You Create: Povitica

I have seen loaves of Povitica several times, but they are quite costly and I've never been willing to part with that much money to purchase a loaf. This week I decided I'd see what it would take to bake a loaf.

It turns out it isn't quite as hard as I thought it would be. It is time consuming only in that you have to be available to punch it down or work with it every 60-90 minutes for several hours. There is some more cost over many types of bread in the amount of nuts it requires.

I took the recipe from here, but I altered it. What fun is baking if you don't make it your own? (Changes--more water* and flour in the dough, heated the milk and butter together for the dough), changed the amount of nuts and added brown sugar in place of some of the granulated in the filling, and baked in loaf pans.)

Here's my version:
dough:
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
4 1/2 teaspoons of yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water*
9 cups of flour (divided)

filling:
1 can evaporated milk
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup butter
1 lb. of finely ground pecans
4 eggs, beaten
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of cocoa
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Heat the milk and butter for 60 seconds in the microwave. Mix that together with the sugar, salt, and eggs. Add 4 cups of flour and mix. Work in enough of the rest of the flour to keep it from being sticky. Knead the bread for a few minutes. Place in an oiled bowl and allow to double in a warm area (about 60-90 minutes.)

Punch the dough down and cover again to double.

During this time, make the filling. Mix the sugars, evaporated milk and butter in a large pan and heat until the butter melts. Add in the ground walnuts and stir. Then mix in the 4 beaten eggs, stirring constantly as the mixture comes to a boil, allow to boil for 1 minute and then remove from the heat. Mix in the spices. Allow to cool.

Divide the dough by three. Roll them out one at a time, into thin sheets and cover with 1/3 of the filling. Roll up and place in grease loaf pans.

Cover and allow to rise another hour in pans.

Bake at 350 degrees (F) for 40 minutes.

* Honestly the change in the water amount (the original recipe called of only 1/2 cup) was an unintentional change, I made a copying error, so I simply made up for that with extra flour and it turned out very well this way.

You Create: Snow Men

Since this kind of snow man is hard to come by in these parts (this one was made on our trip to Ohio), we've been saving baby food jars around here for awhile. I did make some baby food, but those little jars are nice to have sometimes!

The girls painted some jars white (Kate did stage three and Gabby did stage two). I painted the lids various colors and also painted a meat jar black--in the second set we did I painted the lid of the meat jar red, so he had a nice red ribbon on his hat.



The faces are simply Sharpies and paint pens and hot glued googly eyes. Then a quick gluing of the jars together.

A gift from our whole family--Justin's paycheck bought the food, Nate emptied the jars, and the girls and I painted!

You Create: picnic bundle

I made this for my in-laws to carry their utensils for a picnic.



I took a place mat and lined it with flannel. I cut the flannel to 1" larger than the mat, turned the edges under and stitched it together. I flipped up the bottom of the mat to make a pocket and stitched that to make pockets to store each of the items (napkins, forks, knives, spoons, and a spare spot for anything else they might need to carry).



Lastly, I stitched a ribbon on to tie the little bundle up.

You Create: Cupcake Hat

It's a homemade Christmas this year. We did buy each of the kids a couple of things, but we're not spending a lot on Christmas. Thankfully the girls each asked for things that I can easily make anyway. I am raiding my scraps of fabric from other projects and using my sewing machine quite a bit.

Kate has been asking for a chef's hat, so this project I pulled off Saturday night. I did buy the fabric for this particular project instead of raiding my stash--I got it on sale and I would guess the total cost was less than $5--I did have hook and loop fasteners, interfacing and thread on hand.


It required 2/3rds of a yard of the fun cupcake fabric, cut into a circle (there was enough to make two in the 44" width, so I did). Then I used 1/3 of a matching fabric to make the bands (cut in half to make two 18 inch wide pieces of fabric).


I measured my kids heads under the premise that I have a friend making hats and I wanted to let her know standard kids head sizes... um yeah. She is making hats at least. I made the bands a few inches longer than their head circumference so I can fold the edges under and add some hook and loop fasteners to adjust the closing. Fold bands the of fabric in half (so they are now 9 1/2 inches wide) and line with interfacing inside the folded fabric.


This iron always makes me smile. I'm sentimental like that. Maybe I'll write about it this week. This iron is special. I hope it lasts me a long, long time.

I ironed the fabric and also folded in the raw edges that will be on the exposed edge (the short ends). Stitch it up and add the fasteners.

Pin the hat to the band, with lots of little folds. Then stitch that all together.



My little models haven't seen it obviously, so you'll have to have to check back after Christmas to see my little bakers in their hats.

Cat in the Hat Cake

For Nate's birthday I made The Cat in the Hat's hat cake.



It was my first attempt at working with fondant. I had trouble when I folded it, like I would a pie crust to move it on to the cake, because it stuck together--permanently. I pulled it off by putting several small pieces together. It isn't the prettiest cake I've ever made, but I didn't have the time to rework it, so it is what it is.


