Mel's Sweet Treats

Chanukah Desserts Part 1-Homemade Souvganiot

2011-12-25T09:34:00.001-05:00

Happy Chanukah! The first night of Chanukah was on Tuesday night. On Monday night, I received a personal lesson by a former student's mom who is from Israel. She taught me how to make homemade souvganiot! Souvganiot is the hebrew work for jelly doughnuts. Jelly doughnuts are a traditional treat for the Chanukah dessert table, since on Chanukah, it is a tradition to fry all foods in oil to remember the oil that burned in the temple for 8 days.

If you want to make your own souvganiot for Chanukah, here are the ingredients you will need:

2 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cups plain yogurt

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp lemon juice

3/4 tbsp baking powder

vegetable oil for cooking

strawberry jam

icing sugar

Below are the utensils/items you will need:

-a large mixing bowl

-towel

-stand mixer

-two spoons

-tall pot

-candy thermometer

-squeeze bottle

-sifter/metal strainer

-paper towel

-cookie sheet

Combine all ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixed attached with the paddle attachment. Mix all ingredients until just combined and dough has formed. Cover with a towel and set aside for about 15 minutes.

Fill a pot about one and a half inches high with vegetable oil. Turn on the burner just past medium, until the heat reaches between 350-360 degrees. This temperature will create the perfect golden brown coloured doughnuts.

Using two spoons, spoon out the dough from the mixing bowl, forming a round ball. Drop the dough into the hot oil and watch it sizzle!

Once the first side reaches the perfect golden brown color, flip the doughnuts over to cook the opposite side. (About 4 minutes per side.)

Test a few doughnuts initially by cutting them in half to see if the insides are completely cooked through. This doughnut was not ready. As you can see, it was still raw inside.

Once removed from the hot oil, set on a cookie sheet lined with layers of paper towel. This will absorb some of the oil. Use a knife to poke holes in each doughnut. This will make it easier to fill the doughnuts with strawberry jam.

Stick the nose of the squeeze bottle directly inside the hole of the doughnut. Squeeze a fair amount of strawberry jam into each doughnut allowing a dollop to show on the outside of the doughnuts.

Garnish with icing sugar.

Arrange on a plate and enjoy!

Cake Pop Bouquets for my Sister's Engagement Party

2011-12-04T15:06:00.001-05:00

My sister, my mom and I had a blast creating the "edible centerpieces" for my sister's engagement party a few weeks ago. They were original, creative and delicious!

To make these centerpieces here are the items you will need:

-all of the ingredients to make basic cake pops

-a mix of longer and shorter lollipop sticks

-Fiskars X-Large Easy Squeeze Punch (The link is similar to the one I bought but not exactly the same.)

-tear drop hole punch (pictured below)

-"Save the Date tags" (that I created myself and so can you!)

-vases of some sort or planter (My sister bought these adorable, purple planters at IKEA)

-styrofoam balls (which I found at Dollarama)

-rocks (also bought at Ikea)

To begin, I created two different "save the date" tags on the computer and printed them at Staples on cardstock. The firmer paper allowed them to slide through the lollipop sticks without ripping. I used my newly purchased scalloped squeeze punch to cut out all of the tags. This was a lot easier than cutting circles by hand!

I had to make sure that I left enough space above and below the design to punch teardrop holes in order to slide the stick through the tags.

Aren't the tags cute?

My sister just loved them!

I didn't manage to take pictures of the 8 cakes that my mom and sister baked or the huge mess that we made in my mom's kitchen the day after she had a cleaning lady at her house! Nonetheless, the centerpieces turned out very well. See below for some pictures.

My sister was thrilled that she bought crystal sprinkles to add a little character to the top of the pops. If you choose to do the same, be sure to sprinkle them onto the pops immediately after they are dipped in the candy melts, as the candy melts dry very quickly.

Adrienne very neatly arranged each pop into its place in the planter. The styrofoam allowed the sticks to set right into place without moving.

Mazel tov Adrienne and David!

Ryan's in the Kitchen-Caramel Apples Kiddie Style

2011-11-13T20:52:00.000-05:00

I love caramel apples and this was a perfect project for Ryan to help me with.

Here are all of the ingredients we used to make this treat.

Ryan loved his job of unwrapping all of the caramels. He did a little, "criss cross applesauce" as he put the wrappers in one bowl and the unwrapped caramels in the other.

Mmmm...Caramels are so delicious even when they are not melted! To melt them, add 2 tablespoons of cream to a pot on a low heat and mix continuously for about 25 minutes. Eventually, the caramels will be runny like syrup.

In the meanwhile, Ryan prepared the apples by placing the sticks into each apple. We used popsicle sticks that came with the caramels but you could also use rounder, thicker sticks purchased at Michael's or any craft store. Dip the apples one at a time into the pot of melted caramel. Allow excess caramel drip back into the pot. Place directly onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and decorate immediately.

The fun had begun. Ryan chose all of the decorations for his caramel apple: mini m&m's, Oreo cookie crumbs, and some mini chocolate chips.

And carefully decorated his apple. After he was done, I decorated the rest.

Sometimes, simple is best...

But for you chocolate lovers...this apple may be preferred.

Chill apples in the fridge for a minimum of an hour before serving.

Enjoy.

Pumpkin Cake Pops

2011-10-30T21:37:00.000-04:00

Do you ever wonder what to do with leftover cupcakes or cake?

Use the leftovers to make cake pops! Remove the majority of icing from the cupcakes and place cupcakes into a large bowl.

Crumble up until dough sticks together when rolled into a ball. If the crumbs do not stick, add a little more icing. Since this icing was orange, the cake balls became orange too...perfect for Halloween!

Form cake balls into desired pumpkin shapes. (I used the side of a spatula to form ridges in some of the cake balls to make them look more like pumpkins.) Place in the freezer to chill for about 20 minutes.

Boo!!!

Dip away and add desired toppings.

To make the stems, I moulded small pieces of Tootsie Roll. I crumbled up an Oreo cookie and used random crumbs to make the mouths and piped the eyes with melted chocolate.

Ever wonder what the inside of a cake pop looks like? In this case, it is orange, just like the inside of a pumpkin. For a basic cake pop tutorial, click here.

Have a safe and happy Halloween everybody!

p.s. Doesn't my classroom door, decorated by my students look great?!

Mini Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-10-23T22:08:00.000-04:00

Mmm...Doesn't really look like a mini does it?

But it is! I used my brand new Wilton mini muffin pan to make these mini chocolate cupcakes. They are the perfect snack. When transferring the batter after it has been mixed together, I recommend pouring the it into a piping bag with a sealed tip. Next, cut the tip of the piping bag and pipe the batter into each muffin liner or pan. This helps to avoid a big mess. (I didn't have a chance to take any pictures as I was piping, but click here for a visual.)

I used these sprinkles to add a little color to the vanilla frosting.

My mother-in-law was visiting from Montreal so I had an assistant this week...

To adorn these perfect, tiny, little cupcakes.

Thanks Kathy!

Two bites and all gone.

Enjoy!

Apple Cranberry Cake

2011-10-10T21:07:00.001-04:00

What a fabulous weekend! Was it really October? Did anyone else spend time enjoying the gorgeous weather? I couldn't help but peel the apples for my apple cranberry cake outside while enjoying the sun hitting my back as though it were a warm summer day! (Hence the grass underneath the bowls.)

I was also a little sad when making this cake since my apples came from the grocery store and not an apple farm. Nevertheless, the courtland apples tasted as yummy as ever, and with an addition of fresh cranberries to my apple cake recipe, doubled, this dessert was delicious!

Remember; do not discard of the apple peel! The nutrients are good for you and apple chips are yummy! Link to this post and scroll down to learn how to make apple chips.

Another tip...to prevent apples from browning, use the juice of one lemon and immediately roll peeled apples in the juice.

An apple corer or this kitchen aid apple slicer contraption works well to core and cut up the apples.

Once cut, discard of apple cores.

Or, take a picture, and then discard!

Next, pile up all of the apple pieces into the food processor and let it slice away. Follow the recipe from this post to make this cake. Remember, I doubled the recipe for the dough.

Since I doubled the recipe for the dough, I used a 9 x 13 inch dish to make the cake. Spray it with a cooking spray so the cake will slide out easily.

Spread the first batch of the cake mixture PLUS a quarter if the second batch over the surface of the pan. Next, alternately layer the apples and fresh cranberries. I used about half a bag of cranberries. I placed the cranberries on top of the sliced apples by hand. By placing them, they were evenly distributed throughout the cake. Continue to layer apples and cranberries. Pour remaining cake mixture and spread over fruit. Sprinkle with additional sugar and cinnamon if desired.

Bake at 350 for about 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

I loved the tartness of the cranberries combined with the sweetness of the sugar and cinnamon coated apples. Mmmm...The aroma created in the house when this cake was baking made my mouth water. And it will when you make it too! Enjoy.

