Happy Halloween

For Halloween I made my brother's school the following cupcakes for Halloween.  Really easy, not much time to make them and the kids loved them.  Proving that you don't need to spend much time to make a huge impact!

Ghosts with pumpkins

Michelle

A busy summer and a new sister!

Hi Everyone,


Sorry for not posting in a while and I have had a few people remind me of this in the last few weeks so I thought I would post a few things I have been doing and a quick update.


The summer in our House was busy, busy, and Busy.  We had my little sister and little brother at our house for a month and then my other sister and her boyfriend came out for a week as well.  Ty's brother Cory also got married at the end of August which brought us another house guest for a week.  Tyler's sister Amber who lives in Manila Philippians.  We were not expecting her to come, so we were all thrilled when she surprised us! 


Cory's wedding was in a little town outside of Lethbridge called Leavitt at this little lodge.  It was one the the best weddings we have ever been too as it was so relaxed and fun.  I describe the theme as Hippy Chic.


The best part...the kids were having so much fun flying kites, hitting pinatas and playing on the playground equipment they didn't bother anyone all day. 

I made cupcakes and cake pops at home here then transported them the 3 1/2 hours to the wedding location.  I made Tutti Frutti (Strawberry cake with Strawberry icing with Candy topping), Maple Bacon (Butter cake with maple frosting and bacon topping), First Kiss (Chocolate cake with a Hershey kiss baked inside topped with cherry icing and a chocolate dipped cherry) and Lemon Ginger (Lemon cake with lemon icing topped with candied lemon peels and ginger which my brother helped me candy).  I also made a variety of cake pops.  They wanted it to be colorful and the end product was definitely colorful and yummy.

All in all our summer was fun, busy and we got a new wonderful sister out of the deal.  Welcome Brandy.  We love you!

A specail gift goes along way

I really wanted to do something special as a gift for Cory and Brandy for their wedding.  So I had the idea to make them a family cookbook and get it professionally printed.  I signed up for an American site called Shutterfly, enlisted my family for their most loved recipes and got started.  The site was super easy to use and I loved all of the choices I had.  Usually free sites only give you a few choices or make you purchase additional layouts or embellishments but not Shutterfly! They give you tons of choices.  I painstakingly spent a good few weeks putting together my final creation then placed my order.  I was a bit worried that the cookbook would not arrive on time as I knew that it would need to clear customs and past experience told me that could take a while......and it was down to the wire.  The book arrived 30 minutes prior to my scheduled departure to the wedding.  I was so happy it arrived and I was very satisfied with the final product.  It looked great, the printing was awesome and what better for a gift than something made from the heart!


Check out my photobook at Shutterfly http://shortcakesbymichelle.shutterfly.com/

I Love Fall and I Love my Slowcooker

I've been making all sorts of wonderful things in my slow cooker recently.  I even borrowed my dad's 1 day and had 2 different meals cooking.  What I love about the slow cooker is if you do a bit of prep you can turn it on and forget about it. 


Recently I have made Ratatouille and Black Bean Chili.  I then portion them out into individual containers and freeze them.  In the morning when I am running late I can just grab 1 for my lunch and be ready.  By lunch they have defrosted enough to dump them into a bowl to be reheated and enjoyed.  Here is the Ratatouille recipe I used which is from Company's Coming Most Loved Slow Cooker Creations.   Now all of you that fear eggplant...don't it was good and this was super satisfying and yummy.  I added more veggies to mine as I had a few zucchinis to get rid of and bought a huge eggplant.  I also cooked it for 1/2 hr longer on high.

Ratatouille

From Company’s Coming Most Loved Slow Cooker Creations

Combine all 14 ingredients in 3 ½ to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 l) slow cooker.  Cook, covered, on low for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 4 -4 1/2 hours.  Makes about 6 1/.2 cups. 

