SHIFTING ROOTS

home, garden, food, and prairie lifestyle

  • About
    • Contact
    • Work With Me
    • Features
    • Privacy Policy
  • Blog
  • Gardening
    • How to Start a Garden: Especially if you’re in Zone 3 or Zone 2
    • Seed Starting
    • Vegetable Gardening
    • Perennials
    • Cut Flowers
    • Small Space Gardening
  • Recipes
    • Canning
    • Preserving
    • Prairie Fruits Cookbook
    • The Best Pumpkin Recipes
    • How to Make a Tempting Christmas Cookie Tray (Plus Recipes!)
  • Popular Posts
  • E-Books
    • Pretty & Practical Garden Planner
    • Cut Flowers Made Simple
    • Constant Colour Perennial Garden
    • Small Garden, Big Harvest
    • Growing Roots Online Gardening Course
    • Frost Proof Flower Garden
    • Bouquets Made Beautiful
    • Savvy Seed Saving Annual Cut flowers
    • Prairie Fruits Cookbook
    • Online Gardening Consultations
  • Seasons
    • Christmas

The Cutest Fall Themed Edible Tic Tac Toe Game for Kids

October 2, 2018

Who doesn’t love a game of tic tac toe?  Keep the kids in your life entertained with these adorable fall themed edible tic tac toe desserts.  They’re perfect for a fall carnival, Halloween treat, or a fun Thanksgiving snack.  Not to mention its a good dinner table activity to keep the kiddos occupied until dinner is served!!

No more “Moooooom, is it ready yet?” for you.

It's the night before your kids classroom Halloween party, what fast and easy sweet treat can you make?  This easy edible fall tic tac toe dessert.  Pumpkin candy, icing, graham cracker, and you're done!  So cute for toddlers, kids, and schools. #halloween #treats #fast #easy #nobake #kids #toddlers #recipe #desserts #party

[Read more…]

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Halloween, Recipes, Simple & Easy Tagged: Autumn, classrooms, edible, fall, fun, Halloween, Kids, party, simple and easy, Thanksgiving, tic tac toe

5 Tips for Making a Pallet Sign You’ll Love

August 13, 2017

This post is sponsored by Free Spirit Market.   All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Move over paint nite, pallet sign making workshops are where its at.  I recently attended Free Spirit Market’s pallet sign making workshop and it was a blast.

Learn all the little tips and tricks to ensure you'll walk away from Free Spirit Market's pallet sign workshop with a sign you'll love.

[Read more…]

Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

21 Comments
Filed Under: DIY, Fun, Simple & Easy, Sponsored Tagged: country chic paint, creative, easy, Free Spirit Market, fun, Humboldt, Pallet Sign Workshop, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, simple, things to do

Simple Tricks to make your next cake look amazing

October 29, 2016

make-your-next-cakelook-amazing, icing roses, ombre cake

Do you want to have the glory that comes from being the person who brought “the nice cake” to the party?  Of course you do!!  One of my readers was asking how I made that rose cake last weekend, so I thought I would do a post about the easy tricks I use to make cake look amazing.  It’s really simple, and the only fancy thing you need to go out and buy is a cupcake-sized drop flower or closed star icing tip, and a piping bag.  Don’t try and put it in a ziplock bag to be frugal.  You will hate your life.

No cake pans?  No problem.

Make a sheet cake in a 9×13 pan, cut around same sized bowls, and call it a day.  Don’t fret if your cuts aren’t 100% perfect.  Icing can cover up a multitude of sins.

image

Want an ombre cake?  Just use food colouring.

For the cakes below, I used 3 drops, 6 drops, 9 drops, and left one white.  You could go darker, just use an even ratio of drops.

image

As you can see, my cakes did not come up perfectly flat.  Seriously, do they ever?  Level the tops by cutting with a bread knife, and hide any mistakes with icing.

layering a cake
Note the uneven edges. After the crumb coat no one will be the wiser.

