My cake- In Print

Just happened to be recognized by Distinctly Oklahoma Magazine. :)

Distictly Oklahoma Magazine

My entry for OSSAS 2012

The Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show and Grand National Wedding Cake Competition 2012

So here is my creation for Hats, Headbands, and Headgear!

 I hand rolled each brick and set it in to its specific place to recreate the pattern found on the Doge's Palace walls. The outside panels are "english paneling" with royal icing stringwork and fondant accents.

 Winged lions sit on top of my top hat tier. Rice paper feathers and "venetian glass" hat pins poke out from behind the golden broach.

More rice paper feathers. Hand piped filigree on the gumpaste mask, English Panels, figure piped cherub, fondant molded accents, hand made flowers..

I still need to go through my pictures of all the entries but I'll have some to post soon!

This was a monster of a job.. I had several panels break during transit- despite the safe guards that were in place.. My cherubs were also holding bows and arrows..  I'm a bull in a china shop sometimes...

I got some great feedback and I came home with "finalist" I'm not sure what that means exactly. One lady told me it was the top ten while another told me it could be up to top 11.  Either way, its only my 4th month of decorating cakes so I'm excited to have walked away with that! Next year, I will have had this experience behind me and will be able to better prepare. 

Special Thank you to The CakePro Caddy

These guys carried my ginormous cake up and down the halls of the QT center and they even lugged it half a mile to my car!

Many apologies.
RBM is super busy with creating a winning cake.. See you in October..

Yeah, my cake is that epic.

Healthy Snacks

If you love ice cream....
and

if you love bananas....

Boy, are you gonna love this!

This is my secret weapon when it comes to tasty treats and healthy snacks.  You can make this ice cream with only one ingredient. 

Yes! Only ONE ingredient!

Here's what you will need:

1. bananas (usually the older spotted ones taste better) 6 bananas= about 1 pint
2. food processor or blender
3. flavors.. (I'll get to that later)

Spotted bananas taste sweeter for this recipe

And here's what you do"

• Chop up your nanners in to chunks. I've found that cutting them in to thirds is sufficient enough for my processor but you may have to chop them smaller for appliances with less power.

small chunks of banana

• Put your chopped bananas in to freezer bags and allow to thoroughly freeze.

• Once frozen, put your banana chunks into the processor and turn that sucker on! You may have to use the "pulse" function (or similar) to keep the bananas from getting stuck. Your nanners should go through a couple stages...

The first being chunky bits of banana that I've heard  described as "banana gravel."

   After that, it goes through a pasty stage with chunks and bits here and there.

  And finally to the last stage, your mixture should start to become creamy and look like soft serve ice cream.

I portion my ice cream into reusable cupcake  cups and freeze them for single serving use!







 This is probably a good point to talk about flavors!

So I've been making banana ice cream for a while and I've collected a few flavors along the way..

**(All the ingredients are "per 6 bananas")

Banana Peanut Butter and Honey
Add 1 tbs peanut butter and either mix in a big squeeze of honey or drizzle a little over top.

Reese's Banana Ice Cream
Add 1/2 c of chopped reese's peanut butter cups. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.. :)

Chocolate Hazelnut
1+ 1/2 tbs Nutella.

Banana Rum Raisin
1/2c raisins (chocolate covered work too)
1/2 tsp rum flavoring

Banana Cream
1/2 whipped topping (honey adds more flavor too!)

Strawberry Banana
1/2c chopped strawberries (frozen strawberries blend well in processor/blender or hand mix for fresh)

At any rate, get creative! You can have ice cream for breakfast now! Remember its only bananas!
Okay you wonderful interwebbers, Thanks for being patient with me while I "get well soon." See ya next time!

Coconut Spiral Sugar Cookies

I'm sure you've seen these.

I wanted to try my hand at spiral cookies but I wasn't so pleased with many of the recipes..  So much work! And using a food processor to make them.. ugh.

So here is my solution! Green Spiral Coconut Cookies with a crispy brown sugar rim.
note: The brown sugar will cause the cookies to spread a bit.. use candy confetti or sprinkles as a substitute if you want a decorative rim like most of the pictures found lurking on Google. :)


Green Spiral Coconut Sugar Cookies

• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/8 tsp baking soda... (1/4+1/8)
• 1/4 cup white sugar (or sucanat, coconut sugar, or evaporated cane juice)
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 tbs milk (goat milk is amazing here! add coconut milk for extra flavor)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• green food coloring

 This makes a very small batch. I recommend either doubling the recipe or making 2 separate batches and coloring one of them green(or blue or yellow etc..)

Instructions:
Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. In a separate bowl,soften the coconut oil , then stir in vanilla and milk. Pour dry into wet and mix again.
If you have doubled the recipe; split it in half add food coloring to one batch.

