Burda 9491: Girl's jumpsuit

I've been sewing again!  I love this little jumpsuit. You can't tell from the picture but the fabric is actually very thin pink and white stripes. It turned out just like i pictured it in my head, which is really quite rare.   I'm very glad I did the contrast fabric in the pocket yoke and the brown piping and those cute brown buttons.  My daughter loves it and wanted to wear it two days in a row to school.  

The pattern is listed as average difficultly and that seemed about right to me.  The pin tucks and standing collar were a pain.  The pattern has you cut two rectangles, add the pin tucks to those and then cut the yoke from those.  The pattern does not specify exactly how small the pin tucks are supposed to be, so you get to guess.  When I used my pin tuck foot (that gives me very straight pleats) I ended up with too small a piece to cut the yoke from.  I had to start over and cut new rectangles that were quite a bit bigger.  I figured something around 9" wide was a nice, generous size to work with.  

Once I got past the yoke hurdle, the rest went together pretty quickly.  The techniques were pretty standard.  In fact, the construction technique was really educational.  My older girls are very jealous of their little sister's jumpsuit.  I think I can take a button up shirt pattern and a basic shorts pattern and put them together to create a jumpsuit pattern for them using the techniques from the Burda pattern.  We'll see if I can get that done sometime soon.  I have a lot of other sewing to do in the immediate future.  Summer vacation starts in a little over a week, so I need to get busy if my kids are going to get the shorts they need!

Maple Bacon Cupcakes

My sister Cathy is a genius.  She's been playing around with cupcakes recently and came up with a fabulous combination.  Since she doesn't have a blog of her own she said I could share the recipe here on mine.  She's also generous and super cool.

The cupcake starts with a fabulous buttermilk cake recipe.  It has the perfect level of sweetness and it's moist with a lovely small crumb.   The buttermilk flavor is reminiscent of good pancakes and the perfect accompaniment to the bacon. Then crispy fried bacon pieces are mixed into the batter (with a few sprinkled on top of the batter just before it goes in the oven.) When the cupcakes are cooled, they are frosted with a maple cream cheese frosting.  It may sound crazy, but the combination of salty and sweet is perfect and a lot of fun.

If you've got a BBQ to go to this summer, try bringing these along.  You'll be the hit of the party and everyone will think you are brilliant.  You are brilliant after all, so why not show it off?

Buttermilk Cupcakes

3/4 c softened butter
1 1/2 c sugar
1 t vanilla
1 1/2 c buttermilk + 1 T
2 3/4 c cake flour
1/2 salt
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
4 egg whites, beaten to stiff peaks.
3/4 lb bacon (preferably maple smoked) cut into small pieces and fried until crispy

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream the butter and sugar.  Add the 1 T buttermilk and 1 t vanilla.  Sift together the dry ingredients.  add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the batter, stopping just before the flour is fully mixed in.  Add 1/2 the buttermilk.  Then add another 1/3 of the flour mixture, then the last of the buttermilk, and then the last of the flour.  Finish stirring in the flour by hand.   Gently fold in the egg whites.   Set aside 24 pieces of bacon for garnish.  Fold in 3/4 of the remaining bacon pieces.

Portion out into a muffin tin lined with cupcake liners.    Just before putting pans in the oven sprinkle the rest bacon pieces over each cupcake.  Bake for around 15 minutes until cupcakes spring back when lightly pressed.   Remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack. This should make 24 standard sized cupcakes.

When cool frost with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting and garnish with bacon pieces set aside earlier.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

8oz cream cheese
1/2 c butter
3 c powdered sugar
1-2 t Maple extract (I use the Mapline brand.  Flavor to taste.   Add more if you really want to punch up the maple flavor.  You can use real maple syrup but that would take some monkeying with the ingredients and it would end up being even sweeter frosting.  It's up to you.)

Mix all the ingredients in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.   This does make a lot of frosting, but if you are going to use large frosting tips to frost the cupcakes, you will need this much.  You'll notice that mine only have one layer of frosting on top.  If you are going to make soft ice cream style peaks with the frosting, you'll need even more frosting than this, so count on having to double the recipe.  When the cupcakes are frosted, put a little piece of bacon on top of each cup cake, just so no one is surprised to find bacon when they bite in.

