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 don’t own an ice cream maker so I can appreciate the frustration of encountering amazing-sounding ice cream recipes on the Internet and not being able to make them. I don’t have the time or patience to churn ice cream by hand using some freezer baggies and ice, so seeing awesome homemade ice cream recipes always makes me a little jealous. That is, until I found out my wonderful neighbour, Joanne, has an ice cream maker and she’s willing to let me borrow it! I have the best neighbours. When I saw the recipe for Chocolate Malt Gelato in my mom’s copy of Chatelaine Magazine, I knew this was when I would ask to borrow the ice cream maker, and it was well worth it.

Joanne was generous enough to let me borrow the ice cream maker, and today Bake Me Something Good is passing along even more generosity.

You can’t make ice cream or gelato without some serious dairy purchases. Luckily, the wonderful people at Dairyland have got you covered. Dairyland produces excellent milk and cream products, perfect for making your first batch of homemade gelato. This summer, Dairyland is stopping by Vancouver’s Pacific National Exhibition, (or the PNE for those of you from B.C.). On Saturday, August 18, between 11am and 3 pm Dairyland will be handing out samples of their chocolate milk, so if you’re visiting the PNE this Saturday, keep your eyes open for the Dairyland van. But if you can’t make it to the grounds, Dairyland is offering another chance to try out their awesome products to one lucky reader.

*Save-on-Foods has locations in B.C. and Alberta, so this contest is limited to residents of those provinces.

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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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This recipe comes from my absolutely most favourite food blog out there – How Sweet It Is.  Its author, Jessica, is my blogging hero – her recipes are foolproof and delicious, her pictures are gorgeous and as a bonus, she’s completely hilarious.  I always make sure I read her posts carefully so I don’t miss any of her funny details.

I make at least one of Jessica’s recipes each month, and I’ve definitely pinned more stuff from her than from any other site.  I really cannot recommend How Sweet It Is enough.

So now that I’ve convinced you to leave our blog and go visit that one, here’s a slightly adapted version of Jessica’s Oatmeal Peanut Butter Snack Squares.  I made a few tweaks based on the ingredients I had on hand and they turned out so wonderfully well that I’m probably going to make them again within the next 48 hours.  So, so good.

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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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Peanut butter cookie base.  Jam.  Peanut butter glaze.  Need I say more?

Probably not, but I’m going to.  These things are a great little snack.  They’re a bit messy, what with all the peanut butter and the jam.  And they’re pretty intense… what with all the peanut butter and jam.  They’re definitely a rich snack.  But they’re easy!  And tasty.  So if you’re in the mood for a PB&J sandwich-style baked snack (because that’s not overly specific, right?) then make these!

If you’re not as keen on the toppings, the base itself is super good.  It’s slightly adapted from Brenda’s Canadian Kitchen.

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What’s better than a delicious breakfast sandwich? A tiny, adorable one!

When there is just two of you in the house, it’s hard to consume an entire package of hamburger buns before they go stale. Yes, I can put them in the freezer but I hate freezer buns…I think I still have half a package in there from last summer. Once they get all frosty, my desire to acknowledge their existence diminishes, hence why they are still in the freezer.

We had sliders for dinner one night so I had a few buns left over to make breakfast sliders with!

The adorable mini size made them more delicious. It’s science.

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Just a quick post today. Because it’s hot and I am on vacation and this is what my lunch has been the last three days, so I’ve got hummus on my mind and not much else.

Also, that photo is orange-overload. I know. I should’ve picked a green vegetable to photograph with the hummus. Except I don’t eat green vegetables with hummus. I eat carrots. Sorry.

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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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Update: the sugar in the filling was incorrect – rather than one cup of white sugar it should be 1/2 a cup of brown sugar.  The recipe has been corrected to reflect this.

If you’re a food blogger then you understand how much work this can be.  By the time we’ve made a new recipe, adjusting and adapting to make sure it works and will taste good for our readers, the last thing we want to do is take pictures.  These cinnamon buns were so delicious, but neither Torie nor I was interested in photographing them – instead, we just wanted to serve them to guests at a breakfast potluck.

It’s a darn good thing one of the guests was a professional photographer!

Since Aaron of Rhymes With Orange Photography was at breakfast, and happened to have his equipment with him, we immediately took him up on his offer to take pictures of these cinnamon buns.   And of course, they’re totally awesome pics because he’s a pro and not, say, a random person with a semi-fancy camera who might know a little about lighting but that’s it (ie, me).

So, thanks for the pictures, Aaron!  You made these cinnamon buns look as good as they tasted.

And boy did they taste good!  Like, they’re the best cinnamon buns I’ve ever had and everyone at the potluck raved about them.  If you’re looking for a soft almost pastry-like bun… make these.  Now.  They’re adapted from Joy The Baker’s Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread and they are ridiculous.

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