Rainbow Bundt Cake & Rainbow Layered Smash Cake

My sweet baby girl turned one this month.  I still can hardly believe this first year with her has already come and gone.  

For her first birthday party, we decided to go all out rainbow.  My main inspiration for her first birthday party came from a term that is used with great hope and love in the infertility community... rainbow baby. 

A rainbow baby is the first baby you are able to give birth to, to hold after the loss of a previous pregnancy or little one.  

Baby girl is our rainbow baby after two previous consecutive miscarriages.  

The rainbow birthday party theme was just destined. :)

When I first started looking for inspiration for her party, I stumbled upon the blog Wine & Glue.  I have had a bloggy "love" affair with Lisa and her blog ever since. ;)  She was definitely the inspiration behind baby girl's smash cake with her Rainbow Heart Cakes, although I went a slightly different route with how I created mine.  (Plus, I think her's are so much more brightly colored and pretty than mine so you should click over & check out her post too. ;) )

For baby girl's party, I created a rainbow bundt cake, a heart shaped layered smash cake, and also baked extra rainbow swirled cupcakes when I realized my guest count was a *a little* higher than I had originally anticipated.  The bundt cake will serve about 12-15.  I made about 18 cupcakes as well. If you plan to make cupcakes, just pick up another box of cake mix & double the recipe. But if you are having a smaller party, the bundt cake should be sufficient. 

What you will need:

1 box of your favorite vanilla cake mix

3 eggs

1 1/4 cups water

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 cup sour cream

various food coloring (I would suggest gel food colorings if you have them.  The liquids can get kind of messy with a project of this undertaking.)

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the cake mix, eggs, water, oil, and sour cream.  Divide the batter into 6 different bowls- putting the most batter in the first one and then progressively putting less in each bowl as you divvy it out.  

Now color each of your bowls of batter with your food coloring.  I did yellow, orange, red, purple, green, and blue.  I added a few drops at a time until I had the color that I was going for.  

Be sure to grease and flour your bundt cake pan and your heart shaped pans.

Before you start the bundt cake, pour your batter into a heart shaped baking pan (similar to the one I have pictured below). I just did four layers for her smash cake. This is probably the perfect time to look for heart shaped pans since many of them will be included with the Valentine's Day clearance sales. ;) 

After you have your smash cake layers poured, start with the layering of your batter for the bundt cake.  I started with my red since it was the batter I had the most of and poured it into the bottom.  Then I layered all the other colors in.  I do suggest that you make sure you pour each of the colors of batter from the outside in so that the rainbow layers also show up on the outside of the cake.

I found a lot of helpful tips for layering the rainbow bundt cake batter from this post on Shane's Killer Cupcakes.

You will bake the bundt cake for about 35-40 minutes.  After 30 minutes or so, check the cake with a toothpick.  When the toothpick comes out clean, it is done.  The heart shaped cakes took about 20 minutes to bake.

Let the cakes cool for about 10 minutes in the pans, and then turn them out on wire racks to cool completely before frosting.  If the cakes won't come out very easily at first, just work a butter knife along the outer edges of the cakes & then try turning them out again.

I had an idea in my head that I wanted the frosting on the bundt cake to just run along the bottom so that it would look like clouds at the end of the "rainbow" when you cut into the cake.  I needed a buttercream that was fluffy, but that was stiff enough to not slide down.  I remembered seeing a recipe for a Marshmallow Buttercream on Shaken Together that she had used on Rocky Road cupcakes, and I knew it would be perfect!

What you will need:

2 sticks of butter, room temperature

One 17 oz jar of marshmallow fluff (I actually used two 7 oz jars because that is what I had on hand, & it worked perfectly.)

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Just cream the butter and sugar together.  Then hand stir in the marshmallow fluff and vanilla. 

I simply used a pastry bag & decorative frosting tip and piped the buttercream in 2 thick layers, one right on top of the other all along the bottom of the bundt cake.  I then carefully tossed on rainbow sprinkles all around on the "clouds".  

For the rainbow smash cake, I used the same frosting tip and simply piped heart shaped dollops of buttercream between each heart shaped cake layer, and then put a pretty dollop on top with a dash of rainbow sprinkles.

Voila!

If you opted to make cupcakes in addition to the bundt cake and smash cake, this frosting recipe is almost enough for all of them.  I actually had 3 cupcakes that were not frosted because I ran out of the buttercream.  But they were not actually needed for the party, so no biggie.

I couldn't wait to cut into the rainbow bundt cake to see how it looked on the inside!  It turned out beautifully even if they colors were not perfectly rainbow layered.

