September Zentangle Club: Leaf Shape

Last summer I followed two of Joni's classes while I was in SC but living too far away to attend her monthly Zentangle Club I could subscribe and receive the Zentangle Club Card and project by mail and send my tangles back to Joni to show the group. That way it still feels like being part of the group.
For September we had to do tangles in a leaf shape. My choice was a Gingko leaf.
The two tangles for that month were Baton and Artoo.

Weekly Challenge #45: New Tangle Punzel

I'm late finishing this week's challenge and then I noticed that I used Chainging instead of Punzel.  Well I will post it anyway and give Punzel a try later.
I made this challenge for my DH who turns 65 on November 1. I thought this tangle was perfect to create numbers with.
It's not finished yet. I think the numbers will show up more if I color it. Will do that later.
Here is the tutorial for both Chainging and Punzel.

Fun Time

Quincy and Owen spent a weekend with us. Their mom and dad needed some time out without kids.......
The first day I took Owen to Rotterdam on the bus and went to the Maritiem Museum. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera.
Leroy took Quincy to work with him. He had begged him already a few times if he could help out in the kitchen at his job, so this was a good day for it.

But what to do the next day when it is raining?..... Perfect to make cookies and make a surprise dinner for their mom and dad. So here is my little baker Owen...

....with his oatmeal cookies

and my big cook Quincy....

...with his own homemade healthy pizza with a lot of veggies but when he was ready to eat he picked off all the veggies.............KIDS.....

Carrot Cake with Banana

Mostly when I make a kids birthday cake I use a carrot cake recipe. Most children I know of love carrot cake.
For the Lightning Queen Cake cake I changed the recipe I normally make a bit and added bananas to it and omitted the nuts. It was delicious and a succes as the cake was gone in a minute.
Will add a picture later as I haven't made one of the cake itself.
Cake:
4 eggs
200 grams light brown sugar
200 ml sunflower oil
250 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
300 grams grated carrots
2 ripe bananas mashed
60 grams chopped walnuts

Frosting:
50 grams butter
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
100 grams cream cheese
1 teaspoon vanille extract

cake pan with removable bottom, greased (Ø24 cm)

Preheat oven to 170 C (350°F)
Grease and flour cake pan.
Into a bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs and the sugar together until pale and thick.
Whisk in the oil and vanille extract.
Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix well.
Then add the carrots, banana and walnuts and stir until well blended.
Pour the mixture into the cake pan.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool on a rack.

For the frosting - beat the butter and cream cheese together, then add the sugar and vanilla. Spread onto the cooled cake.

Lightning Queen Cake

The little benjamin of our grandchildren, Ryan, had his 3rd birthday Saturday. His Dad had organised a private pool party and everybody enjoyed it.
I was asked as usual, to bake the cake and made the Lightning Queen (Cars). I used the Frozen Butter Cream Transfer again as I did with the Iron Man cake last year. Only I added cream cheese to the butter cream this time. This freezes and thawes well also, without the colors bleeding.
For the cake I used a carrot/banana cake recipe.
The cake was gone in a minute.

I really like this FBCT technique. It's easy but time consuming though.

My daughter likes to try out different cake recipes and she made two cakes as well:
a chocolate brownie cake:

and a lemon cake:

And then it was time to blow the candles

Mommy cuts the cake:

And I'm the first one to eat my piece

Then it was time to swim

The carrot cake recipe can be found here.

Weekly Challenge # 42: Hope

 October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and "Hope" is this week's challenge.

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today".

 Thich Nhat Hanh