DIY Archives - Detroit Duchess

Just Add Beer

June 30, 2015 by DetroitDuchess 7 Comments

Disclosure: I received a complimentary sample of beer bread from Boardwalk Food Company in exchange for a review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Have you ever had your husband tell you he has invited friends over at the last minute? Or a friend or family member just deciding to stop by when they were in the area? What happens if your refrigerator is bare?

Since we moved into our new home earlier this year, I’ve been doing more entertaining. One of my best hostess tips is to always keep beer bread in my pantry. It is the perfect thing to throw in the oven as soon as you know company is coming.

Boardwalk Food Company was generous enough to send me their Rosemary Sea Salt Beer Bread Mix to try and it didn’t disappoint. This beer bread is SO easy to make. All you have to do is throw the mix and a can of beer into a bowl, mix it up and stick it in the oven. About an hour later it is done and your house smells amazing. My husband had some leftover beer in the fridge and I stole it to make this amazing bread.

The Rosemary Sea Salt Bread is extra fun because it has amazing flavor. Nobody thinks you just threw this together from a mix, you could definitely pass it off as your own. I’ve been growing some rosemary at home and thought it would make the perfect garnish for the bread. At the end of our get together, there wasn’t even a bread crumb left, the beer bread was a hit! The rosemary makes the bread smell SO good! We couldn’t get enough!

Boardwalk also offers other amazing flavors like Lemon Poppy Seed, Cornbread and of course the Original. All the breads retail for $7.99

Now that I’ve shared my secret hostess weapon with you, I want to hear what yours is? Do you keep beer bread in your pantry, or do you have another secret weapon?

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Beer Bread, Boardwalk Food Company

Friday Favorites: Gardening Edition

July 25, 2014 by DetroitDuchess 2 Comments

I have joined the Oh Hey Friday Linkup with The Farmer’s Wife and September Farm since my Five on Friday linkup is taking a hiatus this summer. I was thrilled to be invited as I was missing these posts every week. I decided that this week’s post would be about gardening accessories because I have a case of nasty weeds that keep coming back. Since we are in the rental house I don’t do a ton of gardening, but I at least want the landscaping in the front and the back of the house to look nice. We have these prickly weeds that just won’t quit and you can’t pull them out with your bare hands. I was borrowing my mom’s gardening supplies, but I think its time to get my own. Here are a few things that should be on my list:

Red Flowers Gardening Gloves ($5.53)

Green Margarita Gardening Gloves ($5.53)

Gardeners Giftset – Kneeling Pad & Gloves in Coral Pop ($72.50)

Personalized Garden Gloves with Machine Embroidery on Polka Dot Cuff ($14)

Gardener’s Glove, Lemon-Lime ($14)

What are your favorite gardening accessories?

For more Five on Friday posts, click here.

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: Five on Friday, Gardening, Oh Hey Friday

Make Your Own Sugar Scrub: Warm Vanilla Sugar

September 12, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 3 Comments

I’ve wanted to make a giftable Sugar Scrub for a long time now, so I finally decided that tonight was the night to do it. If I had known it was this easy to make, I would have done it a long time ago. In any case, I thought it would be the perfect addition to House of Rose’s Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop.

Warm Vanilla Sugar Scrub Ingredients

1 Cup Coconut Oil
1.5 Cups White Sugar
1.5 Cups Brown Sugar
1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
1 Airtight Container

My mom likes to gift me seasonal candles that she decorates herself. After I finished the candle I cleaned the jar out and decided to reuse it for this project. I figured I could make different scrubs depending on what the decoration was.

I threw all the ingredients together into a mixing bowl and added one secret ingredient:

We’ve had this little bag of Cinnamon Sugar left over from something else so I figured it would be the perfect thing to add to this scrub. It is completely optional and it isn’t necessary for this project.

I ended up having to use my hand mixer to get everything completely mixed up:

I spooned everything into the jar and even had a little extra to keep for myself. I decided that I wanted to make a label so I found a template on Microsoft Office and used some leftover Avery 8160 labels I had.

I was pleased with how this turned out, mostly because it smells amazing and it really does make your skin soft and silky. I can’t wait to gift someone with this and try out my leftover mix in the shower.

Sugar scrubs are great for exfoliating and moisturizing your skin. Some people like to use it everyday, but you can decide what works best for you. Just wet your skin and put a little in your hand to use. The easiest way to use this is in the shower or to keep by your skin for people to use when they wash their hands. Sugar is a great natural exfoliator and Coconut Oil has wonderful properties for your skin.

Have you ever made a sugar scrub before? What ingredients did you use?

For more DIY projects click here.

Filed Under: Beauty, DIY Tagged With: Avery 81160, beauty, DIY, Sugar Scrub, Warm Vanilla Sugar

4th of July Cupcakes & Punch

July 4, 2013 by DetroitDuchess Leave a Comment

We decided to have people over for the 4th of July at the last minute, so I needed to make a few things in a pinch. For those of you who don’t know, I used to be really into cake decorating. So every once and a while I will break out my decorating supplies and make something fun.

