While I am recovering from my second surgery in three weeks (Yikes!), I am catching up on naps, reading, and searching for new recipes on the internet through my phone. To spice things up a bit I decided to try typing while lying down. Lookit! It works! I will give you a tip on how to make quilts super fast using cake mix but first, indulge me!
Since I can only nap for so long, I am revisiting the book Miracles by C. S. Lewis. He is one of my all-time favorite authors and his logic keeps my brain sharp. My next one to re-read is The Screwtape Letters. All that good writing takes my mind away from my current, mostly horizontal, state and time flies by. But it also makes me hungry.
On my last post about the desserts we made for Christmas, I posted a photo and the recipe for the amazing chocolate cake made with cake mix. I also showed you the Apple Dumplings that my youngest son made. Delicious stuff!
So, I went searching for sweets. OMGosh, look at the cupcake recipe I found this morning on food.com: Tiramisu Cupcakes! They have a mascarpone cheese filling and cream cheese frosting. Here is the recipe:
Tiramisu Cupcakes
1 18-1/4-ounce package white cake mix
3 eggs
1⁄3 cup oil
1-1⁄4 cups water
LIQUID COFFEE LAYER
2⁄3 cup water, boiling
1⁄2 cup confectioners’ sugar
1-1⁄2 tablespoons instant coffee
MASCARPONE FILLING
1 cup mascarpone cheese
3 tablespoons Kahlua (or coffee extract)
1⁄4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 (8-ounce) container french vanilla cool whip
FROSTING
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1⁄2 cup butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1teaspoon vanilla extract
chocolate shavings (to garnish)
– Make mascarpone filling mix first & allow to chill 4-6 hours or overnight. Mascarpone filling: Beat mascarpone, Kahlua and condensed milk until well blended. Fold in cool whip. Chill 4-6 hours.
– Prepare cupcakes as directed on the box of white cake mix & bake accordingly. While these are baking prepare the liquid coffee as below.
– Liquid Coffee: Boil 2/3 cup water in the microwave (or boil on the stove) and stir in instant coffee then powdered sugar & allow to cool to tepid. Once cooled, use a fork to poke holes into cupcakes so that they will absorb the liquid coffee & then brush liquid coffee onto each cupcake using a silicone baking brush.
– Fill pastry/icing bag with mascarpone filling & inject about 1 spoonful via bag directly into the top-center of each cupcake.
– Prepare Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting: Beat butter and cream cheese until creamy with a hand mixer on low. Slowly add powdered sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and increase mixer to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy.
– Frost each cupcake with frosting & garnish with chocolate shavings (use dark chocolate bar & cheese grater).
I will print this recipe and put it on my husband’s pillow. Do you think he will get the hint? Everyone around here needs a ‘pick-me-up’ when mom is bed-ridden! If you make them before I do, send me some… I can dream, can’t I?
When my mouth stopped salivating I began looking on the pile of quilt books my husband put on my nightstand. The very first one was Lissa Alexander‘s “Mix It Up! 16 Quilts from Cake Mix & Cupcakes Mix Papers” published by Martingale. Wait, is the universe trying to send me a message here? I could not wait to taste… err… read it!
Lissa gathered for this book projects designed by the Moda All-Stars team that use the Cake Mix Papers (for 10″ squares) and Cupcake Mix Papers (for 5″ squares). The result is a collection of fun 16 quilts that can be whipped up very quickly because the Mix Papers streamline the sewing process. As you go through the patterns you will see how fast it is to make quilts with cake mix.
“Harbor”, above, by Sherri McConnell, is my favorite. Since I read books from the back cover to the front, it was the first quilt I saw. She used 5″ squares and Cake Mix 4, laying everything out on-point. If you would like to make a bigger quilt, there is a handy table at the end of the book that shows you how many patchwork units you can get from each Mix paper and, from there, you will know what you need.
“Piping Hot” by Sandy Klop is a fantastic, colorful quilt that uses three packs of Cake Mix 2 and 5″ squares. This design is perfect as a scrap buster… and as long as you use the same value of reds, those could be scrappy, too.
I love to read the tips and the answers each designer gives to the questions Lissa asks, giving me another way to connect with them besides just working with their pattern.
“Bubble and Froth” by Carrie Nelson makes a dramatic statement in any room and I think it may be a creative solution for some hard-to-decorate spaces, too (such as fireplaces that were never installed under mantels… ask me how I thought of that).
So, how do you make quilts super fast using Cake Mix? On the first pages of the book, you get a photo tutorial on how to work with the Cake Mix papers. Here is my own:
Steps to use Cake Mix papers
Pin the paper to the fabrics…
Stitch on the marked lines…
And cut on the cutting lines.
The paper is super easy to remove, in case you were wondering. I made over 300 half-square triangles out of 10″ squares and the quilt turned out like this:
I love this bright quilt and, no, I did not make it while I was lying down! Read all about this project on my post about the Fat Quarter Shop Bake Off.
I cannot bake or stitch cake and cupcakes at this moment, but at least I can write about both! If you haven’t yet tried working with the Cake Mix Recipes, give it a try. The instructions are printed on each recipe paper so you have them right where you need them. This book will help you use the Cake Mix and ALL the scraps you’ve hoarded in 2019 (because we can only tackle one year at a time, right?).
I will be back on the saddle again next week (it has to be “on”, I don’t care what the grammar books say. How can one get ‘in’ a saddle???). In the meantime, I hope you liked this tip about how to make quilts super fast using cake mix papers. Cool, huh?
Happy Sewing!
