I’m going to casually skim over the fact we have been severely lacking in posts lately and just jump right back into baking.

Christmas baking has begun and I had to try out a few new recipes to mix into the traditional favourites.  This one is an adaptation of a recipe I found from the blog Twenty-Two Pleasant. It’s an attempt to make the cake more bar-like, but sometimes a recipe just wants to stay as cake. But I was happy with the way it turned out regardless.

This should make any gingerbread lover very happy. And I should know. I am very picky when it comes to gingerbread. Just ask my mom.. She has already made two batches of gingerbread cookies for me this season, and one of the recipes involved her making a spreadsheet and averaging the amount of main ingredients from several other recipes. She’s a good mom!

Anyways, this is pretty spot on when it comes to gingerbread cake, no spreadsheet required.

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Omigoodness I love these.  I was trying to come up with a way to fancy-up carrot cake cupcakes, which turned out to be much harder than I expected.  You can’t really use sprinkles or chocolate shavings or anything like that, and putting actual carrots on top would be completely awful.

But then I was inspired by my little sister, the other writer on this here blog.  She was piping melted white chocolate onto tarts and used the leftovers to draw letters and hearts on wax paper, then let them set in the fridge.  I did the same thing, only I added gel food colouring to make orange and green, and formed carrots.  Voila!  Super easy and super adorable.

This recipe is adapted from The Looneyspoons Collection, which we highly recommend, especially if you are interested in healthier eating.  These cupcakes are full of nutritional goodness and they’re way lighter than normal carrot cake (which is typically doused in oil).

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I bought B.C. peaches over the weekend, and with them came a hoard of fruit flies that infested my kitchen.  While I waited for the peaches to ripen, I had to resist the urge to toss them all since every time I moved a dish, a flock of at least 10 flies would disperse around my kitchen. It was gross. But luckily fruit flies are willing to drown themselves in apple cider vinegar, and peaches make delicious cake. So everything ended well. My kitchen is down a bunch of fruit flies and up one awesome cake.

This cake packs a big impact, what with all the different layers, but is still super easy to make. Did I mention it’s delicious? My husband ate three pieces the first night. It’s got a bit of everything for everyone – cake, cheesecake and fruit – and you can tailor it to suit your needs. I tend to opt for less fruit, more cake, but that’s just me.

It’s got a layer that resembles cheesecake, but in actuality it’s just cream cheese and sugar. Easy peasy.  The bottom is made using vanilla pudding mix, cutting out most of that tiresome measuring. Efficiency!

Don’t let the fruit flies win. Make a cake.

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I love the Olympics. Even more than the Olympics, I love a really great clip montage set to inspirational music.  And the Olympics are FULL of them.

Liz and I have been looking forward to the Olympics starting for a while. For me, I have been waiting since Vancouver 2010. Last night we watched the Opening Ceremonies and mowed* down on these bad boys. They are English Toffee Cupcakes in honour of London hosting the games, but I think that might be a bit of a stretch. They are really just toffee flavoured. The British aspect comes from the flags- which I also made by hand, because when you are a blogger, you find yourself making tiny international flags.

*Correct pronunciation rhymes with loud, not code.

Point is – the cake is awesome and delicious and a recipe I would definitely make again, regardless of international sporting events.

Chock full of wee bits o’ toffee…That’s my British accent attempt

Regular toffee cupcakes………..                   Dressed up & patriotic English Toffee

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These aren’t actual brownies, obviously.  They’re also not blondies, because blondies are caramel-y.  Instead, these are like the yellow cake version of brownies.  They’re dense and chewy and a nice little snack.  This is the kind of cake you leave on the counter and cut chunks from throughout the day.  It is NOT the kind of cake you ice and put candles on and present to someone for their birthday.

These were inspired by Cake Batter Blondies from The Girl Who Ate Everything.  I liked them a lot, but they use a cake mix and I wanted to try something similar from scratch.  So I adapted this recipe from Allrecipes and I’m extremely pleased with the result.  Quick easy cake.  I like it.

