Roses, Roses

There was a couple who got married and never had a reception. She had always wanted a "traditional" wedding, but they couldn't afford it. Our ward came together and put on a beautiful celebration for them. It was really cool to see what we could throw together from what we each had stashed away. I got to make this cake, which turned out to be a tough task. I made a red velvet cake. It was perfect. Moist, etc. I thought I needed to pair that with cream cheese frosting. BAD IDEA. It was so sticky and hard to smooth out. It took me hours. I kept refrigerating it between smoothings and it just wouldn't cooperate. So the top layer took HOURS. The bottom layer took 5 minutes. It looks fab. Love the roses technique. I actually ordered red fondant from Sweetwise, because it is sooooo hard to color fondant that color. I learned, though, that by using lecethin, it will help to keep the color more vibrant. I also used a new silicone mold for the pearl border. By adding tylose powder to my fondant, it made the fondant less stretchy and they came right out of the mold. I love how they turned out and are edible. It also worked for making the gumpaste flowers from fondant. It dried hard. Not as hard as gumpaste itself, but good enough. Lastly, I bought a new toy. It is a brush that applies the shimmer dust to the flowers. It contains the powder in it, so it doesn't make a mess. LOVE IT.

Remembering Hawaii

I am finally getting around to scrapping my Hawaii getaway from 2011. Oh, these pictures make me wanna go back. Too bad I have to wait til 2015. Scott is taking forever to turn 12 :) 

So many ideas, so little time

I love creating. I love making gifts and scrapbooking and baking and playing with photos and and and...oh, yeah. I forgot. I work full time, too. I have depended on crafting for my outlet since I got married 15 years ago. I feel instant stress relief when I get to play in my craft room. This, however, does not happen as often as it used to. In fact, I rarely get to. Something has to give. I gotta do something to get back into my room. Having three boys heavily involved with sports and working full time is the reason I don't get to .  

Anyway, these are some of my latest attempts  at crafting. I get a monthly stamp shipment from Stamps of Life. She has some really fun stamps and sayings to with them. I look forward to them every month. I think she mostly does card type, though, not as much for the scrapbook. I may have to say goodbye to that monthly shipment. I really need to spend my time scrappin'. 

Scott, my goonie, wanted a Napoleon Dynamite party. It was too funny. His cake was white cake with bavarian cream in the middle. Scrummy. His Nana even found him Moose Tracks ice cream.

Maybe it's because it's still FREEZING outside

I tend to bake more when it's bleh outside. I have found some great recipes. This one was from Williams and  Sonoma. I think they tend to go over the top with their recipes, so I don't make them often. This was a delicious pumpkin genoise. SCRRRUMM. It was not too sweet and the "cake" part was much more like the Russian desserts the girls at work bring in. The mousse was very light, so it wasn't too rich. Definitely going to make this one again. 

I made these for my birthday. I think the fruit makes the desserts so much more pleasant.  I can't wait to have more berries in season. I hope our own berries do better this year. We'll have raspberries and strawberries. 

AND, yes, these have filling...gotta have filling.

And now for the big'un. My co-worker's daughter was turning 16 and she was at a loss for what to do. She sneaked in her daughter's room while she was sleeping and grabbed her cell phone for ideas. She found this cake and wondered if I could pull it off in 2 days. WOoo hoooo. I was all set up with the supplies, I just needed to figure out how to make zebra stripes. A few Youtube videos later, this is what it turned out like. Phew. I was so relieved that it turned out. I have never done a cake this style.

Top layer was white cake with bavarian cream and fresh strawberries for filling. The bottom was chocolate with white chocolate, cream cheese mousse filling. 

The worst part was driving it to Tacoma assembled. I usually don't assemble cakes until I get there, but this had to be done and ready to go. The cars behind me must have been so mad...tee hee. Maybe I need a sticker on my window, "Transporting Cake"

a lil' cheer

I have enough negative around to drown me. BUT, I must find a way to bring more light with me to "git it gone." I find that reading my scriptures and uplifting books helps. So does music. So do my boys. So do holidays. So does my hubby Bohunk. So do my friends and family. So do bright colors and SPARKLIES. Aaah. I feel better already.

