Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cakes




Well most of the crafting that I have been doing lately has come in the form of birthday decoration sof some sort or the other. In my house the months of May and June seem packed with nothing but birthdays. Bug turned two on May 28, my husband turned 30 on June 13, and Sweets will be 5 June 20, not to mention all of the friends and relatives with birthdays or events during these months. This past Saturday we had two parties, Sweets birthday for her friends at the Louisville Nature Center and my husbands 3oth, which his brother threw. So Friday I found myself knee-deep in cake making. I literally spent all day making cupakes, cake and other snacks for the parties. But they turned out good and everyone was happy, which is what really counts for me. This year for the cake making I tried out a new technique using cake mix. I basically just added dry pudding mix to the cake batter and an extra egg. It gives the cake great texture and it stays really moist. It's a really nice cake to decorate. Sweets got all rainbow themed food for her party and unfortunatley there aren't any really great pictures of the food but it turned out really pretty, we had rainbow cupcakes (vanilla cupcakes dyed different shades and layered in the cupcake liners), rainbow jello cups ( different jello flavors layered in small clear plastic cups, rainbow trail mix (pretzels, popcorn, raisins, cookies, m&ms), rainbow goldfish, rainbow sherbert, and rainbow rice krispy treats (regular rice krispy treat recipe, but added a scoop of Trix cereal). My husband got a Nightmare Before Christmas cake and Halloween cupcakes since his party was Halloween themed. So without further ado here are the not so great pictures taken at the parties. If you have any questions about the decorating process let me know. Oh and the husbands cake was mocha, I just used a store bought dark chocolate cake mix and substituted strong brewed coffee for the water, added chocolate pudding mix and extra eggs. The icing was chocolate buttercream with instant coffee powder mixed into the milk and between the layers I added store bought caramel sauce. Oh and check out the cool cupcake stand, I got two of them at a yardsale the day before the parties for fifty-cents each.
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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wonderful Wednesday


So I'm back.  School is over finally and things are starting to get back into a livable rhythm.  I've been trying to take sometime to get caught up on some neglected things this week and trying to get caught up on some enjoyable things as well.  So this week my suggestion to you for Wonderful Wednesday is to do something you enjoy.  Today I signed up for my first craft swap over on Craftster, it is something I have wanted to do forever and I'm so glad I finally did.  It's a Sanrio/Kawaii swap and I am super excited to get started, especially since I received 15 yrds of Japanese fabric from my cousin this past week.  I also finally made a Wist list.  I always see amazing stuff that I love online but then just bookmark and forget about, so hopefully now I can remember some of it when it comes time to buy or get presents (hint, hint).  Last but not least I am on my way to my first farmer's market of the season to enjoy some time outside with the kids.  So whatever little thing it may be, take a few minutes to breathe this week and just enjoy.
Kim