The smash cake was also a huge success.  Well, with everyone but baby girl. ;)  She really wasn't sure exactly what to do with it, I think...

Be looking for the next colorful party post on the blog soon.  Here is a little hint...

It just may go hand in hand with birthday cake.  ;)

Summer Blog Challenge, Day 42- Favorite Vacation I Have Taken

Although my Disney World vacation with my son a couple of years ago comes in a VERY close second as my favorite vacation of all time, Puerto Rico with my husband last June takes the prize.  Maybe Disney would have edged out Puerto Rico if it had not been a "working" vacation (I taught at a Montessori school at the time, and Disney was our big field study that school year. And yes, I was teaching and supervising children who were not mine most of the time. ;) )  

My husband is a talented salesperson, and this trip to Puerto Rico was almost entirely paid for because of his wonderful salesmanship. ;)  We used his well-deserved award as our honeymoon trip.  Please note, other than the Florida Keys I have never been off of the continental United States.  

We actually found out I was pregnant with Little Miss the day before we left for Puerto Rico. So, the drink you see pictured above became my favorite vacation drink- Mad About Mango.  Just Sprite and fresh mango puree.  I drank it all. the. time. that entire week. ;)

Our tour of El Yunque Rainforest was an amazing highlight of our trip.  Just gorgeous and awe-inspiring.  The waterfall was probably my favorite part.  It was so cool and refreshing, and the water tasted so pure.

So many opportunities for beautiful photography!  We purposely got up just once before 6am just to see a Puerto Rican sunrise (middle photo).  The photo to the very right will always be meaningful and special to me.  We were returning from a day on the island, and I was contemplating this new life growing inside, and felt the anxiety rising.  I happened to look up and there was an amazing rainbow in the sky.  I instantly felt better, reassured. <3

We also spent an entire day in Old San Juan.  Such a beautiful city steeped in so much history.  I mean, this place literally oozed history.  Which I adored since I am such a huge history buff.  All of the photos above were taken at El Morro, one of two forts situated in Old San Juan.  El Morro was built in the 16th century... so surreal.

Hope you enjoyed all the photos!  There were so many, and I had a very hard time paring it down to the many that I do have posted here! ;)  By the way, the blue cobblestone streets (pictured all the way at the bottom right) were so neat to see and walk on.  How many other feet had tread on those very same stones before us?

What is a favorite vacation that you have took?

Carina's Birth Story

As so many of you already know, this past pregnancy was a miracle for us.  After suffering two losses in a row within a year, I had began to question my body's ability to ever carry a baby to full-term again.  I felt blessed to have had my wonderful son over 13 years ago, but I still felt a piece of my life was missing...  I found that missing piece and everything finally became whole for me at 4:13 in the morning on February 9, 2012.  <3


February 8, 2012, approximately 2:50am- I woke up my husband.  Yep, I am definitely feeling contractions.  I had lost my mucus plug all throughout the day the day before.  I wasn't alarmed by that.  Obviously, I knew that we were one step closer to welcoming our baby girl into the world, but I also knew that you could lose your mucus plug a couple of weeks before birth.  So, it could have meant that nothing would be happening any time this week.  My husband started timing the contractions.  There was no pattern.  One would last a few seconds and be followed 7 minutes later by another one.  Then the next one would last 30 seconds and it would be 13 minutes until the next one.  And this would be my entire day- on and off contractions, no pattern, erratic intensity, confusion, and limbo.


To be on the safe side, my husband called off from work for the day, and I called my mother and put her on alert.  My mother & my husband would both be my birth partners for this miracle.  We went ahead and made sure the hospital bags were packed and ready to go just in case.  At around 1pm, I decided it was time to call my midwife.  The lack of pattern (yep, we were looking for that whole 5-1-1 deal) had become frustrating.  Sometimes the contractions would stop altogether for 30-45 minutes and then start back up again. My midwife had us come in and she checked my cervix (I mean, she actually grabbed my cervix!).  I was still 50% effaced, but had progressed to 3 cm.  But then again, that could mean everything or nothing.  As my midwife told us, I could go into labor in a few hours, a few days, or some time the following week.  At this point, the frustration and lack of sleep from the night before started to get to me.  I begged for either the contractions to stop or for something really definitive to happen- like my water breaking- to get this show on the road.  