This cake recipe is fantastic.  It would make a great base for many different kinds of cupcakes.  The buttermilk adds a really lovely flavor and texture to the cake.  If you do make yourself some Maple Bacon Cupcakes, let me know how they are received.  My sister and I would love to know.

Prom

Two weeks.  Two weeks of stress and headache and I never, ever want to see tulle or netting again.  But it's done and she looked lovely.

That skirt right there was 90% of the headache.

 Just to be silly I asked her to do that pose that models in Vogue do all the time.  You know the one, where they put their hands on their hips and pop the collar bone.  She forgot the somber pout.

 Of course, it made her laugh.

The skirt gave me fits.  I just don't have enough experience to know how to support the rosettes properly.  I put all sorts of heavy weight tulle and netting under that skirt and I still could barely get the pouf on that side.  She gets to wear the dress again in April and May so I have time to get it figured out.  

There was a lot of tulle.

My YW Values Cake + a butter cream frosting recipe

 The Young Women's Presidency in my Ward asked me to make a cake for New Beginnings.  (translation:  the women who oversee the teen girls youth group at church asked me to make a cake for a special meeting that introduces the new girls into the program.)   They wanted little mini torches for everyone.  Since they are expecting 50 people to the meeting, I decided to do a two layer half sheet cake instead.  They were ok with that.

Only I thought the meeting was last week.  So over the course of Monday and Tuesday last week I baked, filled, stacked and frosted cake for 50 people . . . . who wouldn't be there until this Wednesday.  I didn't figure this one out until my daughter's Laurel Leader (aka the lady in charge of the 16-18 year old group) called to discuss their Wednesday night activity plans for the next two weeks.   And she mentioned the cake.  The cake sitting on my counter.  The cake they didn't want until next week.

I had cake for 50 and no one to eat it.  Since I had frosted it, I couldn't even freeze it to save for the next week.

We had quite the time sharing that baby around in order to get it eaten.  The last bit went to my mother's house for the Super Bowl party. My children wouldn't even look at it.  They were a bit sick of cake by that time.

It was a good thing, though, that I had an extra week.  The fail cake (my oldest son's words) was a plain white cake.   This one is much cooler.

Here's the outside.  Please keep in mind that I haven't really done much drawing since my freshman year of college (many, many years ago.)  Drawing with a frosting tube is much harder, especially when the biggest example of the logo I could find was 2" high.   It's not spectacular.  The best I can say for my lettering is that I spelled everything correctly.   I did draw the torch on the cake with a toothpick first and then I went over it with the frosting.  This way I could redo it several times until I was happy with it.  I just smoothed the frosting out with a damp offset spatula to fix my errors.   The torch is done with an outline and filled in with an upside down basket weave tip (smooth side up), then I smoothed it out with the afore mentioned damp offset spatula.

I was using my 50mm lens, so I had to stand on the counter with my head up at the ceiling to get the picture.  You can probably see that I stood to the right of the cake.  The funky perspective is kind of cracking me up. 

The very best part of this cake, though, is inside.   I call it a "Values" cake.

The Young Women's program developed by our church includes eight values the girls are to focus on and learn as they go through their teen years.  (Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice and Accountability, Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue.)  Each value is associated with a color.  I used the directions for a rainbow tie dye cake but put the different colors of batter down in value order instead of rainbow order. I asked my girls not to tell their friends about the brightly colored cake because I want it to be a surprise this evening when they cut it.

Rainbow cakes are super easy to make.   There are a lot of recipes all over the internet. (I used the directions from Omomicon for dying and dumping the batter but I did not use her diet cake recipe.  I would not recommend using a diet cake for one so large.  it would fall apart without the eggs in it.) I have a few tips if you want to make a big one like this.   For each layer I did eight colors, including one left white for Faith.  Each portion of batter measured a little over 1 cup, or 8.3 oz if you've got a new kitchen scale you like to play with like I do.   Each layer uses two boxes of white cake mix, and yes I'm assuming you're using a box.  There are times when it's fine to not do homemade. Making cake for 50 is one of those times.

