Crickety Crafts!

It has actually been awhile since I've last been on blogger...sad! I've been working really hard at rummaging, thrift saling, Craigslisting, Goodwilling, the list goes on! Why have I been doing this? Well, I started an Etsy store and I love love love vintage items, and searching for them is a blast! So I will go find steals on antique/vintage/just plain cute items and resell them on Etsy. Otherwise, I have been making things as well to sell in a spot at a junk store that finalllllly after a long wait, I got a spot in! Wahooo!

June 1st I get to move my crafts in and start to sell...(fingers crossed!)

So that is why I have been away, workin' my tail off. Would you like to see some of the results of all my time away? Aww, you're too sweet :)

 Here is a picture I picked up at a church rummage sale for about a buck. I took out the glass, painted the picture with chalkboard paint, painted the frame a different color, distressed it, and what do ya know....here's how it turned out!

I think it turned out great! 

Moving on...

I really like when people paint and distress wood signs so I thought I'd give it a shot. I have only done 2 so far, but I am soo proud of them :)

 Now how I do mine is I have my bf sand my boards, glue them together and put a hook on the back to hang them up. 

Then it's allll mine!

First I paint the solid color. In the 2 boards I have made so far, I have used a dark stain.

Once I have it painted all one solid color, I print out my words that I am going to use. Then i take a piece of chalk and color all over the back of the letters, then lay them on the board where you want them and trace the letters with a pen or pencil. This will leave a chalk outline of your letters.

 Then I picked the color that I wanted the back to be (I'll tell ya later how I made it easier on myself starting the 2nd sign.) Therefor the letters were going to be the dark stain color, and I chose a teal color for the background. Now you have to paint around all of your letters that are now in chalk.

 Once you have gone over it twice, you can take a little sandpaper or steel wool to the corners and all around and then go over it with a clear coat. I LOVE this sign! :)

Now you may be thinking that this would take a lot of time, and maybe you don't want to paint around every letter. WELL, that's where my brain finally kicked in. I went and bought some paint pens so now you will only have to paint your background color, and then paint your letters on using the pen. MUCH easier! (As I did in the first picture.) Try to make a sign, so much fun! You will impress yourself!

Well, I am kind of really into the whole chalkboard thing at the moment and I live in such a tiny apartment that it is hard to keep everything nice and tidy. I decided to try starting with one room and making it ...."nice" Is that a good enough word? Nice.

Well I started with my bathroom and who doesn't want a nice bathroom right? 

I busted out the chalk paint, cut out some cute labels from some plain old sticky labels and painted them. Then I put them on some dollar store glass jars and BAM! Say hello to organization!

Then I moved on to an antique frame I bought. It was gold in color and my bathroom has a black and white theme going on so it just wasn't going to cut it. I spray painted the frame black and added a little scrapbook paper with some jewel embellishments and I think that it really added a cute vintage touch to my bathroom!

 So in love.

Anyways, look what Pinterest has done to me!

I am like a crafting zombie, and I really don't have room for all of the things I want to do..which is probably why I had to rent a spot in a junk store so I could sell some of it. 

Hey, if you love doing it, why not right? 

If you get some spare time and would like to check out my Etsy store, by my guest! I would love to have you :)

Head on over and check out DottiMae

Until next time, keep bakin! (& Craftin!) ;)

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Lemon pound cupcake with blackberry & raspberry frosting

Who likes fruity cupcakes? This girl!

I'm really starting to get into summery things because I just cannot wait anymore for the warm weather so I thought what tastes more like summer than a lemon cupcake? I mean, c'mon!

I found a great looking recipe for a lemon pound cake with blackberry and raspberry buttercream frosting. How amazing does that sound? Let me tell you, they were awesome x 10!

Here is the recipe and ingredients I used:

For the cupcakes:

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup plain yogurt (I used vanilla flavored)

3 tablespoons lemon zest

2/3 cup lemon juice

5 eggs

For the blackberry and raspberry frosting:

2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

1 cup blackberries

4 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 cup raspberries

To make cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

2. Line 24 muffin cups in cupcake tins.

3. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda in a large bowl and set aside.

4. In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar until smooth.

5. In a medium bowl, stir together yogurt, lemon zest and lemon juice.

6. Add the eggs to the butter mixture one at a time, beating in between each one.

7. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture in 3 parts, alternating with the yogurt mixture in 2 parts.

8. Fill muffin cups almost to the top. Bake for 16 minutes, rotating pan after 8 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool on cooling rack.

To make frosting:

To make the frosting you will need to make blackberry sauce and raspberry sauce. 

