Crime Scene Brownies

After a week filled with obligations, none of them my own, and culminating in one of the WORST birthdays of my life, today was my day to do what I wanted.  One of the things I wanted to do was to play in the kitchen, and I did!  When I spotted the sugar knives at Michael’s I had to buy them.  I was inspired by the cupcake pictured on the box (and my love of mysteries, of course), but lately I’ve become much more enamored with brownies than with cupcakes, so made what has become one of my favorite dessert recipes, Creole Brownies, and topped them with my own Vanilla Buttercream Frosting.  A little red gel icing splattered on the top and a knife shoved in, and I had a dangerously delicious dessert!

Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter until light and smooth, 2-3 minutes.   Add the powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, slowly mixing in to incorporate, then add salt, heavy cream, and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy, 3-5 minutes.  The longer you beat it, the lighter it will become.

This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sunday

On the Menu Monday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

What's Cooking Wednesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Tutorial Tips & Tidbits

Foodie Friday

Sweets for a Saturday

HOLIDAY PROJECT # 2 - Pretty Packages



A wrapped gift employing the use of florals, a glue gun, and a recycled bow.



I made quite a score at Michael's the other day when they put their florals on sale for half off and THEN had a coupon to get an additional 15% off of an entire order including sale items.  Can you say, giddy with excitement?

Just a  fraction of the items I got ON SALE at Michael's.

Looking at all of the beautiful winter flowers and greenery gave me an idea (helped, no doubt, by being stuck in a long and slow-moving line next to a rack of glue guns).  Why not skip the ribbons and bows on wrapped packages this year in favor of flowers and greenery? And wouldn't using a glue gun be so much faster?

Do you know what? It is!  And not only faster, but the packages are prettier and it looks like you've spent hours on them when essentially you've just spent minutes (plus the time it takes to you  heat up the glue gun and try to remember where you put the wire cutters).

In order to expedite things, it helps to snip all of the leaves and flowers from their stems using wire cutters, or a sharp and powerful pair of kitchen shears (The kind that cuts through a chicken carcass with ease works particularly well.).  Discard the stems, and divide into "leaf" piles and "flower" piles, then sort by color.

Warm up your glue gun while wrapping gifts so you'll be ready.  Then, assembly-line style, hot glue flowers securely in place with dabs of glue in the center and on about half of the outside petals.  Then put a dot of glue underneath the base of the leaves and place them where desired beneath the flower, pressing down until the glue takes hold. Voila!  A beautifully-wrapped, professional-looking package in no time and on a budget.

I used a bit of sparkly gold curling ribbon on this package to bring out the gold on the flower.

After a while you'll develop both a rhythm and a real eye for design.  If you need some inspiration, I recommend Carolyne Roehm's book, Presentations: A Passion for Gift Wrapping.

This is linked to Metamorphosis Monday.