The BEST chocolate cake recipe...

It is birthday month at our house, my husband is starting us off with his birthday on Thursday. When I met him, his favorite cake was carrot cake, I had never had a good recipe for carrot cake until recently I got one from my Mom. I was all set to make him a yummy carrot cake this year and when I told him, he said "No, I want the cockeyed cake." I was surprised a little, but really this cake is THE BEST, it is no wonder it has taken over to become his favorite. I debated whether or not to share this recipe, sometimes I can be a bit of a recipe snob. Only because recently I have shared this recipe and when it got compliments, instead of saying "thanks, I got this amazing recipe from SueAnn," all I heard was "thanks." As in them taking ownership of the recipe. I know that is a silly thing to let bug you, but it did bug me. I love a great recipe, but I always make sure to tell it's true source, it is just the right thing to do! I know I am not the original creator of this recipe, but it has been in my family for years, so a simple "thanks I got it from SueAnn", would be nice. ANYWAY, enough of my little rant, here are a couple pictures of the cake from a few months back.

It was a Sunday afternoon and we had agreed to make the cake for my brother in law's birthday. We had planned on bringing it, but we were just going to do a boring decorating job, until I found my pirate cake people with the cake pan. We decided it would be fun to do a pirate cake. Since it was a Sunday, going to the store was out of the questions, so we had to use what we had at home. I think it turned out really well for no planning. A side note is that I have yet to successfully get a rectangular cake out of the cake pan without ruining it. I have tried butter, Pam, shortening and flour, but to no avail. I need to go the parchment paper route, do you have any suggestions?

The "sand" is crushed graham crackers and the boat is a Rice Crispy Treat that we frosted. The rest is my Grandmother's frosting recipe which I will also list below.

Not only is this chocolate cake unbelievably delicious and moist, it contains no eggs, which is perfect for someone allergic to eggs, or great just to let your kids eat the batter without feeling guilty; though I consumed lots of cookie dough as a child and I am fine!

Cockeyed Cake

Bake in a 9x13 pan for 35-40 minutes.

1. Sift together in a bowl:

--3 cups flour

--6 TBSP cocoa

--2 cups sugar

--2 TSP baking soda

--1 TSP salt

2. Make 3 holes in the dry mixture.

3. Into one hole pour 2 TSP vanilla.

4. Into another hole pour 2 TBSP vinegar.

5. Into the last hole pour 3/4 cup cooking oil.

6. Pour 2 cups water over it all.

7. Beat until nearly smooth and you can't see the flour.

8. Pour into pan and bake as above, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

***This recipe also makes good rounded cupcakes. Fill cupcake tins 3/4 full. Makes 30 cupcakes. Bake 20 minutes.

Basic Butter Cream Frosting

4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 TSP salt

1 TSP vanilla

1/4 cup milk

1/3 cup butter softened

Beat until smooth with electric mixer, scraping the bowl often. If too stiff add a little more milk until desired consistency.

Fun Favor Idea: Weekend Website

I have birthdays on the brain in a major way. I keep finding great ideas for my son's birthday then adding another project to my to do list. I need to stop and just get done what I have. I have to have all the decor done by the 17th because I will be out of town through Easter and his birthday is 2 days after. On those days I will be baking up a storm. ANYWAY, I am rambling a bit now, birthdays and fun ideas, that is where I am going with this post. Aren't those super heroes adorable!! I think they would be fun favors for a super hero themed birthday party. Do you wanna know the best part about them? Jessica over at zakka life has the printable templates for FREE. I have this page bookmarked, being the Mom of a boy I am positive we will be doing a super hero themed party someday. Hope you have a fun weekend planned, I joined a softball league and our first practice is on Saturday, YAY! We are also going to a pirate themed birthday party at Pirate Island and it is General Conference weekend. The best part is, I get to participate in all of these activities because I don't work this weekend. That rarely happens. Enough of my babbling....enjoy your weekend!!

My Easter Tree

Are you proud of me, I actually got a project done! It is the one that I "wanted" to do vs. the one I "need" to do, but hey it's done! Last year I scoured high and low for an Easter tree I liked. I could not find one. Honestly, it was slim pickin out there, I couldn't even find one that I liked, but was out of my price range, which is usually what happens. I have been casually on the look out again this year, but nothing struck my fancy, so I decided to make my own.

A few weeks ago, after a wind storm, I found this branch outside, perfect for my tree.
I broke the branches apart and arranged them how I wanted. Then I secured them with some florist tape I had leftover from Hershey Kiss Roses.
My Mother-in-law gave me a block of florist foam, which I glued to the inside of my pot. While the glue was drying, I took the tree outside and spray painted it white.
A little Easter grass and a few river rocks and my tree was complete!
I added my ornaments and placed it in it's home, I really LOVE how it turned out. These pictures don't do it justice, but that is just my poor photography skills. This lovely tree cost me a whopping $2.50, all I purchased was the pot, everything else I had on hand. It is WAY better than anything out there I could find and at a better price.
Love it!

