by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 10, 2009 | Baking, Cooking-Tutorials, Tutorial
This is my guide to baking an epic cake.
Yes it’s seriously epic! Those of you with dial up might want to not continue because there are around 50 photos! Trust me though, it’s totally worth it because the end result is both pretty and delicious!
So here’s roughly what you need for epic cake:
-3 standard cake mix bags (I know cheating :P) If you are in Australia get the Home Brand butter cake because it is AWESOME and it’s only 60c per bag. -Eggs -Milk -Butter Milk -Fondant icing -Ingredients for royal icing (check this recipe it’s great) -Milo (or just plain old chocolate powder if you’re not in Aus) -Red and green food dye
Gather your ingredients.
Preheat your oven following the instructions on your packet mix.
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Now it’s time to make the cake mix 😀 Depending on your cake mix the ingredients might be different but this is how I do it… Packet mix in the bowl! |
This cake requires 3 different layers, 2 of plain butter cake and 1 of my version of red velvet cake. We’ll make the red velvet version first.
Add an egg! Eggs look so gross XD
Add in the butter milk, you should use however much milk the packet mix says to, mine said 3/4 of a cup. For the other layers you should use plain milk.
Mix it all together
And then beat it to death! It should be nice and fluffy ^_^
Once it’s fluffy add 3 table spoons of Milo and beat it in.
Now add some red food colouring, this is why it’s called red velvet cake and it makes for a really pretty effect when it’s finished.
Pour it out into your cake tin, I use a silicone one because it’s easy to get the cake out of.
Put it in the oven until it’s cooked all through 😀
Turn it out onto a rack to cool and make the other 2 layers.
The other two layers should not have milo, food colouring or butter milk in them. They should just be plain old butter cake following the directions.
If your cake breaks when you turn it out, just use some icing and glue it back together 🙂
Once your 3 layers have all cooled down it’s time to cut the tops off them. The reason you cut the top off is so you can get a nice flat cake and it doesn’t look like a gigantic lump on top ^_^ It’s much easier to ice a flat cake! So get a knife and poke it in the side towards the middle and start working your way around. Keep going until you’ve done the full circle. Use the knife to lift the top off (and eat it because by now you’ve spent forever staring at cakes bloody baking and you’re probably hungry).
Once you have 3 flat layers get some icing (I’m using Betty Crocker) and cover the top of the red layer/
Once it’s covered use the plate you had it on to flip it onto one of the plain layers.
Cover the top of the red one again and flip the last layer on to it. This is what you should end up with!
Cover the entire thing with icing ^_^
One for the cake, one for the cook!
Now get your fondant icing and roll it on the bench top. If it’s too hard pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds, if it’s too sticky dust it with icing sugar. Once you’ve rolled it out, drape it over the whole cake. It should end up something like this… You can see that I’ve repaired a crack by putting water on my finger and rubbing it. It’s going to be covered in icing so no one will ever notice!
Now it’s time to decorate! Make some royal icing in the colour of your choice, mine is pink! Put it into a piping bag and start decorating! Ok mine isn’t very even but this was my first time using a piping bag so it’s ok!
I tried to make it very decorative, there is a big heart on top, scalloping on the outside and lots of little bumpy bits. Whatever you do as long as you put effort in everyone will enjoy it!
Now put it in the fridge to cool and it’s time to learn how to make icing roses 😀 Grab some fondant icing and colour it pink with food dye. You do this by putting a tiny amount on and kneading it until it’s pink. Make sure to do this on a surface that you can clean easily, food dye will stick to EVERYTHING. Maybe wear gloves, look at my hands, they’re all red XD
So let’s start making a rose! Pinch off a little bit of icing and roll it in a ball.
With your finger squish one side of the ball…
Pick it up and roll the squished end in on itself like the photo below. You should make a bunch more squished balls, these are the petals.
Roll the second petal onto the first but on the opposite side like below:
Keep making petals and placing them around the part you’ve already made. You should over lap the next petal slightly with the one you’ve just done.
As you go you should use your finger to push the petals out a bit.
Once you think you have enough petals roll the bottom of the rose together with your fingers so it’s a bit rounded.
Make a bunch of them 😀 This is what you should end up with!
Now bring out your cake from the fridge. Mix up a bit of royal icing and colour it green.
I put a bunch of green icing in the middle of the heart and placed the flowers on top.
I make a lot of flowers in different sizes so….
…I can shape them into a heart too!
Yay! Finished 😀
NOM NOM NOM!
Delicious cake…
I think the flowers really make the cake… and they are delicious too ^_^
And the best bit… When you cut it open it looks even prettier!
How pretty is it? And the red velvet is delicious!
Now serve with thickened cream…
And enjoy!
So there you have it, it’s delicious! What do you guys think? What’s your favorite type of cake? Let me know if you make your own epic cake!
