My friends and I decided to have some international cuisine dinner party once every few weeks. Our first night was Italian themed, so we had bruchetta, lasagna and tiramisu (all homemade)! Of course I offered to do the dessert and luckily it turned out pretty well for my first try 
Combining egg yolks and sugar, beat/mix for 10 minutes on a double broiler (bowl over boiling water). Remove and whip until thick and lemon coloured. The cake turned out a little too sweet actually, next time I would probably try less sugar (1 cup instead of 1 1/4 cup).
Add mascarpone (mas-car-POH-ne) cheese to mixture and beat until combined. In another bowl, whip whipping cream until stiff peaks. If you lift some of the cream up with the beater the cream should just barely curl over. Gently fold the whipped cream into the yolk mixture – dig your spatula under the mixture and fold over and into the whipped cream.
Making a coffee/rum mix. I added about 1/4 cup of coffee and 4 teaspoons of rum. I cut up the ladyfingers and arranged them so that they all fit (with about a 1 inch gap from the sides), then I dipped them quickly and placed them back into the springform pan (a pan where the side of the pan can be detached).
I used a piping bag to pipe a border of cream around the boundary of my ladyfinger arrangement and then poured some filling to fill it up. Then I placed ladyfingers around the sides and pushed the cream towards them so that the ladyfingers stay standing and “stick” to the cream. I added a little more cream so that in total I poured half of the cream mixture.
Dip and make another layer of ladyfingers. Then add the rest of the cream and try to smooth out the top. Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.
Before serving, sift some cocoa powder on top of the cake (and/or add fruits!). Take off the side of the pan and wrap with a ribbon to finish it off
Some glam shots of the cake 
Once I cut into it the cake started sinking alot, especially in the middle. I think it may be because I dipped the ladyfingers for a little too long – they got too soggy and probably melted under the weight of the cream Oh well, next time!
Tiramisu
- 6 egg yolks
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar
- 1 1/4 cups mascarpone cheese
- 1 3/4 cups heavy whipping cream
- 2 (12 ounce) packages ladyfingers
- 1/3 cup coffee flavored liqueur
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder, for dusting
- Combine egg yolks and sugar in the top of a double boiler, over boiling water. Reduce heat to low, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly (or beat on low). Remove from heat and whip yolks until thick and lemon colored.
- Add mascarpone to whipped yolks. Beat until combined. In a separate bowl, whip cream to stiff peaks. Gently fold into yolk mixture and set aside.
- Split the lady fingers in half, and line the bottom and sides of a large glass bowl. Brush with coffee liqueur. Spoon half of the cream filling over the lady fingers. Repeat ladyfingers, coffee liqueur and filling layers. Refrigerate several hours or overnight.
- Garnish with cocoa or fruits.
Made these for a class party and they were a delicious hit. Looks impressive and easy to make!
Making the puff pastry – boiling butter and water. I loved how easy this was! Have flour ready on the side, and add flour when the mixture comes to a rolling boil. Make sure to add the flour all at once and not little by little because the dough forms quite quickly. Keep mixing until the dough forms and comes off the sides.
Let the dough cool for about 5-10 mins, then add vanilla and eggs and beat well. You don’t want the eggs to cook in the hot dough. I actually added 3 eggs + 1 egg white because online, people commented that the eggy taste was too strong.
Fill a piping bag and pipe round blobs as big as a jumbo gumball. First batch I made came out way too small (pic on left) so make them as big as the ones on the right!
Bake for about 15 mins on 425F and 10-15 min on 325F. Take them out and with a skewer, poke a hole on the side of each puff, try to find a soft side to poke through. This lets the steam out so they don’t collapse. Put them back in the oven for a little bit to dry them out.
For the filling I used chocolate and pistachio pudding mix with cream and milk. Combine and beat until it thickens.
Fill a piping bag and fill up those puffs! Tastes better when it’s completely filled
Delicious
Cream Puffs
For the puffs:
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
For the filling:
- 2 packages instant vanilla pudding mix (or any flavour)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup milk
- Mix together instant pudding mix, cream and milk. Cover and refrigerate to set.
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
- In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Cool for 5-10 minutes.
- Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat in the eggs and vanilla, mix well. Drop by tablespoonfuls or pipe batter about 1.5in in diameter onto baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then turn temperature down to 325 degrees F and bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Centers should be dry.
- Take the shells out of the oven and poke a hole through the side of each shell. Place back in oven for 1-2 minutes.
- When the shells are cool, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.
Making macarons was one of my goals this summer and I finally did it! I’m quite surprised with how they came out actually. I didn’t expect much, I thought I would totally fail but some of them actually turned out well!
