Cheap and Easy Summer Wreath

This is a cheap wreath that is ideal for spring or summer. Its easy to do and I made it for around $10 (but I already had a few of the supplies on hand). I got everything at Hobby Lobby except for the flowers (they have a nice selection at Dollar Tree) and I also got everything on sale except for the wreath (I was told they never put those on sale...but you can use the 40% coupon they have online on that). No Hobby Lobby near by? Some Wal-marts have a decent craft selection. I know they at least have the paint. Michael's and A.C. Moore should have this stuff as well.

Here is what you need:

Grapevine wreath
Wooden letter
2 colors of paint (I used Folk Art brand)
Flowers (I used four bunches from Dollar Tree)
A wooden pencil with an unused round eraser
Floral wire
Hot glue gun and sticks
Wire cutters

Okay so I didn't think to take step by step pictures. I am so bad about that. But really it is just as easy as it looks.

1. Pain your letter. I use 2 coats of paint. Once it is COMPLETELY dry, use the pencil eraser and dip it lightly into the other color and make dots on your letter. Of course, the polka dots are optional. But I like them! Just be careful not to get too much paint on the eraser or your dots might look lumpy.

2. While the dots are drying, cut flowers with wire cutters and arrange. You want to leave enough of a stem that you can tuck them into the grapevine, but you will want to cut off some length so its not poking out everywhere.

3. Once you have the flowers arranged how you want them, secure with floral wire. I wrap it around the wreath and tuck it under the leaves so it isn't visible. Again, sorry I didn't take pictures. After I secure the flowers I pick up the wreath and give it a shake to make sure they are all secure.

4. Hot glue your letter where you would like it. You could also hot glue wire to the back and secure it with floral wire instead. Since my letter was nice and light it stayed with hot glue. In fact, it has been on my door since March with no problems.

Tada! New wreath. =)

These were gifts for  friends. They loved them!

Happy Mardi Gras Ya'll!

My first carnival season here in southern Louisiana is nearly over, and I have thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures, catching beads, drinking cans of Abita, and dancing on the sidewalk. So far we have been to two parades in the town we live in (Selene and Dionysus), and have gone to New Orleans for Endymion (which involved sitting in the pouring rain waiting for the parade to start. It was worth it though!), Thoth, Bacchus, and the Box of Wine parade.

We have TONS of beads and cups, and various other trinkets....

I even caught a few stuffed animals for Magnus. He deserved a special toy after I made him wear beads:

Throw me somethin' mister!

I have already been on Pinterest searching for craft ideas so I can upcycle all of these beads. I might make a few wreaths for friends and some bead trees. So far these are the crafts I have done:

Mardi Gras Wreath

Bruno helped me with my wreath...

Candle holder: leftover beads and vase and votive holder from Dollar Tree

We were invited to a party and were asked to bring something to eat. In addition to throwing together dip and a few other snacks, I of course decided to make cupcakes. I wanted to make a cupcake that would really capture the essence of the king cake. I think I came pretty close; I would just add a bit of nutmeg and maybe thin out the cinnamon and brown sugar swirl with more butter. Still, these cupcakes were pretty fabulous if I do say so myself.

KING CAKE CUPCAKES

For the cake I made a yellow cake (okay it wasn't quite yellow cake because I didn't go with all egg yokes and used whole eggs, but pretty close). I wanted something moist that I could swirl cinnamon filling throughout. FYI this recipe makes 18 cupcakes. I will try to change it so that it makes a more logical number at some point.

Cake:

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar

4 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all purpose flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

Filling: 

 1 cup packed brown sugar

1 tbs ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

3 tbs unsalted butter

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line muffin pans. Stir together all ingredients for filling (brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, melted butter) until thoroughly mixed. Set aside.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the milk, mixing just until incorporated. Fill muffin cups a third of the way. Add tablespoon of cinnamon mixture and swirl with toothpick. Top with more batter until muffin cups are approximately 2/3 full. Top with additional cinnamon mixture and swirled (if desired--I like lots of cinnamon goodness!).

   

   Swirl Cinnamon into Batter

   
   

   

   Top with more batter until 2/3 full. Add more cinnamon filling if desired.

4.  Bake in the preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted. Cool completely before frosting.

 

Vanilla Cream Cheese Buttercream

3 cups confectioners' sugar

3/4 cup butter

3 oz cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla extract

 2 tbs half and half

In a stand mixer, mix sugar, butter, and cream cheese until smooth. Stir in vanilla. Add half and half, a tablespoon at a time, until creamy and at the consistency you want.

