Little Suzi Homemaker

Mini Wedding Cakes

2011-10-17T20:58:00.002-05:00

Also for Sarah Walker's wedding, some of us friends got together and threw a shower! Yay presents! I really did not do much, but I did make these scrumptious little fudge and carmel covered cakes. They tasted good, but I wish they had looked a little cuter. It's my own fault though, I didn't do a trial run. I like to always do a trial run on new recipes before I feed it to other people. This is why Andrew and I can never lose weight... Here are my Mini cakes!

For the tiers I used this set of circle cookie cutters. I also used these doilies to place the cakes on and the tiny lollipop sticks to hold the cake together. The doilies are kind of not my style, but they were the only thing I could find to place them on at the time. The fudge stuck together on its own.

I used a recipe from Martha Stewart online for the fudge cakes. First I prepared the pan. Just line a cookie sheet with some wax paper and spray with non stick cooking spray.

Then melt Mini Marshmallows, sugar, and other stuff that the recipe calls for, in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then add the chocolate.

Pour into the cookie sheet to let it set. I waited 4 hours at room temperature.

Once set, I flipped the pan and it came right out with the help of the wax paper.

I used three round cookie cutters to cut my tiers out.

Once cut I rolled the sides in coarse sugar, like Sugar In The Raw.

I placed on a doilie and sprinkled a bit more sugar to make it fancy-like. The tiers stuck together on their own since it was a little soft still.

All done with these!

Now for the carmel covered yellow cakes. I like the yellow cake recipe from the book Cupcakes by Elinor Kilvans. There are many good recipes in this book.

Just wanted to add a picture of my sous chef. I would like a bigger one too... Can we say "Christmas Wish List"?

And I also wanted to add that while I was baking, Andrew was doing this...

Without him I would never get any baking done! And there is nothing sexier than my man changing my baby's diaper without being asked... I mean come on! So great.

So back to the cake batter... Cream the sugar and eggs until fluffy and a cream color. Add sour cream, oil, and vanilla until well blended. No butter in this one... yet.

Gradually add the flour, salt, and baking powder until blended. Pour into baking sheet. I lined it with wax paper to make sure everything comes out. Bake at 350 until done. I think mine took 7ish minutes. My oven is extra hot.

Once the cake was done baking, I let it cool completely then used the two biggest circles I had to make the tiers. I put a lollipop stick in the middle to hold the tiers together. I decided not to do the top one because it was too tiny to put on a stick.

Here they are awaiting their carmel bath!

I used these ingredients to make the carmel sauce and put wax paper under the cooling rack so the extra carmel can drip off.

Boil everything in the pot to 324 degrees F and bubbly, then...

whisk in sour cream and vanilla.

Ready to dip!

Dive in head top tier first...

the place on cooling rack over wax paper to drip excess.

So delicious. Quickly becoming my favorite recipe. I made them before in tiny cupcake form and they were amazing and bite size. Very dangerous.

Sarah's Apron

2011-10-17T16:33:00.003-05:00

My dear friend Sarah Walker is getting married in less than a month! I cannot believe it! To fully equip her for her upcoming domestic duties, I decided to make her an apron.

I don't have a pattern to show you, I just see examples I like and sort of plan it out in my head and as I go. Here is what I did:

I started by cutting out the main fabric in on big rectangle. Then I cut out where the pockets would be.

I gathered, or rouched, the center of the apron to give it more body and make it more feminine. Wait that's silly! What's more feminine than an apron right?! I sewed along the top where pinned to keep the shape.

I cut whole rectangles to form the inside of the pockets. I simply sewed them on in a deep curve all the way to the bottom seam. This makes a nice deep pocket for wooden spoons... Sarah, this will come in handy later when you need to swat your chillens.

I had to un-pin the polka dot pocket lining shown above in order to do the piping on the pockets. The piping needs to be done first because it would be hard to sew it on with the pockets already on. I took the green fabric that I got for the piping, and piped along the edges of the pocket openings. I like to just iron it down the middle (well I never like to iron, but I do it for this because it's easier)...

then fold the edges to the middle and iron again. Now it will stay seamed while I pin and sew.

I pin the piping to the pocket openings and sew on! Like stated above, I did not sew it with the polka dot fabric already in place. I had to un-pin and then sew. I just forgot to take pictures in the right order!

Piping sewn on.

Next, I re-pinned the polka dot pocket backing onto the main fabric. I sewed the pocket backing on and formed the deep pocket in one big curve.

The pockets are now complete!

Next, I decided to gather the center of the apron even more because the pockets were a bit too far to the side. And Sarah is quite thin, so if they were too near my rear on me, they would have been back pockets on her! I re-pinned the already rouched center, and sewed over the original. This also adds extra strength to the front of the apron.

This time I also gathered the pockets to make the opening not so flat... this way the pocket sort of hangs open. I only did about three sections, so not as tight as the rest of the front of the apron.

Almost done! Here I am just adding a small rectangular section of the main floral fabric to the outer edges of the apron. That way the pocket is not the end of the apron and it sort of wraps around whoever is wearing it. I also show below another section of piping being added to the outer edges. This seams the edges and gives a nice finished look.

Now for the tie. I took the polka dot fabric and cut two 6 inch wide strips the whole length of the hard. I cut one of the strips in half and sewed it to the outer edges of the other strip, to make one long 6 inch wide strip. This way the seam is not right in the middle of the apron and it looks like one single piece.

I then ironed... again... down the middle of the strip for guidance and ironed the edges of the long strip toward the center to keep everything in place while I pin and sew. I did not fold the edges all the way to the center this time because I wanted the tie to be a little thicker. But I folded them in enough to make sure it would be strong and not fray with a lot of use. Below is a pic if the ironed edges.

