Rainbow Cake

I thought I would share how to make the rainbow cake from the previous post.  When Sprite told me she wanted a rainbow cake I searched online and found many different versions of rainbow cakes.  The majority of them were layered cakes, which I’m not fond of making.  Then I found a few recipes for putting all of the colors in two pans and then baking, but I didn’t like how they looked when they were cut, not enough swirl of colors for my taste.  I decided to make a sheet cake with a marbled effect.

Having had very little experience with food dye I consulted Bethany on what is the best dye to use for vibrant colors.  Bethany told me that liquid food dye would be lowest on the vibrant scale, gel dye from the grocery store would be more vibrant, and Wilton’s gel dye from the craft store would be the best route for the most vibrant of color.  I decided on the Wilton’s.

The rest of the cake production was a lot of trial and error.  I’ll break it down for you.  Use two boxes of white cake mix and prepare according to the package directions.  That way you will avoid having to go through the mixing and dyeing process twice, like I did.

Separate the batter into 6 bowls and then dye.  I used about a teaspoon of dye for each color.  For the orange I used the Wilton’s Golden Yellow instead of mixing yellow and red.

 

Then I dropped the batter by spoonfuls into the cake pan that measured 10X14.  I started to feel a lot like Jackson Pollock.  Then I used a butter knife to swirl the colors together for a marbled effect.  Don’t go too crazy with the swirling, unless you want rainbow brown cake.

 Then I baked according to the package directions, but I did have to add about 7 minutes of cook time.  I just kept testing with a toothpick towards the end.  I also did the bounce test to make sure the middle of the cake wasn’t undercooked.

When the cake was fully baked I started to get a little excited.

When it was time to frost I had lots of ideas in my head, but none of the tools to execute.  If I had some piping tips the frosting probably would have been more spectacular.  I used more of the food dye to make rainbow colored frosting that I wanted to decorate more with but had to settle for dots squeezed out of the corner of a baggie.  I kind of like that they turned out looking like that toxic balloon goo we used to make bubbles out of as a kid.  Remember that stuff?  The rainbow arch was a little underwhelming, but Emily and Pix really wanted me to put that on their sister’s cake, so I couldn’t refuse.

When it was finally time to cut the cake I was happy with the outcome.

Celebrate

Mother’s Day weekend collided with Sprite’s 5th Birthday, so that meant that this was Sprite’s 5th Birthday Weekend.  There were moments during this weekend, as I was reading about lots of pedicures and sleeping in late by fellow moms, where I heard the words my OB asked me just before Sprite was born, “Are you sure you want to have your baby on Mother’s Day?”  My answer, “Of course!  It will be fun to share the day!”  I was already 2 kids into mothering, I should have known better.  All kidding aside, I had a lot of fun celebrating my baby’s birthday.  I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Ice Cream and friends

I dyed. A lot.

Then frosted.

Then served a slice of rainbow.

Which fueled the children so that they could beat a unicorn.

Happy Birthday Moe!

April Fool’s Dinner

Meatloaf “cake” Heh.

and Grilled Cheese “sandwich” for dessert

I had so much fun doing this for dinner last night.  The kids were a little stunned, but once they figured out that everything was edible, they were happy with dinner and dessert, haha.

Leprechaun Trap

Pix is bringing a Leprechaun Trap to school tomorrow.  Here is our project.

Creating a deceiving path.

Gold in the inside!

Gold Ahead.

Glowing with tealight Gold!

Hooking and “Cooking”

I need to write an update soon.  For now, more Bento and I started a wool eater blanket in the hopes of using up more of my stash of yarn instead of having to move it in skeins.

 

Easter Cupcakes

Just throwing something out there while I think about what I want to say about my first week of P90X.  These are my favorite Easter Cupcakes.  My mom used to make them every year for me to take to school.  Frost cupcakes and top with sweetened coconut that has been dyed with a few drops of food coloring and add jelly beans.

Crafty

When the kids were younger I would always guilt myself into doing crafts with them and then regretting that decision within 5 minutes of starting said craft.  Of course there were everyday crafts that they could do with little help from me and everyone was happy.  The discourse would occur when we did seasonal projects.  The unknown of each project sent  the kids into a tizzy and they would cry and stress and worry about who was doing what and when do I get to do that? and on and on and on.  Whew.

I’m happy to say that we’ve evolved and, while the kids still have their own unique take on each and every project, now the only outbursts I hear are fits of laughter.

