Cookie Cake

As most of the people in my world know, I love to spend time in the kitchen I love to cook! However, I especially LOVE to bake. Baking has become my passion in life! I often get requests for recipes so I thought you know what, my blog is the perfect place for this.
Now, this one was inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest and I thought to myself, I could do that no problem!
The cake part was simple I made a mixed a box of Devil's Food Cake and a box of Butter Yellow Cake and I poured half of each mixture into a cake pan and swirled it around so that batter looked a little like marble. While the cake was baking I whipped up a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough (http://allrecipes.com/recipe/original-nestle-toll-house-chocolate-chip-cookies/) I made very small cookie dough balls out of the whole batch, however I set about 20 of the balls aside and let them sit in the refrigerator for a little while and put the others one a cookie sheet so they were ready to go in the oven.
Once the cake was done baking I started baking the cookies and making the frosting for the cake I used this one (http://www.marthastewart.com/336452/billys-vanilla-buttercream) gotta love Martha!!
After the cake had completely cooled it was time to assemble!
*Tip for frosting a cake, when I frost a cake I will tear 4 strips of wax paper and make a square to cover the outer edges of the plate and then place the cake on top of those, this way while you are frosting the cake anything that drips will hit the wax paper and when you are done you can simply pull it away and your plate is spotless!!
The best part about this cake is the filling, because not only was it the delicious buttercream frosting, it is the cookie dough balls from the fridge - genius!
After frosting the cake all around I took the little cookies that I had baked (once they were cooled of course) and placed them on top of and around the cake.
The cake was then sprinkled with mini-chocolate chips!

What I loved about this cake besides that it was delicious was that it looked pretty, I took this one as dessert to Thanksgiving dinner!

Why do I wait so long between posts

I've come to the conclusion I'm a bad blogger, I have all these great ideas and things I want to say, but I never actually take the time to sit down here and post them. I've decided I must get better about it - this will be a New Year's Resoluion so what if it's only December gives me an extra month to practice right?
Things have been pretty great here at the Dede/Wright House!! I've been super busy during the day with my various and assorted PTA board duties and most nights I'm at the dance studio with my dancing diva and you know what I couldn't be happier about it!
Where can I start with an update - let's see how about Thanksgiving. It was wonderful as always, although this year much quieter (not to mention roomier at the table) since we were missing 5 people. Last year we were so many people we had to have 2 tables and this year we didn't even need both leaves in one table. Although we were less people this year, Sean was actually able to be with us for dinner on Turkey day, I haven't actually eaten Turkey dinner with him since our first Thanksgiving together in 2007!! So for me it was a positively perfect day!
Right after Thanksgiving was of course Apple Cup which was spent at psuedo big brother Brian's house. Sean was able to come to most of that as well. He and I were the only ones there sporting Crimson and Grey and while it looked very bleak for my Cougs they managed a win, however by the time the game was over I was the lone Coug in a room of Purple & Gold, and man did I enjoy gloating about my win :-)
Since the day after Thanksgiving is the official start of the Christmas season we decided to put all the decorations up! This is seriously my favorite time of year. Sean complains and grumbles about the 678 Christmas boxes in the attic (ok so it's not that many, but it seems like it when we're trying to get them down) but I love it! I love unpacking all the knick-knacks and ornaments and thinking about when we got them and the stories behind so many of them. I also love telling Lilly the stories it's such an awesome thing to be able to have all these great memories and share them with my entire family. Ah but I digress so since Sean, Lilly, and I moved in with Mom & Dad not only do we have all the decorations I grew up with, but we also have the decorations that Sean and I had acquired while living in our condo. So now the house has 4 Christmas trees, yep you heard me right 4 trees! We have the main tree in the living room filled with the most random assortment of ornaments you will ever see, and it is everyone's favorite. In the entry way is the first tree Sean and I had it's about 3 feet tall, but hey those artificial trees can be spendy and it's what we could afford at the time! The entry way tree is decorated in traditional Christmas colors or red, gree, and gold. In the family room is the 2nd tree Sean and I acquired after we got married, well actually I acquired it during his deployment. It is much taller, but kinda thing. Since this tree was purchased while Sean was deployed and I was feeling particularly patriotic that year that tree's ornaments are red, white, and blue. The good news there is the family room is also particularly patriotic so it fits in quite well there! The 4th and final tree is a little over 2 feet tall and was purchased on sale last year and it resides in Lilly's room. Since this is of course her tree she got to pick all the ornamets and here's a shocker they are all silver and pink, complete with a glittery pink star on top and a pink tree skirt. I smile just thinking about her cute little tree. Before I post again I will take some pics so you can see how Christmasy our house is!
I'm getting very excited for the holiday season, it's going to be filled with amazing times with my friends and family and a lot of fun adventures!!!