Two of my favorite things to eat have nothing to do with how delicious they taste, and everything to do with the sappy sentiment attached to them.

Case in Point Number One: Have’a Corn Chips are delicious and addicting. But I enjoy eating them the most when I think about the special ingredients listed on the bag — “joy, love, light.” How is that not good stuff?

I lived in Laguna Beach, Calif., a couple of summers a million years ago and was surprised to find out that the delicious chips were made there. And I am one of the rubes who bought the suburban myth that Have’a Chips were made by the local Hare Krishnas. But I’ve always liked the idea of eating “joy, love, and light,” no matter who’s offering them…

Case in Point Number Two: Mollie Katzen’s muffin recipe is simple, easy-to-make, and encourages experimentation with ingredients. You can make cheese muffins, blueberry muffins, or whatever fruit is in season. But again, my favorite part of making and partaking of them is reading the description that Mollie offers in her New Recipes from Moosewood Restaurant cookbook:

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This Rustic Mallet video and step-by-step how-to over on Borganic.net is amazing.

The entire thing makes me want to go running into the woods, searching for the perfect sticks and logs. I’ve already asked my husband if we have a tenon cutter and have gone searching in the tool shed for a paddle bit.

Borganic is an educational how-to TV program that’s creative, eco-conscious, and economical. The show’s host, Michele Beschen, makes the processes look easy and appealing, and they have lots of short how-to videos online for you to enjoy and learn from. I especially like the Courage to Create Quickies section, where I’ve found several kid-friendly projects and gift-giving ideas.

I don’t want to spoil any homemade holiday gifts I may or may not be giving out, so if you’re a member of my extended family please look amazed and surprised if you open your present and find a big wooden hammer staring back at you!

More:

• Handmade Geekery
• Gifts: Screen-Printed Bags
• 10 Best Handmade Gifts for Mom
• How-To: Wooden Wedding Sign

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This Rustic Mallet video and step-by-step how-to over on Borganic.net is amazing.

The entire thing makes me want to go running into the woods, searching for the perfect sticks and logs. I’ve already asked my husband if we have a tenon cutter and have gone searching in the tool shed for a paddle bit.

Borganic is an educational how-to TV program that’s creative, eco-conscious and economical. The show’s host, Michele Beschen, makes the processes look easy and appealing, and they have lots of short how-to videos online for you to enjoy and learn from. I especially like the Courage to Create Quickies section, where I’ve found several kid-friendly projects and gift-giving ideas.

I don’t want to spoil any homemade holiday gifts I may or may not be giving out, so if you’re a member of my extended family please look amazed and surprised if you open your present and find a big wooden hammer staring back at you!

More:

• Gifts: Screen-Printed Bags
• Handmade Geekery
• 10 Best Handmade Gifts for Mom
• How-To: Wooden Wedding Sign

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Up here in Northern California the Indian Summer weather brings Naked Ladies and ripe blackberries on the side of any and all country roads.

In the past my family and I have picked buckets of them. We’ve made jam, pies, cobblers, and fruit crisps. But last weekend I tried a Blackberry Scone recipe that Craftzine reader Joy of Savvy Housekeeping sent in.

They were delicious and really nice-looking! The crunchy, sugary crust is wonderful, and I’m definitely saving the recipe. I plan to serve them at the next brunch / Breakfast Club that we host. Try them for yourself and let us know what you think!

More:

• How-To: Vintage Fruit Cobbler
• Recipe: Three-quarter Fruit Crisp
• How-to Make Freezer Jam

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Our coworker, Phil Muelrath, brought by a couple of crafty art pieces his wife Ellie had done as birthday gifts for some of her friends. We were all intrigued by the process, encaustic wax painting or wax drawing, an ancient technique that uses melted colored wax and cards. The process is accessible for beginners, and offers plenty of challenges for master artists, plus the results look great!

After checking out some recent photos of the technique, it looks like it’s definitely something else to add to my Learn How to Do This list…

Related:

Summit of Awesome Coverage, Day 2

Encaustic How-To Videos

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Makers are getting involved, taking to heart our call to help build this new Make: Projects wiki, and the results are great. We’re building up a nice library of projects, technique, and primer articles; they come from projects we do ourselves, from the magazine, and from the greater maker community. Thanks to everyone who’s checked us out and chipped in.

And if you haven’t checked it out yet, please do. It’s a wiki, so it’s thirsty for content. If you’re an expert in something, share it with us by fleshing out a topic area. If you have a project, please share that. After you build one of the projects, hit the “I did it! Success!” button, and let us know what you learned via the Notes feature. And remember, you can amend projects, so if you’ve figured out a better way to do a step, have better pictures, have variations on the project, submit them.To whet your appetite, here are a few of the projects we’re excited about this week.

From the Magazine

Gyrocar

Outfit a toy gyroscope with an electric motor to make it run continuously, and add an adjustable drive wheel that lets it chug along a monorail, balance on a string, circle the rim of a pot, and perform other tricks. Featured in the current issue of MAKE, this exceptionally fun electric gyrocar runs for as long as its AAA batteries hold out, and it’s easy to make. So get out there and buy a gyroscope at the toy store and get hacking!

User-Contributed Projects

Periodic Elements Cabinet
It’s an ongoing problem for any element collector, how to properly store and display your collection of elements. Sean Michael Ragan set about building his own snazzy display case for smaller element samples (which are cheaper, easier to get, and less radioactive in some cases). He shows you how to make your own case, which is something like a spice rack, but in the shape of the periodic table. Enjoy!

