Easter Goodies

I decided to do a little baking while at my sister's place over the Easter weekend. Here are a few things I created with her.

Ginger Chewies


Easter Egg Cake Lollies

Earl Grey Macarons, Anyone?

Being from North America, whenever I heard the word macaron, this image of a pile of dried shredded coconut with some sort of chocolate sauce on it (don't let me get into what I think it looks like) came into my head. The thing is, I have this HUGE dislike for dried shredded coconut. When I say HUGE dislike, I really mean I HATE it. The texture, the taste. UGH! It is just so unappealing to me. Last year while I was in France, I went into quite a few boulangeries and I kept seeing these macarons and I kept thinking how cute they were but OH MY GAWD who wants to eat coconut? ICK!


Recenty, I was browsing through the epicurious website and found this recipe with meringue type of cookies that had a ganache type sandwich filling. Lo and behold, this is a macaron - well the French version of a macaron. If you have never tasted a French type of macaron, you really must try one. I kick myself everyday for not trying a French style macaron while in France.

With the recipe I found on epicurious, I made some earl grey macarons with a Bailey ganache filling. Here are a few photos to document my first macaron baking experience. I gotta say, those were pretty yummy!

Monkey Mayhem

Caramel banana cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting, drizzled with caramel sauce.
Here comes the caramel. Oh so yummy! Here is the recipe for it.

Those banana cupcakes are just waiting to be filled.





And now it's time to top them off with some chocolate ganache. And a little more caramel. Why more caramel? Well, who doesn't like caramel?

Pound Cupcakes

Here's a little something I whipped up last night. Brown Sugar Pound Cupcakes with Vanilla Bean Frosting (topped off with a chocolate covered coffee bean). Yummy!

Updates

Just an update on a few cakes I've done since my last post.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Another Grey Cup Sunday has come and passed. We have finally been able to do a real Logie traditional Grey Cup Party. When we lived in Kits, our barely 7oo sq ft of space just didn't cut it when we wanted to do up a Grey Cup party. Seriously, how many people can you cram into that little of space and really be able to watch a football game? I think the last time we had a serious Grey Cup party was way back when we lived on Dogwood in Coquitlam. Oh the days, of living with roommates. :)

In honour of our first Grey Cup Party in our very own place, I made a cupcake cake. I'm not too sure about these cupcake cakes. It was an easy enough concept but I'm not totally sure if I would do one again. It was nice because i didn't have to worry about cutting a cake. Everyone could grab as many cupcakes off the plate as they wanted to. Aesthetically, I would have liked to have done something a little nicer but you be the judge of that. Here are some photos of my Grey Cup Cupcake Cake. (Spice cake with cream cheese icing and a chocolate icing as well.)

Thomas The Engine

I know, it's been far in between posts but I am posting, mainly because I am procrastinating. I NEED to study. Two practical exams and two written exams, they will have all started and be completed in about 1 and 1/2 weeks. So, what am I doing? Posting a blog. :)

I recently made some cupcakes for X's second birthday party. I heard it was a Thomas the Engine theme. I wanted to try out some colour flow icing techniques I learned way back in the spring. They didn't come out exactly the way that I wanted them to, but I think I will know for next time what I should and shouldn't do. Like read the instructions for the colour flow more carefully. I added 1/2 a cup of water, when I really only needed 1/4 cup of water. Lesson learned, don't rush through the instructions! :)

So here are some initial photos of the colour flow image before they were placed on the cupcakes.
I couldn't make it to the birthday party - damn Saturday classes! So, Scott assembled the cupcakes for me and transported them to the party.
My fellow classmates were happy to get the leftover mini's from the rest of the batter. They said they tasted great. I'll take their word for it. From the picture below I'll assume the Birthday Boy enjoyed the cupcakes as well. And really, that is all that matters!