sorry, 2014

I don't want my last post of 2014 to be about my birthday...back in February. Actually, looking back at it, that was my first post and my most recent of 2014 (that's awful).

A lot has happened in 2014, and apparently more than I realized because I haven't found the time to sit down and document it or save it in any way on here.

I've baked, a lot. Two weddings once again, some birthdays, cinnamon buns while travelling in France, chocolate ganache cupcakes while studying in Sweden, and for my family here at home.


I will miss 2014 and all it had, all it gave me, all I learned from this year, and all I loved.

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes with Hazelnut Buttercream - for my youth girls.

Chocolate Caramel Cupcakes with Caramel Buttercream - for a super sweet 16.

Strawberry Moscato Cupcakes - for...me?

Dark Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Caramel Buttercream - for an A21 bake sale.

Vanilla Cake/Cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Vanilla Cupcakes with Hazelnut Buttercream - for a beautiful wedding.

Chocolate & Vanilla Cupcakes/Cake with Vanilla Buttercream - for another beautiful wedding.

Twenty

It's been ages since I've posted, and I guess that's okay. It's been busy, and awesome, and tiring, and fun, and just crazy.

But today I am 20. and I cheated.

While walking through Superstore my mom asked me "What kind of birthday cake do you want?" and as we walked I thought for a bit, and then I saw the rainbow/confetti chip cake mixes and I said "That one!". She laughed, and asked "Do you have that little faith in me that I can't bake a birthday cake?" (seeing as my mom doesn't really like cooking or baking, and she has never expressed the same joy I do while in the kitchen). I replied and said "No, I just really want confetti cake". Because really, I do.

So we bought the cake mix, she baked it, and I decorated it. Team effort, and I can't wait to eat it.

Cinnamon Nutella Hot Chocolate

Life has been so up and down lately. So nuts. I haven't posted since August for some very good reasons; got a new job (yay!), had photography sessions every weekend...sometimes multiple, and then all of a sudden...emergency surgery to remove my appendix while working the night shift.

I've had no time to bake, cook, or photograph food. And for the reasons above, I've missed it. So, I was very pleased when I saw that SLR Lounge posted a contest/challenge on their Facebook page for the weekend.

As most/all of you know, food is how I began my journey into photography. So when I saw their challenge, and I even had the weekend off work and time to do this, I was pretty excited.

I've posted this recipe before, but here it is again, and my photos along with it for the challenge.

Cinnamon Nutella Hot Chocolate
Ingredients:
1 mug full of milk
2 tbsp. nutella
1 small hand-full of chocolate chips (milk or semi-sweet)
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
1. Pour milk into small saucepan, add the cinnamon stick and chocolate chips. Simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes.

2. Whisk above ingredients until milk is heated nicely and starts to bubble slightly. Add the Nutella and continue to whisk until fully dissolved.

3. Once Nutella is fully dissolved, let simmer for about another 5 minutes (but keep whisking!), letting the cinnamon stick bring out it's flavour. Pour into your favourite mug, curl up on the couch, and enjoy!

The above image is my submission to the weekend challenge.

Nikon D5000 w/18-105, ISO 900, Photoshop Elements 11.

You can find more of my photographic work on Facebook as well as my website.

and father turns 52

My dad celebrated (embraced, maybe?) his 52nd birthday yesterday! And since I've been making his cakes for the last 8 years, I decided on the Chocolate Ganache Cake that I recently posted two weeks ago. It was a hit then, and my mom really wanted me to make it again. My brother & sister came over and it was a lovely evening!

Love you dad!

Cheese Biscuits

When I was in grade two, my class got together all our favourite recipes to make a cookbook to give to our mom's for Mother's Day. Recipes varied from pizza to mac'n'cheese to 10 different chocolate chip cookie recipes (because you ask a grade two-er their favourite thing and they'll say "chocolate chip cookies). Looking back at the cookbook now that I gave to my mom, there's a recipe for cheese biscuits that my teacher submitted. It's literally the easiest, most delicious recipe for biscuits ever. So, if you find 30 minutes in your day with nothing to do, go ahead and make these delicious biscuits!

Cheese Biscuits

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

6 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

2 cups shredded cheese (I used marble)

1 1/2 cups water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.

2. In large bowl, sift/mix together both flours, the baking powder and salt.

3. Add the water and cheese and knead dough until dough is slightly sticky, add a little extra flour if dough is too sticky.

4. Using a tablespoon, scoop dough and roll each tablespoonful into a ball. Place on baking sheet and press down slightly.

5. Bake biscuits for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with butter.

Cherry Cheesecake Bars

I received my very first cookbook for my 12 birthday from my grade 6 teacher. I've always loved that cookbook because she knew that I loved to help my mom in the kitchen (which later turned into me kicking her out because I needed my space, haha) and I enjoyed learning how to bake. Ever since I got that cookbook I've had my favourites; this being one of them.

Cherry Cheesecake Bars
Ingredients (base):
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter

Ingredients (filling):
2 packages cream cheese (8 ounce), softened
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2/3 cup sugar
1 can cherry pie filling (or other fruit filling, I used mixed berry today)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F; grease 13x9 inch pan.
2. In small bowl, combine first 4 ingredients for the base. Cut butter into flour until mixed well. Press half of the flour mixture onto the pan, spreading corner to corner. Bake in preheated oven for 12 minutes.
3. In medium sized bowl, blend the cream cheese, eggs, vanilla, and sugar. Spread batter over the baked crust. Bake for 15 minutes.
4. Pour cherry pie filling over baked cream cheese layer. Sprinkle remaining crumbs from the crust on top of the fruit. Bake for another 15 minutes. Top with ice cream and enjoy!

Chocolate Ganache Cake

For this recipe I decided to make the ganache frosting first, because it needed time to cool and become thick enough to spread. Because you need to boil the cream for the ganache, the heat takes a long time to cool. Since I was kind of in a hurry, I transferred the finished ganache into the freezer and stirred it every 20 minutes until thick. This works awesome, and would highly recommend this if making it in a time limit.

Chocolate Ganache Cake
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 1/3 cups milk
1 1/2 cups strong brewed coffee; not instant

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two 9 inch round cake pans with parchment paper, set aside.
2. In large bowl, mix together the melted butter, vanilla, coffee, and milk. Add the eggs and mix well.
2. In medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Be sure to sift to get rid of the chunks from the cocoa.
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture; scraping the sides, whisk slowly making sure to incorporate all ingredients. Mix until smooth and creamy.
4. Distribute the cake batter evenly between the two cake pans and bake for 25-35 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cakes cool in pans for about 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.
6. Once cakes are cool, cut each cake in half, to make four layers. Transfer layers to freezer for about 1 hour, until ready to frost the cake. This way, when frosting it, the crumbs won't come off and the frosting will stick easier to the cake.

Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla
1/8 cup honey
2 1/4 cups semi sweet or milk chocolate chips

Directions.
1. Put the chocolate chips in a large heatproof bowl, set aside.
2. In medium saucepan, heat the cream, honey, and vanilla. Bring to a boil.
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips, let sit for one minute. Slowly stir the mixture so that the chocolate chips melt.
4. Set the bowl in the freezer and stir every 20 minutes until ganache becomes thick enough to spread.
5. Take the cake layers out of the freezer and decorate as desired.