Cinnamon-Sugar Topped Poppy Seed Cake With Almond Glaze

This cake's name is a bit of a mouthful, but each layer of the cake makes it so delicious that I couldn't leave one out. 

I got this recipe from my sister-in-law several months back.  She's always made it, and I love it every time she does.  It's so light and fluffy, then there's the crunch from the cinnamon-sugar topping that's sprinkled in the bundt pan, and finally the glaze on top- perfection!

The recipe is really simple.  Anyone can make it!  I haven't always had the best of luck with bundt cakes, but I think the cinnamon-sugar topping helps this cake come right out when it's done. 

As I state in the recipe, you can put the extra cinnamon-sugar topping and the glaze over the entire cake, or cut the cake into individual pieces, and then put the toppings on.  You can also play around with the glaze.  I LOVE the almond, but vanilla works, and I'm sure a lemon glaze would be amazing as well.  

Click here to print the recipe.

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Favorite Birthday Traditions

I did a post for Mariel over at Or So She Says back in January.  I posted a little part of it here last month, but not the entire post.  Here's the whole shebang.   

 Birthdays are kind of a big deal at our house.  My three year old was born the day after my twins' birthday, so we have three birthdays in two days.  It's madness, but tons of fun!  I love celebrating each of my boys and making them feel as special as I can on their day.  Here' some of our favorite ways to celebrate.

The teacher in me loves having a book (or many books) for every occasion.  Birthdays are no exception.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

I found these darling personalized birthday books at I See Me (they have so many versions of personalized books, go check them out!  And you can click here for great coupons they offer.).  From my days of teaching, I know kids LOVE to see their name.  How fun would it be to see their own name in a birthday book?  These books are going to be a new tradition at our house this year.

You can't go wrong with Dr. Seuss.  I found this cute pop-up version of his Happy Birthday To You at Barnes & Noble.  You know the quote, "...there is no one alive who is you-er than you!" well, it came from this book.  Dr. Seuss has the best quotes!  I have a whole file of them.  

 

Have you heard of this book?  On the Day You Were Born makes a great baby shower gift (books always make great gifts).  It's a beautifully written book about earth, nature, animals, and a baby's birth.  This is a fun book to read every year on your child's birthday.  I love remembering the days my boys were born.  There's a bit of sacredness about each one of them. 

For some reason, it's kind of hard to find a good version of the traditional 'Happy Birthday' song (if you have one, let me know).  I've had the one on this CD since my twins were two.  It is a bit on the juvenile side, but it's really cute.  I did try to find some new ones on iTunes, but this one is still my favorite.  iTunes did have a Happy Birthday! 20 Birthday Songs CD you can check out.  I like to play the Happy Birthday song the second my boys wake up on their birthday.  I usually just put it on repeat and let it play over and over (the song is only 42 seconds long) until they get sick of it. :)

I first saw the idea of birthday chairs from Alicia Bangerter.  I instantly fell in love with them.  Well, I mentioned the idea to my mom (if I ever need anything, I just need to let my mom know) and before I knew it she had found two chairs from her local thrift store that were just waiting to be transformed into birthday chairs.  I had to get two because I have twins.  Unless you have twins, or two members of you family share a birthday, you'll just need one chair.  I set up my boys' presents on and around the chairs in the morning, and then they sit on the chair at every meal that day.  You can make your birthday chair as plain or fancy as you'd like.  I painted mine, added glitter sticker letters, and cut out a cupcake to put on the seat ( I Mod Podged it on).  I also tie balloons to the chair.  

And what's a birthday chair without a birthday hat?  I found these great birthday hats at  Party City.   My favorite is the birthday cake with the candles.  I guess I'll be buying two of them (I'm kind of used to that now).  I'm betting my boys will be a bit more excited about the birthday hat than my husband.  He'll love having a birthday picture in his new hat! :)

I love memory boards and have grand plans to make one for every holiday, special occasion, and even every room in my house someday.  For now, I have a birthday one.  I'm going to put this up for every birthday at our house.  Most of the things on the board can stay the same for each birthday, but I can switch out a few names, numbers, dates, and pictures to make it more personal for each birthday.  

The birthday quotes I used on my memory board can be printed here.  I'm a big quote person (I post one every Tuesday at Blissful Roots).  Memory boards give me a good excuse to type up cute quotes and display them in style.

I discovered another cute birthday board idea a few years back when I stopped by my neighbor's house on her daughter's birthday.  She had the cutest large chalkboard (aren't chalkboards and chalkboard art everywhere these days?) on her porch.  It had balloons tied to it and the words, "Kate is 7 today!  Happy Birthday!" on it.  It made me smile.  What a fun way to let your neighbors, and anyone else who might show up at you doorstep, know there's a birthday at your house.  I need to make me one of these for sure.  

In My Own Style

This darling chalkboard is from Diane at In My Own Style.  She used her chalkboard as a menu, but you could easily adapt the words.  She also has a great tutorial on chalkboard art.

Graphics Fairy

Pictures really are worth a thousand words.  My husband came up with this idea several years back, and it has become my favorite birthday tradition.  He takes all the pictures of our boys from the previous year and puts them all together in a slide show with music and everything.  One year he was really ambitious and even put some video of our boys in with the pictures.  We always have one big party with our families for our boys' birthday, and we play the DVD during the party.  Everyone sits down to watch at one point or another during the party.  Some even sit and watch it over and over.  It's always a hit, and it never fails to make me a bit teary-eyed.  Pictures put to music at special occasions tend to have that affect on me.  Anyone else?  