1 cup: 72 calories

Sliced Zucchini (with peel), ¼ inch thick (6mm) thick	Combine all 14 ingredients in 3 ½ to 4 quart (3.5 to 4 l) slow cooker.  Cook, covered, on low for 8 to 9 hours or on high for 4 -4 1/2 hours.  Makes about 6 1/.2 cups.  1 cup: 72 calories 3 cups
Small eggplant (with peel), cut into ½ inch (12 mm) cubes	1
Can of diced tomatoes (with juice)	14 oz
Chopped Celery	1 cup
Finely Chopped onion	1 cup
Medium Green (or red) pepper, chopped	1
Ketchup	¼ cup
Sugar	2 tsp
Parsley flakes	1 tsp
Dried basil	½ tsp
Dried Oregano	½ tsp
Garlic powder	½ tsp
Salt	½ tsp
Pepper	1/8 tsp

Happy Birthday Shaylin and many others!

My little sister turned 14 this week so we had to celebrate by what else.......eating CAKE.  Here is her cakes! I was happy at how well they turned out as I had to decorate them in a kitchen that was super hot from the combination of baking and the hot summer heat!

I also created this yummy coconut cake for my friend Bev.  It is filled with lemon and coconut, covered in fluffy white butter cream and covered to the max with coconut.  My friend Bev is the best and is always sharing her crafty ideas and garden goods with me.   She is an amazing artist as well! We had planned to go to her house this weekend with my other friends Michelle and Jan and have our annual weekend away.  Bev has this amazing farm in Newgate but an unexpected visit from my other sister Samantha who has not been home in over 5 years meant I had to put the fun aside and stay home with my family.  We also went out and celebrated my cousin Mataya's 3rd birthday this weekend with some delicious chocolate cake that my auntie Sas made.......

Now time to cool it on the cake and go for some jogs!

Mango Salsa and Creative Fun

My mom gave me some ripe mango the other day and after eating a couple I decided to try something new so I made Mango Salsa.  I got a few ideas from a few different places and then just took what I liked from each and then created my own.  It was so yummy that I wanted to share.

2 Ripe mango, cubed
1 Ripe pineapple, cubed
1/2 small red onion chopped
3-4 tbsp Lime Juice
Cilantro 1/2 cup-chopped finely, I used the fresh organic cilantro that came in those tubes as my grocery store did not have any bunched.

Combine, let sit for at least 2 hours and then enjoy with pita or tortilla chips.

Other than working I have been spending the summer spending time with my family and working on a very special project for the upcoming wedding of my Brother in law...but I will share that with you later!

Enjoy! Michelle

Well new month same old story....too busy to write!!!  Summer is finally here so it makes doing anything useful or productive (especially if you have to stay inside all day sitting at a desk when the sun is shining and the weather is beautiful).  We started out the summer by welcoming our 4th niece Alivia Rian Shortridge.  She is just so precious that we both take any chance we have to spend time cuddling and holding her (this baby stage only lasts so long).  It also has given us lots of time to spend with Aidan, Emma and Jorja as well, which is one of our favorite things to do. 

Every year we have family camping with just Tyler's siblings (Lorelle usually takes the lead and gets us all organized, so thank you Lorelle) so we planned to go camping the weekend of the 8-11th as our family had a few other milestones to celebrate that weekend...including celebrating a few birthdays.  Happy 8th Birthday Aidan, Happy Birthday Brandy and Happy Birthday Tyler!  We were so excited to go camping and bought lots of yummy snacks, loaded all of our camping gear up and headed out to the lake.  We were so excited to set up our tent and get camp ready, not even the few mosquitoes that were present could get us down.  No Way!!!.  Brandy and Cory were driving out from Calgary so we were anxiously awaiting their arrival when the mosquito's got a bit worse, then worse and worse.  Nothing worked to repell them!!! Not bug spray, citronella candles, not extra layers of clothing (they bit right through) not the heat, nor the smoke from the fire!!!  The only thing that worked was our screen house that we brought and set up but really who wants to sit in a screen house in sweaters and sweatpants all weekend. We were all starting to go crazy but keeping a happy face to try and push through....maybe tomorrow would be better.

The kids before the mosquitos were too bad.

Fat chance!! We quickly realized we were going to have to call this years family camping trip early on account of the mosquito's and head home.  Poor Jorja must have had about 100 bites of her head and Emma's kept swelling up!  All was not lost though, we decided that we would still spend the entire weekend together and we packed up our coolers and headed over to Ryan and Lorelle's for a weekend of hanging out, playing games, watching movies and......you guessed it EATING!  So it ended up being fun and worked out as Gennessa And Tom came over and stayed as well.  So the moral of the story was it is not what you do that's important it is who you spend it with that counts!