First of all, for those who don’t know what macarons are, these are not the coconut macaroons you find at your grocery store. I really like this picture from Serious Eats (above), it explains pretty much what it is. Macarons are French pastries that come in all colours and flavours and are characterized by their flat dome shape and “feet”, the ruffled rim along the bottom. It’s supposed to be one of the most difficult things to make so I’m quite surprised that they actually turned out (:
I bought ground almonds from bulk barn. It was quite expensive actually so don’t buy too much Be careful when folding the sugar mixture with the almond mixture. Dig your spatula underneath the mixture and fold it up on top. Rotate the bowl a little and repeat. This is so that all the air you mixed into the egg whites don’t collapse. Fold until just incorporated.
The ones that came out nicer were actually a fluke. I piped those ones on a piece of parchment paper directly on the counter (instead of on a baking sheet) and they turned out flatter/more runny. I think I may just need more piping skills lol~ It’s recommended that you draw circles on the parchment paper (or put a pattern page underneath) so you get uniform circles but I was too lazy for that lol. I’ve also read online that if you simply drop the batter on the sheet it works as well, just less uniform shape I guess.
The recipe says that the oven door should be slightly ajar, so I put a metal spoon in the gap to keep the door open.
Left = bad, right = good!
Alot of people online say that had trouble getting “feet’ on the macaroons, but I didn’t have any problems with this recipe. I just made sure I rapped the baking sheet on the table a couple times (“rap” = tap it on the counter) and leave them out until the tops are dried/less shiny (about 1-2 hours). Touch them lightly and they should be hard/crusty instead of gooey.
I followed the Macaron filling recipe on the Martha Stewart website but I’m not sure why the filling on the recipe was royal icing-esque. I wanted chocolate filling so I added about 1/2 cup of melted chocolate. Would have/should have added more but I didn’t have that much chocolate available. I also halved the filling recipe and I still have too much leftover icing! Next time I would try something like this one, or even fill it with nutella or jam
Macarons with Chocolate Filling
- 1 1/4 cups plus 1 teaspoon confectioners’ sugar
- 1 cup (4 ounces) finely ground sliced, blanched almonds
- 6 tablespoons fresh egg whites (from about 3 extra-large eggs, room temp)
- Pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners’ sugar and ground almonds.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, whip egg whites with salt on medium speed until foamy. Increase speed to high and gradually add granulated sugar. Continue to whip until stiff glossy peaks form (~5 minutes, if you lift up your mixer and flip it upside down the egg whites should stand straight up instead off curling over)
- With a rubber spatula, gently fold in the confectioners’ sugar mixture until completely incorporated.
- Fit a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch #4 round tip, and fill with batter. Pipe 1-inch disks onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches between cookies. The batter will spread a little. Let stand at room temperature until dry, and a soft skin forms on the tops of the macaroons and the shiny surface turns dull.
- Bake, with the door of the oven slightly ajar, until the surface of the macaroons is completely dry, about 15 minutes. Remove baking sheet to a wire rack and let the macaroons cool completely on the baking sheet. Gently peel off the parchment. Their tops are easily crushed, so take care when removing the macaroons from the parchment.
- Use immediately or store in an airtight container, refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
Macaron Filling (chocolate)
- 3 large egg whites
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces
- 1 cup melted chocolate (optional)
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk egg whites and sugar. Set mixer bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and heat mixture, whisking often, until it feels warm to the touch and sugar is dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes.
- Transfer bowl to the mixer. Whip on high speed until mixture is stiff and shiny, about 5 minutes. Add butter, one piece at a time, and continue mixing until butter is thoroughly incorporated.
- Add chocolate and mix until incorporated.
- The filling can be kept, covered and refrigerated, up to 1 week. Bring to room temperature before stirring.
My first attempt at creme brulee… scary but I think it turned out well! I couldn’t resist after seeing Pioneer Woman’s post and her pictures make it less intimidating 
Boiling cream & vanilla. Separated egg yolks and kept egg whites for a future creation . An easy way to separate the egg – tap the egg on the side of a bowl to make a crack (as usual). Hold the egg vertically and carefully crack off the top, letting the egg whites drop into a bowl. Pour the egg yolk into your hand and let the rest of the egg whites drip into the bowl. Slide the egg yolk into another bowl.
Mix mix mix, until the colour of the batter turns pale and thick. Took maybe 5 mins.
Make sure you scoop out the foam after mixing (last step). I didn’t do enough of that and when they came out there was an brown airy layer on top (below). I just used a spoon to scoop that off, making sure I don’t touch the custard underneath. Doesn’t look nearly as good if it came perfect out of the oven though!
