Pink Ombre Cake

The neverending winter of snow, frozen tundra, and prolonged sub zero temps.  That about sums 2014 so far.  This is the longest short month EVER.  Last year I joked about the things that winter does to a person in the Midwest.  Little did I know what we were in store for this year.  Crikey.  I’m just going to get in line with the dodos.

To beat the winter blues, I fancied up another cake on Friday to celebrate Valentine’s.  I am happy to report that I survived the encounter.  Y’all know I love to cook but baking is just not my jam.  Too precise for this cavalier cook.  But I love a good challenge so I keep torturing myself.  Icing is Public Enemy numero uno.  Outside of catching the oven on fire with overflowing batter on more than a few occasions, icing almost always gets me down.  Too many fails to chronicle.  And don’t even get me started on royal icing.   Middle finger to royal icing.  Those decorated Martha cookies of my dreams will remain squarely in the land of nod.

Any who – this time worked out just fine using a few tricks that I employed last year for my Cupid’s Arrow cake.  Tip one:  box cake is your friend.  Tip Two:  use smaller pans to give the cake a boutique bakery look. Tip Three:  make your cake the day before - after cooling completely, wrap your layers tightly with cling wrap and refrigerate.  Tip Four:  homemade frosting will go a long way toward fooling your guests into thinking you spent hours in the kitchen whipping up the cake from scratch.

 

Click here for specifics from my Cupid cake last year including an easy buttercream recipe that I used for both cakes.  This year I split the icing into 3rds to create a loose ombre effect using gel food coloring.  I don’t remember the exact amounts but I used about 15 drops of red gel to get the dark fuschia and 5 drops of red gel + 2 drops of yellow gel to get the lighter pink.

This cake would also be perfect for a shower, Easter, or Mother’s day, tinted accordingly.  Now go do your best Martha impression and get your box cake on.  Oh, and please excuse my tarnished silver, Momma. I couldn't find my way to the polish.

Do you ever cheat and use box cake?

All photos and styling by mrs. V.

kisses,  mrs. V

Happy Birthday to Me

So yesterday was my birthday.  Blah blah blah.  Having entered that stage of my life where it is no longer polite to inquire about a woman’s age, I will not bore you with the details of my age.  Suffice it to say, that my idea of birthday luxury was a day to myself spent making stuff and starting on my holiday trimmings.

 

A decade ago I would have been gladly dancing on tables somewhere.  A few decades ago, I would have been adamant about the separation of church and state otherwise known as #Don’tYouDareLumpMyDecemberBirthdayintoChristmasorIWillCutYou. Ironically, yesterday, rather than shopping or getting my nails did or considering an Irish Car Bomb at noon, I happily chose to putter around the house, working on holiday orders, decorating the house for Christmas, and listening to Rikshaw Design’s pandora station. Admittedly, there were moments yesterday, like when a live Jack Johnson song came on, that I yearned for those care free days of day drinking and seeing live music, but they were fleeting and I was really just overjoyed to have the house all to myself to start on the tree.

 

As to the trimmings for the big tree, of course I raided my pink and gold stash as my IG peeps saw last night.  Follow me.  Duh.  Perfect Christmas colors in my book.  Duh.  It was a perfect birthday day.  While I still have some rabbits to pull out of my Santa hat, I am digging this little start.

All photos and layouts by me.

kisses,  mrs. V

Angie Hranowsky's Pink Bedroom

Geesh.  This week sort of got away from me, didn’t it?!  I know I said I was going to share some of my favorite scouting haunts with you, and I intend to, but what I got for you today is just plain pretty.  By now I am sure most of you have seen the latest issue of Lonny.  Have some thoughts on the whole new helm change but I’ll save those for another day.  Instead today I want to focus on Angie Hranowsky’s feature of her new home.  Love love her work.  Super love her new pinky-t bedroom.  No big shocker there.   Really dig how she used color and art (the art!) to put her personal stamp on a rental.  That living room is bananas good too!

I die for this vignette - especially that nudey nude

All images from Lonny

Here’s to Friday!!

kisses,  mrs. V

Happy Heart Day

via

I so want to do this.  Aside from the fact that I cannot bake and that I am just getting over major vomitoso flu, I would indeed be doing this today.  Heck, maybe I still will.  But I can shop vicariously.  And shopping has been empirically proven to solve all ills, no?

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Squeezes to you and yours on this Hallmark day!

All layouts by mrs. V

kisses,  mrs. V