Halloween Haberdashery
October 30, 2009 at 2:38 pm | In Chocolicious, Friends are friends forever!, Merry Halloween, Non-baked in Birmingham | 3 CommentsHave you guys noticed the abundance of people posing with mustaches lately? Just this week I saw it here in cookie form via Bake it Pretty, here in stationery form via 100 Layer Cake, and here in chocolate at Miette’s Patisserie via Tartlette.
Simply stated: I love it, it’s freaking hilarious, and I want it at my Halloween party. But the problem? I didn’t have a mustache candy mold, and I didn’t have time to order one and have it delivered by tomorrow. So I pulled out my Wilton candy melts, some trusty parchment paper, and my pastry paint brushes, and in no time flat I had….THESE!

Don’t Kamin, Sarah, and Kimberly look simply dashing with their chocolate ’staches? Tomorrow at the party I’ll stick them up in a styrofoam block covered with some cool wrapping paper, and hopefully everyone will see the humor and not think they’re chocolate worms or…well…you can use your imagination.
Step by step, ooh baby…
Here’s how to make ‘em when you’re sans a mustache mold:

1. Paint the ’stache shape onto the parchment in a thin layer. Let it set up in freezer for a couple minutes; it doesn’t take long. And remember you can do several of these at a time.
2. Paint a little more and set the skewer on the side. Back into the freezer.
3. Here’s where my method gets a little less…methodical. I literally glopped on, for lack of a better term, the chocolate. It holds well and mounds up nicely, and since you already have the initial chocolate template has already been firmed up in the freezer, it won’t run past the edges into a big chocolate mess. Let it go back into the freezer for a couple more minutes to set.
4. Now you’re pretty much done, but glop on a little more chocolate to give it some depth and texture. It can stay in the freezer almost indefinitely.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared in Halloween Week with me! It was a lot of fun, and we’ll have some post-holiday wrap-up stuff next week. Dunno about you, but I can’t wait for next year!

Photos by Kamin!
Brewed in Birmingham (just for me): Pumpkin Ale
October 28, 2009 at 4:58 pm | In Friends are friends forever!, Just Because, Merry Halloween | Leave a CommentIt’s a Halloween twofer today, folks! My friend Chantel and her boyfriend Tyler have started brewing their own beer. I’m fascinated by it. What an awesome hobby! Some people knit, I bake, and Chantel makes beer. Rad. A few weeks ago I tried some of her pumpkin ale, and while I’m the first to admit that I’m not a beer connoisseur by any stretch of the imagination, I really enjoyed this! She was gracious enough to brew some more for me for Saturday’s Halloween party, and if you ask nicely, she might even brew some for you!

(Gorgeous photo by nonother than Kamin Willliams, who seems to be having a down day, so go to her blog and tell her how fabulous she is!)
2009 Halloween Decor, Part I + BinB’s Official Photog
October 12, 2009 at 3:31 pm | In Entertainment Center, Friends are friends forever!, Merry Halloween | 1 CommentI’ve had a few people ask me to share my Halloween decorations via my blog, which I was planning on doing anyway, but now maybe I can say “By popular demand, my Halloween decor!!” Maybe? Anyway.
Last week I started working on these little swizzle sticks to go in the butterbeer I’ll be making for my party this year. Heather Bailey, who has one of the most sugar sweet blogs I’ve ever seen, made these as part of her Harry Potter Hoopla series back in July, and I’ve been waiting since to start crafting these bad boys. (And please excuse my chipped nail polish. I overslept on this dreary Monday morning in Birmingham.)

Hers are cuter than mine! But no sweat, Heather Bailey’s cuteness is something I could never live up to! I chose to leave the ends of these more haphazard whereas she chose to keep her straight.
For a detailed step-by-step on how to make these, go to Heather’s blog right here!
Also, I want to give some quick love to Kamin Hoyle Williams of Behind K’s Lens. You’ve seen me give her shouts in various posts, but seeing as how she tends to keep (graciously) snapping beautiful pictures for this blog over and over again (including the one above), I have given her the illustrious, and maybe dubious, title as Baked in Birmingham’s official blog photographer! Congratulations! Your prize is that you have to deal with me! Thanks so much K, you are da best! Isn’t she the cutest?

Wedding Hairpiece + The Williams!
May 16, 2009 at 4:59 pm | In Bridal Fare, Friends are friends forever! | Leave a CommentKamin got hitched! Her wedding was the most beautiful ever. You might remember this post from a few weeks back; here’s a photo of the hairpiece I made for Kamin to wear during her reception. She wore it like a princess!

Congratulations to this wonderful couple! Love you both! To see more of Kamin and Corey’s photos by the amazing Jessica Messer, click here!
Thanks to K for My N
April 3, 2009 at 4:27 pm | In Friends are friends forever! | 2 CommentsOne of my favorite people in the world, Kamin, is getting married next weekend. She comes from a very crafty family, and since I made her a little silk flower hairpeice for her reception, she had her dad make this for me:

Isn’t it great?! You know how much I love typography and monograms, so I’m pretty much obsessed with this. I’ve spent the better part of the morning thinking about what color I’m going to paint it and where I’m going to put it. Thanks K! You are my friend-friend
Can’t wait till your wedding next weekend—It’s gonna be the purdiest ever.
Classic.
February 28, 2009 at 10:28 pm | In Friends are friends forever! | Leave a CommentMy friends and soon-to-be parents, the Chapmans, throw a great Christmas party every year, and 2008 was no different…except that we all had to wear tacky Christmas sweaters. I just got my hands on these classic photos yesterday, and they’re just too awesome to keep to myself.
*To clarify: the Chapmans are my friends, and soon they will have a baby and thusly be parents. They will not soon be my parents, as my poorly-worded sentence above would lead one to believe.


which do you like the most?
August 18, 2008 at 4:22 am | In Cupcakes are my true love, Friends are friends forever!, {the atomic cakery} | Leave a CommentI’m not 100% thrilled with any of them. I made some cupcakes to match a beautiful invitation and matching recipe card designed by my friend and stationer Jessica over at Empress Stationery. I still have the invite and a little bit of leftover icing, so might end up just doing these again and having a real photographer take them. I really want to show off both the cupcake and the invite, but I tend to lose one or the other whether it’s the lighting, the focus, or whatever.
Happy Birthday…to me!
July 15, 2008 at 1:29 pm | In Friends are friends forever!, It Cakes the Take | 1 CommentJust wanted to show all of you in Blogland the birthday cake that my Food Editor, Betty Terry, made for me for my birthday. It’s a strawberry shortcake–with a few twists. The cake layers, for one, are HUGE and they are made of equal parts flour and corn meal. It’s like a sweet cornbread, and it’s so good. The fresh strawberries are glazed in, get this, balsamic vinegar. The fresh whipped cream on top wasn’t too shabby either. I’d love to give you the recipe, but you’re going to have to buy the new issue of Taste of the South, out August 5! Sneaky, I know. Thanks again to all my lovely friends and co-workers who sang Happy Birthday to me and informed me that being 24 isn’t old, it’s more like 24k gold.
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