At around 4pm, I decided to take a nap.  I was exhausted.  The contractions and 4 hours of sleep from the night before had started to take their toll.  My lower back was aching, so I laid down with my heating pad and fell fast asleep.  That didn't last very long.  For an hour and half, the contractions came consistently at 10 minutes apart.  But they didn't intensify and they didn't get any closer together.  My husband plays tennis every Wednesday evening with my dad, and I told him to go ahead and go.  If I needed him, he would be less than 10 minutes away anyways.  But I really didn't foresee me going into real, 5-1-1 labor any time in the next couple of hours.


I decided to get up from my nap.  I was achy and thought that maybe walking around would help.  I put a frozen pizza in the oven and tried to go about my usual routine, but something felt off.  I couldn't concentrate.  My body just ached. I started wondering what the hell I was thinking putting a pizza in the oven! By chance, my mother decided to stop over and check on me after she got off from work.  Never was I so glad to have my mom just drop by.  Shortly after she arrived my contractions started to intensify.  I had to stop what I was doing and work through them.  Right away, my mom knew what was happening and started timing them.  Forget 5-1-1.  That never happened.  My contractions just steadily got stronger & closer together within an hour.  It was time to call the husband home from his tennis date with my dad.  It was time to head to the hospital.


We arrived at the hospital and they checked me into triage.  I had no idea what to expect.  This was all new territory for me.  My son was born over 13 years ago via a scheduled induction.  I had no idea what non-Pitocin induced, natural labor felt like (although I was now getting a very good idea of it!).  I just knew that every time a contraction came, I had to stop and lean on my husband or mother and squeeze their hand.  I was scared, I was excited, I was nervous, and I was ready.  After it was determined that I was indeed in labor and dilated to 4cm, I was admitted to labor and delivery.  Right before we left triage, I felt warm liquid on my leg. I was about 99% sure that my water had just broke.  My midwife wasn't as convinced.  She thought it was just jelly from my cervix check.  But the contractions got much more painful, and my rests between them got very much shorter after that happened.


As I walked into the labor and delivery room that would become our "home" for 3 days and 4 nights, I already knew that at some point that evening I would probably be singing (or maybe screaming) "Coqui".  In my birth plan, we had decided on as much of a natural birth as my body and pain tolerance would allow me.  Ideally, I wanted to go completely pain medications free, but I also knew that flexibility was key.  My husband and I had a code word.  One word that if uttered from my lips meant that I truly, really wanted an epidural.  One word that could not comfortably work itself into normal labor and birth speak.  The word was "Coqui".  The tiny singing frogs that my husband and I had grown to love while spending our belated honeymoon in Puerto Rico this past June.  We had found out we were pregnant with this precious angel the day before we left.  


I told my midwife my fears that I didn't know how much more of the labor pains and contractions I could take. The pain was intense. What if this lasted for hours and hours?  I was already exhausted from being up since 3am that morning trying to time the contractions and desperately trying to see a pattern in them.  Physically I was already depleted. She suggested I try the shower with the detachable massaging shower head and see if that helped.  While I sat on a birthing ball in the shower, my mother and husband took turns aiming the warm water at my still big with baby belly, holding my hand, trying to encourage me to breathe.  Even though I have practiced yoga for YEARS, I still tense up and have a hard time taking deep breaths when in pain. I made it almost another 2 hours without pain medications by sitting in that shower.  My body started to shake with each contraction, the pain was intense.  I looked at my husband and said "Coqui" multiple times. He went to get a nurse and my midwife to ask for the epidural.  I wasn't disappointed in myself. I knew I had went as far as my body was going to let me.  I felt a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that I hadn't caved sooner.  But I knew my body's limits and I was at them.


Before the epidural was started, my midwife decided to break my water.  But very little trickled out when she attempted this.  I had told that my water had already broke. ;)


The anesthesiologist came in to start my epidural.  Once he finished, he sat in the room with me to make sure the medication was taking effect.  It seemed to take the edge off of my pain, but I could still feel my legs, I could feel the catheter they had put in, and I still knew when I was getting contractions.  Having had an epidural with my son, I knew what one should feel like. This didn't feel the same.  I thought maybe I had just had a stronger epidural with my son.  But then I started feeling contractions again, but just in one isolated area. What was going on?  They called the anesthesiologist back in, and he decided to add a Fentanyl dosage to my epidural drip.  Immediately my vision became jumpy.  Breathing felt difficult, and my pulse rate dropped.  The nurse asked the anesthesiologist if he would like an EKG ordered. What?? What was happening?  I started to panic a little. Was I okay?  Is the baby okay?  


