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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Easter Egg Cakes

I decided I had to share a little Easter treat with you today...
These are delicious little Easter Egg Cakes that my sister-in-law makes every year. 
We loooove them!  I seriously start craving these every spring. 

So this year, I got myself an egg-shaped cupcake pan and decided to try making my own.  They didn't turn out quite as beautiful as hers. *sigh* (My excuse is that she's been doing this for years, and has it down!) haha :)  However, they tasted ah-ma-zing!

They look just like eggs, huh?  Except way yummier!

Let me tell you why I love them so much...
They're not too sweet.  They're very portable - no messy wrappers when you want to eat one. 
The bottom of the egg (shell) is covered in blue butter glaze, and the yolk is lemon curd.  In fact,  I like the lemon so much that when I got to the last couple of cakes I gave them double yolks - just for fun.  I was kind of tempted to just cover the whole thing in lemon curd - but that's just silly. :)

Ingredients:
Cakes:
1 box white cake mix (plus all ingredients listed on back of box)
1 (1 oz) box vanilla instant pudding mix

Lemon Curd:
3 large egg yolks, strained
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
6 TBS sugar
4 TBS unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces

Place a strainer over a small saucepan, and add egg yolks. Press with a spoon until they're all strained through. Add lemon zest, lemon juice and sugar. Whisk to combine. Stir constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon, making sure to stir sides and bottom. Cook until mixture is thick enough to coat back of wooden spoon. (about 5-7 minutes)
Remove saucepan from heat. Add butter, one piece at a time, stirring until consistency is smooth.
Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd to avoid a skin from forming; wrap tightly. Let cool, and refrigerate until firm and chilled, at least 1 hour.


Butter Glaze:
3 TBS milk
2 cups sifted powdered sugar
1/2 cube (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
food coloring

Pour milk into small bowl, and stir in food coloring until the desired shade is reached; set aside. 

Place powdered sugar in large bowl and set aside.

Melt the butter in small saucepan over medium heat.  Remove pan from heat and immediately pour butter into the bowl with the powdered sugar.  Add milk, and whisk until smooth.  You may need to add milk if it's too thick or more sugar if it's too thin.  Just play around with it until it is the right consistency.  Think glaze not frosting - it should be on the runny side.


Instructions:
This recipe worked out perfectly because the cake mix called for 3 egg whites and the lemon curd called for 3 egg yolks - sweet!

Pour the cake mix and pudding mix into a large bowl.  Add the ingredients it calls for on the box making sure that the water you add is HOT.  Follow directions to make the cake mix.

Make the lemon curd (see above) and refrigerate it.

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Spray cake pan and add a small spoonful of batter - don't fill even halfway or the tops will be too rounded. (Trust me, my first batch looked like little footballs instead of eggs!) haha

Bake for 16-18 minutes.  Watch them carefully! Take them out when the tops start to spring back when touched and they are not quite golden.

Lay them face down on a cooling rack and let cool completely.

Make the butter glaze. (see above)  Dip/roll bottoms of cakes in glaze and lay face down on a cooling rack until the glaze has set.  (You'll want to put something underneath to catch all the dripping glaze.)

After the glaze had dried completely - flip the cakes over onto a plate.  Spoon the lemon curd into a pastry bag and squirt a small circle onto each cake so it resembles egg yolks.

Sprinkle all cakes with powdered sugar.

Enjoy! :D

Check out all this craziness!


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Monday, March 12, 2012

Painted Headboard

When my husband and I finally got a king-size bed - we had no idea what we wanted for a headboard. Our last bed had a huge frame with a footboard too and we knew we didn't want to take up that much room again.
So we decided we would just paint one!
We love this because it is fairly temporary, so when/if we ever decide to get a regular headboard - we can just take the frame off and paint over it!

So, what if we want to move our bed, you ask?  Well, we decided that this spot is pretty much where it will stay.  There is only one other place to put our bed, and it would cut the room in half, and make our room look smaller.  However, we could still move it, and then this faux headboard would make an amazing frame for our dresser! Haha :)

How I made it:
What I did was measure where we wanted our headboard while the bed was still against the wall.  Then, we moved the bed, and taped off our frame.  Then I decided how big I wanted my diamonds to be (they measure 18" x 22") and cut a template out of poster board.

I decided I wanted my diamonds outlined in white so they show up more.  So I painted the headboard area white first.

I put some tape behind the diamond and then stuck it on the wall.  After I made sure the center was level, I taped all four sides with Frog tape.  Then I continued like that all along the top row.  After the first row, it was easier, because everything was level and you just connect the tape.

Then, before you paint the diamonds, make sure to seal the tape with the wall color first.  It will give you nice clean lines.  (I forgot that step, and had to redo everything - not fun! Trust me.)

After it's dry, remove the tape and finish with a frame - easy!

Colors:
Wall color:  Barely Jade by Glidden
Diamonds:  Davenport Tan and Alexandria Beige by Benjamin Moore 

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

Baby Gift Ideas

Here are a couple of baby gifts I made for my friends a couple years ago. (Has it been that long?)
These are just simple gifts, but given in a fun, cute way.
This is a diaper cake - I'm sure you've seen these before, nothing new.  I just love the way they look - very pretty!  You can stick little toys and rattles in them too, if you wanted.

I think I used about a package and a half of size 1 diapers.  (Luvs are my favorite - they smell sooo yummy!)

This one is supposed to be flower buds made out of onesies.  It didn't turn out quite the way I had wanted, but it was still a cute idea, right? haha

It might have looked more flowery if the baby had been a girl - oh well. :)

This was kind of the idea...

Here is another idea I love -


Onesie cupcakes!  How cute are those?



Here are some more cupcakes - Adorable!


from pinterest

I just had to add this onesie that I saw recently on pinterest, because I thought it was funny! 

Thanks for stopping by!




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