Birthday Cake Fudge

No, it's not anyone's birthday around here but I wasn't about to let that stop me from making birthday cake fudge. You shouldn't let it stop you either as this fudge is just as delicious as you're no doubt already imagining. Seriously. Go make this now. Make it your Valentine's Day present to yourself.

I snagged the recipe from the kick-ass Mrs. Bettie Rocker, who is one of my favorite bloggers. She features some of the most amazing recipes out there and has a healthy appreciation for skulls. My kind of girl! Not only is her blog stylish (gotta love that red and turquoise combo) but it's also just the right amount of cutesy offset with plenty of sass. Check her out for some unbeatable recipes. Preferably once you've got a plateful of birthday cake fudge to keep you company.

Birthday Cake Fudge
Recipe from Mrs. Bettie Rocker

3 cups sugar
1 1/2 sticks margarine (I used one stick salted and 1/2 stick unsalted butter)
5 oz can (2/3 cup) evaporated milk
12 oz chopped white chocolate chips
7oz jar marshmallow creme
3 or 4 Tablespoons yellow cake mix (just the powdered MIX, not batter)
1 teaspoon vanilla
Blue food coloring
Rainbow sprinkles

1. Line an 8 or 9 inch square pan with foil, leaving the ends hanging over the edges of the pan. Spray foil thoroughly with nonstick spray.

2. Place the sugar, margarine, and evaporated milk in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring constantly, and let boil for 4 minutes. Remove from heat.

3. Add chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and cake mix, stirring until chocolate chips are melted. Add vanilla and mix well.

4. Working quickly, pour about 1/3 of the fudge in a bowl and add a few drops of blue food coloring, mixing and adding until you achieve the desired shade. Pour white fudge into prepared pan, spreading evenly. Spoon blue fudge over the top, spacing it out. Using a sharp knife, draw swirls through the blue and white to create a marbled effect. Sprinkle the top generously with rainbow sprinkles before the top sets up.

5. Let store at room temperature until cool, then place in the refrigerator until firm.

A Photo A Day [Days 165 & 166]

Two in a row of Punky, my little angel. Except when she's expressing her displeasure at not getting what she wants by using the claws. Otherwise she's a complete angel.

Sweets For Your Sweet

This and more nerdy Valentines can be found here

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Valentine's Day, which is why I've just about reached the end of my tether with the cutesy Valentine's Day crafts everyone's been posting about since the day after Christmas. I've mentally composed blog posts going on and on about why the holiday irks me, from the usual complaints about consumerism to my own inflated expectations that are, inevitably, not met. Then I figured that I'd come across as a bitter old hag and didn't want to rain on anyone else's parade if you happen to love the holiday.

Ever since I realized that Valentine's Day, like most holidays, falls into the category of "just another day" to my husband I've been reluctant and a little resentful about doing anything to celebrate since I'm the one who has to make the effort, make the plans, and do all the work to make it happen. To top it off I'm the only one who cares once all that hard work is over. But at the last minute I seem to talk myself into at least baking something yummy since my mom always made such a big deal about holidays when I was growing up. In my family even the most minor holiday is an excuse to indulge in food. Green mashed potatoes and milk on St. Patrick's Day, anyone? Or was that just me?

I'm still working on my ideas for this year's Valentine's Day treats but thought I'd share some of my previous years' works to maybe inspire some of you.



If your husband loves pizza as much as mine does you can woo him with a heart-shaped pizza. If not woo him at least you can distract him from video games long enough to get him to share a meal with you. My husband mentioned that the pizza place where he used to work would make heart-shaped pizzas by request on Valentine's Day so I got the idea to make my own. Easy peasy.



I made this cookie cake pie for our anniversary one year but I think it's fun enough and so ridiculously over the top that it works for any holiday. It's exactly what it sounds like: a pie crust base topped with a layer of cookie dough, cake batter, and a mountain of frosting on top. Top with Valentine's sprinkles and you've got a special treat! I made this back in the day when I still thought it was acceptable to use cake mix so mine included strawberry cake to satisfy my husband's love of strawberries. It'd be just as easy to do with homemade cake batter. Instructions can be found here at CakeSpy.



