Autumn is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love crisp days and crunchy leaves underfoot.

Saturday we picked Concord grapes to make grape juice and jelly.  My kids pulled the grapes from the stems to get them ready for the steam juicer.  We ended up with 2 gallons of juice and today I’ll be making grape jelly to give as gifts this Christmas (and some for us to enjoy, of course).

I love food this time of year.  I’ve been making wheat bread and soups, chicken stew with biscuits, and hot cereal for breakfast.

This morning I made baked oatmeal for the first time.  It took longer to cook (35 minutes) than regular oatmeal, but it was fast and easy and warm and delicious.

I used this recipe from Our Best Bites, but cut down the brown sugar to just under 1/2 cup, replaced the 1/2 cup of butter with a 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup applesauce.

Even after altering the recipe to make it a bit more healthy, it was seriously yummy.

Along with grape jelly today, I’ve got lots of sewing to do.  I’m working on a new pattern and Halloween costumes are looming.

For 5th and 6th grade at our school the kids don’t dress in traditional Halloween costumes.  Instead they are asked to dress like a historical character for a school wax museum.  They write a report about that character and share information when parents and students come through the museum.

Emma has chosen Eleanor Roosevelt, so 1930’s dress is on my list to sew.  Yeah!  I’m going to make a dress that will be great to wear after Halloween.

Lily is giving me heartburn, since she picked Clara Barton.  I love that she has chosen such a brave and influential woman, but when I suggested we make a simple nurses costume, she said, “Oh no Mom, Clara Barton wore a hoop skirt!”  Why, oh why, did I ever let my girls watch Gone with the Wind?  On one hand, I’d like to say a hoop skirt is just not happening.  On the other hand, my days of making fun Halloween costumes are quickly coming to an end.  Should I just savor it?  I was lucky enough to have my mom donate about 6 yards of Civil War fabric to Lily’s cause. So the cost excuse is out. Hmmm. I’m guessing I better check into how to make a hoop skirt.

Ben, in true fashion, is still trying to decide what he wants to be.  Since he needs to be a character from Ancient World history through the Renaissance, I thought it would be funny if he were William Wallace (of Braveheart fame).  We could paint his face with blue paint and he could wear a kilt.  But so far he’s not too keen on wearing a skirt.  I’ve had no luck with talking him into being Leif Ericson or Leonardo Da Vinci either.  I think I better give him a deadline or we’ll both be scrambling late the night before.

Despite being busy and having a lot on my plate, I love October.

For Ben’s birthday this year he requested an ice cream cake.  Since the nearest sore that sells them is a long drive away and since they are expensive to boot, I decided to try and make a cake for Ben.

I was hoping he would ask for chocolate cake with mint ice cream… but he had other ideas.

He recently had cherry chip cupcakes from a box and thought they were awesome.  His choice was cherry chip cake with vanilla.

Okay!

After reading through a few recipes online, I was excited to find that homemade ice cream cake SUPER easy.  The only trick is to start your cake 1 or preferably 2 days before you will serve it.

Here is how I made Ben’s cake:

You can make a sheet cake or a round caked, whatever you fancy.

Take the pan size pan you prefer and line it with plastic wrap.

Allow a 1/2 gallon of ice cream (your flavor of choice) to soften enough to be spreadable.  Spread the ice cream evenly in the pan. Place in the freezer until frozen firm.  The next morning I used the plastic wrap to lift the ice cream from the pan, since I needed it to bake the cake.

I used a Cherry Chip cake mix to make 1 round cake and the rest into cupcakes.

I placed the cake layer on an upside down pie plate to make it easier to work with.  Layer the ice cream “cake” layer on top of the cake layer.  After I added the ice cream, I decided it might have been nice to add one more layer of cake to make a taller cake… but what was done was done.  The good news was, it’s much easier to frost the ice cream layer as the top…

….especially since I frosted it with more ice cream, just like Baskin Robbins does.  I allowed another 1/2 gallon of ice cream to get soft enough to spread easily.  (Keep the cake in the freezer until you are ready to frost.)

The best way I found was to frost a first layer, which didn’t cover it all completely, and put it back in the freezer until frozen firm.  After an hour or two, I frosted the second layer and it covered perfectly.

Because cherries and chocolate are a good combination, I decided to add chocolate around the outside.  I used this tutorial from Pioneer Woman to make curls.  But by this point I was in a hurry and didn’t take pictures or make it look perfect.  Perfection is overrated anyway ; ).

I decorated the cake easily with premade soccer balls from Wilton and some gel frosting from the store.

The best part about the cake was how much Ben loved it.  It was the “yummiest birthday cake off all time!”

I have to admit, it was pretty darn awesome.