Since we were in a pinch, I decided to use things I had on hand and make 4th of July cupcakes and a special punch for my guests.

Elizabeth’s 4th of July Cupcake Ingredients

1 1/4 Cups Water
1/3 Cup Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
1 Betty Crocker Cherry Chip Cake Mix
1 1/2 Cups Crisco
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Teaspoon Vanilla
3 Tablespoons Water
1 Pound (4 Cups) Powdered/Confectioner’s Sugar

Cupcake Ingredients

The first step is to make the Betty Crocker Cherry Cip Cupcake Mix by following the directions on the box.

Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Mix the cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs together. I used my batter dispenser to get the batter into the pan without making a big mess.

Batter Dispenser

The cupcakes need to bake for 17-22 minutes. In the meantime, you can make the frosting. For the frosting, you need to mix the Crisco and butter in a large mixing bowl.

Then you add the vanilla and 3 tablespoons of water until it is absorbed:

Then the messy part- you add your confectioner’s sugar in two parts – I add two cups at a time because it is really messy and easier to mix:

Once your frosting is smooth you need to add the food coloring. I still had some Wilton Royal Blue Icing left so I used all of it:

I like to use a pastry bag and coupler to ice my cupcakes. I used the 21 tip for this project:

I like to test mine out before so you don’t get any air bubbles:

Then you ice the cupcakes in a circular motion:

Then I added the red sprinkles:

Here are the completed cupcakes – everyone loved them and they were a great and easy addition to my table:

Elizabeth’s 4th of July Punch

I like to make a fun drink for my guests and had been saving a few ingredients for an impromptu party. Today definitely fit the bill.

Elizabeth’s 4th of July Punch Ingredients

1 Bottle of Moscato
1 Bottle of Sprite Zero
1 bag of frozen blueberries
1 bag of frozen raspberries

I have a great summer drink dispenser so I just mixed all of the ingredients together. The great thing about the frozen berries is that you can leave them in your freezer until you need them. They also keep the punch cold without diluting it.

4th of July Punch Ingredients

It ended up being a great drink:

I decided these would be great additions for the House of Rose’s Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop. I’m sure I’m not the only one who had to put a few things together in a pinch for 4th of July. Let me know if you have any questions about how I made this.

Filed Under: DIY Tagged With: 4th of July, betty crocker, cherry chip, cupcakes, party, punch

Heath Bar Trifle

June 21, 2013 by DetroitDuchess 4 Comments

We celebrated my Mom’s birthday recently and she asked me to make her a Heath Bar Trifle. I didn’t know this, but when we were little my Dad used to pay our neighbor to make it for my Mom’s birthday every year because she loved it so much. My Mom got the recipe and asked me to make it for her this year. She even bought me all of the ingredients and gave me her trifle dish to use so that made the whole process really easy.

Heath Bar Trifle Ingredients

1 Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake Mix
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups water
5 cups milk
1 large box chocolate pudding (3.4 oz.)
1 small box chocolate pudding (5 oz.)
1 tub of Cool Whip
6 Heath Bars
3/4 cups of Kahlua

Trifle Ingredients

The first step is to make the Betty Crocker Devil’s Food Cake Mix by following the directions on the box.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the cake mix, water, vegetable oil and eggs together.

I used two 8″ round pans so I wouldn’t have to cut the cake later.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes.

In the meantime you need to crush up the Heath Bars.

I unwrapped them and put them in a plastic bag so I could crush them without making a mess.

I tried crushing them with a rolling pin, but that didn’t really work, so I ended up using a glass to crush them.

Voila! Crushed up Heath bars:

The next thing you need to do is make the pudding mixture. Stir the pudding mix, milk and Kahlua in a medium saucepan.

Bring the mixture to a boil and make sure that you stir it constantly because it will stick to the bottom of the pan.

After I brought the pudding to a boil I transferred it to another mixing bowl to cool down and thicken.

The cakes should be finished by now, so take them out of the oven and let them cool.

Once everything has cooled you can start layering your trifle. You want to layer cake, pudding, Cool Whip and Heath Bars.

Then do a second layer of cake, pudding, Cool Whip and heath bars. My trifle dish was a little small so if I make this again I will get a bigger dish.

I kept this in the refrigerator until we were ready to leave. I need a trifle dish with a lid because my awesome husband held it all the way across town so it wouldn’t get messed up. He is the best!

The trifle turned out great and everyone loved it! I will definitely make this for my Mom again, it was a great birthday treat. Let me know if you have any questions about how I made this.

I thought this would be a great inspiration post to share on House of Rose’s Inspire Me Please Weekend Blog Hop. Make sure you head over there and check out all of the other great DIY ideas.