Irish Cream Bundt Cake

I've made this bundt cake before and it's yummy - so I think I'll make it again for this years St. Patrick's Day dinner we are having on Saturday. Note I leave out the pecans because of Dave's allergies but otherwise just follow the directions:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1 package yellow cake mix
• 1 small package instant vanilla pudding mix (omit if your cake mix already has pudding in it)
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur (like Bailey's)

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup water
•  1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325'. Grease and flour a 10' bundt pan. Sprinkle chopped nuts evenly over bottom of pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine cake mix and pudding mix. Mix in eggs, 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup oil and 3/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. Beat for 5 minutes at high speed. Pour batter over nuts in pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert onto the serving dish. Prick top and sides of cake. Spoon glaze over top and brush onto sides of cake. Allow to absorb glaze, repeat until all glaze is used up.
4. To make the glaze: In a saucepan, combine butter, 1/4 cup water and 1 cup sugar. Bring to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in 1/4 cup Irish cream liqueur. 

Note: I prefer to invert the cooled cake onto a different plate or rimmed pan while glazing - the glazing will run off and pool on the plate and you can scoop it up with a spoon or brush and keep glazing with the run-off until it's all absorbed. Then CAREFULLY transfer the cake to your serving plate. That way the serving dish doesn't have glaze all over it...You need a couple wide spatulas to transfer it - it breaks easily. Sorry I don't have a picture, it looks like a bundt cake tho so depending on if your pan is decorative or not will determine what it looks like! 

Shamrock Suncatcher

My kid blog helper (ahem, Brooke) is awol so I made a kid craft by myself! This is very easy and quick, and if you have washi tape on hand it's cheap too ;)

Trace the shape of a shamrock on a piece of thicker plastic - like a sheet protector, see the heart sun catcher I made here for example, I used a heavier plastic envelope that was on my desk because I was too lazy to walk upstairs for a sheet protector! - and cut it out. Layer different washi tape strips across the shamrock shape and then trace around the shamrock to remove the excess tape. Poke a hole in the top, add some twine and hang in the window. Easy!!

one year ago: shamrock butterflies

Layered Paper Shamrock

It's the week before St. Patrick's Day and I just decided to have friends over for corn beef and cabbage to celebrate - so of course I need to make a few decorations (I call making decorations "another reason to have a party" - along with hanging with my friends I also love to have a party just so I can make stuff!). I googled for some ideas and was inspired by this project - as usual I ended up changing a few things and I love how it turned out. I took tons of pictures which might make it seem harder than it is - this isn't hard and didn't take very long.

You'll need:

-strips of paper in 3 different colors/patterns

• 7 strips cut to 2" x 8" (mine are white)
• 7 strips cut to 2" x 10" (note I used 7 different patterns)
• 7 strips cut to 2" x 12" (mine are green)

-glue stick or other adhesive

-hot glue

-paper circle for support, mine is 2 1/4" diameter

-stapler (unless you have more patience that I do waiting for the glue to dry!)

-length of ribbon to hang it

-optional: letter beads, gold washi tape

Directions:

Stack one long strip, one medium strip, and one short strip of paper - glue the bottom ends together (about 1/2"). Fold the short one back on itself (you can glue it to keep in place or just hold it), then the medium one, then the long one. I stapled the bottom of the loops together instead of waiting for the glue to hold (you won't see the staples). Make a total of 6 loop bundles.

Glue 2 loop bundles together to create a heart shape. Repeat for a total of 3 hearts.

For the stem: fold the remaining long strip at 5" from the left and 5" from the right, so there is a 2" space in the middle. Fold the remaining medium strip at 4.25" from the left and 4.25" from the right so there is a 1.5" space in the center. Fold the remaining short strip at 3.5" from the left and 3.5" from the right so there is a 1" space in the center. Layer them and glue (or staple) the ends together. (See the picture). Oh, and I put the middle piece of paper in upside down! You can't see the pattern so it looks like there are 2 whites and a green in the stem...oh well.

Glue the 3 looped bundles/hearts and the stem together using the paper circle in the center to give the edges something to stick to. I ended up using hot glue to get them to all attach, regular glue didn't cut it.

To finish, I cut another paper circle, stuck a piece of glittery gold washi tape in the center and hot glued the letter beads on top. Then glued the whole thing over the circle that's anchoring the shamrock (you could also glue on the backside, which would then make it the front side).

I didn't think of it at the time and followed the inspiration project directions to attach a ribbon to the back for hanging - but the paper shamrock is too heavy and hung forward awkwardly! So I removed the ribbon and stuck the ribbon ends down into the center of the top and hot glued in place. Now it hangs correctly. If I make this again I'll glue the ribbon in between the top two loops before gluing them together!


one year ago: blueberry chutney
two years ago: shamrock shake recipe

Shamrock Butterfly Card

I made a version of this last year (click here for that and other St. Patrick's Day decorating ideas), this time I changed the direction of the shamrocks and added gold sequins - cuz really, why stop at just cute shamrocks when there's sequins just laying there waiting to be used - and put it on pretty paper for Ronda's seasonal display table. And because I went crazy punching out green hearts for the wreath I made last week (click here for that post) I had some left over so also made an 8x10 sized vertical one - you can't tell in this picture but I drew yellow vertical lines on white paper for the background.

St. Patty's Day Table Decorations

I saw these cute little painted flower pots on Pinterest and thought they are so cute I have to make some for our St. Patrick's Day dinner party. 

To make these you'll need mini terra-cotta flower pots (found at a dollar store) - you can make them bigger of course but I like the small ones for some of the table decorations; craft paint in green, white, and gold; thin black ribbon; gold glittery cardstock; adhesive.

I made two different styles - one is painted all green with a thin black ribbon tied around it for a belt, cut out belt buckles (squares with the center removed) from shiny cardstock and glued on top of the ribbon.

The other style is painted white with a gold rim around the top. Then glue on shamrocks cut out of shiny gold cardstock or make these cute tags if you are having friends over - the pots of gold can then be sent home with your guests as little gifts.

 I'm going to fill them with little gold wrapped chocolate candies so they look like pots of gold and set one at everyone place setting.

St. Patrick's Day Indoor Wreath

I found all the supplies to make this cute wreath at a dollar store - check out how simple and inexpensive this is to make:

All you need is a styrofoam wreath, pre-cut foam shamrocks, ribbon for the bow, something to hang it with (I used a zip tie, you can use anything - a chenille stem, ribbon, twine, wire...), and adhesive (I used hot glue). 

I wanted the wreath base to be flat on the side where I was gluing the shamrocks - not rounded,  so I sawed the styrofoam wreath in half with a serrated knife. If you can find one already flat on one side get that, it was kinda messy sawing the styrofoam but it's totally do-able.

Attach whatever you are using to hang it with at the top, and tie on a long piece of ribbon at the bottom before you start gluing on the shamrocks. 

Lay down the first row of foam shamrocks, alternating colors and which way they are facing and glue them down. Add 2 more layers the same way. 

To finish, tie or knot the ribbon however you like. I looped it back and forth 4 times and tied a small piece around the center to hold the loops in place.