To Do Lists

I've added a new feature to my blog, both to benefit my readers who might be looking for new ideas and also to help me prioritize my goals. On the left sidebar you can now find my to do lists for both baking and sewing/crafting projects. Lists! Organization! Be still, my heart! While my head's a scary place chock full of ideas, those are just a sampling of the ones currently at the top of my list.

I don't typically have any problems staying motivated or meeting my goals, but I figured putting some of those goals in print here on my blog will give me that extra push if my enthusiasm does start to wane. As you can see, there's nothing too difficult or involved on either list. I guess I'm too much of a practical German to set outlandish, unachievable goals for myself and I'm also pretty disciplined when it comes to getting tasks done. Quite a shock when I got married and discovered that men apparently don't have that gene! In fact, I have a hard time relaxing until my work's done and sometimes my baking and sewing projects count as work to me. "Erst die Arbeit, dann das Spiel," as my mother used to say, or "first the work, then the play." See? Some childhood lessons stuck with me!

Follow the links on the sidebar to see how you too can make:


White Chocolate Lava Cakes With Homemade White Chocolate Ice Cream



Sweet Tea Cupcakes



Halloween Plates



Fornasetti Coasters



Bat Napkin Rings


And more! Keep an eye on the sidebar too as I hope to update it often.

Sofa Cushions For Dummies

Been a while since my last non-baking-related post, eh? I've been dragging my feet on this particular project because it involved a few firsts for me: piping and invisible zippers. I've barely gotten the hang of regular zippers so I was scared to see how I'd fare with these. Last night I was so excited to see my new and improved sofa that I finally pushed through my illness-related fatigue and my fear of learning new sewing skills and buckled down to finish.

Which means it's now time for the second installment of "Making My House Less of an Eyesore." Since burning the house to the ground and starting from scratch is not a viable option, I'm working at it bit by bit with small projects like this until something good starts to come together. You may remember my first foray into the world of adult decorating in the form of new covers for our kitchen chairs. It was a start, but there's still a lot more work to be done.

The more time I spend browsing other bloggers' sites, the more beautifully decorated homes I see. And the more beautiful homes I see the more jealous I get! While I wouldn't want to give up our year-round Halloween decor, there are times when it becomes an obstacle to proper color coordination. If our six-foot-tall animatronic vampire is wearing a bright red cape and everything else in the room is green and blue, I just have to learn to live with that. To make matters worse, when we moved in I randomly picked paint colors based solely on what I thought looked pretty with no thought to how the walls would coordinate with our decor. The thought didn't cross my mind because we had very little in the way of decor since we were just starting out financially, but now we've had a few years to build up a collection and make the place our own. Without any cohesive vision we've wound up with a crazy fun house of mixed designs, styles, and colors. Our knick knacks make me happy but do sometimes hurt my eyes.

Can you say boooring?

Our sofa is one of our more recent acquisitions. Because I have three cats and one very messy husband, the primary concern when choosing a sofa was how well it would repel stains and cat hair. Obviously we were also on a budget so when we found one in our price range in the right size and covered with the right sort of fabric we went for it. The green's not a bad color and it goes well with the existing curtains and (slightly hideous) arm chair my husband brought into the marriage. I just can't help but think that it's a little bland. It came with an ample number of extra throw cushions, which I'm grateful for, but they're all the same color as the sofa, which lends to the bland look. It wasn't until recently that I realized that all our humble sofa would need to perk itself up is some new cushions. I could sew some of those. In the words of Top Gear, "How hard can it be?"

Thinking either yellow or orange would add a nice pop and contrast to the blue of the walls and green of the sofa, I headed to my favorite online fabric shop. I took advantage of Fabric.com's design wall feature where you can display thumbnails of fabrics next to each other to see how they mesh. After trying many different combinations I settled on this Waverly bird fabric with a splash of yellow and a flocked brown, silver, and black fabric (no longer available). The flocked fabric is even more lovely in person than it looked online with embossed bits in a velour texture and a lovely sheen to the background. Even better is that the two fabrics look perfect together. Different enough style-wise to keep things interesting but the colors are spot on.

The flocked fabric is clearly of the spot clean only variety, so to make things easier for myself as a sewer I made simple covers for some 20" Ikea pillow forms and hand sewed them shut around the pillows. I figure if the fabric gets stained to the point where it needs anything more than spot cleaning I can just give up on it and recover the pillows with something new.

