Well ladies & gentlemen, I no longer am a fondant virgin, or gumpaste virgin for that matter.  So if you haven’t figured it out I have never before made a cake with fondant. Being the baker in the family, I was asked to make a lady bug themed cake for my nieces first birthday that will serve 50 people.  I knew that I had to make something that would hold well and thought fondant would be the natural choice.  I didn’t want to go into this blindly, so this past weekend I had a test run.

I admit that I’m not a fan of fondant, sure it looks pretty but the taste is nothing to write home about.  I contemplated buying ready-made fondant but thought how hard can it be to make.  Turn out; not so hard after all.  For this cake I made a marshmallow fondant from a recipe that I found on-line. People, it took me literary less than 20 minutes.  So I urge you, if you buy ready-made fondant give this recipe a try (recipe to follow). So Friday night I made the fondant and let it rest in the fridge.

Saturday I tackled gumpaste.  As you can see there are no lady bugs on my cake, those I have made before using marzipan.  Flowers on the other hand was totally new to me.  I purchased two molds at Michael’s, a daisy mold and a regular 5 pedal mold.  I used ready-made Wilton gumpaste.  The first few flowers I made were pretty unimaginative.  Then I started playing around with textures and using the tools and got a little better with practice.

I finished making the flowers on Sunday morning.  Then in the afternoon I assembled the cake.  The inside consisted of 2 8-inch vanilla sponge cakes both layered.  I thought for the filling I would use a chocolate custard, the same one I used from my cannoli.  I found the sponge cake to be too dense at first and crumbled easily when cutting.  The custard was also too firm, and did not allow me to spread it over the layers.  I crumb coated it with a swiss meringue vanilla butter-cream, which is to die for.  So it’s back to searching for the perfect sponge cake….so if any of you have any recipes you’re willing to share I would be forever grateful.

Now came the part that I was dreading all weekend.  Rolling out the fondant and not having it tear or stick.  The verdict? Success! Just remember that when rolling out fondant or gumpaste for that matter, corn starch is your friend….your BEST friend.

When I finally assembled the cake and place the flowers on it I was pleasantly surprised at how well everything came together.  Not bad for my first time, it was less painful than I imagined.

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe found here: whatcookingamerica.net ( I halved the recipe as I made a smaller cake)

I don’t know what it is about winter, but I love making summery desserts.  Maybe it’s the fresh flavours that remind me of things to come.  Momentarily, I am transported into the future as I bite into a slice of lemon cake.  Just for a moment it’s a breezy summer evening then in a flash I realize that breeze is actually the a gush of winter wind that I feel as my husband opens the front door.

Have I mentioned how much I dislike winter, no? But I’m pretty sure that I have hinted at it.  I get the winter blues, no amount of vitamin D will ever cure the winter blues.  As you also may have noticed I don’t do much blogging in the winter. It gets so dark quickly that I can’t take a decent picture that is blog worthy. But every once in a while I come back to my blog and tell myself to snap out of it and to post something new.

So here it is, my Lemon Olive Oil Cake.  It’s one of those recipes that I had wanted to try for a while.  This cake is definitely a keeper.  It comes together quickly and the result is a moist, tangy cake with a hint of olive oil.  The moistness comes from a simple lemon flavoured syrup. I was a little worried that it would be über greasy and the olive oil would monopolize the overall taste.  I was wrong on both accounts.  It’s topped with a lemon glaze which I thought it could do without, but my husband begs to differ.  The recipe actually didn’t call for the glaze, but I wanted to dress it up.

Lemon Olive Oil Cake – adapted from www.mindbodygreen.com

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups white all-purpose unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of sea salt
2 teaspoons lemon peel
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup good olive oil

For the syrup:

1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup lemon juice

For the icing:

1 cup organic powdered sugar
3 tablespoons Meyer lemon juice (or regular lemon juice)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 inch spring form pan with olive oil, and flour the bottom of the pan.

In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the lemon zest and mix well.

In a large bowl, combine the yogurt, sugar, eggs and olive oil. Whisk until well combined. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and whisk again until both are incorporated.

Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool the cake for 15 minutes and then remove the sides of the pan. Prick the cake all over with a fork, whisk the syrup ingredients together, and then drizzle the syrup all over the cake.

Allow the cake to cool for another 30 minutes or so and then whisk the icing ingredients together. Using a  spoon cover the top of the cake with the icing.

Let’s face it, there’s nothing like taking a bite into a home-made brownie. The guilty indulgence after the first bite, it’s so good that it’s almost sinful.  You finish the first brownie and deep down you know that you really shouldn’t have a second piece, but you reach for another anyway making a promise to yourself that tomorrow you will run an extra mile (but of course you don’t, who are we kidding?).

Brownies, like the Chocolate Chip Cookie is a staple in North American households.  It never disappoints, only comforts.  It’s versatile batter, you can add nuts, peanutbutter, cream cheese or like I did, dulce de leche.  Why not make something that is tooth achingly good event better?

I had a small container of dulce de leche in the fridge that I didn’t know what to do with and a craving for brownies, put them together and you have one kick-ass brownie.  Want to make this brownie even more kick-ass, accompany it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I prefer downing my brownie with a cold class of milk.

For the brownies I used my go to recipe.  In fact, it’s the only recipe I have ever used, the Fry’s Cocoa recipe found on the back of the can.

Brownies – Adapted from Fry’s Cocoa

1 1/3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 cup cocoa

2 cups sugar

4  large eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

3/4 cup of dulce de leche (optional)

Directions:

In a bowl, stir together flour, baking powder and salt..

