Archive for July, 2008
A Red Velvet Weekend
Darling readers, I have received the BEST EVER recipe for red velvet cake. My co-worker, who used to be a pastry chef at the Ritz Carlton, is starting her own cupcake business. I told her that I wanted to make a red velvet birthday cake for a girlfriend and she gave me her fool proof recipe. Since I know there are only a whopping two people who read this blog, I can share her secret with ya’ll. 
But first, the scrumptious pictures:
Here’s red velvet, pre frosting. Two yummy layers separated by a whipped butter cream. MMMM.
And my first ever attempt at icing a cake. I know it looks funny, but it still makes me want to go NOM NOM NOM.
Yes, the handwriting could use a little work. I melted a few dark chocolate squares and squeezed the letters out through the tip of a pastry bag.
As a finishing touch, I added chocolate sprinkles around the side. Or, a more accurate depiction would be that I chucked chocolate sprinkles at the cake by the handful because I didn’t have a tilting cake turntable to help me out.
It’s not the prettiest red velvet cake, but I promise it was delicious. It was the perfect texture: moist, fluffy, and scrumdiddlyumptious. In fact, it was so good that I ate it three days in a row. *burp* Most importantly, Janet liked it, so I was very happy.
Now, for the yummy recipe! (It’s in grams because my co-worker is a pastry chef and she measures everything with a scale.)
RED VELVET CAKE
Ingredients:
328g All Purpose Flour
288g Sugar
4g Baking Soda
6g Salt
10g Cocoa Powder
286g Veg. Oil
252g Buttermilk
2ea Eggs
2 Tbsp Red Food Coloring
6g White Vinegar
6g Vanilla Extract
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350 (measure your oven with an oven thermometer to ensure accurate temp).
- Combine all dry and sifted.
- Combine all wet (I combined the sugar with the wet ingredients).
- Add dry into wet and mix lightly.
- Bake for 20 minutes. Touch the top of the cake. If it springs back with slight resistance, it is done. Otherwise, bake for 5 minutes and check again. Or, insert a toothpick diagonally into the center of the cake. It should come out mostly clean with a few crumbs attached.
- Cool the cake to room temp before decorating.
BUTTER CREAM ICING
(I found this recipe on Chowhound and it worked perfectly with the cake)
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp Cornstarch
1 Cup Whole Milk
1 Cup Butter (softened to room temp)
1 Cup Superfine Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Directions:
- Mix cornstarch with milk. Cook on medium heat until thick, whisking the entire time. Set aside to cool.
- Cream butter until fluffy.
- Add vanilla and cooked cornstarch mixture slowly. Beat until it feels like whipped cream. The sugar should be dissolved and the frosting should not be grainy.
- Ice your cake!
Happy eating, folks!
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Celebrate!
Hello, dear friends. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. I sure did! I will recap it all shortly, but first I want to share another card I made. After all that talk of fruity birthday cards, I ended up giving a totally different one to my girlfriend:
Berry Happy Birthday
Happy Sunday, folks! I have a few more fruity birthday cards to share with ya’ll.
Sundays are always bittersweet, aren’t they? I think it’s knowing that Monday is just around the corner, and back to work I go. I wish I could make cards all week long and get paid for it. Unfortunately, I like food and shelter, so work it is.
I’m going to give one of these cards to my girlfriend today for her birthday. Which one do you like best?
Supplies: SU tart and tangy and lots of thoughts stamps, SU and PTI ink and cardstock, SU square and circle punches
A Fruity Birthday
I finally got my camera up and running, so I took a few pictures of the cards I recently designed. In case I haven’t mentioned it, I LOVE making cards. I make so many darn cards, I’ve run out of people to give them to. Now, I package them up and give them away as gifts. Everyone needs a few greeting cards in their stash, right?
So, here they be. A fruit-licious birthday bunch:
Supplies: SU tart and tangy and birthday greeting stamps, SU cardstock and ink, Nestabilities rectangle die
Viva la Vida
Coldplay, Coldplay, Coldplay!
I could viva la Coldplay, all day, everyday.
Hubs and I saw them last Friday. He got me tickets for my ___th birthday, and they were the BEST SEATS EVER. They weren’t the closest seats. In fact, they were pretty darn far from the stage. Chris Martin was about yay big on the stage (holds index finger and thumb one inch apart). BUT, I was in for an unexpected treat. During the last set of the show, Chis decided to run off the stage, down the stadium, through the hall, and up the stairs… until he ended up RIGHT IN OUR SECTION. He was five feet away from me, folks. He set himself up, microphone and all, and proceeded to sing two whole songs. I was so close to him, I could see the sweat beads on his forehead. Now, I’m not usually one to get starstruck, but it’s Chris Martin, for cryin’ out loud. He’s, like, the Versace of pop/rock. His music is like a black cocktail dress that never goes out of style.
Of course, I then proceeded to whip out my camera and snag some video proof. One day I’m going to show my kids that mom and dad used to be cool. Unfortunately, I neglected to empty my SD card so I only got a short clip of Chris:
I have to say, it was the best concert I’ve ever been to.
The Sunset House is PrON-Tastic!
Oh, doggie poop!
I opened my browser at work today and typed my blog URL into the browser. What did I see? Check it out:
I was DENIED to my own website. The Sunset House is rated X X X! I’ve now been banished to FortiGuard prison.
What do you think, guys? Is The Sunset House pRoN?
DIY porn? Maybe. Rubber stamp porn? Perhaps! Get-down-n-dirty porn? Ummm, not so much. Unless one has a strange paper fetish…
Sigh. No more blogging at work. Oh well. It’s for the best, I suppose. Can I get a Tylenol to relieve the blogging withdrawal?
A Stampy Birthday Preset
I love handmade gifts. I think they are so personal, especially in this online day and age where we easily can buy anything we want with the click of a mouse. If I had more hours in the day, all my gifts would be handmade.
My friend celebrated her 29th birthday this year. As a portion of her present, I made her a box of monogrammed stationery. Simple, personal, and yet, still affordable.
(All photos were taken by my trusty compact point and shoot, since I hadn’t received the digital Rebel yet from Hubsters yet.)
First, I stamped her initial with pale aqua ink.
Next, the circle stamp outlined the “J.”
My 1.5 inch circle punch fit perfectly around the monogram.
After matting the monograms on slightly larger colored circles, I used a simple Xyron sticker unit to make seals.
Are these adorable? They’re backed on sticker paper so they can be used as envelope seals.
Now, for the stationery. The cards were made of white paper, matching monograms, and thin strips of patterned paper and colored ribbon.
Everything was adhered together with tombo tape runner.
Next, I made some pretty as punch lined envelopes using the leftover patterned paper.
Here’s the blue set…
And now, a picture of the green one.
I packaged the cards, envelopes, and seals in a thin, clear box wrapped with more patterned paper and a decorative oval that I cut using my Cuttlebug die cutting machine.
The photo is a little washed out, but here’s the final package. What do you think? Gift worthy? Or branded to the bottom drawer?
(Supplies: Nestabilities oval and scalloped oval dies, PTI aqua mist and spring moss ink, patterned paper, and cardstock, SU define your life and frames with a flourish stamps, SU circle punch, xyron sticker machine)
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