THE Rainbow Cake

Where I work I am asked two things almost daily: (1) when is your birthday, and (2) what are you going to be for halloween (for those of you who don't know, I work with people who have been diagnosed with mental retardation).

Usually I say, "It's a long way away.  And I don't know who I will be.  Who are you going to be?" (I am then usually told exactly who they will be for halloween and then informed who I will be).  

Well, this past week I was able to respond with a different answer than I usually do.  When I told the clients that my birthday was that weekend every client reacted with pure excitement.  They asked me questions about what I would be doing for my birthday and...I lied to all of them.

oops.

I told them that I had no idea what I would be doing. 

But...I knew.

I would be checking off another Pinterest recipe and then indulging in wonderful buttery, suggary, goodness.  

THE Rainbow Cake.

The moment my eyes connected with the picture on Pinterest I knew that I had to make that cake, but that it had to be a special occasion.

Why not for my birthday???

These are a few of the ingredients needed for the cake:

 I had to go buy more eggs though...what's a recipe without a huge egg mistake anyways?

I was able to use my beautiful new fancy 8inch cake pans given to me from my parents for my birthday!  Of course, they were covered in butter...

I was nervous that the colors wouldn't look as pretty as I have seen in other peoples rainbow cakes; however, mine were beautiful!

 I thought the tip to freeze each cake layer wrapped in seranwrap was really clever in order to avoid cake crumbs when icing the cake.  I didn't have any issues with crumbs when I iced the cake and it looked beautiful!

Ladies and Gentlemen, THE Rainbow Cake!!!!!

It's beautiful and I am very proud.  I know it's crooked, but I was too lazy to cut any of the layers to a perfect size.  Anyways, I think crooked gives the cake character.

Rainbow Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream

Recipe from love & olive oil.

I had WAY too much icing left over and put WAY too much on my cake, next time I'll probably try to cut the recipe for the icing in half.

ingredients:

For Cake:
2 1/4 cups cake flour (9 ounces)
1 cup whole milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites (3/4 cup), at room temperature
2 teaspoons almond extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar (12 1/4 ounces)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened but still cool
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple gel food coloring

For Frosting/Filling:
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
10 large egg whites
2 pounds (8 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into tablespoons, softened
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 pound best-quality white chocolate, melted and cooled (I used Baker's White Chocolate)

directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cake pans by first liberally buttering the pans, then line the bottoms with parchment paper rounds. Butter the rounds and set aside.

Pour milk, egg whites, and extracts into 2-cup glass measure, and mix with fork until blended. Mix cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in bowl of electric mixer at slow speed. Add butter; continue beating at slow speed until mixture resembles moist crumbs, with no powdery streaks remaining. Add all but 1/2 cup of milk mixture to crumbs and beat at medium speed (or high speed if using handheld mixer) for 1 1/2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup of milk mixture and beat 30 seconds more. Stop mixer and scrape sides of bowl. Return mixer to medium (or high) speed and beat 20 seconds longer.

Divide batter evenly between six medium bowls. Add enough of each color of food coloring to each bowl, whisking, until desired shade is reached. Transfer each color to an individual cake pan. Transfer to oven and bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean, about 15-25 minutes (working in batches if necessary).

Let cakes rest in pans for 3 minutes. Loosen from sides of pans with a knife, if necessary, and invert onto wire rack. Allow to cool completely. At this point, the layers can also be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen.

To make frosting, put sugar and egg whites in the heatproof bowl of an electric mixer, and set over a pan of simmering water. Whisk constantly until sugar is dissolved and mixture registers 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment; beat on medium-high speed until fluffy and cooled, about 10 minutes. Continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter by the tablespoon, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla and white chocolate. (Any leftover frosting can be refrigerated in an airtight container up to 3 days or frozen up to 1 month.)

To assemble, using a serrated knife, trim tops of cakes to make level. Place four strips of parchment or waxed paper around perimeter of a cake stand or lazy Susan. Place the purple layer on the cake plate. Scoop a 1/2 cup (or more for a larger cake) buttercream filling over the first layer and spread with a small offset spatula so it extends just beyond edges. Repeat process with blue, green, yellow, and orange layers.

