Hidden Jelly Bean Cake (Easter Cake)

For Easter I made a Hidden Jelly Bean Cake.  I saw a video for it on Facebook, and it looked really neat.  I tried to find the video again later and couldn't find it, but I had a general idea of how to do it.  I found a pin on Pinterest, but they had directions for making your own cake etc, and while the general idea was the same, I didn't want to make my own cake LOL.

I had an orange dreamsicle and a pink lemonade cake mix that I wanted to use.  I thought the colors would be great for an Easter cake.  I also made home made cream cheese frosting for the cake.  This frosting is seriously the best frosting I have ever tasted, it is my go to frosting now.

First I baked the orange dreamsicle cake.

Then I cut the cake in half, to form 2 layers.  I used a cup to cut a circle out of 1 of the layers.

I put the layer without the hole on the bottom, then added a layer of frosting and put the layer with the hole on top of that and added another layer of frosting.

Then I baked the pink lemonade cake.  I also cut it in half for another 2 layers.

I cut a hole in one of those layers too and put that layer on top of the frosted layer.  Then I filled the cavity with jelly beans, then I put a layer of frosting and put the top layer on the cake.

Once I had the cake stacked, I frosted the entire thing.  Then I used some blue sixlets to 'finish' off the bottom (I already had these in my baking stockpile).  Then I sprinkled the top with some pink edible glitter.

When I cut the cake open to serve it for dessert, the kids had a great surprise when they saw the jelly beans inside!  I cut very skinny pieces, since it was a 4 layer cake.  The final picture is after I served all 6 of us.

It was a lot of work, but a huge hit with everyone!!!

Home Organization

This year I have been working on trying to be more organized.  I am not a very organized person, so this has been a slow process, but I am working on it, slowly but surely.  My addiction to 31 bags has helped quite a bit with this project!

I am slowly working on organizing my linen closet.  It was a jumbled mess of sheets, blankets, and towels.  This project is still a work in progress, but I am slowly buying Large Utility Totes from 31 to use in there.  I currently have a deluxe utility tote, for my towels and 2 medium utility totes (they were a limited edition special) for sheets and pillow cases.  I do have 2 Large utility totes, but I have not put stuff in them yet.  That is in the works for this week.  1 shelf done, 2 more to go!

In the office I had 6 crates full of back to school supplies stacked together against the wall.  Notebooks, loose leaf paper, folders, crayons, rulers, erases, glue, pens, pencils and more.  It's a huge eye sore, but I wanted the kids to easily access anything they needed as they needed it.  I got some of the brand new Oh Snap Pockets from 31 and hung them up on the wall.  I have some supplies in each of the pockets, and the crates have been moved up to the attic.  As the kids take stuff from the pockets, I'll bring stuff down from the crates to refill it.

Before

After

Finally, in my office, I always have a bunch of clutter on my computer desk.  Especially a bunch of post it's, or papers the size of post its with information I need written down on them.  So I got a board to hang by the computer for me to put those papers on so I can try to clear up the clutter on my desk some.  I have a few other things planned for my desk, but this is a good start.

I still have a long ways to go, and lots of areas I need to better organize.  But it's a start!!

Do you have any organizational tips or tricks?

Oops

As I am sure you all can tell, I did not do the 30 day blog challenge.  Sorry!  I just found it much harder to get started with just a word, vices the other challenges I have done that include an actual topic.  Plus I didn't like a lot of the words HAHA.

I have totally failed at getting back into blogging.  Here we are at almost the end of April and I haven't blogged since mid Feb.  But I promise that is all about to change.  I have several blog posts I will be getting up over the next few days!  I have just been super busy, and some of those things are things I'll be blogging about.

I have, however, been keeping my reading challenges up to date, so you can always check those out and see my progress throughout the year.

Well, enough rambling here, time to get on to writing the good blog posts!

30 Day Blog Challenge

Once again, this is from my friend Mel G!  She is doing a 30 day blog challenge that she got from a blog she follows on Facebook.  I REALLY need to get back into my blogging, I haven't been blogging at all for almost a year (like real posts, not just reading challenges), so I figured this might be a great way to start!  I'll be starting it on March 1st, so that it's easy to keep track of!

1. Breathe
2. Snow
3. Laundry
4. Contentment
5. Peaceful Parenting
6. Faeries
7. Strawberries
8. Beginning
9. Empath
10. Vaccinations
11. Grief
12. Toddlers
13. Thundersnow
14. Friendship
15. Bathrooms
16. Trust
17. Grace
18. Pitbulls
19. Rainbows
20. Organized
21. Transcend
22. Indigo
23. Creation
24. Lifeboat
25. Pregnancy
26. Birth
27. Leprechauns
28. Brave
29. One
30. Impact

Here is her blog link  http://melgarnerandbabyj.blogspot.com/2015/02/30-day-blog-challenge.html