DIY Sprinkle Easter Eggs | Studio DIY. Very cute.

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Creative Play Easter Basket Idea: Water Bead Eggs. I love the glowy transparency she has going on here.

Unique Easter Gift Basket Ideas for Adults – Creature Comforts.

glitter pissing: creme egg showdown.

I’m a bit in love with all the possibilities that surround Easter Eggs, here are a dozen of my favorite Easter egg crafts and ideas. (Over at Babble.)

Treasure Hunt Idea #1

Here is one hunt I set up for Scott on the first Valentine’s Day that we lived in the same apartment after we moved to San Francisco. I hid a dozen small cards around the apartment with messages. I put them in spots where he’d find them while getting ready for work in the morning. For example I tucked a card that said “I love your smile” in the medicine cabinet next to the toothpaste. I hid more inside a coffee cup, under his pillow, his computer bag, the pocket of his coat and inside the shoes that I knew he’d be putting on.

I made the cards above by cutting 1.5 inch cards out of colorful cardstock and using a heart punch, though you can cut the hearts by hand. My original cards were created with scissors (all I had at the time) and were all a bit off center.

Treasure Hunt Idea #2

If you want to send a message why not scramble it? This is an idea I’d been planning on using this year but, oops, I guess he’ll be expecting it. For these I bought tiny envelopes, found at a local scrapbooking store, and filled them with punched out hearts.

Each heart has one or two letters on the front and a number on the back. Once each one is found and put in order they spell out a sweet message. You can use as many hearts as you need for whatever message you have in mind.

Treasure Hunt Idea #3

Scott did this for my birthday a while back but it would be just as great at Valentine’s Day. He hid little toy capsules filled with toy rings (they echoed my engagement ring) around the house. Then, at different times, I was given two maps. One was numbered on vellum, the other was a layout of the house. Put together they revealed locations of the capsules.

Treasure hunts like these don’t have to be elaborate to create utter delight. Scott and I have been together for 13 (14?) Valentine’s days and there have been flowers and restaurants and probably chocolates but it’s the treasure hunts like these that I remember the most of all.

Bake The Book: Bouchon Bakery Marshmallow Eggs | Serious Eats: Sweets.

swissmiss | Heartshaped Straws. These are cute, and I really want them.

Valentine’s Day Candy Buttons · Edible Crafts. Love this idea!

Play Food « bakerella.com. These cookies are teenier than they seem at first and they are absolutely adorable.

swissmiss | Valentine’s Multi Tattly Pack.

oh meaghan: locket valentines for gal pals. Simple and so sweet!

Heart Balloons in a Closet at Oh Happy Day.

Candy Filled Straws « Sweet Simple Stuff. Very simple and sweet idea for a unique valentine. Via Edible Crafts.

Assemble Shop and Studio: Crafty Project: Junior High Love Note Folding.

I adore clever things for Valentine’s Day and I’ve collected a few of my favorites. These are all things that give my brain a little spark.

Go see them all in my post over at Babble!

Pictured above is the Heart Attack by The House That Lars Built.

How To: Broken Glass Ornaments Into New Ornaments – Grathio Labs. Via The Hairpin.

3 Wreaths to Make for the Holidays, at Oh Happy Day.

How To: Make a DIY Modern Wooden Christmas Tree Set » Curbly.

Candy Cane Vodka – Shutterbean. So easy!

Kids Craft: Santa Beard Disguise | Say Yes to Hoboken. Adorable! Also see the Quick and Easy Festive Tabletop.

Ginger Syrup and Grandadine gifts at the Ugly Green Chair. With drink recipes.

BY HAND Gift Guides: BUILD. A story that led By Hand magazine to Lee Valley via an offline friend and then validated by Ron Swanson. Lee Valley is catalog store that I’ve loved since high school (which was, ahem, pre-internet shopping era).

A beer/bicycling guide to Portland here, Hop in the Saddle. Via Foodie Gift Guide: Part Deux | The Urban Grocer

Munchkin Munchies: Peppermint Stick Platter. I love this, but I suspect the whole platter would melt quickly in our humidity. I would have to seal it with something food safe and right about there it sounds like too much work.

Cool Tools – Guide to Gift Guides 2012. Lots of tools and gadgets things in the practical to awesome spectrum.

My friends Freshly Picked and The Alison Show got together as The Craft Pack and made a book full of delightful and easy (really, seriously) DIY holiday gifts. The book is called A Hip Handmade Holiday: Gifts For Everyone On You List For $10 Or Less and I super duper love it. It’s a PDF download and includes nine how-to videos, pro tips and lots and lots of printables.

Susan and Alison gave a presentation at Camp Mighty last month and Alison said (to applause) that if your idea of crafting is printing something onto sticker paper and slapping it on a jar, then this book is for you. There are also project with great instructions that teach you a technique and give some room to improvise if you’d like.

There are projects for women, men, pets, the house, things to treasure for years and those gifts for last minute print-and-glue moments. Susan and Alison have curated their offerings incredibly well so the book offers just a few projects for each category but every single one is gorgeous, clever and well explained. If you want to follow each project by the numbers they’re great, but there is also room to use the technique as a starting point. There are pro tips and how-to videos scattered throughout the book. The printables include every holiday card you could wish for, all the stencils you need and stickers to cover treats served in jars, paint cans and bottles.

I’m highly impressed with the balance they’ve struck here and if this is the type of quality that can come through non-traditional forms of publishing I clearly need to be paying closer attention. Susan and Alison have labeled this book “No. 1″ and I hope there are many more to come.

I’m a little obsessed with the Ho Ho Ho pillows.

Just so you know: If you buy the book through the link here I get a percentage. That percentage goes right back into hosting costs for this here website which are doubling due to higher traffic. This isn’t something I’m complaining about. Just, you know, noting. So thanks.

As a way of saying hello The Craft Pack is offering a $50 Michael’s gift card to Not Martha readers. Yay, thank you The Craft Pack!

If you’d like to enter just leave a message with this post, and if you want answer this question: Have you ever sent a DIY gift to a family member? What was the most successful or the least? (My answer: a trio of candied nuts were beloved, but the hand knit scarves mostly got a polite thank you.) You’ve got until next Tuesday, Dec. 18th at 12 noon Pacific (my) time to enter, at that point I’ll close comments. The fine print applies. Good luck! Closed, thanks to everybody for entering!

In my 3D Christmas Tree Gingerbread Cookies post last year I explained how to create your own version from an existing cookie cutter and I also offered a ready to go printable version that you could use. I wasn’t ever happy with that pattern so I’m updating it. The pages to print out are below, and they have been added to the original project as well.

I’ll be making these again (as soon as I have a working dishwasher, because ugh) and using royal icing and sanding sugar to decorate the branches instead, I think it’ll look far nicer.

A view overhead showing how the cookies fit together to make them stand up.

Click on each of these to view or download and print them.

Happy creating!

I’ve got a few cookie swaps coming up and I am considering something new. My usual cookie swap recipe is of the slice-and-bake variety, the Cornmeal-Cherry Cookies from Martha Stewart are a go to. (Also very helpful is this slice-and-bake cookie palette over at Smitten Kitchen.) The slice-and-bake means I can lovingly mix the dough a day or two before hand then bake the night before or the day of the swap and, since I have not been stressing over six dozen cookies for the majority of the day, I’m a happy person at the gathering. This year I wanted to do something different that would let me cut out a bunch of shapes (since I’ve been doing a lot of that lately and have my technique down). These gingerbread wreath cookies are under consideration. And then yesterday I came across these:

Edge of the mug cookies cutters! I previously came across this concept when doing research for my tiny gingerbread houses that perch on the edge of a mug but at that time the only cookie cutter sets I could find were ones you’d order from the UK or were no longer available, just ghost catalog pages found through a vigorous search. You can also cut a slot into any cookie, see this page at I Am Baker for examples, but I think we’ll all agree that a dedicated cutter is faster. I know, this is me saying that. I am the one who is always making needlessly complicated things because they amuse me and suddenly this is too much bother. (In my defense, I had made a few test runs of DIY edge of the mug cookies and they all sort of tipped over and fell off the mug so I gave up on it.)

I think I’ll be using these edge of the mug cookie cutters and making cocoa-friendly cookies out of basic shortbread dough for my cookie swaps. They’ll be fun and quick and hopefully novel enough to delight people.

But I’m curious: What is your favorite recipe for cookie swaps? Do you bring something practical? Or a family recipe? Do you attempt to dazzle? Or do you pick a cookie that you know to be delicious but might not look like much? Have a cookie that is a consistent crowd favorite? Share!

Eye Candy: 20 DIY Ideas for Happy Holiday Party Decor » Curbly | DIY Design Community.

The Whisky Advent Calendar Whisky – Master of Malt. Oh yes, it exists. Via Sprizee on Twitter.

The Beer Advent Calendar · Edible Crafts. Beer! Advent! Candar!

Creativebug – Free Holiday Video Workshops. Creativebug, who offer subscriptions to view hundreds of instructional craft videos made by really great people, offer some lovely free video workshops. I’m charmed by that Burlap Bunting Advent Calendar.

Roundup: 14 Modern DIY Advent Calendars and Holiday Countdown Projects » Curbly | DIY Design Community.

Mini Christmas Cookies for an Advent Calendar · Edible Craft.

Bubble and Sweet: Lollipop and Candy Christmas Tree Cake tutorial. This is adorable. Via Edible Crafts.

Urban Craft Uprising, the winter edition, is coming up very soon here in Seattle! It’s December 1st and 2nd, 11am to 5pm at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. As usual there are free craft demos and book signings as well as a swag bag for the first 100 people. Don’t wory, if you cannot make it in time to grab a bag they have have an hourly raffle. And this year there is a $1 coat check, so hopefully those aisles will be a little easier to navigate (the show is nearly too popular for it’s own good). I’m excited by all the artisan food vendors they have, and the number of new vendors as well. This is my favorite sort of shopping!

11 Turkey-Shaped Foods That Aren’t Turkey at Buzzfeed. I’m fascinated and grossed out. See also: the turkey shaped jello mold contest.

quick. easy. perfect. thanksgiving recipes | Mighty Girl. Bourbon brined turkey!?

Turkey Tips From Alton Brown: Don’t Baste Or Stuff : NPR. He stuffs the bird after it’s been cooked, then maaaaybe uses a kitchen torch to make the bits that show a little toasty.

The Food Lab’s Top Nine Tips For Perfect Apple Pie | Serious Eats.

How to Transform Leftover Cranberry Sauce into a Cocktail – Videos – CHOW.

Spider Pinata DIY at Oh Happy Day. That is one meaty looking spider.

Easy Last-Minute Costume Ideas For Adults | Celebrations with Design Mom. This video has a few simple ideas that are low-commitment but still fun.

Pumpktris, A Playable LED Lit Game of Tetris Inside of a Pumpkin, at Laughing Squid.

Secret Horror – The Morning News. Six horror movies you might not know about but are worth watching.

skulls at Design Crush. A post by yours truly.

Remember last year when I made a 3D Gingerbread Christmas Tree out of interlocking cookies so that the tree stands on it’s own? I had so much fun making it that I decided to do something for Halloween too. This time I made a tree from four pieces so that the eight branches resemble spider legs. Perched in a dish of candy it looks rather creepy.

To make this I used one batch of Gingerbread House dough from Simply Recipes that was divided into four equal pieces before chilling it. I roll it to 1/4-inch thickness and bake it until the edges are browning so that it’s as dry and strong as possible. Directions and templates are all below.

I think I have some changes to make but in the mean time I feel like I’ve figured out how to roll out gingerbread dough with as little swearing as possible. As much as I love making gingerbread for construction purposes I really dislike rolling it out. Here is my set up:

The Roll-Pat is an investment but it gives me a smooth surface to use. It grips the tabletop and keeps parchment paper from slipping. A nice, heavy and super wide rolling pin with handles also makes a huge difference, before this I only had a cylinder rolling pin but this one with handles makes the job a lot easier. I have a 15″ rolling pin and it is large enough for everything I’ve used it for so far. I have both silicone and rubber rolling pin rings (one set has 1/2 inch and the other has 5/8ths inch heights). I cannot fit the thicker rubber rings around my larger rolling pin so I switch to my narrower rolling pin if I need to use them.

I let the dough come to room temperature and before I put it down to roll it out I squish flat to about twice the thickness I ultimately want. I like to roll dough between two layers of parchment paper, my house is small and flour gets everywhere so I avoid using it when I can.

Roll between two layers of parchment, and make sure it’s big enough to cut out your shape. I roll out all four pieces of dough first and leave each sandwiched in parchment until I’m ready to cut out my shapes.

I peel off the top layer of parchment and cut away any excess parchment so that it will ultimately fit onto a cookie sheet.

I sprinkle a little flour on top so that my paper template won’t stick.

Keep a pastry brush nearby to brush away excess flour when you’re done, try not to get it all over your floor the way I always manage to do.

To cut around the template I have found that a thin, blunt metal pattern tracing wheel does the job really well, think of it like a miniature pizza cutter. It makes a straighter cut and clears more height than a similar fondant cutter.

To cut tidy details into the corners I use this thin metal sewing ruler. You can also use a flat head screwdriver or a blunt knife, be very careful to not cut into the surface of your rollpat.

After you’re done cutting out your shape remove the excess dough from around it, this will keep the shape from warping or stretching. Then slide that parchment right onto your cookie sheet. Put the cookie sheet in the freezer for about ten minutes before baking.

Here are all four baked shapes, and below I’m showing how they fit together.

Here are four images you can use if you’d like to make your own, each should print out at about the size of a sheet of paper:

I think I have more gingerbread experimentation to come. Happy Halloween!

Mighty Thirst, Halloween: Killer Bloody Mary | Mighty Girl. Adore the garnish.

10 Caramel Apples You Should Consider Making | Hitting Refresh with Laura Mayes.

Bake It in a Cake • Pumpkin Pie Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting.

A Salem-Lover’s Tourism Guide | The Hairpin.

These Trick-or-Treat cookies have a surprise inside. Each cookie either holds a treat, like mini chocolate candies, or a trick, here they are small sugar ants. Which will you get? You’ll have to break one open to find out.

How to make Trick-or-Treat cookies:

Make one or more batches of cut out cookie dough (recipe below, or use your favorite) and after chilling it take it out of the fridge to warm up so it can be rolled out. Preheat your oven to 350 and clear a shelf in your fridge or a spot in your freezer large enough to hold a cookie sheet.

Roll out one half of your dough between two sheets of parchment paper to a 1/4th inch thickness. Remove the top layer of parchment and cut out your cookies, dipping the cutter in flour to keep it from sticking. We’ll be baking the cookies on this same parchment so space them about an inch apart.

Right now you are cutting two parts of each cookies (the top and the bottom) so if you have an asymmetrical cutter be sure to flip it over and cut half of them mirror image, as shown above.

Trim the parchment away from the dough so that it’s small enough to sit on your cookie sheet and slide the parchment onto the cookie sheet. Put this in the fridge or freezer to firm up so you can pull away the excess dough.

Later we’ll baking the cookies right on this sheet so trimming the parchment means they’ll bake flat. I keep the cookies on this same parchment throughout so they don’t have a chance to lose their shape.

Once the dough has firmed up pull away the excess from around the cut out shapes. You can save the scraps for more cookies later.

Before baking chill the cookies and the cookie sheet again for about 10 minutes before putting them in the oven. (You can roll out your second layer while you’re waiting, instructions are just under the next photo.)

Bake for about 10 minutes, checking and rotating the cookie sheet half way through. After that check often and remove once the edges of the cookies are just starting to look brown and the tops look set.

Slide the parchment onto a cooling rack and let them sit for a few minutes until the cookies are cool and strong enough to slide them off the parchment and right onto the cookie rack.

Roll your second half of the dough to 1/2″ or 3/8″ thick. You’ll be cutting the middles for you cookies so only cut half as many this time, so if you cut six earlier, you only need three now. (No need to make mirror image cut outs this time.) Use smaller cutters to create a hole in the center of each shape.

Trim the parchment, slide onto a cookie sheet and chill the dough as you did for the first round. When it’s firm remove the excess dough from the outside as well as the inside of your shapes.

Again, chill these very well on the cookie sheet before baking them. Check and rotate after five minutes and keep an eye on them after that. Remove when the bottom edges begin to brown and cool carefully, as you did for the first set.

