Thimbleanna

Cupcakes

Happy July 4th!

4th of July Cupcakes

For those of you in the US, Happy Independence Day! We’re off to our neighbor’s house for our annual cookout where we play games and eat, eat, eat. We’ll toss eggs (in the rain), play cornhole (in the rain), hula-hoop (in the rain) and I have a secret new game for the kids — I froze some t-shirts and the first one to get their frozen t-shirt on will win a movie ticket. (Have you ever tried to unpeel frozen fabric??? – the rain will be their friend!) There will be lots of food — we’re taking baked beans, spaghetti salad, and of course, cupcakes!

Happy, Happy Weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

Edited to add:  OHMYGOSH!  If you’ve never played the frozen t-shirt game you should try it.  Take some t-shirts (I found some at Menards for $1.99 each), get them wet, fold them like you’d put them in a dresser, and then freeze them.  Then, when you have a bunch of people together, hand them out and make it a race.  The first one to get that frozen shirt on wins a prize.  We had the best time.  Before I even had my instructions out, TheSecondChild was running into the house to throw his in the microwave.  My niece was right behind him, and ran to the sink to cover hers with hot water.  TheFirstChild ran out onto the wet grass and was on his hands and knees, rubbing that t-shirt back and forth in the grass trying to get it to thaw.  The other five participants were doing all sorts of other tricks like sitting on them, squeezing them and prying them apart.  They all said when they did get them on, it was freezing cold.  It was HYSTERICAL!  Highly recommended for a LOT of laughs!!!

Happy 4th of July!

When my aunt was here (sorry, you’re probably going to get tired of hearing that) we were having so much fun that I took an extra day off of work so that we could all sew together. I made some 4th of July table runners for my aunt, MeMum and me.

July 4 Table Runner

I backed the first runner with red fabric and after I quilted the center with the white thread, I decided that I didn’t like the white thread on the back of the table runner. So I used an old machine embroidery trick and colored all those white threads with a permanent red marker (brilliant idea #1.) SweetiePie came strolling by and we marveled at how great the back looked — you couldn’t even tell that thread had ever been white.

July 4 Table Runner

You know what comes next, right? We flipped the runner over, and AAACCCKKKKK — all that red ink bled onto the cute patriotic print! I rushed it to the washing machine, basting pins and all (brilliant idea #2.) After about three washings (and a noisy machine, ’cause now I’m sure there are a few pins stuck down in that machine somewhere — shhhh, don’t tell, honey, I have no idea why the machine is making so much noise…) much of the ink was still there so I decided the thread and batting were probably holding some of the ink in and therefore, it must be ripped out.

July 4 Table Runner

TheManoftheHouse and I spent all night Tuesday night unpicking all those stitches — while the runner was wet, I might add, ’cause I was afraid to let it dry out. As of now, that last runner is all unpicked, with a few pink tinges and waiting to be re-quilted. I’ve learned my lesson and I hope you can learn from my mistake too — although, I’m rather confident that YOU aren’t as dumb as I am!

July 4 Table Runner

We’re off to a multi-family cookout and fireworks now. We’re taking cupcakes — yummy. (Recipe here.)

Cupcakes

Oh, and check out the spiffy new cupcake saver that SweetiePie gave me for Mother’s Day. She found it at Target. (Excuse me, Tar-jay.)

Cupcakes

If you’re in the US, I hope you’re having a FUN and SAFE 4th of July!!!

XOXO,
Anna

The Cupcake Scoop

Boy.  All you sweet readers sure do make a girl feel good!  Thanks for all your wonderful wedding wishes.  As promised, and because several of you have asked, I thought I’d give you the low-down on the rehearsal dinner cupcakes.  (And before we begin, can I just say how awesome blogland is?  I had LOTS of wonderful tips and hints from many of you during the wedding planning process.  Miss Jean, Nanette, and several of you had invaluable advice for me, a first-time MOG.  And if it hadn’t been for an e-mail early on from Ms. Farmhouse detailing all the things she did for her son’s rehearsal dinner, it would have never occurred to me to have flowers and favors.  I thought you just arranged for a place to eat and you were done with it.  So, thanks to all of you who provided such great advice!)

For 6 or 8 months now, I’ve been using the Magnolia recipe for cupcakes.  But the last two times I made them they were terribly dry — and the last time, when the quilty peeps and I met Sharon and Carol in Chicago, I almost had to choke those dry ol’ cupcakes down (sorry girls!)  So, I decided that recipe would never do for TheFirstChild — everything must be perfect, right?  For three weeks, I experimented with different recipes.  I tried an old staple from my childhood, but it had 1/4 t. of lemon extract and the first thing SweetiePie said when she tasted it was “Does that have lemon in it?”  (How the heck could she tell with only 1/4 t.???)  The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum had a nice white cake recipe, but there just seemed to be a little something missing.

