White & Blue Painted Flower Cake!

It was my grandmother's Birthday last Friday and being a recent transfer from Montreal to Toronto, I'd finally get to celebrate her Birthday with her since she too lives in the T.!

I just knew I wanted to make her something special and I had several ideas floating around in my noggin but one stood out in particular!

I have these blue and white dishes that a friend & co-worker from Montreal bought for me before I made the move to Toronto, and everytime my grandmother comes over she raaaaves about the dishes and the colours! With that in mind, I have been dying to make a painted cake! So I smooshed those two ideas together and got to work!

Here are my white petals waiting to be dusted.

Coloured and assembled:

First part of painting DONE!

And all put together...

And of course, matching cupcakes!

Everyone looooooved the cake! I was so happy with the way it turned out! I really just LOVE the look of painted cakes and it was soooooo much fun to make!

Definitely one of my new faves! :)



Sweet Treats!

There's nothing I love more than trying out new recipes.

The other day I stumbled upon a recipe for orange scones with chocolate chips! I just loooove the orange/chocolate combination so I HAD to try these!

Scones have quickly become one of my faaaavourite treats to whip up! They are super easy to make and super yummy to eat! Also they freeze perfectly and when you're ready to gobble them up, you just pop em right into the oven and Bob's your uncle! (Bob IS my uncle!)

Here are my dry ingredients plus my butter allllllll measured out!

My orangey wet ingredients:

Ready to bake...



Ready to eat...

If this doesn't say "eat me" then I don't know what does!

Next on my recipe list was salted caramel brownies! It was just something I NEEDED to try. Especially on a day like today, all snowy and what not. Perf.Ect.

All my ingredients measured out nicely! :)

My caramel cooking...

My brownie batter in the making...

All mixed together...

The leftover salted caramel...

Oh baby is that stuff good!

And the final product:

Yum.

Gluten Free Chocolate Garden Cupcakes!

I'm a little late in posting but I've been so busy decorating and baking up a storm!

Last week I was asked last minute to whip up some gluten free cupcakes, decorated with a fresh food theme for a Jamie Oliver Food Revolution meeting! What fresher food is there than fruits and veg from a garden?!

I made little sugar eggplants, carrots, peaches, bananas, peas, potatoes, apples, grapes, radishes and pears! And of course some gardening essentials, a watering can and a spade (I think that's what it's called?? I have bad seasonal allergies so I try to stay away from gardening situations....)

Here are my chocolate gluten free cuppies, straight outta the oven!

They were QUITE delish for gluten free!! You couldn't even tell!

My little cupcake garden! Green white chocolate grass frosting for the fruit, and chocolate sprinkle dirt for the veggies! :)

I was so happy with the way they turned out! ESPECIALLY since they were a last minute request! And ESPECIALLY ESPECIALLY since they were gluten free - my first time ever making anything sans gluten!

A success! :)

Yummies!!

A few weeks ago, a co-worker mentioned that she had tried white chocolate brownies... I was intrigued right away!

She said they were amaaaaazing, and really, even if she had said they were horrible, those three words put together in that order captured me and I knew I MUST try this!

She was right...

Oh baby were they delicious! Definitely a keeper that I added right into my recipe binder!

Next, as per usual, I had bananas that were on the brink of being no bueno so instead of doing the usual banana chocolate chip muffins or something similar, I decided to whip up something I haven't had in aaaaaaages but have always loved - banana pudding!!

It kinda looks like a hot mess in the bowl but trust me, it was one deeeeelicious hot mess!!

So that's where my recent weight gain has been coming from! But stay tuned for more actual decorated creations coming soon! :)

Pretty Purple Flower Red Velvet Cupcakes!

It was my boyfriend's sisters birthday and now that I'm the designated dessert maker, I just had to make something delicious and beautiful!

The birthday girl specifically requested red velvet cupcakes and I couldn't have been more excited to bust out some of these red beauties! It's been a while since I made them, and I was also looking forward to making my deeeeeelicious white chocolate cream cheese frosting to compliment the cuppies. Yum.

Here's a picture of my red velvies about to go into the oven!

So. Pretty. !!!

And baked to perfection:

I wish I looked that  good!

I just love this next picture that I took on Instagram!

The filter makes the cuppies look SUPER red and the frosting looks so white and fluffy. Just heavenly!

Here is a picture of my little tinfoil garden bed!

And finally, my creation in its completion:

And since everyone came over to enjoy these yumyums, I decided to bust out part of my cupcake stand. Points for presentation!

Needless to say, everyone loved the cupcakes, especially the birthday girl! Not only were they pretty but they were sooooooo sooo tasty!

Time to go dig into some leftovers! :)

Yummy Muffins!

I've gone a little muffin crazy this week!

I have a batch of red velvet cupcakes planned for tomorrow and not wanting an entire carton of buttermilk to go to waste after one red velvet recipe, I decided to whip up some of my famous buttermilk & olive oil muffins! YUM!

I normally add in a variety of delicious ingredients to these savoury muffins such as feta, brie, goat cheese (not all together!) and onion, tomato, green apple, roasted pepper, etc... but I decided to go back to basics this time.... also I had none of those yummy things to add in!

Baked to golden perfection these savoury muffins were just as delicious sans all the fancy ingredients! Delightfully simple, they'd be a perfect addition to any dinner table or entertaining spread!

Next, I was a little over ambitious with my desire to make and freeze different hearty soups this week. Out of the three that I had planned to make, I made one - sweet potato and butternut squash! It was very tasty but the time it took to chop, saute, cook, puree and flavour the soup made me not so enthusiastic to get started on the next one - carrot ginger. With 4 lbs of carrots sitting in the fridge, I knew I had to get cracking and do SOMETHING!

So I decided to whip up some carrot muffins! Believe it or not I don't have a food processor so I had to grate the carrots by hand which took longer than I had hoped....should have just made the soup! But not actually...



They were very yummy but I still have about 3 lbs of carrots sitting in the fridge!

Monday might be the day I complete my soup challenge... if not, more muffins are on the way! :)

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies!

My boyfriend and I were invited to his cousins' holiday party just before Christmas so of course I seized the opportunity to make something yummy, fun and holiday oriented!

My choice of sweet? The sugar cookie

My blank canvas!

I had sooooo many ideas and options, but upon trying this one out, I just had to continue with the design!

Red & white candy cane backgrounds with festive green bows! I just loved the way it looked!

Being packaged to go!

I must admit, I'm in love with sugar cookies. Not only are they yummy but the possibilities are truly endless. So.Much.FUN!!

Happy belated holidays to all! :)

Festive Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins!

I'm a bit late in posting and I do apologize! I was terribly busy baking, cooking, cleaning and entertaining for the holidays!

Christmas Eve was a quiet night. I had 2 bananas that were on the verge of garbagedom. Not wanting to spoon feed myself brown mushy bananas, and also not wanting to waste them, I decided to bake some yummy chocolate chip banana muffins instead! FESTIVE ones!

I could have eaten the whole bowl of batter.... but I didn't...

Ready to bake!



Seeing as it was Christmas Eve, I decided to use these festive cupcake liners to add some pizazz! Not that these bad boys needed any fancying up! They were DELICIOUS! Chocolate goes well with just about anything, what could be bad?!

Yum.