I think he likes it.


I think he really likes it.

You Create: Gabby Makes a Bear

This year the girls each had a little birthday money to spend. I was thrilled that they both picked craft kits.


Gabby chose a set of two bears, similar to the Build-A-Bears, but a take home version of course. The bears have great princess-y dress-up clothes too: Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Tinker Bell.


She was a little hesitant of the filling at first,


but then she decided the fluffy stuff was fun.

I helped fill in the arms and legs for her.

The only down side is that in making it a no sew project, the back is secured by hook and loop, so it can be opened and the filling removed--over and over. But we wouldn't know anything about that here. I haven't even considered pulling out my needle and thread. Ahem.


She loves her white bear and decided that Kate can use he brown one, a very sweet thing.

You Create: Ladybug Cake

Miss Gabby asked for an orange and pink lady bug cake for her birthday, so here it is!

The bottom is a 1/4 sheet chocolate cake (standard pan size). Then I baked strawberry cake in a Pyrex bowl and in muffin tins. The body of the bug being from the Pyrex and the head is a cupcake with the bottom cut off and a little edge of it pared down to fit snug next to the body. I used a star tip, and about an hour to cover the body in pink and orange star shaped icing. The eyes are made of white chocolate disks and icing.

The antennae are just a bent pipe cleaner.

Gabriella wasn't a fan of being sung to,

but she did think the cake was tasty.

You Create: Bumble Bee

Since it is October, I decided to do the kiddos costumes for You:Create. We're going with a bug theme this year. I've only made Nate's so far. He's going to be a bumble bee.

The biggest things for his costume was that it had to be easy to put on and easy to move around in, as he is happy to be mobile. I cut three () shaped yellow swatches and stitched them into a set, leaving an opening. Then I stitched the black stripes (folding a smidge at the seams to make the turns easier, as it is ball shaped). Then I stitched a front on--two seems for the shoulders, left two openings for the arms, and then two seems down the sides. By using fleece I didn't have to worry about turning all the edges to avoid raveling, so it was a quick little project.

And he's a cute little bug.

You Create: Castle Cake

Note: Sara is ill and will not likely be posting for You: Create this week, but I had already planned to post about Kate's cake. So, I will go ahead and post this note and link up when she is feeling better. In the mean time, would you please pray for her health? Thanks!

Kate requested a castle cake again this year. I made it for her two years ago and she wanted it again. It is a two tiered cake. There are three standard rounds on the bottom (required to get the height needed for the door) and then two 6" rounds on the top. It is iced with decorator icing and stacked. I used a kit for the doors, windows and turrets, using almond bark to making the turrets stand on the tray.

Kate watched as I decorated it this time. I have to admit I took a few shortcuts this time. My time is more limited than it was two years ago when I made it for her last and she was impatiently bouncing and asking if I was finished yet. I didn't make all the individual leaves around the base, I just piped a nice green line and dotted it with the pink flowers. I also didn't put all the cones on top--it requires a good bit of work to ice them, and I thought it looked nice when I got those three on, so I left it as it was.

She loved it, and that's what really mattered.

You Create: Canvas of my Own

So this week I completely stole my idea from Sara. If you haven't seen her painted canvases you've been missing out. They are beautiful, insightful, and inspiring. As wonderful as they are, I know that she's not been able to paint as much as she would like, so I tried, my very unskilled hand at it.


The girls love it, which is great, because as soon as I figure out where I put those picture hangers I'll put it up over their bed.

It is also fitting in that last week Kate and I were studying China, and therefore Chinese art. I told her that calligraphy was a way that they made art in their writing. She was a bit disbelieving at first, but changed her tune when she actually saw some in the book we got from the library. It seemed fitting that they would have written art after that too.

Thank you Sara for the inspiration. And my girls thank you too!

* * * *

Next week should hold a post about Kate's birthday cake!

You Create: Crayon Bags

I have never been one to take a lot of toys along to entertain my kids. One, I don't want to loose a lovey that we have to live without or try to replace. Two, I want my kids to interact with the people around them. I have started taking crayons to church though, since that can be a long time for a two year old to sit quietly. I know it is too long for some adults to sit quietly to, but that's another issue entirely! I've just been putting a small pack in my purse, but as much as I love Crayola, their boxes were not designed to hold up to little kids' abuse, being tossed into and out of purses and dropped repeatedly onto pews and the floor. We needed something more lasting. So to that end, I made the girls little bags to hold their crayons.

Two straight seams with zigzag to reinforce--they could also be lined easily

The finished products

They were simple little bags with two seams each, a turned down edge, and a zipper. The zippers were my only cost, as the fabric was scrap from other projects--and they were on sale half off at Hobby Lobby. The girls promptly removed their crayons so they could play with them around the house--crayons aren't allowed free run in the house (they must be used at the table, so we don't wind up with murals on our walls).

Happy creating!