Now it is time to pin and attach to the top of the apron. I place the top of the apron inside the open part of the tie and pin together. The tie essentially envelopes the top of the apron. This will seam and attach at the same time. The pic below is upside down... sorry!

Sew along top of apron to attach.

The tie is attached and the top is finished! Now just do the same thing to the bottom, but measure the length you will need to go just to the edges of the apron. This seams the bottom and adds a nice finished look to the apron at the same time. Since I gathered so much of the apron at the top, I had to stretch out the bottom and sew along a bit of a curve for the bottom polka dot seam.

Finished product! I'm pretty proud of it :)

Please disregard the paint smudge on my shorts...

I am also equally proud of the apron I made my dear friend Rachel Outlaw-Rothberg last year! The little blue flowers are my favorite!

Dewberry Farm

2011-10-17T15:08:00.002-05:00

I love Fall! And since I have such a love for this beautiful season, I like to drag my family members who will humor me to all sorts of Fall themed fun! That is what we did Saturday. Billy, Andrew, MawMaw, Nanna, Pop Pop, and I, all piled in my mom's new truck and drove the 45 minutes out to Brookshire to play on Dewberry Farm. It was pretty fun, and the weather was beautiful, though I think all of us thought it would be a bit cooler. Most of us dressed in long sleeves and were sweating by the first 10 minutes.

Arriving at Dewberry Farm! I have such a cute family :)

Billy and Maw Maw

Billy with Nanna and PopPop

First stop, Pony Ride! Billy was unsure but he warms up to it...

That's my baby Cowboy :)

Next Stop: Rubber Duck Races!

He loved it! And kept running back to get more duckies.

Big Ol Tractor!

A Maw Maw in sheep's clothing.

Billy's height... He was getting Hungry Grumpy.

Time to Eat...

now that he ate, we can do whatever we want to him.

Daddy and Bilbo conquer the Giant Slide!

Corn Maze... we didn't stay long enough to get lost.

I see you Nanna!

I took these for my Aunt Susie! She loves Sunflowers :)

Pumpkin Patch time!

My favorite view.

Then Maw Maw and I went to the Pumpkin Holler - A building full of carved pumpkins. The pic is a little blurry (because it was super dark!) but you can get an idea of how many there were.

And that was our day at Dewberry Farm. It was fun! May come back next year!

Nerd Alert-- Model Train Show

2011-10-08T15:18:00.001-05:00

Today we joined the geeks of Houston league and went to the Model Train Show. It was actually pretty neat, and if we had enough money and space, Andrew and Billy would have a tiny train town of their own, I'm sure. When Billy saw the first train moving along the track, he was shocked and his mouth literally hung open. It was adorable.

Daddy and Son enjoying some Tiny Town action.

Welcome to...

I didn't even notice that dang paci in his mouth the whole morning!

Here you go... Tiny Town action for yourself.

Took these for my mom, she works at NASA. Its a tribute to the Columbia shuttle.

Nana and Pop Pop were with us too, but somehow this is the only (partial) picture I got of them. Too much train excitement I guess!

Hold on to your undergarments, these next toys are all LEGOS!

No, that is not a LEGO Billy.

We gotta get this boy a train set.

Goodies at a Jewelry Party

2011-10-08T14:44:00.014-05:00

Last month I had the privilege of baking some goodies for my dear friend Cindy Walker's Guy and Eva Jewelry party. I made many many cupcakes and tea cakes, and a few cake pops too. If you would like some let me know :)

Here is my spread! I foolishly thought that a house full of ladies would eat all of this.

I was mistaken, we had many-much leftovers.

The hit of the evening? S'More Cake pops! My own recipe...

I think these were my favorite... I love me some yellow butter cake.

Jewelry!

I think everyone enjoyed it.

Splash Baby

2011-10-08T14:14:00.001-05:00

On Tuesday Billy and I went to Discovery Green for the story time. They had a local singer, Leah White, singing fun songs and she read the kids "Rockin' Babies". Then... Elmo and Abby came out! Billy was very happy to see Elmo, though he did not to have his picture taken with Elmo by himself, so I hopped right in there.

We then walked over to the splash pad... Billy's favorite part. Anytime I make him do any other activity in the park, he always keeps an eye on the splash pad, with that look of longing. And I inevitably take him over there and let him play in the water, whether he has a swimsuit or not. I just can't say no knowing how much he loves it! And this week it was extra special... while all of the other kiddos were preoccupied with Elmo, Billy had the whole fountain to himself!

He kept filling his little bucket and drinking the water :/

He was thrilled that there was no one else there. So much space and so many fountains!

Sitting on a water stream. It's the newest fad in seating.

Overall, a great morning! Thank you Discovery Green for offering fun to be had.

What am I doing?!

2011-10-07T22:55:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly bad at tech stuff, but I sure feel terrible at it here in blog land. I have no idea how to use this thing! Hopefully I will get better. I would like to keep this up to help spur myself on in creative areas as well as share things about life as a mother and wife.

So who am I? I am a Houston mother of one, my sweet Baby Billy, who is not really a baby anymore. He's almost 18 months and all boy. I have to steal my cuddles from him when he's not paying attention. I am married to my best friend Andrew, a creative mind himself and a "church administrator extraordinaire" (sort of like the jack of all trades of the church world). I am an artist, an amateur baker, and aspiring seamstress (not really, I just think I can sew). I love to cook and read and care for my family. I also love me some wine nights with my girlfriends.

Looking at other blogs for inspiration has indeed inspired me... to start a blog for my own outlet. All right! Here we go! This should be fun... fun like the giant sunglasses featured below.