From Scratch- Spring Cupcakes

I love to bake!!  I love to eat what I bake too but I really try not too!!  It seems it goes straight to my waistline!!

This cupcake recipe is one my mom used to make and I believe her mother also made them. We used to use them for strawberry shortcake but they are also great frosted with a buttercream icing!!

Vanilla Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, soft
1 cup sugar
2 eggs,separated
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups cake flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using a mixer, cream sugar and butter together.  Add egg yolks and beat well.  Add milk and vanilla and mix well.  Sift together flour, salt and baking powder.  Add to wet ingredients and mix well.  Beat egg whites until stiff peaks form and add to batter mixing well.  Bake 375 degrees in greased muffin cups or use cupcake papers, for 12 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cupcake center comes out clean.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

I like to frost with buttercream icing and then decorate.

Buttercream Icing

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Mix powdered sugar and shortening in med bowl with electric mixer on low.  Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth.  Stir in additional milk a few drops at a time until smooth and spreadable.  Note:  you may also use part shortening and part butter, for the 1/3 cup shortening.

Here they are............

Enjoy!!!!!

 Kari

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Newbie party

Easy and Cheap Outdoor Pillows!!

I love, love love pillows!!  But many of you know that already!!  So here goes one more post about pillows.

I wanted some pillows for my outdoor furniture that we have at our cottage.  I also wanted to use fabric that I already had to make them.  So.....at work we have fabric books for customers to look at when they purchase outdoor furniture.  The fabric is for the cushions for the furniture.  It comes in sample books that look like this......

I get these sample books for free after the manufacturer issues a new book.  The pieces are  small, and they are an outdoor fabric.

 So what I did to make my pillows is cut out the pieces I wanted to use and then sewed them to the size I wanted and added a plain white canvas backing material.

Here is how they turned out.

 I wanted a nautical look and I wanted a bright red.  A couple of other pics.

 And yes they are not outside on my deck.  The cottage is still closed up for the winter but we will be opening it up this weekend!!

Ask at your local furniture store for their old fabric pattern books, in most cases they just get thrown away when new ones come out.  You can do so much with these great pieces of fabric!!

Kari

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Wow us Wednesday

Mom' s Assistants

Hello everyone we would like to introduce ourselves.  We are Muffin and Crumpet, and we consider ourselves to be mom's assistants and co-bloggers!!

I am Crumpet, the oldest and more distinguished of the two.  I am a 10 year old Yorkshire Terrier.  I was born on Sept 17, 2000.  Mom and Dad got me at Christmas time and I came to live with them when they still operated the bed and breakfast.  Boy was I a handful.  I loved all the guests we had and I would try to sneak in their rooms just so they would play with me and I could kiss them.  I do remember taking the people out of the Christmas village that they had set up under the tree and putting them in my bed. 

About 2 years ago I had a very bad heart attack while I was in the vets office.  No one thought I would make it.  But I am a strong girl and I showed them!!  I do take 3 different medications twice a day to keep my heart from going out of rhythm.  This makes my hair coat really thin but I think I still look pretty.  So here I am in my younger years.......

And here I am as a heart patient senior.......

 Hi, my name is Muffin. I am also a Yorkshire Terrier girl and was born on Sept 27, 2008. So you see I am still a puppy. I love my big sister Crumpet, in fact I kiss her about 100 times a day. I am a little shy of people, as I was not brought up in the bed and breakfast so I do not know what that is all about. I am a super smart girl and learn tricks really fast. I LOVE to go on walks and I love it outside. Let me show you what I look like. Here are some baby photos.......

Here I am more grown up........

Crumpet says I have to show some of us together..........

I am just a baby here!!

Aren't we cute........but we really don't like mom chasing us around with the camera!!

Maybe we can help mom blog again real soon!!


Crumpet and Muffin (Kari too!)

Easy Spring Flower- Rolled Paper

Many of you know that I work in the housewares dept. of a family owned dept. store.  Along with lots of kitchen stuff we carry dishes and giftware, much of which is breakable.  Needless to say we get many UPS and Fed Ex deliveries.  In all our boxes of new merchandise there is a ton of packing material.  Much of it we recycle.  BUT I have found a new fun way to "recycle" those long, long peices of craft paper that are sometimes used as packing material.

First, you take the paper and just roll it up, starting with the center and roll outward so it looks like a big flower.  Use hot glue to keep it from unrolling.  Next I added a fabric center but use could use a large button or a circle of wood.  I hot glued this to the center of the flower.  I also just brushed on a couple of colors of craft paint to give it some wow.

You could leave your flower like it is or mount it to a wall or hang it on your front door.  I mounted mine on a piece of scrap wood and painted leaves and flowers on the wood and then hung it outside. 

So.......here it is!!!!!!

So easy and cost me nothing to make.........What do you think?

Kari

Linked to:
Wow us Wednesdays
Feathered Nest Friday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Show and tell Friday