I Made Marshmallows for a Hot Cocoa Cake!

And it was easy! A while ago I threatened to make a hot cocoa layer cake with marshmallows, all from scratch, and today I did it! I'm taking it to a friend's birthday tonight.

Yes, it took me all day and yes, every single surface in my kitchen is covered with powdered sugar (literally every surface) and yes, I had to go to the store three times and yes, I now have a sink full of dishes, but I did it!



The marshmallows were reaaalllly sticky but tasted good! They tasted exactly like marshmallow fluff from a jar. Uh....not that I know what that tastes like ;)

You have to wet the knife to cut them apart and then throw them in the powdered sugar bowl to coat their sticky edges, but then you get perfect little blocks!



I like making things from scratch that really don't need to be made from scratch. I think it goes with my "all-by-hand" quilting mentality. But it sure is labor intensive. These are the best photos I could get of the cake, since it took all day, the lighting was not so good!

The cake ended up with three layers even though the recipe only makes two layers, because while I was at the store getting a candy thermometer for the marshmallows, my two year old made an end run around dad to dig out a big hunk of cooling cake for herself :( She ruined one of the two layers I had, so when I got home I had to make another whole cake recipe to get two more layers. On the upside, my family got to eat the ruined layer and loved it! :)



Look at those adorable little cubes! Click to enlarge. Once they're rolled in the powdered sugar they are just the softest, dearest little things, like baby bunnies.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Wolfgang!

The boy who made a mother out of me turns 7 today. Sigh...that's when they turn from a baby into a real kid. My baby boy!


Well, happy birthday my little love. You are the world's best boy. You are messy....


And curious...


And sweet (such a good big brother!)...


But most of all, silly. I love you so much, you'll always be my little wolf cub.
Happy Birthday, from Mom

It's My Birthday!

I am 39. That is all.



Check out last year's photo here. I think I look better this year!

My coworker/friend Erin baked me the cake up there and my other friend/coworker Sarah drew me the card and special birthday coupons! We're going to lunch at Woodland and then to Stitch Lab for fabric. Tonight is the family party. Fun!

Hoooot!

Hi All,
Such a busy Christmas season this year! I've been a real crafting workhorse (a crafthorse?) lately. Hmmm...I think I like that - crafthorse. I'm going to call myself that from now on. But that's not why I'm writing today. Check out the freakin' cute owl ornaments I made with another tutorial from juicybits!!!

I made this little guy first. Cute!

I made him a little guy friend next and then my 25 year old daughter got caught up in the frenzy and made a girl owl! See how the boys are both looking over at the girl and she's peeking back?

Whooooo do you think she'll choose?

My daughter gave the girl owl and the purple boy owl to her new boyfriend's parents for Xmas, so I guess owl girl chose purple!

It should have stopped there, but me being a crafthorse and all, I had to keep going! I made a boy and girl owl to represent my husband and I.

And hung them right up on the tree. Awwwww! It's love.

Edited to say: I later made an owl softie with the same pattern! Worked great.

In other news, on Gigi's party day Sunday we took the kids out to the Nature and Science Center. Absolutely gorgeous weather here in Austin, 68 degrees and sunny. Hot in the sun, cold in the shade. Gigi loves leaves.

I call this photo "the essence of boyhood". Playing so hard he stepped in the water and got his socks and shoes wet. Took them off and found special rocks to line up and sort through. Very busy. Very boy.

And Gigi loved her party! Rare to catch her smiling, notice it wasn't when she could see me taking the photo.

Hope your holidays are filled with joy and love and crafthorsiness. (Look, I just made up another word! You can use it - go ahead!)

He Did It!

My husband did it! He passed his exam and is now a Master Plumber. Yay! There are levels of plumbers, starting with Apprentice, going to Journeyman, and finally Master. You have to have ten years as a Journeyman before you can even take the test! He was very stressed out the last few months preparing for this, studying hundreds of pages of code and math problems - it's WAY harder than one may think. I'm very proud. And so very glad I don't have to help him study at the kitchen table anymore instead of quilting! Yay me! Yay quilting! Oh, whoops, I mean, yay him!

I picked up his cake at Sam's Club on the way home after finding out so it wasn't very good - I think i'm spoiled to scratch now. It said "Master of the (Plumbing) Universe!" but he cut it before I could take a photo. Men! In the picture he's holding his test results and our first grandbaby, Tim's son Axel. Yes, he was named in honor of Axel from my sad baby story.


I was wondering, what color do you think Gigi's eyes are? Double click to enlarge. I really can't tell. Hazel is green with brown, but hers are more like dark blue or grey with brown. Hard to say! I'm brown and DH is blue. Thoughts?

It's A Quilt Party!

Ok, maybe it was Jimmy's 8th birthday party. But to me it was a giving-him-the-patriotic-quilt party! Jimmy (center here) is the oldest stepson of my oldest stepson. We took all the kids to an Easter egg hunt, then to McDonald's for the playscape and then later over to our house.

I made him his requested strawberry cake from scratch with scratch frosting. I managed to find a recipe that didn't have boxed mix, jello, corn syrup or food coloring at all, which wasn't easy! I finally found it on the blog of a fellow Austinite, Confections of a Foodie Bride. So funny to search the whole internet and find what you want a few miles away. It was very easy to make and all the strawberry flavor and color comes only from frozen whole berries (no syrup).



Jimmy has four brothers, you can see them all in the photo. From right to left they are Gavin, his fraternal twin Tristan, then Jimmy, then my son Wolf, then Linden and finally baby Axel who will be a month old tomorrow. My 15 month old, Gigi, is missing, already in bed. Here they are eating Jimmy's favorite meal, breakfast for dinner! I made waffles from scratch in my 80 year old round waffle iron, scrambled eggs and thick-cut bacon. And yes, every room in our house IS painted a different bright color.



Jimmy loves his quilt!

double click any photo to make it larger and enjoy! Wendy

It's My Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! I'm 38 today. Do I look it? (say no!)

I'm having a very nice day. My coworkers took me to a Greek place for lunch. My co-worker and friend Sarah got me some fabric - a few almost solids and a piece of Anna Maria Horner's Drawing Room. Love it!

My other coworker/friend Erin made me this cake - tart lemon with blackberry reduction filling and cream cheese icing! Yum! Tonight my daughter is going to make steak and chicken shishkebabs with veggies for our party. I'm having a nice birthday, hope your days is good too!

Wendy

Quilt Block Potholders

Here's a cute idea, make your friends quilt block potholders! I just bought heat proof batting at Hobby Lobby for like $2 a yard, made a few blocks and voila, easy presents. I included the front and back of each one because I like the backs kind of more than the fronts!

I used fabric by Amy Butler on all three (see if you can find them!), fabric by Jennifer Paganelli on the cake and the heart, fabric by Robert Kaufmann on the cake, and fabric by Heather Ross on the star.

Love, Wendy