Orange Cupcakes

Cupcake Batter:

1/2 cup butter, softened

2/3 cup of sugar

1 1/2 cups self-rising flour*

1/2 cup orange juice

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 eggs

zest of an orange

*You can buy self-rising flour:Or you could make it. Just sift together all-purpose flour with baking powder, 2 teaspoons baking powder for every cup of flour.*

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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 12-hole muffin tin, either with paper liners or grease. In a bowl, combine butter, sugar, flour*, juice, vanilla and eggs. Beat with a mixer on low until it's mixed well. Increase speed and beat for 2 minutes, until the batter is pale and smooth:

Stir in the zest and spoon batter into prepared pan (I ended up with enough batter to make an extra 10 mini-cupcakes). Bake for 20 minutes (10 minutes for mini), until golden brown. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Frosting:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 tablespoons orange juice

In a bowl, cream butter, then add half of the sugar and all of the juice; mix well. Add the rest of the sugar and spread over the cooled cupcakes. Add more zest on top if you want.

opinions needed

So this is my first post on Ruth's crafty blog, and I'm in major need of opinions. I spent somewhere between 4-6 hours working on this pendant and I'm wondering if it was worth it. I made a similar one in blue and brown and I love it, which makes me think its the colors that I don't like. I would love any input, good or bad, it all helps.

I also had a friend suggest making it into a ring. To give you an idea of how big it is, imagine wearing it on your middle finger, it would cover your index and ring finger as well. Thoughts?

Thanks for letting me be on your blog Ruth!

Introducing Another 'R'

My little sister, Rachel, is joining me on this little craft/cooking blog. She is wonderfully talented at beading. The craftiness oozes out her pores and turns into gorgeous things like this: and this:and this:

and this beauty:I'm excited to see what she has in store for us!

Stripes

I finished this quilt over a month ago, but since it was a present for my new little niece I decided not to blog about it until after I'd given it. I'm very proud of this quilt. I didn't have a pattern, I had just seen a similar quilt at a baby shower and decided I could do my own version. So I worked out how big I wanted it, the number of rows, and width and length of the fabrics; and I wrote it all down. Sadly, that piece of paper was lost in our recent move. And now that it's been so long since I sewed it, I can't remember any of the numbers. I do remember that it took me about 2 days. I cut, sandwiched and sewed the first day and snipped the second. Luckily, this was such an easy quilt pattern. I could easily make another and I probably will. . .