Nuriyyeh's Cakes

Well finals are over! Whew! I don't think I have been this tired since my oldest was a newborn! As much as I wanted to just collapse into a heap and not move for days, having kids means that's not really an option. So, I went to the next best thing. Cookies. Now, I wanted simple cookies. I can never bring myself to buy those break apart cookies that you can get at the grocery store because it just seems so wrong. So I did the next best thing, I went to my one bowl recipe. I absolutely LOVE one bowl recipes. They are perfect for a tired mom who doesn't want to add any more dishes than necessary to the sink, or take a bunch of time measuring and sifting. Even better than that, this recipe only has five ingredients. Ladies and Gentlemen, it does not get any better than that! Now, I didn't come up with this recipe , though I wish I could take credit for it. It is amazing. Seriously. I'm talking amazing to the point where I make them, try to eat only one,...

So this morning is my last final for the semester! Yay! So, of course, I couldn't come to class at 8 am empty handed so I made treats! banana bread and a blueberry loaf. Let's do this!! 😀

My son had his fourth birthday party today! I can’t believe I am the mother of a four-year-old, most days I am pretty sure I shouldn’t even be responsible for myself!     For his birthday last year, he wanted a train cake. He absolutely loved Thomas the Train, so I decided to go all out. I made a two-tier cake with a tunnel running through the bottom. Yup, a tunnel. People thought I was crazy when I came up with the idea and when I started working on it, I fully agreed with them! It was a week-long process with molding a tunnel out of gum paste, making sure it was the right height and width, and making sure it could withstand the weight of the cake. When his birthday came around I spent the morning frosting and decorating the cake in bright blue frosting. It took the better part of 4 hours, but the look on his face when he saw a train track and a battery powered Thomas the Train running through his cake was worth every minute of it. Don’t get me wrong, it was not...

Well, today was the final day of my Emerging Media class. It has been one of my best classes in my long, long college career so I am a bit bummed that it is over. It is exciting to be done with the semester though (almost)! Only one semester left and then done!! This class helped me learn a lot about social media. I had been boycotting hashtags heavily since I first saw them. I still don't use them on a daily basis, however, I now see that there is a point to them. I think I will forever be irritated by people who use 20 on one post on Facebook, but when used for their intended purpose I think they are very helpful. I'm still not a big fan of Twitter, however, Instagram has grown on me. I think I will continue to use that. I like the shorter format with more graphics than words. This class also helped me realize that, though I do love to bake, it will stay a hobby. I have had people suggest turning it into a business and I have considered that from time to time. Being in ...

Wow! It has been a busy 48 hours. Every year I bake sweets for people for holiday gifts. I love to do it and it makes my whole house smell like sugar. This year I decided to make cakes for my professors and my sons teachers. I made 8 of these little candy box cakes for them. They were so much fun to make! Not going to lie though, after the fourth one it started to feel like a little much. But I think they all turned out really well!! Each cake was one 6 inch cake. Since they were so thick I cut it in half, filled it, and frosted over it. Some of them were surrounded by Kit Kat bars, others were covered in sprinkles. The tops were covered in different kinds of candy and chocolate frosting and the wafer cookies. I wanted to eat it all! I wrapped the cakes up in red bags and wrapped them with a ribbon. I was worried about the frosting coming off, a small amount did, but they still looked pretty good. For everyone else I made mnm cookies, Christmas crack (sounds weir...

Virtual reality was the topic of the week this week. I had never worked with this before and I find it fascinating! When I thought about virtual reality I always associated it with gaming. I had seen those commercials on TV with people staring into a small box holding their phone, freaking out about how "cool" or "awesome" something was. To be honest, it is a bit ridiculous watching someone with those, since you cannot see what they are seeing. When our professor brought some to class and I took a look I understood why people thought it was so cool. Looking through those and being able to turn one way and another, with the image changing, is pretty cool! Then, today in class, a fellow student showed us what they use virtual reality for. They have a camera at her work which makes online 3D models of houses which are being sold so you can take a virtual tour. I had never stopped to think about how those online 3D models are made. Listening to her explain the wor...

