magical powers win every time

with the soundtrack on continuous loop in the car and three trips to the theater to see it on the big screen, i'd definitely say that this house is full of "frozen" fans.  the bean has several dolls and received both "anna" and "elsa" costumes from santa at christmas.

except that the dresses were of that awful "one size fits all" variety, marked to fit up to a size 6.  i just knew that she'd outgrow them in about three seconds, and without any urgent need to wear either of them i managed to convince her to return them both.  i told her to pick her favorite character, and we'd just use the money we got back from the returns to buy it at the disney store, where the costumes are available in actual sizes.  plus, she'd already been invited to her first birthday party of 2014, and i'm sure you can guess what the theme was.

and then that totally backfired on me because she chose "elsa," the older sister who has magical ice powers.  apparently, every other little girl in the whole world loves elsa more than anna, because the only costume i could find in her size was on amazon for a whopping $400.

FOUR HUNDRED DOLLARS.  jigga-whaaa?  no.

as i clicked on the box to close that window, i decided to take a closer look at these dresses to get an idea of the level of difficulty.  there was this one:

and this one:

and this one.

all pretty similar, and all fairly simple as long as the right fabric was on hand.  then i came across a tutorial by a mom who'd managed to cobble together a pretty cute version using a white long-sleeved leotard and fabric she'd found at her local joann's.  she made it look easy, and after checking the joann's website to see if the sheer snowflake material was still available (it was!  4 yards of it, at my local store!), i literally ran out the door to snap it up.  i'm sure the other customers in the shop thought i was batshit crazy when i let out a victorious whoop and grabbed the bolt like it was lost treasure.  and then i likely solidified that assumption as i scurried through the aisles mumbling to myself, searching for just the right fabrics to create the rest of the dress.

when i got home, i sat down and created a super rough sketch of what i wanted to accomplish:

and gathered all of my supplies together.

for additional guidance, i fished out the bean's beloved elsa doll and inspected her little dress closely.

a piece of the front of the bodice, using some fun stretchy material i'd found on clearance in the dancewear fabric section:

using one of the bean's shirts, i cut out the rest of the top from the length of white/silver dancewear fabric i'd picked up.  i decided to start out by pinning and sewing the shoulders together.

i moved on to sewing the neck opening, and when i was done i took one look at it and realized that my kid's big ass nugget would never fit through it.  so i used a little trick i learned from another project i did last summer and sewed a little rectangle of fabric to the middle of one side:

then i sewed down the middle(ish) of the rectangle, moved over just a couple of stitches, and sewed back up.  a snip of the scissors, a little bit of velcro, and my problem was solved.

also, yes, i'm totally aware that this is far from perfect.  like, that little slit trick is way off center.  and the stitches are anything but straight.  but you know what?  it's just a costume, and as long as it fits and doesn't fall apart it's all good by me.

sewing the two pieces together to create that faux sweetheart neckline was a BITCH.  i likely did it all wrong, but whatevs.  it was done, and i had a completed bodice!

by the time i was done with it, the time had come to pick up the bean from school.  i had her try it on when we got back, and she was so stinking excited at the sight of what i was working on.  look at this smile - so worth the trouble.

that's also when i realized that i'd totally overshot the measurements - and that the silvery white fabric was totally see-through.  oops.  but i figured she could just wear a t-shirt (and probably some shorts or capris) underneath, and all her private bits would be covered up.  crisis averted.

the rest of it was easy breezy.  i added the sleeves, the skirt, the sheer snowflake cape, and hand-sewed on the little snowflake brooch i'd found in my stash of crafty crap.  and voila:

i'm pretty stinking proud of myself for pulling this one off.  it's far from perfect, and god forbid you should turn it inside out to inspect my handiwork, but it's good enough.  and with her elsa braid in place, the bean was one happy camper and all ready to strut her stuff at the birthday party.

after i took this, she pulled the tiara off.  "what if there's a bouncer there?  i don't want to break my tiara while i jump," she said.  hey, who could argue with that logic?  i just hoped that the dress would survive said bouncer.  the stitches are pretty sturdy though (which i learned the hard way several times as i had to pull a few mistakes apart with my seam ripper), so i just rolled with it.

her little friend's mom did a great job of decorating their house for the party.  check out the birthday girl's throne:

and her prediction was dead on.

she had enough time to grab some lunch and get her jump on before a special guest arrived to entertain the masses.