Torching was a bit of a struggle. I used a friend’s “lighter” but it took quite a while to burn the sugar. I think it’s probably because I used regular (granulated) sugar instead of superfine sugar. It did warm up the custard a tad; it would have tasted better right-out-of-the-fridge cold but it will do
To my surprise it actually tasted very, very good! I attended a wedding a week ago and the taste of this creme brulee was very close to the ones I ate there. MmMmMmm
PS. I halved the recipe because I didn’t have enough ramekins/knew I couldn’t eat that much
Creme Brulee
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
- 4 cups Heavy Cream
- 1 whole Vanilla Bean OR 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract OR 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Paste
- 10 whole Egg Yolks
- ¾ cups Sugar
- 6 Tablespoons Superfine (Baker’s) Sugar
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Pour the cream into the saucepan. Add vanilla and simmer over medium-low heat.
Whip egg yolks with the sugar until pale yellow and thick.
Strain cream using a fine mesh strainer.
Whip yolks while you very slowly drizzle in 1 cup of warm cream. Go slowly so as not to cook the eggs! Once the first cup is added, you can add the rest of the cream slowly.
Place ramekins onto a rimmed baking sheet. Pour custard mixture into ramekins. Pour water in bottom of baking sheet until it comes halfway up the ramekins. Bake for 30 minutes, or until just set. Do not allow to get brown.
Cool ramekins on countertop, then chill for at least 2-3 hours, covered in plastic wrap.
To serve, sprinkle 1 tablespoon over each ramekin of custard. Use a kitchen torch to quickly (but carefully) brown the sugar. There should be a thin, crisp surface of burned sugar on the top.
- 4 cups Heavy Cream
- 1 whole Vanilla Bean OR 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract OR 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Paste
- 10 whole Egg Yolks
- ¾ cups Sugar
- 6 Tablespoons Superfine (Baker’s) Sugar
My lovely friend Jean is getting married in a month and we had an awesome time at her bridal shower yesterday. It was an absolutely gorgeous day and we had a fancy outdoor tea party with lots of delicious food, games and laughter. I had the privilege of making a cake for this occasion and I was totally up for the challenge!
A couple friends who were planning the shower helped me brainstorm what kind of cake to make. Her wedding colours were brown and green, she likes white chocolate and it was a garden party, so flowers! This is what I came up with…
A chocolate and green tea cake with white chocolate icing. Two tiers with three layers in each tier – chocolate, green tea, chocolate. It took me about 3 days to complete it. Two evenings of baking and another evening/morning of decorating Totally worth it, I’m really happy with how it turned out!
I made the chocolate sour cream cake on the first night. I’ve made this cake a couple times before so I was pretty comfortable with it, but I was pretty tired from work that day so I make some small mistakes. Still turned out well though
Green Tea (Matcha) Cake on the second day. This was something new so I was slightly nervous because I would have to get it right the first time. Matcha powder is also really expensive (and somewhat rare in Ottawa) so I really didn’t want to screw up!
For this cake I used these “bakeeasy” strips so the cake bakes level. Normally when you bake a cake you get this dome and you’ll have to cut it off before you ice it but with these strips the cake was super flat! Love it!
I got the white chocolate icing recipe from the Wilton site, I figure it should be safe, couldn’t take too many risks The recipe says it makes 6 cups which sounded like alot, since I think I use about 3 cups or less when I make a normal cake. I halved the recipe at first but actually ran out when I got to the second tier so had to make more. Luckily I bought enough white chocolate.. phew!
Now the fun part – decorating!! It was fun but tedious, especially trying to get the icing nice and smooth and covering everything (with no crumbs). Not very happy with my icing job actually, as you can see in the pics but I definitely learned alot for next time.
I just finished a cake decorating course (Wilton Decorating Basics at Michaels) in July so I’m glad I got to put what I’ve learned to good use! Unfortunately I don’t have a pic of the bottom tier only but it was basically covered with those heart patterns. The heart patterns and the flowers were piped with the white icing. I placed a golden chocolate bead (from Bulk Barn) in the middle of each flower.
Congrats again Jean and Chung!!
Chocolate Sour Cream Cake
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups white sugar, divided
- 6 eggs, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- Separate the eggs while cold, then bring all cold ingredients to room temperature
- Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F. Grease and lightly flour two 9-in pans.
- Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Combine the sour cream and vanilla extract in a separate bowl.
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until creamy. Gradually add 2 cups of sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. Add the room-temperature egg yolks one at a time, mixing well.
- Pour in one third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Blend in half of the sour cream mixture. Continue adding the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream, mixing until just incorporated.
- Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a clean mixing bowl with clean beaters until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until medium-stiff peaks are formed. Use a whisk or rubber spatula to fold 1/3 of the meringue mixture into the cake batter.
- Fold the remaining egg white mixture into the batter until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake the cake for about 30-40 minutes, or until the cake springs back when you touch it lightly and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes before inverting the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Green Tea Cake
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 teaspoons powdered green tea
- 1/4 cups white sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup plain yogurt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 2 – 9 inch round pans.
- Sift together the all-purpose flour, cake flour, baking soda, salt, and green tea powder; set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat together sugar, oil, and eggs until smooth. Stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the yogurt, mixing just until incorporated. Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool on wire rack for 30 minutes before turning out of the pans.
