iBake: Angel Food Cake, Berries, & Whipped Cream dessert

Happy 4th of July y'all! I hope everyone is having/has a great fun filled day! This year is actually the first time I don't have any set plans. I might just end up chilling at home and resting. I know that sounds super boring but this weekend I have to work and it's going to be insanely busy. At the museum the first weekend of every month is free for residents of the county the museum is located in as well as for Bank of America customers/card holders. Our free weekends are ALWAYS super busy/crowded/crazy and we're expecting that times 1000 since it's also the 4th of July holiday weekend. So I'm gonna need to rest up to prepare for that lol. I also live right next to a park that does a huge fireworks show every year and I can see the show from my backyard so I can get my fix that way if needed lol.

But anyway, if you're in need of a last minute dessert to bring to a BBQ you're attending today or something quick to make at home if you've got unplanned guests coming over, try out this Angel Food Cake, Berries, and Whipped Cream recipe! Sorry, I couldn't think of a better name haha! It's super easy and only takes 3 ingredients. Plus you get that lovely patriotic feel with the colors.

Angel Food Cake, Berries, & Whipped Cream

• Angel Food Cake
• Bag of mixed berries(I used raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
• Whipped Cream 

For the Angel Food Cake you've got a couple of options. You can just buy a pre-made cake, buy a box mix, or make it from scratch. Since this is supposed to be a quick and easy recipe I would go ahead and just buy a pre-made cake. Cut the cake into little bite sized pieces and place a layer at the bottom of your serving dish. Cover with a layer of whipped cream and repeat the layers as many times as you'd like or until you've filled your dish. After the final layer of whipped cream top with your berries. Et Volià! Great last minute dessert. I buy a big enough cake to get at least 2 serving dishes out of it. I love making this because not only is it super easy, but it's also a great refreshing summertime dessert. Enjoy!

 

How are you spending your 4th of July? 

MKD 

iKnit: Summer projects

If you guys recall in my last iKnit post I made a Keyhole Scarf and it was the first major knitting project I had undertaken. Well I haven't made anything since then lol, but I do have a few really fun projects lined up to work on this summer! Within the past two weeks I have gained 2 new beautiful baby cousins. My aunts gave birth a week apart! So there's a lot of excitement and baby fever running around in my family. And since I'm not having babies any time soon(they're cute but not for me right now haha) I feel like my contribution will be some cute knit items for baby girl Evangeline(Eva for short) and baby girl Logan.

Each of these projects/patterns I got are again from the wonderful website, Craftsy. I love the huge variety of patterns they offer and they have them by skill level. So all the ones shown below will be at a novice/beginner level.

First up we've got the most adorable cardigan and it has teddy bear ears on top! Can you imagine a little baby all snuggled up in this?!?! I really like this color so I might stick with the blue for this one.

  Baby Cardigan with Teddy Bear Ears 

This next top is the perfect addition to a cute little dress. And I love this lilac color so I think I'll try to find the same and maybe do one in pink as well. 

 

Baby Angel Top P057 

This next cardigan might be my favorite because it totally looks like something I would wear haha. I need to figure out how to make this in an adult version. Again, I like this colorway so I might try to find this yarn and keep it the same. 

 

Baby Stripe Cardigan by Rocket London 

And lastly. I really want to make a blanket and I really liked this design. It's a basket weave pattern called entrelac. I'm thinking for baby Logan I'm going to do her blanket in pink, green, and white because my aunt was in the AKA sorority and their colors are pink and green. So I think she'd really like that. And for baby Eva I'm thinking pastels, like maybe a pink, purple, and blue. 

Entrelac Baby Blanket 

I'm excited to get started on these. I've got a couple of road trips planned for this summer so I'll definitely have time to do them then lol. 

Do you have any summer projects?  

MKD

iKnit: Keyhole Scarf

I mentioned in my About Me a lot of the different hobbies I have which include: reading, listening to music, cooking & baking, knitting, watching films and *hopefully* I'll be adding sewing to this ever growing list. So I want to start a new series called i[insert hobby]. Or at least until I find a better name haha.

The first in my new "iSeries" is going to be all about my first major project I've undertaken in the knitting world, the Keyhole Scarf from Craftsy.

If you've never heard of Craftsy, it's this wonderful site that's kind of like an online school for different crafts. They have courses you can take in knitting, sewing, quilting, cake decorating, crocheting, jewelry making, photography, food & cooking, and much more! The classes are interactive video tutorials and you can get actual feedback from both the instructor and your peers. They offer both paid and free "mini" courses, the paid courses ranging from $14.99-$49.99. They often have sales so you might be able to get one of the more expensive classes for a little less if you're lucky.

When I first joined Craftsy it was for their cake decorating classes of which I enrolled in all the free ones haha. Then I decided to just enroll in mostly all the free courses they had available in things I was interested in. However when it came to the knitting courses, I saw one that I really wanted to take for $14.99 so I decided to bite the bullet and just buy it, and I'm so glad I did!

I enrolled in Knit Lab with Stefanie Japel and the project for this course was making a keyhole scarf with the main lesson being how to knit lace. But Stefanie starts you from the beginning with an introduction to different types of needles and yarn, to how to cast on your first stitch and the actual process of knitting. It was perfect! She is very thorough with her instructions and what I think I love best is that she's knitting along with you so if she makes a mistake she will stop and show you what she did and how to fix it. She would also purposefully make common mistakes that a new knitter might make and show how to fix them. Now, on to the project!

Here's what the scarf should look like when it's all finished. Isn't it nice?

And here's mine! Not too shabby for a first timer I think haha. I absolutely adore this color yarn and bought it on a whim forever ago. So when I found this project I knew I had to use it for this! I actually had a lot of fun making the scarf even though there were times when I thought I'd have to start completely over after making a couple of mistakes. But anything I did wrong there was either a part of the video that addressed it or I could ask one of my peers in the class and they could answer it for me.

All in all I am a huge fan of Craftsy and when I finally start sewing I already know which courses I'm going to enroll in! And I'll be sure to post any more projects I make from the site on here too!

Have you ever used Craftsy? How did you like it and what courses did you take? Are you a fan of online learning or do you prefer traditional classes? 

MKD