Easter Carrot Cakes

To keep that Easter feel but without having to worry about eating actual carrots I had an order for 24 chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with carrots on top!

Although a little deceiving they came out pretty cute! And I'm sure the party guests enjoyed them! 

Check out more of my cakes Here !

Happy Easter!

5 Easy Easter Treats

With Easter just around the corner here's...

5 Easy and Fun Easter baking!

#5 Chocolate Eggies Cake

Who doesn't like chocolate?
Who doesn't like Hershey Eggies?
And there's nothing more fun than crushing up those Eggies... And eating the ones that try to get away.

#4 Carrot cupcakes

A classic! And the vegetables make it healthy right?

#3 Eggie Cookies

I love Hershey Eggies if you haven't noticed. 

Not the prettiest cookies but very delicious!

#2 Hot Cross Buns

Now that song is stuck in your head. You're welcome.

For the recipe Click Here! 

#1 Sweet and Salty!

Genuinely in love with this combination, so simple but it's so effective.

Easter Hot Cross Buns

Hot Cross Buns are a delicious spring treat! They represent good weather ahead and of course chocolate for breakfast on Easter morning.

My favorite part of this recipe is the fact that I have the excuse to buy rum! Soaking the raisins in rum before baking is a delicious and fun activity

Hot Cross Buns
375° F
Bake time: 20-25 minutes or until golden brown on the top.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp active dry yeast
4-5 cups all- purpose flour (depending on how well you drain your raisins)
a pinch of salt (I usually just dance the salt shaker over the bowl)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/4 (or half a cube) of margarine
1 cup of raisins soaked in rum*

Instructions
- To soak the raisins, immerse them in rum (*or water) just until covered for 5-10 minutes and then drain.
- Mix a small amount of the water and sugar with the yeast to activate it. Let sit until it's fermented.
- Combine the water, sugar, yeast mixture, flour, salt, cinnamon, eggs, margarine and raisins together to form a nice big ball of dough! 
- Set dough in a bowl and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Punch it down if need be after 10 minutes and divide into 80g balls and place in a greased pan.

- Let dough rest again for 10 minutes then make for 20-25 minutes.

- Once they are out of the oven, and still a little warm; brush them with a sugar syrup which is equal parts water and sugar (For this batch 1/4 cup water and sugar is more than enough)

- Let fully cool

- Once cooled icing can be added on! I don't really have a recipe for my danish icing, I just keep combining water and icing sugar until I like the thickness.

- And there we are! Delicious and festive. (And I hope you were drinking the extra rum the entire time as well.

Happy Baking!

The Real "F" Word

The instructions were... Something elegant, with nice colors... And THIS written on it!

Celebrating a 50th Birthday the right way

Checker board cake inside I was able to sneak into the establishment to take a look at the inside to make sure it worked out as it should... Nailed it!

Here's more pictures of this elegant 50th Birthday cake

 

Valentines Day Cupcakes

Continuing to spread the love with a video of the making of these cupcakes! If you get the chance to check out my other videos they're not terrible!

Cookie Dough Filled Cake

When a close friend's birthday comes around it's always a great time to experiment with a new cake idea!

I wanted something that would be decadent and memorable so I went with this vanilla cake with chocolate chip cookie dough!

Watch below to enjoy the decorating. I learned a few things with this experiment- mainly that spreading cookie dough is noooot easy at all!





I also took the time to make the chocolate chip cookies as well to give it a little extra homemade charm. Nothing beats my recipe! Oreo's however if course were store bought haha,

A Friendly Valentine

Celebrating Valentine's day the only way I know how… By baking and AVOIDING all restaurants within a 3 day radius of the day.

Because of my crazy schedule we celebrated on Saturday evening with silly gifts and chocolate. We don't go too crazy- there was a $25 limit which I think is healthy for these silly little holidays- it's about being together after all! .. Plus my honey isn't big on Valentine's day as a whole

Along with an AMAZING steak and of course some wine!!

A beautiful date night was had!

To continue the festivities and to make good use of an adult snow day, I whipped up some loving Valentine's Day themed cupcakes for my office!

Chocolate and Vanilla Cupcakes with chocolate, pink, red and white icing. Topped with some lovely heart sprinkles!

I am crazy proud of my staple chocolate and vanilla cake recipes! Along with my icing recipe can't be beat.... Considering sharing them in the future!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentines Day!

Chocolate Birthday Surprise

My general manager wanted to surprise one of the team managers with a chocolaty surprise for her 50th birthday!

Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate icing and some traditional silver balls to represent the glorious 50th birthday! And another $30 for the SPCA!

