Happy Six Weeks!

Today is the six week anniversary of my back surgery.  My friend Jenn, who also had back surgery (five years ago), suggested that we celebrate surviving six weeks.  Jenn has been my main support throughout this whole ordeal, and my main source for recovery information, so when she mentioned celebrating six weeks, who was I to say no?  Plus, I always love a reason to celebrate!

For my celebration, I decided to bake a cake.  Not just any old box cake, but a real cake.  I decided on a Caramelized Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting.  Ambitious?  Heck yeah.  Ridiculous?  Definitely.  Fun?  Absolutely!  (At least until my oven lit on fire...)

I added some fun Marzipan pumpkins, leaves and acorns to the top.  I covered them with Wilton's Pearl Dust (edible) for a little extra flare.  Who knew that Marzipan was so versatile?  I've never used it before, but the pumpkins were amazingly simple to make.  I just rolled the Marzipan into a ball, squashed it into the right shape, and drew lines from the top to bottom with a toothpick dipped in vegetable oil.  Then, using the thicker side of the toothpick, I poked a hole in the top of the pumpkin, rolled a small stem, and set the stem into the pumpkin.  Done!  I used a small paintbrush to cover the Marzipan with Pearl Dust.

Lest you think I'm actually amazing, my oven did light on fire during the baking of the cake. Apparently I should have placed a cookie sheet under the cake pans, because a massive amount of batter literally exploded out the sides of the cake, and onto the bottom of my oven.  FAIL.  This all happened as I was supposed to walk out the door to pick up my 1st grader from school.  Thank goodness for good friends who have cell phones, and are willing to drive my kid home from school.  (Thank you, Cathy!)

Happy 6 Weeks of living!

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