A mini adventure

Today Le Sous-chef and I ventured off to a local cake shop in Buena Park. It was amazing.  There was sprinkles, cupcake liners, candy molds and cupcake toppers stacked up everywhere. I could have spent hours in there, along with a good portion of my paycheck. :D Thankfully Le Sous-chef picked up the tab and treated me to some cupcake liners, a new pastry tip and a cookie cutter!

Here is the store's website in case you want to check it out! Be sure to check the store hours, one time a friend and I made the trip over there and they were CLOSED! 

Calico Cake Shop

-Courtney 

Big Bag O' Recipes

This adventure started last summer. My mom traveled to Missouri with my grandmother to help get everything settled after her Aunt passed away. While cleaning out her home they came across a massive amount of recipes, some hand written, some magazine articles, but mostly there were newspaper clippings.  I don’t read the paper often and do not ever remember seeing recipes, let alone recipes from Sue in Small Town USA, so I thought the newspaper recipes were pretty cool.

My mother and I are both picky eaters so after sorting through them this is what we had left.  

My mom got first pick of course, so this collection is mine.

I found so many interesting recipes in the pile! Have you ever heard of daffodil cake? No? Me either. I cannot wait to bake my way through this stack and organize them into my cookbook and maybe even portfolio.  I am hoping to do two a month as a series.  I just need a catchy title some extra time and some extra money.

I’ll be back soon with the first segment of the series. If you have a catchy name leave it in the comments below! 

Baking for a cure

Hey guys! It is probably no secret that I love to bake. I mean I love to bake; I could do it all day everyday and not get tired of it. I am also as my mom says 5’1” and 5” of heart.  I am constantly finding new ways to help out those in need. This year I have combined my passions into one and raised a ton of money. 

Every October I participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.  In the past I have just spread the news by word of mouth, sent some cookies to work with my dad, and saved my own pennies to reach my fundraising goals. This year I set my goal very high, so I knew I would have to work hard to raise the money.

I created a Facebook event, which has helped get the word out tremendously.  I set a few goals for my fundraising.  For example: if someone donated $30.00 I will wear pink everyday in October and if I reach my goal of $500 I will dye my hair pink for the race. I also told everyone that I would bake in exchange for donations. This has method has become an absolute hit! I have been so busy baking this past week that I had to volunteer my family, fiancé and good friend to help me keep up with all the orders!

Another thing I did this year was put out a basket of cookies and a donation jar at a local restaurant. I left it up to the customers to decide a fair price for the cookies. The first batch brought in $70 in just three days!

Here are some pictures of my fiancé and I baking and the packaging for the cookies. 

Trying to make double batches of everything but not over powering the mixer is a challenge. 

 

 

Trying to melt semi-sweet chocolate for triple chocolate cookies.

Scooping snickerdoodle dough. Yes, that is chocolate on my arm. 

My sous chef helping me out. ;)

I added a shameless blog plug to the packaging. 

Almost ready to raise some money.

All set! 

I'll update you all just after the race. Next week I'll have a serious for you and maybe a give away.

Happy Birthday Julia Child!

I just want to take a minute to wish one of my idols, and sources of inspiration a Happy Birthday. So, Happy 100^th Birthday Julia Child, although you are not here to celebrate with those who adore you, food bloggers and lovers around the world are celebrating your birthday.

When I realized what today was it was too late. I didn’t have enough time to bake anything in Julia’s honor. However had I had time I would have made something delicious and chocolate. Perhaps a simple chocolate cake or better yet a Chocolate Bavarian cream pie. A project I hope to complete in the future.

Her infectious laugh and no-frill approach to cooking is what makes Julia so loving. Not to mention she is obviously a GREAT chef and legendary woman. I hope that someday someone will refer to my cooking as decadent and delicious.

In true Julia fashion……

Bon Appetite

-Courtney 

How to make your cricut mat sticky again....

About a year ago I was in desperate need of a new cricut mat but did not want to spend money on a new one. I started researching and found that I could use the same cricut mat repeatedly if I bought Aleene's tack-it over and over glue, a sponge brush and a small jar.  The steps area really easy and this hardly takes and time at all.

Gather your supplies.

Mix equal parts of glue and water. 

 Brush the mixture over the whole mat.

Let the mat dry over night. 

When the mat is dry pat your hands over the entire mat, if you don't the mat will be to sticky!!

Make sure to seal the jar tight so you can use the left over mixture next time. Also rinse the brush really well. I hope this was helpful! Spoil yourself with the money you saved. :D 

-Courtney

Lemon Crisps

All right guys this post is being brought to you because I had a friend request a post on lemon bars. While these turned out delicious, I quickly realized there is a difference between lemon bars and lemon crisps. A crisp is more flat while a bar has more height and has like a jello texture to it.

Oh well here goes!

For the crust you will need :

1 ¾  cups Flour

1 tsp. Baking powder

2 sticks Margarine or Butter

For the filling:

Pinch of salt

6 Tbls. Lemon juice

4 Eggs beaten

2 cups of Sugar

2 Tbls. Sugar

½ cup of Powdered sugar for sprinkling

Combine the crust ingredients together and mix until crumbly. Press into an 11X15 pan. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes

Then combine the filling ingredients and pour over the crust. Bake 20-25 minutes longer.

Remove from oven and sprinkle with powdered sugar. 

Let cool and cut! 

Wine bottles turned flower vases

All right my wine loving friends! I have a fun and easy craft for you. 

All you need is a wine bottle some spray paint and some embellishments of your choice. 

The first thing you will need to do is to remove the label on the wine bottle. I did this using WD40. I used hot soapy water to remove the grease left behind from the WD40.  

Next spray paint your bottle. This will take a few coats along with some creativity it you’d like to paint the bottom. I did not want spray paint all over my hands so I hammered a nail into a piece of wood I had laying around and flipped the bottle over onto that. (The nail prevented the bottle from smashing into the ground.)

Let the paint dry completely before adding the next layer and be sure to hold the can away from the item while spraying. This will prevent run marks. ( I obviously did not take my own advise.)

When you are done spraying the bottle, embellish them however you’d like. I chose to leave mine plain however I toyed with the idea of stenciling words onto them along with wrapping some twine or burlap around each bottle. 

These would look great anywhere. Image a cute little entry way table or a table with snacks on for a party! CUTE! 

I have a sweet treat for the next post! Stay tuned! 

-Courtney