I Baked a Cake....

  

from scratch! 

It was difficult and long and most likely won't ever do this again because it was hard :(

Can you guess who it is?

My friends were guessing a dinosaur or a lizard. And they were right!

It was suppose to look like this ( the bottom right green one)....

......... I just told people that it was abstract yoshi
*** OPPS- The above was written September of Last year! I was so busy planning last semester that I forgot about this blog post. 
Here are the photos if your curious of what it eventually looked like. This was the recipe I used (HERE) Obviously it's not as amazing but at least I tried!

Us trying to make Yoshi's scales. We used chopsticks to make the small details when the ziplock bag trick did not work.

 

It's a little cute right????


There was a Colleges Against Cancer Bake Sale so I also made another cake roll for that. The pink ribbon was definitely easier to make. 

If you do try making this, let me know what you drew out and if you have any extra tips! 

Our Wedding: Doilie Envelopes

Envelopes wasn't as bad as I thought. Yep- we made our own envelopes out of dollies. This is what happens when I start pinning! I was never really a lace lover but once he put a ring on it, I've been in love with lace! Since my wedding dress was super lacey I thought adding dollies to the invite could incorporate that.

This is the tutorial I used: DIY Paper Doily Envelopes

To add some support we bought wax paper (can be found at Michaels and CVS!) as an inner liner and spray painted it with purple that I had leftover from another project. We went Jackson Pollock on that!

Becky (MOH) made a cardboard cutout to construct the dollies into envelopes. You can either leave it alone so it opens completely but we sprayed it with adhesive spray (had no clue something like this existed- SUPER COOL!!!!) so it stays in envelope shape.

Since these were too fragile to mail out, we bought outer envelopes on Amazon. I think this is a great idea if you love lace and doilies. Spray painting can be messy but I really love how the color pops and each and everyone's envelopes are unique! All made with lots of love <3

Dollies 10inch: Bought on Ebay 500 sheets for $25.00
Purple Outer Envelopes 5 x7 (HERE): $3.65
Adhesive Spray (Target): ~$8.99

My husband still yells at me today when he finds itty bitty purple paint in the crevices of our kitchen floor. Hes OCD like that.

Email Love

We are lame and corny, but I love it!
At the same exact moment I was about to text 'I miss you', I see a notification on my phone that I received this email from the Hubby. 

Does that ever happen to you? It happens to us a lot to the point where it can be creepy sometimes. Either that or we just say I Love You wayyyyy too many times and our best friends ( B & K) can attest to that! 

HUGEKINs AKA Cake Pops

OKAY I am going to admit this. 

CAKE POPS SCARE ME.

I've eaten them and they taste great but the whole baking them scare me. I've heard stories of how difficult it is and I don't even want to get into that ( e.g. my friend Hanhie Poo).  If they make machines for perfect cake balls, it must be hard right???

My viewpoint of them changed after reading a blog post from 'a Beautiful Mess'. They make baking Cake Pops easy-peasy so I decided to make some for Chinese New Year last weekend!

I followed the recipe..sortof. 

Apparently 1 box of cake mix makes ~50 cake pops but I was only able to make 25 -____-!!! Therefore my Husband called them HUGEKINs because you needed to take a break in between bites from being so HUGH and Sweet.

Recipe:
1. Bake the cake as instructed on the box. I used Red Velvet because Red is a lucky color for Asian New Year and hey its red velvet!
2. Wait for the cake to cool and then add in the frosting. I used the 12oz Cream Cheese Frosting but other recipes have used 16oz. I thought 12 was just fine to use.
4. Mash the frosting into the cake. This can be done with clean hands BUT I don't really like that so I used a fork instead.
5. Roll into ball shape (a inch all over?) and place onto cookie sheet.
6. Freeze for 30 minutes or so.  I used both the Freeze and Refrigerator (refrigerate for 2 hours or so) method and with the freezing method, the icing for the cake balls looks ALOT BETTER so freeze it!
7. Melt the white chocolate and add 1 tablespoon of oil to prevent seizing.  I used just regular white chocolate chips and melted them in 15 second intervals up to 1 minute.

8. Gently dip the cake ball in the white chocolate using a fork. I didn't have lollipop sticks so I placed them in mini cupcake liners.

Funny or Not-So-Funny Story: I showed these to my dad and he starts LAUGHING OUT LOUD- like seriously laughing. My response, 'Dad- they don't look THAT BAD'. I still have no clue why he was laughing at me. I guess that's where I get my random outbursts of laughter from.

Once you started eating these HUGHKINs, there is a little surprise hiding in underneath.

One thing you should know about me. I LOVE shopping the after holiday sales aisles.
LOVE IT.
When I saw the red lace paper dollies, I couldn't resist. I only bought 1 pack after getting the evil eye from the husband. I wanted to be a bit crafty and use my leftover dollie sheets from the wedding and the red heart and BAM romance and cuteness right there!

 I forgot where I got this idea from but I think its a cute idea to use it as a labeling tool.

Yay for day-after Valentine's Sale! 