Make a crumb coat

A crumb coat is just a thin layer of icing that traps in all of the cake crumbs.  Do not skip this step.  You don’t need any fancy tools, just a simple table knife will do.

img_3153

image

Now it’s time for the fun part, the icing!  Grab that cupcake-sized icing tip and I’ll show you how I make roses step by step:

img_3607

Here’s another big hint: Circle from the inside out=roses, Circle from the outside in=cupcake.

For an ombre cake, you’ll need at least 2 shades of your colour, plus white.  Use the same ratio you used for the cake batter.

image

It’s easier to keep things even if you start from the bottom up.  This particular cake was quite small, so I made ruffles on the sides and did roses on the top only.

image

There you have it!  You may not be the life of the party, but you can bring the cake that gets the “ooo’s and aah’s.”

Is there anything else you’d like to see me write about?  (Except renovations, I’m still not quite healthy enough to tackle a day of painting yet.)  Let me know!

simple-tricks-to-amazing-cake



Kristen Raney

Kristen is a former farm kid turned urban gardener who owns the popular gardening website, Shifting Roots.  She is obsessed with growing flowers and pushing the limits of what can be grown in her zone 3b garden.  She also loves to grow tomatoes, but oddly enough, dislikes eating them raw.

www.shiftingroots.com

Leave a Comment
Filed Under: Baking, Fun, Projects, Simple & Easy Tagged: Cake, easy, fun, icing, icing roses, ombre cake, simple

Grow roots with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

P.S. First time gardener? You'll want to download the quick start gardening guide below!

Recent Posts

  • How to Grow Eucalyptus for Cut Flowers (Even in a Short Growing Season!)
  • 26 Best Flowers to Grow for Dried Flower Arrangements
  • 17 Perennial Flowers That Love Shade
  • How to Design a Cut Flower Garden in Raised Beds
  • How to Start a Cut Flower Garden

Welcome!

Hi, I’m Kristen and I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and beautify their yards. I also share recipes that use all that delicious garden produce. Grab a coffee (and your gardening gloves) and join me for gardening tips, simple recipes, and the occasional DIY, all from the lovely city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Connect with Shifting Roots On. . .

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Find What You’re Looking For. . .

