Kick off your next book group get-together with a great conversation starter—A set of 12 wine charms that celebrate Deborah Lacy’s short story, "Taking Care" in the May/June edition of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Lorraine Masonheimer created these fabulous charms that include key elements in the story. To inspire your very own design, select a set of charms that impressed you most about the story. Serve the wine alongside cupcakes tucked into a broken heart wrapper with an edible wine glass top rising from the broken heart. Frost the cupcake using the grass tip and green frosting for the story’s garden setting.
Supplies
Twelve Hinged ear hoops ¾” to 1”
Swarovski beads (12 blue, 12 green, 24 clear)
Silver round beads (48)
Twelve charms listed above
Round nose pliers
Jump rings 6mm
Self-adhesive rhinestones
Scissors
Cupcake mix
Green frosting
Decorating bag and tip 233
Knife
Premade pie crust
Wrapper, heart and wine glass template
Patterned and red paper and glue dots
Step One: Organize Beads & Prep Charms
Create piles of beads in the order of stringing. Some charms have the jump ring attached. Add jump ring to charms that do not have a ring. Type, cut and glue the word "Mother" to the inside of the frame charm and seat the protective cover. Add rhinestones to the U.S. shape to mark Los Angeles, CA and Raleigh, NC. Add a red rhinestone to the inside of the teacup. Take care when washing the charms and reapply rhinestones as needed.
Step Two: String Beads and Charms
Open the ear hoops and slide a clear crystal bead onto the hoop. Next, slide a silver round bead, a green bead, a silver bead, a charm, a silver bead, a blue bead, a silver bead and a clear crystal bead onto the hoop and close
Step Three: Repeat & Attach
Repeat until all 12 wine charms are completed. Open the hoop, slide the completed ring onto the stem of the wine glass, close the hoop and pour the wine. A nice Chardonnay is a great place to start while whipping up a batch of cupcakes!
Step Four: Print & Cut Templates
Place your cursor over this image, right click, scroll to Save Image As and place it onto your computer desktop. Open a word document, draw a text box and insert the image into the box. Size the templates to the sizes marked on the templates, print and cut out the images.
Step Five: Create Cupcake Wrap
Trace the cupcake wrap and heart templates onto the patterned and red paper and cut out the shapes. Roll the wrapper into a circle to fit the cupcake and glue together. Cut the heart into two broken pieces and glue to the wrapper. If desired, add a drop of blood at the bottom of the heart.
Step Six: Create Edible Wine Glass Top
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Take the wine glass template and place onto the pie crust. Using a sharp knife, cut around the wine glass to equal the number of cupcakes plus a few extra in case some break. Carefully place the glasses onto a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and brush with egg whites. Bake for 10-12 minutes until light golden brown. Lay the glasses flat to cool for a minimum of 15-20 minutes.
Step Seven: Bake & Frost Cupcakes
Bake your favorite cupcakes according to package directions and cool. Mix your favorite medium consistency icing recipe and add green food paste to create the color of grass. Fit the decorating bag with decorating tip 233 and fill the bag ½ full with the icing. Squeeze the bag to form grass. Pull up and away when icing strand is long enough (1/2”) to stop pressure and pull tip away. Grass will form only if you stop squeezing before pulling the tip away. Keep clusters close together so the cake doesn’t show through.
Insert the cupcakes into the broken heart wrappers. Carefully place the wine glass into the center of the cupcake so the glass appears to rise from the center of the broken heart.
Step Eight: Set Up & Party
For a fun party idea, have the book group vote on a favorite book read that year and have everyone create one wine charm from the book. Draw a name and the wine charms go to the winner.