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I was trying to come up with something interesting to say for this little dessert we have presented here. I went looking for the history of Boston Cream Pie but it wasn’t that interesting.  According to the ultimate source of all internet information, Wikipedia, a chef in Boston in 1856 started making it for the Parker House Hotel. Now if that isn’t a riveting and interesting story, I don’t know what is. I then thought, “Perhaps we will tantalize our readers with the great explanation of why it’s called a Boston Cream Pie instead of Boston Cream Cake, since it is clearly a cake.

Because in the 1850s, pie tins were more common than cake pans, so it was probably baked in a pie tin.

All of this overwhelming and fascinating history has my head spinning.

….

Anyways, the point is, Liz wanted to make Boston Cream Pie cupcakes and I obliged her and let her into my kitchen and we baked together this weekend – something we haven’t done in a while. The end result was delicious success.

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I wish I had something clever to say about these. They are not super original. I first saw this type of recipe done on the Food Network site. But sometimes food blogging isn’t about reinventing the wheel. Sometimes the wheel is delicious and we just want to eat some marshmallows without revolutionizing them.

 

I didn’t even include the brownie recipe (yes that’s the main part of this) but it’s because I just used this Martha Stewart recipe and didn’t alter it. It wasn’t my absolute favourite brownie recipe ever but it does the trick. If you have one you love then use it and share it in the comments!

It’s like I didn’t even try. Some days are just like that.

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When I saw this recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine, I knew I wanted to try it. In the past I have written about my dislike for substitutions, and I can be quite particular about substituting lower fat options, but yogurt and cake are not necessarily bitter enemies who should always avoid each other.  Greek Yogurt + Pound Cake= BFF. Maybe? No. Ok, well, it just sounded like it made sense so I gave it a shot.

And it was good. Very good.

Now I actually had never made my own pound cake before. But comparing this recipe to store-bought ones I found that the texture was a bit different, but not bad-different. Just different-different.  It’s not quite as sweet, which was surprising since it has an entire cup of sugar.  It’s just got an overall lighter feel. Everyone who ate it though wouldn’t have known it was mostly yogurt if I hadn’t told them…but I’m the kind of baker who always tells her secrets. I would say this is such an easy recipe, and nice to know you’re getting something a bit healthier, that I would certainly use this again the next time I’m looking to make pound cake.

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This is the best chocolate cupcake I’ve ever made. Apologies to the ones that have come before it. But wowza, I loved these little guys. The cake was perfect. The frosting was very sweet, which is not suited to everyone. I can consume copious amounts of sugar and barely notice, but this is not a universal trait. If you lack a serious sweet tooth I would recommend topping this cake with a different frosting but for something out of the norm, this chocolate chip cookie dough frosting is a great treat.

The keys to achieving a perfect cake comes down to a few simple tips.

Remove your eggs, buttermilk and butter from the fridge an hour or two prior to baking. Room temperature, folks.

Use real buttermilk.

When you alternate the buttermilk and flour mixture, start and end with flour. I don’t know why, Anna Olson told me to, and after making this recipe, I take her word as fact. I tried to find out exactly why this matters but can’t find an answer yet. Do you know?  Pass along the info! Otherwise, just trust me and enjoy!

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Vanilla cake is not as easy to accomplish from scratch.  Not the way chocolate cake is. It’s easy for vanilla to seem bland or dry.  However, these cupcakes received a very good seal of approval. “I think this is the best vanilla cake I’ve ever had from scratch that didn’t come from a bakery.” I’ll take it.

But my favourite part of this recipe is the frosting. It’s half whipped cream so it’s light and fluffy and it perfectly complements the strawberry flavour.

Oh my other favourite part? These adorable cupcake wrappers, making them the perfect treat for Mother’s Day.  We gave them to my mom early since it was her birthday yesterday (Happy Birthday Marm!) and she thought they were adorable.

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