Carrot Cake Balls

2011-09-25T21:16:00.002-04:00

I just love carrot cake. Especially when I make it, because I know that it is nut free! But what could be better than the cake itself? CARROT CAKE BALLS!

To make carrot cake balls or carrot cake pops, make a fresh carrot cake or crumble up any leftover carrot cake and add cream cheese frosting to bind the crumbled cake together.

Follow the same steps as you would to make regular cake pops.

Then, drizzle with your favourite coloured candy coating. I decided to skip the step of dipping the entire ball first since the cake and the icing is already very sweet.

Gently peel the parchment paper away from the cake ball and hardened candy coating and transfer cake balls onto a serving tray. Enjoy!

Cupcakes with Mini Cookie Toppers

2011-09-18T22:11:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to one of my oldest and best friends Joelle, on the birth of her second baby boy! I brought these cupcakes to Issie's bris this summer. Issie is Rowan's brother. Remember when I made these cookies for Rowan's first birthday? They were yummy!

But back to the cupcakes I made to celebrate Issie's birth....To make these cupcakes, I used my favourite chocolate cupcake recipe. You already know how much I like the Ghirardelli one!

I used Wilton colors to colour this icing blue, although it does look a little turquoise, doesn't it?

After piping the buttercream icing onto each cupcake, I added a cute little sugar cookie on an angle. As soon as I bought these mini baby cutters (from a dollar store near my house!) I knew that they would be the perfect size to use as cupcake toppers. I also used these cutters when I made these cookies!

I loved the colors! And the sweetness of the icing, the cookies and the cake...Milk please!

Yes, I am holding baby Issie. He is soooooo cute! Just look at his tiny toes and feet!

Mazel tov Joelle and Adam!

Heart Krispie and Cupcakes for my Sister's Engagement!

2011-08-16T21:06:00.001-04:00

My sister got engaged at the beginning of August! Our entire family is thrilled. This exciting news was a good excuse for me to make time to bake!

When my sister and her fiancée came over to share the excitement with the family, I made a Rice Krispie heart. To model rice cereal treats into any shape, cover with saran wrap and roll out with a rolling pin. Place hands over saran to soften edges and form into desired shape. Sprinkle with candy or jimmies to add a little crunch, and then add a message with buttercream icing. This message had to be in turquoise, since it is my sister's favourite color.

I always suggest cutting rice cereal treats as soon as you make them. This avoids difficulty later on and makes it easy to serve. All of the sticky marshmallows make it difficult to cut when it cools, as you can see for the expression on my sister's face!

Looks like I got approval from the groom to be. Thanks David! (He's easy...he likes all of my treats!)

My mom helped me bake these cupcakes that I brought to a Family Toast over the weekend. To create this turquoise buttercream, I added about a half a teaspoon of Wilton teal icing color to buttercream icing. I used Wilton Tip 32 to decorate the cupcakes above.

To decorate these cupcakes I used Wilton tip 22. I began by piping individual stars to form a circle around the border of each cupcake and continued to fill in the middle until no more cake was showing.

These cupcakes were "sweet!" Most importantly, Adrienne loved them!

Stay tuned for more "engagement/shower/wedding treats" throughout the year.

It looks like there will be a number of celebrations!

Mazel Tov Adrienne and David!

Free Birthday "Sweet Treats"

2011-07-26T11:30:00.001-04:00

I had a wonderful weekend celebrating my birthday with family and friends. Who knew that there were so many perks to having a birthday! I have come across a number of "free sweet treats" that you too, can get on your birthday. All of these freebies will definitely apply to Torontonians (and most Canadians) and I hope that a few will also apply to those of you in the United States and in other countries.

Baskin Robbins - Join the Birthday Club to get a FREE 2.5 oz. scoop or 3oz. soft serve cone. An e-mail will be sent to your account a few days before your birthday to be printed and can be used until the date of expiry on the coupon.

Dairy Queen - Join the Blizzard Fan Club and an e-mail will be sent to your account on the morning of your birthday with a printable coupon for a FREE New Mini, Small or Medium Blizzard Treat when you buy a medium Blizzard Treat.

Lollicakes - This is by far my favourite cupcake shop in Toronto! Join the Birthday Club on their website to get a free cupcake on your birthday. Lollicakes products are not only delicious, but they are nut free, (perfect for me) dairy free, and kosher. This cupcake shop is located at Mount Pleasant and Eglinton.

Orange Julius - Join the Quench Club and an e-mail will be sent to your account on the morning of your birthday with a printable coupon for a FREE Julius Fruit Drink or Premium Fruit Smoothie when you buy one 20 oz. Julius Fruit Drink or Premium Fruit Smoothie.

Second Cup - I was walking home from the gym the other day and noticed a sign on the door of The Second Cup on Eglinton near Dunfield Avenue that said, "Come visit us on your birthday and receive 1 small FREE birthday beverage!" No sign up required. I would imagine that ID would need to be presented. ***Since this is a franchise, this may not apply at other locations.***

Starbucks-Buy and/or register a Starbucks gift card to get a free drink on your birthday. A post card will be sent to you in the mail during the month of your birthday. Present the post card at any Starbucks location and redeem it for any sized beverage.

I hope that you will take advantage of some of these fun perks on your special day. I certainly enjoyed a cold Frappuccino from Starbucks on Saturday!

Happy Birthday those of you who celebrate a summer birthday!

Cake Pops for the End of the School Year

2011-07-20T23:33:00.000-04:00

I'm a little late at posting these cake pops. I made these for a friend's daughter to bring to school as an end of the year treat. Lucky classmates she has!

This one's for you Amanda.

Sorry I have been M.I.A. over the past few weeks. I am in the process of moving and didn't realize how busy I would be!

For a cake pop tutorial, click here.

Doctor Bag Cookies

2011-07-02T22:12:00.000-04:00

I made these cookies for a recent graduate. Can you tell that he is now a doctor?! I tried to make different looking doctor cookies than these cookies.

I searched online for different images of doctor bags. This is the one that my design was based on.

To make these cookies, I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe and a square cookie cutter. Before baking, I added a lollipop stick to each cookie to make each one into a cookie pop. To make the doctor bag on top of the royal icing, I used an edible pen to draw the image onto the cookie like I did here. Then, I traced over it with black royal icing.

Finally, I used an edible ink pen to write Dr. Daniel Abramowitz below each doctor bag.

Each cookie was individually wrapped.

Congrats Dr. Abramowitz!

Hedy's Mars Bar Ice Cream Cake

2011-06-26T22:33:00.000-04:00

For my dad's birthday last week, I made my friend Hedy's famous, "Mars Bar Ice Cream Cake!" She has made it many times before, but this was my first attempt to make it as well as she does.

To make this cake, here is what you will need:

For the crust:

-1 1/4 cups of graham cracker crumbs

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/3 cup butter melted

For the cake:

-2 x 1.55L tubs of your favourite vanilla ice cream softened
-8 Mars bars
-1 jar or squeeze bottle of chocolate fudge sauce

First, make the crust in the bottom of a spring form pan as though you were making a pie crust, using graham cracker crumbs, butter and sugar. Let cool completely. Hedy likes to use Oreo cookie crumbs, but I used my favourite, graham cracker crumbs. Click here for more details on how to make the crust.

Next, freeze Mars bars for at least a half hour. Break in half and crumble in food processor using the steel blade. Set aside in a bowl.

Let ice cream soften in tubs. Use half of one tub of ice cream. Place in food processor and blend. Add half a cup of crushed mars and fold in by hand. Pour into a large bowl. Repeat for next three portions of ice cream. Pour half of the ice cream mixture onto the crust. Use a spatula to even out the softened ice cream mixture. Next, add a layer of chocolate fudge sauce. Then, add the remaining ice cream mixture and top with remaining crumbled Mars bars. Finally, fill a piping bag with the rest of the chocolate fudge. Drizzle over crumbled Mars bars.
Let set in the freezer for at least 24 hours.

If this is not delicious...

I don't know what is?

Happy Birthday Daddy.

Enjoy everyone!
A perfect summer treat.

Basketball Cake Pops

2011-06-19T00:15:00.000-04:00

How will you be celebrating Father's Day? Sports themed cake pops are a great gift for dad. This order was for a basketball junkie!

For these cake pops, I used chocolate cake mixed with cream cheese frosting. I began by melting orange candy melts and added a few chocolate brown ones to darken the orange color just a bit. First, I dipped the cake balls into the melted candy. For basic cake pop instructions, click here. To learn how to decorate these cake pops, read below.

Once all of the cake pops were dry, I began to decorate each one. I used black royal icing to add the lines of the basketball. I place each pop into a styrofoam base, one at a time, so it would stand alone. Next, I marked the middle point on the top of the pop. I then drew two lines that looked like a plus sign. One was drawn from the left side to the right, and the other from the front to the back. Finally, I added a curved line to either side. It really helped to look at a photo of a basketball. Another idea would be to use an edible marker to draw the lines on the cake pop first, and then trace over them with the royal icing.

