Rise & Shine!

Monkey bread that was freshly baked right before I made this post :)

It's a new year! Goodbye 2012, hello 2013!

Soo.. I haven’t made a post since last year! Oopsies! :P Anywho, long story short, I’ve baked, decorated and knitted a bit since I’ve last posted. Also, in honor of it being a new year, I have made a goal for myself this year that I will talk more about in this post! So keep readin’! ;)

Remember the cupcakes I posted about last time? Let’s just say I made those again a few more times, however, I did not get a chance to take pictures of them. But as a reminder of what they looked like, here’s the picture!

 

Every year, my friends and I have a tradition of having a Christmas party where we have some sort of a potluck and gift exchange. This tradition has only lasted for three years, but somehow my friend, Annalisa and I have gotten each other for Secret Santa EVERY YEAR! How does this happen? I literally have no idea! Any who, I decided to give her one of the sweaters that I make along with some Joe-Joes (basically Trader Joe’s version of Oreos) and some gouda cheese (if you’ve seen the movie, She’s the Man, you’ll understand ;) )!  

Me and Annalisa with our matching sweaters!

My friends, Nicole, Tiffany, and Anisha wearing "Karess Kreations" headbands that were given to them from their Secret Santas. 

This Christmas meant a lot to me. Why? I know it’s probably terrible of me to say, but I’m sad to say that this is most likely the last Christmas that I will be able to spend with my dog, Oreo.  I know she’s just a dog and dogs will come and go, but she’s literally been by my side since I could remember (16 years to be exact!). So to make this year’s Christmas a little more special, I thought it’d be neat if we both could have matching sweaters! I also, made sure everyone in my family took a picture with her, cause you never know what'll happen (although, my sister is missing because she was in Big Bear with her boyfriend and his family)! But to be honest, I actually didn’t even start to knit her sweater until the night before because I was so busy making my friend’s headbands for both them and whomever they were giving them to.

Isn't she adorable?! Apparently, it's normal for dogs (according to my friends) to sleep under the tree, however, this is the first year she's ever done so. 

For NYE, my friend, Janny, had a little get together with just a few of us and I brought cupcakes! I never realized how hard making NYE themed cupcakes would be! Maybe a goal of mine will be to be more creative for next years NYE cupcakes..? We’ll see!

And about that goal I was talking about earlier...not really sure why but, my friend Nicole, decided to give me a calendar full of cupcakes so, I’ve decided that for each month, I’ll make at least one cupcake of whatever cupcake has been set for each month! (I did not take these pictures, I took them off from Amazon.com)

Karess Kreations Takes Chelsea Lately!

Hahhah just kidding! But sort of not really? Let me explain... so a couple of months ago, my sister got a job at a company called "On Camera Audiences" as an audience coordinator for the show, Chelsea Lately. In the past, I've been to tapings that the company is in charge of but I had never been to a taping of Chelsea Lately. A couple of days ago, my sister and I were talking and she asked if I had time to bake some holiday themed cupcakes (I also made cupcakes for them on Halloween). Since she lives in LA, it isn't as easy to transport my baked goodies to her but I thought, why don't I just go visit her and go to a taping (she's always told me that I could go to one if I wanted)?! I mean, I'm on winter break so why not! Plus, she wanted me to bake cupcakes anyways. Not gonna lie though, another factor for me to come was the fact that Reese Witherspoon was gonna be a guest on the show! Hehe. Any who, these are the cupcakes I made for them! 

Holiday/Christmas cupcakes for the workers of On Camera Audiences!

From left to right: Nicole, Tiffanie (my sister), me and Tiffany outside of the Chelsea Lately studio (sadly, pictures are not allowed in the set). Thank you to Nicole & Tiffany for coming with me! & thank you to my sister for getting us "one of Chuy's balls!" Haha! 

Knitwear on Sale!

Okay so it turns out a "couple of days" turned into a week... but my knitted pieces are officially on sale! So visit http://www.zibbet.com/karesskreations for prices (two purchases have already been made as of now, CRAZY!)! Also, I mentioned last time that there were more pictures that I was waiting for so here they are!                                                                                            

Coming soon..

