chocolate stout birthday cake

This year, unlike in past years, the mister requested a specific cake flavor, instead of a cake theme (like the Fallout cake here, the Zelda cake here,  and the Skyrim cake here). This year, he wanted a chocolate stout cake, like the one an old friend of ours made for his own birthday a couple of years back.

Now, I'm not as good a baker as our friend, but I can fudge it. (Ha!) I used Jamie's recipe from My Baking Addiction, with a few alterations.

First: I halved the recipe to make a 6-inch, 3-layer cake instead of an 8-inch 3-layer cake. All that high school math served me well (thanks, Mr. Tutland!) as I was calculating to see if a half-recipe would be enough batter; it was close enough for my purposes, so I went ahead with it. I did this because chocolate stout cake is very rich (the "icing" is just chocolate and cream, for heaven's sake) and we were only needing enough for five people . . . and still only ate half of it on the mister's birthday. A 6-inch cake is just enough for a couple of days, without anyone getting sick of cake.

Second: I substituted a mixture of lowfat milk and whipping cream for the sour cream in the original recipe, and didn't notice any lack of richness, taste, or texture.

Third: I left off the decorative chocolate curls and used sprinkles to decorate instead. (And it's kinda pretty, but I wouldn't recommend it. The crunchiness of the hundreds-and-thousands detracts from the experience of the icing.)

So here's the recipe I used. You can find the original here.

Six-Inch Chocolate Stout Cake with Chocolate Ganache Frosting

for the cake

3/4 cup Chocolate Stout (Trader Joe's makes a great one, which I used)

1/4 cup strong black coffee

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup whole wheat  flour and 1 cup all-purpose)

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup milk

for the icing

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 pound chopped semisweet chocolate (I used chocolate chips)

Directions for the Cake

1) Set oven to 350 degrees F, and grease three 6-inch cake pans. LINE THE BOTTOMS WITH PARCHMENT PAPER. Very important. The cake is very moist, and you'll need the parchment to help get the cake layers out of the pans.

2) Melt butter in a medium saucepan with the chocolate stout and coffee until simmering. Stir in the cocoa powder and whisk till smooth. Remove from heat.

3) Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. 

4) Using your electric mixer (or a lot of elbow grease) beat eggs, vanilla, milk, and cream together, then add the COOLED stout mixture. Add flour mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Divide batter between the three pans. Bake until cake tester comes out clean; approximately 35 minutes. Transfer cakes to cake rack to cool.

Directions for the Icing

1) Simmer the whipping cream in a small, heavy saucepan. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate until melted and smooth. Refrigerate until spreadable, approximately two hours.

2) Use a small smear of frosting on the cake plate to stick first layer in place, then spread a small amount of frosting over it. Top with second cake layer, and spread with more icing. Repeat for third layer, then spread remaining icing over top and sides.

I used a stencil cut from parchment paper to get the sprinkles to stick in a specific pattern.

As noted in the original recipe, this cake tastes best fresh the first day, but it can be refrigerated and warmed for leftovers. 

Thanks for reading!  Enjoy your cake!

so you think you're crafty voting is open for week one!

"On the Wall" is this week's theme, and I committed some pretty serious time to getting my project together. The contest is anonymous, so I can't tell you which one is mine, but if you can find it and vote for it, I'd appreciate it. I'm told my style is fairly easy to decipher.



Thanks for reading!

Update: voting is completed for the week (as of today, January 11th) and I've made it through to the next round! Thank you all for your votes, and please check back; I'll have a full tutorial for my project up within the next few days. Woohoo!

freezer paper stencil viking shirt

I had a falling out with the owner of a local shop recently. I'd gone there to buy a specific t-shirt for my kiddo, one with a cuuuute viking pattern screen printed on it by a company I like, but can't always buy (because good sense dictates I can't spend $30 on a toddler t-shirt on a regular basis).

But I left without it.

