Happy St. Patrick's Day and a Video Game Birthday Cake

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Birthday to my little sister! I decided to make my sister a gaming cake this year and thought that a Minecraft Creeper border would be perfect for the holiday. The cake is a simple four layered yellow cake with chocolate ganache and vanilla buttercream. I made the decorations out of marshmallow fondant.

For the cake layers I used my favorite yellow cake recipe found here. I made two batches and threw in some rainbow sprinkles for one batch. For the ganache I used my all time favorite recipe. It's straight forward and easy to adjust if you need more or less ganache. Finally, for the buttercream I used this recipe. Since discovering this recipe it's the only one I use for buttercream. It works like a dream and as long as you carefully follow the instructions should turn out perfect every time. 

I topped the cake with Pokemon and Assassin's Creed. They're two of her favorite game series. 

I sculpted this to look like my sister dressed in Ash's clothes. 

I chose bulbasuar because he's green. I was being cheesy and tried to make everything green for St. Patrick's Day. And yes today is her real birthday. 

The Creeper face border. This was really fun and easy to make! 

The top of the cake. I ran out of room to fully spell out birthday >_< 

So that's all for this week. Hope you all have a safe and fun St. Patrick's day! Happy crafting and baking! ♥  

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IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!! A Big Apology and Recap of 2013 Projects

Please accept this picture of a sad cat as our most sincere apology. :( 

So you guys might have noticed that we've been on a horribly prolonged hiatus. While we'd like for you all to think that we've been out saving babies and kittens using our awesome crafting skills, the truth is we don't really have a valid excuse for our absence. I think what happened was that we missed a week of posting and then suddenly it was the new year. The good news is that we weren't completely unproductive; we actually have some stuff to share with you. We made a lot of fun stuff but some of it went undocumented because we just weren't in our usual blogger mindset. Again please forgive us. 

Yes Mushu, we have behaved most dishonorably.

To make up for everything this post is gonna be a quick recap of what we did take pictures of. Some of the projects will get their own blog post with tutorials. So on to the stuff. 

We made a giant gift basket full of goodies for our dear friend's baby shower. There's so much stuff crammed into the basket that it warrants it's very own post. So look out for it in the coming weeks. 

Ai has been on a bit of a shadow box kick lately. She's been making them to celebrate vacations and special occassions. Look at all the detail!!! ^_^ 

See this is how lazy we were to blog. We didn't even have the decency to share with you our awesome Threadcakes news. We somehow managed to snag a winning spot in our category! This year we're gunning for the number one spot, so look out for that later in the year. 

Ai got married recently and this was from her wedding shower! They're sugar butterflies that I will be teaching you how to make. The pink butterflies have brush embroidery details, which I've been obsessed with lately. I'll be doing a tutorial on that too. 

These were the thank you gifts we made for everyone who attended Ai's wedding shower. 

I have been so in love with Joe Pastry ever since I stumbled upon his blog. He is seriously the best. If you're looking for a pastry recipe, chances our he has a tutorial for it. I not only love that his recipes are so easy to follow, but also the fact that he explains the whys of the techniques used. If you haven't heard of him before go over to his blog now! 

  Most recent thing I did was make my birthday cake. Man am I getting seriously old. 

Also, I updated our most popular post since everyone has taken it upon themselves to sass us and let us know how dumb we are for failing and how we just weren't doing it right. Just a forewarning I got kind of sassy in the update, but seriously we knew what we were doing and I explain why the project is just a fail right from the start. Like I said, we went against our better judgment and wasted our time trying the project.

This is just some of the stuff we did during our absence. We promise to start posting weekly again. We have a lot of really great stuff planned for this year. We really are going to start making video tutorials. I know that October is a long way away, but we'll be posting about new costumes and cosplays. We might just be at Phoenix Comicon this year and cosplaying at a convention for the first time. We'll let you know if that's happening for sure. I can't really think of anything else at the moment, but we hope that too many of you haven't left us yet. As always happy crafting and baking! ♥  

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No Bake 4th of July Jell-o Cheesecake

Today's post is just in time for the 4th of July. This recipe is an old favorite of mine from Ai. I modified the recipe a bit to make it fit with the classic red, white, and blue of the holiday. It's an easy and delicious recipe you can make year round. The only thing difficult about the process is waiting for everything to set! I used a tupperware jell-o mold to make this, but it would certainly be possible to just make it in a baking pan and just reverse the order of the layers. 

For the Jell-o layers

Start out with a 3 oz. box of blue jell-o and a 3 oz. box of red jell-o. You can use whatever flavor you want (like cherry instead), and change up the fruits to match the flavors. Then you need 1 cup each of fresh blueberries and sliced strawberries.

You're going to be using less water to make the jell-o. You need only 3/4 cup of boiling water and 3/4 cup of cold water. Make the jell-o like you normally would. 

Next you pour an 1/8 in. layer of jell-o in the mold and let it slightly set up for about 10 minutes. 

Add a little bit of the blueberries to make a nice pattern. 

While this first layer is setting up refrigerate the remaining blue jell-o until it is lightly set up. You want the jell-o to be somewhere between liquid and jiggly. Fold in the remaining blueberries and pour it into the mold. Let it set until firm for about an hour.

Repeat all the steps for the blue jell-o for the the red jell-o. 

The Cheesecake Layer

While the jell-o layers are setting up prepare the cheesecake layer. (Just a note here: the pics aren't going to match up because I made the cheesecake layer according to the original recipe. Because I used two jell-o layers instead of one, I only needed half of the cheesecake batter. I'll be writing the recipe up with the adjustments.) You'll need eggs, cream cheese, sugar, milk, and a packet of unflavored gelatin. 

