21st Birthday Cake

I love having a good cake on my birthday. For the past two years, I have made my birthday cake. I know it's odd, but I like to make sure my gluten free cake looks pretty! My mom would definitely make my cake, but I enjoy doing it on my own. (She searched and searched trying to find someone to make me a pretty gluten free cake, but she didn't have any luck.) No worries though, I love homemade cakes and we all know, I LOVE baking. For this birthday, I was considering either a rum cake, a pina colada cake, or a hummingbird cake. My mom recently made gluten-filled hummingbird cake for her co-workers and I've been craving it since! I ended up going with a hummingbird cake and it was so great! It's quite easy too! After a crazy week, I needed a easy half homemade, half cake mix cake! I doubled this recipe to serve more people; however, this should serve about 8-12 people. This recipe reminds me of my mothers. It's moist, sweet, and fill with fruit.

Not the best picture, but I used two cake mixes
and created three layers. 

Ingredients:

Pam

pinch of gluten free flour

8 oz. crushed pineapple

2 ripe large-sized bananas, mashed (one heaping cup)

15 oz. gluten free cake mix (yellow or vanilla)

1/2 cup coconut oil or vegetable oil

3 eggs

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 package of cream cheese, softened

3/4 stick butter, softened

3 cups of powdered sugar

chopped pecans (to garnish)

Directions for making cake: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mist two round cake pans with pam, then dust with flour. Set aside. 
2. Drain pineapples and place it into a large mixing bowl. After mashing the bananas, spoon them into the mixing bowl. Mix in the cake mix, oil, eggs, and cinnamon. Using an electric mixer, mix the ingredients until well blended. 
3. Pour the cake mixes evenly into each of the cake pans. Bake about 20 minutes, or until the center comes out clean when sticking a toothpick in it. 
4. Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes before transferring it onto a cooling rack. To transfer it, use a knife to loosen the cake around the corners. Carefully flip the pan onto a cooling rack, then flip it again so the flat side is laying on the cooling rack (You don't want it to crack).
5. Let the cakes cool for about 30 minutes before adding the icing! 
6. To make the cream cheese icing, drop the cream cheese and butter into a mixing bowl. Mix until well blended. Slowly add in the powdered sugar. Once it is all blended, your cake is ready to be layered! 
7. Place the first layer of cake onto a cake plate. Add a layer of icing. Place the second layer of cake on top of the icing. Ice the top and edges of the cake (I used a butter knife to smooth out the icing).
8. Top with pecans. 
9. Slice and enjoy!

At your next party, make this! You won't regret it. It's so good! 

xoxo,

Jade

First week completed

Wow! I am so glad that my first week back to school is over! It was crazy and stressful and absolutely not what I expected. On my way to campus on Thursday, I hit a huge metal "T" shaped pole that had spikes on it. This happened early in the morning, it was dark, rainy, and foggy. By the time I caught a ride to campus, I barely made it to class. I was running in the rain and was drenched from head to toe once I got to my first class. (No lie, I took off my jacket, socks, and shoes in hopes they would dry before class ended. It didn't work... My pants and shoes were wet all day!) I feel so blessed that I did not end up in a car accident; however, my little car ended up needing one new rim and two new tires.... I was car-less until today!

My poor car...

Wahoo!! I am so thankful that I have my car back. Even though the week was terrible, my sweet family and friends gave me the best, little birthday party on Friday. I ate at my favorite restaurant with my mom, then we enjoyed gluten free cupcakes!

Chocolate cupcake with cream cheese icing :)

My friends took me to BJ's Brewhouse for dinner and it was delicious, as always! I recommend the lemon thyme chicken and the very berry cider! ;)

I'm hoping this week is much better than last week! I have another busy week, but my friend set me up with a massage appointment on Thursday evening and I am definitely looking forward to that!

Gluten Free Hummingbird Cake

I'll post my birthday cake recipe tomorrow! It was so good!