A sturdy hand is helpful when adding the details.

I think they look adorable.

To make them even cuter, add a father's day tag to the lollipop stick. Print any tag onto cardstock. Cut it out and poke two holes in the tag, one at the top, and another at the bottom. Slide through stick.

I printed these adorable, free cupcake toppers (that I used as tags), from Tip Junkie.

Enjoy!

Happy Father's Day to all of the dad's celebrating today!

Thomas the Train Cake Pops

2011-06-05T21:59:00.000-04:00

I made a train of cake pops for a birthday party this weekend. They complimented Thomas' colours. Since it was a second birthday party, each pop was finished with a number 2.

To make these cake pops, begin by baking a white cake and let it cool for a few hours. Break the cake into crumbs and add your favourite frosting. Using the back of a spoon, mix the icing and the crumbs together. I added chocolate frosting to the white cake crumbs.

Use a mini ice cream scoop to scoop balls that are even in size.

Then, roll the balls with your hands and set on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

To make the pops, use 6 inch lollipop sticks.

Dip in melted candy and tap off excess coating. Place in a styrofoam tray to set.

Melt red candy melts and spoon into a piping bag. Pipe the number 2 on each cake pop.

Place in the boxcars and add a Thomas train at the front. To make the boxcars I used shoeboxes and filled them with styrofoam. I covered the boxes with fadeless red paper as though I was wrapping a gift. Using a wooden skewer, I punched holes in specific places so the cake pops would easily fit in.

Package each pop individually by placing a clear cellophane bag over top each one, bunching the bag together at the base of the pop. Tie with light blue ribbon. Curl ends of ribbon with the sharp edge of a pair of scissors.

Bring to a party and give away as loot bags.

For a more detailed tutorial explaining how to make cake pops, click here.

Happy Birthday Oliver!

Cookie Pops for a Baby Naming

2011-05-29T21:47:00.001-04:00

A few months ago, I made cookie pops for center pieces for a baby naming. The cookie pops served a dual purpose; Not only were they focal point at each table, they were also given to the guests at the end of the party. Talk about practical!

I'm sure you have figured out by now that the baby girl's name is Jenna! To make the letters in her name I used the same technique as I did here, using parchment paper and a chosen font from Microsoft Word. The font that I used was Curlz MT. This time, I used royal icing to make the letters. This meant that I had to make extras since they were quite fragile. To make the dark purple letters above, I immediately sprinkled the royal icing letters with purple sugar crystals and let them dry overnight. Had I only done the same for the pink and light purple letters...

But I didn't...The method that I used for the cookies above was a little more time consuming. Once the pink letters dried overnight, I gently removed them from the parchment paper. After flooding the cookies with purple royal icing, I placed each letter in the center of a cookie. The cookies needed to dry completely overnight before adding any sugar. The next day, I retraced the letters with a little more royal icing and added white sugar crystals. It was helpful to lay the cookies on a piece of wax/parchment paper. This way, the excess sugar can be poured back into a bowl to be used to add sugar to the next set of cookies.

Here's a side profile!

Making cookie pops is quite simple. The way that has worked best for me is simply sticking the lollipop stick about halfway into the raw cookie dough after it has been cut and placed onto a parchment lined cookie sheet that is ready for baking. The cookies are baked with sticks in them at the same temperature as regular cookies. Above, are the three different combinations of cookie pops that I made for the center pieces.

I used both longer and shorter lollipop sticks.

I think they turned out pretty cute!

A fun and original center piece.

For my sugar cookie recipe, click here.

For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

Congratulations to Jenna's family!

Cookies for a Lawyer

2011-05-23T16:31:00.001-04:00

I continue to have such original requests from one customer who has lawyers and doctors to congratulate! Isn't that exciting? This order was from the same lady who ordered Scrubs for a Doctor cookies. Remember those?

The challenging part of making these cookies was finding a design that could be made without using a Kopykake projector, since I do not own one...yet! And, finding an original design that fit the request. In the end, I made two different cookies: one with a gavel and another with a scale of justice.

These are the images I used for each cookie.

For the cookies with the gavels on them, I first piped and flooded each sugar cookie with green royal icing.

Then, I used Wilton Food Writer Edible Color pens to add the details.

For the scale of justice cookies I followed the same steps but piped and flooded white royal icing.

Then used a blue edible marker to add the details.

Then I packaged up the cookies and they were ready to be delivered.

Congratulations Mark!

Cake Pop Bouquet

2011-05-15T15:58:00.001-04:00

I made these cake pops for a first birthday party.

I used chocolate and blue candy melts.

First, I dipped the vanilla cake balls into the candy melts and attached the sticks. Then, I set them in a styrofoam stand to dry.

To decorate, I used the leftover candy melts of the opposite color and drizzled a simple design.

To learn how to make your own cake pops, click here.

This order turned out perfectly!

To package the cake pops, I filled a silver plant pot from Ikea with styrofoam. I topped it with blue and brown tissue paper and poked the cake pops into the styrofoam. I added clear cellophane to cover up the arrangement and delivered it to the party. Everyone was thrilled and confused at the same time. They had never seen or eaten a cake pop before!

Have you tried a cake pop before? If so, where was it from and what flavour was it?

Baby Cookies for a Purple and White Baby Shower

2011-05-08T20:47:00.003-04:00

A few weeks ago, my friend Jen and her sister Alyse made a baby shower for their niece, Mila. The colors they chose for the shower were lavender and white.

To make these cookies, I used my favourite sugar cookie recipe. To tint the royal icing purple, I used Wilton Violet Icing Color. The more colour added, the darker the shade of purple. For the royal icing recipe I used, click here.

I used two different techniques to decorate the baby onsies: marbling or creating feathered stripes on wet flood and adding polka dots to wet flood. For a step by step tutorial showing how to create feathered stripes on wet flood, click here. To learn how to create polka dots on wet flood, click here.

The purple and white icing looked great together!

All packaged up and ready to be delivered.

Jen sent me a photo of the gorgeous table from the shower. The baby cookies were only a minor part of all of the beautiful purple and white sweets displayed. The cake was from Cake Opera Company, the french macaroons were ordered from a company called "Pretty Sweet" and everything else, was homemade!

Alyse even made her own cupcake toppers to top the vanilla cupcakes she made.

As well as fondant little ducks to decorate the chocolate cupcakes she made.

Great job ladies! Thanks for including my cookies in your celebration. Congratulations to your sister on the birth of her daughter.

Rose Cake for my Mother-in-Law's Birthday

2011-05-01T15:27:00.002-04:00

Happy Birthday Kathy!

We invited Rich's parents to Toronto for the weekend to celebrate his mom's birthday. I knew that this cake idea would be perfect for her. But I can't take credit for it. I have to credit Amanda from i am baker.

She has so many great cake ideas. Some are simple, and all are elegant.

For this cake, I modified her round rose cake to a rectangular rose cake.

1. Bake a rectangular cake and let cool.

2. Load on the frosting. (I used a vanilla frosting which I like with white cake.)

3. Spread the frosting over the entire cake using an offset spatula.

4. Evenly coat the sides of the cake so that all areas are covered.

To make blended pink and purple roses, I filled a piping bag with both colors of frosting. I filled the left side of the piping bag with pink frosting and the right side of the piping bag with purple frosting.

I used a 1M open star tip to pipe the flowers onto the cake. For each flower, I started in the middle, working my way around the center until a rose formed.

The roses turned out really pretty. Had the icing been a little colder and stiffer, I think the roses would have taken better form.

To fill the spaces between the roses, I piped a star of icing and topped each star with a silver dragee.

Since I ran out of frosting and therefore was not able to add roses to the sides of the cake, I also lined the base of the cake with dragees. Amanda covered the sides of her cake with roses. In retrospect, I wish I did too. Her cake looked fantastic! To see her beautiful creation, click here.

Matching up some sugar cookies using the same colors as the cake made it all come together.

My mother-in-law was thrilled. She really deserves it. She is such a wonderful lady!

She was so happy to have her family and friends together to celebrate a special milestone in her life.

Here's to celebrating many more birthdays together!

Happy Birthday Kathy!

Spring Cake Pops

2011-04-22T21:06:00.000-04:00

Happy Spring and Happy Easter

to those of you who are celebrating this weekend!

As soon as I saw these mini cookie cutters,

I knew they would be perfect for making cake pops.

For basic cake pop instructions, click here.

After chilling the dough in the fridge,

I used the cutters to cut out these adorable shapes.

Then, dipped the pops into white

candy melts and added some butterfly sprinkles.

The flowers all turned out really well...