To make the blackberry sauce:

1. Combine 1 cup blackberries, 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon lemon juice in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir frequently until juices from berries boil.

2. Using a wooden spoon, crush the berries in the pan.

3. Let boil for 2 minutes to make sauce more dense. Strain the mixture if you prefer to have smoother frosting. Cool in refrigerator.

Do these same exact steps for the raspberries.

Once you have the sauces made, Beat butter and 1 cup of powdered sugar until smooth. Divide into two parts, removing half from the mixer bowl. Add the blackberry sauce to the mixer bowl along with 3/4 cup of powdered sugar. Place buttercream in a piping bag and pipe a circle around the outer edge of the cupcake. 

In the same bowl, add the raspberry sauce and 3/4 cup powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Once again, place into a piping bag and dollop into center of blackberry frosting. 

There you have it!

 These were the perfect cupcake to satisfy my summer kick!

I also tried out a root beer float cupcake recipe. The cupcake itself turned out great, tasted just like root beer! The frosting, not so much. I will attempt them again, but I will let you take a peek at how they looked...

 Pretty cute huh?! I thought the little gummy bottles added a nice touch. 

Until next time, keep bakin'! 

I partied @
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My first ever fondant covered cake!

Ok folks, this was a big, big, BIG day for me. I have always wanted to try and make my own fondant covered cake, so I went for it. It was so fun! (A little stressful at times) but I got through it and was very proud of myself. I knew that I was pretty good at the whole frosting technique but I really wanted to try out the fondant. Would you like to see how I pulled it all together? :)

 Alrighty, first I baked all my cakes. I just used some box cake mix for these since I didn't know how it would all be turning out. Then I sliced off the tops to make them all nice and flat and stack-able.

 

I then whipped up some frosting and it turned out surprisingly well. It really held its shape and was perfect for decorating the cake. I believe I used a recipe from the Wilton website. Cannot go wrong with that right?

  I then made all the other cakes smooth on top, plopped some frosting on top of one and started stacking. Looking nice, looking nice...

 Bottom part complete. I frosting around the edges and now time for the fondant..dun dun dun!!

 Got the fondant all rolled out and on top of the cake...

 Look at how smooth that is! :)

 Got all the excess cut off and I'd say I did a pretty good job!

I stacked 2 cakes on top of one another and then I made a smaller cake to go on top of this one.

 Now I just wanted to have fun with it. Since this was a practice cake, I didn't care if colors matched and what not. Pretty much just experimenting. I started with a border on the bottom..

 I was testing out some cutters. Do I like this look?...Not really, but like I said, experimenting!

 Alright, so I came to a point where I really liked the bottom border and I wanted to see what it would look like if the whole cake was covered like it, so I started and unfortunately I ran out of frosting! Shame on me, it couldn't be because I was tasting it here and there..nooo definitely not!

So there you have it! My first ever fondant covered cake. Will there be more attempts? I sure do hope so! They really take a lot of time and patience...oh ya, and to all of you out there who do these...I applaud your skills, because it is hard to make them look so good! 

Hope you enjoyed my fun time! I always look forward to seeing what everyone else can do! 

I partied @
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Low carb peanut butter cookies

I know what your thinking..low carb cookies, ick. 

I will be the first to say that low carb is not really the easiest thing in the world to do, especially the first day when your tummy starts to rumble saying mean things like "Hey you, feed me before I really get mad!" or "You may think your fat but I like food!" 

Yeah, heard these a few times. So when I was told of these cookies that are very low in carbs I finally realized that low carb does not always have to be so ... blah.

These are very very simple to make. Only 3 ingredients. Yes, 3. Don't believe me? 

1 cup peanut butter (I buy the lowest carb count you can find)

1 cup splenda (Or other sugar substitute)

1 egg.

Mix together, spoon into ball shape and line them up on a baking sheet. Press down using a fork. Bake for about 8 to 10 minutes on 350.

Done.

Ha! How simple was that?

And to be honest with you, they are pretty good! It gives you the feeling as if your "cheating" when really, they are no more than 2 grams of carbs per cookie. 

 They may not look like your average peanut butter cookie but when your dieting, does anything look normal? bahaha nope!

So if your ever doing the "low carb" diet, try these! They will give you a little satisfaction when your craving the sweet stuff!

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I love these oatmeal cookies!

Oatmeal cookies are probably one of my all time favorite cookies. Snickerdoodles come in at a close 2nd though. 

I like when a cookie recipe is simple and fast to make, and this oatmeal cookie recipe is just that. They turn out amazing too, BONUS!

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. Great place to go if your looking to make some treats! There are beautiful pictures as well!

 Are they not delicious looking or what!? 

