Saturday, December 5, 2009

12 Layer Mocha Cake

I'm a little late posting today because I was very busy preparing for my wonderful husband's birthday party. When your birthday falls on a weekday, it can be an extra bonus because then you can be celebrated on 2 days! Yay!

I had been busy for the past 2 days preparing this cake.



It is the 12 Layer Mocha Cake that I found on Epicurious. It was delicious. It was unbelievably rich. We served 15 people this cake and are only 1/2 way through it. My co-workers may get some after all! I found the buttercream layers to be a bit too rich. I would have preferred a mousse layer in there instead of a couple of the buttercream layers. The hazelnut meringue was so tasty with a bit of crunch that was fun.

Here are some of my prep pictures, just because I like foodie shots...


The cake layers



 Chocolate for the souffle layers



Melting chocolate for the souffle layers



Egg yolks for the souffle layers



Melted chocolate (mmmm... chocolate)



 The souffle layers



Hazelnut meringue layers



More chocolate melting for the mocha buttercream



Layers ready for assembly



Assembled, ready to chill



Edges cleaned  up



Delicious clean up

Friday, December 4, 2009

Paper Portraits

I am a huge fan of Dude Craft. He finds the greatest stuff. And he shows us all that men can craft. Cool stuff, though.

He has a tutorial to make these stunning paper portraits, which I totally want to try out.


Thursday, December 3, 2009

Yarn Christmas Trees

Back to the world of things I might actually make. I love these yarn trees! Pretty Ditty has a great tutorial on how you can make them yourself.



I subscribe to the Pretty Ditty blog, but I also saw these on Whip Up. I think I even have some leftover yarn that would be perfect for this project.

Oh, and on another note, will you take my poll for me? It's over there on the right. I'm wondering if you have a preference with how links open. Personally, I like them to open in a new window, but I have heard that people get confused when they get multiple windows opening.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Pants from shirt arms

Now, I'm certainly not the first person to do something like this. But I had not seen them just like this. I made it up as I went along, from other pant making tutorials. Pretty easy. luvinthemommyhood has a good tutorial.

Here is how mine turn out. Z basically just wears them for bed and wearing around the house.



I had to leave the shoulder seams on the arms of the shirt and cut into the body of the shirt a bit to get the width I needed. I think they turned out pretty neat, even if they are just around the house kind of pants.

Pac Man Ring Set

Check out this sweet Pac Man Ring set by Rachel Pfeffer. I would probably never wear it, but I would love it if you would! How come I can't be funky? I want to be funky.


  Found via CRAFT.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Well I did Sew Something

As I mentioned earlier, I was joining in with Creative Little Daisy for a challenge to Sew Something in November. Well, I did not sew the pants I was hoping to sew this month :( It looks like I will not hit that resolution after all. I did manage to have a lovely, successful shopping day with my girlfriend when I went out to the lower mainland this month, so I am not in need of pants as I was before.

Even though I did not sew the pants, I did sew something. I sewed a couple things for my friend, E. She needed a duvet cover made smaller to fit a quilt she had. Also, yesterday we worked on her family advent calendars together. I sewed those too. I did some hand sewing as well, finishing up the sneak peek project that may or may not have been for a certain spouse's birthday, which is today. (Happy Birthday, my love. We'll do it up right on Saturday.)


Here is how it turned out.


I'm actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. I was quite concerned as I was knitting it up, that I was knitting too tight and it wouldn't fit properly. How annoying would that be? Blocking was exactly the right thing to do. Its recipient is also pleased with the result and he claims not to have guessed ahead of time.

 

 The pattern came from the Canadian Living website. It was a little challenging for me to knit. No new skills; it just required my attention as I knit. A lot of things I like and end up doing are fairly simple to knit. How much more complicated does knitting get? Follow a pattern... it's pretty straightforward.

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