the thrifty crafter



When I think of springtime treats, lemon desserts and carrot cake are the first things that come to mind. So why not combine the two to give you the best of both worlds?  Since I prefer the individuality of cupcakes, especially when I am making treats for different groups of people, I used this delicious-looking and rave-reviewed recipe for carrot cake and adjusted the time down for cupcakes.  To top them off, I used the lemon cream cheese frosting recipe from my archives, adapting it so that is presentable and sufficiently stiff (cold cream cheese is the key!). The results were scrumptious!  The cake is incredibly moist and delicious and the lemon zest really ties it all together.  Just don’t make yourself sick licking the frosting off the beater!

Carrot Cake Cupcakes (makes 24):

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
• 1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup canola oil
• 4 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Line muffin pans with your favorite springtime liners.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and salt.

   

3. In another bowl, stir together the carrots (use a food processor for fast shredding!), chopped nuts, coconut and raisins.

   

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the sugar and oil together on medium speed until smooth. Add the eggs one by one, and continue to beat until the batter is even smoother. Reduce the speed to low and add the flour mixture, mixing only until the dry ingredients disappear.

   

5. Gently mix in the chunky ingredients. Use ice cream scoop to portion into cupcake liners, filling until about 2/3 full (any more full and they will spill over!).
6. Bake for 20-24 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then gently run a knife around the sides of the cupcakes to transfer them to cooling racks.

Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting (makes enough for 24 cupcakes):

• 16 ounces cream cheese, cold
• 10 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
• 4.5 c powdered sugar, sifted
• zest of 2 lemons, grated
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

1. Have the cream cheese cold and the butter at room temperature. In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and zest until blended. Add sugar one-third at a time and beat just until smooth and the desired consistency. If frosting is too stiff, beat for few seconds longer. Do not overbeat.
2. To finish, use a piping bag to frost cupcakes. If you want a garnish, a toasted walnut half would be cute.

While a simple silohouette can get you kicked off of Lifetime’s Project Runway, using that of a small bird is a creative way to add some spring festivity to your Easter place setting.  Start with robin’s egg blue cotton placemats (a steal at BigLots for $0.50 each!), pair with natural-colored linen hemstitch napkins (see my other post for another place setting using these napkins), and add chocolate brown felt birds perched atop paper-wrapped wire napkin rings.   Paper Source provides a printable bird silhouette that, with some adaptation, is perfect for this project.

Here’s what you need:

• Brown felt
• paper-wrapped wire
• wire cutters and jewelery making pliers
• sewing machine and contrasting thread (I used white)
• glue gun and glue sticks

Here’s what you do:

1. Print a copy of the bird silhouette and cut out.  I removed the legs and branch for ease of sewing.
2. Fold felt and pin paper bird to felt, cutting out two birds at once.

   

3. Sew the pieces of felt together, trying to follow the shape of the bird as closely as you can.  Clip loose threads.
4. Take two wires and twist them together.  Repeat with another two wires.
5. Twist the doubled wires together, then form a ring.

   

6. Use wire cutters to clip to desired length. Remove any sharp edges and use jeweler’s pliers to bend free ends. You should be able to make two napkin rings from each braided strand.
7. Use hot glue gun to secure felt bird to napkin ring, making sure to cover area where ends of wire came together.

   

Tips: Eco-Fi brown felt was purchased at Joann’s in the remnants section for 50% off – I always peruse this bin and pick up whatever I think I might use for future projects – it is an abundant resource!  I only used an 8×10 piece for this project, so I have leftover felt for future projects.  Paper-wrapped wires can also be found at your local craft store.  I happened to have some in my crafting stash from my sister-in-law’s wedding – they were used to create inexpensive, artificial monkey tails for flower arrangements…I kept them because I knew I could use them for some type of craft project! Always keep stuff that has creative potential!

While my husband doesn’t love anything that makes our little dog look adorable, I happen to like giving him a little spirit for the holidays.  Recently, I saw a reversible dog bandana in a retail pet store that I thought would be super easy to recreate using spunky prints for the various seasons throughout the year.  By making a two-sided bandana, you can cut your adornment stash in half AND appease your husband by having less stuff!

For spring, I chose to do one side green for St. Patty’s Day and one side in pastels for Easter. My favorite place to shop for the prints (since you only need a small amount of material) is the clearance fabric bin at Joann’s.  The quilting quarters and Fat Quarters are only $0.50!  Using velcro closure, which you can usually find at the 99 cent store, this pet project definitely qualifies as a thrifty craft!