Privacy Policy

Growing eucalyptus for the first time this year? Growing eucalyptus for the first time this year?  A new post is on the blog to walk you through it.  While in theory eucalyptus is easy to grow, it's challenging in my zone 3 garden for three reasons: ⁠
⁠
➡️It needs a long time to mature⁠
➡️I have a short growing season⁠
➡️I live in a cool climate, and eucalyptus grows better when its warm.⁠
⁠
That said, you can see by this picture that it can be done!!⁠
⁠
Are you growing eucalyptus this year?
Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums Oh friends, if any of my nice, curated photos sums up how this last week went, I think it's this one.  Babies crying, trying to stay calm, outwardly looking like it's all under control, but feeling very overwhelmed.⁠
⁠
This post isn't gardening related, so feel free to scroll by if you're here only for the gardening content.⁠
⁠
Thankfully it's January, and I keep reminding myself that the Internet will not break if I don't keep to my self-imposed posting schedule.  But it doesn't make a week full of teething-and-not-sleeping baby any easier. ⁠
⁠
Felicity slept through the night for the first time ever last Monday, then proceeded to punish us with frequent wakings and terrible sleep until Saturday.  And as tough as this is in regular times, in Covid times its extra frustrating because I don't have my village.⁠
⁠
I can't just call up another Mama friend and go for coffee at her house.  I can't take my son out for a Mommy-and-Dominic date because everything he'd want to do isn't really much of an option.  There's no playgroup or play place to just drop in on.  And forget just taking everybody out to get groceries just for a change of scenery.⁠
⁠
I know people have way more serious problems than this, and I hope I don't sound whiny and entitled, it's not my intention.  Please know that I'm very grateful for my family and job and that so far we've been healthy. ⁠
⁠
A lot of you who follow me do so in part because you are also juggling life with very little people through this strange time.  I hope that in occasionally sharing my struggles, it makes you feel better about your struggles. (You're struggling too sometimes. . . right?)
Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth deg Do you tend to plan out your garden to the nth degree, do you just wing it, or are you somewhere in-between?⁠
⁠
I tend to plan it all out, and then when I actually get out in the field, so to speak, the plan changes a little bit. ⁠
⁠
If you need a garden planner that's both pretty & practical, my garden planner is available in the ebooks section.  It's only $9 and has lots of upgrades from the previous planner.  Use code CANADA if you're Canadian to account for the exchange.⁠
⁠
P.S. You can see exactly what you're getting in the video--no surprises. ⁠
P.P.S  I get my planner bound and printed at a printing place.  Lots of people just print their own and put the sheets in a binder.
Are you gardening in containers this year? When y Are you gardening in containers this year?  When you're shopping for vegetable seeds, look for varieties that have names with words like patio, tiny, small, etc.  While lots of vegetable varieties will do fine in a container, you'll have an easier time with ones that are specifically bred for that situation.⁠
⁠
📸 by @blushbrandphotography
I'm living the pepper dream in this photo. While I'm living the pepper dream in this photo.  While these ones are a bit on the small side, who doesn't want ripe peppers in July in zone 3?!?! ⁠
⁠
Over the years I've gotten better at growing peppers, and I promise I'll spill my secrets in February when it's actually time to start them.  Until then, get yourself all or one of my four favourite varieties: ⁠
⁠
🌶️Carmen⁠
🌶️Escamillo⁠
🌶️Candy Stripe⁠
🌶️Hungarian Hot Wax⁠
⁠
Do you have a favourite pepper variety?⁠
⁠
Have you flipped open a seed catalogue lately? It Have you flipped open a seed catalogue lately?  It's so easy to get completely overwhelmed, especially if you're new to gardening.  Why are there so many varieties of everything and which ones do I choose?⁠
⁠
Here's how I try to narrow it down.⁠
⁠
🌤️ Short growing season like me?  Try and prioritize varieties that have short dates to maturity.⁠
🥗 What do you or your family actually eat?  While I think you should always try a couple of new things, there's no sense in planting a giant garden filled with vegetables that you're not going to cook with. ⁠
🥒 Do you care whether your vegetables are heirlooms or hybrids?  Heirlooms are the kind that have been around for 50+ years and you can save seeds from.  Believe it or not, this year we're prioritizing hybrids for some of our garden.  The Hermit @mgsraney is obsessed with production this year, so anything that's going in "his" greenhouse better be able to produce a lot.  I'm using more heirlooms in my "glamour garden" as we call it, because I want things that are pretty and I can save seeds from.⁠
⁠
What do you prioritize when you're picking out seeds?⁠
Last week we started thinking about our plans for Last week we started thinking about our plans for cut flower gardening, now this week we start thinking about plans for our vegetable gardens.  Unlike cut flowers, there's not as many vegetables that need to be started ridiculously early.  However, it's still fun to plan and dream and get your thoughts sorted.⁠
⁠
I'm curious--what size of garden do you have to work with?  Are you on an acreage or farm, city backyard, or do you have a couple of pots on an apartment patio?⁠
⁠
As for me, I have quite a mix.  I have my container garden on my backyard deck, the small cut flower garden in my yard, then vegetables in raised beds.  We also garden at my Mother-in-law's acreage, so there's a giant garden over there where we're figuring out how to grow food on a larger scale.  Then finally, sometimes my Mom grows things for me in her garden if I'm nervous that I'll ruin them in my own garden--call it a backup garden if you will.⁠
⁠
📸 by @blushbrandphotography
Load More… Follow on Instagram

Theme Design By Studio Mommy · Copyright © 2021

Copyright © 2021 · Beyond Madison Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in