Home Interior Journal/Collage {June 2013}

I can tell how time went by so quickly when it's time to post the home interior/fashion journal/collage {as you know I do this at the beginning of each month}. I don't know about you but I feel though as time goes by very quickly and I always behind with things I wanted to do.  Summer is finally here. It is warm and sunny today and the past week in New York. I am excited because we are planning to go to Barcelona, Spain and Venice, Italy this coming August. If everything goes well we are definitely going. I have never been in Spain so I am excited to be in Barcelona.

~~~oo00oo~~~

I am in love with grey but more over I love grey with soft accent color like pink, aqua, blue and gold. So today's theme is grey with soft pink or blush pink.

Oh, I am so very much in love with the color palette of this living room. I think it is a perfect marriage of feminine and masculine.

Via; Pinterest

Have a lovely Wednesday Everyone!

And,

thank you so much for stopping by!

Moist chocolate Cake + Rose Custard

It was all started when my Indonesian Facebook friend who lives in France posted a picture of her Chocolate Cake with Custard.

I wanted to try it out so I asked her for the recipe. She immediately sent the recipe through Facebook. I had chocolate cake before and I also  had custard before but not together. I thought this would taste delicious  and need to try these together.

I wanted a very moist chocolate cake for this recipe. So I searched through Google and found this incredibly moist chocolate cake from Foodess. It looks  very easy and I was tempted to try it out. And for the custard; a 'rose' custard came into my mind. Why not! Let's try it with rose water. Rose and chocolate; sounds divine and decadent.

Let's see the delicious 'Moist Chocolate Cake with Rose Custard'.

And she was right! This cake is unbelievably moist. I never had cake this moist before. And the combination of strong chocolate and sweet rose is  melting slowly in your mouth with the soft sweet aroma of rose tickling your nose. I love this cake very much especially with rose custard! My husband Steven rejected anything chocolate lately because of his diet regimen but he could not resist this cake. He had 2 pieces already just this afternoon.

Recipe can be found on Foodess blog. But I am going to write it down for you below.

Moist Chocolate Cake

~ 1-3/4 cups all purpose flour

~ 2 cups granulated white sugar

~ 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

~ 1-1/2 tsp baking soda

~ 3/4 tespoon salt

~ 2 large eggs

~ 1 cup buttermilk (or put white tbsp white vinegar and let it thick for about 5 minutes)

~ 1/2 cup butter, melted

~ 1 tbsp vanilla extract

~ 1 cup hot coffee (or 2 tsp instant coffee in 1 cup boiling water)

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg. Grease and flour two 9-inch baking pans (or line with parchment paper circles) and set a side. Note: I used only half recipe and used only one 7" round baking pan.

2. In a large bowl and using electric mixer; mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, melted butter and vanilla extract and beat until smooth (about 3 minutes). Remove bowl from mixer and stir in hot coffee with a rubber spatula. Batter will be very runny.

3. Pour batter evenly between teh two pans and bake on middle rack of oven for about 35 minutes, until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean with just a few moist crumbs attached.

4. Allow to cool 15 minutes in pans, then run a butter knife around the edges of each cake. Place a wire cooling rack over top of each pan. Wearing oven mitts, use both hands to hold the racks in place while flipping the cakes over onto the racks. Set the racks down and gently thump on the bottom of the pans until the cakes release. Cool complete before handling or frosting.

Rose Custard

 ~2 cups of milk

~ 2 tbsp cornstarch

~ 1/3 cup sugar

~2 eggs, lightly beaten

~1 teaspoon vanilla substitute for 3 tbsp rose water

~a pinch of salt

1. Have eggs ready in a bowl, and set aside where it will be within reach.

2. Using a whisk, combine milk, sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan over medium heat on stove top. Allow milk to scald (heat to the point when tiny bubbles form around edges of pan). Whisk occasionally to prevent cornstarch from clumping on bottom edges of pan.

3. Remove milk mixture from heat, preferably to a burner that's turned off.

4. Mix about 2 tablespoons of scalded milk mixture into eggs using whisk, then introduce eggs into milk mixture in a slow stream, whisking milk mixture constantly. Add salt.

5. Immediately return pan to heat and whisk gently until custard thickens, another two or three minutes. Do not allow to boil. (If you find that you have egg white strands in custard, feel free to pass it through a fine mesh sieve into a different bowl now.)

6. Remove pan from heat and let it cool for about 10 to 15 minutes then drop in 3 tbsp of rose water; stir.

~~~oo00oo~~~

Happy Baking!

Linked to;

Savvy Southern Style

Fabric Wrap Gift Boxes {DIY}

Hello, 

I am very excited to tell you that my son will be arriving New York tomorrow afternoon. I have not seen him since last summer so it has been almost a year now. I miss him terribly. I will post pictures and story about him and I on my next blog post.

In the meantime, I had so much fun creating these fabric wrap gift boxes. These fabric wrap gift box is very easy to do. You can embellish the box with anything you want. It is fun to see the build up decoration comes a live just like mine are. Some of these trimmings were from a trimming sewn on the bottom of a top. I used the fabrics for many crafts DIY and I cut the trimming to create a rosette as an embellish on this box below.