Place the remaining red layer on top, bottom-side up. Gently sweep away any loose crumbs with a pastry brush. Using an offset spatula, cover the top and sides with a thin layer of frosting (also use any of the excess frosting visible between the layers). Refrigerate until set, about 30 minutes.

Using a large offset spatula, cover cake again with remaining frosting.

I hope you all enjoy! I'm sure your mouth is watering as you read this because mine is. It sure did make my birthday fantastic!

Mrs. W

My 7 Favorite Things

Mr. W and I recently found out that we might be moving to Indianapolis in a few months.  If not Indianapolis, then somewhere away from the place we are living now.

I am SO excited.

Moving means we will have a different apartment or house (hopefully the latter), a new city with more things to do, and the best of all....DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!!

A dog.

You have no idea how excited Mr. W and I are about this.  We already have a name for our dog, a dog bowl with that name on it, and we have decided that boredom will no longer be present in our lives once we have one.  

You might think we are pathetic, but we don't care.  

The time is getting closer for us to finally have a dog.

To distract myself from my impatience over the time left until we get one, as well as my excitement over a new place to live, I have been thinking of my favorite things about our apartment.  I came up with 7.  

The 7 include things I have made and collected.  I think they make our little apartment cute and cozy.

1.  Tennis Racket Mirrors

These are probably my favorite wall decorations in our apartment.  I found a tutorial to make them here.  I bought the rackets on Etsy but couldn't afford to have mirrors cut to put in the center.  I decided I would just wait until we had the money and would hang the rackets up as decorations until then.   

Well, little did I know, a friend of mine had the rackets, got mirrors cut, glued them onto the racket strings and gave them to me as a wedding present.  I was THRILLED.

2.  The "W"

This W used to have a hideous maroon colored zebra print on it.  Obviously, no one wanted that so I found it at Marshall's on the sale table for $4.  I painted it white and mod podged colored glass to the front.  I really like how it turned out.

3.  Jar Lamp

I've been wanting to make a lamp with a bottle and Christmas lights for a long time but hadn't found the right bottle.  When I went to the Canton flea market I found this bottle for $6 and knew it would be perfect!

4.  Paper Wreath

I found the tutorial to make this wreath here.  It was fun to make and really cheap.  All I had to buy was the styrofoam wreath part.  I used a book I knew I wouldn't be reading again and a hot glue gun.  I think it would look better against a different colored wall...but...obviously it's not okay to paint apartment walls.

5.  Luggage Table

This is our new side "table".  The luggage was bought by my mother-in-law for $10 from a local flea market.  It's the perfect height for our chair and is sturdy enough to set things on.  I really like how it looks.

6.  The Wall of Finds

I'm proud of the shelves over our couch.  I hung them all by myself.  Mr. W did point out that they are crooked...but...I try to ignore that.
The shelves were bought from target with wedding gift cards and the things on the shelves are from all different places.  I made the wreath out of felt; the stacked books are from different flea markets; the frames are from flea markets and sale tables and were painted a green color; I'm not sure where I got the mason jar from, which is filled with wine corks; the little globe is from TJ MAXX (I just typed tjmaxx and it looks like a really strange word now...); and the lantern is from the Canton flea market.  I really like the look of the different things...and...Mr. W and I pray that I hung them up correctly so they don't fall on us while we are sitting on our couch.

7.  A bunch of stuff.....(I can't come up with a fancy name for this one...)

I like this little area of our apartment because of the different things I've collected.  The letters with hooks were purchased from Hobby Lobby and have been great to hang our keys on.  The scale was bought from a local flea market and the picture frame on it was a gift from a friend after Mr. W and I got engaged.  The terrarium was from Ross and has candles and some decorative balls in it (no plants yet) that were wedding gifts.  I'm proud of these things because I did not pay a lot of money for them but I think they look great!

