Sara says: YUM YUM!

Hello there, lovely internet peoples! I'm happy to report that my "Cupcake-a-Day" project was a complete success! I've finished making a rather comfy scarf and a completely fun hat.

Check out part 1 here to see the beginning stages of my post-holiday crochet-a-thon.

Here's the remaining cupcakes before I stitched them together. They are loosely based on Twinkie Chan's cupcake pattern. By loosely, I mean, I pretty much free-handed these while watching The Big Lebowski. The result was some funky and fancy-free cupcakes, if I do say so myself.

Now, check out the hat! It's straight from Twinkie Chan's book. I love the colors but I had some issues with the pattern; which probably has more to do with me being an eager, but often slack, crochet neophyte than the pattern itself. In the future, I'd probably make this hat bigger and with sexier yarn. 

Notice the strawberry on top of the hat! That was a last minute, "fuck it"- type decision that turned out amazing. The strawberry is completely free-handed with no pattern! Go me! I loved it so much, I've taken to making a mess of loosey strawberries. Haven't decided what to do with them yet.

This is the part where you make a suggestion! What should a do with my strawberries?!

And I hope you have an amazing day! :D

Sara says: YUM!

So, I mentioned in a previous crochet frenzy post that I've started on some new projects for springtime.

One such project I am calling "Cupcake-a-Day".



I'm working up a different cupcake everyday with different fun yarns I've had sitting around for awhile. Some are bulky, some are wispy, and some are just plain damn difficult. The goal is to make enough to make a goodly-sized cupcake scarf a-la Twinkie Chan.

Source: allthingscupcake.com via Sara on Pinterest

I won't flood your newsfeeds with cupcakes! This is just a progress report. I've finished 9 and I'm thinking 14 should be long enough.

Grab a glass of milk and take a looksee.

Here's all of 'em lined up scarfy-style.

The bottom one looks more like a mushroom, teehee. I like how they're all different looking; it gives me something to think about everyday! They're in order of when they were made.

My version is a bit different than Twinkie Chan's - the cupcakes aren't one solid piece, but I think it still works. It's fun anyways!

The next project is a matching hat! Also a-la Twinkie Chan.

Source: twinkiechan.tumblr.com via Sara on Pinterest

Yummy. I swear I don't just sit around and play with string all day... :P

Sara's makin: WHOOPIE

PIES, you nasty thing you...


Today is my eternal beloved's 24th birthday. To find an appropriate sweetie thing with which to celebrate, I, of course, turned to Pinterest. A search for "cupcake" lead to this recipe for Nutella cupcakes. Matt <3's Nutella, so this was a perfect idea.

WHY HELLO THAR!

Source: mybakingaddiction.com via Sara on Pinterest

Following the trail the pin lead, I found this lovely and user-friendly blog called My Baking Addiction. I wanted cute matchy-matchy cupcake wrappers and whatnot, so I ventured to the bar-code fearing Hobby Lobby. There I found this whoopie pie pan and that made me go, "Hmmmm"...

So that's when I decided that I was gonna squish these suckers down into whoopie pies!

Now the cake recipe is pretty simple as Ducan Hines Fudgey Chocolate in a box did most of the leg-work. I added some fine ground sea salt for pizazz and a little Nutella just to say it was in there. I kinda had to guess how long my little cakes needed to bake, but 18 minutes at 350 seemed to do the trick. I followed the Nutella Buttercream Frosting recipe from My Baking Addiction using heavy cream and WOAH MOMMA!

#1. If you're fancy and have a Kitchenaid, it should be a cinch. But otherwise be prepared to work them arms! That 2lbs of powdered sugar is brutal.
#2. It makes a veritable shit-ton. I have enough left over after icing a dozen whoopie pies to do an entire cake.
#3. It tastes fucking amazing.
#4. These are very bad for you.


The end result!

The chocolate cake kinda makes me think of hamburger patties... ANYWAYS!

Whoopie pies are great because: you don't have to necessarily worry about your icing being all flawless looking, they're better for people in the cake camp versus the icing camp, they cool down fairly quickly, and it's fun to say WHOOPIE PIE!

I also added a layer of Nutella in the middle (with the icing... I told you these were BAD) and Nutella is actually great on cake. It doesn't pull or anything! The fact that Nutella and cake go together so well should convince everyone of the fact that, contrary to popular belief, this shit is not a health food. BUT IT IS DAMN TASTY!


Happy Birthday Lovey!