While your cookie pieces are cooling mix up some glue from one cup of powdered sugar and four tablespoons of milk (as per the recipe below). Put this into a sandwich sized zip bag and clip a teeny tiny corner off.

Lay your cookies out so the bottom piece has the flattest side up, the middle and tops will have the flattest side down. When constructed the top and the bottom of your cookies will show the pretty side that was up while they were baking and they’ll look nice and tidy. If you have asymmetrical cookies here be sure all the bits will match when they are sandwiched.

Glue the middle part of your cookie to the bottom.

Fill the cookies with your trick or your treat. Be random, no cheating! Don’t overfill them and check to make sure the top of your cookie will fit on with no trouble. It’s much easier to do this not before more sugar glue is introduced.

I made four different shapes: pumpkins, ghosts, tombstones and coffins (my favorite).

A detail shot to show the middle layer of cookie is a bit thicker than the top and bottom layers.

Glue the top on, decorate if you’d like, and you’re done! Now, serve these and see how much fun people have breaking them open.

Notes:

Important: Make sure anything you might put inside these cookies is edible, you don’t want somebody accidentally swallowing something like a plastic spider (which I really, really wanted to hide inside these).

These cookies were inspired by the Pinata Cookies made over at She Knows, which are genius. Since I didn’t need mine to be striped I used a cut out sugar cookie recipe instead and created a thicker middle layer. I did try to cut the cookies out when the dough comes out of the oven and is still warm, the technique that is in the She Knows recipe, but found it created an edge that was too crumbly.

I used a set of seven Halloween cookie cutters made by Wilton for the cookies you see here. I cannot seem to find the same set online, it came packaged in a coffin shaped box and it’s probably already 50% off at Joann. The middles of my cookies were cut out using my Ateco 12-piece round cutters, which I love and find myself using often.

I find rolling dough to be tedious so I invested in a Roll-Pat (that page shows it as Roul-Pat but mine says Roll-Pat on it). It’s similar to a Silpat but oversized and the bottom layer grips your counter top. This is lovely because I prefer to roll dough between two layers of parchment and this keeps the parchment from slipping on my counter top. Love it, especially as what I think of as gingerbread construction season arrives.

There are so many options for what tricks you can hide inside, here I used some black cake decorations made by Wilton, they are complete edible but don’t taste like much. I also considered some small flat sour gummy candies, salted licorice coins, various cake decorations (skull and crossbones!) and Pop Rocks. For the treats the only things could find that are small enough are mini M&Ms or (my favorite) Valrhona Perles Craquant. Sadly I found that Reeses Pieces or candy corn wouldn’t fit inside, I tried. A friend mentioned that mini-candy corn might exist in the world and if I’d managed to find some I definitely would have used that as well.

I’m also considering seeing if I can make the coffin cookies tall enough to fill with some sugar skeleton pieces I found. I’d also include the Valrhona Perles Craquant as graveyard dirt. And small gummi worms if I can find some.

Click more for the recipe.

Trick-or-Treat Cookies Recipe

• 12.0 ounces (2.5 cups) all-purpose flour
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I love the vanilla paste made by Nielsen-Massey)
• gel food coloring (optional)

for the glue:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons milk

to go inside:
• mini M&Ms or other small treat candy
• cake decorations or other small trick candy

Directions:

Mix together your dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt).

Beat the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for a minute more. If you’re adding food coloring put a few drops in now, it’ll be easier to see how much you need to add later and speed the process up.

With your mixer on a low speed gradually add half your flour. Take a moment to add more food coloring here if you’re using it and think you need it. Mix everything on low for a minute here, we need these cookies to be strong over tender so developing a little gluten won’t hurt. Add the rest of the flour and mix until everything all comes together.

Divide the dough into two balls. Flatten each a little and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Chill in the fridge until firm, four hours or overnight.

Each amount of dough will make six to eight Trick-or-Treat Cookies.

Note: I tried a number of cut out cookie recipes that spread too much for me and settled on a recipe from Real Simple that @seventenclark on Twitter pointed me towards and for which I ended up making a few changes. If you have a cut out cookie recipe you like go ahead and use it. I didn’t get to test the following recipes but they were also recommended on Twitter: Inchmark, Joy of Cooking, Dorie Greenspan, Annie’s Eats, and Jamie’s grandmother’s recipe. Thanks everybody!

Happy Halloween!

A R D O R: DIY MINI SURPRISE BALL PUMPKIN. Via Say Yes to Hoboken.

Halloween Food: Piggy Coffins! | The GastroGnome.

Skull Votives | Freshly Picked. I love the glittery interiors of these, and I love that they are a pretty easy and impressive DIY.

This, my friends, is a 3-foot long package of spaghetti. Because when I find something like that in a store I don’t leave it there. Our day will be spent with family and friends who are visiting and friends who are already here, I have limeaid and cheese toasts ready and waiting. But July 5th will be devoted to cooking up excessively long spaghetti. Because America is all about excess. Or something like that. Actually the spaghetti is very festive looking in a Big Looming Firework In Your Dining Room sort of way. I hope you have a great day and manage to stay cool!

Neon eggs are all over (don’t forget that neon food coloring can be found in grocery stores) and these from Oh Joy are fabulously simple.

Similar and just as easy, these gold dipped pink eggs from Fabulous K are stunning.

These are sweet – carrot shaped cupcakes baked in ice cream cones. Over at Hostess With the Mostess.

Clever cheesecake inside of chocolate eggs is fairly grown up while keeping the eggie happiness. Made by Raspberri Cupcakes.

I love the tumbled look of these Gilded Eggs from Pencil Shavings.

Easter surprise carrots! An oldy but a goody from Martha Stewart.

This washi tape paper mache egg from Traveling Mama is nice and very simple because it’s based on a paper egg from a craft store.

Hungry Happenings: Pot of Gold Caramel Apples. Wow! Via Edible Crafts.

Reware Vintage | Homemade Shamrock Shakes. Via The Morning News.

Gold Surprise Rainbow Cupcakes, great idea! Via Recipe Girl on Pinterest.

An avocado pie for St. Patrick’s Day | How About Orange. Yum.

Recipes for St. Patrick’s Day | Serious Eats.

Birthday Installation: Yarn Trail at Oh Happy Day. This would work really nicely for St. Patrick’s day as well, so fun.

1st Annual Valentine’s Day Tea Party at Sweet Anthem, an indie perfume shop here in Seattle. Sip tea and sniff perfumes? Sounds lovely.

My Funny Valentine – Our Finds. I love all of the cards they collected here.

make grow gather – valentine’s day cookie packaging.

Hungry Happenings: A sweet Valentine’s Day dessert – Conversation Heart Cheesecakes. Cute!

Valentine’s Day Drinking Straws @Craftzine.com blog. A simple and festive idea. And I already have those red and white straws!

Ask a Clean Person: This Valentine’s Day, Say It With Jewelry Cleaner | The Hairpin. A Clean Person shares a recipe for DIY jewelry cleaner, yay!

DIY: You Blow Me Away Valentines, at Design Mom.

Easy Homemade Peppermint Candies | A Chow Life. So sweet!

Sally J Shim – Fabric Heart Valentines.

My love of traditional English Christmas Crackers (the paper sort, not the edible sort) has been well documented. Since it takes two people to open one they seem like a good choice as a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day as well. (With my apologies to traditionalists, sorry about that.)

I found the supplies I needed at a local shop and decided it was meant to be. I added a few decorative details in my instructions below that can be skipped to make it easier. All you really need are a tube (a paper towel tube will work great), some cracker snaps (a specialty crafts store should have them), some decorative paper (crepe or tissue paper) to wrap it all up in and some fun little things to put inside. I decided to go for a few handmade details:

I gathered cardboard tubes, double-sided crepe paper (red/pink), some decorative paper for the details that came in the form of a few different food treat bags, sticker paper that I drew on using colorful pens and markers, cracker snaps, candy and some wooden coin shapes that I turned into tokens.

First: the fun stuff that goes inside

I decided that some lovely IOUs in the form of tokens would be pretty sweet and redeemable when needed. I included a kiss, a hug and one set of dishes (a set for each person). There are a few other things I can think of including “come help me carry groceries in from the car when it’s pouring outside even though you’re already wearing soft pants” and “bring in the empty trash cans on Friday night even though it’s pouring outside” and “be the one to responsibly turn off all the lights in the house even though we are both so sleepy”, but hugs and kisses seemed easier to request in an area under two inches.

I used a 1 and 3/8th inch hole punch for the circles. I drew the token fronts onto sticker paper and used a roughly clipped template to create the starburst pattern.

I punched out and glued zig-zag pattern onto the back side using a regular old glue stick.

I included some candy and put it into skinny plastic sleeves. Message hearts, themed M&Ms and heart shaped candies. You might also include a small sparkler that shows how many Valentine’s days you’ve been together. (And, I responsibly add: only light it outdoors. Perhaps with glasses of bubbly in hand?)

I especially love the way these candy hearts turned out in the plastic sleeves. They are from a silly wind-up heart toy and candy tube combination. I let the wind up toy walk all the way off our dining room table.

Next: wrapping it up

I decided to use a sturdy double-sided crepe paper and decorative paper for both the center wrap and inside the ends. For me this came in the form of food treat bags I found at a packaging store. I hand decorated larger circle stickers for the label and used decorative wire twist ties to secure the ends. I used double sided tape to secure the paper when needed.

The crepe wasn’t wide enough to cover the tube so I needed to overlap two layers. Make sure the crepe will wrap around the tube once with a 1 inch overlap.

Cut the crepe to the width of the tube plus 10 inches — 2 inches on each side for the outer tube and 3 inches for the part that is gathered. If you use a narrower tube (like a paper towel tube) you might need less.

Glue the decorative paper to the inside of the wrapping paper using double sided tape.

Trim the decorative paper.

If needed trim your crepe so that the overlapping edge will fall around the middle and later be hidden by the decorative wrap and secure with a bit of double sided tape.

Wrap your tube and secure with double sided tape. (I’m having a love affair with double sided tape, can you tell?)

Use a square of said double sided tape to secure the outer corners.

Place one of the snaps inside and gather and pinch one end, secure with a twist tie or waxed cord. Make sure that one end of your snap is sticking out — overcompensate here, you can pull it back to center it out later on.

From the open end place the fun things inside!

Gather the other end and secure with twist tie or waxed cord. Double check to make sure that each end had part of the snap that can be grabbed, recenter it if needed.

Roll the tube so that the seam of the paper is in the back then wrap your decorative paper around the center and secure with a big ol’ sticker. You are done.

Mini Crepe Paper Flower Favors DIY at Oh Happy Day. So sweet.

Easy DIY: Heart-shaped Surprise Ball | Celebrate the Big & Small. You know how much I like surprise balls.

Nerds in Love: Top 10 Valentines for Geeks  | Mighty Girl.

Earlier I posted about how to turn a tree shaped cookie cutter into one that is interlocking and standing (shown above). I wrote about the way to interlock three cookies but I wanted to say that I started this project by using the same 8 inch tall cookie cutter and much thinner dough to make trees that used six layers that slotted together. I made them in the same year I showed the gingerbread houses that perch on the edge of a mug. Here are some photos that I took waaaay back in 2009:

I made small ones that used three cookies, and large ones that used six cookies:

Trouble was that the larger trees curled, the layers of dough wouldn’t cool flat no matter how careful I was, leading to them looking like this:

It had a nice geometric look but just lacked a certain amount of charm and, dare I say it?, looked like beef jerky. Also, it required rolling dough out to a point where it was unreasonably thin. Still, at that point in time I was a bit caught up with interlocking as many cookies as I could.

The smaller trees were flat and looked fine but I’m happier with my current version using thicker dough that allows you to decorate the edges. My lesson? More isn’t always better. Um, less is more? That sounds better. Ok, Happy Holidays everybody I’ll see you in the near year!

I made 3D Christmas Tree Gingerbread Cookies for Christmas. They slot together and don’t require icing to hold them up. Below I explain how to 3Dize your own cookie cutters and I also provide printable templates in case you don’t have a tree cookie cutter you like.

Click through for a how-to.

Things you can do up to a whole day before, aka the stuff you might consider doing ahead of time if you are hoping the cookie making will be a fun group project:

Make a batch or two of Simply Recipes Gingerbread House gingerbread. I divide it into thirds (since you’ll want at least three cookie pieces). Fair warning: one batch of that recipe will nearly overfill a 4.5 quart Kitchenaid mixer. But in that good, yay we’re baking sort of way.

Make a simple syrup glue – two parts sugar to one part water. Combine these in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Let this cool and pour into an airtight container, store at room temperature. Or, you can use this right from the saucepan once it’s cooled enough to not be dangerous.

Prepare your cookie templates. If you have an awesome tree cookie cutter you’d like to use see my instructions below. If you don’t you can print out and use the templates I’ve provided at the end of this post. My favorite tree cutter is the one shown here and it comes in 8 inch, 5 inch and 3.5 inch heights. I use the 8 inch and 3.5 inch ones here.

To 3D-ize your cookie cutter follow these directions:

All right! What we are doing now is creating three slots for your cookie cutter so that three flat cookies can fit together.

Gather your cookie cutter, a pencil, ruler, and stiff paper that is easy to cut out, I used cardstock. You’ll also need a rolling cutter like a pizza wheel or a pattern tracing wheel from your sewing supplies. Also something narrow and flat to cut detail, I’ve used an itty bitty metal ruler here but a flat head screwdriver would work as well. If you have nothing else a knife will do just fine. A small inexpensive craft paintbrush and plenty of parchment paper will also be needed.

Trace your cookie cutter onto your cardstock.

Draw a center line through your cookie cutter shape.

Now, measure two lines 3/8ths of a inch on either side of your center line (for a total width of 3/4ths of an inch).

And here is the kicker – do this again twice for a total of three cookie cutter outlines.

Measure the height of your cookie cutter to get X and forget about the trunk if there is one. Your final tree will have a much better chance of not falling over if you eliminate it.

Take X and divide it by 3, then multiply that by 2. Now add 1/4th of an inch to get Y. Divide Y in half to get Z. Write down Y and Z before you forget what they are. What we are doing here is getting thirds of the total height plus just a little bit so that when we slot the cookies together one of them won’t be hanging up higher than the others. In this way all three will be resting on the surface (plate or decorative paper or otherwise) and will be more stable.

Now mark your first cookie outline with Y from the top down, your second cookie outline with Z from the top down and the bottom up, and your third cookie outline with Y from the bottom up.

Trim your cookie outlines leaving enough detail so that you can line them up with a cut out cookie, in my case I made sure the bottom branches were cut out.

Roll out your dough to 1/4 inch thick. No thicker and no thinner. Thinner and the cookies will sort of lean instead of stand, thicker and they won’t fit together at all. Roll the dough out between two layers of parchment paper and, leaving the top parchment on, slide this onto a cutting board or cookie sheet and chill this in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Chilling the dough will help the top parchment come off cleanly and will help keep the cardstock templates from sticking.

Take off the top layer of parchment and use your cookie cutter.

Then dust a wee amount of flour on the surface of your dough and on the back of your cardstock template and line up the template with your cookie outline. Using whatever tool you can cut out the slot. If you’re feeling particularly meticulous you can use a clean paintbrush to brush away excess flour once you’re done with the paper templates.

Use your tiny ruler, flathead screwdriver or knife to cut the corners of the slot.

Ta da! You’ve created a 3D cookie.

Don’t forget to cut away the trunk of your tree if you have one. Here I’ve added three of my smaller sized tree.

Don’t move the dough from the parchment, instead pull away the dough from around your cut out shapes.

Use your small ruler or screwdriver as a spatula to pry up dough without disturbing your cookies.

Slide your cookies back onto the cutting board and chill in the freezer for another 10 minutes.

Then slide the parchment onto a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes depending on the size of your cookie. You want the dough to be darker and almost overdone so that it has a lot of strength. When you bring them out of the oven don’t remove them from the cookie sheet, let them all cool together. This will keep your cookies as flat as possible and will help the slots from becoming distorted. If you discover the cookie is a little flexible after it’s cooled you can stick it back in a 350 degree oven for a few minutes, I did this with success on one of the trees in the photos above.