I might complain about our little apartment, but I have come to enjoy it.  Yes, I probably will not miss it once we move, but I am proud of the things that have helped make it feel like home.


Now, I would like to propose a challenge to whoever is reading this.

I want my blog to be the best it can be.  In order to do that I need your help.

I'm not sure who reads this, but I would like to ask you to give me feedback on what you think about my blog.  I want honest negative and/or positive feedback.

Here's the great thing!  You can leave me a comment anonymously! That way you may feel more comfortable stating the negative things.

So, please accept my challenge and let me know what you think!


I hope you enjoyed the things I've showed you around our apartment and that they inspired you to do some decorating!

Maybe I will have time to work on the baby's quilt soon and will write a post about it...maybe...

Mrs. W

DIY Seating Project

Hello, my name is Mrs. W and I am addicted to Pinterest.

Yes, it's a problem.

I find SOO many projects I want to complete the instant I repin them...but...as you can see from the title of my blog, I have a budget I must follow.

Pinterest could possibly destroy our budget if I don't learn self-control.

In order to avoid any confrontations with the husband for overspending, I need to have a legitimate reason to make something I have repined.

I was able to justify this project due to the lack of seating in our apartment.  So it's okay that we were short on money for the month of January.

Oops.

Moving on.  This is the original picture from Pinterest that inspired me!

I found the tutorial here and it was really helpful.

My first step was to find the perfect fabric.  I'm pretty much obsessed with burlap, so when I found cheap burlap here I knew that's what I had to use!

I bought two of these potato bags for $1.60 each and a yard of dark brown burlap for $3.45 from the same website (onlinefabricstore)

This is a picture of the seat without the bottom sewn on.  I cut the potato bags into four squares so that the writing wouldn't be too repetitive.  I like how it turned out.

After sewing together the four sides, I turned it inside out so the bottom piece could be sewn on.

When sewing on the bottom piece, you sew three of the sides and leave one open so the zipper can be sewn in.  Once the three sides are finished, sew on the zipper! 

To be honest...sewing on a zipper was intimidating.  I looked at several youtube videos to find one that made the most sense to me and found one here.

Once the zipper is sewn on, styrofoam beans would be the best thing to fill the seat up with.

Mine is actually not filled with those because I didn't have any money left to spend.  Oops.  I had some stuffing left over from another project, so I put that in along with a big pillow we had that wasn't being used.
You can find the beans here.  I'm not sure how many bags you would need...when I buy them I will let you know!

TADA!  The new addition to our living room!

It is used as a seat and even a footrest at times.  Perfect!

-Burlap bags: $1.60 X 2= $3.20
-Dark brown burlap:  $3.45
-Zipper from Hancock Fabric:  $3.00
-Two bags of the styrofoam beans: $30.00
- Indulging on a Pinterist project: Priceless

Total:  $39.65
(This price is a guess since I don't know how many bags of the styrofoam are needed)



Hope you enjoy!

Mrs. W

p.s.  Fabric has been purchased for Baby G's quilt I will be making! Not sure how long it will take me to make, but get excited because I will be writing a post about it!

Auntie M's Destiny

I have discovered my purpose in life.

My discovery happened today when I received the most amazing picture ever.

The sonogram of my sister's belly.  Also known as: my unborn niece.

So excited to be an aunt.

In fact, being so excited, helped me discover my purpose in life!

Ready?

I am destined to be an aunt to nieces and/or nephews AND, because I love crafts so much, I must sew and make things for my nieces and/or nephews.

Doesn't that just sound fantastic?

Forget a profession and all of that worthless stuff.  Who needs it?

You might have assumed that this post is about something I made for my new niece...you're wrong.  I just needed to rant about being an aunt and how excited I am.

I'm actually going to brag on a project I did for my brother's birthday.

I think it's awesome.  I was inspired to do it because I actually want something like it for myself.

You could say...this was kind of a trial run for what I will make for myself...just don't tell my brother. 

It might make him feel unimportant or something.  :)

So, this is what I made.  A sign my brother can hang up in his house.  

