Poured Concrete House Number Mosaics

Who knew: playing with concrete is like a grown up version of playing with mud pies. Just more durable and prettier too.

First I custom designed and built the mold. It is sized so the finished house number 'brick' will fit in a flat rate mailing box. I used double ended screws and wing nuts for easy assembly/disassembly. Varnished well with spar varnish.

Then the design was pieced, in reverse, on contact paper and placed in the mold. For this one I continued the design around the edge.

A few additional designs:

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Usually my work is one-of-a-kind but for these I created reproducible patterns that can be used for 1-4 numbers.

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Edit: November 2013 - I am not currently creating house numbers, nor doing custom work.  Too many other ideas in my head!!

Please visit my Etsy MosaicSmith shop to see what I have been creating:

Http://MosaicSmith.etsy.com 

 

Currently you will find a wide array of original design silver jewelry as well as mosaic art and mosaic clock. Life's a journey and I am excited to learn new skills along the way :)

Southern Comfort Cake Recipe - Mmmm

Years ago my Dad tried, we loved, he perfected and then I tweaked a recipe for Southern Comfort Cake. You can find the original recipe on Cooks.com but here is my own tweaked version:

CAKE

1/2 cup Southern Comfort

1 box (18 1/4 oz) yellow cake mix

1 small package french vanilla (or vanilla, white chocolate or cheesecake) instant pudding mix

2/3 cup water

1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 Tblsp butter, softened

4 eggs

1 1/2 cup ground pecans

1/8 tsp almond extract

Mix all of the above following the directions on the box. Pour into one 10" tube pan or one 12 cup bunt pan. Bake 325 F for 1 hour. OR Pour into 3 - 8" x 3 7/8" x 4" (2 lb) loaf pans. Bake 325 F for 50-55 minutes.

GLAZE

1/4 cup Southern Comfort

4 tbsp butter

1/8 cup water

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Melt butter in saucepan and add water and sugar. Bring to a boil. Boil 4 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture is just slightly browned. Remove from heat and cool slightly. Add Southern Comfort. Spoon 1/2 over cakes. Let remainder cool until thick and spread evenly over cakes.

This is a very versatile recipe. The original called for chopped nuts but Dad has always used home ground nuts. He likes using a meat grinder (dedicated) and I used a blender. Before finding ground pecans ===>, I used a mix of walnuts, pecans and almonds. Commercially packaged ground pecans are drier than homemade so I added butter and extra water to the original recipe along with almond extract for additional flavor. Rum can be used in place of Southern Comfort for a different flavor altogether.