White Chocolate Buttercream Icing
Icing serves 6 cups.
- 18 ounces (18 squares) white baking chocolate coarsely chopped
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup solid vegetable shortening
- 1 cup butter or margarine
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1/4 cup milk
- Microwave chocolate with 1/4 cup milk in microwavable bowl on Medium-high for 1-2 minutes; stir chocolate halfway during cooking time. Do not overheat. Chocolate will continue to melt while being stirred.
- Cream butter and shortening with electric mixer. Add vanilla
- Gradually add sugar, one cup at time, beating well on medium speed. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl often.
- When all sugar has been mixed in, icing will appear dry.
- Add milk and beat at medium, speed until light and fluffy.
- Beat in chocolate.
Keep icing covered with a damp cloth until ready to use.
Ingredients
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups white sugar, divided
- 6 eggs, separated
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
- Before you begin, bring all of the cold ingredients to room temperature: set out the sour cream, butter, and the eggs (separate the eggs while they are still cold) for about half an hour before making the cake batter.
- Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease and lightly flour a 10-inch tube pan. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. Combine the sour cream and vanilla extract in a separate bowl.
- Beat the butter with an electric mixer in a large bowl until creamy, about 30 seconds. Gradually add 2 cups of sugar and beat on high speed until light and fluffy. The mixture should be noticeably paler in color. Add the room-temperature egg yolks one at a time, allowing each yolk to blend into the butter mixture before adding the next.
- Pour in one third of the flour mixture and mix on low speed until combined. Blend in half of the sour cream mixture. Continue adding the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream, mixing until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a clean mixing bowl with clean beaters until soft peaks form. Gradually add the remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until medium-stiff peaks are formed (lift your beater or whisk straight up: the tip of the peak formed by the egg whites should curl over slightly.) Use a whisk or rubber spatula to fold 1/3 of the meringue mixture into the cake batter to lighten it.
- Fold the remaining egg white mixture into the batter until combined. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Bake the cake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the cake springs back when you touch it lightly and a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for ten minutes before inverting the cake onto a wire rack to cool completely.
…or “puffins” as Bakerella calls them. Got this awesome recipe from her site, they are so delicious and are a breakfast treat! I did a bit of a spin off on her original Mini Maple Pancake Muffins, and made a strawberry, blueberry and nutmeg/cinnamon version. Check it out:
Sifting all the dry ingredients together
In goes buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter
Adding wet to dry and combine with a spoon
Delicious fruits and choc chips!
Split the batter into four and put the “mix-in’s” in
Filling up my mini muffin pan!
Done.. yummy! Just use a toothpick to pop them out.
Dip into maple syrup and enjoy!
Mini Pancake Bites
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2/3 cup buttermilk
1 egg
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
2 tablespoons melted butter
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
2 strawberries
1 small box of blueberries
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a medium bowl. Sift together with a wire whisk.
- In another bowl, stir buttermilk, egg, maple syrup and melted butter until just combined.
- Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir with a spoon until combined.
- Split mixture into 4 bowl.
- Stir in chocolate chips in one bowl. Reserve a few chips to sprinkle on the tops.
- Cut up strawberry into small pieces and stir into second bowl.
- Add a handful of blueberries and stir into third bowl.
- Add nutmeg and cinnamon into fourth bowl.
- Bake for 8-9 minutes.
A friend of mine came to visit me a few weeks ago and brought some awesomeness with her. When she first told me she was bringing cheese curds I was like, “ok, I have those all the time with poutine here in Ottawa”, or “I can just cut cheese cubes from the block of cheese I have in my fridge”. However when I tried them, my eyes widened 300% and my mouth dropped. They were soooo good.
These are super fresh. They tasted chewy, elasticy, yet creamy. Most importantly, they SQUEAK! While you chew them, you can hear the squeaky cheese squeaking in your mouth. I was about to take a video and post it on here but I figured it’d be way too gross. Apparently you don’t need to refrigerate them for the first 24 hours, so you can bring it on the road with you
St. Albert is about an hour drive away from Ottawa. If you’re ever in the area, make sure you check it out!
St-Albert Cheese
150, St-Paul St.,
St-Albert, ON K0A 3C0
Tel : 613-987-2872
http://www.fromage-st-albert.com/
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My current obsession – these pinwheel icebox cookies! So delicious, and I can make extras to store in the fridge/freezer to make whenever I’m craving them!
Mixing all the dry ingredients
Split the dough into two, knead cocoa powder into one part. Then split both parts into two again. Leave them in the fridge for a bit.
Time to do some rolling! Student budget here (and renting out a room in an apartment), so had to settle with a roll of saran wrap as a rolling pin =)
Ready to roll. I found this to be the easiest way to roll the dough up. Grab the short end of the rectangle with the wax paper underneath and slowly roll. Two hands is ideal here, but I needed to hold the camera somehow!