Roll out each batch separately onto wax paper. You should have two sheets of cookie dough, one green and one.. cookie colored..

Refrigerate dough until firm.

remove wax paper and stack your dough sheets on top of one another.
(I sprinkled some colored sugar on the innermost layer {the top}to give it an extra splash of color.)

Once your dough is pliable, roll it into a log. Continue rolling your dough gently on a hard smooth surface to squeeze out any air pockets and make sure the cookies come out in neat little circles. This is also the time to roll your log into any decorative stuff you wish. I used colored brown sugar because I like the caramelized taste of brown sugar... nom nom!

Slice and bake in a 325F preheated oven for 9 minutes. They will look very underdone when you take them out, but that’s ok!! Just let them cool for 5 minutes before touching.


Now go get creative! Mothers' Day is coming up... :)

Have a wonderful day! and I will see you soon with more March Green Madness!

T-shirt Rug

Recycled T-shirt Rug

or

Cat bed

0_o

So you've had a few jobs, ran a couple marathons, got involved in the community, gave blood, got lots of ugly clothes for X-mas, or etc, AND got the t-shirt. Didn't you? :)

Yeah, me too! I looovee t-shirts! Its sort of my unofficial uniform.. So anyhow, I've got tons of t-shirts. And even more that I don't wear anymore for one reason or another.. Who wants to wear old work shirts around?..  (unless you're going for that dirty trucker look or calling it vintage or you just like free shirts)

Old work shirts

Its a good thing I had so many because it takes a lot of shirts for this project. I had to keep adding more shirts so eventually I lost count as to how many there were...  oops.

So here's what we are doing.. Get yourself a big shirt (at least half the size of the rug you want) and cut it open so it will lay flat. I used the back of an old band shirt that was way to big.

Next, cut small slits in to your "master shirt." Make rows and columns of these slits either all at once or cut them as you go, as I did. The slits should be half an inch at most. Remember its t-shirt/cotton so it stretches and tears easily. Space each slit about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch apart. Don't forget to leave allowances on the edges.. especially if you are going to finish it with a border or something fancy like that.

Now is a good time to start cutting up your t-shirts too. Make strips about 1inch x 6 inches long. It saves time to cut them all up at the beginning. After you have your strips cut, they can be dyed. Its much easier to dye them now rather then later when the rug is complete.

The cool design on the back

Insert one end of your strip into a slit on the bottom of the "master shirt" and the other end into the next slit. You should have made a "U" shape with your strip. Insert the next strip into the same slit as the 2nd end of the 1st strip. The end of the new strip should be inserted into the next available slit down the row. Now you should have made a "W" shape with your 2 strips. You should have strips coming out of 3 slits at this point. Continue on down the row.

If you wish to tie your strips together; after completing poking t-shirt through the slits, tie that row and then continue poking in the next row. If you wait to tie your strips together until all your strips are woven, it will be "puttineer" impossible to find each set.
I chose to tie each strip to the next instead of tying each strip around the master shirt...

Eventually, You will come up with something that looks like a big pile of t-shirt strips.. But in an "I made that" and "It feels so good" kind of way! I think, since this rug is so multi-colored and doesn't match anything in the house.. oops, I will give this one to the cat. I think she has already commandeered it as I have caught her several times stretched out over it.

So good luck! This is such a fun project for almost any age! 

Expectant mothers could make for baby

kids could make with outgrown clothes

anyone could make for cool gift

stress relieving to make

time consuming for sick or immobile people

yada yada...

Anyhow, I'm not finished yet. I have to wait until M.J. -the cat- decides to move so I can work on it again!

Have a lovely day filled with all things delicious and fragrant! :)

Painting

So I suppose I need to start this post off with an apology... :)
I was sick. Now I'm not. I have a bunch of March posts that need to go up.. March is almost over.  -_-
So I'm extending March Green Madness into April! Sorry. :)

This post isn't really about being green though. I just thought I would show you what I have been doing while.. not doing anything...

This is my newest project. I am hoping it will inspire me and help me remember my dreams. I have a dream book that hasn't gotten enough attention lately and I wanted to bring that to my waking attention. So here is what I have so far: And no.. its not finished. :)

It says "Where do you go when you dream?"

I also just wanted to see how the progress was coming along in a side by side kinda way..:

 "When you"

Crater face..













So there you have it. I have to put this one away for a while because I just got commissioned to do a bunch of nautical themed paintings for a sea-side condo.  fun. fun..

So anyhow, get ready for a bunch of posts all at once.. I had them all planned and I'll be bushwhacked if I don't get em posted!

Have a wonderful day! And do something creative and inspiring today! You'll love it!