yup - those party companies are already fully armed with elsa and anna characters.  sheesh.  anyway, she ended up wearing a tiara after all:

and there was jewelry and make-up, too.

i may be biased here, but i think she looked better than the hired elsa.

i dare you to disagree with me.

just a smackerel

i've been eyeing this recipe for "cupcakes for two" for a while now, but wasn't super excited over the idea of vanilla cupcakes.  honestly, i'm not a huge fan of vanilla stuff, although i love to add a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract to stuff like pancakes and french toast.  it just adds a little special...something.

then i was hit with a craving for a cupcake, but didn't want to make the trek out to dots for one.  and so i decided it would be a lovely idea to make a teeny-tiny batch - one for each of us in the house.  and i wanted chocolate.  so this meant going out on a limb in my kitchen and tweaking the recipe to suit my needs.

i'm really not very creative when it comes to cooking and baking.  i have to have a recipe to follow with a list of ingredients and precise measurements.  but i was determined to make this work, so i pulled out all of the stuff i needed and jumped right in.

as i looked over the recipe again, i remembered something - there's a difference between baking soda and baking powder.  this one included the latter, but there's something about the acidity in the cocoa that requires something in baking soda for it to work.  after a quick consult with the google, i made the switch before mixing the batter.

it's a one-bowl process, which is nice, and took just a few minutes to pull together.  the batter was fairly thick and smelled fantastic, thanks to the cocoa i added in place of some of the flour.

i learned later that dividing it into only four cupcake liners wasn't the greatest of ideas.  i could've easily eked out a fifth, and they would've baked up perfectly...

 ...because after about 25 minutes in the oven, i had some spillage.  but at least one of them came out beautifully.

the bonus from that leaky cupcake was that i got to sample the finished product without eating a whole one right away.  i shared it with the girls, and i was pleased to find that it was fluffy, chocolate-y, and not too sweet.

of course, this meant i could make the frosting extra delicious.  my favorite concoction at dots is the "chocobutter" - a chocolate cake topped with a peanut butter-flavored buttercream.  so i threw together the basics and added a nice big dollop of PB before i scraped it into a ziploc bag to frost my creation.  kinda looks like barf, huh?

but ziploc bags are rather, uh, unwieldy.  not the perfect tool for piping out pretty frosting, at least not for me.  i just didn't want to use up one of my disposable piping bags for such a small task.  yes, i'm a cheapskate who didn't want to waste what probably amounts to a nickel on a plastic bag (which i have about 200 of).  heh.  luckily, i managed well enough to turn out at least two that were almost up to my standards.  i even had the mini peanut butter cups to top them with, just like dots.

and because i'd like to be able to make these again, i'm gonna do something i almost never do:  posting the recipe, but with my adjustments.  if you'd like to give the original a shot, you can find it here.  from the comments, it's a fantastic vanilla cake, and if that's your thing, you have at it.  but if you want chocolate, like i almost always do, try this.

chocolate cupcakes for four, adapted from how sweet it is:

60 grams all-purpose flour (i use my scale for measuring flour, so i hope you have one)
10 grams high-quality cocoa (valrhona, in my case)
4 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons milk (which you'll notice is missing from my ingredients photo.  oops)

preheat oven to 350 and prepare a cupcake tin with 4 (or 5, if you want to learn from my mistakes) liners.  on a 90-degree day (in late october, stupid soCA weather), i didn't want to heat up the house and chose to use my mini convection/toaster oven.  this meant using silicone baking cups with the paper liners inside.

whisk egg and sugar till combined, then mix in vanilla and butter.  toss in dry ingredients and stir till smooth.  lastly, stir in milk.  divide batter evenly between cupcake liners.

bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  cool completely and frost with whatever you have on hand.  in my case, i took a couple of tablespoons of softened butter, mixed in what probably amounted to 3/4 to a cup of powdered sugar, a couple of drops of vanilla extract, maybe a teaspoon or so of milk, and a nice scoop of peanut butter.  frosting is one thing i totally play by ear, and it always comes out fabulously.

in hindsight, i'll probably sub in some brewed coffee for the milk next time, perhaps even adding a little extra to make the cake extra moist.  but all in all, i was pretty stinking proud of myself for changing up a recipe to make something a bit different from the original - and having it come out so well.  the teen and the bean were quite appreciative.

i may have to make these again.  like, in a couple of days.