Cinnamon Buns and Saturday Spotlight

Good morning and welcome back to Saturday Spotlight at The Paper Maven. It has been a long time since I posted a great recipe for you to try.  I hope you enjoy this one. 

Since Easter is tomorrow I thought I would share a family tradition that has been absent in our family for a few years due to my gluten sensitivity.  This delicacy was always a hit on Christmas and Easter morning. 

When my kids were young, I used to make this dough late in the evening (more like early morning) and let it rise for a few hours while I took a nap.  This practice created many fond memories of sleep-deprived holiday mornings, flour all over my kitchen and a stack of dishes waiting for my hubby to clean. 

This recipe is not gluten free. It is so well liked by all I have not had the heart to try making it gluten free.  It would not be the same!

You will notice in the picture that the cinnamon buns have a topping of shredded coconut.  The family is divided on the coconut.  Some of us feel this 😍😍😍way and some of us feel like this😝😝😝 about coconut. 

To resolve this conflict, I only add coconut to one cinnamon ring.  However, I think the coconut presents better that just plain glaze. 


Recipe:

Heavy duty mixer

In the mixing bow add:
2 cups Gold Medal flour
1/2 cup of sugar
2 packages of fast acting yeast
2 tsp. of salt

Mix above ingredients well on lowest speed.

Add: 1 1/4 cups of milk (2% or whole) and 1/4 lb. butter warmed together.  Butter does not need to melt.

Mix again on lowest speed.

Add: 2 eggs at room temperature.  Mix on medium speed for 3 to 4 minutes.  Batter should be very elastic

Add up to 3 cups of additional flour.  Today's batch only need 2 1/2 cups.

Knead with the mixer or by hand for 5 - 10 minutes.

Set the dough in a large greased bowl and cover with a damp cloth.  The dough should double in volume in about 90 minutes. 

After the dough has risen, punch it down and knead it for 2 minutes.  Cut in half.  Roll out each half until you have stretched the dough into a rectangle that is about 15 x 6. 

Spread melted butter over the stretched dough and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar all over the dough.  My family likes a lot of cinnamon, so I put about tablespoon of cinnamon and 1/2 cup of sugar on each half. 

Roll the dough up tightly, curve the roll so it resembles the letter C and place on a cookie sheet. With a serated edge knife cut 6 slits around the outside edge of the roll to expose the yummy layers within the roll.  Cover and set aside to rise again (90 min). 

Bake at 350 for about 25 minutes.  Cool for 1 hour and frost with a thick glaze of confectionary sugar and hot water .  As you glaze you can add nuts, coconut or colored sugar. 

Enjoy!

Thanks for taking time out of your busy weekend to stop by.  I look forward to sharing cards with you on Tuesday. 

Do something creative today!

Debi

CAS(E) Paper Pumpkin Alternatives

Good morning and welcome to The Paper Maven. Its been a dreary couple of days but hopefully my post will brighten your day.  I bought a Paper Pumpkin subscription for one of my friends this past  Christmas which was a present for not only her but me too. I get to have a craft date and better yet,  I have a great excuse to extend my Paper Pumpkin subscription. Like I need an excuse! LOL

Debbie and I (yes we both have the same name) scheduled craft dates every 4 weeks on Friday afternoons.  We started our journey with February's Paper Pumpkin kit.  Unfortunaltey, neither of us was overly excited about the sample designs in this kit.  So, off to Pinterest and You Tube we went.  

Thanks to many, many Paper Pumpkin subscribers for your inspiration. Here are two designs altered to make it our own.  

Here is a very simple card with layers of Powder Pink that make everything pop. A white card base and white mats  add a lot of dimension to the card.  The two top layers are popped with dimensionals.  This is my favorite of all alternates made so far.  

This alternative used an embossing folder from my stash, a Powder Pink mat and the Powder Pink Stampin' Write marker to color the small pearls that were in the kit.  

This alternative is very similar to the above card but I used Powder Pink to mat the three floral rectangles also. I had a hard time deciding on the sentiment to use for the front of these two cards.  But I will add one appropriate to the occassion before mailing.  


Which card do you like best?  I thought either design would make a great gift for someone.  I can easily make four more of each with all my left over supplies.  I may create a variety of sentiments and let the lucky recipient choose what the card says.  I think that's a great idea! 