I decorated the branches of my cookies with nonpareils, which roll and bounce everywhere. To combat this I lined a 8X12 baking pan with paper towels to catch my sprinkled nonpareils. I shook the nonpareils from a small condiment cup, which was faster than using my fingers.

Use your small paintbrush to brush simple syrup along the top edges of the branches, then sprinkle your decorations over the glue.

Let your decorated cookies dry for about a half an hour before setting them up. And we’re done!

A few notes:

– I chose a pattern tracing wheel over a similar fondant cutter because the pattern tracing wheel is larger and will clear the 1/4 height of the dough here. Also, the fondant cutter is wider and v-shaped whereas the pattern tracing wheel acts more like a pizza wheel.

– If you make the dough thinner you should make the slots narrower, otherwise your trees will lean a bit. Likewise if you want a thicker dough your slots will need to be wider. I’m afraid I don’t have helpful tables on what is what yet, so it’ll be up to your own trial and error.

– Can you make trees with four, five or six cookies? Yes! You just have to adjust the slots to fit all together and use a fairly thin dough. I’ll show some of my early creations tomorrow. I like the plumper cookies I’ve used here and I’ll show you why.

– Before I used a sugar syrup to adhere the nonpariels I tried using clear piping gel. The gel worked ok and dries to a gummy consistency but it required being smoothed down by a finger. In the end brushing on the sugar syrup was faster and tidier. Of course, if you are using something that doesn’t need the glue to be clear some royal icing will work just great. White icing and glittery sanding sugar would look great.

– Fun fact! Right after I finished taking these photos I broke my favorite camera lens. Happily it wasn’t terribly expensive and, oh look at that, Christmas is nearly here. I hope you have wonderful holidays!

If you don’t have a tree cookie cutter handy you can use the templates I’ve created below to make the tree shown above. It’s not fancy but I kept all the lines straight in the hopes that it would be easy to cut out. To use the templates click on each thumbnail to view a larger picture and print that out, each is about 8 inches tall. You can print the trees smaller to make smaller cookies, but if you do make sure to widen the slots to 3/4ths of an inch.

Have very happy holidays everybody, I hope there is gingerbread in your plans!

p.s. If you like this you also might be interested in my Tiny Gingerbread Houses That Perch on the Edge of a Mug or my 3D Partridge in a (Gingerbread) Pear Tree:

12 Days of Christmas Gifts | Mighty Girl. Love!

MinuteFrame: Order a framed photo in less than one minute. This one is the service of a friend of a friend, and I have not tried it but it looks so darn handy. Very simply you upload a photo to have printed at the 5×7 size, they do the printing and framing and ship it to your giftee.

mirrormirror: Christmas Cupcake Decorating at Trophy Cupcake. Paola includes tip numbers and notes on technique for some fancy cupcakes. They look great Paola!

Calvin and Hobbes Snowmen Truffles · Edible Crafts.

Festive Topped Jars at You Are My Fave. Simple and very impressive! Via Edible Crafts.

Felted Bell Ornaments – the purl bee. So sweet.

Have you seen this amazing Gingerbread Brownstone made by Kitchen Table Scraps? Even better, she shows how to make it including shaping the rounded front windows, adding all the detail and lighting it from the inside. Super greatness.

Peppermint Rice Krispies Treats · Edible Crafts. I love the candy cane hook so they can hang on the mug, so clever!

Christmas Tree Meringue Cookies | Bakers Royale. Reminds me of the Christmas tree Duchess potatoes.

Gingerbread Playdough Homemade Gift for Kids · Edible Crafts. I want some of this.

DIY Holiday Gifts Advent Calendar – CHOW.

Sprinkle Bakes: Christmas Coal Candy. Via Edible Crafts.

The 2011 Good Gift Games and Good Gift Games Greatest Hits – The Morning News.

I’m away all week visiting family back in the good old Midwest so I won’t have any Thanksgiving updates unless I manage to find some wi-fi. So, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and I wanted to remind you of this very smart tip on brining a turkey in your fridge without taking up all the space in your fridge that I learned over at Savory Sweet Life — brine it in a turkey sized oven bag and keep it in one of the crisper drawers. Awesome right? Here’s a not very lovely photograph of mine last year:

The Sexy Zombie Vampire Halloween Makeup Tutorial | The Hairpin.

Martha Stewart’s Haunted House! – The Crafts Dept. Love.

Spooky & Playful: The Best Halloween Treats for 2011 | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. And, hooray, they included my Tentacle Pot Pies!

Wrapping Up a Night of WitchCRAFT | Make and Takes. Full of good Halloween projects. (Wish I could have joined you ladies!)

Eyeball Cookies · Edible Crafts. Very simple and wonderful.

Phobias on the IPAD – The Crafts Dept. Do you see those ghosts? They’re amazing, and simple.

Sprinkle Bakes: Pumpkin Cheesecake with Sugared Pumpkin Seeds, at Sprinkle Bakes. The pumpkin seed decorations here are sorta spooky.

These are photos of the test Zombie Head Cheese we created, thus the poor lighting and the two kinds of cheese. But I wanted to show you the idea for a tongue that I decided to skip.

I carved the tongue from a block of Spam I had coaxed out of the can as a whole rectangular chunk. Know what? Spam is surprisingly easy to carve. It’s also very slippery.

The tongue was ghastly. And since the skull wasn’t secure in order to keep the jaw open it tilted to one side when we attempted to scoop some cheese off. Eeek.

In the end I decided to drop the tongue made of Spam in part because it was slippery and in part because it smelled too strongly for me to recommend. But, if you want to have a go at making a Spam tongue it is really effective.

I made you something for Halloween. You can serve it a party. Or maybe make it as a snack for your viewing party of The Walking Dead.

These are both made of soft cheese spread on a plastic skull. Easy. Creepy. Delicious. That is, if you can get people to dig in.

Version 1

You know that old trick of unwrapping a block of cream cheese and topping it with soy sauce and some sesame seeds? Yum right? I added some food coloring and a life sized plastic skull and called it Halloween worthy.

(This is version #1, a slightly easier version is just below.)

First get a life sized plastic skull (wash it really well), some soy sauce, one 12 ounce tub of cream cheese spread and some food coloring. Tint the cream cheese to a fleshy color, I used about 15 drops of red and 10 drops of yellow here.

I found a plastic skull like this one at a local party supplies store, but I really wish I’d managed to find a plastic skull where the top of the head is removable. Something really frightening could be made with that. Spinach dip brains anybody?

Then add just one drop of blue food coloring and stir only a few times until the blue appears streaky. Less is more here, it will further streak as you spread it. Now, frost your skull like a cake. Start with the tricky bits around the face first. If you can’t hold the crown of the head to stabilize the skull it makes it much more complicated. Try to keep the teeth clean.

A detail of the blue-streaked cream cheese.

I used a small flexible spatula to spread this. There is no need to be tidy here, the messier the grossier. Grosser? Grossest? You know what I mean.

You can also stick a few rectangles of parchment paper surrounding the head so you can be a bit messy while frosting and then pull them out after you are done, a trick I learned about frosting cakes. If you can putting the head on a smaller plate on top of a larger plate will be useful to catch the fake blood, and it will be easy to artfully arrange the crackers. Saltines are the traditional cracker for this but these more artisanal crackers I found looked like creepy bandages and still have that bland and salty taste you want. You can frost your head a few hours early and refrigerate. It’s amusing to sit nearby and observe as unsuspecting people open the fridge.

Cocktail onions create nice dead eyes.

Just before serving mix a bit of soy sauce with some drops of red food coloring and drizzle it over the head so that is streams down. I used a pipette but if you don’t have one handy a small measuring cup with a pour spout or a carefully wielded spoon will work just as well. If you can get the soy sauce to pool around the onion eyes, it looks extra creepy that way. Also sprinkle on some bugs, I mean, toasted sesame seeds.

It’s even scarier after it’s been eaten. Yikes.

Version #2

This is version #2, it’s slightly less involved. You just need spreadable cheese, cocktail onions and a plastic skull. Let’s face it, just about any pink or orange tinted spreadable cheese will look suitably disgusting.

I used this cheese that has reddish port wine streaks in it. I didn’t manage to capture the reddish colors in these pictures as well as I hoped but I promise it was pretty gross looking.

I’m smitten. What should I name it?

Everything You Need to Know About Carving a Pumpkin | Serious Eats.

How-To: Brains in a Jar Cake @Craftzine.com blog.

Halloween Panna Cotta · Edible Crafts. Eyeball!

Cupcake Ghosts · Edible Crafts. Cute, and they look easy to create.

How to Make a Delicious Glow-in-the-Dark Punch for Halloween – CHOW.

A question about zombies. Specifically, Zombie Stories. Extra specifically, Zombie Stories that Don’t Suck. | Ask MetaFilter. Zombie book recommendations.

Spider Cake in a Jar · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com. I love how they topped this jar!

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Handmade Halloween: Make Spider Sack Decor with the Kids. A very clever take on the string wrapped balloon thing.

Modern Parents Messy Kids: Handmade Halloween: Etsy Costume Roundup.

Take This Halloween Costume Idea … Please | The Hairpin. Scott and I have dressed up as ceiling fans before. All it took was a trip to Joanns for some t-shirts and iron on lettering. Silly but easy.

How to Make a Spooky Halloween Mirror | The New Home Ec.

Hungry Happenings: Fun idea for an Easter Brunch – Carrot Crescents Filled with Egg Salad. These are so cute.

Hot Cross Buns | The Pioneer Woman Cooks | Ree Drummond. Yum.

Bread roll chicks | Flickr. These knotted bread roll chicks are adorable. I couldn’t find the specific entry but they are from The Secrets of Our Supper.

Minimalist Pysanky @Craftzine.com blog.

Felt Carrot pattern, at I Make Stuff. (Warning: PDF). I love the line of stitching that dds a bit of detail to these.

Bunny Fold Napkins at Martha Stewart. This is an old one but a good one and it’s been popping up on Pinterest lately. And I like it as a last minute way to add Easter decoration.

For Easter I made papier-mache polka dotted eggs.

I made small pinatas using water balloons and tissue paper.

I filled them with candy, then sealed them shut.

You can also put toys or notes inside.

They have to be ripped to open them, which is way fun.

Click here: Papier-Mache Easter Eggs to find (much) more detailed instructions on how to make them.

Minimal Easter Eggs at Pickles. Very simple idea decorating eggs using white puffy paint, I love this.

Homemade Cadbury Creme Eggs | Not Without Salt. These adapted a bit from the Instructables project but I like these because she uses Golden Syrup, which I’m having a bit of a crush on at the moment.

Wheat Grass at Design Mom. Good practical tips for growing wheat grass as a project for Spring.

Crepe Paper Surprise Carrots, at Martha Stewart. Just like surprise balls and pretty darn cute.

Secret Message Easter Egg, made by Present&Correct and seen over at Poppy Talk. This is so sweet.

Pixie Dust Easter Egg favor, at Family Fun. A very cute idea.

Cake baked in egg shells! Genius! At Delicious Days.

May luck surround you today. And may you find a heap of gold.

Also a quick note, the how-to for the Leprechaun Trap Cake has been posted, you can see how the rainbow got inside (hint: magic).

This may look like a perfectly innocent cake meant to lure a leprechaun to the top but it has a few secrets.

Secret #1: Beneath the pile of gold coins are fragile bars, when the leprechaun approaches to grab the coins he’ll fall into the pit and be trapped.

Secret #2: There is a rainbow hiding inside the cake. The leprechaun will discover this as he eats his way to freedom.

Have you heard of Leprechaun traps? I hadn’t encountered these until this year, and I am completely charmed by them. Leprechaun traps are created by kids in order to lure and trap a leprechaun. They are often a craft or sort of science experiment, there are some amazing ones collected here at Geek Dad. You can see plans for some at Family Fun (including the one that inspired my cake), and a round up at How Does She.

I decided that my angel food cake pan, with the hole in the middles, would make an excellent shape for a leprechaun trap. As bored kids growing up in suburbs we used to make traps similar to this for each other by digging a hole in the ground then covering it with a few fragile branches, a layer of leaves and finally topped with some loose grass to hide it. I’m shocked nobody ever broke an ankle.

To read the complete how-to for this cake please click on MORE.

To form the rainbow in this cake I used the method shown here at Omnomicon which is very simple — separate your cake batter, color each section, then pour it into your cake pan one color on top of the next. The first time I saw this method was when my friend Maggi (hi Maggi!) made one a few years back. (update: Maggi’s cake is over here. Pretty.)

The trouble: Usually when one makes a cake like this you divide the batter into equal parts but that results in the color that went in first spreading out more as it cups around the colors that come on top. The result is that when you cut a slice of the final cake you get less of some colors and more of others.

You can see this effect in the image above from Omnomicon, the color poured in last is much more prominent than the color that went first, which is squeezed and spread around the bottom.

I really hoped to create a more traditional rainbow arch and distribute the colors so they would result in more even appearance so I decided to change the ratio of the colors of batter. The color poured first (in this case red) was given more batter than the color poured second (orange) and so on, the last color (purple) got the least amount of batter. I think it turned out fairly well. (But I see some room for improvement in the future.)

So this is what I did. I used one box of white cake mix and separated the batter into eight bowls:

• 6 ounces – red
• 5 ounces – orange
• 4 ounces – yellow
• 3 ounces – green
• 2 ounces – blue
• 1 ounce – purple
• 1 ounce – to be kept white
• the rest of the batter, also kept white

I used an angel food cake pan, but if you have a more rounded bundt pan I think it would work out even better as it would look more like a hill. update: I’m doing some tests in different pan shapes and finding that rounded pans and taller pans (or more cake batter put in an angle food cake pan) doesn’t create the same arch shape. I’m doing all sorts of test (yay for reasons to buy more cake pans) and I’ll report back when I find out more.

To make pouring the batter easier I filled plastic bags with each color then snipped the corner just before I needed it. I think this gave me a bit more control than scraping it from a bowl, but be aware that it’s difficult to stop the batter once it’s started so get a good hold on the bag before you start — one hand should be on top to squeeze the batter.

This makes for pretty dishes.

First pour the larger amount of white batter into the pan. Then pour the red batter in, making it a wide ring of batter. Then pour the orange over that, keeping it inside the red. I found it was easier to control the ribbon of batter holding the bag a bit higher over the pan and trying to be zen about it.

Pour in each color, creating narrower and narrower rings. As you go along snip smaller corners off the bags, it will help you control the narrower shape you are trying to make.

Last pour the remaining ounce of white batter on top. I had hoped this would make the rainbow dome have a more hollow center but mine didn’t quite turn out, so you might not even bother with this last one unless you’re feeling ambitious.

Put the cake in the oven, you might consider baking it at 325 instead of the usual 350 as it will dome a bit less when baked at a lower temperature. I forgot to do this.

While the cake is baking you can create your pretzel ladder. I used milk chocolate candy melts as glue, dabbing it in place using a toothpick then setting the smaller pretzels on top. I held the pretzel rods in place by supporting them with quarters. You might want to remember to wash your quarters first if you anticipate anybody eating the ladder. Ooops.

Here is the ladder in better light. (I bake at night, it doesn’t make for great photos. My deep apologizes for the assault on your eyeballs.)

Level off what will be the bottom of your cake, this will also help shape the base of the rainbow arch as the batter will curve under itself creating more of a rainbow horseshoe.

Flip it right side up onto your cake plate, then slide a few rectangles of parchment paper under the edges so you can be messy while frosting the cake. When you are ready to present it you simply pull the parchment paper away and, ta da, an effortlessly clean cake plate. I learned this on the old Martha Stewart show. I miss that show.

To frost the cake I made a half batch of the Magnolia Bakery buttercream frosting recipe found at MarthaStewart.com. First I did a crumb layer, followed by a few minutes in the freezer. (It’s amazing I can make room in my freezer for something like this.)

I used at Ateco 234 tip, it’s one of the larger ones. Probably not the best for creating something like grass but I already owned it so I went with it.

I sunk some pretzel sticks over the middle hole in the cake to create a sneaky platform for our gold.

Then I simply piled foil wrapped gold coins over the pretzel bars.

I created a sign using the international image for “Hey, the end of the rainbow and the pot of gold are over here!”.

And stuck the sign into the cake using a popsicle stick.

Discoveries made:

• You will stain your lips green while eating this.
• My cake plate tilts to one side.
• And I completely forgot to add the vanilla to the frosting.