It's all too bad because I like to support local business when I can (even if it means waiting for a sale) and I especially like to support mama-owned businesses. More than that, I like to support good graphic designers, and this particular clothing manufacturer hires great ones.

In the end, though, the idea of stenciling a viking design onto a t-shirt isn't copyrighted. In fact, this tutorial that Cheri wrote over a year ago could have inspired the (more recent) designer t-shirt, for all I know. I know it inspired me!

Freezer paper stenciling is something I've posted about before, but this viking design is a whole lot less complex. As you can see, I made it in two different sizes, one for the mister and one for the kiddo.

I also (word to the wise) accidentally cut it into wax paper the first go-around (which DOES NOT WORK) and had to re-do it, so it's a good thing it's so straight-forward.

Cheri mentions in her tutorial that you can find some free-use images on-line and cut them with your Silhouette cutter; you'll be happy to know you can also free-hand the drawing and cut it out with a craft knife if, like me, you're artsy and don't own a Silhouette.

Cut on FREEZER paper, iron onto t-shirt (plastic side down), paint, and let dry.

If your beard is too close to the color of your shirt, lighten it up, dry again, and remove the wax paper.

Heat set, and you're ready to go!

I used a Gap t-shirt from the Goodwill for this design, so the project was really inexpensive and fast. And we like it! I hope you'll link to your freezer paper stencil projects in the comments section below, if you have the urge!

Happy New Year, and thanks for reading!

thrift store finds: vintage intercom speaker

I found this $2 intercom speaker box at Bring a few weeks back while the kiddo and I were hunting down parts for an upcoming project.

I challenged the Mister to find some way to turn it into an iPod speaker for the sake of our project, because though I knew I could probably muddle through and scare up some on-line diagrams and eventually research it into completion, he has years of practice building and repairing computers and I figured he could skip the research phase.

An hour later (maybe less?) he had removed the old guts, hunted down a scrap cord, and finished off the inside of the box so that my iPod wouldn't get scratched up. After that, it works like any other iPod speaker; just plug it in and turn on the music!

("Science is Real" by They Might Be Giants available for purchase on iTunes.)

I love that it sounds like an old a.m. transistor radio; just what I was hoping for. The iPod tucks up inside the back, the plate slips on to conceal it, and all done! I regret I don't have a step-by-step diy for you; the Mister was responsible for all but the idea, so I don't have any in-process photos.

Basically, he removed everything from the inside of the intercom box except for the speaker parts and the wires that attached them. Then he connected the ends of those wires to the wires + micro plug from a dead set of earbuds. After that, it's just a matter of plugging the iPod in to the speaker and turning it on! I tried to find a similar project on-line to link to, but this is the closest I came: an Instructable on making an iPod speaker from earbuds and some old computer speakers. Anything with a speaker in it probably works in a similar way. But admittedly, that assumption may be way off base.

Also: the knob and dial still turn, but they don't actually control anything. For the sake of our project, though, they'll lend that extra bit of detail that'll make it shine. Stay "tuned"! There'll be more about this in a couple of weeks. Until then, it's a total cliff-hanger.  Bwa-ha-ha!


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Junkin' Joe Fabulous Finds

post christmas craft-a-thon, part 1

After Christmas, when everyone's holding their big post-Christmas clearance sales, I like to spend a little gift card cash on some marked-down craft kits for a change-up to the daily finger-painting and coloring we do.

This little spin art kit in a very nicely designed box came from Bed, Bath, & Beyond and cost under $3.

It came with twenty-five circular sheets of paper, three little bottles of paint, and a "spinner", which is essentially a top.

Of course, if you're working with a not-quite-three-year-old, you're gonna burn through the supplied paint in just five art pieces, but I'm okay with that. The kiddo stayed interested for a half hour (shockingly long these days), and thinned-down tempera paint can substitute for the other stuff. Overall, a nice way to spend a bit of our afternoon.

If you pick up (or build) a similar kit, work inside the box as recommended to avoid spattering walls etc. And experiment with different speeds of spin and different amounts of paint; the results can vary wildly.

