Sunday, June 26, 2011

Pinterest

Have you been to Pinterest yet? No?! You must go check it out! It is a collection of all kinds of pictures of anything you can think of that you can pin to your page and make mood boards with.You can get home decor, fashion, cooking, baking, and crafting inspiration. It is the perfect time waster! :)

Here are some pics I've recently found that I love
I just love this necklace, what a great idea!
Who doesn't want a creative space that looks like this?

Gorgeous cupcake

I can't wait to have a toddler so I can dress them up just like this!

Now get over there and start finding goodies for yourself!

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Funfetti Bake Off

Everyone loves Funfetti cake. It's a fact of life. Every time funfetti is mentioned at work, several of the girls always say how funfetti is their favorite kind of cake. Now, I also like funfetti, I mean, you can't go wrong with little bits of sprinkle color in your cake! In my opinion though, funfetti cake is just a yellow cake with sprinkles in it. And, I have always said this when people tell me how good funfetti is. Well, the girls at work kept saying that it isn't the same. So, we did a bake off to test it out. 

My little sis was down visiting at the time, so we went out and bought a funfetti cake, and the same brand vanilla cake and some sprinkles and made this happen.

We discovered that our sprinkles were bigger then the ones that came in the box, so went ahead and broke them up some so it wouldn't be as noticeable. We then made the cake according to their directions. Now, we did have a problem with the one cake coming out of the pan. I'm going to blame the sister for that one. :) But, I will note that this is the funfetti one...
But, we pushed through and got them frosted and decorated and had the taste testing with everyone at work. 
As a side bar, I'm sure you're wondering what those awesome smurf wanna-be things are on top of the cake. While the cakes were baking and cooling we took out the modeling chocolate I had in the fridge and made some awesome cake toppers!
 Back to the contest...
It was not a unanimous vote, but there was a clear winner

Apple Pie a la Kate

I thought it only appropriate to start out with an apple pie recipe here. Apple Pie is Thomas' absolute favorite thing in the world. I hate it. Not even a dislike, but I can handle it, I hate it...won't touch the stuff. It comes down to my hatred of all baked fruit, but this tops everything. Everyone so often, after much pestering I give in and make him an apple pie. 
Most of the time, I use a recipe I got from my adorable baby sister Katrina. (Yep, she's almost 18 and has graduated high school, but she'll always be the baby) She makes this when the family gets together and Thomas loves it, so I stick with what works.

Ingredients:
  • Pie Crust (Make your fave or buy from store. I don't have a perfect recipe, so I'm not going to give you one)
Apple Filling:
  • 5 granny smith apples (her recipe actually calls for 6, but every time I do 6, the pie overflows. With 5 apples it is perfect)
  • 1-1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup flour
Crumb Topping
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup softened butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
 
In a plastic bag place sugar, cinnamon, flour, and lemon juice, mix well. Peel apples and slice thinly. Add apples to mix and shake it around til the apples are all coated. Put apples into 9 in uncooked pie crust.

Mix together all of the crumb topping ingredients and pat on top of apples.

Bake at 350 for 45 minutes and enjoy!

One time my amazing little sis baked this pie for an hour and a half. It was quite burnt when it came out. My lil bro and Thomas still ate the inside of it. That is the amount of dedication they have to the apple pie.

Hello!

Welcome to my new web home!

I'm excited to be sharing some of my favorite things with you. I love to bake, sew, craft, and create. I'm also currently in the depths of wedding planning so I'll share some of my ideas and best finds for DYI weddings. Also, I'll share some things that are on my least favorite things list, but on the fiance's most favorite...such as tomatoes and apple pie.

Let's jump right in!