We store all of our photos in iPhoto, and my husband uses iMovie to put the whole DVD together.  I'm most familiar with iPhoto, but I'm sure most photo editing programs allow you to make slide shows.  Even if you don't burn your slide show on to a disc, you could just show the slide show from your computer during your party.  There are also digital picture frames that would work really well.  You can make this as complex or simple as you want.  I challenge you to come up with some way, any way to display pictures of your child from the previous year on his/her birthday.  It's so fun to see their growth and remember good times!

Goodeelicious

My husband doesn't like desserts (crazy, I know!).  He's a candy guy.  All three of my boys have inherited his sweet tooth.  I can honestly say I don't think I've ever made my husband a birthday cake.  I've made him birthday cookies and brownies, but never cake.  And I have to tell you, my biggest stress with three birthdays in two days- the cakes!  Making three fun and exciting, fresh cakes is slightly overwhelming for me.  This last year after my boys' birthdays, I realized I needed a change in the birthday cake department.  I found this cute candy cake at Goodeelicious (a little sweet shop in Pittsburgh) and knew all my birthday cake problems had been solved.  I don't think I'll ever have to bake another birthday cake as long as I live.  All of the boys in my house would much rather have a candy cake like this than a cake cake.  I'm not sure if it will save me a whole lot of time, but I really like the idea that I can make this in advance and it will still be good on the actual birthday.

Well, I hope you found an idea or two that you'd like to add to your birthday traditions.  Here's to wishing you and your family a year full of happy, happy birthdays!  We'll see you next month.

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Happy Valentine's Day

Just popping in to wish you a very Happy Valentine's Day!  I hope you're day is filled with all kinds of love.  Here's a little printable for you to enjoy today.  

Click here to print it.

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Symmetrical Valentine Art Project

I shared the snowflake version of this art project back in January (you can click here to see it).  Well, here's the valentine's version, and it's my favorite!  I did this with my twins (six years old) and my three-year-old the other day.  It's so fun to see the different arrangements!  I think a lot of my boys' personalities show through on these.

I let my boys lay out their heart design, then I hot glued it for them.  If you let you little ones glue the hearts, the finished product probably won't look so neat and tidy, but adorable just the same!  My boys were "exhausted" after making their designs, and couldn't find the energy to glue.  I kind of like the neat and tidy symmetrical look, so I was happy to glue for them.

I  used my Cricut and the classic font cartridge to cut out the hearts ranging in size from 2 1/2" to 1/2".  You can easily cut out your own hearts for this project, or print some off and then cut them out.  

For more details on the exact how to of this project, you can visit my snowflake symmetrical art post.

P.S.  I didn't quite get around to posting my Tuesday quote yesterday, so for this week, here's a Wednesday quote.  Click here to print it.

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Kneaders Sugar Cookies

We have a bakery and cafe here in Utah called Kneaders.  They have the BEST sugar cookies!  I struggle with most sugar cookies because of the flavor of the actual cookie.  Well, these have a bit of lemon flavoring, nutmeg, and honey, and  they give the cookie just the right hint of sweetness.  I could eat these cookies plain, and I can't say I've ever been able to say that about any other sugar cookie. 

They sure make cute valentine cookies!  The icing is amazing too!  It also has lemon flavoring, and the corn syrup in it gives it a nice consistency for frosting. 

I always half this recipe and it makes plenty of cookies (at least 3-4 dozen, depending on size).  Click here to print a copy of the recipe.

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Journaling Ideas @ 'Or So She Says'

Hey there!  It's the second Monday of the month, so that means I'm over at Or So She Says today.  I've done a post all about journals.  Holiday journals, family journals, journals for yourself, and journals for your kids.  Here's a sneak peak of what you can find over there today.  

Valentine love notes and mailboxes.

Journal jars and journal prompt sites.

How to start a family journal.

Click here to go take a look, and stay awhile to see what else Mariel has to offer.  She has the best ideas on so many different topics!  Definitely worth your time!

P.S.  I also thought I'd share two of my favortie love songs with you for Valentine's Day.  These come from Disney movies, and are so sweet!

"Love" from Robin Hood. 

"So This is Love" from Cinderella.
Hope you're enjoying your valentine week!

DIY Valentine Tin Cans

I posted some Organizing Tin Cans last week, and they were kind of popular!  I decided to do a valentine version for fun.  We have valentine love notes at our house, and these cans are perfect for holding the writing  tools and notes.  It's kind of our writing center.

I used a tissue paper flower for this can.  I honestly use these little flowers for everything!  Martha Stewart has a great tutorial on how to make them.

Here's a side view so you can see the ribbon I put around the middle of the can.

I got so many comments about the pom pom ribbon on my other tin cans!  I always put the pom pom ribbon on at least one of my cans.  They're just fun!

I used ric rac on this little can and glitter hearts.

And you can't forget the festive writing tools!  Here's bit of my valentine collection.

I used Crate Paper's Fourteen Line on my cans.  I LOVE this line!  The stripped paper did come from Pinkpaislee's City Sidewalks Line.  So many cute papers to choose from!

For more details on the how to of the cans, click here.

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