Have a great week!
xoxo,
Jade

Trip to ALDI's

When I was leaving Denton, after visiting my best friends for a few days, I decided to stop by the ALDI's grocery store before leaving town. Like always, I used map quest to get me there... Let's just say, Map Quest took me to the distribution center where ALL the semi trucks go... I was the only normal-sized vehicle in the WHOLE parking lot. Ha! I rerouted Map Quest and ended up finding the grocery store. It only took me 45 minutes to get there... and it was on the opposite side of Denton. :)

After FINALLY getting there, I was definitely getting hungry for lunch, so I kept throwing items in my basket. I was surprised by how many gluten free items they had in the store. I think I grabbed one of every item they had. It will probably last me forever, but I was so excited to see all these products!

I purchased entirely too many products, but I was starving when I was shopping & that's never a good idea! From the top, left to right: Multiseed Rosemary & Olive Oil Crackers, Rice Macaroni and Cheese, Multiseed Sea Salt Crackers. Middle Row: Pretzel Sticks, Very Berry Crunch Granola, Brownie Mix, Yellow Cake Mix, Pizza Crust Mix, Triple Chocolate Crunch Granola, Chicken Nuggets. Bottom Row: Pepperoni Pizza (hot pockets!!!), Ravioli, Cheese Pizza, Lasagna, Southwest Veggie (looks like southwest rolls). 

A few notes: I have not tried all of the products. Honestly, I have only tried a couple of them so far. 

I tried the crackers. They are very crunchy & different, nothing like what I was expecting. I haven't decided if I like this version of a multitude cracker yet. I tried the triple chocolate granola with a bit of milk and it was good! It isn't too sweet and would be great on yogurt. The chicken nuggets were pretty good, but not the best. I got a couple pieces of hard things in the chicken and got totally grossed out. I'm weird with textures, so if I bite on an unknown piece of something in my food, I freak out. Although they tasted good at first, I don't think I'll purchase them again because of the couple times I had a weird hard piece in my nugget. On the other hand, the Pepperoni Pizza hot pockets were AMAZING! It was much better than what I remember actual hot pockets tasting like. If only they would make a ham and cheese version. ;) 

My 21st birthday is Friday and I will be using the yellow cake mix for part of my birthday cake. I'm thinking of making either a quick strawberry cake or a pina colada cake. We'll see. :) 

Happy Monday! School starts tomorrow, and I am excited for all that this semester has to offer! 

xoxo,

Jade

Prepping for Spring

I know I haven't posted in two weeks... This Christmas break has flown by so quickly! I spent almost one month being sick with who knows what. At first, I thought I had mono (my mom swore that I had the flu). A few days later, I could tell I had a double ear infection and sinus infection. I never went to the doctor because I didn't want to make time to be sick and not be able to travel to visit family (probably not a smart decision). Instead, I fought it off, long and hard. 

I'm healthy now, just in time for school to start on Tuesday. :) Over the break, I traveled to Oklahoma to visit my dad and family, Galveston Beach to take my cousins to see an ocean, Denton to spend time with my best friends from high school, and this past week (at home) has been spent preparing everything for this upcoming semester. 

You see, I seem to stay extremely busy in school, but I absolutely love it. I always dedicate the two weeks before classes start for getting everything organized and ready for the upcoming semester. To prepare for the upcoming semester, I have been searching the web for the cheapest required books. I like getting my books in good condition so that I can resell them when the semester is over. I strive to get half my purchase price back and I usually reach that goal. Last semester, I only spent $380 on books for five courses. When December rolled around, I sold my books and got $200. I usually sell them on my Amazon seller profile (where I usually sell for the going price); however, I was lazy this time and just sold straight to Amazon because the prices weren't too bad. 

I've put so much time into planning out things for my organizations, gearing up for school, and setting up my volunteer work; therefore, I am spending the weekend working on blog posts. :) I have so much to talk about from my trip to Denton and some of the amazing finds I have come across over the break. I wanted to update you on what I've been up to. 

What have you done over the break? How do you prepare for the upcoming semester?

xoxo,

Jade