Notes:

• Bake at a slightly lower temperature, say 325, to avoid doming.
• If you use cake batter from scratch here is how I decided how much batter to separate out for colors — I took 2/3rds of the batter for color and divided that in amounts of 6/5/4/3/2/1 parts. In my cake the total batter was 34 ounces. Two-thirds of that is 22 ounces. Happily 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 21 ounces, which was close enough. YMMV (your math may vary).

Notes on different cake pan shapes:

• I baked rainbow cakes in a bunch of different shapes of cake pans and took photos of the results. Turns out? The rainbow arch effect works best in the angel food cake pan. Otherwise the colors swirl a bit more, still very pretty but more tie dye than rainbow.
  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/03/16/leprechaun-trap-cake/feed/ 244 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/12/links-valentines-day-2/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/12/links-valentines-day-2/#comments Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:41:29 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8638 Tips for Making the Perfect Souffle, with Pictures | giverslog.

  Sweet Tooth: The Best Box of Chocolates Ever. I love the small cake covered in gold lustre dust, via Twig & Thistle.

  Get Your Valentine Make On at Design Mom.

  Valentine’s Day Treat Packaging – The Crafts Dept.

  AnnaTheRed’s Bento Factory » How to make a heart shaped egg. Most awesome. Via Rakka Deer on Flickr.

  Mega•Crafty: Doily Pops. Great way to make white chocolate lollipops with some very helpful tips. Via Edible Crafts.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/12/links-valentines-day-2/feed/ 4 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/10/links-holidays-2/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/10/links-holidays-2/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:25:13 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6526 PAP: Palitinhos de chocolate | SuperZiper. DIY chocolate covered pretzel sticks with heart candies stuck on the ends, adorable! Via .

  brianandisabel.com » Heart Cake. Very nice heart in a bundt cake, via Bake It In A Cake.

  Nerd Valentine, gift ideas. Via Swiss Miss.

  Leafcutter Designs – World’s Smallest Post Service. They offer custome tiny valentines messages. So very cute.

  Valentine’s Day Fun From the Archives | giverslog.

  Invisible in in a bottle | Mini-eco. A really charming Valentine craft, via Craftzine.

  The History of Sweetheart Candies | Smithsonian Magazine. Via The Morning News.

  Techie Valentine’s Day Cards For Your Geekheart | Apartment Therapy Unplggd.

  Design*Sponge » diy project: valentine’s tea, three ways. I love the hand stitched heart shaped tea bags here.

  inchmark – inchmark journal – homemade valentines recap.

  Sweet Treats for the Fourteenth « bakerella.com.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/10/links-holidays-2/feed/ 4 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/03/happy-new-year-3/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/03/happy-new-year-3/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:17:48 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8535

  Happy Year of the Rabbit! May it bring you friends and celebrations. (The card above was sent by a friend who made it all by hand, I love the origami rabbit with the sticker dot for a tail!)

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/03/happy-new-year-3/feed/ 7 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/02/links-valentines-day/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/02/links-valentines-day/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 09:39:17 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7785 Wants and Wishes: 14 days of Valentines. Fourteen days of free printable tags and project ideas from food packaging to cute little gifts! Great stuff.

  Molly’s Sketchbook: Valentine Heart Barrettes – the purl bee. So sweet.

  say YES! to hoboken: Valentines Day Traditions. I love each of the Valentines Day projects she’s linked to below. Swoon worthy.

  Curbly Roundup: Seriously Awesome Valentine’s Day Cards for Him » Curbly | DIY Design Community « Keywords: Valentine’s, Holiday, card, paper.

  Personalized Hot Chocolate Spoons + Coupon | giverslog. I’m too late posting this to get them in time for Valentine’s Day, but I wanted to point out how amazing these spoons with a hidden message are.

  Twig & Thistle » Naturally Sweet DIY Valentine. Printable stickers for fruit with sweet messages, love these!

  Heart Cake Tutorial – i am baker. Pulled from last year’s links, this is great. The cake has a secret red heart inside revealed only when you cut a slice.

  Bake It in a Cake • Bake a Heart in a Cake! Pretty pink cake heart inside a cupcake, awesome.

  Sprinkle Bakes: Chocolate Pâté with Crème Chaud-Froid. This is amazing but what I love most is the picture with the little dash of various sized heart sprinkles, so darling.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/02/02/links-valentines-day/feed/ 6 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/01/31/taking-down-christmas/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/01/31/taking-down-christmas/#comments Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:31:33 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8442

  One of the most asked questions about my Christmas Tree Ornament Mobile was how I was planning on storing it. Some people were curious how much space it would take to store, others wanted to know how I would do it without it getting tangled. So, here is a photograph of everything that comprised the mobile excepting the ornaments themselves. The ornaments went back into their packaging (in this case tubes about the size of rolls of wrapping paper which will be easy to store with the paper). Otherwise I took the mobile one set of string lengths at a time starting with the outer rings and working my way in. So, I took off all the longest strings, tucked away the ornaments, took off the hooks, looped all the strands and tucked them into an envelope together. I used orphaned envelopes I had left over from various greeting and Christmas cards, so they are all reused. I have separate envelopes holding each set of string, numbered from longest to shortest, on bag holding all the ornament hooks, I left the hooks on the grid rack itself on, so it will be a snap to reassemble the next year we use it as the spacing is already in place. It’s flat, and just about as big around as my wreath so they’ll be stored together.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2011/01/31/taking-down-christmas/feed/ 4 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/duchess-potato-christmas-trees/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/duchess-potato-christmas-trees/#comments Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:38:59 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8266

  I used Duchess Potatoes as an inspiration for something else this year, go see my Duchess Potato Christmas Trees over at The Kitchn. p.s. I discovered that if you keep baking them they turn a lovelier shade of golden brown. I pulled them out of my oven a bit too early fearing they would burn.

  This past Thanksgiving I piped Duchess Potatoes into the shape of bowls to hold a bit of gravy.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/duchess-potato-christmas-trees/feed/ 13 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/links-christmas-8/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/links-christmas-8/#comments Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:19:20 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8236 Meringue Snowflakes · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com.

  Seeking Sweetness in Everyday Life – CakeSpy – Bread and Circus: Molded Gingerbread Cookies Recipe.

  Design*Sponge » Blog Archive » diy project: balsa wood mini tree. Such a fabulous idea!

  Simple Sugar Cookies – Traditional Christmas Cookie Recipes – Christmas Cookies – MarthaStewart.com.

  Santa’s Hat Cupcakes · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com. Wowsers. These are simple and just perfection.

  Design*Sponge » david stark at the state department + diy projects!. These decorations are a-ma-zing, and the Christmas Cracker directions are great. Clap clap clap!

  How to Make a Surprisingly Simple Paper Wreath – CraftStylish. Via Maggie Mason’s advent tweets. Which I am loving.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/23/links-christmas-8/feed/ 3 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/21/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile-how-to/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/21/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile-how-to/#comments Tue, 21 Dec 2010 09:55:59 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8249

  

  Here is how I made my Christmas tree ornament mobile, it was easier than it looks, promise.

  The Supplies

  

  • a 17″ steamer rack from a restaurant supply store
  • about 5 feet of lightweight jack chain
  • a small carabiner
  • 100 basic ornament hooks
  • one roll, 500 feet, monofilament jewelry string (not the stretchy sort)
  • 200 jewelry crimp beads or tubes
  • jewelry crimping tool
  • 100 lanyard hooks
  • 100 ornaments

  Note: In the photo above I show earring wire instead of ornament hooks. I changed that later as I found ornament hooks made it far easier to move ornaments around after they’d been hung. Also, my supplies are based on a 4 foot tall mobile using almost 100 ornaments, you’ll need to adjust amounts if you make one larger or smaller.

  Creating the Mobile Frame

  Creating the frame for my ornament tree mobile turned out to be fairly simple. I used a lot of hooks to allow for easy adjustment and additions as the mobile was being assembled. I gathered materials from a restaurant supply store, a hardware store and the jewelry section of a craft store.

  
  
  For the top of the mobile I needed something that would allow me to easily secure a lot of hanging points without them sliding around too much. The perfect thing turned out to be a 17-inch steamer rack bought for about $6 from a restaurant supply store (I found mine at Encore Restaurant Equipment in the SODO neighborhood of Seattle). The rack comes with folding feet attached that were easy to pop out with a little bending.

  

  Turn the rack upside down and the spots where the legs were secured neatly become four hanging points.

  

  I bought some inexpensive jack chain to use for hanging. You can open and close the links in the chain with needle nose pliers so there isn’t any need for heavy duty wire cutters. I separated four lengths of chain, attached them to the points using lanyard hooks found in the jewelry supply section of a craft store.

  

  I joined the chains using another lanyard hook, and put that on a little carabiner which hung from the hook in the ceiling.

  

  Notes: Why so many hooks and bits? Because it makes it is simple to adjust and shorten the chain and can later be disassembled and reassembled with very little effort and without needing tools. I kept the same thing in mind when creating the lines that the ornaments were suspended from. This added a bit of visual clutter but made the entire thing mobile easy to adjust and reuse in another year.

  Suspending the Ornaments

  

  I used jewelry monofilament secured with crimp tubes to hold the ornaments. I simply created loops at both ends. I made a bunch of different lengths (details on that below). I secured each line to points in the rack grid using lanyard hooks, and hung a basic wire ornament hook at the bottom ends. The lanyard hooks at the top are strong enough to hold heavier ornaments, and because they close they won’t fall off if the mobile is bumped. The basic ornament hooks allow one to easily move ornaments around from one spot to another. My tip to you: Keep the lines as separate as possible while you’re working with them. I spent more time untangling clear threads than doing anything else on this project. It was maddening. After I discovered just how maddening I started hanging them in groups by length from a curtain rod and weighing them down with an ornament to keep them separated, doing this made the hanging of the ornaments go quickly.

  Notes: The use of ornament hooks allows for ornaments to easily be moved around. It does add visual clutter, though. If you want to create a mobile that would only be used once securing the monofilament line directly to the ornaments would look much tidier. I initially planned to use earring wire hooks that closed to hang the ornaments but quickly found that they were frustrating to fiddle with every time I wanted to move an ornament from one spot to another. They were prettier, though, and because those close as well would hold ornaments more securely if the mobile is moved around. (Which I don’t suggest as it tangles the lines horribly. So horribly.) Crimp tools come in three sizes Micro, Regular and Mighty (large). I used the regular size. I did try to use nylon sewing thread but found that the crimps didn’t secure it well enough. I did consider using nylon sewing thread with micro crimp beads and the micro crimping tool but think one would need a lot of patience and really great lighting to get all that done. The monofilament jewelry string is pretty stiff and easy to work with.

  Determining Placement and Lengths

  

  Figuring out where to put the hanging points on the rack involved a bit of math, most all of which I abandoned. I’ll do my best to describe what I did.

  I decided to create rings on the rack, with the longer threads hanging on the outside rings to create the cone tree shape. Actually it creates tiers, think a tall skinny wedding cake. I figured that my ornaments were usually about 2 or 3 inches in diameter so I needed to space the rings a little more than 1 inch apart so that the ornaments would have room to hang without being crowded by the longer threads around them. I spaced the rings about 1.5 inches apart. This gave me a center point and 6 rings to work with, with the last ring being the outer edge of the rack, like so:

  

  I determined I wanted my tree to be about four feet in total height from the top ornament to the bottom. I made the first ornament, the center point, hang 3.5 inches, and added length from there. For my needs, each set of string needed to be 1.75 inches longer than the last. Each ring on the hanging rack held for different lengths of string. I added 2 inches to the length of string I actually cut to allow for the loops.

  To figure out how many ornaments per ring I, well, completely made it up. I decided the first ring should hold seven ornaments and went up by four from there. So the number of ornaments went: 1, 7, 11, 15, 19, 23, 27. I divided the four lengths of string between those, giving the longest length more ornaments to help the triangle effect. Whew. So I cut this many at these lengths for these rings:

  • For the Center Point: 5.5″
  • For Ring 1: one at 7.25″, one at 9.0″, two at 10.75″, three at 12.5″
  • For Ring 2: two at 14.25″, two at 16.0″, three at 17.75″, four at 19.5″
  • For Ring 3: three at 21.25″, three at 23.0″, four at 24.75″, five at 26.5″
  • For Ring 4: four at 28.25″, four at 30.0″, five at 31.75″, six at 33.5″
  • For Ring 5: five at 35.25″, five at 37.0″, six at 38.75″, seven at 40.5″
  • For Ring 6: six at 42.25″, six at 44.0″, seven at 45.75″, eight at 47.5″

  

  In order to make the measuring a cutting go as quickly as possible I taped a cloth measuring tape to a tabletop and marked each length with the number I needed to cut with sticky notes. So all it took was to stretch some string out and clip at the needed point. Keep these in groups at this point forward, it will make it far easier later. I looped and crimped the ends, then hung them in groups on a curtain rod weighted down by an ornament.

  

  To figure out where my rings would fall on the rack I tied a cotton string to my center point and marked it at 1.5 inch intervals. Then I swung the string around and put as many hooks as I needed on each given ring. I usually put them on the X and Y axis first, then filled in the quadrants. It went faster than it sounds, promise. I spaced the hooks, aka the hanging points, like so:

  

  Looking up at the mobile from below you can sort of see the rings emerging:

  

  And after this I attached a hook into my ceiling and hung the rack. I found the best way to hang everything is to work from the center out, hang each set of lengths of monofilament string spacing it around it’s designated ring as evenly as possible, then hang ornaments before moving on to the next set of lengths of string. By weighing the strings down as you go along it will help them from getting tangled as you work. You can add or move string, and move ornaments around if needed. I didn’t worry too much about getting everything just perfect and I think it worked to my advantage, the slightly controlled randomness gives it a nicely organic look. At least I hope so.

  

  If I were to do it again I would make my tree taller and more dramatic. I think I would try to squeeze in one more ring and stagger the ornaments with even more lengths of string, maybe in increments by the inch. As it was I found that there are lots of spots where two of the same length are side by side. If I had more money to devote I would buy glass ornaments that don’t have a metal cap, just a glass loop at the top, and would skip the ornament hooks to make it look tidier.

  

  I’m growing more and more fond of the mobile with clear glass ornaments.

  update: Here is a photo of the mobile taken apart and ready for storage, the ornament hooks in a bag and each set of lengths of string committed to it’s own numbered envelope. The envelopes were orphans from previous years of Christmas cards that I had saved (reuse!). I left the hanging hooks on the rack so when I return to put it up again next year it will be very quick and easy.

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/21/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile-how-to/feed/ 216 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:40:39 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8238

  This year we decided to do something a little different with our tree and I created this Christmas tree mobile consisting of ornaments suspended on clear threads.

  When I was shopping for ornaments to use found a lot on sale and went a little crazy. I decided it would be worth it to see how three different options would look. I did a variety of silver ornaments that came as a boxed set, green ornaments with three different textures and three sizes of clear glass ornaments that look a bit like bubbles.

  

  Here is the mobile in context of our dining room (please forgive the mid-present wrapping clutter). We have room to put presents below it, and are still able to peek out the windows to see if the neighbor’s cat is visiting our front porch.

  

  The view from below.

  

  The ornaments are hung on regular ornament hooks attached to jewelry monofilament secured with crimp beads. I’ll put up details of how the mobile was created tomorrow. Instructions on how I made it are right over here.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/christmas-tree-ornament-mobile/feed/ 141 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/links-christmas-7/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/links-christmas-7/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 09:07:35 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8160 Cannelle et Vanille: Bonbon Oiseau and my Candy Cane Marshmallow. Both the marshmallows and the jewelry are yummy.

  defective yeti — The 2010 Good Gift Games Guide. This man knows his games, trust him.

  How to make 5-pointed paper snowflakes | How About Orange.

  How to Make Cinnamon Dough Ornaments + Gift Embellishments at Domestifluff. What a great idea as a new use for a traditional craft.

  Gift Guide: Forest Floor Ornaments from Flora Grubb Gardens – Home By Sunset.

  Delicious Hot Chocolate — Joy the Baker.

  Super super inexpensive ($1.00 or less) yet clever Christmas gift ideas needed! | Ask MetaFilter.