What post-Christmas craftiness have you and yours been up to? I've got a couple of competition projects and some birthday stuff in the works, which is good; the holiday projects didn't all come together in time, but I'm finishing stuff and feeling good about my progress.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. you can make these photos larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that.

hometown tourist: the barn light

A few months back, I saw this little place called The Barn Light on Kickstarter, and sponsored their decorating project. It's a really fantastic space designed by locals Leah Fuller and Charlie Deese. The menu is pretty good, too.

We like the cafe atmosphere for lunch during the day; in the evening, I hear it's a great bar scene. Most lunch menu items are $6 and come with a little jar of house-made pickles.

Thanks for reading!

balance

I felt so lost. I couldn't do anything to set right the murders of sweet little kids in Connecticut. The mall shooting here in Oregon got to me too, of course, but the magnitude and youth of those babies weighed heavily on my mind. It still does, in those moments when the Christmas bustle calms enough for my mind to settle there. I have a toddler to remind me to put on a cheerful face, to distract me from more wordly concerns; I can solve problems like tiny cars that aren't lined up just right, food that's too hot, potty accidents. Those are things I can handle.

To say I was feeling blue would be an understatement. Our kids deserve a better world than this one. A world where things are fair. A world where goodness outweighs the evil. And when terror breaks through the wall of happiness I've worked so hard to build, my first inclination is to retreat from the world further, to pull myself and my sweethearts back into our cozy little cave and  just say "f-you!" to the rest of the world.

As it happens, I subscribe to PostSecret's Facebook page, and a the day before the horror in Connecticut, Frank Warren (creator of PostSecret) posted this:

Part of a holiday letter I wrote to my daughter . . .

If you ever catch yourself feeling blue, as we all sometimes do from time to time, here are ten things that if you do three days in a row (I promise) will make you feel better.

1. In the morning write down five things you are grateful for.
2. Think about a random act of kindness you can do for someone that day.
3. Eat well (you know what that means); drink well (no coffee, soft drinks or alcohol).
4. Exercise hard for 20 minutes.
5. Write an old friend an email or better yet a letter.
6. Actively relax, meditate or pray for 10 minutes.
7. Take a walk in the sun.
8. Watch a John Hughes movie like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" or "The Breakfast Club".
9. Sleep deep and long.
10. Remember that you are loved (I promise).

Number two remembered itself to me the next day.

I was more than blue; I was horror-struck, depressed, angry. And so helpless. But here's the thing: I want a better world for my son. I want a better world for my son. And I don't get a better world by being afraid to go out in the world, or by being angry, or by languishing in helplessness. All that gets me is a child who grows up afraid and withdrawn. The answer must be to go out and do good in the face of bad; to commit random acts of kindness that, while they can't erase the random acts of evil, can blunt the edge of the terror I feel and begin to balance the way I see the world.

If there are people (like me) out there committing small acts of kindness, it can't be all bad.

You might have seen this quote somewhere in the past several days; I saw it posted a couple of times on Facebook, and I reposted it myself:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping." To this day, especially in times of disaster, I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers — so many caring people in this world.—Mister Rogers

Needing to feel like a helper, I did a few small random acts of kindness that Friday afternoon. It really did make me feel more grounded, less adrift. The boys and I went bigger that evening, and that helped too. The trick is not to stop. Whether it's giving another customer a spare coupon, or handing a sack lunch and clean new socks to a homeless guy at an intersection. Whether it's buying a toy for the Wishing Tree at the mall so a kid can have a Christmas present, or dropping some cans of food in a donation barrel. We can all do small things to make the world one full belly or two warm feet happier.

Please, whatever kind of help you can give, be a helper. Smile at someone on the street. Express your appreciation to your server at a restaurant. If you have a spare, pass it along to someone who needs it. Don't just hope and wish and pray for a changed world; be the change.

rusty robot "vintage" door sign diy

This post was my recent project audition for "So You Think You're Crafty" and guess what? I was lucky enough to make it into the regular competition phase. To all of the amazing competitors I was up against, well done. I hope I'm up to the challenge of meeting the bar you've all raised. The weekly competition is anonymous and starts in January; I'll let you know when the voting starts for the first round!