The price tag on this project was getting pretty high so I decided to recover two pillows from the mountain of unused pillows we have tucked away in the corner. Because of the ivory background on the Waverly fabric, which makes me nervous for anything my husband will touch and eat near, I want to be able to remove those covers and throw them in the wash if (when) they get messy. Hence the need for invisible zippers. And you know what? I needn't have worried one bit about those zippers or the piping. With the right sewing machine feet it was a breeze. I made sure to read through a few online tutorials first to get the basics, including this tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! for piping and this tutorial and this one for the invisible zippers. I cheated and used packaged piping since I was so nervous about things going wrong, but I think next time I'll go whole hog and make my own. Doesn't look too tricky and I like the idea of using something other than plain-colored fabric.

Pillows are so darn simple to sew and there must already be a million and one tutorials out there on the subject so I'll leave you to find those yourself. Instead I'll list a few tips and mistakes I didn't pick up on from any of the sites I visited.

• If you're a perfectionist and are making a pair of pillows, be sure to match up the fabric while cutting it so you don't wind up with unsymmetrical pillows like my dark brown ones. While it won't really bother me I can't help but think it'll be the first thing my mom spots when she visits. If you're going that route, also make sure to buy extra fabric so you can have enough to match.


• When sewing the invisible zipper, be sure to iron the coils as flat as possible. Also make sure you don't sew too close to the zipper teeth as it'll be near impossible to zip up if there's not enough give.


• While it's always a good idea to use something like Fray Stop or pinking shears to keep your fabric from fraying, it's especially important to do it along the bottom edge where the zipper will be installed. I didn't think to do that with my first pillow and the darn strings from the fraying fabric kept getting caught in the zipper.


• Don't be afraid to overstuff the pillow case and make it very fitted to the dimensions of your pillow form. I wound up taking in the brown pillowcases because I'd initially thought the 21" x 21" pieces of fabric I'd measured out would be too small so I cut a little extra. Bad idea. It looked like the pillows were wearing badly-fitted suits until I nipped it in to be exactly 20" x 20" (the dimensions printed on the pillow's tag).

New and improved sofa!

I am so happy with the results! It feels like a fresh, new sofa just because of a few new cushions. I feel a little guilty about all of the money I spent on this project, but considering that the throw pillows I like at Target are about $25 each these weren't a bad deal. They just don't fall into the category of bargain decorating, which is really what I want to achieve. It's tough to combine my desire to save money with my desire to have things just right in our house.

Price List:
Ikea cushion inserts: 2 @ $7 each = $14
22" invisible zippers: 2 @ $2 each = $4
Packaged piping: 2 @ $1.25 each = $2.50
Fabric: $26 (yikes!)
Total: $46.50 (double yikes!) or almost $12 each pillow (whew, that sounds much nicer!)

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

Eek! I'm nearly a week behind on Hoosier Homemade's Summertime Cupcake Challenge. I'm gradually catching up on all of the housework I neglected while I was sick and now that the laundry pile is back to a reasonable height I think it's high time I get back in the baking trenches as well.

I'll admit that I was less than thrilled when I saw that I had to invent a cupcake using a cake mix for the third week of the competition. I'm just not a fan of using packaged foods, both because in this case some flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder is bound to be cheaper than a box of cake mix but also because of, well, this:


What is half of that stuff? I'm not going to delude myself into thinking that eating lots of butter, cream, and sugar in the form of cupcakes is good for me, but at least I know that what goes into my baked goods are the same basic ingredients my grandmother used in hers, and she's lived to the ripe old age of 97 and is still going. Not so sure what all of those preservatives and unpronounceable ingredients will do to my body in the long run and I'd rather not find out. So this will likely be the first and last time you'll ever see a recipe on my blog using a mix.

I know that others have found clever ways to enhance and change the texture and flavor of boxed mixes by doing things like adjusting the egg count and adding pudding mix, but because I'm such a neophyte I figured I'd stick as closely as possible to what the mix calls for while still adding my own twist. I had in mind a root beer float cupcake since summer's the time when I indulge myself and occasionally have such treats to help beat the heat. I already had a tiny bottle of sassafras flavoring I'd bought on a whim and figured what better way to bring out the spicy flavor of root beer than with a spice cake mix. Following the instructions on the box, I substituted root beer for the water called for, melted butter for the vegetable oil as I prefer that buttery taste, and added a dash of sassafras flavoring. The result was a cake that made my tongue tingle at the spicy flavors and taste of root beer clearly shining through.


