The Challenge

For some time I have (irrationally) desired a stand mixer. As time has gone by this has developed very specifically into a Kitchenaid Artisan stand mixer in tangerine orange or buttercup yellow. Not that I plan to redecorate the kitchen to match. That's just insane.

But as you may or may not know, those mixers are a little expensive. It's not something I'm comfortable asking for as a gift. Chris, being awesome, said I could go ahead and get one. My subtle hints that I needed one really made his eyes roll though. However, it's not something I'm just comfortable walking into a store and buying.

So I have issued myself a Challenge. Now, I've never been great at motivating myself. Workouts and diets fall to the wayside after a couple of days. So when I discussed this Challenge with Chris, I'm pretty sure he was chuckling on the inside.

Many of you have seen this cork board at our house in the dining area. It contains little hanging envelopes for coupons, the calendar and, among other things, the CFO list.

(wow, I need to clean that up)

I can't remember if I've told you about my Chief Family officer list or not, but it's a list of chores that I made so I can keep track of what I've done and what I haven't done for a while. In my world I always just dusted, until I check the CFO list and see it's been an embarrassing amount of time. The list is split up into weekly chores (with five columns for the four to five weeks in a month), monthly chores and seasonal chores.



Here's where the Challenge comes in. I have never once completed every chore on a CFO list. You know, things just get prioritized and polishing the silver just doesn't happen four times a year like it should be.

My goal this July is to completely finish my CFO list, even the seasonal items that don't need to be done until the end of August. Then I will claim my prize!

(And I haven't mentioned this to Chris, but maybe each month after July I will have additional challenges that will result in fun mixer attachments like an ice cream maker)

Let them eat butterfly cake

For Josie's first birthday party, I wasn't obsessed with having a theme. I did, however, figure I would use the colors pink, orange and yellow. And I would also use butterflies. And so I began looking for ideas for butterfly cakes.

I thought to possibly just use a cake mold. But that would entail buying a cake mold.

I thought about cutting and carving a cake to look like a butterfly. There is a great suggestion of using a round cake, cut it in half and switch halves, then trim a little to make the two semi-circles into the butterfly. However, I seem to have massive crumb trouble whenever I level or trim a cake.

I thought about making a sheet cake and just drawing and decorating a butterfly on it. Boring!

And it was suggested to me to make a cupcake cake. I've read too much Cake Wrecks to even attempt a cupcake cake.

One of the first suggestions to me was to make chocolate butterflies out of melted chocolate. At first I dismissed that idea as too fancy, but after not liking any of the other ideas, I decided to go for it. I bought some white melting candies and melted them in the microwave. I drew template of a pair of separated wings on a piece of paper. I also drew antenna but decided not to attempt them. I put the paper underneath wax paper. I put the melted candies in a pastry bag and drew over the wax paper using the template for a guide. Once I finished one set I would move the paper template underneath the wax paper and draw another set of wings.

Even with the air conditioner running, it was a hot day. So I stuck each sheet in the refrigerator while I made the next sheet. I think I made 16 sets of wings all together. It was the first time I've done anything like this and it took a little practice. They turned out very fragile and I broke more than one while getting them off of the wax paper. Ok, I broke like six. Then I realized I probably shouldn't use a dinner knife to peel them off. Once I used a spatula, they came up nice and neat.

Next I placed a piece of wax paper with a crease into an open book. I put a small strip of melted candy down for the body, stuck the wings in and globbed more candy on top. Back into the refrigerator until cake decorating time.

I decided to make box cakes, fun-fetti for the sheet cake and chocolate cupcakes. The cupcakes just had frosting swirled onto them and butterflies randomly added.

The cake turned out gorgeous but still home-made looking. I loved it!

Here was the one butterfly that broke one wing. I thought it looked cute sitting on the flower.


Turns out that everyone else liked the cake and cupcakes. All of the cupcakes were gone and only a little corner of cake was leftover. There is no better compliment than that when backing.