Plate of Love - Ice Cream Cone Cake

Ice Cream Cone Cake

Happy New Year! I know I'm a "little" late and it has been a while since I posted anything on here. Sorry for the hiatus! I've been on that inspiration block we sometimes find ourselves unknowingly edging towards. Anyway, it's back and hopefully for good. Here goes the first entry onto the food section of Whipped up Pretty!

I recently tried my hand at ice cream cone cakes. It's a fun and easy alternative to cupcakes and this is how I made mine with a few hints and tricks that may come in handy for first timers out there. I apologize in advance for the slightly messy display of pictures. (I'm equivalent to a 5 year old in the kitchen!)

What you will need:

For the cake:

22 flat bottomed ice cream cones.

Cake mix of your choice

For Cream Cheese frosting:

3/4 cup cream cheese

 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar and more (for a thicker frosting)

 1/2 cup butter (1 stick)

1 tsp vanilla extract

A bit of cocoa powder (Optional)

Step 1. Arrange the cones in a baking dish of your choice. (Cupcake pans would be ideal but I used a spring-form pan here.)

Batch 1.

Step 2. Mix the batter up as per directions and spoon them into your cones. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the top is springy to the touch.

NOTE:  I baked them in 3 batches.

In the first, I spooned in about 3/4th of the batter into the cone and in the second batch, I added about 1/3rd.

In the third batch, I mixed things up a bit and added a little cream cheese frosting in between the batter (this was extra yumm!)

Batch 1.

These moon lookalikes are from the first batch with the 3/4th  filling. I wasn't too happy with it and the cones were less crispy as well.

That's why added 1/3rd of the batter for the next. This did the trick, the cake was more flatter with a crispier cone.

Step 3. Now for the cake frosting bit:

In a large bowl, beat together cream cheese and butter until soft and creamy.
Add confectioner's sugar gradually and finally a drop of vanilla essence. I added a little cocoa powder as well.

Once you have let the cake cool for a while, you can start frosting your ice cream cone cakes to glory. I just used a spoon for decorating from a lack of patience and sprinkled them with a little cocoa powder! 

I cut open two of the cupcakes for you to see. The one on the right is from batch 3 where I added cream cheese frosting in between the batter. You could even add some crushed up Oreos or candy in between the batter instead of frosting.

There are indeed plenty of ways to decorate your ice cream cone cakes. I added chocolate syrup mixed with a little mint essence on some. I absolutely love mint and chocolate combination! Hope this entry helped you!

Enjoy!

DIY Pretty - Heart Bookmarks

♥ bookmarks.

                            Here's a little tutorial on how you can create these pretty ♥ bookmarks.

What you will need:

1. A rectangular piece of colored paper (You could even use newspaper or wrapping paper)

2. A pair of scissors

3. Glue stick (Optional)

Step 1. Fold in about 1/4th of your paper inwards.

Step 2. Turn it over and fold into a pyramid shape. Make sure both sides are equal.

Step 3. Turn your semi pyramid shaped paper to the other side. If it looks like the picture to your right then all's good!

Step 4. Now, fold 3/4th of your pyramid inwards.

Step 5. Turn over your paper and you will find two strips of paper jutting out.

Step 6 and 7. Gently press in these two strips of paper to form an expanded cone.

Step 8. Here's where you fold in the other ends of expanded cone inwards to form a semi hexagon, this will be the top part of your heart.

NOTE:  You may instead be able to fold in the ends of the expanded cone to form a semi diamond as well. It all depends on the shape of your paper. If this is the case, keep calm and continue reading. ^-^

Step 9. When you turn over your paper, you can see that your heart bookmark is almost ready.

NOTE:  As I pointed at Step 8, in the case where your heart has pointed/semi diamond tops, you can fold half of it inwards to form a heart that looks like the above one or if you prefer the pointed look to your heart, head to step 10.

Step 10. Cut off the excess paper left on either side.

Step 11 (Optional). You can choose to do this according to your preference, fold the flap of paper inwards and glue it to form a more wholesome shape to your heart. Your ♥ bookmark is ready to use! 

You can use even wrapping paper, newspaper or plain paper and decorate your bookmark however you want to! I drew two little eyes on mine, ended up looking pretty cute!

Enjoy! =)

DIY Pretty: Painting pots!

Here's a few simple decoration ideas for your pots! 

Shaded Pot: 

Here's a pretty simple and easy way to paint your pot, I used two different shades of red and glued in string that acts like a divider! 

