Bake It: Mini Vegan Cupcakes with Chocolate Glaze

We celebrated my son's 5th birthday on Friday, and so he and I decided we needed to take some cupcakes to school to let his friends in on the celebrations. We made these delicious vegan cupcakes from A Beautiful Mess, and added a delicious chocolate glaze on top instead of icing. What's nice about the glaze is that it is a more subtle hint of sweet rather than the over-powering sweetness that traditional icing can sometimes have. We also made them mini because bite-size is nice for smaller people -- they are less likely to waste them, too. We cut the cooking time roughly in half and let them bake for 10-13 minutes.

What you will need:

1/4 cup Cocoa

3 tablespoons Water

2 tablespoons Margarine (I used vegetarian)

2 tablespoons Corn Syrup

2 cups Icing Sugar (confectioners sugar)

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla

What you need to do:

Stir the cocoa, water, syrup and margarine in a sauce pan until smooth, melted and heated. Remove from heat and beat in vanilla and icing sugar. More water or icing sugar might have to be added depending on desired thickness. Drizzle over a cake or spread on cupcakes.

Store the cupcakes in the fridge to avoid the glaze melting all over the place. It also makes the cupcakes a little firmer, and I think that makes them even more delicious :)

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Bake It: Delicious Flaky Biscuits

These biscuits are absolutely delicious. They are so dense, yet light and flaky, and perfect for a Sunday morning breakfast with the family. They also really nice warmed up for the next couple of days after baking. I always love eating mine fresh out of the oven with a smear of peanut butter that melts perfectly on the warm biscuit.

What you need:

1 3/4 cup Margarine
8 cups Flour
4 tbsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
approx. 2 1/2 cups Milk

Roll out dough on a floured surface and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Cut with a round cookie cutter, or any desired shape. Bake at 400 F for approximately 20 minutes, or until they are golden brown. Makes about 2 dozen large, round biscuits.

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French Macarons: The Remake

It was two years ago that I first attempted to make French macarons, and I learned a lot from that one time. Sometimes it takes a couple more years of experience with other things in the same art form before you learn your mistakes.

This time I used a hand-held mixer to help froth up the eggs and sugar to make my meringue, and I also used a recipe from a legit French cookbook called The Bistro Cookbook. It is filled with fascinating and delicious looking recipes, but it is the deserts and breads that really caught my eye -- I can't wait to make more!

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Make It Yourself: Raspberry Lemonade

This recipe is much like the recipe for strawberry lemonade that I made for my son's first birthday except that it has raspberries instead, and there's a little extra work involved once you puree the raspberries.

What you will need:

1 cup sugar
1 cup of water
1 container of raspberries (6oz/170g)
1 cup fresh lemon juice

4-6 cups cold water (this will vary depending on your taste)

In a pot on the stove and combine the sugar and the water over medium heat to make a syrup, stirring occaionally until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let it cool before using it.

While you are combining the sugar and water you can squeeze the juice out of your lemons. You will need between 8-10 lemons to get a cup of juice. Once you've got your lemon juice, you can puree your raspberries using a blender. I put a little bit of water in with the raspberries to help them puree a little better. Strain your raspberries through a mesh strainer to get rid of most of the seeds -- the lemonade is alright with the seeds in there, but there are a lot of them and it is much more pleasant without them.

Add the raspberry puree, lemon juice, syrup and 4-6 cups of cold water into a pitcher and stir it all up. I originally made this recipe for sparkling raspberry lemonade, but I decided to double the syrup as I found it a little bit tart. It tastes just a delicious with water, too.

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The Imperfections of Homemade Bread

It was my dream that when I purchased a stand mixer that I would make some homemade bread. The day that I got my mixer I set to work making this fantastic recipe for homemade bread. It is very yummy bread, and, having never made bread before, it was quite easy to make.

I love the imperfections of homemade bread: the not so slight variations in colour; the bumps along the surface; the dips and lumps from the rising and cooking process. They make it that much more delicious :)

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Bake It: The Perfect Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been in love with this white cake. It makes a perfect strawberry shortcake, but it also tastes incredibly delicious on its own.

 The Recipe

1/2 c. Butter

1 c. White Sugar

2 Eggs

1 c. Milk

1/2 tsp. Salt

4 tsp. Baking Powder

1 1/2 c. Flour

2 tsp. Almond Extract

Cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the 2 eggs and beat well.

Add the milk. Then the dry ingredients and the almond extract and beat 100 strokes. Spread into a greased 8" square pan and bake at 350F for 40 minutes. Delicious!

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Make It Yourself: Apple Pie Recipe

I love apple pie. If I had to choose one desert to eat for the rest of my life, it would be apple pie. don't get me wrong, I love peach pies too, but apple pie just seems to hit the right spot with my tummy and all the right memories from growing up.

