A Mustache Cake

November is Victoria-palooza around here. And Victoria's current obsession is the mustache. Not sure how that happened - but it is an obsession shared by all her friends. So when they asked to have a surprise party for her at our house there was no question about the cake! One mustache cake coming up. But how does one make a mustache cake. I didn't find any directions. So, when the need arises for you to make your very own mustache cake, I got ya covered!!

Choose your favorite box cake mix. I chose yellow cake - Duncan Hines is my favortie yellow box cake. Yellow cake goes great with the chocolate ganache I planned to use to cover the cake. Bake your cake in two eight inch round cake pans as directed on the box. Before you begin, though, trace the outline of your cake pan twice. While your cake begins, play around with the type of mustache shape you would like to have - but it must be a shape available with the two circles of cake you will have. Here are picks of my shape.

I cut two of these and then put them together to make the shape I wanted. It meant that I had to trim one of the sides because the papers could overlap to make the shape, but obviously the cakes couldn't. When my cakes where baked and cooled, I laid the papers on top of them and used a knife to cut out the shapes. I then transferred them to a cookie sheet and made sure I was happy with the final shape. I ended up having three pieces of cake pushed togher - I accidently cut off alittle too much of one corner - so I used an additional piece to make up for my mistake. This isn't a problem because the ganache icing will cover all blemishes.

For the icing, I used a recipe for chocolate ganache. Not sure where I found it, but you can find many, many recipes online. Here is the one I used:

1 cup heavy cream, 2 Tbsp butter, 2 Tbsp sugar, 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

In a saucepan, bring first three ingredients to a boil. Pour this over chocolate chips and cover with plastic wrap (without stiring). Let it sit for 10 minutes. Mix until creamy. Pour over cake while still warm, but now hot.

Let it cool as directed and pour it over your cake. I didn't want my cake to be smooth so I used a spatula to make designs in the icing. I started in the center and made gentle arcs out toward the edges. I think you can see them in this picture.

I cooled the cake overnight on the cookie sheet. The next morning I was able to move it to a nice clean white cake cardboard. Then we chose yellow icing to add a Victoria saying. The results were pretty cool if I do say so myself!

For an added bonus I used the same mustache pattern on a new blank door mat for the front door. It was kinda fun! Check it out!

A Little Down Time...

Well, today was a lovely Sunday morning. We got an extra hour of sleep which is always good. Then at church we had a guest speaker which means that Steve and I got to sit next to each other! This is by far one of my favorite things. I have said before that sitting next to Steve during the gathering of the church is so encouraging to me - and VERY romantic. So thanks to the amazing John Ryan for being willing to drive all the way to another state in order to bring the Word (and a challenging message it was!) to our church and my family.

After a fun lunch with friends Steve and I settled in by the fireplace to relax. This, too, is a gift from John - no afternoon of tiredness for Steve who usually has to spend the day recovering from having spoken at Trailhead! So now what does a girl do? Most definitely NOT watch an episode of a zombie television series like some people we know! :) Shopping it is! I am really not much of a shopper. But the NCAA basketball season is here and I am in need of a few Kentucky Wildcats items! So for your viewing pleasure - these are my finds for the day. I know you will be jealous!!

This definitely needs to be on my front door as soon as possible:
And this picture is an example of the reason God did not give me an abundance of money. $55 - really?

Or wait, these are only $40!






And my kitchen will never be complete with this little number!! I would be a much better cook, don't you think?

I am one hundred percent sure that Steve will be so overjoyed to see this every morning when he leaves the house!

There is still so much more shopping to do. A true Wildcats fan must have that three piece bathroom set - of toilet seat cover and rug around the toilet and bath rug! And then there are the golf towels for my non-existant golf club set and the toaster that puts the letters U-K on your toast every morning... I could go on and on. Then, I look up and realize that I have wasted about two hours shopping for things that I will never buy... wow. But I am relaxed, toasty warm, and happy... and not one dime poorer than when I started!

Go Big Blue!