Not being much of a TV watcher before I met my husband, I'd never heard of Domo until we got together. Now I love the furry little guy even though I still don't fully understand his purpose. I made this cake two years ago for my husband's Valentine's Day treat. As you can see, Domo has such a simple design that it was all too easy to make a Domo-shaped cake. I baked a strawberry cake, this time from scratch and using fresh strawberries, in a 9 x 13 pan, trimmed a strip off the bottom to make into his arms, and cut a little cake out between his legs. Then I topped it all with a thick chocolate fudge frosting. This was the first time I bothered to do a crumb layer while frosting so it wouldn't look like he'd been rolling in the dirt. I used this site to make my own custom conversation hearts, which I printed in different colors, cut out, and arranged on a piece of cardboard covered with pink tissue paper to make a cute cake base. There's a layer of plastic wrap between the base and the cake because I don't relish the thought of eating printer ink along with my cake.



Last year, after I swore off Valentine's Day forever, I stumbled across some super dorky scientist valentines, free to download and print. How could I resist? Valentine's Day was back on the schedule and I decided to present the Valentine card to my husband with some chocolate cupcakes filled with strawberry chocolate ganache and topped with strawberry buttercream. Unfortunately this was before my blogging days so I didn't bother to save the recipe. I'd imagine there are plenty of recipes out there for something similar if the combination seems appealing to you. The heart toppers were inspired by something I saw in a magazine, just melted chocolate piped in the shape of a heart with swirls of chocolate across the middle. I managed to make a few stringing my and my husband's first initials together as you can see on the foremost cupcake. Again, easy peasy. Just the way I like it.

So there you have it. Just a few ideas that might help make your holiday a little more fun.

A Photo A Day [Day 164]

Well, today was a traumatizing day. There I was, breezing back to work after my lunch break when I saw one of the mutant wild turkeys that's taller than the hood of my Mini bolt out into the street, as they are wont to do around here. Now, everyone who lives around here knows that they frequent that area and I myself nearly had a run-in with one when it burst out of some tall weeds into the road. I managed to stop in time and it fluttered off unscathed. Unfortunately, the same fate was not in store for today's turkey.

It's true what they say about traumatic events seeming to happen in slow motion. I'm sure the entire event took less than a minute but it felt like an eternity as I watched it all unfold. I saw the woman in her big yellow car come bearing down on the turkey, not slowing at all until he was under her car. Then, inexplicably, I saw her continue to roll forward as the poor thing thrashed around in terror and pain, trying to get away from the car that was attacking him. At that point I noticed she'd been on her cell phone with a cigarette in the other hand, which explains why she hit the critter at full speed. I don't know if she kept driving because she was still reacting or because she was trying to herd him out from in front of her car, which is how it looked from my perspective. He managed to drag himself out of her lane as far as the middle of the street, where he collapsed because his legs were obviously not working. He proceeded to sit there and I could see his beak opening and closing as he called out and feathers that had been knocked loose blew all over the road. Once he was clear of her path the woman swerved around him and drove away. By the time I got off the phone with the police he'd curled up and stopped moving, whether from fear or because he'd died I'm not sure. Either way I was so shaken up by watching an animal suffer like that. I know wild turkeys are not the most attractive creations God has come up with and around here they are seen as a bit of a nuisance but it was still sad to witness.

There's no way of knowing if this could have been avoided had that stupid woman not been talking on her phone as accidents happen to even the most alert drivers, but it galls me how many people are arrogant enough to think that they can drive and talk on the phone at the same time. Don't even get me started on people who text and drive as I think they're a whole new breed of stupid. Any of us could operate a motor vehicle while half asleep. Steering and braking aren't that difficult, after all. It's all too easy to zone out while on a monotonous commute but it's the unexpected things that might crop up that require our full attention. How many times has the person in front of you suddenly braked, you've been cut off in traffic, or your car skidded on ice? And those are minor, almost weekly occurrences. Never mind the rarer but entirely possible incidents like today where an animal or, God forbid, a child runs out in front of your car. The simple fact is that humans have terrible reflexes and reaction times. Add to that the limitations of whatever car you're driving and you could easily wind up killing something or someone. Why deliberately do something, something that is completely avoidable, that will inhibit your response time?