Start off by making your favourite pastry, and then peel and cut up about four Granny Smith apples -- the sour green ones. Add 2/3 cup of granulated sugar, 3 1/2 teaspoons of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon -- or a bit more if you like the taste of it -- and 1/8 teaspoon of salt. Stir it all together and pour into your pie shell that's ready to go. Cook it in the oven at 350F for about 40-45 minutes, and enjoy the aroma as it bakes! Yum :)

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Recipe: Grilled Lemon Chicken

While my husband and I will use the barbeque any time of the year -- unless it is covered in 2 feet of snow -- Summer is the time when the barbeque really starts working over-time. In the past, I've only ever added salt and pepper to meat and then grilled them, but this year I wanted to start breaking out of the box because we were getting really bored with our dinners. Pinterest came in very handy. Any time I wanted to find something new to make, I'd usually find some really good recipes -- and almost always more than one that I wanted to try that day.

Grilled Lemon Chicken

Some of the recipes that we have tried this summer and really enjoyed are a grilled honey lime chicken breast, a steak marinade that reminds me of one my Mom made when I was younger, these BBQ pork chops, and these shish kabobs. But, one of my favourite recipes for chicken that I created myself is a souvlaki type recipe that I have added some extras to over the past couple of Summers with the help of my husband.

I Use:

Lemon Juice from 1 Lemon

Garlic Powder

Sea Salt

Pepper

Oil

Parsley or Oregano 

Sorry, I don't have any specific measurements other than the use of 1 lemon. I usually just eyeball everything as I put the ingredients in a large Ziploc bag, mix it all around with the chicken, and let it sit for 30-60 minutes in the refrigerator. Then grill it up!

Have you been grilling a lot this Summer? What's your favourite recipe?

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BBQ'd Potato Skins: A Pictorial Essay

We roast ours on the BBQ for a good 40-60 minutes -- poke a fork into the thickest pieces to see if they are ready -- but you could easily bake them in your oven at 350F for the same amount of time. Eat and be merry! Happy weekend :)

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Recipe: Marbled Cupcakes

I saw this pin for a zebra cake floating around on Pinterest recently, and decided to try and make cupcakes in the same fashion. Like it shows in the pin, I used chocolate cake mix and vanilla cake mix to make 24 cupcakes -- and a loaf cake with the left-overs.

I carefully spooned layers of the two different mixes over top of each other. This can be a bit tedious with cupcakes as I normally get cake mix everywhere when just using one kind of mix. The result is a really fun marbled effect, and nobody complained about how they tasted :)

A little weekend baking for you! Have good one :)

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A Little Pizza Pie

I found this recipe for Pizza Hut Original Pan Pizza on Pinterest a little while ago, and my husband said we should pick up the ingredients while were at the grocery store last Saturday. I was eager to make them up, so we had them for lunch that day. It did take a while to make the dough, though. I had to knead it for 10 minutes, which felt like fifty years, and then it had to rise for about an hour to give the yeast time to do its thing.

This is definitely the most delicious home made pizza that I have ever made -- my husband actually liked it. I wouldn't say it was exactly like Pizza Hut pizza -- it's not nearly as greasy -- but it was pretty close. I think I'd need a pizza from Pizza Hut to make a proper comparison :)

Do you have any good recipes you've tried recently?

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Gonna Eat a lot of Peaches

My all-time favourite pie -- in the entire universe of existence -- is peach pie. I would die for a peach pie. I would kill for a peach pie. Peach pie is my Klondike Bar.

But, excitement aside, I want to share with you how easy it is to make a peach pie. It really is the easiest pie you could ever make.

All you need is a pie crust -- be it one that you've made, or one that someone else made for you -- and some peaches. I use freestone peaches that are lovingly grown in British Columbia -- I like to use local peaches -- because they are easily removed from the pit.

Pour some boiling water over the peaches, and after about a minute move them over to some cold water. The skin should peel off quite nicely. Cut them into small sections -- or whatever size you like -- and place them in a bowl where you will add a mixture of sugar and flour that you've already prepared -- 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 a cup of flour stirred together.

Put the pie on a cookie sheet -- to catch any juices that may come juicing out -- and place it in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. Then turn the temperature down to 350F and cook for 40 minutes until the crust is a golden brown.

And there you go! It's easy as, well, pie :)

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Two Apples, Some Cinnamon, and My Mouth

We often take the kids at work to the local library so they can choose books to take back to the centre. On one of out most recent trips, we picked up a book about apples called Apple Farmer Annie by Monica Wellington.

In the book, you learn about all of the different kinds of apples that Annie has in her orchard, and all of the goodies that she makes to sell at a market in New York City. It's a pretty fun book, but the best part is that at the end of the story, you will find recipes for apple sauce, apple muffins, and apple sauce cake.

