Almost Alice Cupcakes from Christinamachtwas

Dear lovely readers,

I´d like to introduce myself. My Name is Christina, I´m a friend of Anna and a blogger myself. At Christinamachtwas I share with you my latest recipes, my thoughts and so much more. Take a look, but first I´d like to show you my Almost Alice Cupcake that I created just for my lovely Anna.

For the inspiration I took a picture that Anna posted a few posts back. It´s this one:

I thought it would be perfect for a Cupcake, and I was right. They´re terrific, aren´t they?

You will need for 6 - 8 Cupcakes:

Ingredients: 200 g Flour 1/2 Ts Bakingpowder 1/2 Ts Natron (Bakingsoda) 1 pinch of Salt  70 g Butter 100 g Sugar 1 Egg  75 ml Milk 2 Hands full Berrys (Blueberrys + Red Currant) 1/2 Lemon

Directions: Mix together flour, bakingpowder, bakingsoda & salt. Whisk butter and sugar until it´s fluffy. Add the egg and the milk to the buttermixture and whisk until it´s comined. Now add the flourmixture and only use a wooden spoon to combine.     It´s not bad if there are flourflakes in the batter! Now add the berrys and gently fold them in. If you like you can squeeze a little bit of the lemonjuice in the batter. Fill it in papercups and bake at 180 °C about 12 - 15 Minutes. Make the "chopstick"-test. Let them cool completely.

And for the frosting you´ll need:

Ingredients: 250 g Mascapone 1 Package Cream Cheese 2 - 4 Ts Powdersugar Food dye in teal and blue if you want: Sugarpearls in black

Directions: Whisk everything together and  garnish the Cupcakes with it.                                    Add Sugarpearls to the frosting and enjoy!

I hope you liked my little sweet Almost Alice Cupcakes & I would be pleased to welcome you to my blog as well. 

Vanilla Cupcakes

What? Cupcakes? Baking?
Yeah, I bake. In fact, I love to bake! And most recently I taught myself to make different sorts of cupcakes and muffins because, you know, it's semester break and I wanted to include something useful in my week plan that hadn't to do with language practise, working or fitness.
Having received two cupcake baker's books for Christmas and my last birthday, I was ready to go!

Today I wanted to show you my vanilla cupcakes from a recipe available here. Unfortunately, there's no English version for that recipe - but don't worry, there will be more sorts of cupcakes and muffins coming soon!

For these, I used flavour from real vanilla beans and also made buttercream. I was glad everything worked out well and a colleague from work even said she imagined me as a new third member of 2 Broke Girls!

And I love taking pictures of them. I really do. Nothing makes me more proud than catching a long lasting memory of my creations before they're eaten up forever. That's the sad thing about pastries :(

Christmas Special Part 3: Christmas present DIYs

Welcome to part 3 of my Christmas special: Christmas present ideas.
Speaking about myself, making my own stuff is not only refreshening my soul but also a great opportunity to show beloved ones they're worth the time I put in crafting. I already planned on some stuff which, unfortunately, I can't show you in case some guys are spying. :P

I like this idea, especially for creative people. It's cheap, though I wouldn't think the idea is cheap.

You don't need to be a genius to make those slipper. Craftynest.com shows you how. You just need time.

One-of-a-kind woolen gifts by Marthasteward.com are very smart.

Can you crochet? I tried and failed because of lacking patience :/ But these owl coasters are just adorable! If you can make them, would you mind sending one to me? Oh come ooon.. please!

Maybe something for your mom. I assume they're easy to make! Check out http://media-cache-ec2.pinterest.com/upload/230879918366517358_lOjCidoY_c.jpg

Wanted to make one all the time. Maybe now? This is from http://media-cache-lt0.pinterest.com/upload/253820128968453567_dEMOIVrY_c.jpg

Need gift boxes? Nothing easier than that. I can't remember how many patterns I found on that. Here's one of them: http://www.designsbymeganturnidge.com/blog/?p=935

The diy bride had a great idea of envelope liners to make your envelope more personal. Nobody will throw that away...

More coasters! This one was posted on my favourite craft website, cutoutandkeep.net! I really thought about making some. Follow the link for a How-to.

Owl gift card

I love this idea of a bow. But I don't know the source...

Sooo witty! I love this idea! - http://shealynnbenner.com/2012/05/tutorial-7-spray-painted-doily-canvas/

I hope you can use somet of these or maybe at least one. I would make them all. If I had time.

How to: Fabric-covered buttons

After procrastinating, here's the button-post :D And why they aren't exactly buttons anymore and things you can do with these darlings instead!

This is gonna a a (stolen) tutorial about covering old buttons with lovely fabrics. Crazy people like me do things like that with'em:

...Rings. And as a consequence you get compliments from kids on the train! Really happened! :D I also have an order from a friend, she wants one with a purple care bear. Yay for childhood heroes!
So, here we go:

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/fabric_covered_buttons

that's what I discovered later. First, I did it in such a dumb way, which you can find here:
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/fabric-covered-buttons
Right.
Plus, the first method is waaay faster done when you're sitting in a lecture taking notes... :P

That's what it looks like when you want to cover the wrinkles with felt. I wouldn't recommend it though if you want to make a ring because then it gets too thick and sticks out afterwards which won't look pretty.

I've made loads more but they aren't photographed yet... I'm planning on more. And THAT'S WHY buying tiny scraps of fabric pays! The main point is having the print at home.

Other options to use them might be hair bows, maybe even earrings, bracelets, Buttons for bags, everything that can be decorated... :)

Cupcake pincushion

This was my very first felting project and concluding, felting isn't my thing I guess :/ it takes too long -.- loved the idea anyway and now I have a new cute pin cushion =)