Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (on a Edsel Logo Cake)

For my son's 20th birthday he wanted a vanilla cake with buttercream frosting and minimal decorations and something more "grown up" than past birthday cakes, so I decided to make him an Edsel logo as
he and his father own a 1959 Edsel Villager (pictured left).



I used a boxed cake mix, but went in search on the internet for a buttercream frosting recipe, as I had never made it before and found this super easy and delicious recipe on Food.com for Vanilla Buttercream Frosting by Sprinkle's Cupcakes (featured on Oprah).

I used canned decoration frosting to look like the emblem on the front of the car and instead of writing out EDSEL I just used the letter "E".   As the canned frosting did not come out consistently it; there would be nothing and then it would glob out, resulting in less than professional looking results but tasted great and my son loved it.

If I had it to do over, I would use red licorice strands for the logo and lines and just used decoration frosting around the edges.



I wasn't sure how much I would need as the amount was set up to frost cupcakes, so I went for 18 "cupcakes", but probably ended up with enough left over to frost another cake.  The recipe below is what I used, but you can click on the hyperlink and type in number of cupcakes and the software calculates what you will need.







Vanilla Buttercream Frosting (From Sprinkle's Cupcakes)

•  1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened (I used unsalted butter)
• 5 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons milk 
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

In a bowl, combine butter sugar and salt and cream them together (I used a mixer).

Add milk and vanilla and beat 3-5 minutes until creamy.   It came out very thick and I added a teaspoon of water to get it to more easily spread on the cake.

Campfire Starter

Easy to make campfire starters from items you normally throw away.

Some former co-workers and I are going to go on an overnight camping trip in July, which is going to be an adventure for me as the closest I have ever been to camping is staying at Motel 6, but I remembered making these at Girl Scout daycamp when I was young and they are useful for starting a campfire.

Items used:

• -   Toilet Paper Tube
• -    Dryer Lint
• -    Scrap paper or Napkin
• -    String

Stuff the dryer lint inside the toilet paper then wrap the paper or napkin around the toilet paper tube.

Scrunch the ends into the end of each tube and then tie string around the end to secure.











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1 Minute Pen Makeover With Duck Tape

Quick and easy way to turn a plain ball point pen into a snazzy pen.

This was inspired by a desk set my supervisor has at work that she and her granddaughter made using one of the many wonderful print Duck Tapes that are now on the market.

Items used:

-   Ball Point Pen
-   Duck Tape
-   Scissors

The Duck tape I bought was more the consistency of packing tape and I got off of a clearance rack at Walgreens for .79 cents, but I think any Duck (or Duct) tape would work.

To be sure the cap still fit on both ends I laid out the tape and cut to length leaving some of the original pen exposed on both ends, laid the pen and one end of the tape as pictured and carefully rolled it up.

For the cap (not picture) I cut a small piece to wrap around the handle area of the cap first, then piece that was long enough to fit up to just where the handle meets the cap and wrap it around, then a piece fit from the top of the handle to a little over the top of the pen, wrap it around, pinch the tape shut at the top and then snip off the remaining excess at the end.

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Coin Catcher

This is for a Father's Day present next week and cost under 20 cents to make.

This is another incarnation of Soap Dish from Bottom of 2 Liter Bottle except the purpose is for it to be a catchall for change or perhaps a wallet and cell phone.

To make follow the instructions from here except that instead of rhintestones you will need 18 pennies to glue around the edge.

You will also want to let it dry upside down as the weight from the pennies will cause it to slide down if upright; this way they are nice and neat against the edge.










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