A Pinterest Easter

After four and a half years, I finally got to dye some Easter eggs with my kid!  I love Easter and as a kid I always loved dying eggs.  Then I had a child and I didn't think he was ready--scratch that, I didn't think I was ready--to handle the stress and mess egg coloring entails.

Even though I had major surgery less than a week ago today, I was in an Easter-y mood.  I got on Pinterest and found a way to dye eggs with gel dye.  My mom decorates cakes so I had access to dozens of colors.  I  can't drive for another 3 weeks so I had to make do with what we had around the house, since this was a literal last minute family activity.  Every activity deserves a treat and I had my mind set on this recipe for Creme Egg Brownies.  (Maybe this egg dying fest was just an excuse for the brownies?  Can you blame me?)

I called for my husband and boy to come downstairs, "Guys!  Let's go dye some eggs!"  The boy repled, "Dad!  Let's go kill some eggs!"  I guess that's why my parents always called it "coloring" eggs.  Here's how it went!

Tip: The gel dying method calls for boiling water mixed with gel dye and vinegar.  I poured the vinegar in each bowl ahead of time.  Then, I used a toothpick to scoop out some gel.  I just dropped the whole toothpick in each bowl . . . that way all the color gets mixed in when you pour the boiling water on top.

Someone didn't like the vinegar smell . . .

The Hub, showing off with his striped egg.

Yes, I look horrible but I'm on painkillers so I feel gooooood.

If you color on an egg with a white crayon before you dye it, the picture will show up in white afterwards.  The kiddo couldn't resist coloring them AFTER they were already dyed, though.  And yes, he is wearing a purple sequin cape.  I have no explanation for that other than he is very much my child.

 The eggs came out nice but the colors weren't as saturated as I hoped.  Does anyone else suspect that people just paint their eggs and pass them off as dyed?  Just a thought . . . .

I got out some old scrapbooking sticker letters.  Stick them on before you dye the egg and peel it off after it's dry.  Then you'll (hopefully!) have a white letter on your egg.

This is my Creme Egg brownie and it was INSANELY amazing BUT . . . didn't taste EXACTLY like Cabury Creme Eggs.  My mom hates Creme Eggs but loved these brownies!  I would've changed one thing and I could kick myself for thinking of it too late!  The recipe calls for 9 ounces (no joke) of milk chocolate.  I just used a milk chocolate bark but I should've used Cadbury milk chocolate.  I mean, Cadbury chocolate has such a distinct flavor.  That's what really makes the eggs so delicious.  I think that would make the recipe PERFECT.  I'm tempted to make a whole new batch with Cadbury chocolate!

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Taste the Rainbow

This blog post is an explosion of flavor, color and Pinterestness.  Yup, that's right . . . I'm talking RAINBOW CAKE.  So. Intense.  

I combined a few pins to make a treat for a friend's birthday.  I made the experiment a family activity and it was actually a lot of fun.  

To start, I just used a Pillsbury white cake mix.  Even though I usually use egg whites for white cake, I used whole eggs since we were dying the batter anyway.  I also added a capful (about 1 teaspoon) of almond extract.  That is the secret to amazing white cake.  A little goes a long way!

Once the mix was well, mixed, we divided it into four parts.  We dyed ours red, yellow, green and blue. My kiddo really liked mixing the colors in.

Time to pour into the containers.  I wanted to make a "cupcake in a jar" for my friend, so we poured the batter into two jars: one for my friend and one for the kiddo.   No need to buy new jars, by the way . . . the jar I used was actually a parmesan cheese jar!  Obviously, I washed it out thoroughly and painted the lid (see below).  The kiddo's was a jelly jar.  

We did a few spoonfuls of each color in each jar until it was to the halfway point.

We set the jars on a cookie sheet and popped them in the oven for about 15 minutes.  We had lots of leftover batter so we did some cupcakes, too.

Once the jars were out of the oven and cooled, I had to pull some excess cake off the top to make room for frosting.  Check out this link for an awesome buttercream frosting recipe coupled with a recipe for Sugar Cookie Bars that will change your life.  When I say change your life, I mean that you will eat these bars nonstop and eventually contract Wilford Brimley-style Diabeetus.

Don't forget to add 1/2 a teaspoon of almond extract to the frosting!

Sprinkles make everything better.  Even Diabeetus.

On to the crafty portion of this project . . . 

I painted the lid with Krylon paint in Turquoise.  They have these new cute little cans called Short Cuts.  That way, you can get whatever crazy colors you want without having to get a huge can (that I never finish off).  I then wet embossed the top with a "Happy Birthday" stamp and red embossing glitter.  I never use loose glitter . . . too dang messy!  You get the same effect with embossing glitter but with less mess.

I glitter embossed a chipboard "K" too (the first letter of my friend's name).

Now, to the FAIL portion of this blog . . . 

I froze the cupcakes so I could give some to another friend for her b-day.  I had seen some rainbow frosting on Pinterest and thought I would try it.  (Looking at the pin again, I wonder why in the heck I wanted to do it!)  So, I followed the instructions and . . . the frosting looked gross.  I have a problem when there is so much dye in frosting that it stains your teeth . . . no one wants ROYGBIV teeth.  So, I squeezed all of the frosting out of the bag and back into the bowl of white frosting.  To salvage it, I folded it in, trying to make the color lighter.  As you can see from the picture above, it didn't.  Yuck.  Oh well.  You can't win them all.