Leave the Gun, Take the Cupcakes

What could possibly be better than a freshly baked, thickly frosted cupcake?  How about a freshly baked, thickly frosted cupcake stuffed with a cannoli cream filling?  That, my friends, is exactly what I enjoyed for my afternoon treat at the office today:)

My entire workplace has only 7 employees on staff, and as the Administrative Assistant, I've become the de facto "Social Chair."  I keep track of everyone's birthdays, and I arrange for the cake/treat to celebrate at our monthly staff meetings.  For April, we had two birthdays to celebrate, so I thought it was the perfect excuse to try this slightly-fancier cupcake recipe I've had on my mind.  

I'm SO far from a professional baker, it's not even funny...  I typically shy away from any recipe that has more than, say, 5 ingredients, and I almost never make anything from scratch.  This recipe was a great find, because it starts with cupcakes made from a box mix, then the filling mixes up in no time.  I baked just 12 cupcakes (and put the rest of the batter in a mini-cake pan for my boys to get a little treat, too), because that's all the filling recipe was for, and I have a small group to feed.  Just a side note, these were the most perfect cupcakes I've ever baked!  All smooth & rounded, not a single overflow... I was so pleased with myself, lol!

The filling is what makes these cannoli flavored, and boy, it does the job well!  So creamy and delicious, with the mini chocolate chips mixed right in, it would make a fantastic dip with sweet pita chips or graham crackers!  But that's a separate dessert... I mixed 15 oz ricotta cheese, 8 oz mascarpone, 1 cup powdered sugar, and 1 tsp vanilla together until well combined.  Then I folded in a cup of mini chocolate chips.  I actually added more powdered sugar at the end, too, because the consistency was too runny for my liking.  It's super important to let the cupcakes cool completely before moving on to the next step, so I stuck the filling in the fridge to let it thicken a bit.

When everything was cooled & ready to use, I got to do the fun part - cut a circle in the center of each cupcake & push it down, creating a hole.  Pipe the filling into the cupcake (I used a gallon ziploc with the corner snipped off) and over the top of the cupcake.  Ideally, you would swirl it around to make a high tower of cream, but for traveling purposes, I stuck with a flat layer.  After all 12 are filled, they go in the freezer for at least an hour, so the filling can firm up enough to be dipped.

Dipping the cupcakes was a bit nerve wrecking.  I was sure they'd fall apart when I tipped them, but the freezing really worked!  I melted 2 cups of dark chocolate chips with 3 tbsp of coconut oil, for a home made "magic shell" that gives the perfect crunch when you bite into the cupcake (use it on ice cream sundaes, fruit, anything...), and carefully dipped each cupcake.  It was late, and I had a migraine, so they didn't come out perfectly, but they did look delicious and charmingly homemade ;)

lost that 12th one in an unfortunate clumsy moment...

RIP, sweet friend

I was a bit disappointed that they didn't look exactly how I envisioned.  But my coworkers were impressed & appreciative, so that's a win in my book!  And how did they taste?  Mmmmmm...

Personalized Pillows

I have FINALLY finished the personalized pillows I've been working on for my boys!  I started the project months ago, in my rotation of WIPs (works in progress), but it got side tracked when I ran out of poly-fill halfway through stuffing the second pillow.  Once I finally got the chance to swing by the craft store & replenish my supply, I completed the project and was quite happy with the results.

I stumbled upon the pattern for these pillows on a crafting blog I follow, called Repeat Crafter Me.  Seriously?  Sarah, the creator of the blog, is a phenom with a crochet hook!  I obsess over her designs.  Luckily, she has a talent for making her beautiful projects novice-friendly, and I'm able to try my hand at most things she shares!  I highly suggest you follow her on social media, so you never miss a post :)

Anyways, these pillows aren't actually one of her own designs, they were published on the Yarnspirations website, here.  But, either way, I found them adorable & incredibly enticing as soon as I saw them!  I just knew A would LOVE them - he's just like me, and loves anything with his name or initials!  And of course L would need one, too, because they both have to have everything the same.  Lol.  So, I got my go-to yarn (Red Heart Super Saver ftw, baby!) in blue and green, and I started my new project asap!

