My first Pinterest project, crayon project for Ryan's teacher

I found this on Pinterest and loved it and so we decided to make one for Ryan's teacher. 

It was fun to make.  We went to Michael's and bought a concert tshirt shadow box for $10.  This worked perfectly since you just pop out the back and covered in a cotton and ready for the crayons.  We bought a couple boxes of crayons at the art store. 

Just open your favorite Word editor and choose a font and blow it up until it fills up the page.  I printed two, one for the bottom guide and one for a top guide when you cut the pieces.

The straight cuts are easier if you roll the crayon under the blade.  The angled cuts are done easiest by getting a sharp exacto knife and placing it at the angle of the cut and rocking it back and forth into the crayon until you're about half way through, apply pressure as you do this and the blade should snap through the crayon without breaking it. 

I started by just lining up the crayons in the order I wanted to use them.  I laid down the bottom guide and placed the crayons on top.  I stared by cutting the pieces on the left.  The longer crayons were created by slicing a cover off of other crayons with the same color paper and then extending the crayon.  I used a glue stick to glue the long crayon paper to the new crayon pieces.

 I found it easiest to make the curved cuts by laying the exacto knife on the crayon while it was on the pattern and get the angle right.  I then moved the crayon with the exacto stuck in the top of the crayon to a cutting board, made the cut and put the crayon back. 

I laid the top cut out letter on the crayons when judging cuts.  It helped me quite a bit.

 

Once I finished the cuts I moved the pieces to the board.  I picked them up one by one and put a line of hot glue on them and then laid them down.  There will be strings of glue all over, just worry about them after you finish gluing them down.  Once dry, they are easily removed.

I penciled in the words and then went over it with permanent marker.  

Baked Hot Chocolate. That says it all.

I went to this restaurant in Windsor, CA called KIN and they served a 'Baked Hot Chocolate'. Excellent restaurant and I highly recommend getting this dish there.  We asked about the ingredients and we were told it was basically a flour-less cake with cocoa substituting in for the flour. 

I did a little research online and found a recipe called Baked Hot Chocolate by Scharfenberger.  This is a slightly modified version of the Scharfenberger recipe.  We found adding the cocoa gave the inside a better texture, closer to that of KINs dish.   It's like warm pudding inside, with a slightly thicker edge and a nice cake like crust on the outside.  It's extremely rich and delicious and they are great for sharing.  This can easily be enough for six people.

Baked Hot Chocolate

Ingredients

2 tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
9 oz. of 62 percent semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 Table.(3 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into cubes
4 large eggs
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Place rack in middle of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Arrange three 2-cup baking mugs, soup dishes, coffee cups, 8 ounce ramekins in a baking or roasting pan. We used three white baking dishes that look like something you'd bake french onion soup in.  As long as it's safe to bake the dishes.

Place chocolate and butter in top of double boiler set over gently simmering water and whisk occasionally until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.

Stir eggs and sugar together in bowl of electric mixer, then set over the simmering water and stir until warm to the touch.  Add cocoa to mixture.

Using whisk attachment, beat 3 to 5 minutes until light and fluffy. By hand, fold eggs into chocolate mixture until it is light and smooth.

Spoon batter into cups. Add enough very hot water to the baking pan to come halfway up sides of cups. Bake 15 to 20 minutes. The baked hot chocolates will be done when the tops lose their glossy finish. A wooden skewer inserted in the top will emerge clean but batter toward the bottom of the cup will still be very moist.

Carefully remove cups from pan. The cakes can be served warm, at room temp. or covered and refrigerated for up to two days. To reheat, bring to room temp, and place in preheated 350 degree oven for 5 minutes, or until warm.  You can also reheat in the microwave for 65 seconds.