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Monday, December 9, 2013

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting


For our church Christmas party I was in charge of bringing a dessert.  I had some Andes candy cane bits that I wanted to use somehow, so I decided on mini chocolate cupcakes with a peppermint frosting.  My approach to frosting tends to be "mix some things together until it tastes good".  Sometimes this results in making WAY too much frosting in my effort to get it just right, but this time around it actually came together really well in easy measurements that I can actually remember :)

This frosting is nice because it has subtle flavours, isn't too sweet, and holds a piping shape well.  If you want a stronger peppermint flavour or a thicker frosting, just add a little extra extract and sugar! It makes enough to generously frost 24 regular sized cupcakes, 48 mini ones, a 9x13 cake, or a double layer 9" round cake (so basically, one box cake mix :)

Peppermint Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 1/2 cup butter (softened)
  • 8oz cream cheese (softened)
  • 3-4 cups icing sugar
  • 1-2 tsp peppermint extract
  • 1-2 tsp clear vanilla extract
  • 1/2 tsp salt
Whip butter, cream cheese, 3 cups icing sugar, 1 tsp peppermint, 1 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Add additional extracts to taste, and additional icing sugar to adjust consistency as needed.  

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Geometric baby quilts

This weekend I finished up the quilt tops that I made last weekend! All three are now posted in my etsy shop, as well!


Geometric star baby quilt:

 This one is just little, at 30x30".  It's a great size for a car seat, tummy time, or just snuggling.  I used the blues and oranges from the Birds and Berries line.
Star block patterns are pretty common. This one is just a bunch of full squares and half triangles.  I just drew out the plan on some graph paper, then assembled! Very easy with a charm pack!

Herringbone crib quilt:
I've seen a ton of similar quilts on pinterest over the past year, so I figured I'd try my hand at it.   I just cut some big parallelograms and assembled.  It could easily be done using half triangles, too, but this method was faster for me.  I backed it with this adorable orange and white bird fabric that I've had in my stash for at least a year.


 Black and white "plus sign" quilt:
This is another quilt that I have seen around on pinterest.  I like the clean, crisp lines of it!  I backed it with a minty blue flannel rather than my usual plain cotton, so it's extra snuggly.

 I think that I'd like to add the herringbone and plus sign quilt layouts to my custom quilt listings (once I reopen the custom quilt option after baby is born :).  They're so easy to customize just by changing the colours, and resizing wouldn't be a problem at all.  I already have some sweet colour combos and slight modifications in mind to try!