Pina Colada Cake

I hope you all had a great Easter! This will be my last Easter-ish post for the year, even though it's a little late as it is :)

Today I am going to share with you the cake I made for our Easter dessert. I was in charge of dessert this year, and after a lot of searching, I finally decided to make a pina colada cake that was featured in the January/ February 2013 Food Network magazine. The cake itself is actually more of a summer dessert, but I decorated it with orange and yellow peeps and spring-colored confetti sprinkles.

First of all, I just want to let you know that this recipe is completely based off the Food Network recipe that you can find here. All I did was twist it up a little bit.

Ingredients:
- 1 box of Betty Crocker vanilla cake mix
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
- toasted coconut flakes for garnishing

For the frosting:
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1/3 cup cream of coconut

Directions:
1. Bake the vanilla cake mix in two separate 8-inch wide circular pans.
2. Once the cakes are cooled, poke holes into each cake with a toothpick. Brush a generous amount of the pineapple juice over each cake.
3. For the frosting, beat the butter and salt together until fluffy and smooth. Beat in the confectioners' sugar slowly until everything is completely combined. Add the cream of coconut, and beat until the frosting is thick.
4. Toast the coconut over the stove on low heat in a dry skillet until lightly brown.
5. Finally, spread a layer of frosting over the top of the first cake. Place the second cake on top. Then, completely cover the outside of the cake with frosting. Garnish the finished cake with toasted coconut and any sprinkles of your choice.

Voila! A delicious pina colada cake. Let me know if you try it!

Spring Nails

On Monday I painted my nails with an Easter/ spring theme. They didn't turn out perfect, but I thought they were pretty cute.

These are the colors I used (from left to right):
- Pure Ice "Peony"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Mellow Yellow:
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Lacey Lilac"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Sun Kissed"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "Breezy Blue"
- Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear "White On"

As you can tell, I love Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear nail polish!

 

That is the finished product! What do you think? To make the polka dots I used a toothpick, which I would not reccommend doing because the polish globs onto the nails and smudges. Ugh! I got very frustrated, but it ended up looking fine.

 

Thumb- Pink base coat, orange polka dots

Pointer Finger- Yellow base coat, blue polka dots

Middle Finger- Purple base coat, white polka dots

Ring Finger- Orange base coat, pink polka dots

Pinky- Blue base coat, yellow polka dots

 

I was inspired by these two pins from Pinterest. As always, if you wish to repin either of these, please do so by following the link on the picture.

 

 



Have a great long weekend and happy Easter!

 

 

Easter Outfits

Can you believe Easter is on Sunday? It doesn't even feel like spring yet.

Today I am going to share with you three Easter outfits. Let me know which one is your favorite!

This is the fanciest outfit. It is very girly, springy, and dressy. I paired a black-and-white polka dotted dress with a coral cardigan and black flats.

For this outfit, I am wearing a floral-printed skirt, flesh-colored tights, pink flats, a white t-shirt, and a denim jacket.

If you are one of those people who just doesn't like wearing skirts or dresses, then this outfit is for you! I paired khakis with a mint polka dot top and a gray cardigan.

Happy Easter!

DIY Easter Wreath

While reading an HGTV magazine the other day, I was inspired by this absolutely adorable Easter wreath!

From HGTV Magazine on Pinterest

 

So, I decided to make my own! The original wreath called for ribbon all around, but I substituted two different kinds of fleece instead. I used a solid green fleece and a green-and-white polka dot fleece.

 

Using a rotary cutter with scalloped edges, I cut out lots and lots of fleece strips that were 8 inches long and 1 inch wide.

I ended up with a heaping pile of green fleece strips.

Next I started tying the strips onto a wooden wreath form (can be purchased from craft stores) using square knots.

Step 1

 

 

Step 2

 

 

I alternated between the polka dot felt and the green felt. After tying every strip, I pushed it very close to the one beside it, so none of the wreath form showed.

 



After all of the strips had been tied on!

 

Next, using this tutorial, I created a tulle bow.

 

The wreath form had little holes in it, so I found one and pulled a loop of tulle through it to make a hanger. Then I hot-glued the bow to the hanger.

Finally, I hot-glued four of these adorable little guys ($1.99 for six at Michael's) all around the wreath.

And here's the finished product! What do you think?

 
Happy Spring!