It's been quite some time since I've last made a post. However, I've been busy creating some things that I am ready to share now! Many people know me for making desserts but just a couple of months ago, I had a post about me getting more involved with the art of knitting. Because of this somewhat new love for knitting (I first starting learning when I was about in 6th grade), I've finally decided that I'll start selling my knit wear! They aren't for sale at this very moment, but will be in a couple of days. Why make this point if they aren't even on sale yet? Well.... last week I had a friend of mine take some of his time to let me have photoshoots and tonight he sent me the first batch of pictures and I'm just too excited not to share!! So here are some things you can expect to see on sale soon! :)   

Hand Knitted Eyelet Sweater in "Lapis" 

Hand Knitted Eyelet Sweater in "Off White"

Hand Knitted Eyelet Sweater in"Quicker Clover"

Hand Knitted Lace Dress in "Off White"

Hand Knitted Lace Cowl in "White"

Hand Knitted Lace Scarf in "Camel"

And that's it (for now)! I have a few pieces that were finished after the photo shoot but these are the general garments that I'll be selling! So stay tuned for more! I've also baked a bit since my last update...

\These cupcakes were made for my cousin, Bryanna. She enjoys painting her nails and doing all those fun nail art things so I thought I'd make her cupcakes that were inspired by nail art that she's done/liked (examples below). The pandas were made because the last time I saw her she had a crystalized panda iphone case so I thought why not! Haha 

These were done by Bryanna.

These "New York Skyscraper" themed nails were done by my friend, Tiffany and my cousin saw them and fell in love with them.

DIY: Fortune Cookies! (First Tutorial)

Happy Halloween everybody! I know it's taken me a long time to post this, but here's my first tutorial!! I know improvements can be made but I hope you all can cut me some slack :P .  ALSO some of you may not know but today also marks the one year anniversary of my blog! Unfortunately as of now, I haven't done anything too special for it but it's only 12:43 AM right now (for me) soo who knows the day has barely just started! ;D I'll update you all if I do end up making something! 

Update!
As of now it is now 1:28 PM for me and not doing anything special today would just be wrong so I made halloween themed cupcakes! Nothin' too fancy~ Again, happy halloween everyone! Remember to be safe!!

Fortune Cookie Recipe

Ingredients:
3 oz flour
3 oz sugar
pinch of salt
3 oz egg whites
2 oz melted unsalted butter
(not pictured but I also added 1/4 tsp vanilla extract and 1/4 teaspoon almond extract)

Step 1: Get all of your ingredients ready!
Step 2: Whisk and/or sift all of your dry ingredients (flour, sugar, salt) to make sure that they are combined well.
Step 3: Pour in the egg whites to your dry mixture until combined.
Step 4: After you have combined your dry ingredients with the egg whites, add the melted butter.

Step 5: Prepare your baking sheet by placing on a piece of parchment (you can also use a silipat if you have one).
Step 6: Spoon out however much of the batter you want (I used amount a teaspoon for each cookie). *note: you may only want to try to make one cookie at a time until you get the hang of it.
Step 7: Place the batter on the parchment paper and create circles. *You'll want to make the circles thin and even as possible.
Step 8: If you are wanting to add your own "fortunes" make sure to have those ready! The next steps go by VERY quickly!

Unfortunately I was not able to get pictures of the next steps but don't fret! I can still tell you how to complete a fortune cookie! :)
Step 9: Put your baking sheet in the oven until it is golden brown. Times will vary depending on how thick or large you made your circle to be. My cookies ranged from 6-10 minutes. *Warning: The browner the cookies get, the crispier they will be, therefore making the folding quite difficult.
*Note: Steps 10-12 will need to be done in a span of about 8 seconds...so beware!
Step 10: When your cookies are golden brown, take them out as quick as you can! Using a spatula, wipe off your cookie from the parchment paper. If you are inserting a "fortune," this is the time where you would want to place your message in the middle of the cookie.
Step 11: Once you have placed your message in the middle of the cookie (if you chose to do so), you will fold your cookie in half like a taco.
Step 12: After folding your cookie as a taco, you will need to pinch the two ends of the taco and bend the middle of the cookie to a cup (as shown in the picture above). This is how you will get the "fortune cookie" shape! :)

And that's it! Keep repeating this process until you get the amount of fortune cookies you would like! :)

Also, in case any of you guys wanted an update on whether or not the first "Karess Kreations" delivery made it okay...