OUR WEDDING: Hot Beverage Bar 101

Me and the Hubby aren't totally into sweets and didn't want to have a dessert table just to have a dessert table. Thinking outside the box and something that reflected us, we thought,   'Wouldn't it be cool to have a Keurig table?'  I started furiously pinning for inspiration. I even made a Beverage Bar Board (HERE). Our game plan: Set up a table of Keurig machines and multiple flavors so guests can pick their own flavors and self serve.  The flavors: 

My biggest worry was how can I make something so robotic, more romantic? hmmm...What else can these hands make? HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS AND SUGAR CUBES!!!!!!!!!!!! O YA! Perfect toppings for your hot cocoa or coffee/tea.  Heart Shape Marshmallows-  Tutorial HERE I won't talk about 'the incident' in which I drove to every supermarket in my area for those darn jumbo marshmallows, or that I  LITERALLY was on sitting Indian style on the floors of TARGET emptying those shelves looking for those darn jumbo marshmallows. As I was about to have a heart attack because it was 3 days before my wedding ( SLACKER- YES!), this angel/sales associate 'Marvin' found them in the back storage room.  Heart Sugar Cubes-  Sugar cubes ( found in your local supermarket) Honey and toothpick mini heart sprinkles First I used the edible marker method-  CRAPPY! The ink bleeds onto the sugar cube so my hearts do not look like hearts, more like a disfigured C's. I've heard of people using ketchup but I AM NOT using ketchup on sugar cubes for my guests.  1. With a toothpick grab some honey and place it on the sugar cube.   2. Stick a heart sprinkle on the honey. Press lightly.  3. Leave alone for 1 minute  ( I am extra cautious). Done!

To help our guests with how it works, we made steps: 1. Pick a flavor...                          2. Brew it!                         3. TOP IT OFF!

Thanks JY for taking photos of my beloved sweat and tears! These are SERIOUSLY THE ONLY PHOTOS I HAVE of the Beverage Bar. So sad but very grateful!

Because I love making signage so much, I made a toppings sign.

.. and that is how our KickAss Hot Beverage Bar came to be. 

TIP: When thinking of ideas for your wedding, it doesn't matter what you do as long as it makes you happy!!!! You are the bride, do what YOU WANT! Who cares about theme or colors. If you want a dessert bar, DO IT. If you don't care for it, then DON'T.   For me, I didn't care if it stuck to a theme or not, all I cared about is 'does this represent a part of us'.  Include items/things you want but don't do something just because it is the thing to do.  Happy Planning! 

HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is our first V-DAY as husband and wife and I am so ecstatic to have him here with me. He came to VT this week for work and it was soooo hard to study with him around! All I wanted to do was ...DON'T PUKE.. cuddle but after a few days of getting use to him around, I was able to buckle down and study for my exam this week.   Since his visit was a bit last minute we have no plans tonight so we are just going to wing it.  In keeping with this lovely day, I thought HEART SHAPE MARSHMALLOWS!!!!  They are perfect for sharing with friends or your sweetie. 

Whether as an eat alone (no judgement here) or served on top of Hot Cocoa.

What you need:  Miniature heart shape cookie cutters(~0.89 cents) Jumbo sized Marshmallows ($3.26 each found year round at Target) Powdered confectioners sugar Make sure to get the JUMBO SIZE! The regular size marshmallows were too small for my mini cookie cutter. 

I apologize for not taking clearer photos but I hope my directions are clear.  1. Prep the surface you are working on with powdered sugar and pat your hands together with powdered sugar so the marshmallows won't get stuck to you.  2. With the JUMBO Marshmallow - slice it into 4 circles. Pat the sticky ends with the sugar.  3. Using your mini cookie cutter, make the hearts. Again pat the sticky ends with sugar.  4. Eat your masterpiece!

http://www.marthastewart.com

TIPS: If you can't eat all of it at once, store in a large gallon size Ziploc bag with powdered sugar. For Hot Chocolate, add some whipped cream, cinnamon, or peppermint sticks for favor if you like. For the adult version, add peppermint schnapps. Enjoy! 

Our Wedding: Invitations

The process of my invitations is a bit too long for one blog post so I will have to separate it into different posts! Not sure how many but follow me if you would love to learn more! ***

I love the vintage letterpress embossed look but after checking online for pricing, it wasn't worth the cost for me. 

I'm not a perfectionist but it took me a longggggggg time to figure out the design of the invite but once everything came together, I was very happy with the end result. THANK YOU PAINT!

The Easy:
- Theme color is plum and silver so I made the font that color.
- I was going for the bare branch look for my wedding so I added that as a backdrop to my invitation.
The Hard:
- I didn't know the right words to say.
- I didn't know if it would look better centered or if the words looked better there or here.
- I had so many drafts!!!! Sometimes I wish I was more creative or even have the Photoshop program to learn how to do these things better.

When it came down to printing at staples, it was bad.
I had to drive back and forth from home to staples 3 TIMES.

The first time, I didn't save my document on PDF so when they opened my invite, it didn't look like how it was suppose to. WHAT A WASTE OF GAS! ARGH! Still annoys me to this day.

Lesson Learned:
Whenever I go to Staples for a print job, carry laptop with me....Just in case.

and
always save your document on PDF.

I stayed too long at Staples and the reason being, I could NOT for the life of me make up my mind on what type of paper to print on.

 Silver, ivory, or velum,???

Seriously, I just wanted to slap myself silly with these minute decisions. I had to print out samples and contrast them against my envelopes before making a final decision.  
As I think back on it, I don't know how these little things got to me. 
BUT I WAS CRAZY.

Thanks babe. I think we got it. 

In the end the silver made my purple font pop out more to the color I desired and it happily matched my color theme! 

Project costs: Staples Pearlized Cardstock 1.39 each. 50 sheets (100 invites) for $70.66 w/tax

and the cutting continues...

Back to the grind

If you look closely at the photo, you can see what else I was working on for invitations.
In a future post coming to you!

TIPS:
For more ideas on how to make your invitations creative, scour all the wedding blogs! MY favorite invitation website to be inspired from is ohsobeautifulpaper.com. There are so many pretty stationary projects/DIY on there.