In a large and heavy saucepan melt butter. Remove from heat. Stir in cocoa. Blend in sugar, eggs and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture. Pour batter into a greased 9x13in pan. By the spoonfuls drop the dulce de leche onto the brownie patter then take a butter knife and swirl the two together as you would with a marble cake.

Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350°F

I just had to post some new pictures of Charlie so you can see how she’s grown and of couse how darm cute she is!

Well I think I have finally found my favourite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  This cookie is everything a Chocolate Chip Cookie should be; moist, chocolaty, melt in your mouth goodness.  The best part, this cookie is so dunkable.  Yes people, dunkability is very high on my list of what makes a good cookie.

I can’t begin tell you how many recipes I’ve tried, and yes, I have tried the infamous Neiman Marcus $250.00 cookie recipe as well.  You’ll notice I’ve never blogged about any of these cookies, because frankly they were not blog worthy until now. When I set out to make this particular Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I didn’t take any pictures of the process, I really wasn’t holding out much hope.  But I was wrong, with a little tweaking of the temperature this was the best cookie out there.

Where did I get the recipe you ask? I came across it quite by accident.  The other night I was making streusel cupcakes and it called for golden-yellow sugar (no pictures of that cupcake either, it was way too dark to take a decent picture).  As I was measuring out the sugar I noticed the recipe in the back and thought to give it a try.  I tried it the next night.  I was not impressed with the first batch that came out of the oven, they looked too overdone and the chocolate chips we barely visible.  I lowered the oven temperature and kept a close eye on the next batch.  I was happy with how the second batch turned out, but the true test was in the taste and oh yes the “dunkability” factor.  Once they cooled I poured myself a glass of cold milk and I took a dunk, and then a taste and then another dunk and taste and without even realizing it I had dunked and “tasted” four cookies. I was in love; my journey for the perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe ended that night.  Now I would like to share it with you my friends.  Even if you do have a go to Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, I beg you try this one…just once, that’s all it will take.

Without further ado:

Chocolate Chip Cookies – Adapted from Redpath Sugars

 1 cup butter at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

1 cup of golden-yellow sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 375 ( I turned it down to 350).  In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars together until creamy and smooth.  Beat in vanilla and eggs, one at a time.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl when necessary, usually after the addition of each egg.

In a separate bowl combine the dry ingredients, flour, baking soda and salt. With you mixer on low (stir speed on the Kitchen Aide) add the dry ingredients to the sugar and egg mixture. Once incorporated, stir in the chocolate chips.

Using a tablespoon drop the dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.  I used the small ice-cream scooper instead for this step.  This allows for the cookies to be the same size.  Bake for 8-10 minutes until the edges are golden.  Remove from baking sheet after 2 minutes and cool on a cooling rack.  Next grab yourself a cold glass of milk, dunk cookie, eat cookie.  You can thank me later.

Flower in Battery Park

Folks, you may have noticed that I have been MIA for quite a while.  For this I apologize.  I have missed you and I have missed my beloved blog.  It has been a crazy last couple of months.  When I last updated it was to ring in the New Year and now spring has already sprung.

Charlie Girl

I hate to give excuses, but holy cow, puppies are a lot of work.  Before Charlie in my spare time I used to bake and enjoy it.  Now in my spare time it’s all about Charlie, walking, playing, park, and the cleaning….oh my God the cleaning.  I’m no neat freak (ok maybe just a little) but I was not prepared for the amount of shedding Charlie has been going through with the change in season.  I think that my vacuum is on its last legs and I’m pretty sure I have single handily been keeping Swiffer in business.  Gone are the days of unwinding after work by whipping up a chocolate Bundt, man I miss those days.  But don’t get me wrong, Charlie is a joy.  She is very lovable and is growing by the day.  We estimate that she is about 5 months and a bit and she’s already a whopping 45 pounds.  Although I have night terrors that she will outweigh me in no time.

Work has also been pretty hectic and I have been putting in some extra time.  That leaves for a very tired Anna.  Hubby and I decided to take some time out from our busy schedules and take a mini-vacation.  Sure a beach would have been nice, but we only had a few days to play with so we decided on New York City.  We both love the City and wanted to go back together, so over the Easter weekend we packed our bags and flew to the Big Apple!

Manhattan

Thankfully the weather was gorgeous and we did tons of walking.  I kid you not we walked everywhere. Our hotel was by Time Square which was perfect and close to Juniors which was even better.  I’m not a fan of cheesecake, but there’s something about Juniors cheesecake that I cannot resist.

Mmmm, Juniors

Central Park was absolutely amazing.  We’re pretty big Beatles fans so we had to make our way to Strawberry Fields and the Imagine memorial.  Well guess who I saw strolling by on the way there, none other than Yoko Ono!!  I couldn’t believe it!  Of course I had my camera handy and snapped a few shots, while trying to be so casual about it.

Yep, that's Yoko Ono

Me at the John Lennon memorial

I would love to say that I shopped, but really the prices there are unreal even with the Canadian dollar being at par.  Nevertheless, it was a great getaway and I’m sure we will go back one day. I’m posting a few pictures of our trip for you to enjoy and for me to reminisce.

Central Park Pond

View in Central Park

But enough is enough; I have to get back to my kitchen.  I swear I could hear my KitchenAid calling for me.  So friends, I make this promise to you I will be back.  I simply cannot live without my oven and flour and moreover I cannot live without you.  So forgive me and in the words of  Tony Micelli, “stick around”.