But my favourite, was the butterfly.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Lemon Cheesecake Squares (for Passover!)

2011-04-20T21:28:00.000-04:00

How would you rate these cheesecake squares for Passover originality?

Who knew that Kraft even made a kosher for Passover line of Philadelphia cream cheese? I happened to stumble upon these two packages at the grocery store the other day and found the idea for this recipe inside the package. With a little twist of my own, it appeared at my second seder for dessert!

First, I combined a little cake meal, matzo meal, sugar and margarine for the crust and pressed it into an 8x8 square dish.

Then, I followed the cheesecake recipe from the inside of the box, poured it over the crust and baked it in the oven for 25 minutes.

Shhhh...Don't tell anyone...it was so easy!

And so delicious!

Try it!

Passover Lemon Cheesecake Squares

(Adapted from the Philadelphia recipe)

Makes 16 Servings

For the Crust

2/3 cup cake meal

2/3 cup matzo meal

1/4 cup sugar

4 Tbsp. melted margarine

For the Cheesecake

2 pkg. (8 oz. each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. zest and 1 Tbsp. juice from one lemon
1/2 tsp. Passover vanilla
2 eggs (room temperature)

MAKE IT
Heat oven to 350. In a small pot, melt margarine at medium-low heat. Remove pot from burner and add cake meal, matzo meal and sugar. Mix together until combined. Press onto bottom 8-inch square pan sprayed with cooking spray.

Beat cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, juice and vanilla in a large bowl with mixer until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing after each just until blended. Pour over crust. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate for 3 hours.

Enjoy!

Ryan in the Kitchen - Passover Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-04-17T20:01:00.000-04:00

Yes...these really are kosher for Passover! Don't they look good?

Of course they do, because my partner in crime helped me make them!

He began by helping me crack the eggs. First, we tapped the egg on the counter. Then, cracked it in half into a mug. Finally, Ryan poured it into the mixing bowl. He loved watching the mixer combine all of the ingredients and found it very funny that he could see his reflection in the bowl.

Once all of the ingredients were mixed together, he poured in the chocolate chips.

Time to fold them in!

After the dough chilled in the fridge for an hour, (and Ryan went home) I continued to make the cookies. Since they expand ever so slightly, if you use this recipe, it is important to flatten out the cookies before baking.

They looked and tasted delicious.

To add even more sweetness, try drizzling some melted white chocolate overtop.

Jewish Holiday Baking by Marci Goldman is a cookbook that I bought a few months ago. She has a number of yummy desserts for Passover in this book as well as for many other Jewish holidays. The recipe for these cookies can be found in this book.

Here is her recipe for Crisp and Chewy Chocolate Chip CookiesMakes 4-5 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon Passover vanilla sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter or margarine

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup matzoh cake meal

1 cup potato starch

2 cups chocolate chips

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, cream all three sugars with the butter or margarine. Blend in the eggs. Stir in the salt, matzoh cake meal and potato starch. Fold in the chocolate chips. Chill the dough for 1 hour or overnight for chewy style cookies; (I made these ones!) do not chill for thin and crisp cookies.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out generous teaspoonfuls of dough. Place on the baking sheet leaving room for the cookies to spread. If using cold dough, press a little; if using fresh dough (not chilled), do not press down.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool. Use a spatula to remove from baking tray. Enjoy!

For more Passover dessert ideas click on the links below:

Matza Crunch

Frozen Lemon Dessert Passover Style

Sponge Cake

Meringues

Have a happy Passover!

Camera Cake

2011-04-10T10:06:00.000-04:00

It was Rich's Uncle's birthday yesterday. Since he is a photographer, Rich commissioned me to make him a camera cake! That husband of mine...he has so many good ideas!

Let me remind you that I am not such an experienced cake maker/designer. The first fondant cake that I made was a Montreal Canadien's Cake for Rich's birthday last year. The second one that I made was a cake for my mom's 60th a few months ago. So...I guess this would be my third attempt at being the Cake Boss. This project was different though. It involved making a cake in the shape of an actual camera. Here's how I did it.

First, I traced my own camera on a piece of green cardstock, cut it out and made it into a stencil. Next, I placed it on top of the rectangular cooled cake and cut around the edges of the stencil with a knife. This created the first layer. I repeated this step to create a second layer. I smeared chocolate fudge frosting on the first layer which acted as glue that held the two layers together. To create the "camera lense," I cut out a circle using a circle cookie cutter and attached it to the main part of the cake with toothpicks.

Dirty icing the cake adheres the fondant to it. This part was really messy! Note to self, when dirty icing a cake, stick to vanilla frosting! The chocolate frosting seemed thicker than vanilla, and made a big mess! While the cake chilled in the fridge, I prepared the fondant.

To make black fondant, I added about 2 teaspoons of Wilton black Icing Color to white fondant. Remember to always wear gloves to colour fondant!

I melted some white candy melts and put them into a piping bag to pipe some other details.

The cake really began to take shape.

For an amateur, it looked alright!

Rich was really impressed.

But George's reaction was priceless! He was thrilled and did not want to eat the cake!

The photographer in action!

Have you seen any of George's work before? He is a very talented landscape photographer. Check out the trailer for one of his DVDs, Unforgettable Canada. The photos in the DVD are from his best seller, "Unforgettable Canada" that sold over 50, 000 copies.

It was hard to cut into the cake, but we managed!

Happy Birthday George!

Cupcake Pops

2011-04-03T11:27:00.001-04:00

I am on my own little cake pop journey! Recently, I entered the world of cupcake pops, which upon my first attempt failed miserably. However, with the help of My Little Cupcake's Cake Pop Mold, (don't kill me Bakerella!) I have finally mastered how to make a "cupcake" pop!

I stumbled upon Jeanette's blog by fluke one day when I was searching images online. All of my searching led me to her website with the cutest step by step video of her daughters demonstrating how to make "No Bake Cupcake Pops" using the mold their mom created.

This post doesn't follow their suggested no bake recipe using crumbled Oreo cookies and cream cheese to form the balls, but it is a definite must for another post! For these cake pops, I used vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. For a basic cake pop tutorial, click here.

Here is what the mold looks like when it is open. Unfortunately, this product is not carried in Toronto, but my mother in law picked one up for me at a bakery in Montreal called Cho'cola.

I was very excited to use my new mold! The steps were pretty simple.

This is what the cupcakes looked like before they were dipped and made into cupcake pops.

Here's how I did it!

Making cupcake pops is a two part process. First, dip the bottom of the cupcake in a chosen color of melted candy coating.

Once the extra coating has dripped off, dip 1/4 inch of the stick into the melted coating. Then, insert the stick no more than half way into the bottom half of the cupcake.

A plastic egg carton is a helpful item used to place all of the dipped pops, before dipping the top part of the cupcake.

Next, melt a different coloured candy coating, (I used blue candy melts)

and dip the top part of the cupcake into it. Tap off excess coating.

Add decorations immediately. I used a Smartie for the cherry and Cake Mate Rainbow Decors for the sprinkles. The wet candy coating allows for all of the sprinkles to stick to the cupcake pop. The reason why I had the big white bowl under the cupcake pop was so that all of the extra sprinkles would fall into the bowl and I could reuse them afterward.

Ta Da!

Aren't they cute?

I think so.

Hope you do to.

Package and give away!

Monogrammed Baby Cookies

2011-03-27T19:03:00.001-04:00

A is for Audrey! Our friends Jeff and Julia gave birth to a baby girl named Audrey a few weeks ago. I tried something new by adding a monogram of the letter A on top of flooded royal icing.

To make all of the letters as uniform as possible, I printed a sheet of letter A's from the computer and traced them onto parchment paper using Wilton (chocolate) Candy Melts. Royal icing can also be used for the same purpose.

The letters took not even 5 minutes to dry. As you can see above, they peel off very easily from the parchment paper.

Once the cookies dried, the letter A was added by using some royal icing as glue. For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

Had I been a little more organized, I would have applied the letters to the cookies while the icing was still wet.

Both ways will work, but the second way is a little more efficient and will allow for the letter to adhere to the cookie more securely.

We are so glad to have a little girl in our "crew."

Congrats, Jeff and Julia!

For my favourite sugar cookie recipe, click here.

Cake Pops for Kelly's Birthday

2011-03-20T14:37:00.000-04:00

My brother's girlfriend Kelly celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago. We made a cake pop bouquet for the dessert table.

The cake balls look like matzah balls! Don't you think?

The turquoise blue colour looked great!

Kelly was very proud of herself. This cake pop experience was a success!

To display the cake pops, I filled a martini shaped glass with granulated sugar.

Then placed each pop inside one at a time.

Kelly loved the pops, as well as the apron and Cake Pop book my sister and I bought for her.

The cake pops tasted delicious.

To learn how to make your own cake pops, click here.

Happy Birthday Kelly!