So this week I did an interview on Facebook Live. All I can say about that is 😡😩😬 I am friends with the owner of U Top It frozen yogurt up in Orchard Mesa. She agreed to take some time to meet with me and let me interview her over Facebook live. I wrote up my questions, got there in time, connected to they wifi, blah, blah, blah. I made sure the WiFi was working I checked. I checked again. It was good. I got on Facebook, pulled up live, and we started. Good questions, good conversation. We got about 8 minutes in. It crashed. It saved less than two minutes of my interview. I now am super upset about it. She runs her business by herself and had to get back to work, so I was not able to recover that time that was lost. We went through my questions again, in a quicker fashion. This photo was taken while we were interviewing though, so that is nice. This may have turned me off from live forever, or at least for awhile to sound less dramatic about it. 😂

So my sons 4th birthday is coming up. We're throwing him a party at Chuck E Cheese.  Oh Boy. I love to see my son happy, as does every mother, but Chuck E Cheese still makes me cringe a bit. Ok, a lot. But I am going to make him his cake of choice. He has a very hard time making decisions, something he gets from me. (Sorry Kiddo!) But, he has finally chosen. A blue and orange cake (like the Broncos!) with candy on the top. Lots of candy, and lollipops, not small ones big ones. Kids are very particular. I found this cake video on Facebook and it had a method that I wanted to try, so I made a cake last night. No direction and no thought behind it besides-practice. I came out with a watermelon cake 😂 The method was to put different colors of cake batter into piping bags and pipe alternating dots around the pan. I thought it turned out pretty well and will use the method for his cake. And the watermelon frosting, well, that just kind of happened 😂

Here is my first podcast!  It took many times recording and a lot of messing around in Garage Band. I have not used Garage Band in a long, long, long time so there was some google involved not going to lie! I have not perfected it yet but hopefully it's decent! 

This week we worked on podcasts in class. This was not the best for me because I hate my voice, I mean burning passion hate to listen to it. I wrote a script on an article that I had written for the school paper last semester about Baker's Boutique, a local Grand Junction bakery. After I did my first recording I went back to listen. There were quickly 3 redos with speedy delete button pushes after each one. (Only one of which was because of noisy kids in the background 😂😂) I still have not been able to bring myself to save one, but I'll get there!

So today I started working on my final for my emerging media class. I built a business page on Facebook for my cakes which was a little strange for me to see. I never planned on making my baking into a business, I still don't really, but it is fun to entertain the idea. Today is also the anniversary of this cake, this is probably my favorite cake that I've ever made, partly because there is a cheesecake in the middle 😀

This week we worked on YouTube. Now I use YouTube all the time to watch videos and my kids love to use it to watch wheels on the bus and those weird videos where people open the eggs and see what's inside. However, I have never posted anything on YouTube before. Whenever I think of posting to YouTube I just think Justin Bieber and think no further. So I made a profile. My picture is me in a baking shirt and background picture my latest cake. I did make the mistake of filming my first two videos vertically instead of horizontally so the next video I will be more mindful of that. I put my videos into iMovie and added some transitions and some words here and there. This assignment has been challenging for me because it's a few things I have not done in awhile. It was a nice refresher in iMovie as well as a lot of good information in YouTube. For my review I am hoping to review either a recipe or a local bakery, depending on how motivated I feel to bake this week 😂😋

My sons elementary school had a carnival to raise money so I made a cake for the cake walk. Apparently it was a fan favorite and got auctioned off for money instead which is quite a compliment! Candy box cakes are so easy to make and so much fun!