When mixing the cake, do not mix the batter like the directions say on the box.  Run your mixer just long enough to bring everything together.  You may have to mix the last of the egg into it with a spatula.   All the beating you would normally do at this point with the mixer is done when you mix in the gel color.   Your cake may even be over mixed by the time all the food color is fully mixed in.  As you can see from the above photo, mine was.  If you are doing a values cake and need to make gold (for virtue), first make a pale peach then add just a tiny little smear of blue to brown it up a bit.  Instead of doing bright colors you could also do the pastels the church is currently using in the Young Women materials.  That would be very pretty.  I grew up with bright value colors so that's where I went with my cake.

When making a cake this size you must freeze the layers before handling them.   Be very careful when getting your layers out of the pan and definitely use parchment paper in the bottom of the pan!   I had to rebake one layer because it fell apart on me during this process.  In order to freeze my cake layers, I carefully slipped them into my half sheet baking sheets, then leveled the tops with a bread knife, wrapped the pan in foil, and put them both in my deep freeze.   The next day, the cake was super easy to handle when I assembled it.

By the way, I measured out my butter cream frosting recipe.

American butter cream frosting
2 lbs powdered sugar
1 cup salted butter
1/2 c whipping cream
1 T vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Mix on medium speed for over 5 minutes.  Sometimes I like to let mine go for up to ten minutes.   You may need to add up to 1T of whipping cream at the end to loosen the frosting up a bit to make it easy to spread.  I find that with all that fat in the recipe I don't have to get the frosting as stiff for the piping work.  It's much easier on my hands, thank goodness.   This should be enough to frost and fill a two layer 9x13 cake.  You might need more for piping or if you like your frosting extra thick.

I'm fudge obsessed

I didn't do a lot of candy making this year for Christmas.  I had just worked the most hours I've worked in 16 years and I was tired.  The elementary school has been using me as a substitute quite a bit lately, sometimes up to full time hours in a week.  I've been way too tired to actually make extra things.  

However, with the Christmas break being two full weeks and another four day weekend this weekend, I'm all rested up and I'm cooking all the candy I missed out on at Christmas.  This year I'm obsessed with new fudge flavors.  I can't help myself.  The eggnog was such a success, I had to try my hand at a few others I've been thinking about.   

These flavors are super easy to make, especially since I cheated on the maple nut.  I couldn't bring myself to buy real maple syrup for an experiment.  It's so expensive! And fudge is such a frivolous, non-necessary thing. I know, the artificial flavors aren't the same, but it was close enough for me.  

Maple Nut Fudge:

make vanilla fudge only omit the vanilla and add 2 t maple flavoring.  After the fudge is whipped, add 3/4 c walnuts.

See?  Super easy.  Like most fudge, this one tastes better if you can let it sit for at least 24 hours.  This allows the flavors to really blend and strengthen.

This one is my very favorite fudge ever.  I can not rave enough about it.  It was a little bite of heaven.

Orange Dreamsicle Fudge

Make vanilla fudge and this time reduce the vanilla to 1 t.  Add 1/4 t orange oil and the zest of one orange.  Also, you really need to let this one sit a day or so as well.  I have no idea if more than 24 hours makes a difference because, quite frankly, I was lucky this one lasted the full 24 hours.

I've got one more new flavor of fudge to make this afternoon and then I should be all fudged out for the year.

Maybe.

Well see.

Hopefully.  I have gained weight this month, sadly.  Those pounds tasted fantastic though.

Eggnog Fudge

I'm a little slow on this one, but I think you can still find Eggnog in stores for a little bit longer.  Run out and buy a quart so you can make this.  You'll thank me later.  Unless you are on a diet.  Then you will curse me.  Whatever.  Eat it.  You're welcome.

The method for cooking this candy is exactly like chocolate fudge, so if you want a step by step with photos try this post on making chocolate fudge.   The sugar measurement looks weird.  I had to adjust the sugar in the recipe because eggnog has sugar in it already.  Basically it's 3 c minus 2 T.   Remember that sweating the pan and not scraping the pan out after cooking are the two most important steps in making sure your fudge does not sugar.    Also make sure you use a clean spoon after the candy has sweat in the pot.  If you stirred before sweating the pan, wash the spoon carefully to be sure no sugar is sticking to the spoon. Do not ignore these steps.