Lorelle and I got together the week of the camping trip as she wanted me to show her how to use fondant to make 2 birthday cakes (1 for Aidan's birthday party with his friends and 1 for us during camping).  So I talked Lorelle through the fondant process and she created 2 really cool star wars cakes.  She did a great job and we had a blast doing them together.

Lorelle's Chewy Cake, made with fondant

Lorelle's Storm Trooper Cake, hand cut out of fondant

The rest of the summer looks busy as we prepare for my eye surgery in August, getting ready for Cory and Brandy's weddings and celebrating even more birthdays we have 7 more in July and August alone.......and hopefully seeing each of you!

Michelle

I'm a slacker ....yes I know

So I have been seeing a few people and they have been asking me when I am going to update my blog.  This is good and bad.  It is good becasue I am happy that people are enjoying my very random and mostly crafty posts but bad becasue I have been slacking off but I have just been so busy! Well lets face it I am always busy but more busy than normal.  I have not even developed any of my New York trip photos!

In the weeks since I last posted I have spent a week in Las Vegas....more on that later.  Made 150 Cupcakes for a wedding and 130 more for a daycare graduation.  I have been to Vancouver for work.  Been really busy at work oh and had to pack and uppack 3 rooms of my house so we could rip carpets out and became and Auntie for the 8th time with the birth of my 4th niece little miss Alivia Rian.  Even with all that I still managed to find some time for my family...not enough though I know.

So a brave and trusting bride asked me to make her wedding cupcakes for her after seeing my photos and seeing how I loved to bake.  I warned her that I was by no means professional but I would give it my all and try it out.  People have been asking me for months to sell my baking so this seemed like a great opportunity for a trial run.  Although it was stressful it was a great learning experience and I was quite pleased with the final result....although making 150 fondant flowers was...a lot.....I was thinking a small wedding cake would have been a lot easier.  I got tons of compliments and even the groom thought my cupcakes were "smoking".  So I will continue to test out recipes and develop the idea of selling my products in the future...I am thinking ShortCakes sounds like a wonderful business name!

Michelle

Hobby Lobby

So on our way back from our Vegas Vacation I made Tyler stop at Hobby Lobby in Spokane as I had heard it was a awesome craft/decorating store. Well I am in LOVE.  I rushed through the store as to not make my poor hubby wait too long in the car...after all we had been up since 5:45 and not it was almost 2 pm and we still had a 4 hour car ride home.  I could have spent the entire day in there.  They had decorating stuff, party stuff, cake making supplies, fabric, scrap booking.....you name it they had it.  It was almost like Michael's and Joann's Fabrics (which is another American store I love) mixed together.

Why can't we have stores like this this near home or in Canada.  For now I'll feed my addiction by visiting their website often and dreaming while thinking of excuses to go back.

And if you are a crafter and ever see one, be sure to stop!

Can I get any busier???

So busy, not enough time to Post this week....work is crazy, life is crazy.  I did find a few minutes last weekend to create a customized ShortCake apron as a cupcaker I figured I needed one.  It was a simple project that cost less than $12.00.  I will post some photos and directions when I get back from my trip!

Michelle

Happy Birthday Lorelle

Happy Birthday to my sister in law Lorelle.  Lorelle and I have been sister in laws for the last 8 years but have known each other since grade 6.  In Grade 6 I switched schools and Lorelle was the first person who was nice to me in my new school.  We sat beside each other in Mr. Epp's class, volunteered together in the kindergarten room and even did a project on Japanese Food where we cooked food for our class.  Who would have ever thought that we would marry brothers one day and become sisters in law but I am happy to have her in my life and be the auntie to her 3.5 kids who I love...a lot :)
Happy Birthday Lorelle, have a wonderful day.


This is the cake I whipped up for Lorelle for her special day.  Simple cake with a layer of butter pecan cake, a layer of chocolate cake with vanilla pudding for filling.  Covered in Vanilla icing and fondant and decorated with gum paste flowers and letters.  I also gave her some fondant tools and we will be baking together soon!

Comments now enabled!!!

