Pantry Organization

I finally did it!  It's only taken me three years in this house, and endless days of complaining about not being able to find anything, but I finally got the pantry organized!

First up, of course is finding the right containers. . . . but have you ever noticed how crazy expensive baskets and matchering containers can be?  However, being thrifty, I headed to the dollar store and found these great wire baskets!  Totally wrong color of course, but a quick spritz of metallic silver spray paint and now they're just right!

I've been teaching the girls how to pack their own lunches to save me time in the morning, so I labeled three baskets for them:  Sweets, Chips/Crackers, and Pudding/Fruit Cups.  This way, the girls can make their own sandwhich, and grab one item from each basket, as well as a juice box.  Saves momma big time in the morning, trust me!

I also HATE those nearly empty cereal boxes that I don't know to replace the next time I'm at the grocery store. . . .until the kids complain at the breakfast table that we're all out!  For a long time, I've been searching for the perfect containers - clear with the perfect teal colored lid.  Low and behold, I found them at IKEA!  And they were super cheap too!  The tall ones I used for cereal, the medium ones I used for my baking supplies like flour, sugar, bisquick, etc, and the little round ones, I used for my other small baking supplies like merigue powder, baking soda, and baking powder.

I wanted all the lunch supplies and cereal at the girls eye level so it would be easy for them to help themselves to breakfast and lunch.  My baking supplies aren't used daily, so I stuck them on the bottom shelf and since I had that top shelf that's not very tall and won't fit much, I organized all my bakeware on that one.

The top of our pantry has three very tall shelves that are pretty deep, so it's easy to lose things and then end up buying double!  The only way to avoid that situation again was to group like things and stick them in one container! 

On the top shelf I stuck all the things I didn't want the kids to get to:  Mr. VB's lunch snacks, our Friday night movie snacks, and the sprinkles for cupcakes or "decorate your waffle night." 

Once I had everything contained into it's own basket, it was surprising to see how much room there actually was in our pantry!  I could have fit several more containers in there, whereas before, it always seemed overflowing with random things that would fall out as soon as you opened the doors!

The teal and white containers are from the Dollar Tree, the wicker basket was just something extra I had in the craft room, and the sprinkles box is an awesome stackables container that I got at Joann's.



Wedding cupcakes

A little while ago I started taking orders for wedding cakes and other event cakes.  Stressful to say the least!  Mr. VB and I ultimately decided that while working full time, it's too much to take on wedding orders too!  I end up staying up all night and stressing about making things perfect for the bride.  I did however, agree to do a recent wedding that was all cupcakes, and it was SOOO much fun!  Stressful yes, but only because I had about 1,000 flowers and toppers to make, but not at all stressful like building a four tiered wedding cake!

The bride had seen something like these cupcakes online and asked me to do something similar.  Here's what we came up with!

The bride ultimately decided that she didn't want any kind of big tiered cupcake stand, and just wanted them all on this old table that was at the venue.  However, it looked a bit flat, so we opted for one cake stand in the corner for just a bit of height.

Each cupcake had it's own topper.  Some were just large pearls, some were pearl hearts, others were these white flowers, or single rose buds.

I've already shown you all how to do roses, so up next is the tutorial for the star flower that you see above! 



Clearing up ceiling stains

Have you ever had THIS happen?!!!

A couple years ago, we had the "100 year storm" come through our area.  It caused some roof damage in several areas of the house, causing leak stains all over.  The worst, by far, was in our work out room.  Poor Mr. VB had to crawl up on our roof in the middle of the storm with a can full of Henry's to patch the roof and get the leaking to stop, but we were left with this monstrous stain.  Naturally, we cleared away the insulation in the attic above so that it wouldn't mold, and let the drywall air dry.  I've been avoiding that room for nearly two years, but after talking to our neighbor who's a painter about having him repaint our ceiling, I got some great advice!!

Instead of cutting out and replacing the drywall or repainting the entire ceiling, he suggested a simple fix.    Fill a spray bottle with 1/2 bleach and 1/2 water.  Make sure that the bottle sprays with a FINE MIST and not a straight spray.  DO NOT attempt to do this without having protective goggles, a mask for fumes, towels, and plastic tarps to lay over the carpet below or any furniture that might get the over-spray.  Be careful that you don't get any of the bleach spray on any painted walls next to the stain area or the bleach will make the paint lighten in those areas!

Spray the stain area from about 3 -4 inches away, focusing on the outer rings that are usually much darker than the center.  I generally sprayed one coat, waited a few minutes for it to sink it, and then sprayed another one, waited a few minutes, then a third.  After three coats, the drywall is too saturated to absorb anymore, so I wait a few hours and then do three more coats.  I kept doing three coats at a time until a couple days later, the stain was completely gone!  

This picture below is half way through the treatment, after about 3 - 4 rounds of the 3 coats.
  Much lighter than before, but you can still see the outline.

The next day, I did another couple rounds, and the stain was completely gone!  This was the worst stain in the whole house, but the other smaller, lighter stains just took a couple rounds to get completely gone!!  I can't believe I waited so many years to talk to our neighbor and get his awesome advice!  Now I'm not afraid to show off my house when guests come over!

