Baby Shower Cupcakes

A coworker is about to have a baby girl, and we wanted to throw her a surprise office lunchtime shower. We all pitched in to buy a piggy bank and fill it, and I volunteered to make the cupcakes. Because it's not a baby shower without cupcakes! I take almost any excuse to bake desserts for other people. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of my cupcake process, because I haven't quite figured it out yet. I keep trying the same recipe because it worked once when I messed up and added half the flour I was supposed to, but now whenever I make it I have to add way more milk to make the batter thin enough to spoon into the liners. They were still tasty, not too sweet, but a bit heavy. I will post a recipe when I perfect it.

The cupcakes were swirled with bright pink, and I put strawberry buttercream icing on top. Let's talk about buttercream... I don't like it. I have tried it with just butter, with butter and shortening, either way, it always tastes "off" to me. And it's just me apparently, because it always tastes delicious to other people. On the bright side, it has forced me to be creative, and come up with delicious buttercream variations.

Take the standard recipe:

1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup softened butter
1 teaspoon clear vanilla extract
4 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons milk

And replace the shortening with:

1/2 cup coconut milk (the thick part that floats to the top, not the watery stuff at the bottom). This makes the buttercream much lighter, and less overpoweringly rich. It also adds a delicious coconut flavour.

OR

1/2 cup cream cheese (softened). It is still pretty heavy, but now tastes like cheese. Yum.

OR

Add 1/4 package jello mix in flavour of choice instead of replacing the shortening. This is what I did here, and it made the icing taste delightfully like strawberries. It did add a little bit of crunch, but that can be avoided if you make the icing the day before and let it dissolve overnight. It's not totally necessary, as I only noticed it because I was told to expect it when I googled it. No one else noticed it at all. It does change the color a bit (it was supposed to be more pink), but I really like the color it turned out.

I piped "roses" using a large star tip, starting in the middle and swirling out.

I also made little sugar-paste flowers and buttons from plain white sugar paste. Buttons are super easy and quick, just cut out tiny circles (I used the bottom of a piping tip) and poke 2-4 holes in the conter.

Anyways, enjoy the pretty pictures I took before packing them up and giving them away.

Love, A

Scalloped Skirt and Vintage Hat

I was browsing through my daily blog feed, and I found this scalloped skirt tutorial that I just had to try:

http://www.extrapetite.com/2013/05/tutorial-diy-scallop-hem-for-skirts.html

I loved everything about it, the navy colour, the adorable dainty scallops.... I didn't think I would have a chance to make until I had my next thrift store run, which I promised myself not to do until I had a few of my on the go projects under control. Luckily, my friend Rachel's grandmother invited us to come raid her closet. Guess what I found? A navy blue pencil skirt that was my size!

The blog linked to above has a fantastic, easy to follow animated tutorial.

This is the skirt before:

 I marked where I wanted it to land with a pin, then drew a line 2-3 inches below that.

I cut it at that line.

With a little help of course!

Where would I be without my favourite assistant?

I measured the width of the skirt at the line, and divided that number by 7. I set my hemming callipers to the number and went around my house for something round that measures that at a third of the way. I found a brass ring and made marks at the right width. I then traced around the ring.

Then I slowly went around my chalk marks with the sewing machine. It was actually much easier than I expected. The fabric went exactly where I told it to go.

I cut around the circles, leaving about a quarter inch, and snipped up to the thread in the corners.

I flipped it out.

It was pointy like the instructions said it would be. I took a butter knife and iron and forced the scallops into a nice rounded shape.

Much better. I put in a blind stitch all the was around the inside, and that's it!

I wore it out this afternoon for a quick walk to the hair salon and shopping at a nearby vintage store, where I bought a pretty hat!

Love, A