Hamantaschen Part 2 - Baking with Ryan

2011-03-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

Warning...

Cute alert, cute alert!

When Fay gave me extra dough and filling to make more of Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen, I knew that I needed some help. Ryan and I had a date! We made our own version of Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen with poppy seed and blueberry filling, and a round, scalloped edge cookie cutter. I was impressed with the final product of a two and a half year old! We made a great team.

We began by working together to roll out the dough...

Until Ryan wanted to try it on his own! The rolling pin was bigger than he was! I tried to buy him a kid's sized rolling pin and apron, but had no luck. Any suggestions of where to go?

He did such a great job using a cookie cutter to cut out the circles of dough.

Then he spooned the filling into the center of each circle.

Although he thought it was a little messy, he managed to squeezed each corner together.

"Ready for the oven!"

"Yummy! I made hamantaschen!"

Thanks Ryan...I had so much fun baking with you!

For the recipe and step by step instructions of how to make Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen, click here.

Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen

2011-03-13T23:24:00.004-04:00

Hamantaschen are triangular filled pastries which are traditionally served on the Jewish holiday of Purim. This year, Purim falls on Sunday, March 20, 2011. The word hamantaschen derived from two German words: mohn (poppy seeds) and taschen (pockets). Hamantaschen means "Haman's pockets." Haman was the villain of Purim as described in the book of Esther. The most popular explanation of why people eat this three cornered pastry on Purim is that Haman wore a three-cornered hat. Eating an image of Haman's hat is a way to symbolically destroy his memory.

Bubbi Hanka, my cousin's grandmother, passed along her recipe for hamantaschen to her daughter-in-law Fay. Today I learned how to bake hamantaschen with Fay and her daughter Shonna. They sure taught me! Fay has been making her mother-in-law's recipe for the past 20 years. (It's the only thing she really bakes!) She has perfected the measurements and reminded me that no stand mixer is used in this recipe.

Here are the ingredients you will need to make this recipe.

Hamantaschen are made with different fillings. We used prune, lemon and blueberry fillings for the center of our hamantaschen.

Cracking the eggs was the easy part!

Then I got down and dirty! Fay made me use my hands to mix the ingredients together into a ball!

This is what the dough looked like after it had chilled in the fridge for 3 hours.

To roll out the dough:

1) Cover your work surface with a generous amount of flour.

2) Divide dough into four balls. Roll out one ball at a time to a thickness of about 1/8 inch.

3) Using the top of a glass or a cookie cutter, cut out as many circles as you can.

Fill the hamantaschen with a generous teaspoonful of the desired filling.

Fold in three edges of the circle to form triangles. Take note of the placement of my two thumbs. Shonna had to demonstrate this for me a couple of times. I was not very good at this part! Be sure to squeeze the corners together before baking.

Repeat this process with the remaining dough and filling.

Line on prepared pre-greased cookie sheets or parchment lined cookie sheets.

Bake in the center of a preheated oven at 350 for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Let cool and serve!

Bubbi Hanka's Hamantaschen

(Makes 4-6 dozen)

Dough

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup orange juice

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter

1 tbsp vanilla

2 eggs

Approximately 4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

Fillings

Poppy seed

Lemon

Blueberry

Prune: For every pound of prune filling, add one cup of orange juice, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and combine.

Overall, we used only about 3/4 of a pound of filling for all of the hamantaschen. However, at a kosher grocery store like Sobey's, fillings are pre-packaged and sold in 1 pound containers. The fillings can be frozen or, more hamantaschen will need to be made!

Directions:

In a large bowl, using a wooden spoon, combine all of the ingredients except the flour. Add flour one cup at a time and mix with hands. Knead together until fully combined and a soft but firm ball of dough is formed. Wrap in foil and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours. Let it rest on the counter for 5-15 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheets with non stick spray or line with parchment paper.

Divide dough into 4 balls. Roll out on lightly floured surface to a thickness of about 1/8 inch. Cut out 3 inch circles using the top of a glass or a cookie cutter. Fill with a teaspoonful of filling and shape into an open triangle. Bake until lightly golden, about 20 minutes.

Enjoy!

Thanks Fay and Shonna for teaching me how to make Hamantaschen.

Stay tuned for a kids version of this recipe later on this week when I bake with my adorable, little Ring Bearer Ryan.

Baking and Decorating Sugar Cookies-A Two Day Workshop

2011-03-06T22:12:00.003-05:00

I led a sugar cookie workshop for my colleagues last week! I was very excited to share with others, what I have taught myself over the past two years about making, baking and decorating sugar cookies. It was loads of fun!

I taught everyone how to roll out dough, fill a pastry bag, pipe, and flood cookies.

We used basic ingredients to make the cookies: butter, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla and eggs. For the sugar cookie recipe we used, click here.

When rolling out cookie dough, using wooden slats is one way to attain cookies of the same thickness. For a more detailed post on how to roll out cookie dough, click here.

Everyone was cutting away. So many cookies were baked! The aroma in the room was delicious!

While the cookies were baking in the oven, the royal icing was tinted. Toothpicks were used to add Wilton Colors to the royal icing. For the royal icing recipe we used, click here. So many colours were made.

The next day was time to decorate! First, I taught the group how to fill a pastry bag.

How to Fill a Pastry Bag

(Adapted from Sweet SugarBelle)

What you will need…

-Mini spatula

-scissors

-Wilton tip #2

-coupler and ring

-clear glass (allows you to see the color of icing in the pastry bag)

-clear disposable Wilton pastry bag

-twist tie or elastic

-paper towel

-royal icing (consistency of pudding) in a clear measuring glass

Directions

1) Place damp paper towel at the bottom of glass. (This will prevent tips from clogging.)

2) Cut tip off of pastry bag. (About 3 cm.)

3) Place coupler into bag. (The bag should be just a little longer than the coupler.)

4) Place Wilton Round #2 decorating tip straight on, on top of coupler.

5) Screw the ring on tight. (Tip should not wiggle.)

6) To fill the bag, place the pastry bag with tip inside the clear glass.

7) Fold the rim of the pastry bag over the lip of the glass to form an opening where the icing will be poured.

8) Pour about ½ cup of icing into piping bag.

9) To tie the bag, remove it from the glass.

10) Unfold the pastry bag and squeeze all of the icing down toward the tip. If you notice air bubbles, try to massage them out with your hands.

11) Use a twist tie or elastic to secure the top of the piping bag.

12) Thin remaining icing to flooding consistency and pour into Wilton squeeze bottles. This ensures consistency of colors between the piped borders and flooded icing.

The bags were filled and ready to be used to pipe away!

I did a quick demo showing how to pipe the border of the cookies. After everyone piped their own cookies, they were set aside.

A small amount of warm water was added to the royal icing used for piping to thin it out to flooding consistency. The icing was then poured into squeeze bottles to be used to flood the cookies.

All of the cookies turned out great.

They were so colourful!

Everyone was hard at work...

and so focused.

I was impressed. The cookies were set aside to dry over night.

Great job ladies!

Thanks for letting me share my passion for baking with you!

Cake Balls

2011-02-27T15:35:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend Jen came over for a lesson on how to make cake pops. She took home the cake pops and I was left with a few cake balls.

Mix it up Jenny!

A proud cake pop rookie, showing off her stuff!

Don't you just love our aprons? Check out Sassy Apron at Etsy.com for the cutest handmade aprons.

We were having too much fun!

To make cake balls, follow the basic cake pop instructions. I still inserted a stick into the ball, but removed the stick and placed the ball on a parchment lined cookie sheet to set. Add decorations immediately.

Simple and sweet! Here is the final product.

Elmo Cookies

2011-02-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

I did it! Thanks to Sweet Sugarbelle who made a video tutorial showing how to decorate sugar cookies without using a fancy tracing projector, I made these cute Elmo and number 2 cookies.

In this post, I will walk you through the steps to making more challenging cookies, minus the fancy projector. (In the future, however, I may invest in a Kopykake projector.)

Items you will need for this project:

-sugar cookies

-printed image(s) of Elmo and the number 2

-black edible ink pen

-royal icing

-#1 Wilton piping tip

-squeeze bottles

-toothpicks

Bake sugar cookies and let cool. Print an image of Elmo onto cardstock and cut out around the face. (I found this image on Sugar Envy's Flicker photo stream.) Cut out mouth and poke holes around nose with a toothpick. Place printed image onto cookie and trace around Elmo's face with an edible ink pen to create the border. Since I was going to pipe the outline black, I used a black edible ink pen. Always try to match the color of ink to the colour you will pipe as the border.

Next, trace the mouth and the dots of the nose.

When the dots are connected and the eyes are joined, the face begins to take shape.

Next, pipe the drawn image with black royal icing using a number #1 Wilton Piping tip. (I used a #2 tip in the pictures. In retrospect, I think that a #1 tip would have been better.) Fill in the mouth with the same black icing. Repeat steps for remaining Elmo cookies. Let set and dry overnight.

