Monthly Archives: December 2014

Yummy Pumpkin Cake.

Here’s an amazing pumpkin cake recipe I’ve been making for years. It’s an easy one and is so great for cooler days, usually fall but hey I’m just a touch late to the party. It’d be yummy for the holidays too!

Here’s what you’ll need to gather up,

Dry stuffs
3 cups flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice *buy it or better yet, make it*
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Wet stuffs
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
15 ounces (a touch under 2 cups) of pumpkin puree
2 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 tbsp lemon

Mix the dry stuffs in a big bowl.

Mix the wet stuffs in another bowl and then add the dry to the wet and mix it all up.

The recipe calls for using a bundt cake pan, I suppose you could use another kind but I have no idea how that would effect the baking time. Plus it looks really cool from a bundt pan, honest. So you need to grease up the pan somehow, I use butter and smear it around the pan with a paper towel.

Pour in the batter and level it out a bit.

Bake at 375F for 55-60 minutes. When it seems done bring it out and let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes flip it over and hope that it pops right out in one nice piece. It’s going to need to cool a bit more, about 15 minutes, so use this time to make the icing.

Take the icing sugar and add the lemon juice to it. When I first made this it seemed like such a strange combo but it’s really great paired with the cake.

Now here’s something I’ve learned making this over and over – if you’re going to serve it right away go ahead and drizzle the icing on top of the cake and let it run down and look all Martha Stewart and gorgeous for a minute before everyone devours it. If you’re taking it somewhere or just eating it at home with your family and it’s going to take days – keep the icing on the side and just drizzle it on each piece. I find it will soak into the cake and get it all soggy if you let it sit too long. Trust me, the presentation is still great even if you do it piece by piece.

A new addiction.

Mid July I was taken to watch roller derby for the first time. I was smitten.

Screen Shot 2014-08-10 at 10.30.58 PM

Then I did something sort of kinda crazy, I signed up for roller derby fresh meat camp and I invested in my first pair of roller skates.  Before then I’d been on roller skates a grand total of two times I think. So it’s been an interesting 2+ months.

roller derby me

There’s me on my skates for the first-ish time. Petrified out of my mind. So afraid to fall (which is crazy with all that gear on, you really can’t get ‘hurt’ just going down on your gear). Didn’t know how to stop, too scared to really *go*. Looking back now it’s pretty silly.

derby tara

In the 10 weeks I learned a whole lot! I can do a bunch of things I never thought I’d be able to master, especially at 39 and in a few weeks. I also have a lot of things to improve on and look forward to doing so!

I’ve even cleared my living room out to practice balance and foot work when I couldn’t get out.

derby living room me

There were some bumps along the way for sure. But the outfits are fun and it’s a good workout.

derby outfit bruise

If you live sorta of kinda close to me check out Durham Region Roller Derby it’s a thing and it’s really awesome to watch or participate in and it’s allll over so you can find it near you too.

Giveaway Day!!

Why hello there! I’m giving away one scrappy wallet to some lucky winner! I will ship internationally (that’s anywhere in the world because you’re worth it). Please leave a comment below and make sure there’s a way for me to contact you. These are stock photos of some of my past wallets but I assure you the wallet will be adorable and meet all your accessorizing needs. We can chat about colours and patterns later.

I’ll love you forever if you like my Facebook page, I’m so close to 1000 likes!

Giveaway open until December 12 at 5 p.m. PST.
Winner will be emailed on December 14.
Go here to enter more giveaways!