Aaand done! It’s beautiful.
Stick it in the fridge for a while to let it harden so it’s easier to cut. You can keep the rolls in the fridge for up to 1 week.
To check if they’re done, stick a toothpick through the middle of a cookie and make sure it comes out clean. For these, I use a toothpick to flip a cookie over. I like them soft and chewy, so I take them out once the bottoms are lightly brown. If you like them hard and crunchy, leave them in for an extra minute or two until the bottoms are dark brown (but not burnt!).
Yum! I also made an inverted version of these (chocolate on the outside), which you can do by simply putting the plain dough on top of the chocolate instead of the other way around before you roll.
Pinwheel Icebox Cookies
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking bowder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 granulated sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup cocoa
- In a medium bowl, using a fork, stir flour with baking powder and salt
- In a large bowl, using a mixer, beat butter with sugar
- Beat in egg and vanilla
- Using a wooden spoon, gradually beat in flour mixture just until it can be formed into a ball. Divide dough into two
- Sprinkle one half with cocoa. Gently knead until dough is an even colour
- Divide chocolate and plain doughs in half. Wrap the 4 pieces separately in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll (at least 2 hours)
- Place 1 portion of plain dough between 2 pieces of wax paper. Roll into a 6×8 in rectangle. Repeat with remaining doughs
- Lay 1 chocolate dough on top of a plain dough. Gently press down
- Starting on shorter side, tightly roll layers into a log. Repeat with 2 remaining doughs. Wrap separately with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour up to 1 week
- Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a baking sheet (spray, oil or wax paper). Slice logs into rounds 1/3 in thick. Place 2 in apart on baking sheet
- Bake in center of preheated oven until cookie edges are golden, 8 to 10 mins
- Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 1 week or freeze up to 1 month
Makes 32 cookies
Sorry for the big hiatus! Just finished a very busy term of school and am now settling into Ottawa for my work term. Hopefully I can do some baking while I’m here =)
Last week a bunch of us decided to celebrate one of our friend’s belated birthday by surprising her at her house. It was suggested that I should bring a cake, and funny enough the day that I was asked I actually made cupcakes with my baking guru Jen and used the extra batter to make a 8″ white cake.
Cupcakes! Used Jen’s leftover icing so sorry – no recipe
I asked a friend to help me prepare this birthday cake since I only had an afternoon to do it. Here are some pics.
Originally I wanted to use a nutella whipped cream (used in this cake) but we overwhipped the whipping cream by accident and that didn’t turn out good at all. Instead, we roasted some hazelnuts, crushed them and placed them on the bottom layer after leveling off the cake and splitting it in two with a serrated knife.
We then put a layer of Nutella on the other layer and flipped it over to make a hazelnut-nutella layer between the two cake layers. The cake was covered with a white whipped icing and topped with berries and whole hazelnuts.
And the finished product:
White Cake
3 cups cake flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, room temp
2 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup milk
8 large egg whites
- Preheat the oven to 350F
- Prepare (butter and flour) two 8″ cake pans
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside
- Beat the butter and 2 cups sugar until light and fluffy (3-4 mins), scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed
- Beat in the vanilla
- Using a mixer with the paddle attachment on low speed, add flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the milk and beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until just combined. Transfer to large bowl
- In a clean bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat egg whites on low speed until foamy.
- While mixing, gradually add 1/4 cup sugar. Beat on high until stiff, glossy peaks form (about 4 mins). Do not overbeat.
- Gently fold a third of the egg-white mixture into the butter-flour mixture until combined. Gently fold in remaining egg whites
- Divide batter evenly among the cake pans.
- Bake, rotating the pans halfway through until cake is golden brown and a cake tester (ie. toothpick) inserted in the middle comes out clean (20-25 mins)
- Transfer pans to a wire rack. Invert cake on rack, reinvert to let it cool top side up.
White whipped icing
1 cup (240ml) heavy whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon (15g) granulated white sugar
- Chill the mixing bowl and mixer whisk in the freezer for 30+ minutes
- Combine whipping cream, vanilla extract and white sugar in the mixing bowl and beat until stiff peaks form
Finally got around to baking something new! I had a few blocks of cream cheese lying around which was about to expire so I’m glad I thought about making this before it did. My roomate brought a huge bottle of Bailey’s at the beginning of term so I had to use it some how
Making the crust. I don’t think digestive cookies and graham crackers are exactly the same, but I accidentally bought digestive cookies. Still tastes good though! I didn’t have a food processor to ground the crumbs so I just put them in a zip lock bag and pounded them =)
Split the batter in two and added two squares of melted semi-sweet chocolate into one of them.
Pour the regular batter in first, dropped some of the chocolate mixture and then used a spoon (or a knife) to make swirl patterns. I swirled it a little too much.