Would you appreciate a package of cards with the flexibility to choose a sentiment of your liking?  That of course means the recipient will need to glue the sentiment to the card.  Your feedback would help me decide.

Recipes:

Single Flower
Whisper White card base: 4 1/4 x 11 scored at 5 1/2
Powder Pink mats: 4 1/8 x 5 3/8; 2 3/8 x 4 1/2; 1 5/8 x 3 3/4
Whisper White mats: 2 1/4 x  4 3/8; 1 1/2 x 3 5/8
Paper Pumpkin Sahara Sand mats; 4 x 5 1/4; 1 3/4 x 3 7/8
Linen thread from Paper Pumpkin Kit 

Triple Flower Rectangles
Whisper White card base: 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4
Powder Pink mats: 4 1/8 x 5 3/8;  (3) 1 5/8 x 2 5/8
Paper Pumpkin Sahara Sand mats; 4 x 5 1/4 emboss with Basket Weave embossing folder
Paper Pumpkin flowered tags cut to (3) 1 1/2 x 2 1/2
Linen Thread from Paper Pumpkin Kit

Thanks for stopping by today.  Don't forget to stop back on Saturday.  I am sharing a great recipe that my family loves to eat for breakfast, sweet cinnamon buns.  

Do something creative today!  

Debi

Amazing Springtime Foil

Good morning crafters.  Hope your week is off to a good start.  Mine certainly is.  Yesterday was such a great day.  The sun was shining, the temperature outside was perfect for yard work.  I started cleaning my flower beds.  Spring is truly here!

Today I am sharing three quick cards made with Stampin' Up!'s amazing new Springtime Foils Designer Series Paper (DSP.)

The first card was a thank you card I sent to Angela, one of my new customers.  She is new to card making and scrapbooking so I am excited to help her along her crafting journey.  Welcome Angela!






Using the same measurements, I made the second card for my Mom's 88th Birthday last week.  However this time I added ombre ribbon, fussy cut one flower from the DSP and colored with matching Stampin' Write Markers.  I put the sentiment (Stampin' Up!'s Happy Birthday Thinlits Die) on the inside of the card.


Sorry, but I forgot to take a picture of the inside before I mailed the card to Mom.  Opps!

This final card was my interpretation of Glitter Queens Card Sketch # 21.  Thanks Dawn for such a great sketch.  All of the cards in today's post are based on that sketch which you can find here.  I added Copper Metallic Thread, Vellum Card Stock, a sentiment from Sale-A-Bration, Celebrate You Thinlits Dies and Copper Embossing Powder for the "You're" sentiment.  Yes, I did cut my stamp apart! I do this frequently and find it makes my stamp sets more versatile.

Recipe:

Tranquil Tide card base cut at 5 1/2 by 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4.
Copper Foil base cut at 5 3/8 x 4 1/8
Springtime Foils mat cut at 5 1/4 x 4
Rectangles: Tranquil Tide cut at 2 3/8 x 3 5/8; DSP (Copper Foil and Springtime Foils) cut at 2 1/4 x 3 1/2
Vellum cut at 2 1/8 x 3 3/8
Stamp set: Falling For You
Stampin Write: Island Indigo, Garden Green, Blender Pen
Ribbon: Ombre Island Indigo
Other: Copper Metallic Thread, Classic Label, Celebrate You Thinlits Dies

Thank you for stopping by today.  See you on Thursday with a few Paper Pumpkin alternative cards.

Please share your thoughts below. I would love to hear from you.

Do something creative today!

Debi

Catch Up With The Paper Maven

Happy Saturday everyone and welcome to The Paper Maven.

After a few months off, I am back.  So much has happened since my last post!

The holidays came; my time was consumed with baking, shopping, wrapping and preparing food.

I retired after a long career in Higher Education. WOO HOO!

Sun spotlighting tiny spruce tree 

I vacationed in winter wonderland with my husband, brother and sister-in- law (Keene, New York). Left is my fav picture from this vacation.

I visited my parents and daughter's family n Syracuse, New York .

I just returned from Florida on Monday (visiting another daughter and her children).

All of this travel was awesome; however I was quite homesick.  I am so glad to be home.

Hopefully, I will be back into my normal routine next week.

Check back next Tuesday and Thursday to see two great cards I will be sharing.

Soon (most likely Saturday) I will be  sharing my recipe for awesome cinnamon buns I am making for Easter next weekend.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Do something creative today!

Debi