A VERY Delicious Strawberry Angel Food Cake

Hey all! I promised I would share the recipe for my mother's birthday cake and here it is! 

What You Need:

• 1 cup cake flower (spooned and leveled) - click link for all purpose flour equivalent 
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 12 large egg whites, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

How to Make the Angel Food Cake

Preheat your oven to 350°.  

Sift flour and salt together into a bowl and set aside.  

With a mixer, beat egg whites on medium-high until foamy, about 1 minute.  Add cream of tartar; beat until soft peaks form.  Continue to beat, gradually adding sugar; beat until stiff peaks form, or about 2 minutes.  Add vanilla and beat to combine.

Gently transfer egg-white mixture to a large,wide bowl. In four batches, sift flour mixture over egg-white mixture. While turning the bowl, use a rubber spatula to fold in the mixture by cutting down the center and coming up the sides.

Gently spoon batter into an ungreased angel food cake pan with a removable bottom; smooth top.  Cut a knife or small spatula through batter to release air bubbles.  Bake until cake is golden and springs back when lightly pressed, 35 to 40 minutes.  Invert pan; let cool in pan, 1 hour. Run a knife around the inside of the pan and around the tube to release cake, and unmold.  Use knife to release cake from bottom of pan, and remove.

For the frosting, I used your regular whipped cream to top the entire cake and covered it with freshly cut, large strawberries.  

Serve and enjoy!

Original Recipe: Here 

Mom's 55th Birthday Celebrations

Hello everybody! I trust that your week is going well and that you have had a wonderful week.  I still fee like I am always playing catch up and desperately need to keep the ball rolling.

Today we are going to talk about my mom's birthday! She turned the big 5-5 this year and I think she is handling with grace.  Honestly, I have never felt my mom to look even remotely close to her age.  She does an excellent job taking care of her self.

The Monday before my mom's birthday, her best friend and I schemed to throw a mini surprise dinner.  The plan was for my mom and her two best friends to go to P.F. Chang's for dinner until Melody realized that we should be inviting more people to celebrate, so she had me call a few people and I grabbed some balloons and decorations as a surprise.

I managed to grab a picture of her as she walked into the restaurant, but I don't think she knew what was happening until she saw me standing there with the camera.  

On top of the balloons that I got, I found a matching tiara and wand that said, "Another year of fabulous".  I was rather surprised when I went to the party store that there was no "55" balloons or decorations.  I guess only the significant years count.

Because this was just a mini birthday celebration with her friends, I celebrated my mom's birthday again the weekend after.  Mom wanted us to go to church and out to lunch for her birthday, so Justin and I made our way up to their church and out to lunch. 

Last year I started a tradition of baking cakes for everyone as a birthday present and this year my mom asked for an angel food cake with whipped cream and strawberries, and that is exactly what she got.

Angel food cake is definitely a different cake to make.  I will make sure to share the recipe soon so you too can make the cake.

Mom made sure to reuse her balloon, want and tiara as we sang happy birthday to her! I'm so glad she got so much joy out of those gifts.

Happy 55th birthday mom! I love you!

Tanna and Andrew Wedding - Ohio

Hey All! I hope all is going well and that the weather has not been too crazy for you! Michigan has seen some crazy weather over the last few weeks, but I'm sure it does not compare to what is going on in the south.

A few weeks back, Justin, Reggie and myself headed to Youngstown, Ohio for a dear friend's wedding.  When I found out that Tanna was getting married, I was very excited and I was even more excited that she invited Justin and myself to her wedding!

It was a very warm, but very beautiful day for a wedding!

Early in the afternoon, Justin, Reggie and myself headed to the church for the ceremony.  This was my second time attending a Catholic wedding ceremony and I had forgotten how long the services traditionally take.  The church that they were married in was absolutely gorgeous inside! 

After the ceremony, the bride and groom did a bubble ceremony before hopping into their limo for the next big event!

There was a bit of a break between the wedding and the reception, so we grabbed a few pictures before heading back to the hotel to rest for a few minutes.

The reception was held at Avion on the Lake and it was absolutely beautiful! It was on a lake (duh) but in the middle of the lake was a tiny island with a single willow tree on it.  First of all, I absolutely love willow trees.  Second of all, a plane landed right on the lake! It was so amazing to see the plane land on the water.

The reception started with the bride and groom sharing their first dance followed by the daddy/daughter dances.  Tanna and Andrew danced to "1000 Years" by Christina Perry.  I heard this song after our wedding and was so bummed because I would have loved to walk down the aisle to this song.

After the dances everyone enjoyed a delicious meal followed by a ton of dancing! I had so much fun dancing at their wedding and my feet were definitely feeling it the next morning.  Interesting fact about Canfield, OH: there is always a cop at any wedding reception where alcohol is served.  I think that this is such a neat idea and it probably saves so many lives that would otherwise have been lost to drunk driving.

Congratulations Tanna & Andrew Angyal!