One Dollar Wednesday... cupcake pedestal

You may remember my post from October, when I revamped some burner covers to make a Halloween Pedestal. Well, the same trip I took to the Dollar Store~~Honk's for you lucky SLC peeps~~ I found these beauties.



I knew with the "springy" colors, they would be perfect to transform for my Baby's birthday. I've held onto them for long enough... Baby's birthday is next Monday!

Out to The Spray Paint Place for the candle sticks. A good coat of primer, and Ballet Slipper Pink.



While the paint was drying I made a scalloped edge on my scrapbook paper... using a "D" battery of course :).



The result...



the set...



here they are stacked...


and even with a yummy chocolate cake!


Okay, the cake isn't real, but looks good enough to eat, huh!

Pretty Little Projects: DIY Bird Bath

My good friend Liv from Liv(e) is sharing some of her projects from around her pink house. I love a good project, the little things always make a big difference!

Kev and I collaborated on a project this month for the PH. I saw this teacup bird feeder/bath on a blog or random website (I honestly cannot remember where) and I thought it'd be a great addition to the front yard.


I mean, I had the idea, so I can still claim to be involved, but since I couldn't find sandpaper or glue when I was home alone one day, Kev ended up doing each phase of the project. And then he finished it and I saw it planted in front of the PH last Friday when I came home.


It was a simple project that we did in about a week- Kev found the awesome teacup and saucer at DI and used silicone to secure them together. He let it dry for a couple of days before using extra PVC from the basement as a post on the bottom of the saucer. He even went so far as to use a fitting slightly larger in diameter than the post so we can slip the saucer on and off when we want to relocate the post.


Whenever it rained I noticed that the birds are very interested in drinking from the small puddles that collect on the sidewalk and driveway. That's when I decided this project was right for us. Now the birds can perch on either handle of the teacup and take a sip from the cup rather than from the sidewalk. It's the least I can do to thank them for NOT eating the grass seed Kev spread last spring.


I loved seeing the little birds right outside our front window enjoying the seeds on their little yellow perch. I can't wait for this winter to end so Aspen can join me and Maddie in our birdwatching from the living room.

I LOVE this project!! So simple and cute, it makes me wish I had a yard. Thanks so much Liv for sharing your fun projects, we love them!

Do you have a pretty little project you would like to share? Are you interested in doing a guest post on a lil bird told me? Email us at alilbird3 (at) gmail (dot) com.

A few of my favorite things...

So lately I have been in a funk. I have tons of projects that I am working on/ need to be working on, but I can't quite get it together to get anything done. HELP! I have 2 Easter projects that need to get done, well I guess only one NEEDS to get done, the other one I want to get done. And April is coming. April is a crazy month around here, besides Easter, all of our birthdays are in April. Mine doesn't really matter, but my husbands is in a week, and my son's is at the end of the month, hence the lots of projects. I am going to try to buckle down today and tomorrow and at least get 2 of my projects done this week. Wish me luck!

You are probably sick of my favorite things, but when I find great stuff, I just have to share! My favorite things today are brought to you by Target, you know my love for that store. The other day I went shopping and fell in love, with these......

Aren't they amazing?? I seriously get giddy just looking at them. I am a dork, I know. They are the perfect match for my dark grey shirt and grey polka dot skirt. So comfy and so cute.

I had to get some fun spring/summer nail polish while I was there. I thought this pink was fun. I am glad bright colors are the trend right now, I need some color in my life to get over these winter blues. Can someone tell the weather to stop it already with the snow? Even if it does melt the same day, I am done with winter and snow. Time for warm and sunshine!

Lastly I have found this next one to be a lifesaver in a pinch. The Happy Tot organic toddler meals are great! I make 90% of my own baby food, but have found that these are about just as good. Organic ingredients and NO added anything. I bought a few and keep them in the diaper bag to avoid situations like last weekend. What happened last weekend? I was an air headed Mom and went to lunch with friends without bringing any lunch for my baby. He was hungry and cranky and lunch wasn't as fun as it should have been. I have since learned that keeping a few of these in my diaper bag helps when I am an airhead and forget to grab something. He loves them and the packaging is great, I just hand him one and he sucks it down.
These are a few of my favorite things? What are yours? Do you have any tips for me getting out of this funk?

Friday Freebie... bedside table update

It's so great that I'm posting about free furniture finds. If you'd have told me 10 years ago that I would be uploading pictures of my "redos" on the computer, and allowing people to see the progress, I would have never believed it! This redo features a little bedside table that I picked up for my first-born. It was a roadside rescue, and was heavy as could be! I pulled my little 2 door car over, and hefted it into my tiny trunk. It just needed a quick coat of cream spray paint, and it was good to go!

That was 10+ years ago. This little table's been through 3 more kiddos, and it's age was starting to show!



I wasn't able to get to the store, and had to use paint that I had on hand...
PINK I think! I only had a half a can left, but knew I could line the inside of the table with wrapping paper. I focused on getting the outside painted really thoroughly.



While my paint was drying, I measured and cut this paper to line the inside.



Here's the finished table...I love the vintage look of it!



A close up... added a couple little friends, and our "G" block.



The original knob...



It really adds a little "pop" to baby's room.