This week we worked with QR codes in class.  This was my code: This code links to the website of the event coordinator that I am currently working for. I chose to do a flyer for her because I thought it would be good practice. I think that QR codes are extremely interesting and a very good idea. Something that you can just scan and have all the information come up instantly without having to search or go through a lot of different information. After finding out the the Twitter app has a QR code scanner built in, I have been scanning any QR code that I come across. Our professor set up an assignment in class that was a QR code treasure hunt. She taped up QR codes, each of which came up with a different link. Some were videos and some were photos. It was fun because something so simple, a black and white code, held secrets that we were excited to find out about. I think that is one of the nice things about these codes, keeps people excited, interested, and wanting to fin...

Many people these days are quick to talk about their obsession with kale, quinoa, and zoodles. What many seem to fail to mention is their love for desserts. All those beautiful cakes, cookies and pastries. While they may not be talking about these scrumptious treats, they are definitely succumbing to them, as consumption of desserts seem to be quickly rising. Technomic , a company known as “the food industry research specialist” recently released their 2017 Dessert Consumer Trend Report*. Their report, based on a survey of 1,500 consumers in the United States, showed that people are changing the way that they look at and think about desserts. More and more people are planning events and occasions around desserts and people who are between the age of 18-34 are more likely to go to a specific place to eat a meal because they are intrigued by what the restaurant has to offer for dessert. Techmonic also observed that 32% of consumers eat dessert after a meal at leas...

Snapchat was the flavor of the week this week. I had never used Snapchat before so I had to download the app, yeah, that's how out of the loop I am! Snapchat was interesting to me, it seems simple which was very nice for me! I understood pretty well and pretty quickly what I needed to do. Click to take a photo and hold to record a video! Perfect. I made a  Lemon Loaf Cake for the Snapchat story. Took a mix of photos and short videos. I got them all together and added some captions, and there was a story! I love when I understand something 😂. I am also writing an article for class about how dessert consumption is on the rise. I find this very interesting because so many people these days are trying to be more health conscious, yet desserts are being consumed at a much faster rate. I love it though. Desserts are always amazing!!

I was in the mood for a Reeses Cake this weekend so I made one, what better reason right? Dark Chocolate Fudge cake with peanut butter frosting, dark chocolate ganache and Reese's with Reese's Pieces. Nothing says love more 💕

It's that time of year again! The time of year when I get to bake and bake and bake and then wrap it up for a gift.  I love this time of year. Cookies Cakes Breads Pies and every other baked good The pumpkin bread recipe that I posted before was used for this, subbed out pumpkin for banana. It was wonderful!  Happy October everyone! Get your ovens going many more recipes coming your way 🎂🍞

It's October! That means it's time for cake! Well it's always time for cake but this cake is just for October. Now I think candy corn is disgusting, I do fall into that category, but I thought it looked pretty on the cake. I did throw out the candy corn on my piece before I ate it, but it looked nice  😆

This week in class we learned about Instagram. I have to say, I am not an Insta fan. Maybe I just need to learn more about it, kind of like Twitter.I made a new account for class and got all logged in on my computer, but, uh oh, you have to have the app to actually post on there. Well, that's ridiculous isn't it? Yes. Yes it is. So I got logged in on my phone. The nice thing was, I did not have to log out on my profile, I could simply add another and switch between them. This was nice. I got a photo I liked which I felt worked with the story. I made my post. Apparently linking an article in an actual post is a no, no so I added the link to my profile page. I don't know if I am old, or if I'm just crazy, but I am not a big Twitter or Insta fan. I do enjoy using Insta to daydream over pastries and coffee drinks, not as much for posting information.

It's cold. Very cold. So what better to do then bake cookies?! There is nothing better I am telling you. So I have this cookie recipe that is incredible! I kid you not its amazing. Most requested one that I have. I had to grab a picture from the actual creator of the recipe because hers are just so much prettier than mine are! Thank you Sally's Baking Addiction for this amazing Chocolate Chunk Cookies . You have to try this one people, you'll be hooked for life!

