple Rum Cake

My best friend requested I make a cake that had pineapple and rum in it and this is what I came up with. It tastes better if you make it a day or two ahead of time. Don't worry about it drying out, it's nearly impossible with all the rum its soaked in!

Feel free to use less rum if you want, but we like our cakes full of booze over here!  

Pineapple Rum Cake

Preheat the oven to 325

For the pineapple layer:

2/3 C brown sugar

1/3 C water

5 Tbsp butter

1-20 oz. can of sliced pineapple in juice

Melt the first three ingredients together in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Simmer for about 6 minutes, or until it has thickened slightly. Pour into a greased 13x9 nonstick pan. Drain pineapple and reserve juice separately. Arrange pineapple slices over the brown sugar mixture. 

Now, prepare the batter:

1-box yellow cake mix

3 eggs, beaten

1 C buttermilk*

1/4 C water

1/4 C olive oil

1/4 C melted butter 

*if you don't have buttermilk use 1 C milk+1 Tbsp vinegar

Mix all ingredients until just combined. Pour batter over pineapples and bake for 35 min or until done. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, invert it over a serving platter or large, rimmed cookie sheet. Let it sit a minute or two and slowly remove the cake pan. If any of the pineapple sticks, you can just place it back on the top of the cake and no one will know! 

Mix together and pour over warm cake:

4 Tbsp pineapple juice 

3/4 C dark rum (use the good stuff!) 

Serve with pineapple whipped cream:

1 pint heavy whipping cream

4 Tbsp pineapple juice 

2 Tbsp brown sugar 

1 tsp unflavored gelatin 

In a small microwave safe bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1 Tbsp of the pineapple juice. Start whipping the cream, sugar, and remaining juice. Melt gelatin mixture in the microwave for about 15 seconds. When the cream forms soft peaks, add liquid gelatin mixture and incorporate well. Serve over cake and enjoy! 

OPI Pussy Galore

Pussy Galore. What can I say about you? You are pink....very pink. And full of sparkles. And I like you. 

This is the final Bond Girl I have to show you guys. I love this color, which is surprising. I'm not usually a fan of baby pink-way too girly for me! I think it's a combination of the texture and slight cool undertones that make this one wearable for me. It also has small dark pink glitter particles in the baby pink base. It adds some visual interest and I like that. Plus, I'm just waiting for someone to ask what I have on my nails so I can tell them the name!

The formula was similar to the other Bond Girls, perfect consistency and fast drying. No complaints there! I used two coats and that was good enough for full coverage. 

Inside, artificial light.

Outside shade.

Full sun. 

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting

I used to be the one who baked every single thing from scratch. Then I had kids, and well, I realized there is no shame in using a boxed mix every once in a while! Anything that saves time is worth a try. The key to making a boxed mix taste homemade is to add your own spin to it, don't follow the directions on the box.

I never use frosting in a can because I think it tastes horrible, it's always sickeningly sweet. I love homemade whipped cream, and it is easier to make than other frostings. I don't add much sugar and I think it complements the rich cake perfectly. You might like yours more sweet-you can always add a little more sugar! I also like to add gelatin to the whipped cream to stabilize it. It won't deflate into a watery mess and you can have a perfect cake for days, that is if you can keep from stuffing your face :-)

Here is my go to cake recipe:

Chocolate Cake with Whipped Cream Frosting 

One box of Betty Crocker chocolate fudge cake mix

3 eggs, beaten 

1 1/2 C water

1/3 C olive oil

2/3 C Greek yogurt

2 tsp vanilla  

Preheat oven to 325 if you are using a nonstick pan, or 350 if you are using a glass pan. 

Mix everything together until just combined. Bake in a greased 13x9 pan for 30-35 minutes. Check it early, you don't want it to dry out! 

While cake is cooling gather these ingredients for your whipped cream frosting:

2 tsp unflavored gelatin (just under one envelope)

2 Tbsp cold water

1 pint heavy whipping cream 

2-3 Tbsp sugar

2 tsp vanilla, or one vanilla bean, scraped 

Put the water in a small microwave safe dish and sprinkle gelatin over it. Let it sit until the gelatin has absorbed all the water. Microwave for 15-30 seconds-it will melt, but be careful you don't want it boiling over. Oops, I may have done just that! Whip cream in a stand mixer, just before soft peaks form add the sugar, vanilla, and liquid gelatin mixture. Whip little longer to insure the ingredients are well combined. 

Frost the cake once it's completely cool. Now you're ready to eat! You can make this ahead of time, the whipped cream keeps its texture for at least a few days. I don't know exactly how long it will keep...c'mon it's cake! In my house? Me *and* my husband? Two days, max.

