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Naked Cake: My First Attempt

Over the weekend I attempted my first naked cake. I'm pleased with the results and wanted to share how I did it! I found some really helpful YouTube videos that explained how to stack and frost the cake. 

The video I found the most helpful was this one below. I even used Yolanda's vanilla cake recipe and it was delicious! It was nice and dense to make stacking and frosting the cake easy. You can find the vanilla cake recipe here.

The inside of my cake was filled with chocolate buttercream. I used this recipe. I just piped a little bit of vanilla buttercream on the outside because I thought it looked nicer.
I used straws as dowels and got that idea from the video below. This video is also extremely helpful.

Here is a list of the tools I used that made the whole process way easier:
Cake Pans - I used an 6" x 3" pan and an 8" x 3" pan. I made two cakes in each then cut the cakes into 2 layers. That gave me 4 6" wide layers and 4 8" wide layers. I only used 3 of each though. Icing Spatula - This makes frosting in between the layers easy. Revolving Stand - I don't know how I would have made this cake without this stand. It's a must. Floral Wire - I used this to attach a lot of the flowers and especially the grapes. Piping Bag - I used these to pipe the vanilla buttercream around the outside. When the cake was cut, it was actually chocolate inside. Straws - These Ikea straws are thick and sturdy so I used them as dowels. The second video shows how to do this. Cardboard Cake Round - I bought this size and cut one down to be a 6" circle. It was hidden under the 6" cake on top. Cake Base - I used this sturdy silver cake base instead of a cardboard cake round because the cake was really heavy.
Now that I have all of the tools, I can't wait to try it again!

DIY: Dollar Store Spider Headband

It's that time of the year again! I love Halloween crafts especially when they're cheap. I got everything I needed to make this headband at Dollar Tree, aka my all time favorite store. This headband cost me just $4 to make and took less than 5 minutes. Read on to learn how to make your own!

What you'll need:

• plastic headband (any color)
• black ribbon
• spiderwebs (you'll only use a little bit)
• plastic spider (I got a sparkly one)
• hot glue
• scissors

Start by wrapping the headband with the black ribbon and securing the ends with hot glue.

Now glue the spider to the top (at a slight angle).

c Add a few spider webs and you're done!

How easy is that?

Through the Years

I did some digging around today and found what the blog used to look like using the WayBackMachine. I had forgotten about a lot of my old layouts. It's fun to step into the past for a bit. If you have a website, you should give it a try!

Save 29%!

I'm turning 29 tomorrow, and to celebrate, I'm offering 29% off of everything in my shop until Saturday! Just enter the coupon code "BIRTHDAY" at checkout!