Monday, August 29, 2011

Baby Bum Baby Shower Cake

Whew...what a tongue twister. But that's exactly what I got myself to try out and make: a baby bum baby shower cake.

I had some hesitation about trying this for the first time when I was making it for a friend's baby shower, but I couldn't resist trying to make something so cute.

The butter, sugar and eggs; just one part of the cake recipe.

Just about ready to put it all together. Adding buttermilk and dry ingredients
into the "wet" mixture in 3 doses.

Two cake pans (an 8" and a 6") ready to go. Remember
to cover the top with tinfoil if the top starts to brown long
before the rest of the cake is ready


In the end, my lemon coconut baby bum cake turned out great. But I can't take all the credit. I made it, but I didn't come up with all of the ideas myself. The Coconut Cake with Lemond Curd recipe is from joyofbaking.com. The mommy and daddy to be seemed really pleased with the taste. Well, they tried it and kept eating it at least ; ). And I got a lot of help with the design from Cake Central. The step by step instructions were not confusing, too detailed, or vague....they were just right. I got the idea of what I had to do, with some leeway to do my own thing with it as well. The only thing I did add was my own recipe (well I should actually say the Wilton recipe) for buttercream icing, to dirty ice the cake before layering with fondant.
The finished product: a baby bum cake for a a baby shower.

So sometimes it's good to take a chance with baking and decorating. If you don't try, you'll never know if you can do it. Right?!

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies

I couldn't resist.

Sunday morning, coffee, rainy day...all I needed was some cookies to top it all off. So I whipped some up! : )

I happened to have a recipe on hand from joyofbaking.com for the standard chocolate chip cookie. But the fun part about baking is mixing it up and trying your own thing. So I did, and this coconut chocolate chip cookie is what came out of it.


1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine and mix these dry ingredients in a bowl.

1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/8 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the butter and sugars until soft and combined (about 1 or 2 minutes). Add in the agave nectar and mix. Add in one egg at a time and mix it in fully until you add the next. Add in the vanilla and mix.

1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup coconut

Add the dry ingredients into the bowl with the butter/sugar mixture and mix it altogether. Add in chocolate chips and coconut and mix until it's all combined.



Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and drop heaping spoonfuls (make them as big or small as you want) of the batter about 1 inch apart. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Then let cool on a rack and enjoy!!

**I originally only added 1/4 cup of coconut, but I felt like it needed more once they were done.

**Make sure you keep an eye on the time while they bake. My last batch (it was only 4 cookies...thank goodness) got a little too, um, burnt as I forgot about them while writing this. Oops.


Saturday, August 20, 2011

Food Truck Eats @ The Distillery


Whoever invented the idea of the food truck, I have one thing to say..."Thank You".

From poutine to pizza, to ice cream or cupcakes, The Distillery District had all of it today, and it was all mobile. The Food Truck Eats Festival had part 2 of their series happening today from 11am-3pm. The walkways of the district were lined with food trucks that each had their own specialty. Yes some of the lines were long. But that 45 minute wait for my specialty grilled cheese was well worth it!!

There is apparently a part 3 in this series. I'm not entirely sure when it takes place - I would guess some time in September - but whenever it happens, I'll be there for more food truck eats!

The appetizer:


The Traditional Poutine from Smoke's Poutinerie.
My first try with poutine....tasty.



The Entree:
The Gorilla Sarducci from Gorilla Cheese.
A fantastic melted creation of mozzarella, red onion, tomato,
basil, and balsamic drizzle. All on what tasted like multigrain bread.



 The Dessert:

A variety of flavours of soft, creamy, and delicious ice cream from Twirlees.

Birthday Cake in a cup.

Pralines & Cream in a cone. 

Friday, August 12, 2011

Good Friend, Good Coffee, Good Dessert

So not only did I get to have a very overdue coffee and catching up with a friend, I got to try out a recipe for Strawberry Walnut Bread.

I always love these sweet "breads" (i.e. banana, zucchini, lemon, etc.) because they are so easy to make and can work with so many fruits or veggies you may have on hand.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Mix these together in a medium sized bowl. Make a well in the centre.

2 eggs
2/3 cup oil (canola or vegetable)
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 cup diced strawberries
1 cup chopped walnuts (or pecans would work nicely too)

Mix these together in a small bowl. Add them to the dry ingredients and mix together.
Place the batter in a greased pan.

2 Tbsp butter cut in pieces
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup all purpose flour

Put all ingredients into a small bowl. Use a pastry blender or two knives to "cut up" butter and mix it into the sugar and flour until it is crumbly.  Sprinkle this on top of the bread.

Bake in a 375 degree oven for about 40 minutes (but check occasionally as the timing may vary depending on your oven. You can even reduce the heat if that works better, but just keep checking by inserting a toothpick into the bread and check if it comes out clean.) Allow bread to sit in pan for about 5 minutes. The cut up and enjoy!!

The photo doesn't really do it justice (since it's kind of blurry). But it's easy and goes great with coffee or tea! 

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Cookies, Teas, Organic Everything...oh my

Grande Passion tea and a (giant) Chocolate Chunk Cookie please.

That was the first moment of my great foodie morning. You've got to love Starbucks when you can get such a variety of teas and coffees, with a variety of cookies (ones that are bigger than any you could probably get anywhere else) to choose from. As I ordered my tea I figured, "ah why not get that cookie for something sweet to indulge in, I mean I'll probably only eat half of it anyway". Half? Yeah right! How can you stop eating something that's so rich, yet not too sweet, yet sweet enough that you just want to keep going. Yeah...you can't stop. Thank you Starbucks. Thank you for now making me wonder if I should've skipped my workout this morning... ; )

And it doesn't end there. Today, I finally ventured to Whole Foods. I know that it's kind of weird that I've never been there before. But hey, now there's one near me and I won't have to try to convince myself to drive there.  Now, I totally regret not ever having been.

The moment I walked in, I realized how nice it was not to have to search for the organic produce, or even wonder if they had organic produce. Why? Because everything is organic, grain fed, antibiotic free, etc, etc... I was mesmerized by the clean set up, prices that didn't make me want to run out screaming and not come back, and the variety of, well, everything! Thank you Whole Foods for finally coming to Mississauga. I'll definitely be going back...soon.