Cakes and Cupcakes and Birthdays - Oh My!

Wednesday was my Mom's birthday so I baked her a cake. After a bit of nagging I finally got her to tell me what kind of cake she wanted: carrot or chocolate. Knowing she loves carrot cake I went in that direction. I forgot to copy down the recipe but it's in a school-recipe-book from my mom's former school. I'll get the recipe next time I'm over there and copy it down to post here. It's a delicious cake.

I also subsituted apple sauce in place of oil which made the cake more dense and less bad :) That substitution, however, made it impossible to get the cupcakes out the liners...oops.

And I brought those cupcakes to clinical the next day for a girl in my group because it was her birthday. Hope she still enjoyed the way they tasted!

Straight outta the oven:

After decorating - cream cheese frosting (made with brown sugar because my parent's house is sparse in baking essentials now that I'm gone apparently), orange mike & ikes and green icing:

I have to explain, the cake was still warm when I frosted it and was so warm that when I put it in the fridge to cool it down the icing cracked :( Boo hoo.

Anyway, I'm making more baking. It was my friend's birthday on the 2nd and it's another friend's birthday today. I made them cupcakes.



In an effort to save time I used a cherry chip mix but added in a whole load of marachino cherries that I cut into smaller pieces. I also added in a dash of brandy for good measure. This could be a sloppy night as one of the girl's just got back from a trip yesterday and brought back a big ol' bottle of rum with her. She's making rum punch and pina coladas.

Good thing I went to the gym today.

Speaking of the gym, I'm kind of curious as to how tomorrow plays out. The elliptical (one of two, the second of which has been 'broken' since September) is broken so now there are only one bike and 2 treadmills for cardio. In the gym, however, there are 3 treadmills, 2 ellipticals, 1 stationary bike, and a stair climber. Apparently no one cares when machines need to be fixed.

Anyway, ranting aside, I hoped on the treadmill. I have been careful not to run for more than 20 minutes because last spring/summer I did something to my knee. If I ran for more than about 20-30 minutes I got an awful pain in my left knee everytime I went down stairs or bent it. I went beyond 20 minutes today...I ran 6 miles. Which is what I used to do but considering I haven't run that kind of distance in a looong time is both incredibly exciting and worrisome because while my knee is okay now I'm scared that tomorrow it'll be sore again. I really should make a physio appointment but they're so pricey. Maybe I'll ask for one for my birthday :)

In other news (aka nursing news):

1. I gave my 1oth ever needle today! Celebration! And of the 3 I did today my hand didn't shake at all! I did 3 today and 3 yesterday - diabetics have really helped up my needle-giving.
2. I changed a diabetic foot ulcer dressing and packed it....it was gross in a really cool way. I want to find a similar picture but it would (a) gross everyone out, and (b) possibly break some sort of nurse-patient confidentiality laws.

I'll google you's a picture tomorrow. Or you can do it if you're that gross-curious type. The pictures of people with black tissue on the bottom of their feet? Seen it. The ones with deep holes in their feet? Packed two of those bad boys with gauze. Twice.

Ya, I'm that good.

And ready for the weekend.

And rum.