Mater Cupcakes for Lex!

For her daughter Mary Beth, my sweet friend Vicky made a princess doll cake.  See my earlier blog post about that wonderful cake HERE.   For her son, Lex (twin of Mary Beth), Vicky made some Mater cupcakes.  She got the idea for the cupcakes from Travel Talk With Marilyn blog.  Vicky modified her idea and used some different elements in decorating the cupcakes.  I think they turned out sooo cute and most importantly . . . Lex loved them!

Vicky started out by baking some chocolate cupcakes.  She iced them all with store bought chocolate icing. 

The windshield on the Mater cupcake is made with chocolate bar rectangles with white icing spread across.   Vicky used store-bought white icing. 

Vicky used mini chocolate chips for the eyes and outlined the windshield by piping chocolate icing around the edge.  She used ziplock bag with the corner snipped to pipe the chocolate icing.

She placed the chocolate windshield on the iced cupcake on one side.  Vicky split mini oreos by twisting them apart and applied the split cookies to cupcakes as Mater's wheels.

Vicky used mini marshmallows for Mater's teeth.  She used scissors to split the marshmallows.

She placed the marshmallow teeth on the front of the cupcake and placed a cookie half on the top to finish the Mater cupcake.  Remember one of Mater's teeth is shorter than the other.  :)

For the party, I brought my cupcake stands, and Vicky made an impressive display of Mater cupcakes for Lex.

They turned out soooo cute!  I was so impressed with Vicky!  And so grateful that she let me document the whole process . . . I'm sure someone taking pictures of your every move while making these Mater cupcakes is probably counter-productive! 

I can't imagine having to make two separate cakes/cupcakes for twins on their birthday, but Vicky does it every year!  This year she really outdid herself! 

Her sweet children were thrilled!  And so were . . .

                          the Ferrell boys and me!

I'm linking up to these awesome parties:

Mrs. Beth Anderson's Strawberry Cake & Strawberry Icing

Every year for Mary Beth's birthday, my sweet friend Vicky makes a strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  This year she made a doll cake for Mary Beth out of the same strawberry cake and strawberry icing recipe.  Every year. . . the same strawberry cake with strawberry icing . . .

And every year, I eat it up and swear it's the best thing I've ever eaten!  I have finally procured the recipe!

This recipe card was laying around while Vicky was icing the doll cake and I (like a spy) quickly took a picture of it!  Ha!  It's written in Mrs. Beth's own handwriting!  That makes it more special than if I had copied it down myself.  I loved Mrs. Beth!

Now I know it sounds like I stole this recipe, but actually, I did get permission to share it with you from Mrs. Beth's daughter, Mary Ann.  So no guilt here except the guilt I felt for the HUGE piece of cake I ate!

Mrs. Beth Anderson's Strawberry Cake Recipe

Duncan Hines white cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup of (Wesson) oil
3 oz. pkg of strawberry jello
1/2 cup sliced strawberries (with juice if frozen)(Vicky used frozen strawberries)
1/2 cup of water

Mix together with an electric mixer and bake at 350 degrees in a buttered/floured 9x13 pan. . . or in a batter bowl if you're making a doll cake . . . or as cupcakes . . . or as a layered cake . . .

Mrs. Beth Anderson's Strawberry Icing

1 stick oleo (Vicky used butter)
1 box confectioners sugar
1/2 cup mashed strawberries (Vicky used frozen strawberries and she let the mixer mash them)

Mix well with electric mixer and spread on cooled cake.  Keep the iced cake in the refrigerator for best results.

Vicky didn't measure the strawberries, but just poured in some of the thawed strawberries from the box.  She added the sugar until the frosting was the consistency she wanted for spreading on the doll cake.  She said she didn't add as much of the strawberries as she usually does so the frosting would stay on the doll cake.

And here is the beautiful doll cake again made of strawberry cake with strawberry icing.  Read my post on how to make this doll cake HERE.  We kept the doll cake in the refrigerator until we were ready to serve it to the birthday girl.  Otherwise, the icing would start to droop and separate making little holes on the cake.

All I have to say about this cake is . . . it was ALL gone when I left!  It was that GOOD!

Lots of love from  . . .

                        the Ferrell boys and me!

How To Make a Doll Cake :)

My friend Vicky's children are turning 5 this weekend.  She has two sweet children, Lex and Mary Beth. . . . twins.

For Mary Beth's birthday cake, Vicky wanted to make her a princess doll cake.
It turned out soooo cute!

How did she get it from here . . .

to here . . .

I was there with my camera ready to document the process for everyone.  So here we go . . .

First bake a cake in a batter bowl . . . twice!  Vicky used a Pampered Chef batter bowl, but you can probably use a pyrex bowl as long as the bowl is oven-safe.

For the cake, preheat your oven to 325°F.  Grease and flour the batter bowl.   Prepare 1 cake mix according to package directions or as in Vicky's case, one strawberry cake recipe for each bowl.  Pour cake batter into batter bowl.   Bake for 1 hour, 10 minutes to 1 hour, 15 minutes or until long toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.   Cool in the bowl for 15 minutes. Run knife around outside of cake and gently turn out onto a cooling rack, large end down. Repeat to make a second cake. Cool 3 hours.   (Recipe from Pampered Chef)

Once the cakes are baked and cooled, you have two cakes that look like this one:


It's turned large end down in this picture.

 Slice the cake about 2 or 3 inches from the bottom . . . of the largest end.

Cut a hole in the center of the cake.

Cut the second bowl cake the same way.