The next day, flood the face with red royal icing. Use a toothpick to spread the icing into corners or hard to get to areas on the face. For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

Flood the nose with orange royal icing and the eyes with white royal icing. Let dry overnight.

Use a black edible ink pen to draw and colour in the eyeballs.

Ta Da!

For the number 2 cookies above, print the number 2 image onto cardstock. Cut out, trace onto cookie and pipe with royal icing. Let dry overnight. Flood with coloured icing and let dry overnight.

The Lexie cookies were first outlined with black royal icing. The next day they were flooded with coloured royal icing and left to dry overnight. On the third day, the names were piped on top.

Happy Birthday Lexie!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.

Happy decorating,

Melissa ;)

Vanilla Valentine's Day Cupcakes

2011-02-12T23:26:00.000-05:00

Whoo! Snack is back for the staff at my school! For all of you non-teachers, Friday's are FAT at most schools...we like to call them "Fat Fridays"...you know, treat day. At morning recess, the staff meet in the staffroom to schmooze over food and treats!

Since I was on treats this week, I chose to make Valentine's Day cupcakes for my colleagues to enjoy. This time I made simple vanilla cupcakes with three kinds of frosting: pink buttercream, white cream cheese frosting and delicious chocolate buttercream frosting, (see recipe below) all topped with heart sprinkles. The same heart sprinkles that I used for the eyes of my Valentine's Day Cake Pops!

I was inspired by tags created by Bakerella, and by Melissa, from Domesticated Lady.

I know, I need to get a circle punch! When I made Duff's Cake Pops with tags, Nancy suggested that I buy some circle punches. Haven't gotten around to it yet Nancy! Scissors did the trick, yet again this time!

I glued the tags onto some red popsicle sticks that I bought at Dollarama.

How cute!

Love the "Valentine, I think you're...WILD" tags!

Ghirardelli Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

(Warning...this is sinful!)

6 tbsp butter softened

2-2/3 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup Ghirardelli Unsweetened Cocoa

1/3 cup milk

1/2 tsp vanilla

In bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy. In a separate bowl, mix icing sugar with cocoa. Blend sugar mixture with butter alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Beat until smooth. Blend in vanilla.

(Frosts tops and sides of two, 9" layers.)

For other Valentine's Day ideas check out these posts:

Valentine's Day Cookies

Valentine's Day Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Mini Cherry Cheesecakes

Happy Valentine's Day!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

2011-02-06T15:40:00.000-05:00

Have you ever visited Ming's website called Ming Makes Cupcakes? My cousin Naomi sent me the link to her page a few months ago and I have finally tried a recipe form it. This Red Velvet recipe is one of her 33 delicious cupcake recipes. A perfect choice for Valentine's Day! On her site, it is Cupcake 4. However, she makes these cupcakes with a buttercream frosting, and I have used a cream cheese frosting.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
(Taken from Ming Makes Cupcakes)

1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp. cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tbsp red food coloring
1/2 tsp white vinegar
1 tsp vanilla

Sift together flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, buttermilk, egg, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla. While mixing at medium speed, gradually add dry mixture to wet mixture until just combined. Fill cupcake liners. Bake at 350 for 25 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

The recipe was pretty easy to make.

Key ingredient...red food coloring.

Each cupcake formed such a nice dome shape.

Perfect for a thin layer of delicious cream cheese frosting.

That's how I like it!

Yum!

But others prefer loads of icing! These ones turned out so beautifully. They are made with the same cake, but contain many more calories due to the excess amount of cream cheese frosting!

So what kind of a cupcake lover are you?

Do you love a cupcake with a thin layer of frosting and more cake, or, a cupcake loaded with frosting and just a bit of cake?

Valentine's Day Cake Pops

2011-01-28T21:57:00.001-05:00

It's time to start thinking about Valentine's Day! To give you some ideas, I will be posting a few Valentine's Day recipes over the next few weeks!

"Happy Valentine's Day sweetie, from one heart cake pop to another!"

Pictured above are most of the materials you will need to make these pops.

Materials you will need:

20 uncoated cake balls

wax paper

baking sheet

1 pound red chocolate candy coating

Deep, microwave-safe plastic bowl

20 lollipop sticks

40 white heart sprinkles

6-12 pink heart sprinkles (optional)

Styrofoam block

Black edible-ink pen

For basic cake pop instructions click here.

I used these jumbo heart sprinkles that can be found almost anywhere around Valentine's Day. I used the white hearts for the eyes and the pink hearts to make the bows.

I used the larger heart shaped cookie cutter as a guide to frame the heart pop. The heart was not quite as big as the large cutter but not as small as the small cutter. To form the heart, I rolled out a regular ball and flattened it slightly. I then used the top part of the cookie cutter to shape the top of it and the bottom of the cutter to shape the bottom.

Here's what they looked like pre-dipped. I used a vanilla cake and my own chocolate butter cream icing for these pops. After they set in the freezer for about 20 minutes, I dipped each lollipop stick into the red candy melts and inserted a stick about half way into each one.

I transferred the melted candy coating into a smaller narrower container.

Which made it easy to dip...

And remove!

After a little tap, tap, tap, I immediately adhered the heart eyes to the pops. Once they dried, I used my edible ink pen to add all of the details: the eyelashes, eyebrows and smiles.

All of the pops rested in a styrofoam block to continue drying before being packaged.

How cute...a family of heart cake pops!

All packed up and ready to be delivered!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ryan has a Sister!

2011-01-23T13:37:00.000-05:00

Yay! Our cutie petutie Ring Bearer Ryan has a little sister! I was so excited when I heard the great news that I began to bake and decorate as soon as we found out the baby was a girl. I was inspired to try out this adorable footprint idea by Callye from The Adventures of Sweet SugarBelle. I only recently discovered her fantastic cookie blog and immediately added it to my favourites!

I added the zest of one lemon to my sugar cookie recipe. (So, all of those marks you see in the dough above are lemon zest...not dirt!)

I bought the cutest mini baby cookie cutters a few weeks ago! Surprisingly, I found them at a dollar store near my house. It is hard to see how small they really are in the picture above, but by looking at the picture below, the size is easier to gage.

The mini bottles and onesies would make such cute cupcake toppers. (But I'll save that idea for a future post!)

Here's the step-by-step of how I made the footprint cookie. First, I piped the border. Next, I flooded it with lemon flavoured royal icing and let it dry overnight. I wanted to compliment the flavour of the cookie so I made lemon royal icing this time. Finally, I piped the footprint and then piped Maryn's name on the right side.

Are these not adorable?

I tried to tie in brown royal icing wherever possible. I love the combo of pink, white and brown! It reminds me of the cookie seating cards I made for my wedding!

Sugar Cookies with a Twist of Lemon

(Adapted from Cookie Craft)

3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

zest of 1 lemon

Directions:
1. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium bowl.
2. Using your mixer, use the paddle attachment to cream together the butter and sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla and lemon zest and mix until well blended.
3. With the mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture until the two are thoroughly blended.
4. Turn out dough onto work surface and divide into two or three equal portions. Form each one into a rough disk. Click here for step by step and visuals of how to roll out dough and attain cookies of the same thickness.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. After you have rolled and cut the dough and the cookie shapes are on parchment-lined cookie sheets, bake them in the middle rack of the oven for 12-16 minutes or until the cookies start to turn slightly golden around the edges. (The mini bottles and onesies were baked for about 8 minutes.)
8. Cool cookies completely on a rack before icing or decorating. Yield

2 1/2-inch cookies--about 30
3 1/2-inch cookies--about 16
4 1/2-inch cookies--about 12

Royal Icing with a Twist of Lemon

(Adapted from Cookie Craft)

4 cups (1 pound) icing sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

7 tablespoons warm water

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

In mixer bowl, pour in the warm water and the meringue powder. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened…about 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice and mix for 30 seconds more. Pour in all the icing sugar at once and place the bowl on the mixer. Using the paddle attachment on the LOWEST speed, mix slowly for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy. Cover the bowl with a dampened tea-towel to prevent crusting and drying. Tint with food colourings or thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

All packed up and ready to be delivered to Maryn's mommy and daddy.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Waffles

2011-01-16T22:01:00.000-05:00

Mmmm...CHOCOLATE!

I am not really such a huge chocolate fan. But let me tell you...these waffles are good!

Sift the dry ingredients...

Then combine with the wet ingredients. Ladle about a cup of the batter onto a pre heated waffle maker and spread the batter using an offset spatula. Close the lid and let the steam fill your senses with the delicious scent of fresh chocolate! Repeat with the remaining batter.

Here is what the final product looks like.

I think I want one now.

Lucas loved the waffles. Could you tell? He had the melted chocolate chips all over his face! Too cute!

