Irish Cream Cake

More like Irish Dream Cake!

I made this for a lovely St. Patrick's Day feast that I had a friends house.  Her husband is a great cook and I must say,  I ate the most delicious Corned Beef I have ever eaten!  I brought this cake for dessert.  It was a big hit with everyone.  I had a ton left over, so my mom got to try it as well.  Yum!  It definitely can be eaten all year long!

You can find this recipe at Betty Crocker

Irish Cream Cake:

1

box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® devil’s food cake mix

1

box (4-serving size) chocolate instant pudding and pie filling mix

4

eggs

1/3

cup vegetable oil

1

cup Irish cream liqueur

1

cup sour cream

Irish Cream Frosting:

     1       cup butter, softened

     4oz   (half of 8-oz package) cream cheese, softened

3

cups powdered sugar

1/4

cup Irish cream liqueur

1

teaspoon vanilla

Chocolate Glaze:

4

oz bittersweet baking chocolate, chopped

1/2

cup whipping cream

1/4

cup light corn syrup

2

teaspoons vanilla

1/3

cup sliced almonds, toasted

• 1Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Spray 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with cooking spray.
• 2In large bowl, beat all cake ingredients with electric mixer on medium speed 5 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally, until well blended. Pour batter into pans. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove cakes from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely.
• 3In large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating until blended. Add 1/4 cup liqueur and 1 teaspoon vanilla; beat until frosting is smooth and spreadable.
• 4Place 1 cake layer on serving plate; spread with one-third of the frosting. Top with second layer. Frost side and top of cake with thin layer of frosting to seal in crumbs. Refrigerate 30 minutes. Frost cake with remaining frosting.
• 5Place chopped chocolate in small bowl. In small saucepan, heat whipping cream over medium heat until bubbles form around edge. Pour warm cream over chocolate; let stand 1 minute. Stir with whisk until chocolate is melted. Add corn syrup and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Stir until smooth. Let stand 10 minutes or until thickened.
• 6Pour glaze on top of cake, letting some glaze drip down side. Sprinkle almonds around edge of cake. Store in refrigerator.

Electric Run, San Diego

Last weekend, I was able to run the Electric Run, in San Diego.  A few friends from high school, college, and church joined in.

We had a lot of fun.  Most of us have done the Color Run before and loved it, but for some reason we just had soooo much fun doing this race.  Even though a friend lost her license on the course!

It was held at night, so that we could be seen in all of our glow stick, bracelet, necklace, and glasses glory!  It did rain a bit, but spirits were high.

It was neat, because we got to run on the actual race track at Del Mar race track. fairgrounds!

We got these bright bracelets as part of our race fee.

We got to run through some of the buildings, I think this is where live stock is kept for the fair.

Arches of glowy-ness!

The finish line!

The Palm Springs Half Marathon

Fourteen weeks ago, I started a running club at my school.  This is something I had wanted to do for a while, because I enjoy running and I thought my students would truly benefit, since we do not have sports at our school.  It is completely focused on academics.

I was the coach and I trained 10 students and seven went on to run the Palm Springs Half Marathon yesterday.

I was able to work with a non-profit organization that provided new running shoes to students that did a required amount of runs and the organization also paid their entry fee to the race.

The students really enjoyed the race and they seemed pretty excited about their accomplishment!

I am proud of all of them, because when we first started, they had a hard time even running/ walking for 20 minutes.  Now, they have gone 13.1 miles!

Classic Tomato Soup Cake

My mom has this cookbook called:  'The Back of the Box Gourmet'.  She has had it for a looooong time.  In fact, she's had it so long, that I decided I wanted one of my own and a few years ago, I purchased my own copy.

BUT I CANNOT FIND IT ANYWHERE!  Ugh.   Don't things like that bother you so much?

I had wanted to try this recipe for quite some time.  I borrowed my mom's cookbook the other day and got to work.


Poor lighting? Of course.  Does it still look tempting?  I hope so!