Here’s what you need:

• two spirited, holiday print fabrics
• scissors
• thread & sewing machine
• velcro
• hot glue gun and glue sticks (optional)

Here’s what you do:

1. Measure you dog’s neck.  Our barrel-chested little Jack Russell mix measures 14 inches.

2. Iron and pin your two fabrics together, print side in.

3. Trace out a bandana shape on your fabric (or if you plan to make more, trace onto a piece of stiff cardboard to create a stencil), using the neck measurement as a guide to the length (add at least an inch to have  an area for overlap).  For my bandana, see the measurements below (and no, I did not use the pythagorean theorem to find the length of the hypotenuse of the triangle – just connect the dots!!!)

4. Add 1/4 to 1/2 inch seam allowance along the outside of your tracing – this is the line where you will cut the fabric.

5. Pin, cut and sew, leaving one open edge to turn out your bandana.

6. Turn out, iron and close open edge.

7. Cut velcro into a 1.5 inch strip. Use hot glue gun with fabric glue (or use a sewing machine..i just got lazy!) to affix your velcro strips.  On one side, with the point of the bandana facing you, position velcro vertically, then flip bandana over, with the point still facing you, and position second velcro horizontally.

Cost: $2, with lots of extra velcro for other projects and enough material for a second bandana for a similar size dog!

I’ve always loved the robin’s egg blue, earthy brown and soft yellow speckled eggs you can find in the stores this time of year.  This Easter, I designed my decorations around these inspiring little symbols of the season and incorporated natural elements, like fresh willow branches and wheatgrass,  to capture the spirit of spring renewal.  Here are a couple of inexpensive and easy centerpieces ideas for your special gathering.

Egg Tree

Here’s what you need:

• one bunch of pussy willow branches
• tall vase
• one package of speckled eggs

Here’s what you do:

Clip your branches to the proper height for your vase, removing any buds that would fall below the level of the water in your vase.  Artistically arrange your eggs along the branches.

I found the pussy willow branches at Von’s for $4.99, the vintage milk glass vase is from a thrift store and the high quality speckled eggs (which are also used in the centerpiece below) were purchased at Tuesday Morning for $4.99 for 12 eggs (you can also easily find these at your local Michael’s or Joann’s craft stores).

Egg Hunt Centerpiece

Here’s what you need:

• two galvanized metal trays
• six small pots of wheatgrass
• one package of speckled eggs

Here’s what you do:

Place 3 wheatgrass plants into each galvanized planter.  Artistically arrange eggs among the blades of grass – I used a zigzag pattern with 4 eggs.

I purchased my 13×4.5×5.5 galvanized metal planters from Joann’s on a 50% off sale for $3.99 each and found the wheatgrass at my local farmer’s market for $0.99 each.

Tips: Instead of purchasing your eggs pre-strung and pre-painted, you could make your own and it would probably be cheaper, just more time consuming and messy!

No Easter brunch would be complete without a luscious, lemon dessert.  There is something about the tart citrus fruit that calls to your taste buds and leaves you yearning.  Here, I’ve scoured the internet and made some adaptations to a couple of recipes for lemon lovers and made crisp and absolutely delicious Lavender and Lemon Shortbread Cookies and light and creamy Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting, topped with candied ginger.  Two recipes that will, without a doubt, satisfy that lemon craving.  Enjoy!

Lavender and Lemon Shortbread Cookies

for the Shortbread

• 1 c butter
• 1/2 c confectioner’s sugar
• Lemon zest grated from 2 lemons
• 2 c flour
• 1/4 t salt
• 1/4 t baking powder

Cream the butter and sugar together. Stir in the lemon zest and the dry ingredients. Mold dough into 2 flat discs with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.  Roll out dough on lightly floured surface and use cookie cutter to shape cookies.  Bake cookies at 350 for 20 to 25 minutes – in my oven, I found 20 minutes was plenty of time.   Allow to cool completely before icing.

for the Icing

• 1 c confectioner’s sugar
• 3 tsp chopped fresh lavender (Original recipe used dried culinary lavender, I used fresh because I love the organic look of the purple flowers)
• 2 tsp lemon zest
• 1-2 TB lemon juice

Whisk all ingredients together, starting with one tablespoon of lemon juice and adding more as needed to create a smooth, pourable icing.   Pipe outline on cookies with white royal icing and allow to dry, about 5 minutes.  (I only made a fourth of the royal icing recipe for these cookies – you don’t need much) Flood the cooled shortbread cookies with lavender icing and allow to dry.

Lemon Buttermilk Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), soft
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp lemon extract
• 2 tsp lemon zest (Original recipe did not include this – I added for extra lemon flavor)

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Beat in egg. Add vanilla, lemon zest and lemon extracts into the buttermilk and pour half into the sugar mixture. Mix in half of the flour mixture, followed by the remaining buttermilk and the rest of the flour. Stir only until just combined. Divide evenly into the prepared cups.

Bake at 350F for 18-23 minutes, or until a toothpick tester comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.