Mmmm...frosting

Decorating note:

I am too cheap to spend $8 on a jar of colored sugar to decorate my cupcakes. It just ain't gonna happen. So, I whipped up some colored sugar. Its easy enough, especially if you have liquid food coloring. You just add a few drops and stir. If, however, you are like me and only use the Wilton gel colors, you might find that gel does not mix smoothly with sugar. Got vodka? Add a few drops and it will smooth those little lumps of color gel. And don't worry, your sprinkles won't taste like vodka and you won't get your kids drunk. But don't take my word for it...hell I don't even have any kids. 

Tada! Yummy.

Christmas Crafting and Baking Spectacular

Happy New Year Ya'll!!!

It has been a while since I have posted. The holidays and Pinterest have been taking up much of my spare time! Pinterest has caused me to spend a lot of time at my local Hobby Lobby and give out a lot of homemade gifts for Christmas.

It even helped me with my Halloween costume.

I was black swan for Halloween. I made the tutu myself!

I made hair bows and tutus for my nieces for Christmas, toy boxes for the nephews, cranberry liquor for my girlfriends, and lots of baked goods for everyone. 

And I do mean LOTS of baked goods. I was out of control. Ask my husband. Flour was flying, my mixer was trying to burn out, and the dog was scared to come in the kitchen. But I was determined to use up all of my chocolate, powdered sugar, and get the baking out of my system for a while because moving to Louisiana has made my pants smaller, and we have sworn to be extra careful until Gerald's 30th birthday (March 21) when we will relax the rules a bit and I will make him whatever he wants. So, here is what I made:

Grasshopper Cake (chocolate cake with chocolate mint ganache and mint buttercream)

The recipe comes from one of my Baked cookbooks (New Frontiers in Baking). The result was a moist flavorful cake that wasn't overwhelmingly sweet or rich. It was a hit!

Gingerbread Whoopies with Nutmeg Brown Butter Filling

I took the recipe for the whoopies from the McCormick spice website. Rather than using their recommended lemon creme filling, I made a basic brown butter frosting and added nutmeg to taste. I am sure cinnamon would also be good. The whoopies were more cookie-like than a traditional whoopie, but it was a great flavor--especially for people that don't like their gingerbread too spicy.

Nutella Cookies

The recipe for these can be found here. I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of hazelnut and therefore not big on Nutella, but these cookies are friggin' awesome. They are rich and brownie like. Great with milk!

The "Baked" Brownie

The recipe for this brownie comes from the same book as the grasshopper cake. Can you tell I love this book? There isn't a bad recipe in eitehr of their books. When I lived in Connecticut I even checked out their shop in Brooklyn. It involved a two mile walk in the pouring rain but it was totally worth it. They have the best coffee, brownies, blondies, and bars ever. Period.

These brownies are delicious. Can't you just see their fudgy goodness in the picture? This is definitely one of my favorite brownie recipes.

Soft Sugar Cookies

The recipe for these cookies can be found on this blog. I made these for my brothers' kids and they were a hit. These are soft and chewy just like the ones you buy at a bakery. I did make one change; I added the powdered sugar until the frosting was the desired consistency rather than using the recommended amount. I think this recipe uses too much powdered sugar.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Peppermint Cream Cheese Buttercream

For the cake I use a Texas sheet cake recipe that belonged to a friend's family. The recipe for the frosting, however, can be found here. I already knew the cake would be good because I have made it several times, but this was my first time making this frosting. This frosting is SUPER yummy. I licked the bowl clean after I had frosted the cupcakes. Mmm mmm.

Chocolate Nutella Cupcakes

For this recipe I used the same Texas sheet cake recipe (I was going to make a vanilla cake but I was running out of time) and this Nutella swiss meringue buttercream recipe. Swiss meringue takes lots of patience. Lots and lots and loooottttss of patience. It didn't get quite as fluffy as I had hoped, but it was still light and airy and complemented the cupcakes nicely.

And finally...

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have been on a quest for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, so I tested out the classic Neiman Marcus recipe found here.  It was pretty good, but not as good as this recipe (my #1 so far). These are definitely a close second. I also made a peanut butter lovers cookie, but I forgot to take a picture of it. I am big on peanut butter but my husband isn't so I don't make sweets involving peanut butter very often. These peanut butter cookies have a fantastic texture. One of my friends described them as little pillows of heaven. =)

Well, that was all the baking I did in roughly two days. Pretty much everything was eaten, and it was all a hit. This was the first year in a long time that I could drive home for the holidays, so I really went all out with the homemade goodies!