…frost it with some yummy rich cream cheese frosting, and–well, celebrate Cupcake Week! (Um, celebrate Cupcake Week late on a cloudy afternoon when the natural light is not the best.)                                                   

(Does this count as BYOB?)

I designed it and drafted the pattern–I think it’s the first time I’ve done it for anyone other than myself.   Here is a detail of the blanket stitching on the appliques.  The pink fabric is from a crib dust ruffle bought at a discount store.  (And yes, I made the gores on the cross-grain–because that was the only way they fit.)

(Other recent baking goodness–un-photographed–includes cornbread, banana bread, chocolate chip cookies, and bran muffins.)

After (not very flattering, but I love working with border prints and I like the colors)…

Now

But I do have Thangles!  They’re preprinted paper pattern pieces (say that fast 5 times), and I’m using them as part of a “buck a block” project at our local quilting shop.  That’s the first block, and I get the instructions and fabric for the next block on Tuesday–for a buck.

These are from the master recipe in Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  Does anyone know why my dough turns gray on top after a few days in the fridge?  Could it be my water?  Or the kind of salt I use?  (I use regular table salt; I read that I can use it by reducing the amount from 1 and 1/2 tablespoons to 1 tablespoon.  It’s iodized.  Does that matter?)   The gray part gets mixed into the boule and forms gray streaks–not attractive.

Wow!  I pasted this question into the Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day blog and had an answer from Zoe within minutes!  She says it’s probably due to my sealing the keeping bowl too tightly so that alcohol builds up and causes the gray stuff–als0 that sprinkling flour on top of the dough helps prevent the build-up.