April 24th, 2013 § § permalink
I’ve been a little MIA on the DIY front around here recently, but this project will surely make it up to you. Why? Because it involves cake, macarons, and fresh flowers. I know, I can’t contain myself either…
If I’m really honest, I’ve never attempted a fresh flower cake topper before, but let me just tell you that using a cake vase is pure magic. Literally all you do is stick flowers in it, so simple!
Materials:
Place the cake vase on top of your iced cake. Fill it with a small amount of water, just enough to fill all of the holes.
Cut the stems to the flowers short, and begin placing them into the holes of the vase starting from the outside working in. The instructions for the vase say to start from the center working outwards, but I found that working from the outside in made the center flowers stand up a bit higher, which I liked.
Once all of the flowers are placed in the holes, use smaller buds to fill in any gaps.
And the best part is that it has the prettiest leftovers!
December 21st, 2012 § § permalink
There aren’t that many occasions besides weddings, New Year’s, and Christmas (and maybe an extra 52 days of the year here and there in our house), that it’s socially acceptable to go crazy with sparkly, glittery decor. So of course, in the name of sparkly living, I have to go all out for these particular holidays. See my 8 simple DIY tricks to add sparkle to your holiday table (without making you the neighborhood’s glittering weirdo), by clicking through the gallery below!
Picture 1 of 10
Eight short, sweet, and simple ways to add sparkle to your holiday table!
November 7th, 2012 § § permalink
I have a new found respect for cake-namers. I spent a solid 15 minutes trying to come up with a catchy, new name for this cake combo I concocted but I was seriously stumped! I’ll just claim that I didn’t want to blow you away with my creativity, ughm, so I settled on a tell it like it is name with Cream Cheese and Dark Chocolate Frosted Cake recipe. On an even more serious note, how could a cake with a macaron on top not be totally delicious? I mean, if nothing else, the cuteness alone would make me grab a second piece.
For the cream cheese frosting:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, room temperature
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Place cream cheese in a medium mixing bowl. Using a rubber spatula, soften cream cheese. Gradually add butter, and continue beating until smooth and well blended. Sift in confectioners’ sugar, and continue beating until smooth. Add vanilla, and stir to combine.
For the dark chocolate frosting:
- 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1/2 sifted dark cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted margarine
- 1/3 cup of soy milk
Put all ingredients into the bowl of the mixer. Beat on low to combine. Beat on medium high speed until very light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. Check that the consistency is good for spreading, not too soft and not too thick, if it’s a bit too thick add a little more soy milk.
For the yellow cake recipe:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom of two 8-inch round cake pans. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Cream sugar and butter together until light. Add eggs and vanilla to creamed mixture and beat until thoroughly mixed. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Continue beating one minute. Spread batter evenly in prepared pans and bake 30 to 35 minutes.
October 24th, 2012 § § permalink
I have a tendency to want to hoard vintage spools. I don’t know if this is a feeling anyone shares with me, but I just can’t help it, something about them is just awesome. I’ve had a few sitting around as simple decor for a while now, but I wanted a way to make them functional (aside from successfully collecting dust). Eventually I decided to try my hand at making them into cake stands and this is how they turned out.
Materials:
Basically all you have to do is stain the wooden oval to match your spool, and then glue the spool, oval, and plate together and you’re finished!
To match my spool, I used dark walnut fast-dry stain, let it dry, and then used water based black craft paint over top and wiped off the excess.
I just used a cake dome from an old cake stand to cover the cupcakes. Wouldn’t this be adorable for a wedding? It’s definitely MUCH cheaper!
September 28th, 2012 § § permalink
I really love cake batter anything. When I discovered cake batter ice cream in college, my whole world changed. Literally. By like twenty pounds, which is why I no longer buy cake batter ice cream. Since I’ve been clean of that habit for a few years now, I decided I’d allow myself to make these cake batter white chocolate chip cookies, which did not disappoint. To make them, I followed this recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction and modified it a bit:
Cake Batter Chocolate Chip Cookies
makes about 2 dozen
- 1 and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/4 cup yellow or white boxed cake mix
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup sprinkles plus extra to add on top
In a large bowl, sift together flour, cake mix, and baking soda. Set aside. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugars on medium speed. Mix in the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla until creamy.
Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and sprinkles.
Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour. Chilling the dough keeps the cookie from spreading too much.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop rounded tablespoons of the cold dough onto an ungreased baking sheet. Add more sprinkles on top of the dough before baking for more visible sprinkles when finished. Make sure to keep dough chilled when working in batches. Bake for 11-14 minutes until edges are slightly browned. The centers will still appear soft, but the cookies will set as they cool.
Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 4 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
What’s your all-time favorite cookie? It might seriously be these once you try them!