Lets get you making these shall we?

Here is what you will need:

 1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins (I did not use raisins because I don't like them)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them. I choose to make them into balls and then put them in the freezer for a bit.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 10 to 12 minutes), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

 I pretty much just plop my dough in big spoonfuls, that way I get a pretty large cookie out of it. These bake up golden brown and softer than ever! I honestly don't even think they lasted a whole day...is that bad? :)

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Blueberry Pancake Cupcake

Blueberries + Pancakes x cupcakes?

Sounds like a good equation to me! 

My most recent bake? You guessed it! Blueberry pancake cupcakes! (with maple buttercream)!!

These cupcakes tasted halfway between a cupcake and a muffin, and they were dang good!

I really want you to see them...so I am going to start this post off with a big ol' picture of these cupcakes. 

 They got a little dark, but I used my new paper liners. They are circus, you like them? :)

I just love when Michael's has cupcake liners in the dollar section. Can't beat that!

Ok so you want to make these? I really think you should! Even if you don't like blueberries, add a different fruit! They would all taste great!

Here is what you will need:

For the cupcakes~

1 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

3 eggs

2 egg whites

3 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 cup sour cream

1/3 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

For the frosting~

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese

2 teaspoons maple extract

4 cups powdered sugar

milk, as needed

A little cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on top

Now here is what you will do:

For the cupcakes~

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 muffin pans with liners.

2. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

3. On low speed, add eggs and egg whites one at a time until each is fully incorporated.

4. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg together.

5. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture in thirds, alternating with the wet (milk, vanilla and sour cream). Let each ingredient fully mix in before adding another. Do not over mix.

6. Fold in blueberries. Fill cupcake liners 3/4 full and bake for about 18 minutes. 

For the maple buttercream frosting~

1. Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. 

2. Add maple extract and powdered sugar and let beat again.

3. If needed, add 1 tablespoon of milk. Add more if needed.

4. Pipe buttercream onto cooled cupcakes and top with cinnamon sugar.

Pretty easy peasy huh? I will say that I made these at night time, woke up the next morning and they made a wonderful breakfast treat! 

The cinnamon sugar on top really made it great. I used frozen blueberries and you couldn't even tell. These were in one word: wonderful. Seriously, just wonderful and typing about them makes me want them again already. Yikes! 

Here's another peek!

 See that zebra riding the bicycle? ;)

Go ahead and make yourself a good breakfast! Enjoy!

I partied @
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Double Almond Cupcakes

Almond extract is the bomb! 

Whenever I make frosting, I love to have that almond flavor and almost always end up adding a little almond extract. I wanted to whip up a quick batch of cupcakes, not because I was craving them or anything :) I came across these Betty Crocker double almond wedding cupcakes and instantly had my shoes on and was in the car headed to the grocery store to gather my ingredients.

Now, I don't like to cheat and use box mixes, but in this case I was looking for something fast and easy. I found the recipe on the Betty Crocker website here.

Here is what you need:

Cupcakes:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix

Water, vegetable oil and egg whites called for on cake mix box

1 tablespoon almond extract

Frosting:

1 1/4 cups butter, softened

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons whipping cream

2 teaspoons almond extract

 Now here is the process:

1. Heat oven to 350°F (325°F for dark or nonstick pans). Place paper baking cup in each of 18 regular-size muffin cups. Make cake batter as directed on box, adding 1 tablespoon almond extract. Divide batter evenly among muffin cups, filling each about three-fourths full.

2. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center of cupcake comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling rack. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

3. In medium bowl, beat butter and powdered sugar with electric mixer on low speed until blended. Add whipping cream and 2 teaspoons almond extract; beat on high speed until well blended. Fit a #46 tip in a decorating bag and fill with frosting. Use tip, with smooth side facing down, to generously pipe frosting in circular motion. Store loosely covered. 

These cupcakes turned out so light and fluffy, they were awesome!

 Now I really wanted to frost these and make them look really pretty so I tried the 3 color in one gig.

I might start frosting all my cupcakes like this because I LOVE the way they turned out.

I also tried that fancy new way to frost cupcakes using saran wrap so you can reuse your bag. 

Very nice trick indeed.

I'm sure you've all seen the trick but I'll explain in pictures :)

 One word...brilliant! I will most likely use this technique every time just to save a bag!

Now onto the finished product. Are you ready?

 I might have went a little snap happy with these cupcakes, but I honestly felt like I couldn't help but get every angle of them! Each side had a different mix of the colors and I just wanted to capture them all!

 Well, that is my show & tell for today. I hope you enjoyed these colorful cupcakes as much as I did!

I partied @
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