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 9, 2009 | Craft, Hime Gyaru, Outfit Of The Day, Shoe-Tutorials, Tutorial
I’m super tired tonight so I’ve just got a mini tutorial on repairing old slippers for you all 🙂
I’ve been a little obsessed with slippers lately so I’ve got 2 tutorials planed that revolve around slippers. It’s probably because I spend so much time at home but I think a good pair of slippers are a very important part of a girl’s wardrobe ^_^
It takes me a long time to choose slippers (more on that in my next slippers post!) and when I finally find a pair that I like I have a hard time giving them up, I’m the kind of person that will wear them until they literally fall apart! I’m also quite thrifty so at times when money is tight I am all for repairing and reusing anything I can possibly fix.
So I have this cute pair of slippers but…
The soles are all gross and worn out. There is even a small hole!
So what you need for this version of repairing old slippers:
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-Scissors -A sheet of felt in a matching colour -Needle and thread in a matching colour -A pen or tailor’s chalk
Start by putting your slippers on the felt and tracing around the outside. Get as close to the size of the actual sole as possible, if in doubt it’s better to cut bigger than smaller because you can always trim it but you can’t add more felt if you cut too much! Cut one out for each slipper.
Thread your needle and with the new sole on top of the slipper sew it in place with 1 stitch. You should start at the very back of the slipper. Tie it in a double knot so it doesn’t go anywhere.
Now using a blanket stitch start sewing around the edge. If you need to know how to do a blanket stitch have a look here.
Continue around the entire edge. If you find there is slightly too much felt you should trim it a little bit. If there is not enough, stretch it because once you put them on the felt will get worn into position. When you’re finished they should look something like this:
Hopefully your stitching is a little neater than mine!
And there you go, with 60c worth of felt you saved yourself from buying a whole new pair of slippers! One thing to note- the felt is super slippery on tiles until you wear it in so don’t slip over!! That said it’s pretty fun to be able to faux ice-skate around my tiled house in the middle of a 35Degree Celsius summer 😀 |
Enjoy!
Bonus outfit post:
Jsk- Angelic Pretty Stockings- Myer Slippers- Bras n things Hair things: some junk store
See you all tomorrow when I’m not half asleep! Let me know if you ever give repairing old slippers this way a try!
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 9, 2009 | Life, Notices
Ok this doesn’t count as the Day 3 post, I’m going to do that later today (I’m still editing the photos!).
Nuffnang Christmas Party!
But I really wanted to let you all know about the Nuffnang Christmas party because all of your Australian bloggers are invited and you don’t even have to be a Nuffnang member to come!
We are having one in most Australian capital cities so make sure if you’re in Aus you come down to one 😀
They are being held simultaneously on the 17th of December and if you’re in Brisbane you better get down to Bohemia in the city and party with me and James!
The theme of the party is BLUE so if you come make sure you wear something pretty and blue!
The best part is that in the Brisbane party we’re going to have a Nintendo Wii competition on the big screen!!
You can find more information HERE.
Or just go ahead and RSVP here.
Are you Brisbane bloggers going to come and play Wii with me?
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 8, 2009 | Beauty, Beauty-Tutorials, Hime Gyaru, Review, Tutorial
Quite a while ago I was sent a bunch of 1000 hour individual eyelashes to test out:
To be honest I wasn’t really thrilled about the idea of individual lashes, it sounded like an awful lot of unnecessary effort to me. I mean who really wants to apply full eyelid’s worth lash by lash? Who has time for that either? It wasn’t until I did a bit of a rethink and took some inspiration from the lovely SuperKawaiiMama that I got some inspiration. ![]()
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These lashes are perfect for a cute casual look. You don’t actually need to put lashes over the whole eye to get an adorable effect, these are perfect for a cat-flick at the side! Ok so here is how to do it ^_^ These are my lashes to start with, I’ve applied some mascara and given them a little bit of a curl.
Before: cute and casual look.
This is the packet they come it, it’s a step up from 90% of other lashes available in Australia because the little tray they come in actually has a lid. I hate when you get lashes and they just come in the tray, it makes them useless for storage! This however is good and you get a lot of them in a pack so they last a while especially if you reuse them.
So to begin with get one of the little bunches.
And some scissors.
And cut the tip of the bunch on an angle. You need to do 2 of these (one for each eye so cut them in opposite directions). This is the part that will gradiat to the longest lashes on the ends. If you don’t have one of these it will look like you’ve just one a random flick on the edge.
This is what they should look like.
Now grab your lash glue. I would not recommend this brand unless you are allergic to others like me.
Add a tiny bit of glue to the base of the bunch. Depending on the glue you’re using you will probably need to wait for it to get tacky before applying.