Eggnog Fudge

3 T butter
1 1/2 c prepared eggnog (store bought works perfectly.)
1/4 c light corn syrup
1/4 t salt
2 3/4 c + 2 T sugar
2 t vanilla
1/8-1/4 t nutmeg (to taste)

Combine all except vanilla and nutmeg in a 4 quart pot. Put a lid on the pot and cook over medium heat until the candy comes to a rolling boil. Let it boil for 2-5 minutes with the lid on. Remove lid and add candy thermometer. Cook and stir until mixture reaches exactly 238 degrees. Pour out into bowl of stand mixer; do not scrape out the pan. Just pour out the candy that comes easily and leave the rest in the pan. Let the mixture sit at room temperature until it reaches about 110 degrees. Add vanilla and nutmeg. Beat with the mixer using the flat paddle on medium speed. When mixture begins to lose it's gloss, scrape out into buttered 8x8 baking pan. Let cool until firm. Cut and serve. Makes about 2 lbs.

If you can wait a week before eating this fudge, you'll be even happier.  This fudge really intensifies in flavor as it sits and "ripens."  The texture smooths out and you can really taste that wonderful eggnog flavor.   Have fun with this one.

Appliqued Towels

I have a friend who is afraid of her sewing machine.  Which works for me because she also owns a Cricut and vinyl.   I sewed a project she wanted for her kids and she's going to cut me a vinyl phrase.  I hope she knows what's she's getting into because my phrase is going to be about 30" long.  

I hope these towels are worth it for her:

I made two.   One for her girl and one for her boy.

I started with a print out of the CTR shield from lds.org.  I tried to find a link for you, but was unsuccessful.  I'm sure it's there somewhere.  This is super easy to do with any design, however.  You could do a monogram  for a child or newlyweds, too.  

I traced the image onto a piece of paper backed sewing adhesive.   You could probably print directly onto the paper, but my printer was acting up.  Just make sure you print your design mirrored.

 I just held the design up to the window (great big light box!) and traced it that way.  You'll notice all the letters are backward.  This is important.  

Next iron the design onto the back side of your fabric and cut the design out.

 Then fuse your design to towel one section at a time.  Play around with the design on towel to make sure you get the placement exactly where you want it.  It's impossible to change after this step.  

I saved my scraps with the paper backing still on when cutting out.   I ironed down the big shield shape first then I used the scraps to make sure I got the letters placed exactly where they belonged.  They did slip slightly though when I was iroring them down.  Working with towels is a bit difficult.

 Here's the design fully fused to the fabric.  It's ready to sew.

 You want to set your machine to an extremely tight zig zag.  Mine is down in the "buttonhole" size for length.  I'd give you exact numbers but my machine is not digital so I have no idea.  It's very close with no visible space between the zig zag stitches.  My stitch width is just barely smaller than 1/8th of an inch.  I kept it on the narrow side because of the narrowness of the design.

Sew around all the edges of the design.  You need to cover everything.  Notice how the foot and needle are placed.  You want the stitch to be almost entirely on the applique with less than 1/4 of it over the edge.  This will keep the applique from unraveling later as you wash it.  The nice thing about tight stitches like these is it's so easy to go slowly and take your time.  Don't hurry through this, you want to be sure your stitches are placed properly and your lines are straight.  When you sew the curves turn the fabric into the needle.  Curves can be tricky, so practice if you haven't sewn a lot of them.

And here it is all sewn down.  You can see my threads still because I'm tying them off instead of just cutting.

 I do this by threading a needle with the thread ends and pulling it down to the back side of the towel.  Then I tie a surgeon's knot and cut the ends as close as I can to the fabric.  This will help keep the thread from unraveling as the towel gets used.  Towels need to be sturdy and ready to put up with years of laundry and abuse (I don't know about your house, but towels get dropped on the floor and walked on a lot at mine.  Not that I like that happening.  We're working on it.  It's a lifetime project.)

 And you're done.  This is a great project for a niece or nephew for Christmas, too.  Do a Superman or Wonder Woman shield and you are the coolest aunt ever.   If you are doing several and use sale towels you should be able to keep the costs down to under $5 a towel.