  15 Cities in Gingerbread  | Mighty Girl. Love! Seattle has an annual gingerbread village display that is worth braving the shopping hordes for a viewing. (p.s. to locals: it’s open until Jan. 1 and the line is super short post-Christmas.)

  Cookie Trees: Festive and Impressive! | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

  CakeSpy – Sweetly Intoxicating: Christmas Cookie Cocktail Recipes.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/20/links-christmas-7/feed/ 5 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/14/holiday-specs/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/14/holiday-specs/#comments Tue, 14 Dec 2010 09:33:59 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8210

  We were sent a few pairs of these Holiday Specs and I got a kick out of them. They are paper like old fashioned 3-D glasses but these create a shaped aura of light around concentrated light sources (street lamps, Christmas tree lights). I put them on and looked out a window and there was a giant reindeer face floating around the light in a lamp down the street. They are cheesy looking, yes, but I bet they would distract kids for a while. I think they would be good in a stocking or maybe tucked into a card.

  They come in packs of seven shapes and individually. I found the snowflake, Santa’s face, snowman, Christmas lights, and reindeer.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/14/holiday-specs/feed/ 17 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/13/cozy-mug-wraps-created-for-real-simple/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/13/cozy-mug-wraps-created-for-real-simple/#comments Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:43:11 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8204

  I want to thank Real Simple for including me in this bunch of 14 Creative Homemade Holiday Gift Ideas. I made this easy Warm and Fuzzy Felt Mug Wraps for a little holiday cheer, instructions are over here and below are a few extra photos from the making of. Check out all the ideas, they are fantastic.

  

  

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/13/cozy-mug-wraps-created-for-real-simple/feed/ 31 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/07/links-christmas-6/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/07/links-christmas-6/#comments Tue, 07 Dec 2010 09:15:29 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8112 Gift-Giving Ideas and Lists @Craftzine.com.

  Borax Crystal Snowflakes – The Crafts Dept. Love!

  10 DIY Advent Calendar Ideas | Skip To My Lou.

  Core77 / 2010 Gift Guide / 77 Design Gifts Under $77. I love the perfectly engineered skipping stones.

  shelterrific » Blog Archive » deck the halls with paper bunting.

  DIY Cookie Presses (and Pleated Wrapping) · Edible Crafts | CraftGossip.com.

  Frog Prince Paperie » Gingerbread House Tutorial and How-To…From a PRO!. Really great, via Edible Crafts.

  mirrormirror: Its DECEMBER Already? Lundby Advent Calendar Day 1. Love this, Paola is showing us what comes inside the advent calendar for her daughter’s modern playhouse.

  you are my fave: A minimalist ornament chandelier is my fave. So very simple!

  DIY modern paper ornament | How About Orange.

  Peppermint Icicles – Christmas Candy Recipes – MarthaStewart.com. I like these, and would love to serve these with hot chocolate. Via Edible Crafts.

  Lolly Chessie’s Famous CP Christmas Trees – Crate Paper. So lovely! Via Hip Hip Hooray.

  Peppermint Bark | Baked by Rachel. Made in snowflake shaped cups, such a pretty result! Via Shelterrific.

  Rosemary Butter Cookies – Martha Stewart Recipes. I had a few of these from a recent cookie exchange and they were OMG amazing.

  Black Sesame Lace Cookies | New Asian Cuisine. I also had some of these from the cookie exchange and wishes I’d taken the whole stack.

  Flickr Finds: Yarn Wall Display | Apartment Therapy San Francisco.

  Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef: gluten-free gingerbread men.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/07/links-christmas-6/feed/ 6 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/03/simple-diy-solar-powered-led-christmas-wreath/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/03/simple-diy-solar-powered-led-christmas-wreath/#comments Fri, 03 Dec 2010 22:29:40 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8142

  I came across solar powered LED Christmas lights the other day and decided to make a lit wreath. I’m excited because the sensors in the solar panel turn the lights on when it gets dark outside and turn them off during the day, which means I won’t have to try to remember to turn the lights out every night. (The solar lights work the same as the automatic on/off LED lights used as path markers which I have previously turned into homemade sun jars.) I tucked the solar panel in the middle of the wreath and used the ornaments to disguise it, making it perfect for hanging on a door as there are no wires coming out of the wreath.

  

  This project turned out to be about the same price as a regular pre-lit wreath, but less than most pre-lit solar wreaths I’ve found. The strand of 24 lights was $15 and the artificial wreath and ornaments (on sale) came to $12. I used a cluster of ornaments but a wreath ribbon would work just as well. I used long green twist ties, found in a gardening section, to attach everything. Though, I ended up trimming down the twist ties so a handful of regular length ones nabbed from a grocery store would work just as well.

  

  First I fluffed out the branches of the wreath and found the barest spot. If you have one too make this the bottom of the wreath where we’ll be attaching the solar panel and the decorations.

  

  In order to avoid having a wire coming out of the wreath I tucked the solar panel right into the wreath itself. The solar panel came with a removable spike, meant to anchor it into the ground, which we won’t need. In order to attach the solar panel to the wreath I created loops using duct tape. They aren’t pretty but they won’t be seen. Then I wired it so that it sits in the bottom of the inside of the wreath, mostly hidden behind branches.

  

  I attached the lights by running the cord around the wreath from behind, making sure each bulb was facing out towards the front, and securing with a bit of twist tie. For a 22″ wreath the strand of lights went around twice so I attached the lights first to the smaller and then to the larger hoop of the wreath frame.

  

  Next I made clusters of ornaments by simply threading them onto the twist ties. (I’ve just typed “twist ties” too many times and it’s turned into one of those meaningless phrases.) I used the same twist ties to arrange them at the bottom of the wreath to disguise the solar panel. String or regular wire would work just as well here.

  

  Here it is on our (terribly boring and beige) front door. The solar panel is mostly hidden but angled upwards and still able to catch sunlight. I’ll get a picture of it lit at night as soon as I can.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/12/03/simple-diy-solar-powered-led-christmas-wreath/feed/ 16 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/30/links-christmas-5/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/30/links-christmas-5/#comments Tue, 30 Nov 2010 09:23:05 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7523 Diamonds for Dessert: O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree….

  Extreme Cards and Papercrafting: Sliceform Christmas Tree Tutorial.

  Table’s Set: Decorate A Chocolate Martini with a Hanging Cherry « Saucy Sisters.

  fredflare.com | lump of coal cachette.

  Design*Sponge » diy project: kristen’s ruffly felt wreath.

  Gifted Magazine – Holiday Inspiration & Gift Guide. Completely in love with this online magazine.

  shelterrific » a minimal christmas tree: the filigrantrae.

  shelterrific » strangely appealing: tannenboing.

  Great Knitted and Sewn Gifts to Get Started on for the Holidays! – the purl bee. I like how simple and bright the advent calendar (halfway down) is!

  DIY Gifts | Ask MetaFilter.

  Christmas Tree Cut-Out Craft Project.

  Modern & eco friendly Christmas trees | Fab Mums.

  DwellWellNW | DownToEarthNW.com.

  ikat bag: Paper Christmas Tree Advent Calendar.

  Tuesday To-Do: Cone Advent Calendar Banner.

  Elegant Gourmet, 13-inch candy cane tree. I want this, if only it wouldn’t melt so easily in the damp winters here.

  8 Great DIY Wreaths Roundup | Apartment Therapy San Francisco.

  Homemade Gift Ideas – iVillage. Round up of edible gift ideas created by food bloggers.

  Tegu LIVE! (NOTCOT). Tegu blocks as Christmas presents? Check.

  DIY Tutorial: Mod “Table Tree” Centerpiece // Hostess with the Mostess®.

  DIY 5 Minute Tinsel Garland Wreath – Home – Creature Comforts and DIY Holiday Wreath Roundup.

  Advent Calendar Pattern Now Available at Make it Do. Via Design Mom.

  Felt Holiday Ornament Craft Pattern by Alicia Paulson. I think I’m going to buy myself this, it’s so pretty. Note the two other felt ornament patterns she offers as well.

  Felt Tree Bottle Covers – Martha Stewart Crafts. Simple and lovely.

  Design^Sprout | Cheap, Chic and Oh-So-Green DIY Ornaments!. So nicely easy to do.

  Twig & Thistle » Blog Archive » Magnetic Holiday Advent Calendar DIY.

  Diy: Icicle Chandelier : katyelliott.com.

  Holiday mixtape : All & Sundry.

  Molly’s Sketchbook: Felt Christmas Tree Pins – the purl bee.

  Jordan Ferney | Oh Happy Day!: Felt Ball Garland. Very much like the Anthropologie one that is so well loved this year, a very easy project.

  DIY: Bottles Full of Light, at Design Mom.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/30/links-christmas-5/feed/ 6 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/29/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment-outcome/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/29/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment-outcome/#comments Mon, 29 Nov 2010 10:16:05 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8091

  Our Low Maintenance Thanksgiving* somehow still came to include two versions of gravy. I made the Serious Eats Dead Simple Turkey Gravy as an experiment and as a backup gravy and, under the hugely appreciated guidance of Glitter Pissing (Seattle area artist well worth knowing), I made a pan gravy after roasting our first turkey.

  The outcome? You might ask? Serious Eats’ Marmite gravy FTW.

  I did successfully made a gravy from the drippings of our roasted turkey. A little fat + flour to do a roux, then adding dairy (in our case 2% milk), then the rest of the drippings and stir, stir, stir. It turned out something that looked divine but tasted far too salty. (This judgment, it may be important to note, is coming from a girl that would rather have a salt bagel than dessert under any circumstances. So a too-salty gravy is quite significant.) No fault of the traditional directions, but more of the over two days spent brining.

  I didn’t have the time (or the, uh, before-the-fact research) for the Pioneer Woman’s tips on How To Control Saltiness After Brining, so we went with the Serious Eats gravy. And you know what? It was better than good. Not transcendent, I would need somebody other than myself to be cooking for that, but it can be credited with making our Thanksgiving something to remember fondly. (Um. Especially since I cooked the turkey a lot longer than it should have been.)

  The photo above shows the gravy in a piped bowl of Duchess Potatoes, the recipe for which I found over at Baking Bites. The piped bowl shape of the potatoes was inspired by our very first meal in Paris earlier this year when I unadventurously ordered the chicken-something-or-other and it came with a bit of gravy in a divot in the potatoes:

  

  TLDR?: Marmite gravy is a keeper.

  * We devoted most of the long weekend to finally (finally) painting our bathroom walls.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/29/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment-outcome/feed/ 18 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/24/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/24/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment/#comments Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:07:08 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8056

  This is how I ended up braving a snow storm in Seattle and came home with a jar of Marmite and some pink sugar.

  Yesterday as a big snow storm was starting to really get going I sat down to research how to make gravy. I started to panic a bit as I found recipe after recipe that involved sauteed onion/carrot/celery and needed turkey stock and included scraping up the lovely browned bits from the bottom of a roasting pan. Because we rarely (see also: never) roast large things we don’t have a proper roasting pan and we’ll be using one of those wire reinforced aluminum deals. Also seeing as we’re having our low-maintenance Thanksgiving I was resistant to go through all the gravy steps. Then I found this recipe for Dead Simple Turkey Gravy at Serious Eats and knew I’d just have to try it. But I didn’t have any Marmite in the house. So I bundled up and headed out to try to get back before the streets froze over.

  You see, here in Seattle we get a particularly nasty slippery sort of snow that quickly freezes into a pretty layer of black ice covered in more slippery snow resulting in things like last night’s fiasco of 8 hour commutes home, speeds of 1.2 MPH on I-5, bendy buses sliding and blocking all lanes of the highway, cars running out of gas and being abandoned along the side of the highway and cars attempting to climb hills only to slide allll the way back down*. I felt so very bad for everybody stuck in traffic for 8+ hours. Gah. Seattle, despite all it’s best efforts, just cannot handle snow. I grew up in Ohio and know how to drive in the snow here. That is to say, by not driving if at all possible. I wasn’t taking my own advice.

  

  I found the Marmite in the baking aisle and spotted the colored sugar while I was walking past. It reminded me I’d been meaning to try to make colored kettle corn using the advice a few people gave me. This is how I ended up with the pink sugar. And a bottle of pink prosecco to go with it.

  

  I made the gravy this evening and I’m a little skeptical. I added a few of the herbs I bought to go on the roasting turkey, sage, rosemary, thyme, during the simmer stage. On Thanksgiving I’ll add what juices I can pour out of our aluminum roasting pan and heat the gravy while the turkey is resting. I’ll report back on how it turns out.

  

  The popcorn, sadly, didn’t have as bright a pink outcome as I’d hoped. But it was yummy and fun to eat while watching snow fall past the windows.

  * Abandoned cars, closed airports and roads frozen before salt could do it’s work certainly did happen in Ohio. But the infrastructure of plows and rescue vehicles was larger and untangled things before the local news could get to feigning absolute doom. Also, Ohio was flat as a pancake when compared to Seattle’s hills.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/24/our-first-turkey-the-gravy-experiment/feed/ 24 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/23/our-first-turkey-the-brining/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/23/our-first-turkey-the-brining/#comments Tue, 23 Nov 2010 09:56:44 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=8037

  Vegetarians look away! Raw turkey flesh photographed in poor lighting adorns this post. Photography lovers might as well look away too.

  We’re having a Room Painting and Turkey Roasting Thanksgiving this weekend. We’re taking advantage of the stretch of uninterrupted days to get a chance to paint the bathroom. Finally. It’s been an unattractive beige for more years than I’d like to admit. In order to spend more time painting and less time cleaning up in the kitchen we’re taking a few shortcuts (boxed stuffing, can shaped cranberry) that I’d like to think of as nostalgia rather than outright laziness. I am from the Midwest after all, these are the traditional dishes as I remember them. But I couldn’t pass up the chance to cook a turkey for the first time.

  I bought this one from Bob’s Quality Meats in my neighborhood. It’s been there for three generations, I hear, and the sign is a fixture. I have to admit that I was intimidated going in for the first time but I was greeted cheerfully and instantly fell in love. Yay for awesome and old school local butchers! I was a little late in ordering my turkey and ended with the 10-12 pound range. Mine came out to be closer to 12 pounds. Gulp.

  

  Just as I was realizing I needed to learn to brine a turkey Savory Sweet Life came out with this perfect Easy Turkey Brine Recipe. I had been thinking I was going to need to buy a cooler to brine my turkey but Alice points out that the lower drawer of a fridge is just the right size for this. She uses a plastic turkey sized oven bag, brilliant.

  

  The photo above marks the point that Scott saved Thanksgiving. I tentatively poked around the turkey and pulled out the neck but couldn’t find the giblets. So I shrugged and started pouring the brine over the top (that’s the little green bits you’re seeing). Scott decided to keep looking and, other turkey noobs take note!, found the bag of giblets tucked in the neck cavity. Thank you Scott, you’re my hero.

  

  I washed the bottom drawer of our fridge very carefully, though I’m happy to report it was very clean following a massive and likely Hoarders-inspired scrub down of the interior of the fridge last summer. Should it spill all the brine will end up in the drawer and not, hooray, dripping down other stuff in the fridge.

  And there it sits in the fridge. Tomorrow I’ll turn it over. So far so good.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/23/our-first-turkey-the-brining/feed/ 17 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/08/gifted-magazine/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/08/gifted-magazine/#comments Mon, 08 Nov 2010 10:03:36 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7856

  Gifted Magazine is an online holiday magazine presented by Creature Comforts and full of really wonderful holiday projects and gift ideas. I’m delighted by it, bring on Christmas.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/11/08/gifted-magazine/feed/ 0 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/31/links-halloween-14/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/31/links-halloween-14/#comments Sun, 31 Oct 2010 22:32:50 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7767 Happy Halloween! Here are a few last links before it’s all over.

  Help me build a list of props for a Zork adventurer Halloween costume. | Ask MetaFilter. Awesome.

  elope – springy spider headband. I tried one of these in a shop and really liked it.

  Cocktail name costumes. | Ask MetaFilter.

  Hostess with the Mostess – Halloween Cocktails. I love the caramel spider web that sits on top of the glass.

  zakka life: Sealed With a Spider.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/31/links-halloween-14/feed/ 1 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/29/links-halloween-13/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/29/links-halloween-13/#comments Fri, 29 Oct 2010 09:34:00 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7747 Craftzine.com blog : DIY Bat Costume.

  shelterrific » hardcore halloween: decorating with real spider webs.