Tutorial {here}

For this photo session I am using an old abstract painting of mine as a backdrop. I have not been painting in a long time. I think I miss painting a lot lately. Since our home is on the market and always have an open house I am not ready to put out the easel, paints, canvas, etc. It is a lot of work to set it up and put finally to put a way again. So I think I won't be able to paint for a while now.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Linked to;
Savvy Southern Style

How to Make Fabric Wrap Gift Box {DIY}

 

What you need;

1. Varieties of printed fabrics. The thin cotton is better because otherwise it would be too thick and the box will not be able to close and put on top another. {Quilt fabrics avail. at Jo Ann's Fabrics}

2. Thick lead pencil

3. Scotch Super 77 spray glue {available at Michaels}

4. Scissor

5.Empty craft boxes

6. Varieties of embellishments like trimmings, ribbons, ephemera, tag, rosettes, vintage items, etc. {avail. at Michaels}

7. Medium size of packaging box to put cut fabric while spraying.

Additional material;

8. Glue gun to attached hard embellishment like plastic {avail. at Michaels}

9. Fabric glue to attach ribbon or trimmings. {avail. at Michaels}

10. Mod Podge glue (avail. at Michaels}

~~~oo00oo~~~
 
More pictures; {here}

1. Cut fabric large enough to cover the entire box plus 1/4" on the inside.

2. Place bottom part of box in the middle and trace the middle part of the box.

3. Tilt one side of the box and trace that part. Do it on the other 3 sides.

4. You will ended up a drawing on fabric like this.

5. Using scissor; cut the pencil line on the outer part. But leave extra fabric of 1/4 inch for two sides a cross each other. Please see the 4 black line is where you cut.

6. You will ended up having a 4 flaps like these; two one side and two on the opposite side.

7. Put the cut fabric in the box and give it a good spray. Leave for about 1 minute then transfer to your work area.

8. Place the box in the middle.

9. Starting with the side with flap; carefully attached and rub fabric gently  on the side of the box.

10. Do the same on the opposite side.

11. Then do the other two sides.

12. You are finished wrapping the bottom part of the box. Repeat the entire process for the top part of the box EXCEPT do not leave extra to fold inside the box. The reason is because the box will get to thick on the 4 corners that the box will not be closed and or will not be able to insert on top of the bottom part of box. Using small brush with mod podge glue; paint the fray edge of material on the box.

Thank you so much for looking!

Olive Oil Lemon Chiffon Cake

If you love lemon and are watching calorie intake; this cake is for you. It is light, airy, moist and lemony.

If it is me I love adding extra punch to it like lemon syrup that I created myself. It is the mixing of lemon juice, powder sugar and water. I ate it with strawberry jam and nutella as well. Oh and this is the kind of cake that tastes better eating with a cup of hot  tea after done with house work; which I always love doing.

I really love this vintage strainer. I got it at an antique shop in Vermont last winter. I think the flower motif around it is  sweet looking. Don't you think?

::Recipe::

Olive Oil - Lemon Chiffon Cake

~ 1 cup plus 2 tbsp cake flour

~ 3/4 cup sugar, divided

~ 1 tsp baking powder

~ 1/4 tsp baking soda

~ 1/8 tsp salt

~ 5 tbsp mild extra-virgin olive oil

~ 4 egg yoks

~ 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

~ Juice and zest of 1 lemon

~ 6 egg whites

~ 1/2 tsp cream of tartar

~ 1/2 tsp confectioners' sugar, for serving

Heat oven to 325 deg. In a large bowl, sift together flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together oil, egg yolks, vanilla, 3 tbsp water, 3 tbsp juice and 2 tsp zest. Whisk flour mixture into oil-yolk mixture until smooth. In first bowl, beat egg whites and cream of tartar with an electric mixer until foamy. Gradually beat in remaining 1/2 cup sugar at medium speed until mixture just holds peaks. Fold 1/4 egg-white mixture into oil-yolk mixture to lighten it, then gently fold that into remaining egg-white mixture. Scrape batter into an ungreased 10" angel food cake pan with a removable bottom; level top of batter. BAke until top springs back when lightly pressed, 30 to 32 minutes. Immediately invert pan on a wine bottle (pan will hang upside down over bottle's neck); let cool completely, about 1 hour. (Mine is a regular 10" springform pan). Slide a thin knife around edges of pan to loosen cake, then remove from pan. Just before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar. Sprinkle with 1 tsp zest, if desired.

~~~oo00oo~~~

Thank you so much for stopping by!

By the Beach in Pink {Inspiration Board}

I must say that I enjoy creating mood/inspiration board very much. I hope you don't get bored with the inspiration theme once more time.

I have many exciting projects I am going to show you in the future but I am not quite ready so this is just an instant project I created this morning and I want to share it with you.

I love collecting pretty pictures from magazines; it can be a fashion, home decor or cooking. 

Today's theme is 'by the beach in pink.' One of my favorite outfit by the beach is colorful floral outfit. I love flowy, soft long dress. I remember in the past when we are going to Puerto Rico each year, I always created a home made necklace and bracelet made out of embroidery threads and beads. I think what I am trying to say is my favorite beach resort look is an elegant hippie chic. You know, lots of colorful bracelets made out of rope, threads and beads.

As you can see I also love sea glass bottles. And of course; sea shells.

 

Do you see the beaded push pins {last seen here]? I love making those. I bought more buttons yesterday and this afternoon for 25 buttons (small, medium and large sizes) that comes in a small plastic container and is only for USD 1.50 per container at Michaels. In the future I am going to get more vintage frames so I do not have to create a mood/inspiration board in the same frame all the time.

I wanted to share with you that I found how to make black and white picture with a portion of color on it through Picmonkey. The first picture on top left is the original picture, and I made into black and white with some color here and there {top right}. The one on below left I only put color on the flower, the pom pom ribbon and on the ocean while the one on below right I only put color on the flowers. Which one do you like best?

Here is another two pictures that I only put color on the flowers and on bottles {on the left} and on bracelet {on the right}. I think they both look quite lovely!

Thank you so much for looking! Have a great day Everyone!