These children do not take their decorating jobs very seriously.  I love them so very much for this.

Maybe next year we’ll attempt an ice sculpture, heh heh heh.

SPARKLEBALL!! Tutorial

It’s that time of year to show off some SPARKLE.  I actually got ahead of myself and made a FALLKLEBALL!! for Halloween.

So let’s begin.

First and probably most important, put some Italian Beef* in your crockpot.

You’re going to be busy all day getting supplies and crafting.  You don’t want to be cooking at the end of the day.  Plus, you get the added bonus of smelling lovely, lovely Italian Beef every time you walk past your kitchen.  Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Supplies needed.

50   9 oz. clear plastic cups

2   50 count light strands

Soldering Iron

I strongly suggest you do all of your melting work outside.  There are a lot of fumes from melting the plastic.  I even had a fan running to blow the smoke away from me as I get headaches easily from any intense odors.  Since I was banished outside with my project I decided to watch Frasier on my Kindle.  Look, it’s a Christmas episode!

Entertainment is necessary because the beginning of the project is kind of boring.  You need to make a hole at the bottom of each cup.  It needs to be big enough to push 2 lights through, but not so big that they fall right out.  I find that pushing through the thick part of my soldering iron and wiggling around a bit is the perfect size.

If you don’t have a Kindle to watch.  Find a kid to converse with.  Mine talked my ear off the entire time.  I have no idea what happened on Frasier by the time I was done with this first step.

Next, the most nerve-wracking step of this whole project.  Arrange 12 of the cups into a circle.

Stick the tip of the soldering iron into cups wherever they join.  This will create an instant bond.  The cups will flare out so join at the bottom edges, instead of the top.  Next, place 9 cups on top of this first row.  They won’t fit perfectly next to each other.  Lay them around as best you can fit them and solder these to the first layer.  Do the same with the last 4 cups.  You will have a dome.  Look for spots where cups are touching and solder together to make it more structurally sound.

Repeat to make other side of ball.

Now it’s time to add lights.  I would suggest using 1 color the first time you make the ball.  This makes it easier to connect the two pieces, as you will wire them separately.  When making a single colored ball, use one string of lights and place 2 lights into each hole of each cup.

If you are using two colors do the same with each color.

Repeat on other half of ball  plug the two light strands together and then solder both sides together.    Be sure to pull the plug out.  I solder a hole between two of the cups on top to tie with twine for hanging.

Hang and light it up!

*Italian Beef

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 to 4 pounds beef roast, sirloin tip or rump roast
• 12 ounces (jar) Italian Giardiniera, drained, less if you want it less spicy
• 12 ounces (jar) pepperoncini peppers
• 1 envelope Italian salad dressing (zesty Italian)
• 10 ounce can condensed beef broth

Place beef roast in a 3 1/2 to 5-quart slow cooker. Combine Giardiniera, pepperoncini peppers, dry salad dressing mix, and condensed beef broth.Add all mixture to crockpot. Cover and cook on LOW for 12 to 14 hours, until meat is very tender. Use a fork to shred for sandwiches and serve with crusty Italian rolls or crusty bread. Serves 10 to 15.

 

SPARKLEBALL!!

Oh how I love these.  When Fish and I were first married there was a Decorate Your Balcony for the Holidays contest at the apartment complex we were living in.  I decorated our balcony with luminaries, poinsettias and SPARKLEBALLS!!  We won first prize.

I don’t know what it is about these orbs of light that I find so appealing.  They have a little bit of trailer park flare but not quite as obnoxious as those beer can sculptures (windmills, airplaines, etc.)

Now that they make these little lights for just about every holiday, I think year round SPARKLEBALL!! just might be an option.

Behold, Fall SPARKLEBALL!! in all it’s glowing glory!!!

Who wants to know how these beauties are made?

Halloween Glow

The kids were feeling under the weather today so I thought it would be a good time to do a Halloween Craft.  I picked up a bunch of ping pong balls, battery powered tea light candles, and an assortment of Sharpie markers.  After having Fish cut the bottoms of the ping pong balls we put them on top of the tea lights and let the kids to go town with whatever Halloween design they wanted to do.

Pix made a lot of monster eyeballs.

Clarabelle and Sprite made different designs.

 I even made a couple.

After everyone was done we waited for the sun to go down and turned on all the tea lights.   The kids were quite satisfied with their handiwork.  Tomorrow’s craft?  Halloween Sparkleball!!