Beer Cake

 

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this project. On the one hand, it was not even half as good as the pinterest inspiration. On the other hand, with the limited skills and tools that I possess in regard to cake decorating, and with the amazing reaction I received, I'd say it was a success. I know my brother liked it, and as it was his birthday cake, I think that's all that matters.

I tried the cake as a kid friendly version last week (it was a coke zero cake) and it was kind of a flop. (I'll try to find a picture of that one, I know somebody took one) I didn't have any cake pans the right size so I fit aluminum foil inside of a pot to make a mold and baked the cakes from there. This made the four layers very different sizes which made it really hard to stack them. After realizing what a mistake that was, I went to Michael's and bought 6in cake pans to use. This made them much more uniform, but if I were to do it over I would probably buy even smaller cake pans.

The second mistake I made on the coke zero cake was that I thought the foam on top would work best with whipped cream. I didn't think I could do it with frosting. The whipped cream  melted in the first minute in our lovely south Florida weather and ended up looking like a disaster. Not to mention the fact that I was serving this cake to the only children in the world who happen not to like whipped cream. For my beer cake I braved using frosting, and it turned out not only holding up better, but looking much better as well!

Without any further ado..... My Beer Cake!!!

My copycat

My brother and I at his party at World Of Beer (fitting cake, right?)

The original inspiration

 

 

Saw Blade Clock

Another victory!! I absolutely love the way this project turned out. I had planned to make it for my dad for Father's Day, but I didn't get my act together soon enough. It was an extremely simple project to make and took less than an hour to put together. I bought a clock kit from Michael's (a more difficult task than you'd think... there are so many choices!) and the saw blade from Home Depot. All together it probably cost a little over $20, but it could have been much cheaper had I had the patience to use an old saw blade and take the time to clean it up and make it presentable.



My copycat in its temporary home (We need to clear out some space in the garage)

 

The original inspiration

 

Bird Bath Planter

Huge success! I absolutely love the way this bird bath turned out. I have yet to see any birds bathing in it, but it looks adorable all the same! It only took a few days to make (and only because of the drying time for the paint). It ended up costing around $40 to make, which is comparable to other bird baths I've seen online (which are not nearly as pretty).

My Copycat



The original inspiration
(Sorry for the horrible photo, I'm still learning how to do this)

Click to see the original instructions. They're pretty straightforward, but they don't explain what to do with the bowl at the top. I ended up enlisting my dad's help to secure the top pot (so that it stays up straight) and attach the bowl. He drilled a piece of wood and attached it to the inside of the top pot to make sure the rebar held it upright and then we used a silicone glue to glue the bowl to the top. So far so good! We'll see how it holds up when our crazy Miami weather takes it for a spin.

Adventures of a Pinoholic

Pinterest has proven to be a very dangerous site for me. I think it's fair to say I'm a little obsessed. People are sick of hearing me say "I found it on pinterest!" but what can I say? I love finding crafts and recipes that I can do myself. Sometimes my projects turn out amazing (which of course is what inspired me to start this blog to chronicle my attempts) but sometimes they turn out to be total flops. Either way, I decided I wanted some sort of record of all of my pinterest attempts, so here goes nothing!