The inspiration came from a blog you can see here.

I started out by buying different sizes of plywood from Lowes and screwing them together.

I then stained the wood with Minwax in Early American from Lowes.  I had to stain it twice, just a heads up.  And, it's important to give yourself a day for the stain to fully dry.
The stain turned out beautifully!

I wanted to put a really cool phrase on it, but of course, I couldn't make a decision.  So, I decided to do something easier.

You know, something easy...like...a star!

Yeah. If you think that will be easy, you're crazy.  Just like me when I made that decision.

Completing the star was a LONG process.  I tried free handing it...that failed.

Basically, if you're going to do a star, either have a projector like the lady in the original blog, or have someone else...do the majority of the work.  That's what I did.  Thanks to my brother-in-law, we have the next picture.  He used protractors and all of that crazy stuff I haven't used since 6th grade.

Once we found the five points, I used blue painters tape to make the outline of the star as well as the center lines which, we hoped would end up making it look 3Dish.

I painted the area around the outer lines of the star as well as the assigned areas in the center of the star.

Here is the end result...well...except for the fact that it should be hanging on my brother's wall in his house.

I think it's awesome and I'm really proud of it.

There is NO way I could have done it without the help of mi familia.

I would love to give a detailed price list of this project, but it was sponsored by my parents since it's technically a birthday present from them.  I'll give an estimated amount.

-Wood (different sizes)- $25 for 8 boards

-Minwax in Early American- $8 for 1 quart

-Painters blue tape- $6

-Foam brush- $1

-Screws taken from my Dad's collection

-Screwdriver borrowed from my Dad

(Everything was purchased from Lowes)

Total:  $40.00

Hope you enjoy!

Mrs. W...or as I will be called come June 23rd, Auntie M

Christmas Productivity

I have had a month-and-a-half break from school.

Most people are jealous when they first hear how long my break is...and let me tell you, I was SOO excited and loved every minute of it...well...up until this past week.

Don't get me wrong...sleeping in until noon, doing crafts, reading, watching movies and Netflix....those are all fabulous....but after a month-and-a-half of that...you start to feel like your life is worthless.

Also, like you are super lazy.

Due to feeling worthless, I would like to give an overview of everything I completed this break, in hopes that I will feel like I was some-what productive!

While I was visiting my family in Texas we went to the most amazing flea market in Canton, Texas.  This is the most amazing place in the world. For those of you who like flea markets, I highly recommend going.  I spent a lot of money there and bought a lot of really cool things, but my favorite are the old suitcases I bought.

I've wanted to make a night stand out of vintage suitcases for a long time now and I was finally able to do it!  

Adorable. I know.

And before showing off my other creations, I must introduce the best Christmas present ever.

 This is my brand new Brother sewing machine. Ohmygoodness. It's my favorite and I love using it.

BUT it has reminded me how extremely messy I am. This is...well...was our kitchen table. Oops.

I thought it would be hard to learn how to sew but instead I have loved every minute of it.  The first thing I made was an infinity scarf, but I don't have any pictures of that.  It was SUPER easy though.

My next sewing project was a pillow that I love!

 The fabric is a khaki colored linen and then I hand sewed a doily onto the front.

I am very proud of my next sewing project because many people did not think I would do it.  

Attention please! Presenting, our wedding guest book quilt! 

I know it's almost 9 months late, but better late than never!

I guess my month-and-a-half break paid off since I was able to do a lot of projects.

And...I never thought I would say this, but I'm ready to go back to school.

Hope you enjoy!

Mrs. W

p.s. I actually finished two other projects this break that I will post about later.  One is a birthday present that hasn't been given to the person yet and the other is a sewn furniture piece for our living room.  Get excited!

It's Pumpkin's Fault

Have I mentioned Christmas is my favorite time of the year?

Not only is Christmas music constantly playing, the tiny amount left of my pumpkin candle is melting, causing me to crave any type of pumpkin dessert.

I have three cans of pumpkin I might add.  One is the huge can too.