I don’t know about you, but I have pin boards full of so many projects over on Pinterest that I’m sure I’ll never get to all of them in this lifetime. I’m gonna have to start farming stuff out. You busy? ;)

One recent love that I’ve been pinning (over and over and over again) is vintage signage. I love old typography, vintage graphics, and weathered finishes. When my love of vintage signs recently dovetailed with my need for a fireplace fix-up, I ended up picking up a pair of vintage army green sheet metal panels from Bring (the local re-building store) for 50 cents each . . . and then, because I tend to eyeball things rather than measuring them, I had a whole panel leftover.

I decided to make my sweet kiddo a sign to go above the door of his room with the leftover panel. Since he’s two and a complete nut for robots,  his room is now labeled a “ROBOTICS LAB". He loves it! In fact, the rest of the afternoon he was sing-songing "robotics lab" over and over again and dancing by the door of his room. Win!

I hope you like my kiddo's rusty robot sign as much as we do! I'll consider it high praise if you sing about it later.

I have a second, similar project I'll be posting soon. In that post, I'll go into more detail about each of the steps, but I hope this photo collage tutorial will help you get started if you're someone who just needs a little push in the right direction. Basically, start with a surface that's a little gritty and old,  paint, then roughen it up and help it rust!

mural painting at mom's house

I found these old photos the other day from maybe five years ago. The mister and I were visiting my mom's house, and she suggested that we paint a tree mural on the guest room wall together. Just the kind of project I like working on!

First, I used a nice, soft pencil (or possibly charcoal?) to sketch out the tree.

Then Mom and I used artist's acrylics to paint in the bark together. Lots of chatting, too, of course.

I'm pretty sure we were done in a day. Of course, that was before I had my kiddo. If I were to have attempted such a thing with my sweetheart in tow, I imagine it still wouldn't be done. ;)

I hear tell that Mom's since added leaves to the tree, but I haven't been out lately to take a peek for myself. There's a set of bunk beds in there now too, for the grandkids, that I always picture looking just like a treehouse.

So: what kind of projects have you collaborated on? Ever take on a big project with a parent?

Thanks for reading! If you're interested, here's a link to a previous post I did about the blue tree mural I painted in my kiddo's room. It took more than a day, as I recall, but then, I was a new mama working on my own, so I try to go easy on myself.

And here's a link to a post I wrote about repairing the mural, after my busy toddler tried to peel all the paint off his wall during nap time one afternoon.

p.s. you can make these images larger just by clicking on them, but you probably already knew that!

freezer paper stencils + flour sack towels

The night before my sweet cousin's wedding, I had a major 11th-hour craft fail in my family's hotel room. My screen printing project fell all to pieces.

Returning home after the wedding, I dusted off my butt and set aside the silkscreen for awhile, turning instead to freezer paper stencils to make my cousin and her fiance' a set of personalized, woodsy kitchen towels.

Supplies: freezer paper, craft knife, brown Tee Juice dauber, + iron. And, not pictured, cotton tea towels and pencil.

Sketch your design onto the dull, unplasticized surface of the freezer paper, then cut it out with your craft knife. I chose to print one of the towels with a woodgrain pattern and a "carved" heart with their initials inside. I drew this freehand, but if you're not sure where to start, you can find images on-line to inspire your pencil.

A more involved design like mine will require careful handling and ironing.

Iron the stencil on to towels carefully, adding separated elements (like the letters in the "carved heart") after everything else.

Using the Tee Juice dauber, go over the entire design.

After letting it dry for awhile, remove the freezer paper and iron the entire piece to set the dye. Wash and dry, then iron flat.

The second design was the same process but a different graphic: a stand of trees, their state, and their initials.

Thanks so much for reading! Wanna make the photos larger? Just click!

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