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Showing posts with the label Treats

Christmas Baking

 This year's Christmas baking round-up. I haven't made these Peppermint chocolate cookies in years.  I forgot how much I love them.  I had extra peppermint icing left over from the Christmas cake I made and knew I could use it for these cookies.  As Miss E described them, they are more like a muffin consistency and the muffin top consistency to be exact!  I made the Newfoundland 5 star bars to bring to a Tbb's Eve party and added Christmas sprinkles to make them festive. Chocolate chip cookies, always a classic no matter what time of year. Peppermint crinkle cookies are messy with the icing sugar but are yummy. My all time favourite, Millionaire shortbread that I try to limit to only making at Christmas time.  

Easter Oreo Delight

I made this yummy dessert to take to Easter dinner with Mr. T's family.  I love a no bake dessert.  I followed this  recipe . Instead of crushed Oreos as the topper I added broken Cadbury eggs.  Instant Easter dessert.  

Friday Night Chocolate Cake

I had an extra layer of cake and icing to use up from Christmas baking.  I knew it would go over well with my Friday night gang and it did! Added some crystal sugar for some sparkle.   Cake: 6" one layer chocolate with chocolate buttercream icing

Wedding Shower Muffins

I was asked to make some muffins for my cousin Courtney's bridal shower. Of course I had to go extra with the flavours I chose and made them extra large.   Here are the recipes I used: 1.  Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins 2.  Cheddar and Bacon Cornbread Muffins 3.  Caramel Apple Buttermilk Muffins I will be making these all again! Yes, I even made a savoury muffin.  I know Miranda Hart frowns upon this, ha! But I do enjoy a savoury muffin!  Especially cornbread.  

Mother's Day Cake

For Mother's day this year, I wanted to try something different.  Apparently, different means, crazy multi-step, multi-ingredient and time consuming. This dessert required the following: - Phyllo pastry, used store bought - Chantilly cream, made fresh - Macaroons, store bought from  Charmaine's Sweet Studio  (highly recommend) - Meringues, made myself.  Note:  Only use fresh egg whites, not from a carton or you end up wasting your time and ingredients to start over! - Chocolate ganache, made fresh  - Brownies, store bought 2 bite brownies - Strawberries, not Ontario grown :( They aren't ready yet) There are numerous YouTube videos on these types of cakes to follow.  I chose to use Phyllo pastry instead of using a cookie recipe because I didn't want to worry about it breaking and how it would be difficult to cut without breaking it. It was a lot of work!  But totally worth it for my mom and me!  It was really good....

Christmas Baking 2017

For Christmas I only made 3 different treats this year, which worked out well.  It didn't take up too much of my time and also reminds of why I like to do cakes!  All three recipes did not like how dry it was in the condo. 1.  Millionaire's Shortbread  - This is my absolute favourite.  I only make it at Christmas otherwise it would be all I eat.  It's like a homemade Twix bar.  I double the recipe for the shortbread and bake in a 9 x 13 pan.  The caramel and chocolate topping I only use one recipe for and it works well.  This first batch turned out really well.  The 2nd batch the shortbread was way to flakey; not a bad thing but it doesn't cut as nicely when it's a bit wetter.  Of course, I had to add some gold to the top to see how it turned out. 2.  Melting Moments  - This is a family recipe, but you can find different variations on Pinterest.  They don't normally look like balls as I would normally press the...

Banana Muffins

We always seem to have bananas that have gone very ripe by the end of the week and an ever increasing inventory of frozen bananas growing in the freezer.  Since we didn't have any baking to do this weekend I figured it would be nice for a change to bake something for us and to make some room in the freezer. I just picked a recipe at random from Pinterest.  I was able to get 24 large muffins from it.  I filled the liners to the top so that they would overflow over the top to create muffin tops.  Yum!  I reduced the sugar by two thirds and next time I'm not going to add any as we didn't notice any difference in flavour or texture.  I'm also going to try to replace the butter with apple sauce to see how that changes the flavour and texture.  If it works out the muffins will be so much healthier for us.