Disney Inspired Tropical Cake

A birthday cake for an old friend of mine! I had the honor of doing her wedding cake 6 years ago and now I am making her kids birthday cakes as they grow!

2 tiered tropical birthday cake. Lemon cake with a Disney flare. 

And also another $75 for the SPCA!

The tropical vibe was really set off by the water and the cinnamon sticks to represent a wooden fence along the base of the cake.

A Sweet Thank-you and the start of the Campaign!

A little treat for my coworkers courtesy of our GM Karen Evans!! Everyone gets to benefit from her generosity (as this was something she personally purchased for the office) This will also begin my National cupcake day campaign for the SPCA, instead of signing up for the actual campaign this year I will be donating the money I collect from cake orders directly to the Nova Scotia SPCA! Off in the pot is $90! Stay tuned for more!

The original plan was to have a big wedding style snowman cake however the budget didn't exactly allow for such luxury! So we switched gears and went with a nice big slab cake bug enough to feed all 90 of us! (But still equipped with snowmen)

 

Inside we sported vanilla cake with vanilla icing. Some green icing to show the brand at it's best and some candy to really pop the flavor!

 

Goodies included marshmallows, mint chocolates, and chocolate rosebuds.. There was no complaints from anyone!

Wedding Cupcakes

I had the opportunity to pipe hundreds of cupcakes for my friends wedding! It was a wonderful experience to be a part of and it was one of the first times I had the chance to film the decorating process.

Being my first time I never thought to angle my phone the landscape way.... However a lesson I learned immediately haha

Combo of Vanilla, Chocolate and a cake for cutting.

Ghostbusters Cake

Check out the latest creation! Red velvet slab with fresh slime on top!

Chocolate Reese's Cake

Because it's not Christmas without chocolate!

Chocolate cake with Reese's Peanut Butter cups, Reese's pieces, and chocolate drizzle on top!

Chocolate cake is part of my solid recipe collection which I look forward to sharing these with all of you!

 

Linzer Torte- Keeping the tradition of the Holidays

For the first time in many years I was asked to make a Linzer Torte for the holidays! Naturally I made sure that I still knew what I was doing before making one for others. Since it's been so long I no longer had a good recipe for one so I consoled the internet to get myself caught back up.

A little history on Linzer Tortes: Named after the city of Linz, Austria it's a holiday classic in Austria, Hungary, Sweden, and Germany and mainly seen on the dinner tables at Christmas time. Linzer tortes can be made in many sizes and shapes from cookies, tarts and tortes. I chose the torte for my experiment to make sure the baking times worked for the oven.

After researching loads of recipes on Pinterest and various other sites I managed to see the trends and the necessary measurements and ingredients to make an epic torte!







RECIPE

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
Recipe for a 10" torte pan

3/4 cup Sugar
Zest of 1 Lemon
Zest of 1 Orange
3/4 cup Margarine
1 Egg
1 Egg Yolk
1 tsp Vanilla
1 1/3 cups Flour
1/4 cup Ground Hazelnuts
1/3 cup Ground Almonds
1 1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

1 cup Raspberry Jam

I had some fun with my food processor and grounded my own nuts... It was loud but it was fun! Also treated myself to some new Wilton Torte pans.. So beautiful so untainted!

 


The crust- although has a lot of ingredients is very easy to make and much more fun to work with as opposed to it's cousin... The pie crust. Everything in it gives the torte it's unique texture and flavor. Nothing can be missed. It has a very distinct look on top with the lattice pipe work on top.

1. Mix the sugar and zest lightly and let sit for a minute to let the flavors settle in. Once settled cream with margarine.
2. Add in the eggs and vanilla, mix until just blended.
3. Add in flour, nuts, spices, baking powder and salt all together and divide the mixture in half- one half being larger then the other. Put the large half into the fridge for 10-15 minutes to set and scoop the small into a piping bag.
4. Time to prepare the torte pan and preheat the oven! Press the refrigerated mixture into the base of the pan. Set it in the fridge for a final 10-15 minutes.
5. Spread raspberry jam onto the base of the torte and pipe your choice of design over top of the jam. Don't be afraid to show your personality!
6. Pop that bad boy into the oven for 30-35 minutes or until the jam is bubbly and the edges are a beautiful golden brown.

The first attempt was a complete success! Full of taste and wonder, I don't intend to go another 6 years without making one of these (especially with my pretty new pans) and I want to experiment with the other filling options I've seen around as well. This is my kind of dessert because it's not too sweet and has a ton of texture and flavor!

Bottoms up!