Strawberry Cake.

My husband turned 39 last week. He either requests no cake or an ice cream cake. This year, it seemed he was leaning towards "no cake" and I find that unacceptable for a birthday. So, I found this cake in my recent Cooking Light and decided to give it a go. I knew he'd be OK with a CL recipe. He's very calorie conscious.

The reviews on the Cooking Light website are very mixed. Some people say the cake simply tastes like flour, others rave. In our house, we all enjoyed it. Honestly, I do think it could use more strawberry flavor in the actual cake, but I'd be concerned that adding more strawberry puree would make the cake too dense. I will make this cake again and play around a bit. Perhaps I will add some vanilla extract; I thought it was odd that there wasn't any in the recipe. Or, maybe some strawberry extract for more strawberry flavor. But I don't know... I've never used that before and don't really know what it tastes like. Is it too artificial tasting? Another thing I've decided to do... add strawberry preserves in between the layers.
The frosting was pretty good, but I really didn't see the point of the orange juice (used that instead of the Grand Marnier). There was no orange flavor, maybe add some zest? But I don't know, I think I'll just skip the orange all together next time. It didn't do a thing.
Overall, good cake, just needs a few alterations to make it great.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Yes, that's right, make some damn delicious lemonade!

I got a lot of lemons this week; both figuratively and literally. With the figurative lemons, well, that'll work out. With the literal lemons, a big, fresh batch of homemade lemonade was made.

Got the recipe here. But, I'll write it out because it's pretty simple. It really is quite sweet so next time I'll add a lot more lemon juice. While I was squeezing the lemons, I wished I had one of those old depression glass hand juicers that my parents used to have.


Perfect Lemonade

• 1 cup sugar (can reduce to 3/4 cup)
• 1 cup water (for the simple syrup)
• 1 cup lemon juice
• 3 to 4 cups cold water (to dilute)

1 Make simple syrup by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar is dissolved completely.

2 While the sugar is dissolving, use a juicer to extract the juice from 4 to 6 lemons, enough for one cup of juice.

3 Add the juice and the sugar water to a pitcher. Add 3 to 4 cups of cold water, more or less to the desired strength. Refrigerate 30 to 40 minutes. If the lemonade is a little sweet for your taste, add a little more straight lemon juice to it.

Serve with ice, sliced lemons.

Serves 6.

Knot Dress.

So, a few months ago a friend of mine asked me to make her daughter a knot dress. I looked at the dress an immediately purchased the pattern. It is adorable!
A couple weeks ago, she sent me the fabric. I wanted to make Abby a dress first to see how everything worked together, how the pattern read, etc. Oh. My. God.

This dress is adorable! So cute! Very easy to follow, excellent fit, and very versatile.
I purchased fabric from etsy from 44th Street Fabric mainly because the fabric was pink (by request from Abby) and because coordinating yardage was sold together. Very awesome! The shop was fantastic, super fast shipping and free fat quarters.

Abby wore the dress yesterday and loved it. There is a small hole in the back...the seam wasn't sewn together properly; I need to fix that, other than that, a ton of compliments! I plan to make many more of these.

Super Sized.

Like the majority of the crafty blog readers, I made a few buttercup bags. They're so cute. They're so easy. They're so...small. Too small for me.

I super-sized the pattern and made myself a ginormous buttercup bag. It almost sounds ridiculous that a bag this big has the name "buttercup."

I added a top zipper, some batting to the top and the lining for stability, and a long strap. I skipped on the pocket because I didn't want the bag to hang weird. Overall, I love my new spring bag in the pretty spring fabric (thrifted for me...a gift from my dad.) So, this awesome new bag was free! Can't beat that with a bat.

One Thing.

I made Abby a pair of capris out of thrifted twill from a thrifted pattern. Very cute. Fit perfectly. Yay!

Lots of Food, One Picture.

Yesterday was Easter. While I'm not religious, we do celebrate the Easter bunny's arrival with brunch.
I made a french toast casserole, hash brown casserole, broccoli rabe and red pepper frittata, and basil-lime fruit salad.

First, the french toast casserole. I didn't have a piece of my own, but I sampled my husband's. The topping was delicious, how could it not be? It was butter, walnuts (instead of pecans), brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and corn syrup! The inside of it was too soggy for my liking.

The hash brown casserole was rich and tasty. It is similar to Cracker Barrel's. In my opinion, the french fried onions on top were unnecessary. The broccoli rabe & red pepper frittata was my favorite dish despite the excessive amount of cheese. It did not need the amount of cheese that was called for. I had leftovers for breakfast this morning and took off all the cheese.

The basil-lime fruit salad was yummy! Such an unusual combination, but worked perfectly in this fruit salad.

Summer Top.

I love the thrift store. Where else can you guiltlessly build up your fabric stash and pattern stash?

During a thrifting trip with Heather, she came upon this very cute (and easy) pattern. Perfect size for my child. It's Simplicity 9652, a discontinued pattern.

The pattern didn't sit very long because one night I had an itch to sew, but no idea what to make. As per usual, I scanned my patterns and my fabric, but didn't have anything that would work together, until I looked on my desk...the "new" $.25 patterns weren't filed yet. Simple top, a little fabric, no problem!

I bought the fabric awhile ago (at the thrift store for $.50). So, in total, this cute top was only $.75! Not too bad, huh?! I plan on making more of these tops.
(Pardon the tired, glazed-over look of the child.)


A few changes: I added some darts because I didn't add the elastic in the front of the top. The buttonholes were the biggest challenge. They are totally uneven, but they are there, and they function. Oh, and the buttons are removed from a shirt my husband was donating, but claimed by me prior to donation.