For the frosting, I used the chocolate-based frosting for the root beer bundt cake in Baked: New Frontiers in Baking. It's incredibly rich and the dark chocolate perfectly complements the spicy root beer flavor from both the root beer mixed in and the sassafras flavoring I also added.

After carving a shallow cone out of the top of each cupcake, I scooped a small serving of vanilla ice cream into the center surrounded by dollops of frosting. I'll admit that the cake mix did bake up into something delicious and the whole combination is quite a winner! Almost better than the real deal, in fact. A great summer treat!

Root Beer Floar Cupcakes

1 box spice cake mix
Root beer (not diet)
Sassafras or root beer flavoring
Eggs
Butter

Make the cake mix per the box's instructions substituting melted butter for vegetable oil, root beer for water, and add 1/16-1/8 teaspoon of sassafras or root beer flavoring (to taste).

Root Beer Fudge Frosting
Recipe adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/16 - 1/8 teaspoon sassafras or root beer flavoring
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup root beer (not diet)
2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 - 2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
Vanilla ice cream

1. Cream butter until smooth. Add melted chocolate, 1/16 teaspoon flavoring, salt, root beer, and cocoa powder and mix until smooth.
2. Gradually add confectioners' sugar and beat until desired consistency is reached. Add more flavoring if needed.
3. Using the cone method, scoop a shallow cone out of each cupcake. Pipe frosting around the edges.
4. Using a cookie scooper or spoon, place a small scoop of vanilla ice cream in the center of each cupcake. Enjoy!

It's That Time Again

Time for another round of voting in Sweetest Kitchen's Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. The theme ingredient this month was white chocolate and there are some fantastic entries. While there's no need for me to actively rustle up votes like I did last time since I can't win the prizes, I'm sure some of you will be as interested as I in seeing what folks came up with and snagging some new recipes. That said, if you happen to find the time to vote for my "White Chocolate, Nutella and Banana Cupcakes" while you're there it certainly wouldn't hurt my ego. Also, if you're feeling extra charitable, you could vote for my friend's delicious-looking entry: "White Chocolate Passion Cupcakes by Tara," the last one on the list. Since so much of it comes down to how many friends/family members you can get to vote for you I figured I'd do my best to get her a few extra votes. That and her cupcake really does look unique and divine:












Other entries that have made it to the top of my list include:

White lime cupcakes filled with lime curd








Chai cupcakes with Toblerone white chocolate frosting. Wish I'd thought to try Toblerone as it's right up there with Nutella as one of my favorite childhood treats.






White chocolate molten lava cupcakes with white chocolate ice cream. Although not baked in a cupcake pan I'll accept this entry if only for the tasty-looking white chocolate ice cream recipe. Anyone who makes everything from scratch like that is cool in my book.



So stop by Sweetest Kitchen before August 26, check out the entries, and cast your vote. If you're interested in entering yourself the competition is open to anyone. Just check back after the first of the month for the next theme ingredient. Can't wait to see what I'll be experimenting with next!

Things You Need

Who among us doesn't need more skull buttons in her life?



Or octopus buttons that keep reminding me of Cthulhu every time I look at them?



The lovely blogger Corvus Tristis is currently running a special in her Etsy shop with free shipping on these and other neat handmade goodies. She actually has "normal" buttons and jewelry too, but being a weirdo I immediately honed in on the kooky stuff. Check out her shop and see if you aren't moved by her touching and sad tale of having to use her birthday money to buy something as boring and mundane as computer parts in order to keep her blog going. Help the poor girl out so she can instead use that money to buy something she actually wants, like booze and hot pants or Mountain Dew and Cheetos. Who are we to judge?

Here's looking at you, kid.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding Cupcakes

Finally! I have two worthy contenders for Sweetest Kitchen's white chocolate Mystery Box Cupcake Challenge. While it was a toss up between these and the banana Nutella ones, I've decided to go with the others just to spite my husband who gave these his top vote. Ok, not really, but judging from people's reactions to the amazing and unexpected combination of banana, Nutella, and white chocolate I'm going to ignore his vote because he suffers from a sad affliction that has clearly affected his judgment on this and every other issue in life. You see, he doesn't like Nutella. I know, I know. There can be no help for someone so warped and, well, wrong, but at least he still manages to find a reason to live despite this lack of appreciation for one of the greatest foods known to mankind.