Ghirardelli Chocolate Waffles

(Taken form the Ghirardelli Website)

Yield: 6 servings

1 1/2 cups Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup Unsweetened Cocoa
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 tablespoons granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
4 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups whole milk

Directions

Preheat waffle iron. Sift the flour, cocoa, and baking powder into a bowl. Add the sugar and salt and whisk to thoroughly mix. In another bowl, whisk together the milk, egg yolks, and oil. Add to the flour and whisk gently until just combined.

In clean, dry bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric beater at medium speed until they form soft peaks. Fold into the batter and mix in the chocolate chips.

Ladle one-third of the batter onto the center of the waffle iron. Close the top and cook until the waffle is crispy on both sides. About 2-3 minutes.

Drizzle with syrup if desired. Serve immediately.

This how I plated them for brunch.

Enjoy!

Cupcakes for RBC

2011-01-09T07:07:00.000-05:00

Rich works for RBC. To kick off a Project, the company ordered some cupcakes with edible images of their logo.

The images were e-mailed to my friend Joy of Baked with Joy. She has a special printer that uses food colouring instead of ink to create images on edible paper. I am so excited...Rich just surprised me with a printer for this purpose. I can't wait to use it. I will now be able to print my own edible images!

For this project, I used scissors to cut out the images. But since then, I watched Ace of Cakes where I saw someone using a pizza cutter to cut out the images. I'll definitely try that next time.

Once the cupcakes fully cooled, I spread vanilla frosting on the first cupcake.

Next, I very gently placed the image on top of the frosting. The frosting is the glue that adheres the image to the cupcake.

After that, I used a star tip to pipe a golden yellow frosting border around the image.

The border hides all of the original frosting as well as the edges of the image.

I also made some white sugar circles out of royal icing and piped some of the project names on other cupcakes.

All done!

Chillin' in the fridge ready for delivery.

Thanks RBC.

Shortbread Cookies

2011-01-02T17:00:00.006-05:00

Flaky, buttery, crumbly, classic shortbread.

Classic Shortbread

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Cookies)

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter room temperature, plus more for pan

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1. Sift together flour and salt into a bowl. Put butter into the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl. Gradually add confectioners' sugar; beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture all at once; mix until just combined.

2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F, with rack in upper third.

3. Butter a 10-inch fluted tart pan. (The recipe suggests using a pan with a removable bottom. I did not have one and the recipe worked out fine.)

4. Using plastic wrap, press dough into the pan, making sure to press against edges. With plastic on dough, refrigerate for 20 minutes.

5. Remove plastic wrap. Cut out a round from the center using a 2 1/4-inch cookie cutter; discard. Using a wooden skewer, prick all over at 1/4 inch intervals. Put cutter back in center. Using a paring knife, cut dough into eight wedges. (I cut it into ten wedges.)

This is what it should look like before baking it in the oven.

6. Bake until golden brown and firm in the center, about 1 hour. Recut shortbread into wedges; let cool completely in pan.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Or, they can be combined with some chocolate shortbread stars and be plated and packaged to give to friends for the new year.

Happy New Year!

Mom's 60th Birthday Cake

2010-12-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

My mom turned 60 last week! This called for an extra special dessert. I experimented with some my newer square cake pans that I have used only a handful of times and continued to practice working with fondant. After this project, my cake decorating skills have slightly improved. I still have a long way to go!

Here's the play by play. I lined each cake pan with parchment paper and filled each with white cake batter.

I knew the cakes were ready when I inserted a toothpick and it cake out clean. The cakes also turned a golden brown colour. After they cooled, I covered the cakes with plastic wrap and set them in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I began by cutting off the top part of each cake to create a levelled surface.

I also cut each cake in half. This is what the cakes looked like before they were iced.

Using an offset spatula, I spread a layer of icing onto the bottom half of each cake. I placed the top tier on top so each cake looked like a sandwich.

I then "dirty iced" each cake and placed them both into the fridge to set while I prepared the fondant.

On a clean, flat surface, I spread out a fair bit of icing sugar and rolled out the fondant.

I used my newest kitchen gadget! The Wilton Pastry Wheel. It serves two purposes; using the wheel on the left creates scalloped edges and using the wheel on the right creates straight edges.

After I secured the fondant to the cake, I used the straight edge cutter to remove the extra fondant. If you do not have a pastry wheel, a pizza roller could easily be substituted.

I added some icing to the base of the cake plate as well as to the bottom of the samller tier so the cakes would stay in place.

Since these cakes were quite small, I didn't feel that I needed to use dowels as a support system. I stacked the smaller cake on an angle on top of the larger cake. I also wasn't too worried about the gap between the fondant and the cake plate since I knew that I could hide it by piping butter cream icing around the base of both tiers.

There I went, piping away! The cake was finally starting to take shape.

Next, I added some purple food gel to the white fondant. By mixing the two together, the fondant takes on the color purple. After I rolled it out, I used number cutters to cut out the number "60" repeatedly for different sides of the cake.

I used a paint brush and a little bit of water to adhere the 60s to the cake. (Fondant sticks to fondant easily with the addition of a little water.)

Then, I carefully placed each 60 on different areas of the cake.

Tada...this is what the final product looked like!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Christmas Party Cookies

2010-12-22T00:20:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas!

I wonder if a new purse or a fancy pair of shoes is on your wish list.

I couldn't help but buy this adorable set of Fashionista Cookie Cutters from Kitchen Stuff Plus a few weeks ago. I only used two of the five cutters that come in the set, but I just love them! They are perfect for a shoe-a-holic like me, and I'm sure, like many of you too!

I baked these cookies just in time to be inspired by Marion, from Sweetopia. Her post on Diva Claus Decorated Cookies was great! Her decorated cookies and designs are always fabulous.

I have to admit...for these cookies, I did use my own white royal icing, but the red and green icing was leftover from gingerbread house making. I was not too impressed with the quality of the pre-made red and green icing, so these designs are certainly not my best. Nonetheless, I still think the cookies are pretty darn cute!

How about this duo for your Christmas Party? I would actually wear these shoes...if they came in my size!

Or these?

Not too sure about this combo...but it's still cute!

I love, love, love, shoes!

So tell me...how many pairs of shoes and/or purses do you have hangin' around in your closet?

For the recipe I use to make sugar cookies, click here.

To make these cookies even more festive you could make and decorate gingerbread cookies.

For the recipe I use to make royal icing, click here.

To learn how create feathered stripes of wet flood, click here.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas Tree Cookies

2010-12-20T11:33:00.004-05:00

Merry Christmas!

I made these cookies a few weeks ago for some gifts for the holidays, using my new tree cutter. Just pipe.

And flood...

For the recipe that I use to make royal icing, click here.

To decorate the trees, be as creative as you like with candy and sprinkles! To adhere the silver dragees, I used tweezers to immediately place each one onto the wet flood. The flooded icing acts as glue to hold the candies in place. For the larger candy balls, I used my hands to place each one.

To package these gifts, I bought some silver cookie containers and styrofoam balls. First, I wrapped the ball in green tissue paper and poked a reindeer cake pop into the middle. To learn how to make Reindeer Cake Pops, click here.

Next, I leaned three cookies against the stick of the cake pop.

Finally, I wrapped each package in clear cellophane.

My gifts were complete.

Merry Christmas!

Unique Gingerbread Houses (made by my Grade 6 students)

2010-12-17T23:08:00.005-05:00

My students had a blast this morning, constructing and designing their own gingerbread houses.

They used lots of these...

And I pre-made many of these.

And there was no shortage of these!

But only two groups won these...

Check out how great all of their houses turned out.

So colorful.

This one was definitely the sturdiest.

I loved the detail added to both of these ones.

Loved this one!

This was the winning house, voted by the kids as their most favourite.

Check out the car made out of gummies. Isn't it adorable?!

Great job grade 6's!

Happy Holidays!

Reindeer Cake Pops

2010-12-12T23:50:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays! I'm Rudolph, and this is my buddy Dancer. Mel created her own original version of us from Bakerella's new cookbook, Cake Pops ! If you continue to read, you will learn how we can be made, "Mel style!"

Reindeer Cake Pops

(Adapted from Cake Pops, By Bakerella)

Materials you will need:

20 uncoated cake balls

1 pound chocolate candy coating

Deep, microwave-safe plastic bowl

20 lollipop sticks

20 pretzel sticks cut in half, but miniature alphabet E, F and Y shaped alphabet pretzels are recommended

Styrofoam block

20 skittles (red and purple)

Black edible-ink pen

To decorate:

First, Mel had to bake a cake. She decided to use half of a white cake mix to form our heads. She created crumbs by brushing two quarters of cake together into a bowl.

The crumbs and work station looked like this.

