More Christmas Crafts: Felt Stockings!

I can't believe its been a month since my last post! Preparing Christmas gifts definitely got the better of me this year: I made a felted purse for my mom (my first felted item ever that I had to re-knit and re-felt due to the first one shrinking too much in one direction), a scarf for my kid brother and aunt, and hats for my other brother and boyfriend. They all turned out really well; hopefully I'll have pictures to post soon.

In the meantime I have pictures of the stockings that I made for myself and my boyfriend. This is the first Christmas that I spent away from my childhood homes and in my own apartment. After finding myself faced with the realization that I wouldn't have Christmas morning access to my childhood Christmas stocking, I decided to make one.

I had a hard time finding pre-cut felt that was big enough for making a good sized stocking. Then I discovered that fabric stores carry felt by the both, something that I had never thought of before, mostly because I'm new to sewing. So I bought 1/2 yard of red and 1/4 yard of white felt and got to work. To make the general shape of the stocking I drew a sock shape on a paper bag that I had split open and laid out. I then cut this out and used it as a template. I first tried using a disappearing fabric pen to trace the shape, but that didn't show up too well on the red felt. A soft graphite 2Bpencil worked much better. I traced and cut out four of these sock bits. Then I repeated the process for the white fluff portion of the stocking, but made eight of these to both hide the seam between the two pieces and give the stockings a more three dimensional top.

I worked mostly with applique and simple embroidery to embellish the stockings. Evan requested Dracula with a Santa hat, which I was able to accomplish thanks to a stencil booklet that I picked up a the fabric store. Not quite the traditional Christmas motif, but it's what he wanted. I modeled my stocking off the one that I have at my mom's house: a snowy scene complete with a snowman. The cupcake, however, is a new addition.

After embroidering our names I sewed together the fluff pieces and then attached them to the stockings. I then paired up the stocking-and-fluff pieces and sewed them together . As a final touch, I used embroidery thread to create a loop from which they could hang. Together they took about two weeks to make, but I think the final product is definitely worth it.

Triple the Flavors, Triple the Fun

I can't believe that it has been nearly a month since my last post! I've been meaning to post about my crafting and cooking, but preparations for the holidays have taken over: I'm experimenting with felting--something I've never done before--and trying to manage my time so that I can make Christmas gifts at a leisurely, relatively stress-free pace. Over the past few weeks I've also been trying to make some new items for my etsy shop (updates on these new items to come) and, until this morning, preparing for a holiday craft faire. But now with that out of the way, I have a few moments to share my latest batch of cupcakes...which I made for the faire.

I began with a batch of chocolate cupcakes. I usually use the recipe for basic chocolate cupcakes from Hello Cupcake!, but I didn't have any buttermilk. I thought about substituting lemon juice spiked regular milk, but decided that I didn't want to risk possibly compromising the overall texture of the final product. Instead I turned to the chocolate cupcake recipe in my Baker's Field Guide to Cupcakes cookbook, which calls for milk instead of buttermilk.

The mixing process went quite well; the Field Guide recipe was actually a bit easier than the Hello Cupcake recipe in that I didn't have to melt and cool baker's chocolate or run to the store for buttermilk. And the cupcakes turned out moist and chocolately--just as the description promised. I only hit a slight snag when in a moment of impatience turned to a older, less-than-ideal cupcake tin that produced somewhat sub-par results.

For the first dozen I used a dark, heavy cupcake tray that cooked evenly and produced beautifully domed cupcakes:

The other, lighter tin required nearly five more minutes of baking time and procured these:

sad, flat topped and slightly blistered cakes.

Lesson learned, I suppose: always, always resist the urge to cut corners and use sub-par baking tins. The good news, however, is that the cakes tasted the same regardless. But when it comes to aesthetics (even in cupcakes that will be covered in frosting) I prefer the dome to the flat top.

For the icing, I decided to make a variety of flavors partly because I figured that I could please more people (and therefore make more sales) with more flavor options, but mostly for fun. I chose my tried and true whipped cream frosting, which I decorated with some pink sprinkles:

For the second frosting batch I mixed in a heaping spoonful of boysenberry jam--an improvisation that I had tried a few months ago when the thought of using plain whipped cream frosting pained me. (If you like berry pie, then you'll love this boysenberry jam frosting!)

And for the last group of cupcakes I whipped up a peanut butter frosting that Ina provided. I had to improvise a little because I had to cut the portion by 1/3 but it turned out soft and velvety: the perfect compliment for the chocolate cake.

The cupcakes turned out great. I enjoyed decorating them and they sold really well. People seemed especially enthralled by the boysenberry frosting...I think I might try blackberry next time.

Cupcake Party!

My aunt and I got together this week to make cupcakes. We have a pretty successful symbiotic relationship: I lend my baking skills and cupcake making experience, and she provides the ingredients and access to a spacious, well stocked kitchen. We each picked one cupcake recipe. I chose this Tiramisu Cupcakes recipe and she chose a recipe for Coco Loco Tequila Cupcakes from a Tequila cookbook that she has.

I liked the Tiramisu cupcakes the best...coffee and rum just don't stand a fighting chance next to coconut. (Although the Coco Loco Tequila Cupcakes did make me like dried coconut, one of my least favorite foods.)

Here are some before and after shots for your viewing pleasure:

Tiramisu Cupcakes

One rum-infused white cupcake, baked and ready for surgery.

Working with the knife in a completely vertical position, I inserted it about 3/4 of the way into the cupcake and cut a somewhat large circle. Then, I removed the center piece by gently pushing the blade of the knife against the outer edge. It popped out pretty easily; I just used my fingers to remove it completely once it came loose.

After adding the coffee-rum syrup to the center, filling it with the rum infused cream cheese icing, and replacing the top it looked like this:


And here's another one, a little top heavy with the luscious icing:

Coco Loco Tequila Cupcakes

I followed the recipe pretty closely. The only alteration that I made was that I used about 2 tsp of fresh ginger (instead of 2 tbsp), which I think was just perfect. Any more would have over powered the coconut flavor. In the future I think that I will skip adding the coconut milk in the icing...it made the icing a little too runny for my preference. Besides, the coconut extract and shredded coconut add a lot of coconut flavor. I used a rubber spatula to apply the icing and then sprinkled shredded coconut over the top.

All I can say for both is Yum! Both are excellent choices if you want to make a good impression or indulge in some decadent treats.