These cupcakes, however, are perfect for him as white chocolate happens to be his favorite. He's enjoyed the past month as I've experimented with white chocolate in my cupcake creations. He's so sweet and devoted to the cause that he even went with me for a late night road trip to the nearest Whole Foods, which is not actually near, just so I could stock up on more good quality white chocolate for my experiments. This is one such experiment that turned out wonderfully! I am eschewing tradition with the substitution of bread pudding for the standard cake one has come to expect when handed a cupcake. While some may argue that I'm testing the boundaries of the definition of a "cupcake" here, I'd say these fall squarely into the category. They are self-contained nuggets of delicious goodness topped with the ever-important frosting. My deadened taste buds are beginning to perk back to life and these were a wonderful treat to welcome them back.

Imagine the taste of cream-laden bread pudding made with sweet white chocolate offset by tart cranberries and the slightly bitter crunch of homemade toffee in a single serving size. It's all topped with an airy whipped white chocolate topping. I was initially concerned that the bread pudding wouldn't bake together into a cohesive cupcake-like unit, but when baked in paper cup liners they slid right out in the perfect cupcake shape. No fork required for this bread pudding!

If you make these for yourself, be sure to read through the recipe as there's a lot of cooling, setting, and waiting involved. You'll need to allot time for all of that. They are well worth the effort, though. Even the stress of getting your homemade toffee just right and not burnt is worth it, trust me.

You can check out my other white chocolate cupcake experiments here on my blog:

• Peanut butter cupcakes frosted w/white chocolate buttercream


• Peach cupcakes w/a white chocolate ricotta mint filling topped w/whipped white chocolate ganache


• White chocolate Cosmo cupcakes


• Banana cupcakes w/white chocolate cream cheese filling topped w/a swirled blend of white chocolate & Nutella buttercream

Toffee
Recipe from Cupcake Bakeshop

1/4 plus 1/8 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 teaspoons corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, bring everything to a boil. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
2. The mixture will start to boil with vigor. Do not stir. Let the mixture boil over medium-low heat until the mixture turns a deep nutty brown, about 15-20 minutes.
3. Pour on to a prepared baking sheet (either covered in a silpat or oiled parchment paper) and leave it to cool.
4. After the toffee has cooled, break it into small chunks. I found using a potato masher helped after I'd broken it into smaller chunks by hand.

White Chocolate Bread Pudding
Recipe adapted from Cupcake Bakeshop

1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 loaf of dense white bread, 1 or 2 days old
5 ounces good quality white chocolate, chopped
4 large egg yolks
1/4 plus 1/8 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
toffee from recipe above, chopped

1. In a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, whisk together the cream, milk, vanilla, and flour. Bring to a boil, stirring. Remove from heat, cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 30 minutes.
2. Chop bread into 1/2″ cubes. Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.
3. Bring mixture back to boil and stir in chopped white chocolate. Take off the heat and continue to stir until chocolate is melted.
4. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl. Slowly add the warm chocolate mixture, whisking constantly until combined.
5. Pour the mixture carefully over the bread cubes. Add cranberries and stir until all cubes are covered with chocolate mixture. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 14 cupcake wells with paper liners (paper cup liners work best).
7. Set aside about 1/8 cup of the toffee. Sprinkle the remaining into the bread cubes. Stir to combine.
8. Scoop soaked bread cubes into cupcake papers until bread cubes are level with the top of the rim.
9. Carefully pour the remaining liquid into each cupcake filling until nearly full.
10. Bake at 350 degrees for ~22-25 minutes until set.
11. Remove from oven and cool in pan 5-10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool cupcakes completely on a wire rack.

White Chocolate Whipped Frosting
Recipe adapted from Inside BruCrew Life

3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
1/8 cup plus 1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 plus 1/8 cup powdered sugar

1. Stir white chocolate and 1/8 cup heavy cream in a pan on low heat until melted and smooth. Cool.
2. Using mixer with the whisk attachment, beat 1/2 cup heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
3. Using mixer with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on high until light and fluffy. Beat in cooled white chocolate mixture until smooth.
4. Fold in the whipped cream by hand until incorporated.
5. Pipe onto cupcakes (for an extra treat warm the cupcakes first) and sprinkle with remaining toffee pieces, if desired.



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