The comments section is now enabled so you don't need to be a member to post comments! Have a fantastic day!
Michelle

Sometimes you just got to keep it simple

Last week I noticed that I had a tub of fresh strawberries in the fridge that were going to go bad soon....so of course I needed to bake something with them! I decided it was about time to make some cupcakes or ShortCakes.  Using my new food processor that my parents got me for Christmas....well actually the one they got me for Christmas came broken and I didn't try it out right away so they could not return it but my mom found a really good deal on another one and picked it up for me...long story short I am spoiled....back to the story...using my new food processor I pureed the strawberries.  Then I mixed up a batch of boxed white cake mix (something everyone should always have on hand).  I put a spoonful of batter in the cupcake liners then a spoonful of the pureed strawberries.  I then filled the rest of the liners with the rest of the batter.  While the cupcakes cooked I mixed up a batch of butter cream.  I love the recipe that comes on the back of the Roger Icing Sugar bag, but of course I had thrown the bag out and could not find the recipe online anywhere so I improvised and just mixed what I thought was the right measurements.  I then mixed the rest of the strawberry puree into my butter cream.  I didn't account for the extra moisture the strawberries would have so my icing was a bit runny and I had to use more icing sugar which=very sweet icing.  Now I am one for sweet icing but even this was pushing the envelope for me.  Next time I would not have added as much milk if using the strawberries again.  The final product was sweet but the tartness of the strawberry filling in the ShortCake balanced it out perfectly and I loved loved loved the pink color the strawberries turned the buttercream. They were eaten at work within minutes of being put out ...which is always the best test. The lesson in all this was use what you have, you don't always need to make a cake from scratch for it to be a hit, and it doesn't matter if it looks pretty or not if it tastes great that is all anyone will remember!!
Michelle

Whats your favorite Blog?

I love exploring the blog world and reading and gaining inspiration for being creative, and sometimes just looking at other people's creativeness when I just can't find the time to commit to my own.  One of my favorite blogs is Craftomaniac. I have found many fun and creative posts on her blog as well links to a ton of various blogs through her Monday link parties.

http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/

And unlike me, she somehow finds the time to post often so visit often and you won't be disappointed. 

Also I wanted to mention another of my favorite blogs, this one reaches my crazy organizational side it is Delightful Order http://www.delightfulorder.blogspot.com/
Some how she makes any organizing challenge look fun and beautiful!

M

Wheww a piece of paper sure makes me happy!

As I mentioned previously and for those of you who don't know I have been studying Business for the last while.  I always thought that I would have a career that had something to do with Psychology or Counselling and went to college and completed my certificate in Applied Psychology with the hopes of moving away and completing my degree. 

Life decided that I would meet Ty that spring, get married that fall and become a responsible adult who needed to get a real job.  Fortunately I was blessed by finding work with an organization that I love who continually push me to do better, do things I never dreamed I would be doing and encourage and support me to build my capacity.  So for the last while they have supported me(by paying for my courses and allowing me time off to write exams) to take Business Courses, and through part time studies in addition to my full and part time jobs this semester I finished enough credits to earn my Certificate in Business Administration and I am eligible to graduate on May 27th.  Although I plan to continue on to my Diploma and eventually my bachelor's degree it is exciting to know that through my hard work, long evenings of studying and letting my school take priority over my other more fun crafty pursuits I have accomplished something and I am proud and have a new piece of paper for my office wall.

I am not sure if I will walk in the Ceremony as it is in the middle of the day and interferes with a very important day at work I am still thinking about it as I never have participated at a post secondary level before.

Thanks to all those who are always supporting me and telling me why my sacrifices would be worth it. My family, my husband, my friends, my supervisors and to my friend Michelle aka MZ ( for building me a school spread sheet to keep me on track and tell me Economics is fun!) I could not have done it without any of you.  Michelle

Michelle and Michelle aka MZ and Shelly or Number 1 and Number 2

Cupcakes are the new cakes and mini pies are the new cupcakes!

Well I have been addicted to baking since...well forever but my hectic schedule and crazy life often prevent me from baking up a storm...which is good for my waistline.

Here are a few photos of some cupcakes I have created recently.  The first is cupcakes that I made for my little brother's 6th birthday.  They are chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream topped with sugar cookie hockey sticks and junior mint hockey pucks.  My brother loves hockey!  The second cupcakes I made were in the design of an alligator (his choice).  My brother attends a private school so I made cupcakes for the entire school of 38 so I needed to make 2 designs.

