Author: Life of Momma B

What’s a birthday without a cake?

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

Regardless of age, everyone needs birthday cake. Whether you purchase an overpriced cake from a specialty bakery, or go for the plain box mix and canned frosting, a cake is a must.

 

Recently I spent a few weeks with my father in Alabama to help him recover from rotator cuff surgery. Two days after surgery he celebrated his birthday, so a cake was needed. Usually I make a semi-homemade cake with homemade frosting. However, my father is a diabetic so most cakes are out of the question. So I started looking for options. I found that Pillsbury now has a sugar-free cake and frosting. Being a bachelor for many year my dad is not too picky, and it was just the two of us we decided to give it a try.

Sugar free cake

For the record I do not usually eat anything that is sugar-free. I do not tolerate aspartame (it triggers my migraine headaches) and I have heard so many risk associated with artificial sweeteners so I try to avoid them when possible. I realize that all artificial sweeteners are an acquired taste that I do not have. So that is important to note ahead of time. Both of these contain Splenda.

 

CAKE: You make this cake like you would any other mix. Add oil, water and eggs and bake. Before I baked the cake I tasted the batter. Before anyone says anything, yes I know that it contained raw eggs, but I wanted to be prepared for how it would turn out. There was a slight after taste before baking, but I did not notice it after it cooked. I baked the batter in two 8 inch pans and noticed that they did not rise as much as usual. The taste was pretty good (not as good as my usual cake) but it was okay. Overall, I would give it a grade of B-. If I needed another “sugar-free” cake I would make it again.

 

FROSTING: What goes better with yellow cake than chocolate icing. This stuff was so thick there was no way I could but it on the sides without tearing the cake apart. So I decided to only put a thin layer between the two layers and a generous amount on top. After tasting it I was glad I had not put more the cake. For this was the worst frosting I have ever tasted. Besides not being as sweet as regular frosting, it had a heavy, taste. Spreading the frosting was impossible. If I had to give it a grade, it would definitely be an F. I will not be buying this stuff again. My dad and I both ended up scraping as much off as we could and just eating the cake.

 

Thankfully I will not be needing any more sugar-free cakes for a while.

More Dishcloths

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

Just when you think I am done with dishcloths, I knitted a few more. My husband asked me to knit a set for his mother for her birthday.

dishcloth bundle

For my mother-in-law I started with a size 6 needle and some sunny yellow Sugar and Cream cotton yarn. I whipped up 5 dishcloths.

for my MIL

From left to right I knitted 2 seed stitch dishcloths, a letter B dishcloth, and 2 basketweave dishcloths. All of these I have used before, however I did change the edging on them. I found that if you slip the first stitch on each row instead of knitting it you get a nice smooth edge.

If you are looking for the original patterns you can find them here (seed stitch, Letter B, and Basketweave). But if you want them to turn out like these, the patterns are below. Continue reading “More Dishcloths” →

Keep Calm and Carry a Backpack

~ Life of Momma B ~ Leave a comment

Include in your essential list of items for summer camp is a backpack. Every camper needs a small bag to throw over their shoulder to carry their stuff around during the day.

keep calm and carry a backpack

I have to admit this was not one of my SWAPS, but rather it was my daughters. She too has just learned to knit and wanted to hand knit all of her SWAPS for camp. What began as a simple square developed into a cute SWAPS. I must admit she worked a lot harder to complete this than I did on all of mine combined. However, I think they are absolutely adorable and she was able to make them with all the left over yarn I had piled up.

The knitting itself was quite easy. Just cast on 6 stitches using a long tail cast on, then knit 5 rows and cast off leaving a tail of several inches.  Using a yarn needle the tail were brought to the opposite side and tied with a square knot to create the straps of the back pack. The tags were printed on card stock and attached to each piece. A copy of the tag is below for your use.

Keep Calm And Carry a Backpack

Note: the backpack did not open but were more like flat rectangles with loops.

My friend the sock monkey

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I have fallen in love with sock monkeys, and apparently I am not the only one. I never had a sock monkey as a child, but now that I am all grown up (don’t laugh so loud) I wish I had one. The last SWAPS I made for summer camp was a sock monkey friend. It was by far the most popular SWAPS I made, and quite a few people, including adults, came up to me and asked for one.

sock monkey SWAP

Like all of the other SWAPS I made it was super easy. It began with a piece of 12×12 scrap booking paper. All I had to do was cut them out and drop them into a 2×3 zipper bag. My wonderful hubby wrote the poem for me. So I printed them and attached them to the top of the bag with a zipper before adding the safety-pin.

If you are able to find the sock monkey paper and would like the tag, here it is. Sock monkey SWAPS top

Fun in the Sun SWAPS

~ Life of Momma B ~ 2 Comments

What is better than flip flops in the summer? Flip flop SWAPS of course!

Fun in the Sun SWAP

I found these cute flip flop cupcake toppers at my local craft store. All I had to do was remove the stick and add a tag. I does not get much easier. The possibilities are unlimited and the design is on both sides. These were great because they are colorful and I passed them out the day I wore my summer shirt with flip flops on it.