Techniques

Food: Bourbon Chicken Wings Recipe
With just a few more weeks of summer vacation for my kids (and a rumbling tummy as I write this), my thoughts have turned to food. Particularly grilled and barbecued food. Luck for me, Andrew Lewis has posted this amazing Bourbon Chicken Wings recipe. To tempt you, he writes:

The slightly smoky taste of the bourbon works well in this recipe, blending the sweetness of the Demerera sugar and the salt of the soy sauce. The mustard and garlic work together to give the wings a fuller flavor, meaning that they can compete on equal terms with the spicy red meat dishes that are so often served at barbecues.

Don’t hesitate! There are lots more projects and recipes to be had. Sign up and get started at Make: Projects today.

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Jonathan Johns, a coworker of ours over at O’Reilly Media and a frequent volunteer at Maker Faires, sent us a great little mending-in-the-wild story that we think everyone will enjoy.

My son, Christian, and his two roommates were on spring break in Arizona. As they were climbing up and around the hills, Christian’s cargo shorts tore out at the knee, and at the pockets. They all proceeded to put their heads together and decided to fix them up.

Using a multi-tool and some Agave, they stitched up the shorts and pocket, and solved the problem. This may or may not be Makezine’s cup of tea, but in my circle of friends, it was pretty exciting to see 19- and 20-year-olds having a MacGyver moment.

Thanks, for sharing the story, Jon. It’s great to hear about inspiration when faced with adversity of any kind, at any age!

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Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

We’re happy to announce that Make: Online’s very own editor-in-chief, Gareth Branwyn, was recently interviewed by SyFy for their Eureka Idea Lab. Here’s a snippet:

Pick one: personal jetpack, warp drive, or Lee Majors-level bionic implants?

Well, I already have an artificial hip, a rebuilt heart, and get shot up six times a year with tweaked mice proteins (Infliximab) for my arthritic disease. I’m a human/machine/mouse hybrid! So, the whole Lee Majors thing? Old news for me. As William Gibson said: “The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” I get the Joint Journal from my orthopedic clinic and I lust after the new hardware. Time for an upgrade.

If I had to choose, it’d be warp drive, without question. It’s not that I don’t love my Mother Earth, but if I had a choice, I would leave her in a smear of light in my rear-view mirror in a (bionic) heartbeat.

Gareth also discusses what it truly means to be a maker, how to get started on the way to becoming a maker (open stuff up!), and some of the most inspiring scientific advancements of his lifetime. He also mentions Jimi Hendrix and quotes both Steven Roberts and Arthur Koestler. And if you know Gareth, you’ll notice a surprising lack of quotes from William Blake.

To sum up, this SyFy interview is a must read!

Read the whole thing here.

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Jonathan Johns, a coworker of ours over at O’Reilly Media and a frequent volunteer at Maker events, sent us a great little maker story that we think everyone will enjoy.

My son, Christian, and his two roommates were on spring break in Arizona. As they were climbing up and around the hills, Christian’s cargo shorts tore out at the knee, and at the pockets. They all proceeded to put their heads together and decided to fix them up.

Using a multi-tool and some Agave, they stitched up the shorts and pocket, and solved the problem. This may or may not be Makezine’s cup of tea, but in my circle of friends, it was pretty exciting to see 19- and 20-year-olds having a MacGyver moment.

Thanks, for sharing the story, Jon. It’s great to hear about inspiration when faced with adversity of any kind, at any age!

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My son turned 8 last week, and in our family when it’s your birthday you get to pick the type of cake and the birthday dinner. He chose crab legs and artichokes for dinner, which basically translates to things he can dip into butter, and Snickerdoodle for his cake flavor.

Never having heard of Snickerdoodle Cake, I scoured the internet for recipes, finally settling on one that used a cake mix (thank you, Betty Crocker!) and called for cinnamon in both the cake batter and the frosting.

I substituted applesauce for half the butter in the cake, and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on top once it was frosted. And it was delicious, if I do say so myself! We were all amazed at how much it really tasted like a Snickerdoodle cookie, and how enjoyable that flavor sensation is in a moist cake with buttery topping. Ah, there’s that butter theme again. He’s obviously wise beyond his eight years…

Download the Recipe PDF Right click to save the PDF to your desktop. Directions on downloading PDFs.

Snickerdoodle Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting
[adapted from Henrie's recipe]

Cake Ingredients

• 1 pkg. yellow or white cake mix
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 stick butter, melted
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Frosting Ingredients

• 1 stick of butter, room temperature
• 3-3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 3 T milk (or a bit more to thin the frosting)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon

Fancy sugar sprinkles and more ground cinnamon on top for the finishing flourish.

Note to Readers: There was no double-dipping in this shot. He did NOT touch the cake with the spatula again, I swear.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour two 9″ round cake pans.
2. Place cake mix, milk, melted butter, applesauce, eggs, vanilla, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Mix for 3 minutes until well blended.
3. Divide batter between the pans and place them in the oven side by side. Bake until they are golden brown, about 27-29 minutes.
4. Remove cakes from oven and cool for 10 minutes, then invert them on a rack and cool completely.
5. While the cakes cool, prepare the frosting (directions below).
6. Frost the cake and put it in the fridge until the frosting sets if needed, probably for about 20 minutes.
7. Sprinkle fancy sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on the top if you like, or make a simple cinnamon sugar mixture and sprinkle liberally.
8. If you have leftovers (after breakfast the next morning we had nothing left), keep refrigerated.

Make the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

1. Place butter in large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low until fluffy, about 30 seconds.
2. Add powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. Blend on low until sugar is incorporated, about 1 minute.
3. Add the cinnamon, and Increase the speed to medium. Beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute more.
4. Blend in up to 1 tablespoon milk if the frosting seems too stiff.

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