Bake it for around an hour (see recipe below) and voila!
It looked really hideous so I had to find some way to cover it up. Cocoa powder is the best!
Added some fruits to make the crack look more intentional (berries were frozen).
Happy Canada Day! Gotta add a maple leaf to join the festivities =)
How to make the leaf: Print an outline of a maple leaf, cut it out and placed it on top of the cake. Sift icing sugar on top.
Bailey’s Marbled Cheesecake
Crust:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 package graham crackers, ground to crumbs
- Combine butter, sugar and cocoa powder
- Stir in crumbs
- Press evenly over greased 9-inch springform pan
- Bake at 350F for 10 minutes
Filling:
3 8-ounce (250g) packages cream cheese, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup Bailey’s irish cream
2 squares (2 ounces) semi-sweet chocolate, melted
- Beat cream cheese until smooth
- Gradually beat in sugar
- Beat in eggs, one at a time
- Blend in Bailey’s
- Pour 1/3 mixture into bowl and stir in melted chocolate
- Pour half of plain mixture into pan
- Drizzle with half the chocolate mixture
- Repeat layers
- Make marbled design by gently swirling batter with knife
- Bake 10 minutes at 450F, then 50 minutes at 350F or until cake tests done
Enjoy =)
I didn’t expect much from this because it was my first try making this. I don’t even know how Zucchini bread tastes like but this was AMAZING!!!! These are going to be gone in a flash!
Sifted the dry ingredients. This is why you ALWAYS sift. Found a piece of the paper bag that held the flour in the flour… ew.
Grated 2 cups of zucchini. This conviently worked out to 1 zucchini.
Add dry ingredients to wet.
Fold in zucchini and walnuts.
Pour into bread pan and/or muffin pans. Add chocolate chips if you’d like.
This was SOOO MOIST!! The chocolate chips were good but I could have done without. One TERRIBLE thing I did do though – I misread and added baking powder instead of baking soda! I just tried to scoop it out and added the soda. Sigh, Janice needs to read the instructions sometimes Please don’t make the same mistake as me!
Notes for next time
- Read the instructions!
Zucchini Bread
(Makes approximately 1 loaf of bread and 6 muffins)
INGREDIENTS:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoon lemon juice
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cup shredded zucchini (approx. 1 zucchini)
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
DIRECTIONS:
- In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- Combine the egg, oil, milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well.
- Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
- Fold in zucchini, chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Fill bread pan or greased/paper-lined muffin cups two-thirds full.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 20-25 minutes or until tested done.
I have this thing for block shaped items. Remember when those cubed Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals came out? I ADORED them As such, I love blocky cakes so I attempted to do one. This is my second attempt to this cake so it came out much better than the first.
Baked a cake in a bread loaf pan. This was french vanilla cake mix (Was tight on time =P)
Chocolate ganache, made from chopped semi-sweet chocolate whisked with boiling whipping cream.
Hazelnut-Chocolate filling, used Nutella with whipping cream.
Cake top was levelled off and was cut into three.
The whipped filling was placed in between each layer, and then the cake was covered with the chocolate ganache =) YUM!!
Melted white chocolate wafers and poured it into a zip lock bag. Cut out a small hole and piped MANY “HBD, Happy, Birthday, Tom, 21″‘s on wax paper. Stuck it in the freezer for a while… I also wanted to make a “white chocolate roll” so I spread some white chocolate on wax paper, rolled it up and put it in the freezer. I didn’t figure out how to “unroll” the wax paper so the roll cracked in half =( The two rolls in the next picture are actually two “half rolls”
The final product =) Very very happy about this!!
Lessons for next time:
- Put more whipped filling in between each layer, I put too thin of a layer
- Level off the sides before pouring in the ganache. Getting the sides covered was such a pain!
Hazelnut-Chocolate Filling
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin (from a 1/4 ounce envelope)
1/4 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1. Place 2 tablespoons cold water in a small saucepan; sprinkle with gelatin, and set aside to soften, about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, whisk chocolate-hazelnut spread with 1/4 cup cream; set aside.
3. Heat gelatin mixture very gently over low, stirring just until dissolved; set aside.
4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat remaining 1 cups cream with sugar until soft peaks form. While still beating, pour dissolved gelatin mixture over cream all at once (gently reheat gelatin mixture if it has stiffened).
5. Fold whipped cream into chocolate-hazelnut spread mixture.
Chocolate Ganache (to cover)
250 g bittersweet chocolate, chopped
235 ml heavy cream (1 cup)
15 ml dark rum (optional)
1. Place the chocolate into a medium bowl. Heat the cream in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Bring just to a boil, watching very carefully because if it boils for a few seconds, it will boil out of the pot. When the cream has come to a boil, pour over the chopped chocolate, and whisk until smooth. Stir in the rum if desired.
