If I’m ever going to drop out of school and open a bakery, I need to practice my piping skills. So on that note, behold my vanilla buttercream Reading Week cupcakes!
My photography skills are lacking, I know. It doesn’t help that I tend to make cupcakes late at night and by the time they’re finished I’ve lost any shot at natural light. Oh well. Still yummy.
<3
Tags: blue, buttercream, cupcakes, decorating, turquoise, vanilla
I have to admit, Valentine’s Day is a great time of year to be in a relationship. Especially if you’re in one with me.
This cake is a two layer devil’s food chocolate sponge, recipe care of my homegirl Martha Stewart. For some reason the online recipe is different than the one in the book that I used, but I’m sure it turns out very similar, and it sure beats typing out the original recipe.
The filling is peanut butter frosting and the rest of the cake is covered and decorated with chocolate ganache. The flowers are gum paste.
It didn’t turn out quite as pretty as I’d hoped, but the BF didn’t complain! 
<3
Tags: cake, chocolate, ganache, gum paste, hearts, peanut butter, valentine
I don’t think these really warrant a recipe, because I just made standard chocolate cupcakes and buttercream. Only twist was that I mashed up some raspberries with my hands and added them to the buttercream, along with some pink food colouring. Topped with gum paste flowers which were made using a Wilton flower press. Enjoy!
Tags: buttercream, chocolate, cupcakes, gum paste, raspberry
My holiday baking is finally complete, and these little guys are the newest addition!
I also had some nifty Christmas cupcake boxes so I made some large ones as well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my big nifty piping tip (yes, that’s it’s real name), so I had to use a smaller round one. Didn’t turn out so hot. I topped them with plastic snowmen cupcake toppers that my aunt snagged me from some cupcakes she bought at a bakery.
The cake recipe came from my homegirl Martha Stewart, and the frosting was a peppermint buttercream.
Chocolate Cupcakes
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. In electric mixer, whisk flour, cocoa, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add eggs, buttermilk, oil and water. Beat on low until smooth.
Fill each liner with 4 tablespoons of batter. Bake for appx 20 mins.
You can also add 1 teaspoon of mint extract, but I didn’t want the cake to be mint flavoured as well. The batter was very runny. It seemed the right consistency before adding the water, but I figured Martha knows best, so I went ahead. It was liquid – you could probably drink it out of a straw. When the cupcakes came out of the oven they were sticky on the top, but the toothpick came out clear. At first they broke apart when unwrapped and I thought that batch was garbage, but I tried again the next day and they all came out just fine. So my advise is to have faith and don’t attempt to eat these until they’ve cooled for a few lightyears.
Peppermint Buttercream
Cream the butter and shortening with electric mixer. Gradually add sugar. Beat the hell out of it for as many minutes as your arm can handle. Add the milk and extract and beat some more.
I am always amazed when cooking with shortening, because I remember putting it into the fry vats back in the day when I worked at McDonald’s. I can’t understand how adding sugar to fat is supposed to make frosting. But it does. The most glorious frosting ever.
The key is to beat it forever. Eventually it will lose the sugary texture and be all light and fluffy. Have faith. I’ll admit that I thought this whole project was going to be garbage, but at the end they turned out to be some of the best cupcakes I’ve ever made. Enjoy!
Tags: chocolate, christmas, cupcake, cupcaking, holidays, mini, peppermint
If you read my other blog you will remember that I made some ugly snowflake and gingerbread men cookies. However, it wasn’t all a waste because I got some pretty cute Christmas trees out of the mix.
I would have preferred to have used a more glaze-like icing for them, but I didn’t have the right ingredients and my ghetto local grocery store doesn’t carry them. Instead I opted for this one, from Allrecipes.com.
I also used their sugar cookie recipe as I’ve made it before and it’s pretty simple.
They’re not my best work, but they were a request from my dad. And they fill up a lot of space in my massive treat boxes.
Tags: baking, christmas, cookies, icing, sugar cookies
And the holiday baking continues. I want to ensure that my treat boxes are full and I don’t want to stockpile them full of cookies, so I whipped up some chocolate covered pretzels. These things are underrated.
I’m not going to bother with a recipe, because come on now. Melt chocolate with some shortening and dip pretzels. The end.
I am too poor for a double boiler, so I heat my chocolate over a pot on the stove:
Then I drizzled some lighter chocolate over. I used semisweet for the base, and these weird half milk/half white chips for the drizzle.
xo.
Jos Louis meets Oreo. Meets my mouth.
I borrowed the recipe from The Hungry Mouse as I have made it before and it’s great. I only made two small changes: 1) I piped the batter onto the sheet for cleaner circles, and wanted smaller whoopies so only used about 1tsp of batter, and 2) I piped the filling in with a star tip so it would look a bit cleaner and more professional.
Piping the batter onto parchment-lined cookie sheet:
Pre-oven:
Cooked whoopies:
Completed whoopie pies:
Enjoy <3
Tags: baking, chocolate, easy, fun, marshmallow, whoopie pies
So the other day I tried my first attempt at some leaves. I encountered two issues.
1. Colouring gum paste. Aside from the fact that it’s the most tedious, dreadful task in the world, when my decorations dry they are significantly lighter and less vibrant. Not happy. In addition to my cartoonish leaves, I now also have some strange pink poinsettas on my hands.
2. Shape. I used Wilton cutters to get the shape of the leaf, but after I softened the edges and whatnot I feel like I have lost some of the initial detail from the cutter.
Anyway. For a first attempt I am pretty happy with them:
I also attempted to make some ivy, but then realized I don’t really know what ivy looks like, so they’re a little ugly and I didn’t want to share. I added some gold shimmer dust to these to liven them up a bit. I think they could really benefit from just plain old green colour dust, but I didn’t have any. So instead I have sparkly rose leaves. Take that.
<3
Tags: baking, cake decorating, gum paste, leaf, leaves, rose
I haven’t made Nanaimo bars since I was about 12, and the whole thing came in a box. I just added water and the magic happened. I wanted to get a head start on my Christmas baking, so tonight I tried my hand at homemade Nanaimo bars. I didn’t have a square pan so I doubled the recipe and made twice as many in a 9 x 13″ pan. I’m sure no one’s complaining 
Pre-cut. The whole slab weighs over 5 delicious pounds.
Crappy photo quality because I couldn't find my real camera. Good old reliable Blackberry.
Recipe
Microwave 2 chocolate squares and 1/2 cup butter in large microwaveable bowl until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Blend in egg and vanilla. Add graham crumbs and coconut. Press into bottom of pan. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.
Whisk custard powder and milk. Add 1/4 of butter, mix well. Beat in sugar. Spread onto cooled crust. Refrigerate 15 mins.
In heat-proof bowl set over boiling water, cook 2 tbsp butter and 4 squares of chocolate until chocolate is completely melted. Let cool. Spread over custard.
Refrigerate several hours and cut into bars.
Adapted from a recipe at www.kraftcanada.com.
<3
I recently discovered gum paste, and I’m sure the people at Michael’s appreciate the small fortune I have spent there in the last few weeks. Anyway, here are a few of my first attempts:
Medium Blossom
Hydrangea.. Haha, needs work.
Gerbera Daisy
The whole lot of them drying
So that’s that.
<3
Tags: cupcake toppers, flowers, gum paste, shimmer dust