Twitter Ahh, Twitter Up until last week I have managed to avoid Twitter. I have evaded it with the most amazing skill. I have dodged it like it's Kale. But no more. This week we learned about Twitter. We had to make a post on Twitter using our articles. I used my article about GBBO and posted it on Twitter. It took me a few tries at it because I kept not liking the way that it would turn out. We learned about how Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media have different specs for their layout. Each one has a different size that they want different images to be. I went in to use Canva, tried to experiment with that a bit, but it made me feel a little angry so that will be a song and dance for another time. I think my Twitter post came out ok. I included the dreaded hashtag #stillnotafan #nothanks #onlyforclass as well as the link and a photo. It looked nice and directed people right to the article so I would say that's a success. Maybe Twitter will gro...

This past weekend was a busy one, two cake orders one for an anniversary cake and one for a birthday cake.    This birthday cake was a Vikings cake for someone. I am in no way shape or form an artist. Sculpting? nope! Fondant and I do not get along! So I went to the store and got an edible image printed. I did my research on how to get it put on and everything else so I felt pretty good about it. I didn't have to attempt to make a viking out of fondant and it would look great! And then it went on purple icing And it turned pink I was livid. I was cursing (in my brain of course so that my two children couldn't hear it) and trying not to cry. I had been so excited about it and it looked terrible. The client still loved it, I made her some cupcakes as well because I felt so bad. But that was a not so pleasant learning experience for me. This cake was for someone's 25th wedding anniversary. They had never had a wedding cake and this was what they asked f...

Facebook was the topic of the week in class. Every member of the class was added to a group facebook page. This was something that I had not worked with before and was a great learning experience for me. I posted a link to my article located in my blog and figured out attaching a picture. I also ran into some problems on Blogger, not being able to change my heading and make it stick with my Facebook post. I re-posted the article again and was able to fix that. Whether that is the correct way to do it I do not know but it did work for what I needed. I also broke down and started using hashtags for the Facebook post. I have fought them a lot in the past, for some reason it drives me a little crazy. Maybe it is because I have friends on Facebook that use way too many hashtags on one post but I have been very against them. I have been learning, however, how useful and helpful they can be.

The Great British Bake Off has left BBC and joined Channel 4. With millions of loyal viewers, many people seem to have concerns about the switch. For anyone who has never watched Great British Bake off, let's give you the rundown. Great British Bake Off, or GBBO as it is fondly known to many, is a British baking competition which brings in amateur bakers and selects the best one through a process of elimination. If you have watched a show such as MasterChef it is the same basic premise. GBBO, moved from BBC to Channel 4 for selective reasons. While these reasons are being guarded, it has been rumored that money was one of the leading reasons for the switch. While BBC offered a good amount of money, it simply was not enough and Channel 4 swooped in and purchased GBBO for 75 million.   When GBBO was on BBC there were no commercials. While many people are used to sitting through commercials while watching TV, faithful BBC viewers pay extra to not watch com...

It cooled down! Finally! I am so excited! It hit high 50's yesterday and the first thing I did (after my happy dance) was pull out the cookbook and bundt pan. I should say, I do not enjoy pumpkin spice flavored ANYTHING! I will not judge someone who does, it's just not for me. Pumpkin bread however I am a big fan of. I took a trusted banana bread recipe and subbed pumpkin for banana and it worked perfectly. I had to eat some before I took a photo I couldn't help myself. Here is the recipe! Enjoy  Pumpkin Bread 2 cups flour 1 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 2 cups sugar 1 cup mashed pumpkin 3/4 cup oil 3 eggs (lightly beaten) Preheat oven to 350 and grease bundt pan. Whisk dry ingredients together. Mix wet ingredients. Mix wet and dry together. Pour into pan and bake 40-45 minutes. 

