intern appreciation

intern appreciation. makes me think of an episode from nbc's the office, and the infamous re-make of "kittens, inspired by kittens". but most of all, it makes me think of my own experience as an unpaid intern.

it was merely a year ago that i was saying good bye to mrs. reid's 2nd grade class and closing the door on student teaching. i can remember my last day like it was yesterday. i remember packing up my belongings for the.last.time, hugging the precious babies, and thanking them for the wonderful children's books that they had bought me at the bookfair {definitely got a ton of use out of those babies this year}. i also remember walking out to the intern parking lot in the rain and getting a call from the fiance'. it had been a very important day in his life as well: gmat day.

a few weeks before this, our future life had drastically changed from moving to dallas with a job to maybe no job, so let's go to grad school somewhere. life had been extremely overwhelming and a drastic switch in the end like this was almost unbearable. but it was in this moment that my faith in the Lord saved my little heart from despair. i was able to look back on my life and see how He had already provided and blessed me with so much. i knew that His plan was going to be the best plan, and we just had to put our trust in Him and patiently wait for the right door to open. and oh did the Lord know what He was doing!!! thanks to the brain that God gave tyler and to divine intervention, tyler scored wonderfully on the gmat. i can remember sobbing in my car in the school parking lot, exhausted, overwhelmed, and so thankful. i drove away from the school with such a peace that day. the Lord had gotten me through student teaching and the new plan was grad school.

fast forward a year now and grad school at Auburn has been great! we love it here and i am so excited to have my first year of teaching almost under my belt. our interns on our team are leaving this week, and it is going to be so sad to lose them. to show our appreciation, i baked them some love. as challenging as the first year of teaching is, student teaching definitely takes the cake! here are some pictures of the red velvet cake i made them! thanks for the help paula dean!

lots of food coloring

cooling in the freezer


layers and layers


homemade cream cheese icing

ta-da!! the finished product.

cake ingredients:

1. 2 1/2 cups cake flour
2. 1 1/2 cups sugar
3. 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4. 1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
5. 1 teaspoon salt
6. 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
7. 1 cup whole buttermilk
8. 2 large eggs
9. 1 (1-ounce) bottle red food coloring
10. 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
11. 1 teaspoon vinegar

cream cheese icing ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 packages of cream cheese {12 oz}
   
2. 1/2 cup of butter
   
3. 3 1/4 cups of powdered sugar
4. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

*i like a lot of icing, so i added 1/4 cup more powdered sugar and an extra 1/2 package of cream cheese*

instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Grease and flour 2 (9-inch) cake pans.
2. In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt.
3. Beat in oil, buttermilk, and eggs at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.
4. Stir in food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar.
5. Pour 3/4 cup of cake batter into each cake pan, turning to distribute batter evenly.
6. Bake 8 - 10 minutes.
7. Let cool in pans 3 minutes; remove from pans, and let cool completely on wire racks. {i put mine in the freezer}
8. Wash and dry pans; repeat procedure with remaining batter until all layers are baked.
   
9. Depending on how thick you want each layer to be, the mix can make between 4 and 7 layers. The best thing to do is measure out each layer evenly.
10. Let butter and cream cheese soften.
    
11. Add vanilla and sugar and beat until creamy.
    
12. Spread cream cheese icing evenly between layers and on top and sides of cake.
13. Garnish the cake however you like! I used chocolate shavings.