ECig Flavourium Anniversary Cake

It's hard to believe that 3 years have gone by already since Maria and Dave started their business venture.  This year's celebration cake included a big 3 made out of Rice Krispies.  I love how my friends like to throw in a challenge every so often so I don't get too complacent. For the big 3 I made a double batch of Rice Krispie squares with some orange dye and pressed it into a 9" by 13" pan to cool.  I took a template and steak knife to cut out the 3.  I leveled off the bottom slightly so that it could stand.  Fingers crossed that it stays standing! The cake itself is a two layer 9 by 13 chocolate cake with chocolate filling.  I had once chance to get the logo on centred and completely blew that!  So I added the extra decorations to offset it; to make it look like I meant to do that. I made 6 dozen mini cookies & cream cupcakes covered in orange buttercream icing and dipped in coarse sugar to look like snow. Mr T was kind enoug...

Halloween Sugar Cookies

Krumbs  asked me to decorate some Halloween cookies for them earlier this month and in turn they gave me enough cookies for Miss E's  class and the left over icing. Even with only having to do the decorating it took me several hours to do 3 dozen!

Thanksgiving Desserts

We had two Thanksgiving dinners this weekend.  One at my parents' with my dad's family and one at our place with my mom's family.  For both dinners I made these desserts. I saw these cookies on a Facebook post from I am Baker;  Pumpkin Rose Cookies  with a cream cheese filling.  These are very easy to make and very tasty.  They do not come out like a typical cookie.  They are more of a muffin texture than a cookie.  I was able to get 22 sandwiches out of one recipe.  They went over well at both dinners.  I am Baker never disappoints!  She is amazing. :) The 2nd dessert I made I found on Pinterest from the Domestic Doozie's blog;  Apple Fritter Cake .  The most painful part of this recipe was peeling and cutting up the apples.  Otherwise it was easy and really good.

Run For the Cure Bake Sale #6: Lemon Bars

We're coming to the end of this year's campaign for RFTC.  As much fun as it is, I am tired of all the baking!  Only one more bake sale to go after this.  This week I went with lemon bars as requested by one of my colleagues. Luckily we had enough eggs and lemons at home as I didn't realise how many would be required until I got home.  I made a double batch which meant 12 eggs and 12 lemons went into it.  I didn't have enough sugar so Mr. T went down the convenience store to get me some.  That convenience store has saved me so many times. I wrapped these up individually and topped them with a pink butterfly sticker and wrote thanks on them.  The inside pieces do not travel so well, they got a little squished on the subway ride down.  Next time I would put them in a container before I put them into a cooler back, but they still managed to sell. This was my first time make lemon bars and they are so good.  Reminds of after church gathe...

Run For the Cure Bake Sale #5: Fantastic Fudge Brownies

I went to make these brownies and realised I didn't have the recipe.  I thought my mom had written it in the recipe book she had given me but nope.  I grew up with this recipe and they are so good.  Fortunately, my mom was home when I called and asked her to send me the recipe.  She was running out the door and didn't have time to read it out to me.  I then reminded her that all she had to do was take a picture of it and send it to me on my phone.  Sometimes, technology is really amazing! I made a double batch of brownies and wrapped them up individually.  We didn't sell out this time so I had Mr. T. take the remaining to his work and they sold like wildfire.  They asked when he was going to bring in more.  You just never know how a sale is going to go.

Run For the Cure Bake Sale #2 - Salted Caramel Butter Bars

These are amazing bars.  I was stumped on what to bake this week for the sale and Clover suggested these. I made two pans and Clover made two pans of fudge.  We were sold out within an hour.  Yay! I thought I had my own picture of these bars without the packaging but after too long searching I couldn't find one.  So, instead I'm using the picture from  Cookies and Cups .  This is where Pinterest lead me originally when I first made these a few years ago.  She has a very detailed step by step recipe on her website.  The most tedious part of this recipe is unwrapping the caramels.  Especially when you're doubling the recipe! I got up super early to package these this morning.  I have a box of waxed paper already cut to sandwich size wrapping that I rarely use.  I thought that this would be best way to package these buttery treats.  It worked really well.  

Run For the Cure Chewy Chocolate Chips

I made these super delicious cookies from yet another find on Pinterest:  Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies .  I made a double batch and used the large ice cream scoop  and I think I got about 60 cookies from it. I also saw on Pinterest this amazing idea for packaging, CD/DVD paper envelopes.  They fit in perfectly.  I did put a square of waxed paper behind to help stop the grease from the butter from spreading.  I made the little thank you stickers to go on each of them. I will definitely be keeping this recipe handy.  It's great that you melt the butter first. That way you don't have to wait to bring the butter to room temperature before you start baking.