Farewell My Friend(s) Part 5

This is way long overdue but this will be the last post from the "Farewell My Friend(s)" posts! My friends and I are now ALL officially in college! CRAZY! Anyways, the last to go were my two friends, Tiffany and Nickta. Part of me is hoping that they aren't looking at my blog right now (assuming that when they see this, they haven't gotten their mason jar) hehe. You might be wondering, "why in the world does it matter if they see this post?" However, I don't know why but I somehow just didn't manage my time right for when they were actually going to leave college. I kept telling myself over and over and over again that I would make their cookies on September 22, except while I was out at lunch with some other friends I got a text message from Nickta (this happened on September 21) asking me if I would come over to her house to say the final goodbye to both her and Tiffany. Little did I realize that the goodbyes were so near! Part of me (sorry guys) didn't want to say goodbye just because I was so embarrassed that I didn't have their jars ready for them, but I knew that I had to say goodbye or else that would just be wrong. I told them that I would get their jars to them somehow sooo this is what I did...        

For Tiffany:

I guess I can officially say that Karess Kreations has made its first shipment! ;)

You may or may not remember seeing Tiffany in my other blog post. If you need a refresher, you can always refer to this post or even this post ;). Back to how I gave her, her mason jar... earlier this week I sent out probably one of my first packages (not including online returns ;) ) and it was to Tiffany! I'm hoping I wrote out her address correct because I just found out last night while my friends and I were oovooing that one of my other friends, Annalisa wrote Tiffany a letter and it didn't arrive to Tiffany for a verrrrry long time. They think the reason for this happening may be that Annalisa might have written the address wrong...? I hope that isn't the case for me! If so, sorry Tiff! 

Now for the whole picture shenanigans of us through the years~

  Let's cross our fingers that this mason jar makes it to Santa Cruz okay! 

For Nickta:

So unfortunately, I can't link any post(s) that connect with Nickta. I can however say that if you look back on the home page of my blog (maybe even perhaps on this post...?), you can see the cake I made for her birthday last year on the right side bar thing (I'm not really sure what its proper name is haha)! The cake I made for her was the cake that resembles a gas pump. Don't worry, if you are one to think that me, making her a gas pump cake was weird, you're not alone. I decided to make her that cake as a joke because for awhile she would always say that her car wouldn't have enough gas to drive so I thought it'd be funny to make a gas pump cake and say that "I got her some gas for her car" ;) ! Anyways, my plan for giving Nickta her mason jar is to just simply give it to her in person. I plan on giving her jar tomorrow, actually! Nickta is currently at UCLA, meaning that it isn't too much of a hassle for me to visit her. If anything, it's just a matter if she has time for me to visit! Haha. Since you guys haven't seen enough of Nickta, here are pictures of us throughout the year as well! :)

See you tomorrow Nickta!! :D

P.S. I doubt she will see this but I would just like to say happy birthday to my friend Nicole! Today she is turning 19 years old! You may remember her from this post. Her cake I made last year can also be found on the little right side bar thing as well! Her cake was the cake that was supposed to resemble the japanese character, Totoro! 

  

P.P.S Halloween is coming up, which means....

It's been a year since I started this blog! Woooo! As a special little thanks for those who read my posts, I will finally share my first tutorial! So stay tuned! :D

It's Official!

I now know how to knit clothing! :D I'm still learning but so far (besides from making scarves) I've made a racerback tank and a lacy dress! Also, I know this isn't about baking at all, but I think from time to time I may post DIY-y related things on this blog. After all, it is called, "Karess' Kreations." ;) Hope y'all don't mind!

Made with 100% acrylic. For any knitters who would like to make this, the pattern can be found here.

Made with 100% cotton. For any knitters who would like to make this, the pattern can be found here.  *note: this was originally supposed to be made to be a tee (like instructed), but I accidentally ended up making the length too long so that is why it is now a dress.  

If anyone is interested in buying any of these pieces or for me to make another in another color/size, let me know (email, comment, facebook, etc) and arrangements can possibly be made! :)