April Fools

I don't think I'm up to doing many pranks this year, but I wanted to remind you of the last two years in case you wanted a couple easy ideas!


2009 - painted man nails

2010 - jello drinks

Cowgirl cake

Princess turning 6 + fierce love of horses = cowgirl cake.

I was so happy with how this turned out.  I tried lots of things I've never done before.  First and foremost, I usually have to bake two cakes to feed our families that come over for birthday celebrations.  I wanted to make one larger cake this time.  So I made large rounds with triple layers.

I used a 2" horse head chocolate mold to make medallions that would circle the cake.  I filled them with Wilton candy melts.

It was also the first time I made the frosting base completely smooth before decorating.  It was so hard!  Up close you can tell where I have work to do.  But I was proud for my first time.

And lastly, the cake was from a box but I made my own chocolate frosting (recipe below). 

I finished it with star borders and dots across the top for texture.

I was so excited to show it to Princess!  This was a huge, heavy cake.  And it did indeed feed our large clan (with more for FHE the next day)!


Note: I was intending to do a sheet cake but my mom couldn't find her large pan, so I went to check out Michael's pans while I was there to buy my candy melts.  I'm glad I did.  They had lots of their Wilton Gold pans on clearance and I got a large 12" round for $3.49!  It's the pan HERE.  The round worked out much better and played off the circle medallions nicely. 

I have many more pics of this cake, but stupid blogger made me work for hours just to get these on here.  I'm tired of waiting, so here it is!

No-Cook Fudge Frosting

from Better Homes and Gardens

Ingredients

2 pounds powdered sugar (about 8 cups)
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla


Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine powdered sugar and cocoa powder. Add butter, boiling water, and vanilla. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed until combined. Beat for 1 minute on medium speed. If necessary, cool for 20 minutes or until mixture reaches spreading consistency. Or, if frosting is too thick, add additional boiling water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture reaches spreading consistency. This frosts tops and sides of two 8- or 9-inch cake layers. (Halve the recipe to frost a 13x9x2-inch cake.)

2. Makes about 4-1/2 cups

Tray makeover

Ugly wooden tray from the thrift store: $ .50

Add paint and green paper:

Looks cute on our table now!

And speaking of cute, look at my little lamb!

Yeah, this guy!  I'm so in love with him.  He was at Pier One for $6.95 and I could not resist.

I love me some holiday decor!

Quilted table runner - fail?

First and foremost, I have no idea what I'm doing.  Let's just get that out of the way first.

Last spring I got ambitious and sewed strips of random pastels into a rectangle.  I wanted to make a table runner - then got chicken.

SO I thought I would re-visit the idea.

All you quilters can turn away.  I'm sure this will be like an English teacher reading an essay with horrible grammar.  I laid out my pieced top on batting with part of an old sheet as backing.  I left extra on all sides simply because I had no idea what to do with it.  I pinned it together all the way around.

Starting in the middle and working outward, I stitched "in the ditch" (say what?) along each strip and around the outside.

I trimmed the batting close to the edge and the backing about an inch from the edge.  I folded inward twice and I thought it looked okay in place of a binding or whatever.  Remember, I don't know what I'm doing.

 Not too bad....

Until you see the whole thing.  It won't lay flat at all!

It's all wavy and weird.  Oh well.  I'm using it anyway.  Too much work not to, right?

visit Get Your Craft On: HERE

Sweet and sour meatballs

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

This is made a lot easier by two things: frozen heat 'n serve meatballs (I use the Costco ones) and these precut frozen fajita veggies. 

1. Cook up your defrosted meatballs (I use 1.5-2 lbs for my fam) in a skillet and brown them to your liking.  It doesn't take long.  Remove from skillet.
2. In same pan, saute frozen veggies for just about 3-4 min.  Remove from skillet.
3. Make sauce in same pan:   1.5 cup water, 1/3 cup cider vinegar, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2T soy sauce, 2T cornstarch dissolved in a little bit of water.  Mix together and bring to  low boil.  It will thicken quickly.  
4. Simmer sauce 5 min.  I added a tiny pinch of red pepper flakes at this point.  Totally optional but I liked the interest it gave to the sauce.
5. Add meatballs and vegetables back to skillet.  
6. Serve over rice. Makes 10 servings.

              

We liked it so much, Strider and I are both having leftovers for lunch.

Babyness

My sister dropped by the other day and I got to cuddle my cute little niece.  I love her expressions. 

Baking time

I forgot to post these pics of the girls "helping" with some shamrock cookies.

I am little OCD about cookies being cut out right but I realized I could give them some dough to do what they please with, and still do the remainder myself and have them the way I want.

Want some hair with your cookie dough?

Peanut Butter Frosting

On Sunday I had a peanut butter craving.  I made fluffy white cupcakes (follow the egg white version of a boxed white cake mix and do NOT overcook) and made pb frosting for me for the family to enjoy.

1 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup Crisco or softened butter

2-3 cups powdered sugar (start low and add more to desired consistency)

1t vanilla

1/4 cup of milk or cream

Beat well with a good mixer.  Don't eat it all in one sitting.

You're welcome.