I was ready to try a white cake mix and call it good but then an awesome comment appeared from Brigitte Noblog.  I’d mentioned cupcakes in my post and she got all excited and spent a lot of time typing out the Magnolia Vanilla Cupcake recipe, not realizing that I’d used that recipe before.  So I e-mailed Brigitte and told her, yes, but they’re so dry.  And she replied, yes backatcha, but there’s no matching that Magnolia vanilla flavor.  Well, that got me thinking and I knew she was right (thank you Brigette!), so I decided to bite the bullet and use the Magnolia recipe anyway.  I watched those babies like a hawk and yanked them from the oven the minute they looked done.  Then I frosted them, packaged them and crossed my fingers all the way to Dayton that day.  Eureka!  They were moist and just right!  They were even decent the next day.  I must have baked them too long in my previous efforts.

Cupcake2

So — the details and why you’re here  (sorry for the recycled picture!):

The Cake:  Magnolia Vanilla Cupcake Recipe

The Icing:  Magnolia Vanilla Icing. I used a giant Wilton cake tip.  I’m not at home to look up the tip size, but The Happy Valley Quilter mentioned to me that she uses tip #1B.  It’s a similar tip and I think I like her tip even more than mine.

The Pick:  I printed a pictures of the newlyweds, ran them through my little xyron sticker machine and then punched them out with a 2″ punch.  I also punched 2″ circles out of the black and white paper that you see in the bottom of the cupcake box.  Then I stuck the picture circle to the black and white circle with a toothpick between them.

The Clear Plastic Box: A 4x4x4 acetate box purchased from Papermart.com. These come in packs of 50, which was just right for what I needed.

The Cupcake Insert:  I knew if I was going to transport those cupcakes, there must be something to hold them in place in those boxes.  Several people (I think maybe Kairle and Kim?) sent me a link to these inserts.  They come 100 to a box, in white.  I used a spray adhesive and attached SweetiePie’s chosen black and white paper to the inserts.  The down side of the inserts is that you can’t see the bottom of the cupcake, but it’s worth it for the frosting to not be smashed all over the side of your box when you reach your destination.

The Ties:  3/4″ wide black satin ribbon, which I ran out of and ended up using two strands of 1/8″ wide black satin ribbon on some of the boxes.  I also printed out the little wedding logos and punched them out with the 2″ punch and attached them with the ribbon.

Making cupcakes is addictive and these were SO fun.  They were a HUGE hit too — people just whipped out their forks and ate them straight out of the box.  I had a bunch of compliments (especially from those rowdy groomsmen) and I heard at least two people at the end of the night say, “Hey, someone took my cupcake”.  Now, that’s a compliment!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To heck with the pre-wedding diet — it’s Valentine’s Day so I ate a cupcake!

Valentine Cupcakes

I used the Magnolia Cupcake recipe and it was the maiden voyage of the spiffy new cupcake pan from Williams Sonoma that TheFirstChild and SweetiePie gave me for Christmas. It’s awesome — it holds 24 cupcakes, it fills the whole oven, and I love it!

Valentine Cupcakes

If you’re on a diet, give it a rest and have something fattening today. I hope you very sweet bloggy peeps have a Divine Valentine’s Day!

XOXO,
Anna

Happy Halloween!

Gosh, where is this week going already? I guess I shouldn’t complain — it just means the weekend is getting closer! I had a great quiet weekend last weekend. I managed to get several little sewing projects done. Of course, I can’t show them to you yet, ’cause they’re surprises. Don’t you hate it when someone tells you that? I have something but I can’t show you. How rude! Oh, ok, I can tell you that I worked on my box for the chocolate swap! Not much consolation is it?

PumpkinLights

Tonight, I made Magnolia cupcakes to take to work tomorrow. I made a bunch for my birthday a month ago and everyone seemed very appreciative, so I thought I’d make some for Halloween too. The kitchen looked like a war zone at the North Pole. For some reason I got powdered sugar and sprinkles everywhere. It sure was fun though and now they’re all boxed up and ready to go.

PumpkinLights

I love these cupcakes. (I mean, not these particular ones ’cause they turned out a little goofy with the black sprinkles and all — what I love it the Magnolia cupcake taste.) If you don’t have the Magnolia cookbook you’re in luck — I found the recipe here a few weeks ago. Check it out ’cause their picture is way cooler than mine! Maybe someday I can learn their cool swirly icing technique.
I’m all ready for my little trick-or-treaters tomorrow night. I used to hate to hand out candy when we were younger, but now I just love seeing the little kids come to the door. (Although, what’s up with all the high school kids these days? When we were kids, we quit trick-or-treating when we were around 12 — now, I’ll bet 1/4 – 1/3 of the kids that appear at my door are older than 12!) If you do trick-or-treaty kinds of stuff tomorrow, I hope you have a great time!
XOXO,
Anna