I recently made the apple muffins, and thought that they were most delicious, and wanted to share the recipe with you. The recipe makes about one dozen muffins.

You will need:
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup milk
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped apples

Topping:
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

First, I peeled and chopped all of my apples so that they were ready to go. Then, in one bowl, I creamed together the sugar and the butter. I added the egg, beat it well, and then I stirred in the milk.

In another bowl, I combined all of the dry ingredients -- flour, salt, baking powder, and spices -- and mixed them together. I added the egg mixture to the flour mixture and blended it just until it was moistened.

After all that was done, I gentled stirred in the apples -- or, as I like to say, folded in the apples.

I greased up the muffin tin, and filled it up with the muffin batter. It smells just like apple pie.

After the batter was in the muffin tin, I mixed up the topping -- brown sugar and cinnamon -- and sprinkled it on top of each muffin. Then I put it in a 400 Fahrenheit oven for about 22 minutes. This is where the recipe could use a little tweaking. I would either put the muffins in at a lower heat, or let them cook for less time. They were not as moist as I would have liked them to be. Remember that every oven is different, and you know what will work best.

Other than that, the muffins made the most delicious breakfast for the next week or so, and tasted so yummy when warmed up in the microwave for a few seconds.


Hope you'll try them out!

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A Grilled Cheese Opera

And now, ladies and gentlemen...The Making of a Grilled Cheese Sandwich: A Pictorial Opera in Two Parts

Part One: The Cheese Does Not Stand Alone

Part One of the opera does not end in tragedy, but in pure deliciousness!

Find Part Two here.

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A Little Science: Ice Cream in a Bag

I was looking for some fun summer experiments to do with the children at work, and I found this really fun recipe to make ice cream in a baggie. It seemed simple enough, and almost too good to be true, so I tested it out at home first to make sure that it would actually work.

You will need:

2 tablespoons of sugar

1 cup of half & half -- or light cream

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 cup of salt -- coarse salt or table salt

ice

large Ziploc bag -- gallon size

small Ziploc bag -- quart size

First I measured out the cream, the sugar and the vanilla, and mixed it all together in a measuring cup. I then poured the mixture into the small baggie and sealed it up.

Then I put two ice cube trays worth of ice along with the salt in the large bag. The salt is very important because it helps lower the freezing point of the ice, making it so the cream mixture will freeze and turn into ice cream. Check out the science behind it here.

Once I had the ice and salt inside the large baggie, I put the small baggie inside. Then I shook it all up! I quickly learned that my large baggie had a hole in it, and I had to do the shaking over the kitchen sink -- the price for buying cheap bags.

After shaking the bag for what felt like forever -- it's a good workout for the arms -- I noticed that the cream mixture was finally starting to freeze. It was pretty cool, actually. I was super excited that I had made ice cream just from shaking a bag -- if only everything was that easy...spaghetti in a bag?

I carefully rinsed off my little baggie so the ice cream wouldn't melt -- because there was salt and water all over it -- and put the ice cream into a bowl. It was absolutely delicious, and it made so much more than I expected. It tasted just like ice cream from the store, only a little more work and a lot more fun :)

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Finger Paint: A Different Kind of Recipe

I wanted to do some finger painting with the children at work, but we didn't have many finger paints to choose from, and I wanted some really fun vibrant colours for Spring. I found this fantastic recipe for making homemade finger paints, and knew that I had to try it out.

You will need:

2 tablespoons sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch

2 cups cold water 
1/4 cup clear liquid dish soap -- mine had a slight orange tinge to it, but it didn't make a difference
food colouring or food colouring paste

First, I mixed the sugar and the cornstarch together in a pot, and then I added the water to the mixture. Make sure you add the water slowly and are constantly stirring so that the cornstarch doesn't become clumpy.

Then I stirred it together really well so that the cornstarch and sugar actually combined with the water. You may have a few little clumps, but you want to keep scraping the bottom of the pot to ensure that the cornstarch isn't settling on the bottom.

Cook the mixture over low heat until it becomes a somewhat clear gel, stirring occasionally. The recipe says it takes about 5 minutes, but it took about 10-15 for mine to actually change consistency. At first I had the heat too low and nothing was happening, it wasn't until I turned the burner to 4 that it started cooking properly. 

After you've cooked your mixture and let it cool, that's when you get to add the dish soap. After you've done that, separate the mixture into separate bowls or containers, and add whatever colours that you want. I made five different colours: pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue.

Mix the food colouring in, and -- voila! -- you've got your very own finger paint. I wanted to try out the finger paints before the children used it just to make sure that they would actually work.

The project that I was going to have the children do was Spring landscapes. I think that the paint turned out quite well, and it had a really neat crackled effect when it was dry -- it also smelled delicious while painting because I used grapefruit scented dish soap :)

If you missed it, you can find the original recipe here.

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