2. Allow the ganache to cool slightly before pouring over a cake. Start at the center of the cake and work outward. For a fluffy frosting or chocolate filling, allow it to cool until thick, then whip with a whisk until light and fluffy.
Sorry for not posting for a while! School’s already quite busy and I’ve been baking some old favourites like chocolate chip banana bread – I added 7 almost-totally-black bananas and it was sooo good. Got lots of positive feedback =)
Anyway, my boyfriend (who always complains that I don’t bake him anything) is coming to visit me at school this weekend, so I finally decided to bake him something =) I found this cute recipe online for “Chocolate and Vanilla Heart-Shaped Sugar Cookies“, quite a mouthful (pun intended) so I’ll just call them Double Heart Sugar Cookies.
Here are some pics. I don’t have access to my DSLR for the next few weeks or so, please bear with me
Made the dough, kneaded it and kept it in the fridge overnight.
Rolled out the dough (vanilla and chocolate seperately) and cut out big hearts. Then used a small cookie cutter to cut the insides.
Cute
These were extremely easy to make! The original author used 3 cookie cutters but I only managed to use two. I already had a small heart cookie cutter from before so I went to Michael’s (craft store) to buy a 3″ heart cutter. It was $1.50 but I had a 40% off coupon so it came out to ~$0.80. AWESOME! Michael’s always has coupons, people often post up new coupons at this forum.
Things to improve/learn for next time:
- Roll the dough to the same thickness. It was odd when the small hearts were thinner or thicker than the big heart
Double Heart Sugar Cookies
Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
Preparation:
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt over; stir to blend well. Turn the dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead gently 1 minute. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces. Add the cocoa powder to the one portion, knead until well combined. Shape the dough into two 1/2-inch-thick discs. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours and up to 1 day. Let the dough soften slightly at room temperature before rolling out.
Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 dough piece at a time, roll out the dough on a parchment lined surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Using floured, about 3-inch size, heart-shaped cutters, cut out the cookies. Pull away the excess dough from around the cookies. Transfer the cookies to the prepared baking sheet, spacing about ½ inch apart (cookies will not spread during baking). Repeat with the trimmings. Cover the sheet with plastic wrap or parchment and place in a fridge to firm up, for about 20 minutes. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Place the cut out cookies in the fridge as well. With 2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter, cut smaller hearts in the centers of vanilla and chocolate cookies. Cut the smallest hearts from the medium hearts using tiny 1-inch cutter. Remove the medium-sized and the smallest hearts from the large cookies and switch the different colors to get two-tone cookies. Let chill for another 20 minutes, then bake in batches, for about 11-12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the sheet on the rack, then transfer the cookies to the rack to cool completely.
Yum yum, these are my favourite cookies to make when I just feel like having a snack! I definitely need more munchies now that I’m back in school.
Mixing the ingredients together. Funny (aka fail) story: I printed two recipes that day, and in a rush I just took the first print out I saw on my desk and started preparing the batter. Half way through mixing the wet ingredients the batter got way too thick and it was so hard to stir. Realizing something was wrong, I took a look at the page I took again and realized it was the wrong recipe 
Luckily it was easily fixed by making a double batch.
The sad part was I took the correct amount of butter and eggs for the PB cookies, yet I thought I made a mistake and ended up taking more butter and eggs out.
The batter is pretty wet so it is recommended to keep it in the fridge for about 3 hours. I think it’s because of the butter content.
Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet…Don’t forget to press them down with a fork to make a criss cross pattern!
And we’re done! I also tried adding (milk) chocolate chips to some of the batter and it tasted GREAT! Definitely doing that again.
The criss cross pattern didn’t come out too well though, anyone have any tips?
Peanut Butter Cookies
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1. Cream the butter for 2 minutes. Add the sugars, cream for 2 more minutes. Mix in the peanut butter and egg. Mix together the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the sugar butter mixture.
2. Wrap dough in plastic and refrigerate at least 3 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 375°F. Shape dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place about 3 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten in crisscross pattern with a fork. Bake until light brown, 9 to 10 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for a minute; transfer to rack to cool completely.
Yum! These turned out alot better than expected – thanks to the help of my boyfriend
Here are some pics of the process along with some things I did differently from last time.
Click here for the recipe/first attempt
Butter Pecan cake mix… yummm
Cake baked, mixed with cream cheese frosting and then rolled into balls. Oh, also cookie cutter-ed some of them. We actually ended up shaping them all into balls – even the ones I cut into random shapes. It’s much much easier to coat (I was tight on time).
This time I kept the chocolate heated (over simmering water). The chocolate cooled off too fast when I microwaved it last time.
We thought of a more efficient way to coat the pops – by using a spoon to scoop up some chocolate over the bowl and twirling the uncoated pop around the spoon. It’s easier to get a thinner layer of chocolate this way and looks cleaner.