Enjoy! 

OPI Couture de Minnie

I was going to post this yesterday, but I ended up taking E to the doctor and I ran out of time. Good news is he doesn't have a skin infection on his foot. He is just *really* allergic to insect/spider bites. What a relief! 

I have two polishes from the OPI Couture de Minnie Collection that will be released June. I lucked out because Ulta had them displayed early. Woohoo! I have always loved Minnie Mouse, so I think I'll have to buy the rest of the set. The bottle I'm holding is called Innie Minnie Mighty Bow. It's a beautiful blue toned red. It has a little bit of shimmer, but it's almost invisible unless you're in direct sun. I bought this one because I wanted something to go with the glitter, which is what my heart was really after! I think I only have two other reds, and they weren't exactly the right shade. I figured I might as well buy them together, they're part of a set so they'd complement each other, right? Well, it turns out that it looks even better than I imagined. IMMB has a perfect formula, it covered well with one coat, but I added a second just to make sure it looked its best in the photographs. It was really fast drying, too.

The glitter is called Minnie Style, and it's a mixture of matte white hexagons, and shiny pink and red hexagons. It was a little thick, but I added some Zoya thinner and it was fine after that. I dabbed the glitter on with the brush instead of brushing it on like I normally would. It distributed more evenly that way. I love the way these two polishes look together. Perfect!

Shade

Full sun.

Flash.

OPI Glacier Bay Blues

Glacier Bay Blues is an old black label OPI from their Canadian Collection, Fall 2004. It is discontinued, so when I found it on Amazon I had to get it. I think I paid about ten bucks. Not bad! I am completely head over heels in love with this color. It is absolutely breath taking! I thought it was a teal/purple duochrome but once I put it on I realized it's more of a dark purple, green, royal blue multichrome. Love it! The photographs show the blue and green shades accurately but try as I might I cannot capture the beauty of the purple. You have to see it in person!

The only complaint I have with this polish is the formula. Saying it was a challenge to work with would be a huge understatement. Maybe I am just used to working with the newer Three Free polishes, I don't know. But this was a watery, cuticle-flooding disaster. And it was still patchy at three coats, so I had to add a fourth. Next time I wear it I'll probably layer two coats over black. Lastly, my fast dry topcoat, which works perfectly with EVERY OTHER polish I own didn't work well with GBB. It dented easily three hours after I put it on. 

Inside, filtered sunlight.

Outside, shade.

I love the way it looks in the bottle!

Outside, full sun. The purple you see in the bottle was the best representation I could get with my camera.

Inside.

This is a terrible, blurry, awful picture but I had to include it. It shows the green beautifully! Do I win an award for most awkward hand pose of all time? Arrrgggg The Claw!!!!

L'Oreal New Money

I hope all you moms out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I enjoyed my weekend, and took some time off from my blog and work for Fit Mom Diet. The boys took me out to breakfast yesterday, cleaned the house, and let me relax. It was the best Mother's Day I've had yet. 

This is New Money by L'Oreal. I saw it at Target, and loved the color as soon as I laid eyes on it. It is a beautiful shade of chartreuse and I had to get it since its unique to my collection.  I was so impressed with the brush and the formula. It was a cinch to put on, the brush is thick, short, and rounded. I think it would be hard to mess up the application with such a perfect brush. The formula was the right consistency and covered well with two medium coats. It also dried lightening fast. I'll definitely have to buy more of their colors. The only downside I found was the size. The bottles are only a little over 11ml, and most of the other polishes I have are 15ml. It was cheaper, but I'd rather pay a few dollars more and get more polish! This color is so pretty, the pictures don't quite do it justice. 

Shade

Shade

Direct sun

With flash

OPI Vesper

This is the third Bond Girls Liquid Sand I have to show you guys. It's a really interesting polish. It looks maroon in the bottle, purple at one coat, and almost black at two coats. It has tiny particles of black and white glitter. It isn't the same shiny glitter as Jinx or Solitaire, it looks more like actual pieces of sand. The texture is also grittier, which I don't mind at all. It was more difficult to work with than the other Liquid Sands. I found if I put it on too thick it was really patchy-purple with black globs. Not good! The second time I wore it (what you see here) I was meticulous with the application and it looked ten times better!

I'm positing from my phone so it's much easier to put all the pictures at the end. Love this one, it wears like a coat of cement, too!

