Pumpkin pie recipe

 Pumpkin pies.

Ingredients:

Buttons for the pie dishes.

Thin craft foam ( brown)

Narrow braid.

Glass paint ( orange)

Acrylic paint ( golden brown)

Aleene's Tacky Glue

Aleene's true snow ( optional )

Cut a craft foam circle that fits inside your button.  It does  not have to be a perfect shape for the braid will hide  the imperfections.

To get a nice pumpkin colour, paint the foam with a thin coat of orange glass paint.

Cut a piece of narrow braid long enough to fit around the foam shape. This will become the rim of your pie crust.

Glue the braid in place and paint a golden brown colour.

Decorate with some cream for a finishing touch.

Tip: for a nice shiny crust paint the top with Mod Podge.

Profiteroles. Mini cream puffs

Profiteroles

The mini version of the cream puffs we did before.

 Are usually served as a dessert with ( hot)  chocolate or caramel sauce.  They  are just  mini versions of the cream puffs.

  You will need the same ingredients but the size of the foam balls should be a lot smaller of course.  I found bags of different sizes of really tiny foam balls at a dollar store.

If you are making a ton of profiteroles colouring each one will be a bit of a hassle. I put mine in a small container and scrape a little bit off my oil pastel to go   into the container as well. I use a brush to move the foam balls around till they have a nice colour.

You can make them in the same way as the   cream puffs  but   the sticky tape will be really important to keep them from flying all over the place  when you cut and fill them.

 For the chocolate sauce you can use acrylic paint in a chocolate colour.

Tip : If you like your profiteroles filled with crème patisserie    ( custard) rather than with whipped cream you can simple turn your cream into custard by mixing in a tiny little bit of yellow acrylic paint with your snow paint or whatever you are using for your cream.

Yummie no clay cream puffs

Cream Puffs.

Lovely choux pastry shells filled with cream.

Ingredients  :

Styrofoam balls about 1 cm diameter.

Oil pastels in a pastry colour. They can be replaced by chalks or watercolors but I think the  oil pastels give the best result. If you are worried that the pastels or chalks will come off , dab a little bit of  Mod Podge on your balls or spray them lightly with hairspray.

Aleene's true snow for the cream . Instead you could try caulking or 3 dimensional paint.

Talcum powder.

Other things you will need :

Craft knife

Toothpicks

Piece of card and double sided sticky tape.

Colour your balls by rubbing them with the  oil pastels till they are a nice puff pastry colour. Or use chalks or water colours instead.

Put a piece of double sided sticky tape to your card. This will make it a lot easier to keep your puffs in place when you are working on them.

Cut the foam balls in half and place all the halves on top of the sticky tape.

Paint one half of the balls with a thick layer of Aleene's true snow. These will be the bottoms of your cream puffs.

Place the top halves directly on top of the cream and leave to set.

You can then decorate the top of the cream puffs with more cream or  add  a dusting of talcum powder as icing sugar.

A typical Dutch variation are cream puffs with chocolate on top .  They are called  chocolate balls.

Often there is cream on top of the chocolate.  Acrylic paint will work brilliantly as chocolate.

For a nice variation you can add slices of fruit to the filling.  You can use slices of nail art canes or beads or no hole beads for the fruit.

Place the fruit on top of the cream on the bottom parts of your cream puffs and leave to set.

When the fruit is firmly stuck into place you can either add more cream and place the top of the puffs on top or leave them as they are.

Marianne Haakt / Marianne goes crochet.: Outfit for a 2 1/5 inch baby doll

Marianne Haakt / Marianne goes crochet.: Outfit for a 2 1/5 inch baby doll: Romper , bootees  and  beanie hat for 2 1/5  inch baby doll.  This link will take you to the free pattern.

1213 page views in one day ............9-10-2016

 A nice surprise for me today . I checked my page views for this blog and found that yesterday I reached 1213 !  That put a big smile on face and it gives me a lot of energy to keep working on this blog.

Thank you all for the likes, nice comments and feedback. They mean a lot to me.


Perhaps some people would like to follow the blog ? If so you can add your email at the top of this page where there is a blank and the word submit  and you will never miss a post or a tutorial.

And now I think we all deserve some cake
Marianne

No clay chocolate cake made by me

. Mini crochet cake made by me

Cupcakes ( recipe from my book )

Crochet cake dome

Crochet cake dome  .

This pretty cake dome is perhaps more decorative than practical but for the doll's house I  guess that need not be a real concern.  If you like you can make yours to fit over  a glass or plastic dome and make it more practical . Or you can use the lace version  as decoration only in a  shabby chic setting.

What you will need :

A dome shaped something. It could be an existing cake dome, bottle cap or whatever you like. I used the cap of my glue bottle.

DMC tatting thread ( fil dentelles  or similar thread ) and a 0,60 mm crochet hook

Plastic ( wrap or a small bag)  and rubber band.

Fabric stiffener of your choice. I often use a mix of water and white craft glue, but for this one I tried Mod Podge which worked really well.

Small brush

Bead for the handle of the finished dome

Tacky Glue.

The plastic lid I used .

The dome is worked in rounds starting at the top of the dome , all rounds are closed with s slip stitch.

sc=single crochet

st= stitch

dc= double crochet

Start with a magic circle and work 6 sc  into the circle. Close with s slip stitch.

Round 1. Chain 1, work 2 sc  into each  stitch. Close round with slip st.

Round 2 . repeat row 1.

Round 3. *  Chain 3  , skip one st, 1 sc. in the next st,  *  repeat from * to *  till end of row and close with slip st.

Round 4. Work as row 3 but chain 4  instead of 3.

Round 5. Work as row 3 but chain 5 instead of 3.

Round 6 :  Chain 3, work 4 dc in the first chain 5 loop,  Work 5 dc in all other loops and close round  with slip st.

Now we are going to  shape the sides of the dome.

Round 7 :  Chain 4, skip one dc  and work one dc in the next dc, *  chain 1 , skip id,  1dc in next dc  * . Repeat from *till *  till the end of the round and close with slip st.

Round 8 : repeat row 7

Round 9 : repeat row 7

Row 10 : chain 1 and work 1 sc in every st.

Finish off and weave in thread ends.

Crochet finished.

To stiffen your dome:

Wrap your dome shape in plastic and use an elastic band to make sure the plastic stays in place.

Put your crochet shape over the plastic shape making sure it fits nice , straight and tight.

Paint your dome with the fabric stiffener of your choice and leave to dry overnight.

Peel the dome of the plastic covered dome , add the bead at the top so you have a knob or handle.

Admire your work.

Ti p : if you are not totally happy with the shape of your dome. Put it in a bowl of warm water for a few hours. Leave to dry and start again.

Turning and old pumpkin lantern into a cute pumpkin shop.

Just a fun little project.

Started with an old damaged lantern from the thrift shop.

Added a floor ( air drying clay) and a branch to hide some damage.

Added a wooden disk for a base and put the whole thing outside to dry .

Made some pumpkin themed stuff   to put inside  and outside.

Here is my pumpkin shop ready for customers to come and enjoy  everything pumpkin even some pies.