Quick & Easy Crafts --- No Such Thing!

Every time I decide to try a new craft I naively think, "This is it! This will be the one that I am good at; the one that will turn out exactly like the picture in the online tutorial." I get suckered in by articles that state "special tools and materials make this project a cinch.." They never mention that these special tools and materials will cost you an arm and a leg - and take several months to learn to use properly.

For Danielle's upcoming party I think I'm 0 for 5. Let's see... first there was the frosting fiasco. I beat the cream cheese frosting at "medium high speed for 5 minutes" exactly like the bag of confectioner's sugar instructed. I even set a timer so I wouldn't turn the mixer off early.  Only- the instructions weren't for cream cheese frosting and I ended up with a delightful cream cheese soup. It really tasted great - it just ran right off the cake. I poured it into a Ziploc bag and tossed it in the freezer. I figure it will keep and maybe I can use it to ice cookies at some point in the future.


Next I tried the oh-so-easy ballet slipper craft. Seriously? Can anyone dip stuff in melted chocolate and make it look good?!? Most of the things I try look like hairballs my cat might have coughed up. And then the gleeful DIY fairy states that next you just, "pipe on the finishing details.." Ahh! And how do I do that, exactly? My attempt using a Ziploc bag as an icing bag was less than stellar. In fact, after several tries I gave up completely on the adorable ballet slippers and decided instead to serve simple pink sugar wafers (Goya $1.99/package) - no adornment required.

And this was the best I could do!

The third thing I tried to make were the awesome marshmallow aliens. I fell victim to bad blogger syndrome when I wrote" No matter how tempting it is - don't dip them in the food coloring! They will never dry... Trust me on this one." I should have come straight out and said that when I woke up the next morning my test aliens were still so sticky from being soaked in food coloring that they had slid down their little sticks, looking like they had all been lobotomized. I should have been truthful and written that I gave up on that plan and went searching for another, less sticky method of making alien marshmallow pops.

Now imagine these several hours later - looking like they'd been impaled through the head...

Next I thought it would be nice to use up the candy melts since I'd spent $3 on them and already had lollipop sticks.  I had a lollipop mold that I'd bought last year and never used. The pictures on it were lovely. "How hard could it be?" I wondered. I looked up the instructions on line and it was rated "easy". Sounds about right for me....

Wilton's flower lollipops --

The flowers actually were quick and easy even if mine didn't look quite as nice as those on the package.

Tip: Tap the mold to get out air bubbles
or your flowers will look like bugs have gotten to them

I got cocky. I pulled out the elaborate Halloween jack o lantern mold I had also bought last year. (I must have felt particularly ambitious last fall..) I figured that it couldn't be much harder than the flowers. Ha! My poor jack o lantern pops look like The Joker had a field day with them. Despite carefully applying melted chocolate with a tooth pick I had uneven eyes, large misshapen mouths, off kilter noses - and I was following a pattern in the mold! Imagine the mayhem if I had tried to free hand those bad boys.

I didn't even waste lollipop sticks on these monstrosities.

To add insult to injury, when I unmolded them, many of the painstakingly applied chocolate details fell off! In the end I have to ask myself, why did I spend almost $15 and more than an hour's time making 16 flawed lollipops. For about the same price and amount of time I could have driven to a local chocolate shop and picked up an equal number of lovely, aesthetically pleasing chocolate pops.

For a true crafter I suppose there is value in having learned a new skill, produced something with your own hands, and used your time to make something that will bring joy to others. In my case, I have to confess that it really is all fodder for my true hobby - blogging.

If you've been keeping track You'll remember that I said that I was 0 for 5 on this party but I've only listed 4 of my craft disasters... I'm saving one for another time!

Here's to more craft experiments - and more posts. I promise to be more honest with you in the future. ;)
 

The Ballerina & Astronaut Party - The Menu & Recipes

This post pretty much embodies my imperfect style. Very few bloggers have the guts to post their mistakes. Not me! I mess up - probably more often than most of you. The pictures in this post are all things that didn't quite work out the first time...Stay tuned for Party Pictures if you want to see how the final versions turned out.

I really wanted to try my hand at a cake this year. I kept seeing beautiful pictures of fondant covered cakes. I really, really wanted one. (Note: I wanted this; not Danielle.) This was pure mommy-indulgence. If I had $75 for a cake I could have ordered one, but instead I explored the DIY route.

This was my inspiration cake - NOT the one I made!

Turns out fondant is extremely expensive at $10 a box, plus another $10 or so for tools - definitely not within my budget. It's also not a beginner's project. I gave up on my dream of pink cake perfection and decided to try a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting  (Danielle's favorite). I over beat the first batch of cream cheese frosting - it tasted good, but was too runny to use anywhere but in the middle. I wanted to start over but I was out of cream cheese. I only had enough powdered sugar for half a batch of butter cream frosting. Then Danielle wanted to color half of it pink and half of it blue... Despite everything, it tasted really good.