Mmmmm! I love Fall!

Oh, I LOVE fall! I love the cool weather, the leaves, the excitement of the holidays coming up, and the smell of cinnamon. I canned quite a bit this season. This was my apple pie filling. I love having this on hand. It's great for all kinds of recipes (even over waffles on Saturday mornin')

These muffins are the absolute best muffins I have EVER made. They were so scrummy. Moist. Crunchy on top. Yup. Just right. This recipe is from  My Baking Addiction. Her recipes are fabulous.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: about 24 muffins

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Filling

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, slightly softened - not room temp
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons light brown sugar

For the Streusel Topping

4 1/2 tablespoons Gold Medal all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons white sugar
3/4 teaspoon homemade pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened and diced

For the Muffin Batter

2 1/2 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons homemade pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 1/3 cups canned pumpkin
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Prepare the Filling: In a medium bowl, with an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until soft; about 3 minutes. Add egg, vanilla and brown sugar. Beat until pretty smooth - there may be some cream cheese chunks, that's perfectly fine. Set aside.
3. Prepare the Streusel Topping: In a medium bowl, mix flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice and pecans. Add butter and cut it in with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.
4. Prepare the Muffin Batter: In a large bowl, sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Add eggs, pumpkin, oil and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer until just combined and smooth - do not overbeat .
5. Using a large scoop, evenly distribute the muffin batter between 24 muffin wells. Add one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture into the center of the batter of each muffin. Try to keep cream cheese from touching the paper cup. Sprinkle on the streusel topping.
6. Bake in preheated over for 20 to 25 minutes. Remove muffin pans to cooling racks and allow the muffins to cool completely before serving.

Notes:

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins are best served the day they are made; however, they will keep in an airtight container within the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

No, I haven't forgotten to scrap a bit on my days off. I am in love with my new background crackle stamp from Papertrey. So fun.

pretties!

Peonies!!! I made this for a gal at work for her grandparents. I loved the fall colors!! and...gumpaste came to the rescue again. These peonies and roses were all made in advance, so I could focus on the baking only.

Gold luster dust is FUN!

to feed the crowd, I also made 150 cupcakes. These took forever, but were fun to decorate. I used my new dogwood flower cutter\embosser for these.

during conference a few weeks ago, I got to sit down and scrap a lil':) ahhhhh. I sure love scrappin'.

clear embossing resist technique

beading fun

oh, no! I have been sucked in by yet another trap. The owner of our PO beading store came over one night to teach us how to make these. My first ones were with pearls and this one is with S. crystals for Mom.

Lately

Lately...I've been pretty stinkin' busy. I am not sure at what point I will draw a line in the sand and say, "NO MORE!" I know I've overdone my schedule, but I can't seem to "let anyone down." So, I trudge onward. Once in a while, I get to play. I forget how much joy it brings me to create. aaaah. My basement is my haven. Here's a little of what I've been up to.

I SO love scrapbooking. I love the happy colors, happy memories, and happy thparklies:)...always

Michael's birthday cake was a mini disaster. The gumpaste went wrong...I had cut out some amazing horses. They were so intricate and cool. The day of...they crumbled. GRRR. So, we pulled out the plastic. This was that lemon cream cake recipe again. Boy was it scrummy...all torted and everything.

So, just in case you are wondering...Fat Daddios is THE brand to buy when getting nested cutters. They are plastic, so they won't get bent out of shape...especially important for the bigger ones. These were 4"x4", so it   would have a tendency to bend. Fat Daddios was awesome. Say it with me..."FAT DADDIOS" I then used my texture folders to emboss the fondant. I must say, though, the fondant has a hard time really adhering unless you put that fondant on there right out of the oven. Another solution is to pop it back in the oven for a minute to seal that puppy on there. 