In class today we watched a documentary called "How Facebook Changed the World". This video was incredibly interesting to watch, especially as someone who uses Facebook mostly to look at cute baby pictures and save cooking and baking videos. The video looked at the revolt of government in Egypt and Arab Spring. The government was controlling and the people wanted both of the rulers out. The leaders of the protest used the internet as their form of communication. Both of these places had internet that was being controlled by the government. In this day and age though many people did not have trouble getting around the attempt to censor and hide the information. We discussed Facebook in class as well. I thought that it was interesting how Facebook can be used for more than baking videos and cute baby pictures. I also thought it was interesting that Facebook can take the things you like and look at and then coordinate your news feed accordingly. It seems a little strange...

This week in class we learned about Linkedin accounts. I had never made a Linkedin account before, though I had heard of them. I signed up and started to set up my profile and I realized that I had a couple problems to work through. First was, I needed a photo. This is not too big of a deal for many, however, being a stay at home mom for the last four years many, if not all, of the photos that I have of myself include my children, or, include my run down worn out mom clothes. I managed to find one photo of myself in a relatively nice shirt to use. One problem down. The next problem I ran into was the fact that, technically, I have been attending CMU for almost 10 years. I first came here back in 2008 when the school was still called Mesa State College. I will say, it has not been a steady 10 years of going. I left more than once for multiple reasons which I will not bore anyone with, and I have earned my Associates degree, but still. Having a Linkedin profile with the date for CMU ...

I made a cake. Now, with who I am, this news shocks no one. I love making cakes, especially decorating them. This cake, however, was different. I just wanted cake. Chocolate cake, chocolate filling. I had to have it, been craving it for almost two weeks. I tried to fight it to no avail. Here I am, sitting at a table, trying not to devour an entire cake. Now this cake, I must confess, was made from an altered box cake mix. *GASP* I know, I know it's horrifying. But what's even worse is, I am not ashamed of it. Most of the time I will gladly and happily make a cake from scratch, I love to do it! However, with the whole family being sick lately and my son starting preschool I felt way too exhausted to spend the time and energy to make a cake from scratch. I always keep a few boxed cakes on hand in case of an emergency and, well, this chocolate craving definitely qualified as an emergency. So, without any more useless story or chatter, I give you the boxed cake fix u...

So I am writing an article for class and have decided to write it about The Great British Bake Off. I am guilty in the fact that I have never watched this show! I know, I know it's crazy! With 2 kids under the age of 4, being in my last year of school, and trying to complete an internship I don't have much time for television. I went on YouTube and found a link to The Great British Bake Off that I wanted to share. The Great British Bake Off Moments I think that first moment is pretty funny!

After reading the Chapter 2 reading, "Comparing Digital and Analog Media", I started browsing other baking blogs. I clicked on this link 12 Best Baking Blogs , and started looking through all the different blogs. I started looking at the "Improving Credibility" section on pg 39 and then going back to the blog, looking at how the blogs did with the different elements on the list. The first blog on the website is is The Vanilla Bean Blog . When the page opens up you see a simple white background, some tabs on the top, the name of the page on the right hand side and a large picture front and center. The page was easy to navigate and there were nice photos on the page. There were many links under one of the tabs which lead to other pages as well as information about the bloggers cookbook and FAQ's. There was no obvious contact information on the page, but with all the links and tabs it could have been missed. I struggled greatly with content, I feel that part is v...

While I am sure I read some blogs here and there, I am not an avid blog reader or "blogger". A part of me feels like so many people, especially Stay At Home Mom's, have a blog about everything from how to potty train to how to only feed your kids organic food. I feel like I won't be saying anything that many moms, or people, have not said before so I have not bothered to start one. I found many things in this weeks readings interesting, especially since my knowledge of blogs is quite small. The reading mentioned the different thoughts that people can have about bloggers and whether they are or are not journalists. It seems to me, from the reading as well as small pieces I've picked up here and there, that blogging and journalism are merging more and more as technology takes a leading role. Another piece of the reading I found very interesting was the piece on how to write a paragraph. I found it especially interesting that, when reading the article, when I g...