After adding and mixing about two spoonfuls of vanilla frosting to the crumbs to bind the crumbs together, 20 cake balls (a.k.a our heads) began to take shape. Mel put us into the freezer for about 20 minutes. Boy was it cold in there! We managed to survive the Arctic-like temperatures and were then dunked into melted chocolate candy melts. Yippee! I loved swimming in chocolate! I felt like Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!

Once my friends and I escaped from the pool of chocolate, our skittle noses were immediately attached. Some of them red and the others purple.

The ability to see and to communicate was ours at last! Mel used royal icing and purple sprinkles for eyeballs and an edible marker for our mouths! This time, her marker did not work so well, so she is thinking about buying the Americolor Food Marker Writers for next time.

We couldn't hear a thing since Mel forgot all about our pretzel ears. She left us earless for over an hour until she returned from the grocery store. To her disappointment, they did not have the recommended alphabet shaped pretzels to use as ears, so she settled for pretzel sticks. I felt like I was getting an ear infection as she glued the pretzel sticks to my head. She used additional melted chocolate as glue to adhere them onto our chocolate heads!

Peek-a-boo! Are you still listening?

Major close up! Of my ears of course...Just in case you couldn't see them in the last shot!

So there you have it...Mel has completed us!

All of us! And sadly, we will soon disappear.

Into the tummies of little boys like Ryan and big boys like Rich.

Ready. 1, 2, 3, and...Bite!

Happy Holidays!

(By the way, if anyone knows where I can find alphabet pretzels in Toronto, it would be great to know for next time!)

Bakerella in T.O.

2010-12-09T23:15:00.005-05:00

What a day!

I would never in a million years have thought that this would lead to this! Which would lead to this followed by this! This brings us to December 4, 2010. The day that Rich and I met Angie Dudley, a.k.a. Bakerella!

Saturday Morning:

Saturday began with a thrill for Rich and I since Bakerella was in town for the signing of her new book, Cake Pops. All of the excitement took place at Williams Sonoma on Bloor Street.

What was even more exciting...

As soon as we got to the store, the employees at Williams Sonoma knew exactly who we were (once Rich mentioned our names) and led us upstairs to meet with Bakerella. She gave Rich the biggest hug and began to tear up as soon as she saw me. It was the first time we had met in person. She is definitely one of the sweetest people we have ever met.

Beside her in the photo above is Roseanne Dela Rosa, associate editor of Weddingbells magazine.

As soon as she finished her interview with Angie, she interviewed Rich and me for an article she will be writing for an online feed of Wedding Bells. That was pretty cool! Rich was super excited!

Saturday Afternoon:

By this time, it was well after the noon hour. After Angie answered many questions from her fans, she began the signing...She brought Rich and I right to the signing area (no line up for us). I noticed one girl whisper to her mom, "Mom, that's the couple who got married on Bakerella's site!" That was hilarious! As we sat beside her so she could sign the book, she asked all of the fans in line if they remembered us. No joke, people actually started cheering. It was nuts! We were a famous couple...for a few minutes anyway!

The message written in fuchsia pink was perfect!

In this shot, she was eyeing my labels on the back of the cupcake sugar cookies I baked for her.

These girls were by far the most creative "gift bakers." Carolynn, (in the middle) drove in all the way from Ottawa just to have her book signed and meet Bakerella.

She and her friend Candy created their own original "Canadiana" to welcome Bakerella to town. They included the most amazing moose and beaver cake pops! (Way, way more creative than my cookie pops.)

For those of you who would like a lesson on these cookie pops...here goes...they were were pretty simple to make.

I decided on cupcakes since Bakerella loves everything cupcake!

I used a skittle for the cherry on top and stuck it to the cookie with royal icing.

Then, I piped and flooded the cookie with more icing and added a few sprinkles as a garnish! Simple as a cupcake! For my sugar cookie recipe, click here. For the recipe I use to make royal icing, click here.

Saturday Evening:

Saturday evening was the "icing on the cupcake!" The rumours are true. We went out for dinner with Angie and her mom! And we had a blast! All joking aside people....Rich and I had dinner with BAKERELLA! We went out for dinner with the next Martha Stewart! The picture above was awesome...how funny is her mom?! She was cracking up because as soon as our dessert, (buttery, phyllo pastry crepes filled with melted white chocolate and fresh blueberries) arrived at our table, Angie and I both took out our cameras and began shooting photos! I got a great shot of her taking a picture of the dessert!

What a day! It certainly was a memorable one for us. Thanks Angie, for including us in your first trip to Canada. We hope to meet again, perhaps on your next book tour?!

Have you ever met a star before?

Happy Chanukah!

2010-12-05T21:55:00.002-05:00

It's that time of year again when the holidays begin and the eating makes us all feel good!

I baked these sugar cookies for our family Chanukah dinner. The decorated ones were given to me as a gift from my former student, Rebecca. She also gave me gorgeous decorated Chanukah cookies last year that tasted just as good as they looked!

I think that I have perfected making potato latkes! This was my third and final time making them this week. But all joking aside....they really are delicious. For the recipe I use, click here. This year I added a few pinches of paprika to the mix. It added some flavour and color to the latkes.

Tonight is the fifth night of Chanukah so five candles are lit.

Happy Chanukah!

30th Birthday Cookies

2010-11-28T11:00:00.010-05:00

We officially welcomed the last of my girlfriends to "Club 30" last night.

What a fun night out!

This one is for you Adrienne...

And this one is for you Carly!

For my favourite sugar cookie recipe click here.

To learn how to make royal icing, click here.

Happy Birthday Ladies!

Cookies for Julie's Baby Shower

2010-11-21T17:14:00.001-05:00

My friend Julie had a Baby Shower today. She is due in January. She is keeping the sex of the baby a surprise. So, I stuck with her favourite color, blue, and combined it with yellow.

Love the ducks...my latest cookie experiment. I bought so many animal cutters over the summer and love this little "rubber ducky" cutter.

Pipe...then flood...

Really adorable...

Baby Z...will you be a boy or a girl?

Happy Shower Julie!

How to Dry and Store Your Cookie Cutters

2010-11-14T18:07:00.001-05:00

There are so many cookie cutters out there! I began my collection quite a while ago, but it has multiplied significantly over the past few years. No one really told me how to organize my cutters. Here is what I have come up with. But before I explain how I organize my cookie cutters, I'll explain how to prevent metal cutters from rusting.

After using any cutters, I always soak them in a bowl with warm water and soap. I then clean each cutter with a sponge and more soap and water to ensure that all of the grease is removed.

A great tip that I learned from the book Cookie Craft is how to keep metal cookie cutters and icing tips from rusting.

After individually washing and towel drying each cutter, place metal cutters on a cookie sheet, cut side down. Next, place the sheet in the oven for 10 minutes at 200 degrees. This will absorb any remaining moisture.

Finally, set warm cutters on a towel to cool before putting them away.

The way that I organize my cutters is usually by theme. I write the name of the theme on a Ziploc bag and store the bag in a plastic container. Inside the front of the container I write down the names of the themes on a piece of paper facing outward.

This way, I can see which cutters are in which container.

Other suggestions may be to organize your cutters by shape or size.

Hope this helps!

Melissa :)

Fig Oat Squares

2010-11-07T09:11:00.001-05:00

I was over at my friend Jason's a couple of weeks ago. Little did I know that I would eat half of the squares he had made. I can't even remember if they were date or fig squares. Nonetheless, I was inspired.

I bought these figs at Costco. I knew that they would be the perfect filling for these sweet squares.

I had to sample a few figs before beginning to prepare this recipe. They were so delicious!

I boiled the package of figs with brown sugar and water.

After about 10 minutes, the consistency was soft, but not quite soft enough. I poured it into my Magic Bullet and blended the mixture to form the consistency of a smooth paste. While I prepared the dry ingredients, the fig paste was left to cool.

Don't you just love the combination of oats, sugar, flour and butter?

After combining the dry ingredients with butter, this is what the bottom layer of the squares looked like.

I used an offset spatula to evenly spread the filling over the crust.

...and sprinkled the remaining crumbs over top.

Boy were these delicious!

Fig Oat Squares (adapted from Dinner with Julie)

Base & topping:

1 cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour, or a combination
1 cup oats
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter, chilled

Date Filling:
1 250 g (8 oz.) pkg. dried figs

3/4 cup sugar, white or brown
3/4 cup orange juice or water

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a small saucepan, combine the figs, sugar and orange juice/water over medium heat. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick and jamlike. Remove from heat and blend to form a paste. Set aside and allow to cool.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, baking soda and salt. Add the butter and mix with a fork or your fingers until the mixture is well combined and crumbly. (Alternatively, the mixture can be pulsed in a food processor until well combined.) Press half the crumbs into an 8” x 8” pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.

Spread the filling over the crust, and sprinkle with remaining crumbs, squeezing as you go to create bigger clumps. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until pale golden and bubbly around the edges. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

Makes 16 squares.

Bet you can't each just one!