The practice Red Velvet cake - you can just see a hint of the blue frosting...

My Mom used to refer to my style as "assembling" rather than actual cooking. The hardest part of this menu is decorating the *&^% ballet slipper cookies. You can make most of it a day or two in advance. That way you can do what I do - spend the day of the party scrambling to pick up the house!

My big question is always what (and how much) to serve. I like to host parties at 2 or 3 PM. It's not lunchtime; it's not dinnertime. No one should arrive hungry, but if they do we'll have plenty of snacks as well as the cake. I'll be serving:

• Chex Mix (a space theme deserves a little retro food, don't you think?)
• fruits kabobs
• veggies & dip (everyone knows ballerinas are always on a diet!)
• pinwheel sandwiches (pb&j, cream cheese & ham, Italian...)
• ballet slipper cookies
• Mini Moon Pies
• marshmallow aliens & pink marshmallow fairy wands
• cinnamon sugar kettle corn
• cupcakes (Vanilla with Strawberry Frosting & Chocolate with Chocolate Frosting)

If you don't want to cook at all you can buy space themed treats at the grocery store: Starburst candies, Milky War bars and Moon Pies for example. I couldn't think of any ballet themed foods, so I stuck with pink, pink, and more pink (strawberry marshmallows, strawberry frosting, pink meringues...)

Quick Treat Preparations

Ballet Slipper Cookie

 

Thanks to Melissa at A Little Loveliness for this project! Mine didn't turn out as well as hers, but I still have time to practice. She used Nutter Butter cookies as the base, but I think any oval cookie would be fine. We're going to use Vienna Fingers.  I'm not sure anything that requires dipping in candy coating can ever truly be considered "easy"...

Marshmallow Aliens on a Stick (or "Martians")

 

These were my trial alien marshmallow pops

 

If you can't find colored marshmallows you can use food coloring to paint marshmallows. Pop the marshmallow on a stick or fork before you paint it to keep your fingers clean.

Use a new cotton swab. Dilute 6-8 drops of food coloring in a teaspoon or two of water or milk. Paint the top and sides of the marshmallows and then let dry. After about an hour you can flip them and paint the bottom if you want. No matter how tempting it is - don't dip them in the food coloring! They will never dry... Trust me on this one.

Use a dab of vanilla frosting to attach an eye to each marshmallow and you're done. I found candy eyes at both Michael's & Hobby Lobby in October.

 

My practice Fairy Wands standing in straws to harden

Pink Marshmallows on Sticks (or "Fairy Wands")

I'll also make some marshmallows for the girls...Stick a marshmallow on a stick, dip it in melted candy coating and then roll in sprinkles. Place in the freezer to harden. Voila! World's easiest party treat. This is why I do test runs in small batches before the party. I didn't like the brightly colored sprinkles with the pink candy coating so I used pastel sprinkles from Dollar Tree instead.

Tip: Place each lollipop stick in a straw to hold your pop upright while the candy coating hardens.

Recipes

Duncan Hines Red Velvet Cake Mix Modifications

The mix only requires three additional ingredients. Here are my changes for a "from scratch" taste:

          Instead of              --->              Use

• 1 1/4 Cups Water ---> 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar+ milk to make 1 cup+ 1/4 cup black coffee (for a total of 1 1/4 cups of liquid)
• 1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil --->1/3 cup melted, unsalted butter, cooled to room temp
• 3 Large Eggs ---> no change - bring to room temp before adding to mix!

Also add

• 1 small box of dry instant chocolate pudding mix (don't prepare the pudding - just add the dry mix)

Mix and bake as directed on package.

Kettle Corn Recipe

• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• salt

Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl. Heat oil in a 3 quart pan over medium low heat on stove top. When it is hot enough to pop one kernel, add the sugar mixture and the popcorn. Cover. Shake the pan - keep it moving or the sugar may burn! If you've never made popcorn on the stove before (and most people these days haven't) - it's done when the popping slows. Don't wait until you hear no pops or it will burn. Pour into a large bowl and toss with salt to taste.

 

Be careful! Don't eat it for the first few minutes --  you can burn your tongue on the hot sugar. How do I know this? Experience!

Lightly sweet, salty and just a hint of spice - ready as quickly as microwaved popcorn
and so, so much better tasting

About Frosting: I learned how to make frosting a few years ago from my 15 year old baby sitter. I figured if she could do it, so could I. Frosting is quick to make, stores well in the frig for about a week and can be frozen.

A few tips:

• Set out the butter and/or cream cheese to soften before you start mixing your cake.
• If you use salted butter, leave out the pinch of salt.
• Make the frosting after the cake comes out of the oven - while its cooling.

 

Naturally Pink Strawberry Frosting

• pinch salt
• 2 sticks butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 cup frozen strawberries, thawed and pureed
• 3 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

Beat butter & salt until light and fluffy. Add 3 Tbsp strawberry puree and vanilla. Sift confectioners sugar in gradually. Do not over beat or it will turn to liquid. Again, this comes from personal experience....