Eventually my pulse went back to normal and even though I wasn't completely numb, I felt less pain.  Everything was fine... for about 45 minutes. Then I started feeling my contractions again full on.  I remember telling my husband that it wasn't fair. I wasn't supposed to be feeling these. I had broke down and asked for the epidural... for nothing??  The nurse called the anesthesiologist back to my room.  He decided to just redo the epidural altogether.  Once he had pulled out the original epidural catheter, he found what the problem was. There was blood in the catheter.  The catheter had nicked a tiny blood vessel and part of my epidural medication was going directly into my bloodstream.  That explained why the Fentanyl had affected my vision, breathing, and pulse so quickly.  He redid the epidural and then I just went numb from the waist down. Relief at last.  I fell asleep shortly after.  I knew I needed a little rest.  Myself and my body would have another big and miraculous task still to accomplish and it would be happening sooner than I had anticipated when I had closed my eyes for that nap.


About 20 minutes after I had fallen asleep, our labor nurse came in to check on baby girl's progress.  She looked up at me and told me that her head was in the birth canal.  I asked her if she could see her head and she said oh, yes. My husband could see her head from where he was sitting across the room.  I was a little taken back because I had felt absolutely no pressure, no urge to push. I worried about how long my baby girl had been in that holding pattern.  She called my midwife in.  In a few short minutes, my hospital room was filled with nurses and hospital personnel.  It was time.  Our sweet baby girl would be coming into this world soon.


My husband had decided prior to her birth that he wanted to be the one to deliver her and place her on my chest after she was born.  At first he was hesitant at even the thought of being down there, close to where all the action was taking place.  But the more he thought about it and the more we talked about it with my midwife, the more he knew that this was a once in a lifetime moment that he did not want to miss for anything.  With my mother and nurses by my head, holding my hands, and encouraging me; and my husband and midwife preparing to help bring our little girl into the world, it was time. I was ready to push.  At 3:56am, I started to push in our dimly lit L&D room.  Within 17 minutes, our sweet baby was on my chest and in my arms.  My husband did an amazing job of delivering her (with some fabulous coaching from my midwife).  There are no words to explain the joy, the pride, the love I felt when I looked at my baby girl's face for the first time.  The only words that I could utter was, "She's so tiny!".  

We delayed the cord clamping, and all the measurements and statistics and just spent the first hour of her life outside of me together.  As a family.  For the first time. My husband and I broke down into tears together as the reality of what had been happening in my womb for the past 9 months finally hit home for us both.  She was actually here.  Safe and with us. Finally. 

Carina Ellynn

Born at 4:13am on February 9, 2012

7lbs 1oz     19 1/4 in

And The Verdict is in! It's A...

Bean at 19 weeks, 6 days

Now you didn't think I was going to tell you right away, did you?  ;)  Today was the day.  The day we would find out for sure if our Bean is indeed a girl.  As some of you may recall, the tech at our 13 week ultrasound guessed that the Bean could very well be a girl.  (She also said to be sure to keep our receipts if we went out and bought a bunch of pink.)  I had felt pretty confident going into this ultrasound that our baby would indeed turn out to be a baby girl.  Then I had that dream last week...

I dreamt that my husband and I had to go to the hospital a few days before our scheduled ultrasound, and they decided that they wanted to perform an ultrasound just to be sure that all was fine with the baby.  As the ultrasound tech guided the wand across my stomach, she asked us if we had found out what the baby's gender was and if not, did we want to know.  Well yes!  Of course we want to know.  She said, "Well, it is definitely a boy!".  I was in shock.  My husband had this cute little smile on his face.  I had to ask her if she was sure.  I mean, how could our previous tech get it so wrong?  She turned the ultrasound screen to us and sure enough it was a boy!  No doubt.  I turned to my husband and said, "But we don't have any boys names picked out!  I guess this means we will have to have another one after this one."  The dream felt so real to me.

So even though I was still feeling pretty sure that this ultrasound today would definitively confirm we were going to have a girl, that dream lingered in my mind...  How would I react if the tech told us today that we were having a boy instead? 

It seems as though that question will never be answered.  :)  Our Bean is a GIRL!  Or as the tech put it, "There is definitely nothing between the legs!".  Our Bean was bebopping as usual.  She was going to give the ultrasound tech the pictures she needed on her own time, not anyone else's. ;) But eventually our baby girl cooperated with every shot, measurement, and angle our tech needed from her.  We were told that our baby girl had one of the most beautiful four chamber hearts she had ever seen.  Our Bean looks perfect.  My husband and I are absolutely in love with her already...