A place to report on my adventures with cakes and baking
A colleague at work wanted six cupcakes for her family’s gathering to celebrate her father’s birthday.
Jenna told me that her dad is crazy for golf and he loves his nightly walks with their dog Zoe. So here are six cupcakes celebrating Dad’s special day.
I’ve always wanted to make “cat’s tongue” cookies also known as “langues de chats.” Today was the day.
Last year I received a copy of Sweet (Ottolenghi and Goh) but the recipes kinda freaked me out. Today I decided to look again and when I saw this recipe, with its few ingredients (I actually had them all in the house!), I decided to give it a try. The recipe was pretty straightforward. The only trick was piping the batter and getting all the cookies the same size.
I suppose practice makes perfect. Next time I’ll decide on one size and try to stick to it. In the meantime, I hauled out an old cookie tin my mum and dad gave me years ago. The cookies from it are long gone but those smiling cat faces still remain. And now I know how to refill that box!
My cousin Rick loves chocolate and I decided to make him a chocolate overload cake to celebrate his special day.
I made a chocolate layer cake, covered it with chocolate icing and added a dark chocolate ganache drip. Then I went to town! I went to Bulk Barn and loaded up on all different shaped chocolates: chocolate covered pretzels, dark almond bark, rosebuds, small choco squares, chocolate sticks and chocolate candied popcorn. I even chocolate-covered some limited edition peanut buttter chocolate pie Oreos that I had on hand. Then the fun began.
I loaded up the cake in a collage of chocolate. It looked like a mountain. The big challenge was to find a space for the candles. But I managed! The other challenge was to cut it up. But somehow, I found a way.
Last weekend, the annual Jubilee Gala dinner was held to raise funds for our local hospital, Hopital Glengarry Memorial Hospital. For the past few years, as part of the fundraising drive, this gathering included a cake auction.
This year I thought a broken arm, with get well messages scrawled all over it, would be a fun fundraiser. The cake itself was a lemon pound cake slathered with a lemon curd filling. Yum!
I heard the auction was a great success and this cake, amongst others, helped the hospital get closer to its goal. Congrats to us all. Such a worthy cause.
Every year, I try to make Richard a fun cake for his birthday. This year I decided on a stack of pancakes, a trompe l’oeuil cake. We have pancakes every Sunday so I thought this would be a perfect way to celebrate his special day.
The pancake stack is really fondant covering a chocolate cake (his fave), slathered with chocolate icing. Blueberries and butter pats are fondant too.
Everyone at his birthday party thought we were eating a pancake cake until I cut into it and surprise! Chocolate!
A super fun way to celebrate a super fun guy! Happy birthday to you, dear Richard.
I’ve always been intrigued with Day of the Dead celebrations and I thought this year I’d recognize it with a pair of individual mini cakes featuring skulls and flowers. These cakes were vanilla with lemon curd filling. Yum!
Our local municipal elections took place this week and I was asked to make a cake for an “after-the-election” party for Carma Williams, who was running in our township for Deputy Mayor, ostensibly to thank supporters and volunteers, but if all went well, as part of a celebration too.
Turned out, Carma was elected as Deputy Mayor and this cake, an edible repro of her campaign signs, was served at the congratulations party.
Now that’s what I call good Carma!
