www.NMdental.com

Pinspired: Easy Lemon Berry Trifle

A friend's birthday was coming up and I wanted to make her something pretty and delicious. Being a less than stellar (<-actually pretty bad) baker gives me limited options. I found gorgeous ideas on Pinterest for trifles and gave this one a try.

I adapted the recipe to suit my limitations and ended up with a super easy, super quick trifle!

The original recipe called for pound cake and whipped cream made from scratch. Uhmmm, no. Not only am I a terrible baker, I am a terrible procrastinator, so I made it like this instead:

Easy Lemon Berry Trifle
INGREDIENTS:
Berries:
1 pint of each: blueberries, strawberries and blackberries1 lemon, juiced
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Lemon Cream
1 container whipped cream
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
11-ounce jar lemon curd

Cake
1 store bought lemon cream cake cut into 1/2-inch thick slices
(I used lemon cream cake, but you can use lemon or plain pound cake.The cake needs to be fairly dense in order to sustain the syrup and lemon cream layers without turning into a gooey mess)

DIRECTIONS:
Combine the berries, sugar, cornstarch, and lemon juice in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a simmer and cook just until the berries begin to break down.
Take the berries off the heat and let the mixture cool.

In a separate bowl, mix the whipped the cream with the vanilla . Fold the lemon curd into it until mixed thoroughly.

To assemble the trifle, spoon a layer of the cream into a  trifle bowl.
Add a layer of cake.  Then drizzle on about 1/3 of the berry syrup.
Spoon a layer of lemon cream over the top, smoothing to the sides. Repeat
Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

(The inspiration recipe says to finish with a layer of lemon cream, but things didn't work out that way for me...)

Pinspired: Nursery Word Art

I saw this sign on Pinterest

Source: fussymonkeybiz.blogspot.com via Bella on Pinterest

and wanted to create something similar for my little girl's room. What a beautiful sentiment.








Honestly, when I first saw these signs on Pinterest, I had no idea it was a Bible verse.

Galatians 5:22-23

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

I used MS Word 2010 Word Art for my version:

I printed it on white cardstock (I chose a light pink background in Word, though) and re-used a frame I already had.

Pinspired Vases

I was smitten by this Pin on DIY vases using only spray paint and rubber bands.
How easy is that?!

Source: rachelmahan.tumblr.com via Bella on Pinterest

So chic. So minimalist.
I was ready. Except I had neither white spray paint nor rubber bands.
All I had was black spray paint and masking tape. So I gave it a go.
The result was so unfortunate, I dare not show you the finished...piece.

Instead of giving up...(I just had to have pretty vases!)

I decided to employ this other technique and apply to vases instead:

Source: Uploaded by user via Bella on Pinterest

Here are the results:

The red and white vase I made using a "fusion" of the two techniques. But once again, without rubber bands or spray paint:

1) I cleaned the vase with soap and water, then wiped it with alcohol.
2) Wrapped Scotch tape to a vase. (Yes, Scotch tape. My experience with the painter's tape technique above was so bad that I didn't want to take a chance.)
3) I painted red craft paint on the vase. Let it dry.
4) Applied one coat of Martha Stewart Crafts Glitter Paint. Let it dry.
5) Removed Scotch tape.
5) Swirled white craft paint inside the vase

I was going to show you a close up of the finished red and white vase, but Picnik ate it. (seriously)