Finished product! Used some sprinkles right after the pop was coated and then placed an M&M-mini on top. So cute!
For presentation I put three pops together, bought zip lock bags and cut the “zip” part off, covered the pops with the bag and tied a ribbon around it. Someone asked me where I bought them from =)
Making finishing touches at work… it was hard to get a good picture of one finished, wrapped pop. Sorry!
I wanted to think of something easy to mass produce but also something creative to bring for my coworkers since it’s my last week of work. I’m an avid reader of Bakerella who’s known for her awesome cake pops so I decided to give it a shot! Unfortunately I didn’t have small enough cookie cutters so I couldn’t make those adorable cupcake pops.
My cake balls were a complete mess the first time around as you can see in the picture. By the end I thought of some new strategies and it turned out a bit better.
During the conversion to my new layout a bunch of my photos went missing (sigh), so the pic of the finished product is gone, sorry!
However – you can see my second (and more successful) cake pop attempt here
Bakerella’s Cake Pops
1 box of cake mix
1 tub of frosting (cream cheese)
Candy melts
Parchment paper
Lollipop sticks
Decorating items (sprinkles, candies, etc)
- Make a cake mix cake. I used marble – see post. Let it cool for a couple hours or overnight.
- Crumble up the cake in a large bowl and combine with a bit less than one tub of frosting. I used cream cheese.
- Roll into balls and place on parchment paper/cookie sheet. Put it in the freezer until it hardens a bit so it doesn’t crumble when you dip it in chocolate.
- Melt some chocolate in a tall bowl and dip the cake ball into the chocolate. Don’t roll it around too much – just pour chocolate over it to cover any exposed parts.
- Insert a lollipop stick into the chocolate cake ball.
- Pick up the ball with a spoon and tap the spoon on the side of the bowl so that excess chocolate falls off. Place cake pop on a styrofoam block or on in a tall glass (find something to keep it standing).
Lessons learned:
- Use less oil, the cake was too moist
- Slide chocolate ball off the spoon instead of plopping it on the sheet
- Dip lollipop stick in chocolate before jabbing it in ball (I think it helps)
- Use bittersweet chocolate for coating – I used milk chocolate
- Use shortening to liquify chocolate (or just don’t overheat the chocolate)
Ugh. I found a smear of chocolate on my forehead. ~_~
It’s unfortunate that I only learned of what a Quiche is a few months ago… they’re SO GOOD! My sis and I made one tonight for dinner. I don’t really know what the “right way” to make a quiche is, I just dump everything into a bowl and pour it in a pie shell =)
You can pretty much put whatever you want in it so if there’s one item you like in particular (mushrooms for me!) put more if it in. I used heavy cream because I didn’t have half and half, and a small bar of medium cheese. I also like slicing up the mushroom instead of dicing them.
For a lighter quiche, add a bit of milk into the mixture.
Quiche
Makes 2 quiches
One pack of ham
One bunch of Broccoli
Two onions
6 mushrooms
200g block of cheese
2 frozen pie shells
7-8 eggs
~1/2 cup half and half cream
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Prepare the frozen pie crust according to box.
2. Dice the ham, onions and mushrooms. Cut off the florets of the broccoli and dice the stem
3. In large bowl, combine items in #2. Add eggs and cream until the liquid almost covers the items in #2.
4. Grate half a block of cheese and add to the egg mixture.
5. Cut the remaining cheese into thin slices to layer the bottom of the pre-baked pie crust.
6. Pour the egg mixture into the pie crust.
7. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350°F, and bake for 25 minutes, or until crust is golden and filling is set.
This recipe is totally flexible, you really can’t go wrong with it!
I’ve been wanting to make banana bread for the longest time but I never got to it. Everytime I told my family to buy some bananas for me they always ended up turning completely black because I never got time to use them… but it’s finally time!
Yummm. I didn’t have an extra loaf pan so I just put the rest of the batter in muffin cups – they are so much more adorable than bread . Unfortunately I left the bread in the oven for a little too long and it’s a little burnt (Direct quote from my sister: It’s kinda like Kogepan). Doesn’t look that appetizing =(
You can find the recipe below. I actually used 5 bananas (someone ate one…), 1 cup whole wheat flour + 2 cups all purpose, and 1/2 cup brown sugar + 1 1/2 cup white sugar. I also sprinkled some white sugar on top. I think I’ll go without the brown sugar next time, and I definitely need that 6th banana (or even a 7th… mmm).
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
1 cup shortening (or butter)
2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
6 very ripe bananas, mashed
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
Dash of cinnamon1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease two 9×5 inch loaf pans.
- In a large bowl, cream together the shortening and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Stir in the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition.
- Stir in the mayonnaise and bananas.
- Stir together the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon.
- Blend the flour mixture into the banana mixture; stir just enough to evenly combine.
- Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 50 to 75 minutes. Cool loaf in the pan for 20 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.
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