Orchid Candy Cupcakes...

(... and more cake pops! Hahaha!)



Lately, I've been totally obsessed with desserts… although I'm mostly Norwegian, and my Mom always told me my sweet tooth came from "that side" of my family. (Hehehe, you must also understand that I'm a pretty picky eater, and have always preferred sweets over savory dishes.) Anyhoo, I know I was just bitching about how hard those cake pops were to make, but I let my husband have the last one, and then snap! I made another batch - just like that! Actually, the second batch was much easier, I knew what not to do this time around.

I've only made these cake pops in half batches (that is, I bake the cake and split it in two, and only use half the frosting to make a more manageable batch size for me.) Part of the reason for that is I really like the springy cake texture, and you sort of lose that in the pops. No biggie - I just make both! LOL So, this time I made cupcakes and frosted them with the leftover cream cheese frosting. Thinking them a smidge on the plain side, I decided to make some candy melt flowers to top them; and boy did they turn out nice! (Alice or Grace,) they're actually not chocolate but this fabulous sugar based candy coating that molds like a dream.

I used candy molds in the shapes of orchids and plumeria and purple candy melts to make these, and my new favorite tool - the candy melt squeeze bottle. You can melt chocolate or candy melts right inside it, either in the microwave - or a hot bowl of water*! (Heather Bailey's dubbed this the March of Tools and I couldn't help but share my newest find!) I tried to make the centers darker purple, and the outer petals lighter; but the effect turned out much more subtle than I'd hoped. It's okay, I think they're just lovely anyway! I was so happy to find the perfect color yarn leftover in my stash to tie these up. So pretty.



It's been hard not to get too distracted making sweet treats, I'm in the middle of moving my craft room from an upper bedroom to my dining room; and it's hard and not always as creatively satisfying as trying my hand at a new craft. Just keep painting, just keep painting... Grin.



*The fact that I could still decorate the first batch of cake pops, even though my microwave up and died on me - right in the middle of making them pretty - totally sold me.

WIP Wednesday - Quilted Patchwork Bag

I finally got some time to work on my sister's belated Christmas present - the Amy Butler Patchwork Bag. At first I was hoping the book would have pattern pieces for this bag, but upon closer inspection the only pattern piece provided was for the zipper pull charm (which is just 2 circles, folks! LOL) The bag itself is all right angles, so I'm left to measure out all of my rectangles. It isn't too tough, but the AB pattern pieces are on nice paper, instead of tissue paper; and I was hoping to get the chance to work with a non-tissue pattern. (Tissue's really not that bad, but it can be tricky!)

I must also add, that I purchased a clear quilting ruler for this project, and boy, I couldn't be MORE pleased with it. It seemed expensive, at 12$ for a 4 1/2" by 12 1/2" clear ruler, but with all of the markings it has on it, and how well it works with my cutting mat, it saved me tons of time cutting & scoring packaging for The Sampler. If you don't have a quilting ruler, I'd HIGHLY recommend it! It's going to make cutting 1" squares for tsumami kanzashi flowers even easier and more precise than with my cork-backed steel ruler. And, more precise squares of fabric mean they're easier to fold into each petal, and less hassle to handle & sew together. Hooray!

I'm also happy to announce that I'll be adding patchwork bags to my Etsy store soon, of course with tsumami kanzashi flowers on them! I really like making bags, I think it's so much more fun to carry something unique, rather than something there's 18,000 of out there!