 

FireStorm

I love this manicure! I started with a base coat of Zoya Heidi, over that I sponged Zoya Sharon, OPI A Roll in The Hague, and Essie Watermelon. I liked the gradient and I wore it for a day just like that. Then, not surprisingly, I got bored. I didn't want to run to Sally's to pick up some striping tape so I just cut thin strips of scotch tape instead. I taped off each nail and used one thick coat of Zoya Storm over the top. I like the way they came out- but they aren't perfect so don't look too closely! 

Before the Storm hits. See what I did there? ;-)

The lines kind of remind me of lasers. I like that it's a bit edgy.

You can see the small holographic particles better here. 

Shhh, don't tell anyone my edges aren't perfect!

Fever=No Sleep for Mama

I was going to post something this weekend but E has been sick. I don't think I've gotten more than three or four hours of sleep a night for...well, I'm so tired I can't even remember! I think it's been four nights of terrible sleep. He seems fine during the day, but the nights are rough. He falls asleep ok, but he is restless and cries a lot. I slept many hours in the recliner holding him. Now I think I'll have to make my first ever chiropractic appointment. Ouch.

Yesterday my husband made breakfast, and dinner! He also ran some errands for me, did five loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen...I am one lucky lady! I haven't had a break in a long time, sometimes I think staying at home is harder than having a job in the outside world. Well, at least for me :-)

Hopefully tonight will be a better night. What do you moms out there do when your little ones are feverish? Any tips or tricks you swear by?

Here is a photo of a manicure I did weeks ago. I am glad I have some of these saved up! This is OPI Live and Let Die over Zoya Ali. I love the almost-black green and hot pink together. And, yes, even a post about a sick baby has to have nail polish included somehow!

OPI Solitaire

Solitaire and Jinx are my favorites from the Bond Girls Collection. I am not a huge fan of white but this has texture and sparkle, which I think keeps it from looking too harsh. Solitaire has little tiny bits of silver/black glitter in a silvery-white base. You look at it one way and it's obviously silver, but if you look again it looks black. Very cool! The glitter is sparse, which I think makes it looks even more interesting. The Liquid Sand texture fits perfectly here. It reminds me of snow, if you look closely you can see little tiny particles of glitter that look like ice crystals. 

I used three coats here, mainly because I'm a habitual three-coater. But I could have gotten by with two. The formula was great, it went on perfectly and it was easy to control the amount of polish coming off the brush. No cuticle flooding here-I didn't even have to do any clean up! Every time I look at this I love it more and more. I'll need to get another bottle because this is definitely back-up worthy. Love it!

Shade.

See the tiny bits of sparkle? Love it!

In full sun you can see the texture very well.

With flash.

Classic Pancakes

I must be mom of the week in my son's eyes! We had pancakes yesterday for breakfast, and again today for lunch. I had some changes to make before my recipe was just right. I am pleased with the results, and know you will be too! When I was growing up we always had whole wheat pancakes because my mom almost never used white flour. I love whole wheat pancakes, but sometimes I want something bad. And by bad I mean so, so good. This is what I came up with!

Classic Pancakes

1 1/2 C flour
1 Tbsp+1 tsp baking powder
Dash of salt
3 Tbsp white sugar
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1/2 C whole milk
3/4 C coconut milk
1/2 C water
1 egg, well beaten

Sift well, then mix dry ingredients together. Add melted butter to milk and water, mix together. Add wet ingredients to dry, add the egg, and mix just enough to combine. You don't want to over mix your batter unless you're okay with eating hockey pucks. Lumps are okay-we love lumpy pancake batter! Let batter sit for about ten minutes before cooking. Heat an electric skillet to 350*, or a non stick skillet to medium high heat. Use butter or cooking spray in skillet. Cook on one side until the bubbles have popped and don't close over again. Flip and cook until browned on the other side. Using 1/3 C scoop to measure batter will yield 12 large pancakes.

OPI Too Hot Pink to Hold 'Em

I found this polish in the sale bin at Ulta for $4.95. Score! I missed out on the Texas Collection, Spring 2011. I've heard the non-jelly polishes in the collection have a terrible formula, so I moved on and forgot about it....until yesterday. While at Ulta to pick up the two of the Bond Girls I looked in their sale bin. This was the only OPI they had that wasn't a taupe, or something I already owned. I did a little research (yay for smartphones!) and confirmed it was a jelly. Jellies are my favorite finish so I was thrilled! After testing it out I'm even happier. This was by far the best formula of any polish I've ever used. It was amazing! It was just the right consistency, covered completely in one coat, and was self leveling. I did three coats here because it looked best that way. I could have done one for sure, it was that even and shiny. I actually think using my topcoat dulled the shine a bit. 

Indoors, with no topcoat. Shiniest polish I have!

Shade.

Full sun. Love this color, it is so happy and bright!

Artificial light.