It has happened, the Boren-Miyake blogspot circle has been completed. At the request of a few people, including my wonderful Grandma Miyake, we have decided to join the rest of you and create a blog! I'm not sure how many interesting things we will have to write about, but we will see! Steven is currently going to school at MSU. He has a full load right now with 17 credits. He will apply in January for the nursing program after he completes all of his generals. So far things are going well for him, he has an Asian teacher for one of his history classes that he can't understand, so that brings up some obvious frustrations, but the rest of his classes seem to be okay. Those asians.. ;) haha

I just recently finished up the last thing I had to do for school which was my 240 hour externship. It went really well and I loved the people I worked with. Unfortunately, he has a small office and only needs one assistant, which he already has. So I am currently looking for a job.. a long, stressful, frustrating process. I know I am not alone in that, all of the Miyake, well Miyake at one point, siblings seem to be in a similar predicament. I will get my diploma for Dental Assisting the end of October. I have applied to a good 25 dentists or so around the area and no one seems to be needing help! I had an interview at an office I really liked, but because dentistry has been so slow lately, they can't afford to hire me right now. She told me they were very interested and hoped things would pick up soon so that they could get me in for a working interview and potentially hire me. We will see what happens in the next few months. I am going to start applying everywhere this week, not just Dental offices.

Anyway, enough with that boring subject! I have just decided that because I have nothing else interesting to say about our lives that I'm going to end with a recipe. I love to cook and bake and I love trying new recipes, so I will try and post a good one on here every so often. I had a craving the other day for something lemon, so I combined a classic white cake recipe with a lemon cream cheese frosting I found and it turned out really well! I just separated the batter into two circle pans like the recipe said, and once the cakes cooled spread some of the lemon frosting in the middle of the two of them and put one on top of the other and used the remaining frosting to cover the rest of the cake! Enjoy! (Amber I know you are taking a cake decorating class so you can try out your skills on this cake if you want! The frosting was really smooth and easy to work with!)

Cake Ingredients

• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 6 large egg whites or 3 whole eggs
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. 1

   Butter two 9-inch diameter by 1 1/2-inch deep layer pans or 1 (13 by 9 by 2-inch) pan.

2. 2

   Lined bottoms with parchment or waxed paper.

3. 3

   Set a rack at the middle level of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees.

4. 4

   In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy.

5. 5

   Stir together flour, baking powder and salt.

6. 6

   Set aside.

7. 7

   Combine egg whites, milk and vanilla extract.

8. 8

   Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to butter mixture then add half the milk mixture.

9. 9

   Continue to alternate beginning and ending with flour mixture.

10. 10

    Scrape bowl and beater often.

11. 11

    Pour batter into prepared pan (s) and smooth top with a metal spatula.

12. 12

    Bake cake (s) about 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center emerges clean.

13. 13

    Cool in pan on a rack for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack, remove paper and let cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

INGREDIENTS (Nutrition)

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons lemon zest
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. Beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, lemon rind, and vanilla together until smooth and fluffy. Add confectioners' sugar in 2 additions. Beat until creamy. Add more icing sugar or juice as needed for easy spreading. Makes about 3 2/3 cups.