The second cupcakes I made where simple and included a fondant flower cutout for a Friend's birthday.  What I love about baking is it does not need to complicated because in the end all that counts is if they taste good!!

I just got back from New York where Candice and I were fortunate enough to attend a taping of the Martha Stewart Show (my second time there) where during Q&A after the taping Martha said that she thought that mini pies where going to be the next "big thing" since cupcakes.  I will be looking to try out some mini pies this summer.  The rest of Marth'as show was amazing but I cannot comment on it yet as the show is not set to air until May 26th, but it was a blast!!  I made cakepops again this weekend for my father in law's wedding which are the "big" hit in my family right now and the good thing you can justify eating more than 1 becasue they are still not as large as a piece of cake would be!!!!!  Stay tuned and I will share a recipe with you...they are so easy!!!

Last but not least I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to 3 great friends...Candice & Crystal (my very best twin friends) and Amanda P (you brighten the world with your smile).

Michelle

Wilton Cake Classes..Yes Please

So I have always been interested in baking. As a child I would enlist one of my brothers...most often my brother Derek to bake with me.  Our creations we simple and most often involved baking cookies for our family.  In high school I took foods and nutrition as my elective of choice and even ended up winning a scholarship due to my marks in the class......fast forward about 9 years and due to all of the reasons listed in my previous post baking slid to the back burner of life. Heck I rarely felt like cooking dinner at the end of the day let alone baking.

So when my long time friend Kelly emailed and asked if anyone wanted to sign up for a basic Wilton Cake Course being offered in town I jumped at the chance.  More because 9 years, careers and 3 kids later it was hard for Kelly and I to find time to see each other.

The class was fun and easy but also very informative.  It ran 1 night a week for 2 hours for 4 weeks and the cost of the course included a student kit from Wilton with the necessary tools needed. Can you believe that I had never torted or filled and stacked a cake...the basic knowledge was very useful and I was addicted!  Over the past few months I have enjoyed experimenting and creating.  People ask if I am interested in selling my products or starting a business and the answer is...read my previous post I am far to busy to take on something else right now.  This is purely for fun...but if I can make a few dollars to support my habit along the way I am interested.......if I can find time. :)

Too bad they don't sell anything locally, I now make a point of it to stock up whenever I am in the states on Wilton products! 

Here is a few of my creations thus far.

And to my friend Kelly......hope you know that even though life has limited our time spent together I am happy that 15 years after meeting you I can still call you my friend!

First Blog Post on Shortcakes

Welcome Everyone,


Thanks for stopping by ShortCakes-By Michelle.  I have been wanting to start a blog forever and a day and have been trying to cut down on using facebook and wanted to share my creativity with family and friends who have decided not to join the crazy facebook addition.  If you know me then you will know a few things about me:
1. I love to Bake and Craft
2. I have a big crazy family 
3. I work more than 1 job
4. I also go to school part time
5. The combination of 2-5 makes me one crazy busy gal


So.......... I don't promise that I will post often but as often as I can.


Life is good, off to New York for a much needed Vacation this week with my one of my best friends-Candice.  Grateful for a husband who lets me take some much needed time for me.


Leaving you with some delicious inspiration and a much loved easy as can be family recipe.


My Mom's No-Bake Cheese Cake
*1 pre or home made graham cracker crust
*1 8 oz package of cream cheese-softened
*1/2 cup sugar
*1tsp Vanilla
*1 small container of cool whip or 1/2 of a large container thawed in fridge-about 2 cups
*Fresh fruit of your choice chopped into small pieces (Blueberries, strawberries, huckleberries etc.) or 1/2 jar or can of prepared pie filling (I used homemade cherry pie filling in this photo)


**Also I always use light cream cheese and light cool whip and it tastes just the same!

Directions:
With an electric mixer beat cream cheese and sugar until smooth.  Add vanilla.  With a spatula fold in the thawed cool whip (do not over mix!).  If you are using fresh fruit fold in at this point.  Pour into prepared graham cracker crust.  If you are using prepared pie filling then spoon over the top. Re-fridgerate for at least 2 hours.....ENJOY!


Michelle