They Did (for 50 Golden Years)

April 14, 1962 is a date very important to me & my family. It's significance for my birth family has to do with my mom being 7 or so months pregnant with me. The day played a vital role in my current family -- for it is the day my wonderful in-laws were wed. Without that day there'd be no Keith & Melody; there'd be no Zachary, Alexander or Harrison.

April 14, 2012 was a day I should've had this project finished, but that's not how I roll...

I kept adding time-consuming crafty components.

(...like a fake certificate & love note for the pocket...)

This is way better than scrap-booking, IMHO!

(took me a l-o-o-o-o-ng time to bend those letters with my needle-nose pliers...)

I started by printing the photo on fabric.

I then completed my embroidery elements. Their names adorned a length of flat lace. April 14 was put on a white satin pseudo ring pillow. The year I stitched on a piece I fashioned into a bow made from fabric left from my wedding gown.

Layer after layer was stitched together. Old jewelry findings, vintage lace, ratty silk flowers way past their prime all found their way onto my canvas. My hands got really tired of all the hand stitching!

I hand-stamped a little brass medallion to hang from the bow.

Each of the flowers were disassembled from their plastic components & stitched together. Some I beaded with pearls.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Mom & Dad! We love you.

Gluten-Free Red Velvet cupcakes

Growing up, my very most favorite cake in the world was Red Velvet. My aunt used to make it. We called it "Brick Cake" because of how the slices looked.

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(Of course, that was back in the good ol' days when the red food coloring was bad for you...) At some point in time during that era, my mom started baking it using green food coloring for either Christmas or St. Paddy's Day.

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I remember the first one I baked. Pretty sure it was during my first year of marriage. Pretty sure I didn't read the recipe carefully enough... Oh, the cake turned out lovely. The icing, however, was a melted nasty mess. Yes -- I neglected to let the boiled ingredients cool prior to whipping in the butter. ugh!

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I have been trying to eat gluten free since Easter. This is quite the struggle for an admitted carboholic! I crave my scones and fresh-baked focaccia breads.

I asked Keith to bring home some rice flour so I could bake. He did.

Inspired by this recipe, I set about making it gluten-free. I rounded up additional ingredients from Sprouts & WinCo. (Why is this stuff so expensive?)

I began by mixing up my "cake flour". (I used 1 cup tapioca flour, 1 cup potato flour, and 1 1/2 cups white rice flour)

Into the processor I tossed 3/4 cup softened butter, 1 cup sugar, & 1 cup honey. When that was smooth I added 3 eggs. My red food coloring must've been quite old, 'cause I only added 3 Tablespoons of the stuff to my 1/3 cup cocoa and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mixed that into the batter. After measuring out 3 1/3 cups of my flour mixture into a bowl, I stirred in 2 teaspoons guar gum. In my glass measure I added 1 1/2 teaspoons salt to 1 1/2 cups buttermilk. I mixed the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the processor in three different additions.


When all that was beaten together, I combined 1 1/2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar with 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda in a small bowl. Into the processor that went to be well incorporated with all the other ingredients.


I scooped the batter into my waiting cupcake papers.


I baked it at 350° for 20 minutes.

It made 3 dozen cupcakes.

mmmmmmmmm!

The crowns were somewhat cracked & ugly, but you could cover that up with some lovely frosting like this:

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We, however, chose to finish off our cupcakes with ice cream & strawberries...