Run For the Cure Salted Caramel Corn

Another treat that I made for the Run For the Cure bake sale fundraising.  I love caramel corn and found this recipe on Pinterest:  Salted Caramel Popcorn .  It is super easy and so good. Now, we don't have an air popper so I used Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet White Popcorn and omitted adding the salt from the recipe.  I made 3 recipes and got 25 bags.  Next time I will try it with an air popper.  I hope it doesn't take away from the flavour! We sold Clover's crack fudge along with the caramel corn and sold out within 15 minutes!  It was awesome.

Run For the Cure Brownies

This year my coworker, Clover (maker of the amazing fudge) and I are champions for our team to do fundraising for CIBC's Run For the Cure.  Almost every Thursday since mid July we have been having a bake sale.  A couple of weeks ago we did brownies and fudge. I made the brownies and Clover the fudge.  She also made the chocolate pink ribbons that are on each brownie. We like to go all out with the packaging too.  So I made 80+ two inch origami boxes for each piece to go in.  They were a big hit.  I used my mom's recipe that we have been enjoying since we were kids.  I can't imagine using any other recipe.

Christmas Baking

I am so behind on my blog updates!  This past month has been crazy.  I did have a break from baking.  Which was really nice.  I meant to do this post before Christmas.  However, the major ice storm that cut our power for 38 hours just before Christmas completely changed my plans for the next several days.  Then both Mr. T and got caught a nasty flu that took us out of commission over New Year's.  Good times! I made 6 dozen of these mini cupcakes in chocolate and vanilla for a coworker before the Christmas brake. I have a set of 3 snowflake fondant cutters.  For the mini cupcakes I used the smallest one. I made 2 dozen of these chocolate cupcakes to donate for Miss E's school bake sale.  I used the largest snowflake cutter for these and added a dragee in the centre of each. Finally, this was my only personal "baking" I did this year.  I found the recipe for peppermint patties on Pinterest.  It was quite simple.  I d...

Ice Cream Sandwich

Last weekend I had my parents over for dinner.  They were bringing back Miss E from a visit at their house over the March Break.  As a thank you I thought it would be nice to make them dinner.  For dessert I wanted to do something a little different. I love ice cream sandwiches!  So, I sent Mr. T off to buy some premium ice cream since my brother still has my ice cream maker.  That's my excuse for not making the ice cream.  I had no intention of making the ice cream for this dessert.  However, you can't skimp out on the cookie portion.  They definitely needed to be homemade. We all love chocolate chip cookies but what I don't like about them is that after the first day they lose their lustre.  What separates a good cookie from a great cookie for me is that it is crunchy on the edges but chewy in the middle.  I discovered this recipes for Chewy Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies and it is fantastic!  They stay chewy!  I neve...

Cinnamon Toast for Super Bowl Snack

Earlier this week I found this recipe for Cinnamon Toast on Pinterest.  I love cinnamon toast.  I used to sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top of buttered toast.  This recipe takes it to a whole new level. Since I am in a lull, happily, for baking this last few weeks I thought I would post about something different.  This is super easy to make and is amazing!  I made it for Mr. T and his friend for a snack during the Super Bowl.  They loved it. For the bread I used Honey & Oat from  Krumbs Breadery & Stuff .  Fortunately, I had a loaf hidden in my freezer.  The bread on its own is so good.  It's my favourite.  But this topping made it even better.  One recipe did one loaf of Honey & Oat.

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Thank You!

My week started off on Monday waking up to a fridge that quit keeping things actually cold.  Fortunately, we have a balcony and after a very warm weekend the temperature dropped so that we could put everything out there.  It is amazing how you don't realise how much you actually use an appliance until it's gone.  You have to plan what you need to get in advance or you decide that maybe lemon juice isn't required in the rice tonight because the lemons are buried somewhere in the wagon. Imagine how much fun it is when you have baking to do!?  It's a challenge but it's doable. Tonight, I needed to bake some chocolate chip cookies for my cousin and his girlfriend as a thank you gift.   There are thousands of chocolate chip recipes.  But in homage to my favourite show of all time, Friends, I chose to use the Original Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  The One with Phoebe's Cookies episode is a classic.  Monica is desperately tr...