Here is the recipe for 'Classic Tomato Soup Cake:
(I'll include the little diddy from the book as well.)

Sometimes called Tomato Cake or Mystery Cake, the otherwise fairly traditional spice cake gains moisture,a touch of flavor and an attractive reddish-orange color from the can of tomato soup in the batter.  When you think about it, it's no odder that using mayonnaise or salad dressing, now is it?

2         cups all-purpose flour
1-1/3   cups sugar
4         teaspoons baking powder
1         teaspoon baking soda
1-1/2   teaspoons ground allspice
1         teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2      teaspoon ground cloves
1         can (10-3/4 ounces) CAMPBELL'S condensed Tomato Soup
1/2      cup shortening
2         eggs
1/4      cup water



1.  Preheat oven to 350ºF.  grease and flour two 8-inch round cake pans.  (I used a bundt.)

2.  In large bowl, combine all ingredients.  With mixer at low speed, beat until well mixed, constantly scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  At high speed, beat 4 minutes, occasionally scraping bowl.  Pour into prepared pan(s).

3.  Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan(s) on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans; cool completely.  Frost with your favorite cream cheese frosting if desired.  Makes 12 servings.  (I made a half batch of 5 minute frosting on the back of the powdered sugar box.)

5 Minute Buttercream Frosting Recipe

1      lb. box of C&H Pure Cane Powdered Sugar
1/4   cup milk
1      tsp. vanilla extract
1      stick salted butter (softened)

Beat with electric mixer 2 minutes, scraping bowl often.  For thinner consistency add milk a little at a time.  Frosts one 8-inch 2-layer cake.


GILDING THE LILY:  Add 1 cup raisins and/or 1 cup walnuts to the batter.  Frost with vanilla frosting.


**BTW this is soooooo good!**

Spirit Project

Last week, I got an e-mail from Netflix, which is normal, because I have long been a subscriber to their movie and TV show services.  But, this e-mail was different:

I sent along the following information and the photo below:

Name:  Tiffiny

Age: 28

I have been a Netflix subscriber for three years or so.

I am a high school Art teacher and I love working with my students, but sometimes, it is nice to open my mailbox, grab my movie and sit down and relax.  Netflix makes that possible by shipping the movie straight to me, which allows be to be as lazy as I want.  It is even better when my friend and I are catching up on 'True Blood'.  We can be watching disc one on her account and I already have disc two on the way!

I was thinking to myself, "Perhaps they will choose me.  I am hip and cool."  Ha ha.  Well, low and behold, they moved me to the next round.  I then had to make a video and send it along to them on YouTube.  Now, I have a YouTube account, but I signed up for it in 2010 and have never used it for videos.  I had my friend at work film me a few times, but it was really horrible.  I was nervous, even though I was speaking to her and my phone.  Awful, just awful!  That night I filmed my information twice and just decided to send my second video.  Now, I do not think it is great at at all and in fact, I did not think that they would choose me after this.

At this point, I was under the impression that it would be a Netflix commercial or ad.

Here is my awful video:  Tiffiny's Horrible Netflix Video

I was supposed to find out today, if I got the gig, but I found out last night.  

And...  I got the job.  I learned these things today when the casting producer called me:

1.  I was chosen out of thousands of submissions!

2.  It is not going to be a commercial after all.  It is going to be a video, to thank all Netflix employees.  What they choose to do with the material beyond this video, is up to them.  So, it could be part of an ad or something, in the future if THEY so choose.  This in house video will be seen by thousands of Netflix employees.  Crazy!

3.  I get 6 months free on Netflix!

4.  Here is what they said to me in my last e-mail:

Dear Tiffiny,

The Neflix producers loved you!  Please email me your phone number so I can personally call you and discuss filming Saturday and if you're available to come up from Redlands.  

Thanks!

All in all, this is a pretty exciting thing to take part in.  It is my goal to start a side career in commercials this year and this is the first step.

Here's to stepping completely out of my comfort zone!