Limited Time Only! Kids Valentine Coupons!

dc_admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:33:07 +0000

Sorry! The giveaway is over! But check our blog or Facebook page- we intend to have more freebies soon! Stay tuned!

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Happy Valentine’s Day all!

For a limited time, we are giving away our printable kids Valentine coupons! These are for kids to give to their parents and feature four printable coupons. Normally $5 at our Etsy shop

Coupons are good for one:

• Car Wash

• Room Cleaning (includes under the bed!)

• Taking the Garbage Out

• One Day of NO Complaining

They will only be available until 3pm EST. Enjoy!

Keep in mind that any printables are non-transferrable and cannot be resold under any circumstances!

Copyright owned by Design Circus®

Let them eat cake! Rainbow Cake!

dc_admin — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:51:34 +0000

Somewhere along the road of deciding what I was going to do for my twin boys 7th birthday I came across a blog post about the most colorful treat I had ever seen. It just exploded on the computer screen… rainbow cake… a 6 layered dream with strips of buttery, sugary deliciousness. I knew I had to convince my war-mongering, lego-smashing, dirt-loving little men. It wasn’t easy. They wanted Star Wars themed confections…but I worked my Jedi mind tricks on them and the Rainbow cake was in our future.

Mind you- I am no baker. Baking is awful. I’d rather go to the dentist. (candy making is a different story-but I’ll save that for a different blog post) So this is the “Looks great, tastes like box cake” method. One reason why it tastes like box cake? Cause it is. But there is a great recipe here if you are a scratch baker- check it out: http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake

For a cake that can serve 20-25, this is what you’ll need in your cake arsenal. 2 boxes of white cake mix, vanilla extract, 6 small bowls, food coloring, parchment and 9 inch round cake pans.

(Click on the images for a larger view)

Cutting parchment paper into circles that will fit into the 9″ rounds will make the cake super easy to get out of the pan. Look at me, I am using eco-friendly parchment. (I cropped out the stack of paper plates I had in the background so there is no evidence of my paper wasting.)

I mixed the cake mix according to the directions and divided equally – each box I divided into thirds- so I have six bowls of cake batter. Add food coloring to each bowl and mix. Try not to mix too much, just enough to distribute the color.

Now, like I said earlier- I hate baking… so having baking pans isn’t really in my repertoire, let alone 6. I had 2, so I just poured and baked the cakes two at a time. I didn’t time it- since these cakes were considerably thinner, I used the toothpick method to test their doneness. I baked them at 325˚.

I made mine and let them cool, and made buttercream frosting. I made the easy version of buttercream- 3 cups 10x sugar, 1 cup butter, 2 tbsp heavy cream and vanilla to taste. Whip it up and viola! If you are going to frost the cake in the frosting, double that recipe. I planned on using whipped cream, so the single recipe was the perfect amount. I placed the cooled purple cake down on my plate and started layering. Cake, frosting, cake, frosting… you get it.

There was also just enough frosting to do a crumb coat. If you are doing the entire cake in buttercream frosting, do a thin layer of frosting all over the cake and refrigerate for a few hours. This will help when you are doing the final frost, you don’t have a bunch of pesky crumbs in your frosting. If you are going to frost in whipped cream, this step can be skipped.

I then took two container of heavy cream (minus the amount I needed for the buttercream frosting) and whipped it. Before it was done I added a couple spoonfuls of sugar to sweeten it and a bit of vanilla for taste. (this recipe would be awesome in lemon!)

I spread the whipped cream over the cake so there was no cake showing and popper in the fridge. Keep in mind, if you don’t have a cake cover, frost the cake in the whipped cream so it only has to spend a couple hours in the fridge before serving. Cream has a nasty way of soaking up tastes and smells in the fridge. I don’t think anyone wants onion flavored frosting. Gak!

Then, it came time to cut the cake and serve. Mind you… in the craziness of the birthday extravaganza, I didn’t get too many great shots- but here’s one! This cake is sure to wow the kiddies and some adults. Although, I think some may be horrified at the thought of that much food coloring coursing thru their veins… Happy caking!

Gettin’ this party started!

dc_admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:50:56 +0000

I have never been someone who likes to write or considers themselves a word-smith in any way shape or form. My world revolves around the visual world and committing to writing blogs in the past have failed. I lose the motivation to post in a timely way with articles that I think others will find interesting.

So here is where I throw down the gaunlet! I will write… hopefully weekly. But to make interesting for myself, it will be anything and everything that interest me. From food to design to the newest and greatest “thingy” getting my attention. I will also try to make available tutorials for projects of all sorts (I just made some homemade marshmallows..maybe that’ll be my 1st post!) as well as freebies like vectors, printables and DIY projects.

So stop by in a week or so… I should have some blog-worthy stuff soon!