When driving the most important thing you can do is pay attention. If you're in the driver's seat your commute is not an opportunity to catch up on your texts, apply your makeup, or fish around in the backseat for whatever item you absolutely have to have while barreling down the road at 40+ MPH. I'm sorry if I've ranted too long or sound too preachy but today's incident really bothered me and it's hardly the first time I've witnessed crappy driving only to discover that the offending driver is chatting away on her cell phone. Maybe it's because my mom instilled in me the notion that a motor vehicle can be a weapon or maybe it's because I vividly remember the cheesy but haunting videos we were forced to watch in driver's education but when I'm driving I consider my number one job to be to pay attention. Now if only everyone else out there on the road would agree.

RIP, little guy. You may have been pretty ugly in this life but for your troubles you may come back as a supermodel. Hopefully one who isn't accident prone.
(Source)

A Photo A Day [Day 163]

Another self-portrait. After reading up on the subject a bit I think I'm already improving. Why, all of me is actually in focus here as opposed to just a choice selection as in yesterday's pic. I've also successfully managed to blur out most of my messy house in the background. Expect to see more self-portraits now that I have a tripod to help me out. Good thing I'm vain enough to keep working at this until I get it right.

Stuffed Pizza Rolls

Yeah, I know I'm a couple of days late with this fun Super Bowl party recipe. But who's to say that unhealthy morsels of cheese-filled goodness have to be shared with a crowd? Since I couldn't care less about football and don't have enough local friends to throw a party for any occasion I made these chicken- and bacon-stuffed pizza rolls for dinner on Saturday, all for my husband and me. Kind of a throwback to my family's tradition of hunkering down with some Geno's pizza rolls and watching Star Trek: The Next Generation on Saturday nights while growing up. Except that these are 1,000 times better than anything you'd find in the freezer section.


I cheated and used refrigerated pizza crust, whipped up some shredded chicken earlier in the day, and tossed in crispy bacon, a few pieces of chopped onion, and some cilantro. Since I didn't cut my dough perfectly evenly I had a little trouble wrapping some squares around all of the filling but I somehow made it work. The dough puffs up nicely when baking so I had minimal loss of toppings.

The best part is there are no rules when making these so you can fill them with whatever pizza toppings you have on hand. I'm sure I'll be making these again with homemade dough as an easy weekend meal, assuming I've stuck to my diet earlier in the week so I can justify eating a bunch of carbs and cheese.

Stuffed Pizza Rolls
Recipe from The Farm Girl Recipes

1 roll refrigerated pizza dough, (or make your own)
1 teaspoon Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing mix
1 1/2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon melted butter
Mozzarella cheese, cubed (or use a combo of mozzarella and cheddar)
5 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 cup shredded, cooked chicken
*or any other ingredients for your favorite pizza (pepperoni, pineapple, ham, peppers, sausage, onions, etc.)

1. Take 1 teaspoon of ranch dressing mix and combine it with 1 1/2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese. Set aside.

2. Preheat oven to heat specified on pizza dough package. If you are making your own, 425 degrees.

3. Unroll your pizza dough onto a lightly floured surface. Pat or roll the dough so it's about 12" by 8". Using a pizza cutter, slice dough into 24 squares. Place cheese and desired toppings on each square.

4. When all of your dough squares have cheese and toppings on them, carefully lift up each square and wrap the dough around the toppings. Grab the four corners first and then squeeze the seams shut. Then place them seam side down in a lightly sprayed pie pan (or similar sized dish). Brush with melted butter sprinkle with the Parmesan-ranch mixture.

5. Place rolls in the oven. The baking time really depends on the type of dough you're using. Whether it's different brands from the store, or homemade dough, they all take different amounts of time. Set your timer for 10 minutes and check on them after that. They may take up to 15 or 20 to be done. Take them out when they're lightly golden on top. Serve them warm with a side of pizza sauce for dipping.

Rolled Ribbon Flower Headband

I have an aversion to homemade goods that actually look homemade, which is why I haven't jumped on the rolled or singed flower bandwagon until now. But when I saw Alisa Burke's version fashioned into a headband I began to see the possibilities. What girl couldn't use a new headband, after all?


I like that her version is simple and features a little sparkle from the beads in the center. As with everything she creates, she makes it look so easy to recreate. And, for the most part, it is. I did wind up twisting my ribbon a little more tightly than she did because I had a hard time getting it to wrap properly otherwise.

As a result, I'm not sure if I'm all that thrilled with my new headband. It looks a little too homemade to my excessively picky eye. At least I got some practice taking self-portraits while trying to model it.

A Photo a Day [Day 162]