Candy Clay

Have you all heard of Candy Clay before?  How about Modeling Chocolate?  They're pretty much the same thing - chocolate that can be molded into shapes that will hold!  It's amazing to work with, and is so simple that even a child can use it!

Here's what you'll need:

12 ounces melting chocolate

3 ounces light corn syrup

melting pot

ziplock bags

(gel colors if you'd like to have colored clay) 

What I usually do is measure out my corn syrup and put it in a snack sized zip lock bag and seal it tight.  Next I'll add my chocolate candies into another bag.  Then, I'll turn on my melting pot to low and put the syrup in the bottom, and then the chocolate on top of it.  

Once the syrup is warmed up pretty hot, I take it out of the bottom, and then put it on top of the candy so that it's being warmed by the pot on the bottom, as well as by the hot corn syrup on top. 

The goal in working with chocolate is to make everything the same temperature.  If you add something cold into warm chocolate, you'll "shock" it, and it will seize up on you and get clumpy.  Just keep checking back on your chocolate, taking the bag out and massaging it every now and then until all of the clumps are gone.  When it's completely melted, open the bag and add in the warmed bag of corn syrup.  Gently massage the corn syrup into the chocolate by just massaging the bag.  Slowly, you'll see the chocolate bind together so that there's no separation between the melted chocolate and the syrup.  You'll want to be careful not to over-knead it, but you still want to make sure that it's completely mixed.  It will be the consistency of warm Silly Putty.  Once it's mixed, wrap the bag airtight and put it in the fridge to cool.

After it's cooled an hour or so, pull it out to thaw on the counter.  You'll want to slowly bring it back up to room temperature.  It'll be rock hard, but don't worry!  This is where the magic happens!  Break it into fourths and gently knead each piece until it's pliable.  When they've all reached that Silly Putty consistency again, you can add them back together for a larger ball to work with!  I usually keep them wrapped in plastic wrap or a zip lock bag, but there's no real concern about them drying out quickly, which is such a great change from gum paste or fondant!
(word of warning. . . . if you use Wilton melting chocolate like I do, instead of real chocolate, you'll notice that when you take it out of the bag, there's white "waxy" clumps here and there.  Be sure to take them out before you start kneading and as you go along.  You don't want little clumps in your smooth chocolate!)

To work with the chocolate, just be sure that you use your finger tips more than the palm of your hand.  Your palms are much warmer than your fingertips and if you overwork the chocolate, you'll begin to melt the chocolate or get it greasy, in which case, don't worry, you can just set it down for a few minutes or pop it in the fridge real quick.  

These below are angry birds that I made for cake toppers a little while ago.  The insides are small balls of rice crispies that are covered with the modeling chocolate!  I just cut out the small details with circle cutters, warmed the back of the detail with my palm, and attached it to the birds head.  If you need colored candy clay, you can start off with colored melting chocolate, which is usually easiest, or you can use white and then add in gel colors, the same that you'd do for fondant or gum paste!

Here's also a little owl I did in a cake class and a Nemo fish me and the girls worked on!

Now go have some fun and let me know how it goes!

Brushed Embroidery 3-D Rose

A little while ago I showed you all about brushed embroidery.  And it's still a technique that I love, because it brings so much elegance to your cake in just a quick minute!  However, I just learned an amazing twist on it where you can make your cake 3-D!

First, you'll need to start out by rolling out some gumpaste fairly thin.  Thin enough that you can almost see through it.   Use your flower cutter to cut out some petals.  You'll want to make sure you keep each petal covered and out of the air while you work on the others!  For each petal, flute your edges with your ball tool and set it aside to dry in a forming cup.  You'll want 5 or 6 petals that are a little larger than others that will dry more flat, and 7 to 10 petals that are little smaller and dry very curved.  The petals that are more flat will be the bottom of your flower and the curved petals that are a little smaller will be the centers.

You'll still need to make your royal icing, just the way you did for your brushed embroidery technique. Set it aside, but make sure you always keep your bowl covered!  I usually place some cling wrap right on top of the icing in the bowl, and then put the top on the bowl as well!

Once your petals are fully dry (it might be a few hours!) start with your first petal and trace it with royal icing in a tip #3, just like you did with the brushed embroidery cake!  You'll also want to let these dry for another hour or so til they're hard.

Once all of your petals are dry, you're going to want to start creating your flower! 
Start with your larger, flatter petals on the bottom.  Attach them to the top of your cake with dots of royal icing.  You'll do 5 or 6 petals arranged in a circle.  But make sure that you don't add such large blobs of the icing that it won't dry. 
Next, you'll want to go back and do a smaller inner circle of the smaller, curved petals, attaching each with a dot of royal icing. 
Lastly, you'll want to add 3 or so curved petals for the center, along with a dot of royal icing for the middle.  To make a stamen in the middle, I usually just use the pre-made kind that you can buy at the store, but I know on several occasions, my instructor used yellow thread that he tied in a knot and cut the ends of so that they were sticking up.

Here I've shown you a standard white rose, but you can also add some color by brushing the petals (before gluing them in formation) with some color dust!

(The extra petals on the sides of the flower that are long and thin were made using a daisy cutter)