For David’s birthday, I made him a Death Star cake. In case you didn’t know, I am huge nerd. I love Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, The X-Files…I also love to bake.

I baked a gluten free chocolate cake using a Betty Crocker mix in a glass Pampered Chef bowl.

It came out looking more like a UFO than a sphere. I think it would be really cute if you put a ring around it and made it a flying saucer! While it was cooling I made buttercream frosting. Once the frosting was on, it looked rounder. I’d asked David to pick up black food coloring, but our grocery store didn’t have any. David said to use the blue, red and green food coloring to make gray. I took a few years of art class in middle school, and I remember that red and green make brown as do blue and orange, so I was highly skeptical that it would work, but he was right.

I wiped down the plate with a wet paper towel and stuck the mouth of a clean water bottle (A circle shaped cookie cutter would work, too. My cookie cutters are in storage, and the water bottle was handy and the perfect size.) to the side of the cake.

I used a spoon to hollow out the circle.

I drew lines in the frosting with a knife, but using black gel food coloring might be a smoother looking option if you’ve got a steady hand.

David loved it!

There are lots of Death Star birthday cakes on the internet. This was not an original idea from me. You can do a google search and see some pretty fancy fondant cakes. I like what Life As a Mom did. She’s actually the first one I saw.

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David was gluten free from Wednesday, January 27 to February 14. He lost 15 pounds in four days, although he was eating more red meat and more junk food and his appetite increased. A lot.

Still, David continues to lose weight. I’m assuming it’s because he’s eating three meals a day instead of skipping meals. And the first fifteen pounds might have just been water retention if he really is alergic to gluten. We’re really happy that he’s losing weight because this will take some pressure of his arthritic joints.

He says he couldn’t tell any difference going gluten free, but I sure could.

On Valentine’s Day David and I shared a pizza. David already had an upset stomach, so he didn’t notice a change. He has decided to continue eating gluten free for another week.

Going gluten free hasn’t been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Even eating out wasn’t too hard. My mother found some gluten free Betty Crocker mixes at her local Kroger. The brownies were good. Very rich. They tasted like dark chocolate brownies. So David hasn’t even missed out on baked goods.

I hope and pray that David IS allergic to gluten. That’s kind of a weird thing to say, but if he is allergic to gluten, then staying gluten free should reduce the inflammation in his joints. I’ll keep you posted!

Love,
A Young Wife

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This year’s birthday was decidely better than last year’s. David was able to walk and sit at the table.

We had dinner Saturday with David’s family and played board games. Would You Rather is so much fun! My three year old nephew picked out my cake and candles. He was so excited showing me the cake saying, “Somebody’s got to light it on fire!”

Sunday we had lunch with my family and watched football. Well, I wasn’t watching. I was enjoying four kinds of dip: ranch, salsa, queso, and spinach. Oh, and there were pigs-in-a-blanket. To me, football season means yummy food. I can’t wait for the Super Bowl!

Yes, I am so special my mother makes two cakes for my birthday. One with frosting and one without.

I worked on my actual birthday. David and I used Christmas gift cards to eat dinner at Whataburger. Have you ever had Whataburger’s ketchup? Let me tell you: it is amazing. So good, it comes in a square carton instead of a squeeze packet.

Thank y’all for a great birthday!

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I love baking. Being a housewife means I get to bake quite a bit. Lately I’ve been trying out different cream cheese frosting recipes. I can’t make anything taste as good as my favorite local baery’s cream cheese frosting, but I do have an old family recipe for Seven Minute Frosting that I love!

This frosting is so pretty. It’s pure white. It tastes a little bit like marshmallow fluff only better! My favorite way to use this frosting is on chocolate cake topped with chopped up candy bars. You can make a cake look like modern art, even if you’re like me and you can’t decorate cakes at all.

Here’s the recipe.

7 Minute Frosting

1 1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
2 egg whites
2 Tablespoons White Corn Syrup
1/4 Teaspoon Salt

Place all ingredients in a 2 quart saucepan an mix well. Beat with an electric mixer over low heat until stiff peaks form.

Enjoy!

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Three years ago today, I married David. Gosh, it feels like a million years ago. In a good way. It just feels like we’ve been together forever. You can read about our engagement and wedding here.

Our first year of marriage was great. Our second year was rough. We had lots of health problems, and we bought a house. Let’s pray the third year is better.

We weren’t really celebrating our anniversary today. We went to the chiropractor after work, and then to my parents house so David could swim in their pool. Swimming is a great exercise for people with arthritis.

Then, surprise! My Aunt Bettie, Aunt Shirley and Uncle Sammy dropped by with a delicious celbratory cake! I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of it before we devoured it. Here is the leftover part we got to take home.

Third Anniversary Cake

Aunt Bettie also gave me a knife like The Pioneer Woman uses. I can’t wait to use it tomorrow! Good knives are essential. And sharp knives are safer than dull knives! There’s my public service announcement for the week.

We had so much fun eating and visiting. It was a lot more fun than going to the chiropractor! Our friend, Kyle, the minister who performed our wedding ceremony was there, too.

David with his friend Kyle, our minister at our wedding.

It was really neat to have such dear people telling us, “Good job! You made it to your third anniversary! You will survive! You can endure these hardships! Your house will not stay on the market for the rest of your lives!”

When David and I got married, neither of us expected us to be facing such big issues so early in our marriage. I think we were expecting to have a lot more fun and far fewer doctors and needles at this point. But, God is in control. He knows what he’s doing. And he’s blessed us with wonderful family and friends to encourage us.

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