Ok now apply it to you lash line, you should apply it a couple of mm before the end of your lashes. Once you apply the bunch, give it a little pinch to make sure it’s in line with your natural lashes.
Here is a photo of it applied to my lashes, you can barely see it because the shape blends into the length of my natural lashes. In the next photo I’ve highlighted where it it.
This is where it is placed, if you compare the below and above photos you’ll be able to see exactly what I mean and the angle of the cut.
This is how it looks when my eyes are open, it’s much easier to see here but you can still see how it blends.
And here it’s highlighted…
Ok! Now you want to get 2 more bunches per eye. These ones should be full sized. Do them one at a time so you have lots of control over the placement. Add the glue!
And this time we’re going to place this bunch next to the one we just did on the outside side (closer to the corner of the eye). You should make sure that the last one sits on the very edge of your lash line. By the time you’re finished you should have 3 bunches on each eye (2 full ones and 1 angled one).
Once you’ve placed them if you want you can add another coat of mascara to make all the lashes the same thickness or even curl them again. One other tip I have is that if you find they are sticking up at a different angle than your natural lashes, give them a coat of mascara and pinch them together with your natural lashes gently. The mascara will act like a light glue!
So this is what you should end up with:
And here is where the lashes are:
With eyes closed you can really see the difference:
And highlighted!
So there you go! This look is great as an everyday look because it’s not too heavy but the flick at the end is super cute. Now as for a review of the actual lashes I found them to be really good. I was really surprised at how durable they were, I’ve used the same 6 for this look several times. The best thing that I found was that they were comfortable enough to sleep in… probably not something I need to worry about every day but great when you’re on a 7hr plane trip! I was worried that because they weren’t held on by much glue that they would be hard to keep on but I haven’t lost one so far. You can get them from Priceline, Kmart and other beauty supply stores for around AU$7.95 which is an average price for lashes here in Aus. I really like them and I’ll be buying them again… though with this many in a tray I probably won’t need to for a long time hahaha! Have you ever tried the 1000 hour individual eyelashes? |
by VioletLeBeaux | Dec 7, 2009 | Beauty, Craft, Hair, Hime Gyaru, Storage/Utility-Tutorials, Tutorial
Why aren’t there more options for headband storage?
If you are anything like me you have a billion alice bands/head bands/what ever you call a bow on a rigid frame that goes on your head… and as adorable as they look they are really annoying to store!
They get tangled and if you just throw them in a drawer it’s hard to see which is which! So here is my solution, I’m going to make a gigantic roll shaped like a cute piece of candy to hold them all 😀
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 This is what it’s going to look like at the end:
So first thing’s first, get all the materials. I’m doing a no-sewing version because my machine is packed up but if you replace the glue gun with sewing it will work just as well.
What you need to make my version of headband storage:
-Fabric -Foam for the inside (I am just going to recycle an old yoga mat but you can buy proper foam) -Ribbon or wool -Lace and flowers to decorate -Glue gun or sewing machine
Now if you’re doing a no-sew version like me you’ll need tape too. You can double your tape as a stylish accessory 😛
Ok let’s get started! Lay out your yoga mat (ignore these steps if you’re using foam for the middle) and start rolling.
You should make sure that the size you’ve rolled will actually fit the headbands so test one out to be safe ^_^
Once you get the right size it’s time to tape it in place.
Now you should measure and cut the fabric out. You need a large rectangle which is long enough to wrap around the mat and wide enough so that it hangs off the end like the wrapper of a piece of candy. Make sure to leave a few inches extra for hems etc.
You should be able to mock it up like this:
Now after you’ve cut out your fabric it’s time to decorate the ends on the candy piece. I like frilly things so I used some frilly cotton lace.
Use your hot glue gun to fix it in place. If you want you can hem the edges but because they are going to be covered with lace (and I don’t have my sewing machine out) it doesn’t really matter.
Taadaa lacy edged 🙂
Ok now let’s make it up. Lay the mat on the fabric, make sure it’s straight and tape it in place.
Roll that baby up!
Fold the ends over and glue/sew it in place.
Now you should grab the end with your hand…
…and give it a good twist. Just like making a real candy ^_^
Grab the wool/ribbon and tie it in place.
This is what you should have now.
It kind of looks like candy but I think it needs a nice candy stripe 😀 So grab some eyelet lace and glue it to the wool/ribbon.
Roll it around in a nice spiral and glue it to the other end ^_^
I hid the ugly ends by gluing a cute flower over the top, of course that’s optional.
So this is it!
Now you just need to add all your headbands and you’re done 😀
Tadaa! Candy head band holder 😀 What do you think? Nice and easy to store and they are all displayed nicely.
How do you guys store your headbands? Am I nuts for needing something this big? XD The sad part is that this one is full now and I think I need another one >_< Let me know your headband storage ideas! |