  The Place Where Everything is Better on a Stick by MaroDesigns. Felt shapes on a stick for an instant costume, so delightful. Via Heinous Hats.

  DIY Nemo Fish Costume for Your Toddler  | Mighty Girl. A great how to for the cutest costume yet.

  The Last Minute Ghost – Bolt Neighborhood.

  Seeking Sweetness in Everyday Life – CakeSpy – Trick Or Sweet: A Look at the History of the Custom of Trick or Treating.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/29/links-halloween-13/feed/ 3 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/26/links-halloween-12/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/26/links-halloween-12/#comments Tue, 26 Oct 2010 09:04:38 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7641 JAAAHWS. These giant vampire teeth are hilarious and awesome.

  Heinous Hats: Son Of Boom De Yada. I love the spider hat, third image down.

  Homemade Owl Pellets. Yuck! – The Crafts Dept. These are so much fun. I always dreaded the smell of taking apart real owl pellets in school.

  How to Preserve a Halloween Pumpkin – Keep a Jack O’ Lantern Fresh, at My Science Project.

  Pumpkin Cornbread (with Pumpkin Chili, of course)! | recipegirl.com.

  Craftzine.com blog : CRAFT Pattern: Pumpkin Cozy.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Liquid Latex Scales.

  A pumpkin that sleeps like a Mac – Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories. Adore this.

  Looking for horror films that feature death by knitting needle. | Ask MetaFilter.

  Best of Parent Hacks: Easy Halloween Tips | Parent Hacks.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Lego Indiana Jones Costume.

  Jelly Shot Test Kitchen: Jellied Eyeballs (non-alcoholic).

  Super Punch: Halloween fun food ideas. Great round up of ideas and recipes.

  Googly Eye Fun! – The Crafts Dept. Oh boy do I love the googly eyes attached to the shoes.

  illoom Balloons, at Outblush. Balloons with LEDs inside.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/26/links-halloween-12/feed/ 7 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/25/tentacle-pot-pie-the-outtakes/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/25/tentacle-pot-pie-the-outtakes/#comments Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:52:55 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7723

  I had some trouble when I came to creating the Tentacle Pot Pies, all my own fault of course. Learn from these mistakes.

  

  Originally I had intended to makes spider pot pies and use black peppercorns for the eyes. My first try, which I didn’t get photos of, had the legs dangling over the edges of a bowl. While they cooked most fell off. It was pretty sad.

  Then I draped the legs down to a plate to keep them in place, only to discover that the dough I had rolled up to create a spider body (I wrapped it round a piece of hot carrot) didn’t cook on the inside, leaving a wad of uncooked dough on top of the pot pie. Effective to give the creeps but not really edible.

  

  And I found that one of my spider heads tilted down while cooking. Poor guy.

  

  Originally I had intended to make the pot pies from puff pastry and mention the use of crescent roll dough as an option but I had some trouble while photographing. First I lost my light by the time I got to the puff pastry batch, I struggle enough to produce good photos so when the clouds gathered I was rushing and it probably led to the next problem.

  

  I forgot to brush the puff pastry with an egg wash, meaning that even though it was yummy it looked sort of pale.

  

  And so, the crescent dough photos were the ones I used. I had run out of time to redo everything (I would have had to make another batch of pot pie filling). But for the record I like the flavor of the puff pastry far more. It also cooks slower so your pot pie had more time to get nice and hot.

  The following weekend Scott and I made a batch of pot pie filling from the chicken pot pie recipe at Simply Recipes and divided it into zip top bags that we flattened out and froze. We can buy frozen puff pastry and the next dark night when we need some comfort food we’ll have pot pie components that we just need to thaw and assemble. I’m excited. Seattle winters aren’t snowy but they are long and dark. So dark. We take excitement where we can find it. One additional note: These should be baked at about 325 instead of the usual high heat that puff pastry asks for, if not the tentacles cook far earlier than the body. If the tips of the tentacles start to brown too much tent them with foil.

  Why freezing flat in plastic bags? They are easy to store in the freezer, and when you want to thaw them you can run the still sealed bags under hot water and it thaws far faster than something frozen into a block. I first heard this tip on The Splendid Table, though I forget which guest it came from. I use this for bolognese and thai curry as well, all good to have squirreled away for winter nights when you’re too zonked out for chopping stuff.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/25/tentacle-pot-pie-the-outtakes/feed/ 28 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/21/tentacle-pot-pie/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/21/tentacle-pot-pie/#comments Thu, 21 Oct 2010 18:28:32 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7644

  Know what happens when you search Google for “tentacle pot pie”? Not much.* Let’s fix that! I created this tentacle pot pie for Babble using store bought dough. Easy and a wee bit creepy. Even if you’re not up for tentacles I found this chicken pot pie from Simply Recipes to be most delicious. Babble has also posted a short interview with me, thanks!

  * (At least not when you have safe search turned on, oh my.)

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/21/tentacle-pot-pie/feed/ 59 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/20/links-halloween-11/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/20/links-halloween-11/#comments Wed, 20 Oct 2010 10:02:41 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6072 These are all links I collected last Halloween and just found lurking at the bottom of my pile of unpublished entries.

  Dexter Blood Slide Suckers: Eat At Your Own Risk!. at Instructables.

  Halloween Food. at Instructables.

  The 8-Bit Low-Res Make-Up Is High-Res Clever – Pixelface – Gizmodo.

  Papercraft Self Portrait – Art Portfolio for Eric Testroete. Amazing big head mode costume.

  Adam’s Spooky Candy Apples | MattBites.com.

  It’s About Time: A Quality Zombie Jello Mold – Geekologie.

  Do it myself!: Melting Head Cake.

  Extreme Halloween – meat corpse, created for a cookout, from the guy behind Extreme Pumpkins.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/20/links-halloween-11/feed/ 2 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/15/links-halloween-10/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/15/links-halloween-10/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 09:31:07 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7559 Dinosaur Bones! – The Crafts Dept. So huge!

  Mischievous Monsters Halloween Party Treats – iVillage. They included my spider pumpkin pancakes from last year!

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Milk Jug Storm Trooper Helmet. Milk jug Halloween costume #1.

  shelterrific » Blog Archive » halloween diy: knight in shining milk jug. Milk jug Halloween costume #2.

  crafts to make with, and for, kids – paper masks » whip up.

  Bowl of Eye-Balls | Flamingo Toes. Creepy enough while still being cute.

  Top 10 Haunted Homes in the U.S. | Zillow Blog. Franklin Castle, a Cleveland legend, is #5, just after the White House.

  Eerily Delicious Halloween Dinner, at Instructables. I like how these are real foods but look creepy.

  plumpudding: Spaghetti dogs. This is brilliant, and I bet easy to spookify.

  Stitches of Violet: Stitch Patterns Making Me Batty. I *love* the spider knitting pattern she shows here, I want a scarf with these on the ends.

  Bottle Staches · Edible Crafts. Ha ha ha ha! Mustaches for your bottle, like costumes!

  Threadcakes | Bitter Teeth Threadless cake by Chloe Bird. This chocolate drenched skull cake is amazing.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Baked Salt Dough Organ Platter For Halloween.

  HOWTO Make jello blood-worms – Boing Boing.

  Pumpkin Carving: Cool Tools and Gadgets – DIY Life. They cover both basic and extreme carving tools.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/15/links-halloween-10/feed/ 5 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/04/three-notes-on-halloween-things-im-up-to-elsewhere/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/04/three-notes-on-halloween-things-im-up-to-elsewhere/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2010 08:01:48 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7563 I just wanted to give an update on a few things floating around as Halloween (the greatest time of the year) is kicking in.

  

  All through October I’m collecting doable DIY projects and inspiration for Halloween over at Parents Connect. The focus here is on non-intimidating projects for busy parents and we’re covering the spectrum from decorations to books to crafts. We’ll be ending with Halloween cocktails for grown ups because, let’s face it, you’ll deserve one. Last Monday was an introduction, the rest of the month will feature heaps of links for you.

  

  Holidash let me go a little crazy again and this time I made trick-or-treating bags that glow using glow sticks. (Psst, I made it so that the glow sticks light up the interior as well so your kid can check and see what candy they just got.)

  

  And iVillage included my spider pumpkin pancakes in a round up of Halloween foods. Lots of great stuff there!

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/04/three-notes-on-halloween-things-im-up-to-elsewhere/feed/ 5 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/01/thing-i-like-clever-halloween-promotion/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/01/thing-i-like-clever-halloween-promotion/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2010 08:15:15 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7551

  I got this box in the mail the other day. Inside was this:

  

  Creepy!

  

  I sort of want the dress.

  You can find instructions for this and a whole lot of decoration and costume projects here at the Value Village website. Most (all?) of them created by Blair of Wise Craft.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/10/01/thing-i-like-clever-halloween-promotion/feed/ 5 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/30/links-halloween-9/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/30/links-halloween-9/#comments Thu, 30 Sep 2010 08:56:07 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7480 How To: Glowing Eggs For Halloween | Apartment Therapy Ohdeedoh. I have never wished I had a microwave more than I do right now.

  Halloween Recipe: Chocolate + Pumpkin = Chumpkins – Holidays News – Holidash. Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies you say?

  Pumpkin Rice Pudding | Real Simple Recipes. Something to make soon.

  Dabbled » Article » Halloween Food: The Mummy’s Hand.. Taking the hot dog mummy idea and running with it, so creepy.

  a few of my favorite halloween projects this year – wise craft. I love the stitches in the candle wrap.

  Make: Online : Zombie shadowcaster.

  Make: Online : How-To: Light-up costume.

  Make: Online : Desaturated Santa costume.

  Fat Bug Cake Pan « Baking Bites. Awesome, and versatile.

  Tutorial: Gathered fabric pumpkin softie · Craft Gossip. This is simple and lovely.

  DAVE LOWE DESIGN the blog: 104 Days ’til Halloween: Bloody, Dripping, Head Sack How-To. Ew.

  DIY Halloween Accessories For Your Home | HOLIDAYS / DIY / CRAFT | Zandland Blog. I adore the bloody handprint shower curtain.

  Crafty Crafty: Halloween: how to make spider web balloons. This is a really fantastic effect.

  Halloween Bundle at the Maker Shed.

  Bake It in a Cake • Bloody Brain Cupcakes. Surprise marzipan brain baked inside.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Meat Head.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/30/links-halloween-9/feed/ 8 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/20/skull-cake-of-the-week-cinnamon-swirl/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/20/skull-cake-of-the-week-cinnamon-swirl/#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 08:15:08 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7448

  I have come down with a sneezy sort of cold. I managed to rally enough on Sunday to make this cinnamon swirl cake. It’s from a mix and I added some extra fancy cinnamon which was given to me by Cinnamon (thanks again!). The results: I can report that one boxed mix will make plenty of cake to fill both sides of the skull cake pan. Tastewise, however, you’re better off making a coffee cake from scratch, if you have the energy. And now I’m going back to bed where I can be pitiful and feel sorry for myself while eating cake.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/20/skull-cake-of-the-week-cinnamon-swirl/feed/ 14 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/07/three-words-skull-cake-pan/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/07/three-words-skull-cake-pan/#comments Tue, 07 Sep 2010 08:20:33 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=7349

  Ok, look. I know it’s maybe a bit early to be talking about Halloween but I myself think that celebrating Halloween for 1/6th of the year is perfectly reasonable. Also I want you to know about this so you can made as many skull shaped cakes as possible before Halloween because a mid-November skull cake is far less acceptable to take into the office than an early-October skull cake.

  (Please excuse the crumbs on his nose, you have to trim the cake after it comes out of the pan and, this being my trial run, things got a little messy.)

  This is a 3-D skull cake pan sold by Wilton. You can also find it on Amazon and at the usual suspects of craft stores, at least during the Halloween season.

  I went through a serious crush on the 3-D pumpkin cake pan a few years back but never bought it, and I still look fondly at the giant cupcake pan when I see it but again I’ve never inspired to buy. But when I found this skull pan in I immediately grabbed it and carried it around the store with me while looking for all the stuff I came for, just in case all three pans on the shelf were gone by the time I came back around. Even though it was, at the time, August. At first I thought I might be overreacting but when I returned to the store a few days later all the pans were gone. It justified my crazy. A bit.

  

  The back part of the skull is molded so that it sits at just the right angle to stare up at you menacingly from the plate.

  

  The pan comes with a pumpkin spice cake recipe, and while making it I rediscovered how much I like the color orange.

  

  Also, thanks to a wonderful girl who happens to be named Cinnamon, I had two types of cinnamon to choose from to use in the cake. The cake was good but too sweet for my preferences. I hope to change it a bit and then maybe add a cream cheese frosting brain surprise inside. Or, oh oh!, cream cheese frosting maggots. Ew.

  

  The pan is nicely heavy and with a little Baker’s Joy I had no trouble getting the cake to slide out. (A tip from Alton Brown: spray it over the open door of your dishwasher, it won’t leave your floor or countertops slippery and it’s a surface that will be washed anyhow.)

  

  I’m in love with this face.

  What should I name him?

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/09/07/three-words-skull-cake-pan/feed/ 66 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/06/16/links-holidays-fathers-day/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/06/16/links-holidays-fathers-day/#comments Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:34:10 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6766 DIY Father’s Day Gift for Your Superhero | Alphamom. Created by Jordan Ferney, fantastic!

  Father’s Day Gift Guide: Theo Chocolate and Beer Pairing Kit.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Etched Glasses for Father’s Day.

  My family is very practical when it comes to gift giving so my favorite place to look for gifts for things like Father’s Day is Cool Tools, a collection of reviews of stuff of all kinds that simply work.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/06/16/links-holidays-fathers-day/feed/ 2 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/03/links-holidays/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/03/links-holidays/#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 17:08:29 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6084 How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally, Without a Store-Bought Kit | Serious Eats.

  Design*Sponge » we like it wild: fresh eggs. Tiny flowers arranged in natural color eggshells, sweet.

  Goldbunny Crackers for Easter ~ Cupcake Project.

  Vibrant Eggs, Dyed Naturally | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

  Indie Fixx » A fun Easter egg dyeing technique.

  Cadbury Creme Egg Cupcakes (with marshmallow Peeps, too!) | The Cookbook Chronicles.

  poppytalk: Happy Hippity Hop!. I like this secret message egg.

  What wonderful things for grownups can be hidden inside standard plastic Easter eggs? | Ask MetaFilter.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/03/links-holidays/feed/ 1 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/easter-surprise-eggs-the-easy-version/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/easter-surprise-eggs-the-easy-version/#comments Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:39:36 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6089

  Earlier I made Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs. I really enjoyed making them but realize, of course, how complicated they were. I am clearly a crazy person. Here is something similar but much easier to make. To sum up: dyed eggshells filled with candy and/or toys and sealed at the bottom with paper.

  Before:

  

  After:

  

  You will need:

  • enough time to let dyed eggs dry overnight
  • one dozen eggs (or however many you’d like to make)
  • boxes of both regular and neon McCormick food coloring
  • assorted candies or toys small enough to fit into an egg
  • mini muffin papers, or paper nut party cups, or regular paper, or big roundish stickers
  • glue
  • a cookie cooling rack, or skewers stuck in some styrofoam, or six sets of takeout chopsticks stuck in a vase (for drying the dyed eggs upside down)

  Handy but not necessary:

  • an egg topper or a Dremel

  

  These are a re-do of surprise eggs I made ages ago. (I think that was one of the first tutorials I put on this site.) I took inspiration from both Kinder Eggs and Cascarones, eggshells filled with confetti usually cracked over the head of a friends or family. (Note: some of the images below were reused from my earlier tutorial, so they might look familiar.)

  Emptying the eggs

  

  To prepare the eggshells I followed Martha’s Stewarts instructions for making chocolate filled real eggshells. I didn’t have a Dremel so I used an inexpensive egg topper to cut the bottoms of the eggs.

  

  This egg topper isn’t the best tool for the job and often leaves jagged edges. If you don’t have this you can use a pushpin to carefully crack an opening, and I’ve seen mention of using nail scissors to carefully cut a tidy hole. Really though, you don’t need to worry about beauty here as we’ll be gluing something over the edges of the opening at the end.