I'm not going to lie, I was intimidated by the patterns at first.  I've never been taught how to read crochet diagrams, so sometimes I struggle with patterns that don't use written instructions.  I decided to start with the L, because it was more straightforward.  It turns out, though, that these diagrams are easy to read, none of the techniques are too fancy, and both letters were easier than I anticipated!  I was pleasantly surprised with how quickly the pieces worked up :)

I forgot to take pictures while I was making the L, but I did capture the step-by-step of the A, so here you go:

Following the patterns I linked to above, I made two of each letter.  Of course, this means that when you put them together, you'll have one with the Right Side facing out and one with the Wrong Side facing out, but because it's all single crochet, it's not really that big of a deal.  Even though the pattern didn't say to, I went around the entire perimeter of each letter with a single crochet border - I found it made the construction phase way easier!

One of two A pieces, ready to use

Next comes the gusset!  For those who may not know, this is the piece that gives height to the pillow, forming, like, the sides of it.  You could, in theory, just stitch the two pieces together, but then you'd have a flatter pillow.  The gusset makes it look more professional and cozier ;)  All you do is make a long piece, 10 stitches wide and as many rows as it takes to go around your pillow.  This is where that border on the letters comes in handy.  I counted those stitches, and crocheted that many rows - easy peasy way to get the size perfect!  Between the green L, the blue A, and my niece's cross pillow, I was crocheting gussets for days, y'all!

Something about the rolled gussets appealed to me...

this one was super long!

The final step is to put it all together.  Using a slip stitch, I connected the gusset to one of the letter pieces, all the way around.  Then I did the same thing with the second letter piece, leaving an opening large enough for my hand/arm to fit, so I could stuff the pillow.  It took Way.  More.  Filling.  than I anticipated, for reals!  Hence the running out halfway through the second letter...  but I wanted a nice, fluffy pillow, so I stuffed it super full :)  Obviously, once it's stuffed, the last thing to do is finish stitching around, to close up that hole.  You'll be left with a fluffy, cozy, awesome pillow.

Gusset attached to one side - you can see how it makes the inside space

Just as I was finishing up the last stitches to close the pillow, my son came in my room & lit up when he saw these!  He grabbed his and snuggled it up, then snatched up L's, yelled "I'll give him his!" and ran into their bedroom to sleep with them that night.  So, overall, I'd say they were a hit!

Crochet Cross

My sister's daughter is making her First Holy Communion next weekend, and I am SO excited!  Not only is she my niece, but she is my goddaughter as well, so I feel an extra special connection with her on this happy day - I'm very much looking forward to watching her receive Jesus into her heart, and to support her as she grows up in the Church :)

The boys & I will, of course, be travelling to Michigan to celebrate O's big day, and I wanted to bring her a present to represent the sacrament she's receiving.  So, I decided I'd make her a cross pillow.  She can (hopefully) keep it on her bed as a reminder to say her prayers at night, and as a symbol of Jesus's presence around her always.

I've been working on letter pillows for the boys using this pattern (more on those when they're all done), so I took that idea and created my own pattern for a cross:

I worked up two of these, in a creamy white color perfect for a First Eucharist.  They go quite fast, as they're straight rows of single crochet.  The only tricky piece is making the extensions for the side pieces - I chained out from the row then worked all the way across, because I wanted one solid piece, as opposed to sewing together different chunks.  The end result is a much cozier pillow to snuggle up to.  To add a pop of color, I chose a buttery pastel yellow for the gusset (that's the edge piece that gives the pillow its height).  That process is so easy - just straight rows of 10 single crochets til the pieces is long enough to go around the pillow shape.  I did the strips for the letter pillows at the same time, so I had rolls and rolls of crochet strips.

The last step to making the pillow is to simply slip stitch the gusset to the pillow around the whole edge, leaving an open spot to stuff the pillow with poly fiber filling.  I found it took a LOT more filling than I anticipated, but I wanted it to be full and fluffy.  Once I finished stuffing & stitching up the opening, I have a snuggly, cross shaped pillow to give to my precious goddaughter on Sunday.