People, Police & Prayers

Police cars everywhere. Sirens. Crime scene tape. Road blocks. Neighbors consoling one another. People wondering how & why.

Accidents happen all of the time. But, one has never hit this close to home.

There were two motorcycle accidents over the weekend. One of them took place in. my. {quiet} neighborhood.

The driver of the motorcycle did not survive. The passenger did. The news reported yesterday that alcohol was a factor. The driver was also not wearing a helmet.

My heart aches for the family that is grieving the loss of a loved one. I hope, too, that the passenger who was injured makes a full recovery & learns from the unfortunately hard lesson that took place over the weekend just a few blocks from my home.

And, like many other parents in my neighborhood, I am thankful that there were no children hurt or any other injuries or victims for that matter. The accident happened just after 6:30 p.m. on Saturday...the sun was shining, the weather was {finally} great...kids were outside playing, people were doing yard work...

I squeezed my children a bit tighter over the weekend. They don't know what happened, but driving by and seeing the broken mailbox was a very heartbreaking reminder of how quickly our lives can be taken away from us.

Eff Frosting

Yeah. I said it.

Eff frosting.

Frosting sucks. Well, not really. But, if you're like me and you're incompetent when it comes to any & all things frosting then it sucks. I can't frost a cake worth a darn. And, I learned this morning that I sure as heck can't make proper frosting.

Maybe it's because I used a new recipe that I've never tried before. A friend kindly suggested that maybe I should stop trying new recipes. Ouch.

To bring you up to speed...

I baked a cake for my FIL's birthday today. It's a cake that I've baked many times over the last few years - Black Magic Cake. Normally, I would just use a store bought frosting for the cake, but I'm trying to curb that habit. After all, store bought frosting is not worthy enough to be put on a made from scratch cake. At least not in my opinion. I've made cream cheese frosting in the past. I've made chocolate butter cream, too. But, what was so hard about that ridiculous vanilla butter cream recipe?!

I made it twice. Yes, twice...this morning. The issue wasn't the cake. It was nice & cool. The frosting just wasn't up to par and I followed the recipe {word for word} both times. Needless to say, during my drive to work this morning, the top layer of the cake slid off (thanks to the crappy frosting), broke into three pieces within the cake carrier & I deemed the cake beyond salvageable and unfit to serve. The hubs - yes, I work with my husband - graciously accepted the top layer {I l♥ve my garbage gut!} and the remainder of the cake was taken to the dumpster.

I suppose it was funny to see the cake in all of it's broken up glory. Sure, I laughed about it...I mean, it's not every day that a 2-layer cake falls apart on you. However, it's never happened to me before and it seriously bothered me. I know that had I given myself enough time to chill the cake while frosting that maybe this incident wouldn't have happened, BUT I've never had to do that in the past. I suppose I'm just mostly disappointed with my inability to make proper frosting because upon closer inspection the frosting was just icky looking -- is that a sign that I SHOULD be using store bought frosting on my lovely cakes??

So, dear, sweet BAKING friends of mine...do YOU have a go-to frosting recipe that has never let you down? If so, please share it with me...I need a good one. An idiot proof one. A frosting recipe that will give my baking pride that extra bit of "oomph" that is clearly missing from my spirit...yes, that's what I need.