  Sterilizing the eggs

  This again is from Martha Stewart’s instructions. I carefully rinsed out each eggshell, using a finger to scrape away the last bit of the egg white that is attached inside. Submerge in a large pot (I could fit a dozen eggs in a 4-quart pot) and bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Skim foam from the top as it appears, if you forget about the pot it will cook into a weird stiff foam.

  To cool the shells lift them them one by one from the pot, letting the hot water run out, and submerge them into a bowl of cool water. If you just fill the pot with cold water the boiling water will linger inside the eggshell, so be careful. (Go on, ask me how I learned that.)

  Set them upright on a cookie cooling rack or a kitchen towel to drain and dry a bit while you’re preparing to dye. (I found eggs taken right from water and put into dye didn’t do as well. I could be wrong.)

  Dyeing the eggs

  

  Since I find empty eggshells too delicate to decorate after sterilizing I wanted color to be the main attraction, so I spent time finding the right number of food color drops to create really vibrant color. I wasn’t necessarily going for a rainbow but that’s what I came up with.

  You might also consider doing all the eggshells one color and using candies that coordinate well. (Oh man, am I really suggesting you coordinate your eggshells to your candy? I am, but it’s pleasantly striking in the chaotic world of color that is Easter decorations. I show an example below.)

  

  You’ll want to dye the eggs in a non-reactive (not metal) container. I used Pyrex measuring cups and porcelain mugs. Don’t agitate the eggs, I learned the hard way that this makes them blotchy, instead just turn them over about half way through the dyeing time.

  

  These instructions are for the familiar McCormick food coloring you can find in any grocery store, one box of regular colors and one box of neon colors. Each below will cover one egg at a time, you can either double the ingredients or let a second egg soak just a bit longer.

  For each of these I used:

  • 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 cup just-boiled water
  • 10 minutes of soaking, turning the egg over half way through (15 minutes where noted)

  red

  • 10 drops neon pink
  • 1 drop neon purple
  • 2 drops red

  orange

  • 20 drops yellow
  • 5 drops red
  • soak for 15 minutes

  yellow

  • 15 drops yellow
  • 2 drops neon green
  • soak for 15 minutes

  green

  • 20 drops neon green
  • 2 drops neon blue
  • 1 drop green
  • soak for 15 minutes

  blue

  • 6 drops neon blue
  • 1 drop blue

  purple

  • 7 drops neon blue
  • 5 drops neon pink

  magenta

  • 10 drops neon pink
  • 2 drops neon purple

  If you’d like to make your own colors know that I found starting with neon colors and adding regular colors to tone those down worked the best in most cases for me.

  

  I used skewers to lower and lift the eggs out of the dye. I let them dry by hanging them on more skewers stuck in a styrofoam cone I had in the house. I dabbed with paper towels to catch drips.

  

  You could also simply set them on your cookie cooling rack, or hang them off of takeout chopsticks that have been arranged in a vase, anything that will allow them to drip downwards and have lots of airflow so they can dry. Last tip? Wear your least favorite black clothes, the drops of food coloring seem to get everywhere.

  Filling the eggs

  

  If your eggs are for kids I suggest buying slightly larger candies that will be easy to separate from the shards of eggshell, maybe sticking to wrapped candies. It can be frustrating to pick shards out of everything. (Though, egghshells are edible, as my father always liked to remind me.)

  

  If you’re making these for adults (may I suggest those who are cubicle bound?) there are a number of surprisingly delicious and itty bitty candies I found while making the previous version, these are my favorites:

  • Valrhona Perles Craquant (bb-sized dark chocolate around crunchy centers, found near the fancy cheeses at Whole Foods, you should use these on everything)
  • dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds from Trader Joe’s
  • chocolate and candy coated sunflower seeds
  • those tiny peanut butter cups also from Trader Joe’s
  • Robin’s egg blue candy coated caramels from The Confectionery in Seattle (I found similar versions at Peet’s coffee thanks to a tip from somebody on Twitter).

  One candy I wish I’d found are the tiny wrapped hard candies called Glitterati, made by Chipurnoi. They are available in bulk online, but I’ve seen them in smaller bags at Trader Joe’s around Christmastime.

  

  The easiest way to make it a bit more elegant is to stick to three colors. My favorite was to dye the eggshells to match (well, almost match) some Robin’s egg blue caramels. Then I only used gold and dark chocolate candies inside. Keeping it to these three colors made for a nice presentation. You could do the same with silver. And metallic Jordan almonds may be cliche at weddings but I still find them pretty/shiny and very worthy of using here.

  You could also fit small toys or gifts inside. For my previous eggs I made miniature crepe paper flower corsages and found small pipe cleaner chicks. I was also thinking about folding small fortune tellers to slip inside.

  Sealing the eggs

  

  I found the easiest thing to do was to use a mini baking cup, cut it down to about half the height, and glue it on. If you don’t want to trouble with cutting down the baking cup you can just use it as is. If I’d had the time I would have sought out baking cups that are more colorful.

  

  You can also trim and use nut (or souffle) cups, or just some paper.

  

  In Paris I saw these, which appear to be simply covered with a sticker:

  

  I like to include a “Crack Me” message. You could write on the egg using a colored marker, or put a sticker on it. I printed out this little message to include with the eggs and simply tucked it in the glued down cover:

  

  And now one can open the egg by either cracking it, or just tearing off the paper base. Cracking it is way more fun.

  

  See also

  Chocolate Easter Surprise Eggs, I put layers of chocolate on the inside to be like a Kinder Surprise egg and also included small toys. They, uh, take a bit longer to make.

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/easter-surprise-eggs-the-easy-version/feed/ 122 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/links-easter/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/links-easter/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 12:10:38 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5262 Fancy Flours — Detailed Embellishments : Egg Shells. Emptied, pre-sterlized brown egg shells for you to use to serve your Easter dessert out of. Wow! Thanks to Susan for letting me know about these. They also have silver eggshells!

  What should I call my adults-only, secular, cocktail-intensive Easter egg hunt on the invitations? | Ask MetaFilter. I’m with the person who said: “Adults-only, Secular, Cocktail-intensive Easter Egg Hunt. I don’t think that this can be improved on.”

  CakeSpy – Egg-stra Special: Cadbury Creme Eggs Benedict for Serious Eats.

  Craftzine.com blog : Color Eggs With Kool-Aid.

  Design*Sponge » diy project: ukrainian eggs made simple.

  Craftzine.com blog : Striped Easter Egg Dyeing.

  Easter Cake (with a sweet surprise inside) · Edible Crafts @ CraftGossip. This is so neat.

  Taste Test: Chocolate Easter Bunnies | Serious Eats.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/01/links-easter/feed/ 3 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/30/chocolate-easter-surprise-eggs/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/30/chocolate-easter-surprise-eggs/#comments Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:10:15 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=6047

  These dyed Easter are real eggshells that have been coated on the inside with chocolate and stuffed with candy and a small surprise.

  

  Everything I used to decorate the eggs is edible. I used jumbo sized eggs, though this wasn’t necessary. I stuffed them with the smallest things I could find.

  

  

  I was hoping to try to make my own version of the chocolate filled real eggshells that Martha Stewart created a few years back, but I wanted mine to be more like a Kinder Surprise egg with a toy or small item inside. I also took inspiration from hollow chocolate eggs that contain smaller chocolates and candies, as these make a pleasing rattling noise when you shake them, and I can never wait to find out what is inside.

  

  

  I learned a lot through mistakes along the way (which I’ll go into obnoxious detail about in a later post), but here is what did work for me.

  dyeing the eggs

  

  The Martha Stewart instructions for preparing eggshells for filling with melted chocolate involve using a Dremel tool to neatly widen the hole. I do not have a Dremel and didn’t want to buy one just for this project. (Not that that has stopped me from thinking about all the things I could have used it for, leading to me now, of course, drooling over a Dremel.) Short of buying an expensive but fancy egg topper, I decided to go buy the $6 one. It has adorable teeth:

  

  It’s meant to be used on soft boiled eggs with cooked whites, so it’s a bit treacherous using it on raw eggs. The method I did was to grasp the egg and hold down the topper securely with one hand:

  

  

  Gently squeeze the handles of the egg topper so the teeth are touching the eggshell. Then to squeeze the handles quickly and with purpose, like a quick punch. If you squeeze the topper too slowly the egg cracks. If you hold the egg too tightly it cracks. This is, obviously, not the best method to get eggs open. Even at the height of my egg topping flow I would still completely crush one out of ever 12 eggs, and lots were left with hairline cracks. My advice? If you have a Dremel, go ahead an use it here. If you have an egg topper already, try it. But if you really, really want to make beautiful chocolate filled eggs to give away, you might consider asking all of your friends if they have a Dremel they could loan you.

  

  Rinse out the insides of the eggs carefully, I took to poking inside with a finger to get out the stubborn bits of white that were attached to the top end. Might seem icky but it’s much easier than trying to dislodge cooked white bits later on. Submerge the eggs in a large pot, bring to a boil then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to sterilize the eggs. Skim the foam from the top of the water frequently, if you forget to check the pot they cook into a bubbly foam. I found I could fit 12 eggs in a 4 quart saucepan.

  To cool them I suggest lifting them with a slotted spoon and lowering them into a bowl of cold water. If you instead move the pan into the sink and put cold water into it know that boiling hot water will sneakily hide inside the eggshells, so proceed carefully.

  

  If you’re going to dye the eggs you can do this right away. If you’re not going to dye them hang them to dry as I show below, overnight at least. I was trying to match the color of some Robin’s egg blue caramels I found and did a number of different trials combining various McCormick’s food coloring combinations. In the end I found that this was just about perfect:

  • 1/2 cup white vinegar
  • 4 cups boiling water
  • 24 drops neon blue
  • 6 drops blue

  Martha Stewart’s directions call for you to dip each eggshell into vinegar before lowering into the dye, but I actually found this left the egg streaky. I simply submerged the eggshells carefully into the dye and let them soak for 10 minutes (15 minutes for a second batch of eggs in the same bowl).

  

  

  I learned this the hard way, don’t agitate the eggshells. They’ll be covered by little bubbles and that made me obsessively try to knock the bubbles off, but it left me with blotchy color. Instead, leave them as still as possible and turn them over about half way through. Don’t crowd the bowl, I did four or five eggs at a time.

  

  I lowered and lifted the eggs using skewers, and dried them on this tree I made using skewers and a styrofoam cone I had in the house. Catch drips at the bottom of the eggshells with a paper towel. Let the eggs dry overnight.

  

  It was so cheerful to have these hanging out the dining room for a while.

  

  coating with chocolate

  

  I tried, I really tried, to use excellent tasting chocolate for this project. But in the end I had to switch to Merckens real chocolate coating wafers with some chocolate thinner mixed in. (I had them left over from an earlier project.) It tastes fine for an Easter project, and it was easier to work with than the Callebaut bulk chocolate I had originally purchased. (update: Scott pointed out that the Merckens chocolate tastes better than the chocolate you get with a Kind Surprise egg, a good point!) The trouble was that the Callebaut chocolate post-tempering was too thick to work with, even after adding a generous amount of chocolate thinning flakes.

  My hang up is that I wanted to use both dark and white chocolate to imitate a Kinder Surprise egg and I couldn’t find white couverture chocolate in stores around here (I’d waited too long to order anything online, I’ll never learn that lesson). Couverture chocolates, as learned from consulting my Field Guide to Candy book, are “professional quality chocolates with a high percentage of cocoa butter, which helps them melt smoothly and temper easily.” I did find couverture chocolate on the baking aisle shelves of my local, tiny yet impossibly well stocked natural market. I believe the Valrhona feves (which you might remember best as the ones asked for in the NY Times chocolate chip cookie recipe), are what the Martha Stewart directions call for: “We used Valrhona dark chocolate in this recipe because it is relatively easy to temper”.

  (p.s. If you live in Seattle I can tell you that Valhrona feves or other couverture quality chocolate can be found in dark, milk and white varieties at both DeLaurenti market and ChefShop. I only found the dark chocolate feves at Whole Foods, it was near the good cheeses.)

  I don’t have a microwave or a chocolate tempering machine so I used the seeding technique for tempering chocolate. If you’re up for tempering chocolate two of my favorite explain and teach entries are at Serious Eats: How to temper chocolate and at Cooking for Engineers: Tempering chocolate. If you don’t have couverture quality chocolate you might consider tracking down some chocolate thinning flakes at your nearest cake decorating shop. (Here in Seattle I highly recommend Home Cake Decorating Supply Co., they have everything and are generous with instructions and information.) The flakes are best added just after you’ve raised the chocolate to the high temperature and before you’re starting to cool it. If I forgot and added the flakes when the chocolate was down around 95 degrees the flakes wouldn’t melt and I’d have to start over.

  

  If you’re not up for tempering chocolate (it always takes longer than I expect) I suggest going ahead and using candy melts. Bakerella recommends Merckens brand melts. For these, you just melt and use, they come in pretty colors. They taste like sweet vanilla, not something I’d normally eat but let’s face it, the inside shell of my surprise eggs are unlikely to be eaten in favor of the chocolates inside the egg. Note that if you’d like to color your own candy melts you will need to use a coloring that is not water based, so no regular or gel food coloring. You can find oil based chocolate colorings meant just for this purpose.

  Martha Stewart used a piping bag to fill the eggs with chocolate, but since I was filling each eggshell and immediately inverting it, my pouring chocolate would harden too quickly. If I tempered my chocolate in a mixing bowl over a saucepan then transferred the chocolate to a Pyrex measuring cup with a spout, it also hardened too quickly. So I took to melting my chocolate in the Pyrex measuring cup. In order to keep steam from the water getting into the chocolate and causing it to seize I kept the temperature to barely a simmer. Whew, you got all that?

  

  I inverted the egg onto a small salt bowl, poured melted chocolate inside catching drips with a small silicone spatula, then immediately turned the eggshell to coat the inside and let the excess drip out, back into my measuring cup. I put the egg on a drying rack to let excess chocolate drip out and did the next egg. I set the eggs in the fridge for an hour or so to let the chocolate set, then I did it all again using white chocolate.

  

  

  

  The chocolate will form a lip at the opening in the egg, this is good and I’ll be using it later on, so don’t level this off or wipe it away.

  Painting the eggs

  

  

  I used some Super Gold Luster Dust mixed with a few drops of tequila to paint “crack me” on the eggs. (This is an idea I initially got from these Golden Chocolate Easter Eggs which were on The Kitchn a few years ago.) I used a tiny brush.

  Be aware that the painted on gold will wipe off, so at this point forward handle the eggs carefully so you don’t wipe away the writing. Or be smarter than I am and leave the painting until last (I was afraid the chocolate seal would melt in my hand).

  

  A tip for you, Gold Pearl Dust made by Wilton isn’t nearly gold enough, it looks more golden colored, but the Luster Dust was a really nice effect.

  

  I painted cracks running up the back of the eggs.

  Filling the eggs

  By far my favorite part was shopping for what to put inside the eggs. I knew I was going to be dealing with an opening less than one inch wide, so most candies won’t fit. And I really wanted a toy of some sort.

  

  I deicded to make mini Spring flower corsages using crepe paper. They could be scrunched thin to fit inside the egg then unfurled to be worn. I did this for six eggs, my favorites were the daffodils, but the gathered and fringed versions were easier to make.

  

  

  

  For the other eggs I found cute pipe cleaner chicks which collapsed easily.

  

  For both of these I put them inside small 2″x3″ zip top bags, just in case they absorbed oil from the chocolate inside.

  

  For the corsage eggs I decided to stick with a gold-blue-and-dark chocolate theme and filled them with one Robin’s egg caramel, one gold Jordan almond, small Valrhona Perles Craquant (which are like mini crunchy malt balls) from Whole Foods, and Dark Chocolate covered Pomegranate Seeds from Trader Joe’s. And a gold foil wrapped chocolate egg if I still had room. The smaller candies made noise when you gently shook the eggs.

  

  For the eggs with chicks inside I went with more color. I used one Robin’s egg caramel, a few of the Trader Joe’s mini peanut butter cups (so addictive), the dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds and TJ’s candy coated sunflower seeds. (I had to abandon the jelly beans shown above, there wasn’t room left.)

