Thursday, June 24, 2010

Early July 4th Post - Flag Cake Directions

I have had several emails about how I made the flag cake in this post. Here are some quickie directions on how I did mine. I'm sure if you make one, you'll find where how you can save some time. If you do, let me know! :)

You'll need enough cake mix (white) for three layers of cake. Use food coloring to dye one layer of the mix red and one layer blue. One layer needs to stay white. To get good thick layers, I used two cake mixes and had one layer worth of batter left over, so I made those into cupcakes. :)

Bake layers as noted on the box. Once baked and cooled (cool completely!), cut the red and white layers horizontally. So now you have two small layers each of red and white and one regular sized layer of blue. Set aside one each of the red and white layers...those will be the bottom stripes of the flag.

Now, of the layers that you didn't set aside, stack them one on top of each other (do not ice them yet). Using a sharp knife, you are going to cut a circle directly out of the middle of all three layers. I used a bowl as a guide and just stuck the knife from the top...ALL the way through to the bottom using the edge of the bowl as my round guide. So now you have a ring of red, white and blue and three inner circles of the same. Does that make sense?

Take a break now and commence eating the inner circle of blue and the outer rings of the red & white cakes.

ASSEMBLY:
Frost the bottom two layers of red & white that we set aside earlier...the bottom stripes of the flag. Just place a layer of frosting between those layers. Then frost the top of the red and place the blue ring on top of that. I put a small amount of frosting on the inside of the blue ring to help cut down on any crumbs and to hold the next two stripes in place. On the inside of the ring, place the small white circle cake, top with a bit of frosting, then place the red circle cake. Frost the entire cake, as normal.

Is that clear as mud?

FYI - after I sent my cake pictures to my mom? She told me that you can use a checkerboard cake pan and it would be easier. I don't have a checkerboard pan, so this is how I had to roll. :)

Monday, June 7, 2010

A Birthday Shirt for Miss S

I am a lame aunt. I not only forgot about my niece's birthday party last weekend (until my mom reminded me the day before), but I showed up with NO gift. Ack! Hopefully, my lateness will be excused!


Thank goodness for my mom. She brought her most hated sewing machine to the party for me to take home (thanks, Mom!). Her most hated machine is WAY better than what I had before. It sews on knit. With no issues. Yesssss!


I was prompted to try this after reading a tutorial one someone else's blog (I can't remember where I found it! She did a 4 with baseball fabric for her son's birthday). It was super easy...especially if your machine doesn't hate you. :)


So happy belated birthday, Miss S! Don't hate me too much for being so forgetful.






Since I can't remember what blog I got my inspiration, here is a super quick and dirty how-to (no pics) on this project. Prewash your fabric and shirt (since they are different types of fabric, it will alleviate puckering later on). I used my Cricut to cut out a large S and then traced the S onto the shirt. Next, I ironed interfacing to my white & pink fabric and placed it on the inside of the shirt, then pinned, pinned, pinned all around the S. It's not absolutely necessary, but I sewed two rows of stitches around the S. I tried to be all nice and careful with the second line, but very quickly figured out that there was NO way I would be able to mirror the first line of stitches perfectly, so I went all wonky with them making them criss-cross, curve, etc. After you are all sewn, very carefully cut out the pink shirt on the inside close to the stitches. Then go on the inside of the shirt and cut out all of the excess fabric, cutting near the stitches again.


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