In a saucepan mix together the gelatin and sugar. 

Mix the egg yolks with the milk and then whisk the egg mixture into the gelatin and sugar.

Cook on medium-low heat until the gelatin dissolves and the mixture thickens up a little. DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Immediately remove the mixture from the saucepan.

Whip up the egg whites until stiff and set aside. 

Combine the vanilla extract, salt, and cream cheese. Mix until smooth. 

Slowly mix in the egg mixture. The batter will be liquidy. 

Fold in the egg whites.

Pour the batter into the mold and let set in the fridge for about 10 minutes. 

Graham Cracker Crust

Mix together graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

Add in melted butter.

Gently press the crumbs into the cheesecake layer.

Let everything set up for at least 5 hours. 

Enjoy the beautiful dessert! 

4th of July No Bake Jell-o Cheesecake

Ingredients

3 oz. box blue jell-o

3 oz. box red jell-o

1 cup fresh blueberries

1 cup fresh sliced strawberries 

water

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 envelope unflavored gelatin

1/4 cup milk

1 egg, separated

8 oz. package of cream cheese

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cup graham cracker crumbs

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/3 cup melted butter

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, stir blue jell-o with 3/4 cup boiling water until jell-o is completely dissolved. Stir in 3/4 cup of cold water.

2. Pour 1/8" layer into 6 cup mold. Refrigerate until almost set, about 10 minutes.

3. Arrange a few blueberries on jell-o layer to make a pretty design. Refrigerate until set. 

4. Refrigerate remaining jell-o until almost set. You want the jell-o to be in a state that is still a little liquidy, but chunky when you stir it.

5. Fold in remaining blueberries. Spoon into the mold and refrigerate until firm.

6. When blue jell-o layer is firm, repeat steps 1-5 for the red jell-o.

7. While jell-o is setting up, in a 2 qt. saucepan mix the sugar and the gelatin. In a cup with a fork beat milk and egg yolk until blended. Stir mixture into gelatin.

8. Cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until gelatin is dissolved and mixture coats the back of a spoon (DO NOT BOIL). Remove from saucepan.

9. In a small bowl beat egg whites until stiff; set aside. Beat cream cheese, salt, and vanilla extract until smooth. Gradually beat in gelatin mixture until blended. Fold in beaten egg whites. Pour into mold and let set for about 10 minutes.

10. In a small bowl combine graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon. Mix in melted butter until well combined with the crumbs. Gently press crumbs into the cheesecake layer. Let everything set up completely. At least 5 hours; preferably overnight.

Just a note about the recipe. The original recipe only calls for one layer of jell-o and double the amount of cheesecake batter. I just wanted to make the recipe festive and opted for two different colored layers of jell-o. This recipe is easy to play around with and you can use any combination of jell-o flavors and fruits. Hope you all enjoy and have fun with it! 

That's all for this week folks! Happy crafting and baking! ♥  

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DIY Cute Baby Shower Magnets

A really good friend of ours had a baby shower recently, so we've been busy bees and made a bunch of fun stuff. Pinterest is a gold mine for making simple and cute gifts for a baby shower. Be careful about getting too caught about with all the different tutorials. It's really easy to get lost in the sea of pins and keep on making stuff. 

Today's post isn't actually from Pinterest. Ai made these cute magnets for our friend and her husband, so she decided to make a new set for their new addition. Making your own magnets can be easy and fun. You can check out this previous post to find out how to make your own. 

The magnets came out super cute! I think they make a lovely addition to the other magnets.

The baby magnet came out incredibly adorable. 

That's all for this week folks! We made so many different things, that we have to break all the posts up. Also be on the lookout for our video tutorials. We already set up a Youtube account. You can subscribe here. We don't have anything up yet, but we're working on producing quality tutorials. We should have some stuff up within the next month or so. Happy crafting and baking! ♥  

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Harry Potter Craft Downloadables

I have some fun Harry Potter downloadables for you. There's the Hogwarts acceptance letter and envelope, labels for wand boxes, candy labels for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and some other stuff. All of this stuff is free to use as long as it's not for profit. 

To get the aged look on the paper and envelope I coffee stained everything and immediately dried the paper with a hair dryer. Also you may need to iron the paper so it's smooth for the printer. To do this take a hand towel and place it over the paper and iron  like normal. The letter is meant to be printed on a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper and then cut in half. The envelope is an A2 Baronial 4 3/8" x 5 3/4". In order to get the font right, you need to download the MAGIK font from here. You'll probably need to adjust it a bit because Google Docs reformatted the letter since magik is a special font. 

The front of the envelope

For the back I made "wax seals". Make sure to print on red cardstock or whatever color you want. 

I looked in the book so I could hand sign McGonagall's name

I made candy boxes out of cardstock. Just look on pinterest for some tutorials. I used a giant shoebox to put all the candy boxes in and labeled it a Skiving Snackbox. 

I made the number labels for the wands myself and the Ollivander's label I found on the internet and printed on blue cardstock. 

I also made my own owl post stamp. I got the owl vector from deviantart. 

Alright on to what you've all been waiting for. Everything except for the envelope is meant to be printed on 8.5" x 11" paper. Everything is free to use as long as you don't use them for profit. 

Hogwarts Acceptance Letter

Envelope

Wax Seals

Weasley's Wizard Wheezes Labels

Candy Labels

Ollivander's Wand Labels

Wand Number Labels

Owl Post Stamp

That's all for this week folks. Hope you enjoy using everything and it would be awesome if you sent us pictures of the things you make. Happy crafting! ♥  

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