  Sealing the eggs

  

  This part was the most difficult, and had me wishing I’d invested in the Dremel tool to begin with. Initially I thought I might use chocolate to glue a trimmed down mini muffin tin liner to the bottom of the eggs but it was too easy to simply pull the paper off to get at the contents. I wanted people to have to break the egg to get inside. (I have a fondness for things you have to destroy to enjoy.) I decided to mold some dark chocolate inside nonpareil molds, which were about the size of the opening and melt them to the bottom of the eggs.

  

  I warmed a knife in a saucepan of water, wiped it dry and ran it over the opening of the egg, melting the edges of the chocolate while making the surface flat. Then I pressed a molded chocolate into the bottom.

  

  

  This sort of worked, but not as well as I’d hoped. It works as a base for the egg to stand on but it’s still easier to pry this off than to crack the eggshell. If I had time to do it again I think I would fill the nonpareil molds, let them set just a bit then upend the filled egg into the mold. This would create a stronger bond, and sink the rough edges of the eggshell into the small puddle of chocolate. However, you’d also glue some of the contents of the egg into the chocolate on the bottom, so ideally I’d have a foil wrapped candy nearest to the bottom. (update: Tried that with some leftover eggs, the sealing worked but the base was too messy and it was basically inadvisable.) Still, I’m pretty happy with the way they turned out.

  

  

  To present them I put them in a bakery box with some tissue paper grass.

  I had a huge amount of fun making these, and see different versions in my future. Maybe Halloween eggs? July 4th eggs? Mother’s Day eggs?

  Last notes

  I made these with the intention of giving them to adults. There is a bit of picking egg shards out between the candy, and I don’t think a kid would find that so much fun. I’m currently working on an easier version of these because dang they took a long time to make, I admit it. Will report back soon.

  Here is a list of the Seattle sources I used, put here if only to remind myself where to look the next time I need crazy supplies. I didn’t end up using all of these items, and some are just places I wished I’d stopped in as I found they carried what I needed too late:

  • Home Cake Decorating Supply Co. – Luster Dust, nonpareil molds, chocolate thinner, chocolate wafers, chocolate coloring, advice
  • The Confectionery – beautiful Robin’s egg caramels and gold Jordan almonds
  • Packaging Specialties – bakery box, tissue grass, small zip top bags, inspiration
  • Artist & Craftsman Supply – incredibly cheap paint brushes
  • Trader Joe’s – so many small candy options
  • Whole Foods – elegant small candy options
  • Display & Costume – pipe cleaner chicks
  • Mrs. Cooks – egg topper
  • University Bookstore – Blas-Fix egg blower
  • ChefShop – good couverture chocolates
  • DeLaurenti – good couverture chocolates

  

  See also

  Easter Surprise Eggs (the easy version). These are simply vibrantly dyed eggshells, filled with candy and sealed with mini baking cups (or whatever paper you have around). Much faster to make, but I think they are equally charming.

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/30/chocolate-easter-surprise-eggs/feed/ 151 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-2/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-2/#comments Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:53:13 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5909

  I’m caught unprepared this year! Clearly I don’t deserve my Irish heritage. Please check out these excellent Saint Patrick’s Day stuff from other people — Shamrock Badges at Design*Sponge, Bog Tea at Make Grow Gather. (“So in honor of St Paddy’s Day, I suggest that you brew some good, strong Irish tea, carry it outside, and drink in the world.” Lovely!) Corned Beef and Cabbage (which thankfully starts with a package of corned beef) and Caraway Soda Bread, both from Simply Recipes. (All images used above are from their respective sites.)

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/03/17/happy-st-patricks-day-2/feed/ 6 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/02/13/heart-shaped-foods-for-valentines-day/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/02/13/heart-shaped-foods-for-valentines-day/#comments Sat, 13 Feb 2010 20:00:12 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5631

  Valentine’s Day is tomorrow, how did that happen? We’re mostly focused on other things (travel! yay!) but it didn’t quite stop my desire for a day spent making heart shaped foods.

  first column, top to bottom

  Beet ravioli, at Epicurious. (via).

  Calimyrna Fig Hearts at Martha Stewart, also see the whole gallery, wow.

  Heart shaped cherry tomatoes at Eye Candy, (via).

  second column, top to bottom

  Papa John’s heart shaped pizza, at Serious Eats.

  Heart Shaped dumpling, at Chow.

  Heart cookie cutters for the edge of a cup (inspiration for my gingerbread houses), at Kitchen Critic.

  third column, top to bottom

  Cinnamon Heart Lollipops at Women’s Day, (via).

  Heart Shaped Whoopie Pies at Annie’s Eats, (via).

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/02/13/heart-shaped-foods-for-valentines-day/feed/ 7 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/24/merry-christmas-2/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/24/merry-christmas-2/#comments Thu, 24 Dec 2009 18:41:57 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5272

  Wishing you all the happiest of holidays! (Shown above are some of the favorite vintage ornaments on our tree, I especially love the teal one with white and red stripes.)

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/24/merry-christmas-2/feed/ 18 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/23/links-christmas-4/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/23/links-christmas-4/#comments Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:55:14 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=4615 Large ball christmas lights? | Ask MetaFilter.

  Cinnamon chocolate marshmallows | Homesick Texan.

  How to make 3D paper ornaments | How About Orange.

  Sautéed Chestnuts, Onions, and Bacon Recipe | Simply Recipes.

  Sparkling Cranberries Recipe – 101 Cookbooks. I must make these. A bakery near me tops a few things with these glittery cranberries and I cannot resist buying whatever they are on top of.

  Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Paper Stars for Christmas Lights.

  Craftzine.com blog : Holiday Cocktails at Rocker Oysterfellers. They had me at Cranberry French 75.

  Stocking Stuffer for the Nut Lover: The Walnut Key | The Kitchn.

  Almost Bourdain: Christmas Recipe – Chocolate Bacon “NOT Gingerbread” Cake House. Wow!

  Holiday Gingerbread Boxes | Canadian House & Home. So neat, gift boxes simply made of gingerbread, via Edible Crafts.

  ikea hacker: Ikea light wreath.

  Chocolate-Dipped Hazelnut Marbles | Chocolate & Zucchini.

  The Creative Place: Tuesday Tutorial: Paper Lantern Ornaments, via How About Orange.

  raspberri cupcakes: Gingerbread Igloo – Daring Bakers Dec 2009.

  Gingerbread Mansions | Food & Think, with a video showing how the pastry chef from the Four Seasons made a replica of the Smithsonian in gingerbread. They include a link to my tiny gingerbread houses, thanks.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/23/links-christmas-4/feed/ 4 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/22/tiny-gingerbread-houses-a-few-variations/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/22/tiny-gingerbread-houses-a-few-variations/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 18:34:32 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5244

  Earlier I made gingerbread houses meant to perch on the edge of a mug, but I wanted to work on a few more things.

  

  First, since these are meant to be eaten I wanted to cut down on the amount of royal icing. I still used it to assemble the houses, but to get sugar decorations to stick to the roofs I decided to use simple syrup. I heated one part water and one part sugar and let it bubble for a while on the stove just so it would thicken. After it was thoroughly cooled I put a dot on the roof and spread it around using a small brush I keep to use as a mini pastry brush. Then I sprinkled sanding sugar or nonpareils. I let it dry overnight and it worked nicely. It tastes a lot better than a layer of royal icing, and I like the way it allows the gingerbread to peek through.

  

  Second, I added a chimney. I rolled out some gingerbread dough a bit thicker and cut out a square-ish shape, using the house template to get the correct angle.

  

  I think it turned out very cute, though I found that the taller chimneys looked incongruous, so I’ll stick to very short chimneys.

  

  Third I decided to see what whole happen if I moved the door shape, the part that fits over the mug, off to one side to allow more of the house to hang on the outside of the mug. It worked just fine but moving it over made the pieces more delicate and I broke three out of six during assembly, enough to convince me to keep the door where it is.

  

  Last I wanted to see if it would work out using sugar cookie dough. This was from a mix (I know, I know but I had hit my cookie dough-making wall) and spread quite a bit despite a good amount of chilling before baking. I trimmed the doors when the cookies came out of the oven and were still pliable. They still worked out nicely. Now I’m wondering if there would be a way to make one out of shortbread.

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/22/tiny-gingerbread-houses-a-few-variations/feed/ 110 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/18/a-gingerbread-house-that-perches-on-the-rim-of-your-mug/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/18/a-gingerbread-house-that-perches-on-the-rim-of-your-mug/#comments Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:14:06 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5131

  I made tiny gingerbread houses that are meant to be perched on the edge of a mug of hot chocolate.

  

  I had been thinking about those sugar cubes that hook on the rim of a teacup earlier this month, and I was also thinking about 3-D cookies and how they fit together and figured it would be pretty neat to make cookies that hang on the edge of a mug. I thought I was being so brilliant but it only took a few seconds to discover that a flat cookie on the edge of a mug has already been done. So I started wondering what else I could do. At the time I was making a bunch of gingerbread recipes trying to find one that would hold up for my partridge in a pear tree cookie, so a gingerbread house was on my mind.

  

  I made a few versions to figure out how to make one that wasn’t so top heavy that it would flip off the mug, and how small I could get away with and still fit on both large and small cups. I generally followed the size of my The Mini Gingerbread House Kit (though, those pieces don’t fit together as nicely as I’d have liked).

  

  I’ve made a PDF pattern of gingerbread house pieces which you can open or download right here. My only instruction is that you should make sure that the wall pieces are to be sandwiched on the inside of the door pieces, that way the roof fits on properly. I included two door pieces you can choose from, one at 3/8ths inch wide and one at 1/2 inch wide. I found that a 3/8ths inch door, or slot, fits most mugs but the 1/2 can be used for your really big and heavy mugs. I traced the pieces onto this template page at 9:54 in the evening, please forgive the sloppiness but I’m getting tired, let’s just call the untidy lines charming.

  

  I used the Gingerbread Snowflake and the Royal Icing recipes from marthastewart.com.

  

  I rolled it out onto a sheet of tin foil at 1/8th inch thick. I skipped a silicone mat because I use a paring knife for the corner details and didn’t want to accidentally cut down to the layers of glass fibers, and after some trial I found that parchment paper will warp after being chilled and then stuck in an oven which can distort some shapes.

  

  I used a dull sewing pattern roller (like a small pizza cutter) to go around most sides. You can do all of one side than turn the entire sheet of tin foil 90 degrees to do all of the next side, this makes the process go a bit faster. Try to fit all the pieces for each individual house in the same batch, I found my batches browned differently from each other. Lift the excess dough up from the tin foil, not moving your cut out shapes at all, this will help them keep their shape. Then slide the tin foil sheet onto a cookie sheet and put both in the freezer for about 15 minutes, you want the dough really well chilled before baking.

  

  I used a (well cleaned) flat head screwdriver to get in the detail around the doors, then a paring knife to make sure the corners are cut cleanly.

  Here are some tips, most of these are in the recipe but I don’t want you to overlook them:

  • After making it divide the dough into thirds (I made half a recipe) wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, preferably overnight. Make the royal icing while it’s chilling, you’ll need it before you make all the gingerbread you are planning on.
  • Roll the dough out to 1/8th of an inch. It seems impossibly thin but you be cutting the shapes and pulling the excess dough from around them so your pieces won’t be too disturbed. Feel free to nudge your shapes back into squares before chilling them again.
  • Preheat the oven, roll the dough out on tin foil, cut your shapes and lift off the excess dough, slide the tin foil onto your cookie sheet, now put the cookie sheet into the freezer for at least 15 minutes before baking. This will keep the gingerbread from spreading too much.
  • Make a single test house with your chosen door width. This sounds like a pita, and it will be, but it will be far less trouble than the frustration of finding none of your finished houses fit on mugs. Knowing now that you need to cut a wider door is worth it.
  • I found that dough chilled for only an hour puffed up quite a bit, but didn’t necessarily spread if the cut out shapes were chilled in the freezer. Dough that had been in the fridge overnight, or even the second day (it’ll keep for a few days) puffed up quite a bit less, perhaps because the baking powder had lost it’s mojo by this time?
  • If you suspect your intended mugs are thicker and sturdier than usual grab some cardstock or a magazine insert and cut a few different slots — 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 inch wide, about two inches deep (or tall). The one that slides easily onto the edge of you mug and even has a little wiggle room is the width you want for your door.
  • If your gingerbread should spread and the doors look too narrow to you, you can trim them when the gingerbread is just out of the oven before it sets and cools too much. I suggest a paring knife and trimming just a bit from either side of the door.

  

  I decided to only decorate the roofs for now. I might make these again next year and get more detailed with the decorations. I used a variety of sugars and sprinkles. One note, I discovered that candy cane dust will stick together so well that it will not show any piping detail beneath it. I liked the way regular sanding sugar made the roof sparkle a bit, though I couldn’t capture the cuteness in my pictures.

  

  Don’t fill your mug of hot chocolate too full, you don’t want the bottom of your gingerbread house to get soggy.

  

  Can you tell the crushed candy cane one was my favorite?

  I would be these would be fantastic made out of sugar cookie or shortbread dough. You could certainly leave them undecorated, or perhaps press sanding sugar into the roof pieces before baking. On the other hand I’m curious to see what one would look like covered in pieces of tiny candies. I’m also planning on making house-shaped marshmallows that will fit on the edge of the mug.

  

  update: I made a few variations including a chimney and a version made out of sugar cookie dough which you might be interested in.

  

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/18/a-gingerbread-house-that-perches-on-the-rim-of-your-mug/feed/ 621 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/14/links-christmas-3/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/14/links-christmas-3/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:45:05 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=4875 Prudent Baby: Handmade Hanukkah: Fleece Pom Pom Garland. So wonderful!

  Video: How to Decorate Christmas Sugar Cookies | Serious Eats.

  Classic Sugar Cookies | Serious Eats : Recipes.

  Cook’s Ham Tortilla Christmas Tree | Busy Mom. This is sort of ridiculous, but I still love it.

  Serious Cookies: Swiss Cinnamon Crisps | Serious Eats.

  shelterrific » strangely appealing: tannenboing. I love this, a flat packed, spiral christmas tree.

  Gingerbread House Inspiration Roundup | Apartment Therapy San Francisco.They included my Partridge In A Pear Tree, thanks!

  Cake Wrecks: Sunday Sweets: Gingerbread!. Thanks to Maggi for sending this my way.

  ]]> http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/14/links-christmas-3/feed/ 3 http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/11/what-i-want-for-christmas-camera-gear-kitchen-stuff-and-video-games/ http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2009/12/11/what-i-want-for-christmas-camera-gear-kitchen-stuff-and-video-games/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 19:21:35 +0000 megan http://www.notmartha.org/?p=5064

  The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II Camera Lens is a fairly inexpensive lens that has been recommended to me over and over again from the moment I got my Canon XSi. The lens works well for indoor, low light conditions and I could really use that during our short, overcast days.

  I bought a basic KitchenAid mixer on sale so it was nice and cheap. However, the bowl it comes with doesn’t have a handle on the side and I didn’t anticipate how, well, handy that would be. Fingers crossed somebody will get me this replacement bowl with a handle. Also, having two mixing bowls would be very convenient lots of times, like have one bowl chilling for whipped cream while making gingerbread in the other. I also sort of want one of these new fangled beater blades.

  I want to perfect my calzone making this winter. This baking stone from Old Stone Oven will also help keep a constant oven temperature, which I need badly. I just went and measured my oven to make sure this one would fit inside. When I made those calzones I accidentally burned the bejeezus out of my thumb so I bought some idiot proof OXO Good Grips Silicone Oven Mitts shortly thereafter, and they’ve served me well. They have a nice ring to hang on a hook as well as a magnet so you can store them on the side of your fridge.

  Shortly after we got a PlayStation 3 Netflix announced they were offering free streaming content for it. The PS3 is also a Blu-ray player (it also plays regular DVDS and does a better job of it than our old DVD player, oddly). We may never leave the couch, in which case we’ll also need the PS3 remote.

  But we need more games! Scott and I like to play games together, instead of against each other, and we’ve already worked our way through Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga and Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (both were SO much fun). Games you can play together (as opposed to networked) are lacking, but here are the ones we’re looking at next:

  LEGO Batman, Lego Indiana Jones 2. The Adventure Continues (There is more? There is more!), and The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon.

  LittleBigPlanet, Super Stardust HD, and PixelJunk Monsters.