Cinnamon Apple Cake

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If you have a Pinterest account and are remotely interested in food, you've probably seen this pin. It has gone totally viral the past few weeks. So I thought, it's apple season, this pin is popular, I might as well try it out, right? Right. It was pretty delicious. Unfortunately, I left mine in the pan a little too long and it broke apart instead of being beautiful like the original photo above (from the original website). But it still tasted delicious! Also: I think it's pretty safe to say I use a lot of cinnamon.. Today my mom bought Cinnamon at Sam's Club, which means it's a ginormous container. When I asked why she bought so much she informed me that I've used an entire little container of cinnamon ever month for the past four months. Some things you just have to buy in bulk!

 If you don't have one of these, you should invest at once. They're amazing. Especially at Thanksgiving when you're making apple pie and apple crisp and apple cider etc, etc, etc. It literally takes 10 seconds to peel and core your apples this way. 

 You'll need 5 medium size apples for this recipe, peeled, cored, and diced. Cover them with the cinnamon and sugar and set overnight. I didn't read the recipe before starting, so I didn't really want to wait overnight to make the cake. If that's the case with you as well, you can do it the cheater way like me.. I just spread them in the bottom of a 9x13 pan and baked them at the lowest setting of my oven for about 10-15 minutes. The purpose of them sitting out was to allow the sugar to break down the apples a little to make them extra juicy, and so baking them accomplishes a similar effect in less than half an hour.

Cinnamon Apple Cake (found here)

Combine and set overnight:
5 Medium Apples, peeled, cored, and diced
2 t Cinnamon
6 T Sugar

3 C Flour
3 t Baking Powder
1/4 t Salt
2 C Sugar
1 C Vegetable Oil
1/2 C Orange Juice
2 1/2 t Vanilla
4 Eggs

Topping:
1 Stick Butter
2 t Cinnamon
5 t Sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Mix the dry ingredients, minus the sugar, together. Mix the wet ingredients, plus the sugar, together. (keeping the apples separate). Combine the two until well mixed. Layer the apples and cake batter in a greased tube pan. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours. While it is baking heat the topping over medium heat in a small saucepan until bubbling. Set aside. When the cake has finished baking pour the topping over it and leave it in the warm oven for 5 minutes. This will form a hard sugary coating that is totally delicious. Enjoy!

Cooking Pumpkin

 I feel like such an accomplished cook! I have officially cooked a whole pumpkin and pureed it into homemade "canned" pumpkin puree! And let me tell you, it's so much tastier than store bought. And it's actually way easier than it sounds! And it's cheaper! We got this pumpkin for $4, and I got over 8 cups of pumpkin puree. One 16 oz can at the store is usually about $1.50. Which would be $0.75 per cup. Cooking your own is $0.50 per cup. And when you love pumpkin as much as I do, you tend to use a lot, and therefore spend a lot... 

 Anyway, back to cooking :) It's pretty simple. Wash your pumpkin and cut it in half. Scoop the seeds out (make sure to save them for roasting! A recipe for roasted pumpkin seeds is coming soon!). My friends from Columbia will be happy to know that I conquered my fear of pumpkin guts and scooped all the seeds out by myself!

 Put your pumpkin halves face down on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for at least an hour. Test it with a knife and when it is soft you can take it out. Let it cool and scoop the flesh out of the shell.

 It'll be pretty thick and stringy, so I put mine through the blender to make it more pureed. 

 Worked like a charm! It's so delicious! Stay tuned for pumpkin recipes!

I'm a Little Flower

 Guess what guys...I went shopping on Wednesday! Which means NEW (to me) CLOTHES! Which is pretty much my favorite thing ever, besides spending time with my family and friends, which can be done while shopping, so that's pretty awesome. So I got this dress at one of the thrift stores my mom and I went to for like $6. It reminds me of a flower and will from now on be known as my petal dress. It's getting way cold here (it was in the 30's last night) and the dress is strapless so I had to wear a little sweater (purchased at a garage sale for $0.50) and tights to keep warm. I wanted to pair it with these super cute new heels that I purchased, but I thought that would be too dressy for Bible Study and school, so I went with my silver sparkly TOMS. I'm also wearing my spoon ring (tutorial found here), charm bracelet, treble clef earrings, and black and gray headband. Thoughts?

The Last of the Summer Ruffles

 So it's officially August. Summer is coming to an end. And here in New York, that means the short-lived warmth is coming to an end. I decided to get my filmy ruffles in while I still could! I bought this Ann Taylor shirt while thrift shopping yesterday for less than $2, and I got the New York & Company skirt at a different thrift store a while ago for a similar price. Gotta love great brands for great prices!

Polka Dots and Strings

 I've been waiting for a while for the perfect outfit to wear this head scarf with and I finally found it! I got this top at the on-post thrift store the other day for less than $3 and it's the perfect color to wear with the scarf! I paired it with skinny jeans, a white cami, my blue polka dot earrings and necklace, and sparkly TOMS. When we went to a concert in the park I also wore a blue sweater because it is getting COLD here! It's so not nice! (I was going to say not cool.. but it is cool...) I haven't decided whether I'm going to shorten the strings on the top yet; thoughts? 

Flowers In My Hair, Water at My Feet

So today I woke up 30 minutes after my meeting started... I blindly reached into my closet, threw this on and ran out the door. Luckily it could be rescheduled and no real harm was done. Lesson learned: always set an alarm, no matter how late in the day the appointment is.

Bubble Love

 No we're not drinking; yes we are blowing bubbles; yes we are 17; no we are not ashamed. :) This is one of those Pin Win situations, and let's be honest, those are the best kind of situations. There are only five things you need to make this Incredibly Fun Bubble Pin Win Situation and those things are: 1. a plastic bottle 2. dish soap 3. water 4. a dish rag and 5. a best friend (you could do without a best friend, but your IFBPWS won't be nearly as fun without her). So it's super easy to do this. You cut the bottom off your bottle and rubber band (I lied, you need six things) your dish rag to the bottom. Then fill a bowl with one part dish soap and two parts water. Then dip the dish rag end of your bottle into the soapy water and create bubbles! 

 Even Hank liked the bubbles!

 It is also possible to have a bubble war, which I would highly recommend.

You too can be this happy, just blow bubbles with (at) a best friend :)

Sunny Stripes

 I wore this to a job meeting yesterday. I just received this skirt from my dear friend, Gabby, and I love it! I was also playing with the tripod angles, so the pictures are funky on purpose! I'm also wearing a thrifted purple shirt, shell earrings that my aunt and uncle got me for my birthday a few years ago, and purple wedges that my grandma gave me.