Cherry Blossom Pot:

I thought this would be hard coming from a person who cannot paint anything decent apart from blocks! But this was fun and turned out  pretty nice! I painted on a piece of paper prior to painting it here and of course with a few guidelines from YouTube. This is what I got! :)

This is the beautiful video I used to guide me with the blossoms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPIhsvUysGo

Paint Type: Acrylic.

Enjoy! 

DIY Pretty - Chain and Ribbon Bracelet

Chain and Ribbon Bracelet.

Here's a pretty bracelet I created a few days ago that I've not been able to take off my arm since! =)

This is how you can make one for yourself too.

Things you will need:

1. Two strands of ribbon about the same size. Cut longer ones so it can be adjusted later on.
2. One metal chain
3. A jewellery connector
4. Plier
5. Scissor
6. Matchbox

Step 1. This step requires a little caution on your part.

Using your matchstick, lightly burn the ends of your ribbon to seal them. You will see it melt to form a thicker outer layer. This will ensure that your ribbon doesn't fray later on. 

Be careful not to let the flame get too close to your ribbon or you will be left with some not so pretty brown ends. 

Step 2. Align the ribbons and chain in the same form as the picture to your right and make a knot.

Step 3. Preferably with the help of another person, you can start braiding it. Once you have a braid long enough to cover your hand. Knot the other end.

Step 4. Cut the excess ribbon and remove the excess chain with the help of your pliers. Seal the ends of the ribbon with your matchstick and hook on your jewellery connector using your pliers. Using the pliers may be a little hard but you'll get a hang of it! =)

These are the basic steps to create your own bracelet. You can experiment using things like different colored string, pieces of leather, lace and the likes! Enjoy! =)

DIY Pretty: Glow in the Dark Ceramic Pots

Want to create a super easy, instant mood lifter with these Glow in the dark pots? Here's how you can do it!

All you need are:
1. Ceramic pots
2. Acrylic paints
3. T candles

Step 1. Paint the outside of your ceramic pot black or any colour as long as it's dark!!

Step 2. Paint the insides of the pot with an earthy shade, like maroon; orange or red. I painted mine maroon!

Step 3. Once the paint has dried, place your candles inside. Turn off the lights and watch the amber amplify! Enjoy! <3 =)

DIY Pretty: Mini Notebook.

Mini Notebook

I've been contemplating about posting this one since it was a spur of the moment creation, and I don't necessarily have a step by step picture tutorial on this. I'm afraid you will have to rely more on my words.
So here's how I made this pretty mini notebook!

Things you will need:

1. A bunch of same sized paper depending on how big you want your book to be. Your front page has to be slightly thicker than the standard thickness of A4 size sheets.

2. Wrapping paper/Fabric/Tissue Paper - I used this pretty silver tissue paper that I had lying around at home.

3. One or more pretty ribbons.

4. White glue.

5. Glue stick.

6. Three equal pieces of long paper, any colour of your choice.

7. One binder clip.

8. A sewing pin or anything that is thin and pointed.

For the mini notebook:

Step 1. Wrap your front page with the covering that you have chosen. Since I used tissue paper, glue stick was my choice of adhesive. If you are going to use a fabric covering, I recommend using hot or white glue.

Step 2. To hold your notebook together, you can use a binder clip like how I did. I covered the binder clip with the same silver paper for continuity.

Step 3. Now comes the ribbons, you can place them anywhere on your cover. I used a thick silver ribbon and a thinner cream ribbon that I stuck with white glue.

For the blue quilling work:

Step 1. Take a piece of your long paper and using the less pointed side of the sewing pin, roll the paper around the tip to form a nice circle. Be careful not to hurt yourself! You can let go of the sewing pin once you've formed a small coil. It will begin to look something like the picture to the right.

Step 2. Once you've created a circle like in this picture. You can begin to create the diamond shape, all you need to do is gently press both ends of your circle to form pointed edges.

Step 3. Now that you've created a diamond shape to your satisfaction, glue the open end of the diamond with white glue. Use the same at the base of your diamond to stick it on the cover!

There are many beautiful ways of experimenting with quilling, I will be exploring more. Meanwhile, I'd be glad to see your version of quilling and do let me know how this tutorial was! Enjoy! =)  

DIY Pretty: Tissue Paper Flowers.

Tissue Paper Flower.

Flowers! Who doesn't think they are pretty! Here's a simple and pretty flower you can make from tissue paper.

What you'll need:

1. Four pieces of tissue paper (both coloured and decorative will do perfectly).

2. Scissors.

3. String.