Lemon Cream Cake- DELISH

So, I finally did it:) I combined 4 recipes to get this product and it was WELL worth it. The cake: the cake is my yellow\vanilla cake recipe. Warm oven to 350 degrees. Mix 2 3\4 cup cake flour, 2 1\2 tsp baking powder, and 3\4 tsp of salt together in a bowl. Set aside. Beat 2 sticks of unsalted butter (room temp!) with 1 3\4 cup of sugar until fluffy. Beat in 4 large eggs (also ROOM TEMP!) one at a time, scraping bowl as ya go. Now add 1\2 cup of sour cream (or 1\4 cup mayo) This is what makes it so moist! You also have the option of adding 1 pkg of instant vanilla pudding to make it a little more dense(which I LOVE) Add 1 TBSP of vanilla (yes, tablespoon) Now begin to add the flour mixture to this, alternating with 1 1\2 cups of milk (room temp...very important!) until it's all mixed together and smooth! This will make 2 8" round cakes. It also works great for cupcakes. Bake in a greased pan for 25 minutes of until done. I chose to make this cake torte style, so each layer was also split into two layers for a total of 4 layers of yumminess. This made it possible to add more of the lemon cream filling, which, when you taste it, will make you want to add it every place you can squeeze it. I decided to make a very mild lemon buttercream in order to make the cake look pretty. I know the one at the restaurant doesn't have frosting, so I made it very thin...just to coat the sides and make a dam for the filling to not sneak out the sides. NOW, on to the lemon cream filling: 1 8oz pkg of mascarpone cheese (or cream cheese works great too. Just make sure it's softened so ya don't get lumps) juice from 1 lemon zest from half the lemon 1 cup powdered sugar 1 cup of heavy whipping cream Beat this all together until the cream starts to set up. It is HEAVEN! I needed more filling because I made a bigger cake. So I added 1 small pkg of cool whip. It made it a little lighter in texture, which made it even nummier. Not necessary, though. use this between each layer of cake and on top. ( I frosted the sides first, so I didn't get this down the sides.) Keep the cake cold as you're building it. It will keep the filling firm. To finish...and this is what I found to taste the best (as much as I hate to admit it) is to combine 4 TBSP of softened butter with 1 cup of lemon cake MIX ( I know...I know...) I just used two butter knives to cut the butter into the powder over and over and over...till it was a really fine crumble. SO tasty! Sprinkle this on top of the cream you have on top of the cake. SO FABULOUS! I think the next time I try this, I will make extra crumble and just coat the sides with the cream and crumble too...not as purdy, but it will eliminate the butter cream:)

Up to August 2010

So, now that we finally have some good weather, I have to spend it wisely-er than I have been. I really need to get my house painting DONE. Pretty close now. So, I don't get much time for this any more. I just sneak it in on Sunday:)

Stitch Away

I love Bakers Twine now. I was a little hesitant at first because I have really liked using waxy flax. Close To My Heart came out with a ruler with little holes in it for using a piercing tool. You can choose any increment, so I chose one that was three apart. I really like the stitched look. Since I bought a spool of the blue twine, I didn't worry about using so much:) I also pulled out my embossing powder that has been stashed for too long. I used some silver powder that I bought when I was 18. It is so smooth when it melts! Most of the brands that are around now are a little chunky or don't melt together as much. I wish I could still get that brand. OH! AND! I got to use my new chevron stamp from Impress on the title letters. I am falling into the chevron craze.

Never too old for coloring

My nephew recently told his daddy that he was done coloring 'cause that was for little kids. Hmmm. I STILL like coloring;) ...especially with my Copics. This stamp was loaned to me by Katie and she reminded me of Hawaii. So cute. I used some Stampin' Up paper that has been stashed for a few years. I also "had" to glitter up the button on there, line the envelope and add some GellyRoll sparkle pen to outline the layers. It makes me smile!

a lil' patriotism

Sometimes I get a little sad thinking about the state of our country. Other times, I feel empowered to make a difference. I love this chosen land of ours. I hope I can really instill this love in the hearts of my children. I want them to feel awe, inspiration, loyalty, and even thrill when they see our flag! God Bless America!!

Scabooty birthday page

This is new paper from SU! It is so clean and bright and cheerful and fun and ... LOVE it! Scotty is much the same. I love how cheerful and full of life that guy is. He is so happy, it's contageous. (yes, I am sorry to say that I am still crushin' on banners) n