Monthly Archives: January 2011

World’s Best Cake

You did it! Congratulations! (If I only had a neon sign I could hang in my window.) But trust me, this is the best cake you will ever have. Today I made it to celebrate a birthday, but really any occasion would do. 

Follow this recipe and you can’t go wrong!

  • 1 box of plain white cake mix
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter, melted
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans with solid vegetable shortening and dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set pans aside.

Place the cake mix, milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer until the batter looks well blended . Divide the batter between the prepared pans, smoothing it out with a rubber spatula. Place the pans in the oven side by side.

Bake the cakes until they are golden brown and spring back when lightly pressed with your figure, 27 to 29 minutes. Let cool. And while you wait, you can make the frosting.

  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) of butter
  • 2/3 unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 3 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/3 cup milk
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1/4  teaspoon salt

Place the butter and cocoa powder in a bowl and blend with an electric mixer until the mixture is soft and well combined. Add the confectioners’ sugar, 1/3 milk, vanilla and salt. Beat with the mixer for 2 to 3 minutes until the frosting is fluffy and is lighter in color.

And then frost the cake until your heart’s content. (It really is the best part!)

A New Year with the Passion Conference

My projects have been put on hold this week to attend Passion 2011. It was an amazing 4 days of worship, and as a part of the conference, they created this museum-like exhibit called the Go-Center, where participates could learn more about and donate to different international causes. As a lover of arts and crafts, I wished I could have been a part of the construction. It was a room full of inspiration!

The pictures below are from the area where you could donate to building wells in India. There were multiple areas where they had objects hanging from the ceiling – here it was water bottles.

Below are pictures from the Compassion International market, where you could donate a chicken, medicine, etc.

Click here to hear about the amazing results, and to learn more about Passion 2011 (Click here)

I keep my [felt] hearts on a string

With my new sewing machine, I’ve been waiting for something to inspire me. Playing around, I sewed together a heart, and the idea hit me – hearts of a string.

With 2 squares of off-white felt, quilt backing, gold thread and grey yarn, I made this project in about an hour.

I liked this project because it doesn’t have to be perfect. My first heart was far from having an even seam, so I sewed another stitch and the imperfectness made it look really cute!

I’m thinking with some pink and red felt, this project will make the perfect Valentine’s Day decor!

(And shout out to the birthday girl and my friend who received these hearts – Carmen! It’s just a small token of how much your friendship means to me.)