Jackpot! cake

Summer time in Chicago is beyond amazing. I have seen live music, eaten ribs and maple-bacon donut holes, gone to beaches, eaten tons of ice cream, kayaked on the Chicago river, had cheese and wine while picnicking in Grant Park (watching more music), gone to art festivals on the street, ridden a horse, watched the Transit of Venus, taken a bit tour into the lesser know bits of Chicago, sat outside with a good book at night, and spent a ridiculous amount of time with my family.


It seems like this summer in particular has been a doozy. Between my cousin getting married and birthdays, including milestone ones for the older generation, I swear I've seen them at least every few weeks. Quite a difference a year can make compared to when I was getting home just a few times a year.

The only downside to all this awesome time with friends and family? Falling behind on certain aspects of my life, like cooking. These past few weeks I've actually been inspired to cook a lot more (thank god for grills when it's 95+ degrees outside and you haven't installed your window AC yet...) so I'm hoping to crank out quick posts with DELICIOUS recipes. But I do have a few more cakes to share with you that I made in the past month (or two) that I'd like to knock out before getting back to your regularly scheduled program. Here's the first:


My (paternal) uncle turned 70 right around Mother's Day, so we decided to throw him a little semi surprise birthday party. My dad asked me to make a cake and had an idea of designing it like a slot machine. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but I was limited a bit in the design.

You see, this was the 3rd cake I was making in 4 weeks I was a bit exhausted with the whole decorating thing. So instead of baking the cake, I paid way too much money for an insanely crappy and overpriced  bought a plain 1/4 sheet cake from Jewel. That way all I had to worry about was decorating it. Had I baked this myself I could have made the shape of it a bit more slot-machine-eque. But hey, beggars can't be choosers. And in the end it turned out pretty well!

The birthday "boy"

One thing I really liked on the cake were the slot machine buttons. And the customized spin I put on the classic 7-7-7. 


And the foil-covered chocolate coins my friend just happened to have in her office were a life AND major time savor! All combined this cake only took about 4-5 hours. Ahhh, the difference not baking saves.

Yours in not feeling bad about the blog hiatus because she's been living life and never been happier,
Jacqueline



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