Red Velvet with Cream Cheese frosting

This would be my favorite cake (to eat) of all time. We celebrated a coworkers promotion Friday with yummy snack foods, and per request of the guest of honor, a red velvet cake. Not thinking, I whipped up the cream cheese frosting I use to make pumpkin rolls, which I later decided is a wee bit too thin to decorate with. Script, OK. Stars, flowers, and other embellishment? Not so much.

The super soft frosting didn't look half bad in the end, but I'm amazed how much heavier the consistency is using class butter creme frosting. Note to self for next time...frost with cream cheese frosting, decorate with butter creme.

Cakes, cups and coolers

Quick! I only have a second before Betsy crawls across the living room and takes the laptop away from me.

I made a Father's Day cake Sunday night...


I also gave Ben part of his Father's Day present. This apron (along with a subscription to Field and Stream).



Cake from last night's class.



Embroidered cooler- I love this new font!




Coffee mug, green stripe with pink monogram

Course 1 class 3

I was running late for last night's class. I felt a little rushed, I was worried my cake wasn't frosted smooth enough and I knew it was dry (I had to substitute butter for vegetable oil at the last minute). Class was fun though! It's kind of a stress reliever for me. I'm looking forward to practicing at home this week. We have our final next week!

Pictures of the clown cake I made last night.




And my co-worker's birthday was today, so I made it a birthday cake.

Sewing, Baking and Entertaining

All three were done this weekend. While my Mom visited from Georgia we tried all kinds of new projects, practiced cake decorating, attempted powder sugar stenciling on brownies (failed), and had a little brunch party!

*Sewing projects*

Personalized lunch box/ insulated bottle bag!


Made a housewarming gift basket...

Including embroidered kitchen towels

Embroidered a pirate hat!

And a princess crown...

Made myself a checkbook cover


*Baking projects*
Decorated a cake


Baked brownies


Hosted brunch for the ladies on my husband's side of the family! We served Swiss quiche, benigets, watermelon, and mimosas. Pictures of the beniget making and brunch table.

Wilton Course 1 Class 2

Last night's cake decorating class was much more fun than last week's. It was all hands-on. We worked on stars, writing, zigzag borders, dots and the base for the Wilton rose. Hindsight being 20/20 I plan to make my cake for class earlier in the weekend so I have time to perfect my frosting and make a smoother frosted cake. This one wasn't terrible, but since I finished so late the night before I was not decorating at my peak form. Until next week!

Look at that mess!

Finished product


The cake and I. After class I headed over to my lovely In-Laws house to say hello to Ben's grandmother and drop the cake off. I have no interest in cake or butter cream frosting after working with it for hours Monday and Tuesday night. They all had a slice and seemed to enjoy it!

*sniff* Do you smell that?

It's Cake Decorating Tuesday. Last night I put my cake in the oven then ventured to the sewing room to work on other projects. BAD IDEA. I became absorbed in sewing, feeding Bets and putting her to bed and didn't start making frosting until 9:15 last night. Lesson learned, make the cake over the weekend, make the frosting Sunday night. We're practicing stars and writing in class tonight. I originally planed to make a cake in the Wilton book but After mixing five different frosting colors I gave up. We'll see what I come up with this evening.

Since I go straight to cake decorating class I had to bring my supplies (cake decor kit, tote bag full of supplies, frosted cake, seven tupperware containers of frosting, kitchen sink) to work with me. And I wimped out: if I had made two more colors I would be able to make the cake recommended in the Wilton book. What's that sweet smell drifting out my office door you ask? The cake and seven containers of frosting!



I can't wait to get decorating :)

Monday Madness

I tried a couple new items last night. Here are pictures of a monogrammed travel mug and a personalized koozie. Ciao.

Sunday Projects

Here are a few pictures of today's embroidery projects!
Embroidered Apron

Set of five kitchen towels, embroidered with couple's first initial

Embroidered bib

Baby blanket

baby hat

Initialed receiving blankets

This blanket was mine when I was a baby. My Mom brought it to me when I was pregnant and it was in pretty good shape, minus the batting had fallen apart inside. I replaced the batting and now it's good as new. It's also pretty sweet that we were given a blanket that is very similar for Betsy, made by Ben's Aunt Tish. I think it's kind of special Betsy and I both had these baby blankets.


Father's Day apron

Been busy baking

I posted on the other blog... I have a new toy, a Kitchen Aid Artisan mixer. It's pretty fabulous! Thursday night I made a lemon pound cake. Last night I wanted to practice using my new cake decorating supplies (cake turner, cake cutter, 8 inch Wilton cake pan) so I broke out the mixer again to make a yellow cake with butter cream frosting. It turned out OK. The good news, I had no problem cutting the cake in half, and my frosting came out at the correct consistency. The bad news, my #16 cake tip I use for making stars had a skirmish with the drain disposal last time I used it (and lost). The frosting came out in the texture I would use to make a poodle. Until next time.

Lemon Pound Cake

I love this baking tool!

Unfrosted cake

Finished cake

Cake decorating class #1

This post will be rather boring...NO PICTURES!

We didn't decorate last night, we just spent time learning how to bake cakes, what tools are helpful in creating the best cake, and learning tricks to make a level, smoothly frosted cake. We learned the recipe we'll be using for decorating this course (it's a butter creme). We saw the differences in the consistencies we can make. We also took a stroll down the cake decorating aisle at Hobby Lobby and I picked up a few items I think will be helpful. I picked up some clear butter, vanilla, and almond extracts. A large angled spatula. A cake leveler and some disposable decorator bags.

They were out of the 8 inch cake pan I wanted, as well as the decorator tip 789. I'll check back later for those.

Until next week (or maybe this weekend if I get ambitious enough to practice :)

Sewing Sunday

Pictures from last night's sewing time. I'm finding it to be a great way to have 'me time' and still feel like I'm doing something productive. Special thanks to Betsy for her help. The kid will know how to hoop and trim threads before she can talk!

Kitchen towels, part of a wedding gift.

Betsy embroidered a baby blanket



Embroidered fleece blanket


Bibs! Ben's cousin Jonathan and his wife Christi find out the gender of their baby in a few weeks. I made these in honor of the big reveal.