I looked up several pumpkin recipes and decided it was either eat amazing pumpkin-ness...and...gain more weight...OR, spend my time working on some craft to fulfill my creation desire.

So this is the craft that came of my pumpkin craving. 

And guess what?  No weight gained.

Success.

I got a cardboard "W" from JoAnn's and some red berries from Michaels....

I pulled off the berries and hot glued them to the cardboard letter.  Just a warning, some of the red came off of the berries...but I plan to color the white parts in with a red sharpie.

Then I worked on the wreath part.  I don't have any pictures of the supplies used for the wreath because I worked on it really late, sorry about that.  But this picture shows what the wreath looked like before I made it pretty.   I used a package that said, Moss Table Runner for the moss.  This is actually a bad idea because the moss smells terrible...and I would not want to smell that while eating food from a table with a moss table runner on it...but whatever! No one asked me.

Anyways, the moss table runner was great to use because it already had netting on the back that held the moss together when I cut it into sections.  Then I hot glued the moss to the wreath! This was actually not that difficult and took about an hour or so.

A friend of mine recommended that I find a way to make the cardboard letter able to be removed.  This way I can still use the moss part and put something on it for other seasons in the year.  I REALLY liked that idea, so I poked two holes in the corner at the top of the cardboard letter.  I then put green floral wire through the holes and wrapped it around the wreath. (Pictured above)

TADA! This wreath on our cheap apartment door makes it look really fancy!

Perfect.

I'm pretty much obsessed with this wreath and love it.  I've considered putting it on the inside of our door whenever I come home so that Mr. W and I can enjoy my creation...lame. I know.  I will refrain myself.

COST:

• Moss table runner (14 feet long) from Michaels:  $8.00 (with 40% off coupon)
• Hay wreath (18 inches) from Michaels:  $5.00
• Cardboard "W" (approx 12inches) from JoAnn's:  $4.00
• Berries (one bunch worked for me) from Michaels:  $5.00 (with 50% off coupon)
• Floral wire (green) from Michaels:  $2.00 (I only used a tiny bit of this so it can be used with other projects as well)

Total:  Approximately $24.00

Time:  Approximately 2 days (only because I was lazy gluing the berries on)

Hope you enjoy!

Mrs. W

p.s.  My pumpkin candle is gone now...I have a cookie candle lit...peanut butter cookies or another craft??

p.p.s.  I accidentally deleted the original post of this...I attempted to rewrite it but wasn't able to remember things. Lame. I know.  I apologize.

Confessions and Christmas

Okay. I have a confession. I am a blog-a-phobe.

So. I have decided to be a professional social worker, take a quick break from the papers I should be writing, and face my fears!

I should be working on all of the final papers due this week and next week...but no. I spent all last night and the night before doing crafts.

Caught.

Oh well! I'm facing my fears, right? So that makes this okay.

Anyways. Back to the point. Christmas. I love it.

Mr. W and I went and bought our first Christmas tree and I had to make the rest of the apartment as adorable as that tree!

Now, you might be looking at our tree and thinking to yourself, "Wow! What amazing ornaments! I wonder where they got them?"

Well, I have an answer! Macye the professional social worker made them! :)

The first step is to find your mom's best friend who happened to collect cookie cutters...okay. Maybe you won't be as lucky as me, THANKS PATTI!

Then you go buy some adorable scrapbook paper from Michael's or Hobby Lobby or a place like that.

Trace the cookie cutter onto the paper. And here's the trick. you have to trace inside of the cookie cutter, not outside. I tried it outside and let's just say that cookie cutter ornament is hanging on the back of the tree.

After you trace it, cut it out and put the paper inside of the cookie cutter. Then you will hot glue the paper to the sides of the cookie cutter! Keep in mind, some of the paper I have cut is way too small for the cookie cutter, or shaped kind of funny, but when you hang it on the tree no one will notice at all. And...if they do notice...then they shouldn't be your friend.

Lastly I hot glued ribbon to the top and hung it on the tree!

Hope you enjoy!

Hopefully facing my fears will work and I will be back!

Mrs. W