Put icing on the first prepared cake bottom leaving the hole uncovered by the icing.

Put the second prepared cake bottom on top of the iced one.

Ice the second layer of the cake except for the hole.

Then add the smaller part of the bowl cake that you cut off the bottom . . . make sure to have a hole cut out of the center of this piece of cake too.

Now usually at this point, you can insert the doll into the cake, but Vicky bought a princess doll that was taller than the cake!

Luckily, Vicky had baked the left-over cake batter in some custard cups and she used one of them on the very top of the cake.

Before inserting the doll, wrap her up in some plastic wrap.  It will keep her clean for the birthday girl after the cake is gone.

When Vicky started inserting the doll, she discovered that the hole wasn't big enough for her butt!  Can you imagine?!  The doll's butt was too big for the cake/dress!  We laughed over that!  "Does this cake make my butt look big?"

Once you have the doll inserted into the cake, you simply ice the outside of the cake and decorate it like a fancy gown.  Vicky even iced the bodice of the doll.  I think it turn out sooo cute!  Because of the consistency of the stawberry icing, it's best to keep this type of strawberry doll cake in the refrigerator.  The stawberry icing maintains its consistency and shape best if kept chilled.  If you use regular buttercream icing, you wouldn't have to refrigerate the cake at all.

And Princess Mary Beth loved it!  Happy Birthday sweet Mary Beth!

The cake and the icing were both strawberry, per Mary Beth's request.  The pink icing was especially pretty as a ball gown for the princess.

The strawberry cake and icing recipe will be in another post!   It was soooo good!

And just to help visualize how the cake is put together from the inside . . .

I was so glad to "supervise" Vicky as she made this cake.  It's not likely that I'll have any reason any time ever to make a doll cake for . . .

                        the Ferrell boys and me!

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I'm linking up to these awesome parties!



Another day on the Farm . . .

We have lots going on at the farm.  With all the cows, cats, and dogs we have here on the farm, there's always some animal expecting or having babies some time or another.

Our sweet brown dog has been expecting and this week she finally had her puppies.  I knew the day was coming soon because of the way she was acting.  Call it a mother's instinct.

The day I came outside to feed the dogs and she didn't greet me at the door . . . I knew that the day had arrived.  But I couldn't find her anywhere and I had to go to work so I waited until that afternoon to look for her and her puppies.

I finally found them here . . . under the bush hog thingy.

I haven't actually seen any puppies, but you can definitely hear them!  Sounds like 10 or more yipping under that thing!  :)

I did get a peak of one of the puppies sticking out from under the bush hog . . . along with her momma's paw:

I can't wait to actually see one of the puppies!  And find out how many puppies there actually are under that thing!

After checking on our newest additions at Ferrell Farm, I fed and watered the chickens again.  The cows "mooed" at me and then they went and snacked on the round bales of hay that Dave had put out for them.

I decided to till up another square patch in the garden for my onions and lettuce.  I asked Shane to take a couple of pictures for my blog.  Here I am tilling the garden.  Great job, Shane!  :)  My Daddy will see this and call to tell me to mow the yard before tilling . . . again . . . oops!

And here is the tiller I was using to till my garden:

And then Shane decided to show everyone his brother's boot.

And which brother owns this particular boot . . . Zach!

This picture is a little blurry, but I think Shane did a great job taking pictures considering he's just 4 years old.  :)

While Shane was taking pictures, I finished tilling the garden.

It's ready for planting!  I had to stop at this point because it was time for Wednesday night church, but I plan to finish planting on Friday. 

The boys begin their Spring break on Friday, so I will get to be home with them all day.  :)

Gee-whiz I hate that I won't be "lawyering" on Friday!  Ha!

Actually, I will be doing some work stuff at home and all my office calls are forwarded to my cell phone . . . but physically I'll be at the Farm!  I'm so excited!

To celebrate, Myra and I took the boys and Neal to the Mexican Restaurant for lunch on Thursday. 

They only had to go to school for a half-day on Thursday because of a district teacher's meeting so lunch at their favorite restaurant was a special treat to kick off the Spring break.

They don't even eat Mexican food when we go!  Their favorite meal is the little fried chicken tenders they make with some Mexican rice on the side.  Chicken and rice . . . and cheese sauce!

Such a great time!  We made quite a scene at the restaurant!  An older lady sitting in the booth next to us kept cutting her eyes over at us with a very disapproving expression!  Ha!  But she was the only one who cared!  Others who came in . . . like my insurance agent friend (who kept laughing and saying he was just a few years from this type of behavior with his son )  and . . . some ladies from the bank (who have known my boys since birth since the boys' NaNa worked at the bank forever) . . . and my sweet friend, Natalie, with her children (who knows what life is like with 3 kids)  . . .  they ALL loved the boys and their antics!  What's not to love?!

Shane's self-photo

The best part of the lunch for me was when my sweet Shane said the prayer.  For months now . . . whenever Shane would say the blessing . . . he would recite this . . .

God is great . . . God is good . . . Thank you for the dinosaurs!  Amen!

Another self-photo

I know that's not very traditional, but he's only 4 years old.  Today Shane said the blessing again, and he surprised me by singing a prayer he's learned at school.

God, our father . . God, our father . . once again . . . once again . . . thank you for our blessings . . . thank you for our blessings . . . aaaah . . .men  . . . aaah . . .men. . . .

He's growing up. . . too fast it seems . . . . 

But that's life . . . and another day with . . .

                           the Ferrell boys and me!