9 years ago...

on the weekend we had a "little" party for our daughter, ella, who turned nine years old. she and seth have both started taking skating lessons and so she wanted to have a skating party. i booked a room at the local rink and we got all the girls in her class and a few neighbours' kids to meet us all there. everyone had a blast!
i ended up making 24 regular cupcakes, 48 mini ones, and a small one layer cake (for her actual day). in last year's april issue of living there were little crepe paper flowers and birds. the flower for january is the snowdrop and i made a bunch of them for her cakes. when ella saw the picture in the magasine, she definetly wanted a nest, too. off to michael's! i picked up 2 tiny little blue birds there as well.
and some bees

happy birthday ella! thank you for being such a great girl

gingerbread village

we spent a good 3 hours last night building our gingerbread houses to give away. it was a lot of fun with all 4 of us making the 6 houses (including one for us). we got pretty inventive with the candies making trees, logs, and even a sled!

check out last year's houses... and here's the link to the recipe.

lisa and aaron

just before leaving on our lac le jeune trip, i made 5 dozen cookies for lisa and aaron's wedding favours. i made my usual sugar cookie recipe, but i added a whole vanilla bean to the mixture. it was quite rainy that week and it took more than 24 hours for the royal icing to dry! yikes!my dining room table was covered in cookies! and the smell drove me nuts it was so nice, and i made just under 6 dozen (extras just incase of breakage during travelling, packaging, or me making a mistake with the monogramme).
congratulations lisa and aaron!

here's the cookies looking all pretty on the plates! lisa and aaron's photographer was david truss. i couldn't find a website or blog for him... but a nice shot, hey?!

mmm, canada

i got an email from jasmine of confessions of a cardamom addict to participate in a food blogging event. this was the first event i had been invited to and was very excited to participate. we could participate in both, or only one part of the event. i decided to do both.

ì`ve lived in bc for over 12 years now and the one thing that i`ve grown to love out here is salmon. wild sockeye salmon is by far my favourite, but any salmon will do. i try not to buy farmed salmon, but it`s not always possible. one day i was watching kitchen nightmares (original british version) and he was making crab cakes. they looked beautiful. i`m sure they tasted great, but i`m not a huge fan of crab. and then the light bulb went on... salmon!salmon cakes

1 pound fresh salmon 1/2 bunch of cilantro (or flat leaf parsley if you're not a fan of cilantro), finely chopped 1 red onion, diced 2-4 cloves of garlic, minced (or to taste) juice of 1 lemon 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1 tsp salt salt and pepper to taste and a drizzle of olive oil.
preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. place the salmon in an oven safe dish and season the fish with salt and pepper to taste, drizzle with 1 tbsp of the fresh lemon juice and the olive oil. cover with tin foil and bake for 15 minutes. turn the oven off and let the fish rest in the warm oven for 5 minutes. take the salmon out of the oven and once the fish has cooled a bit more, "flake" the fish with a fork. mix the remaining ingredients into the salmon and form "cakes" with your hands or a large cookie/ice cream scoop. cover and refrigerate until you're ready to cook them. i use my griddler, but you can cook them up in a frying pan, too. serve on a bed of lettuce or in a bun like a burger!and of course you'll need a nice canadian wine. i picked up a bottle of rigamarole strictly for the uber cute label. i'm a sucker for stuff like that. turns out it's a very nice wine. i'm not a wine geek and normally i can't smell the "oaky-ness" or "the sun must have been shining whilst the birds flew overhead," you can smell it's fruity. it's label says: "why is it such a rigamarole to simply find a great dry white? the puzzling complexity of terroir, oak ageing, vintages and those ridiculous descriptors is just too much. save that mental energy for calculating the time it would take to harvest our grapes with hedgehogs..." love it! and bonus, it's from bc's beautiful okanagan valley.

the other half of the blogging event was held by jennifer of the domestic goddess and was right up my alley... a sugar high! one of the best memories of my childhood was going to a sugar maple farm up in kleinberg (ontario) when there was tonnes of snow on the ground. i remember the worker pour the hot syrup on the snow in a line and rolling it back onto a popsickle stick. to this day, i think that was the best maple syrup i have ever had. to me, nothing tastes like a sweet canada than maple syrup. MAPLE COOKIES
2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened 3/8 cup packed light brown sugar 1/4 cup maple syrup (the real thing!) 1 egg 1 teaspoon cream of tartar 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 3/8 teaspoon salt
Into medium bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar together; set aside. in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy. add egg and maple syrup. add remaining dry ingredients until just combined. Shape dough into ball; wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough 1 hour or until easy to handle. Preheat oven to 350*F. On lightly floured surface, with lightly floured rolling pin, roll 1/3 of the dough at a time 1/8 inch thick, keeping remaining dough refrigerated. With floured 3 1/2 inch maple leaf shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into leaves. Place cookies 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet (or use parchment lined sheets.) Bake 10 minutes or until golden. With pancake turner, carefully remove to wire racks to cool. Repeat until all dough is used, greasing cookie sheet each time.
MAPLE CREAM
2 cups (4 ounces) confectioners’ sugar1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) butter, softened pinch salt (extra fine if you have it)1/2 teaspoon maple extract1 teaspoon vanilla extract1 to 2 tablespoons maple syrup
Beat the confectioners’ sugar, butter, and salt together. Mix in the maple flavoring and vanilla. Add the maple syrup a bit at a time, until the filling is a medium-soft, spreadable consistency (the filling should hold its shape). Drop a teaspoonful of filling onto the flat side of a cookie. Top with another cookie, placing the flat sides toward each other. Let the cookies sit for several hours to let the frosting set up, so the cookie halves don’t slide around on one another. Store in airtight containers for several days or freeze for longer storage.

cookie fun

i had some sugar cookie dough left over and this afternoon the kids rolled it out, cut out their selected shapes, baked them and then covered them in royal icing and coloured sugars. look at that guy above with that grin. i turned around for 1 minute to grab the camera and i found about a cup of flour on the counter... for rolling, of course. can't have that last couple ounces of cookie dough stick to the pin: of course it ended up all over the place, but it wouldn't have been much fun if it hadn't.

here we have some serious rollers. silicon, wood, and marble.

it was a super fun afternoon, and i have to remember to let kids be kids and make a mess... as long as they help clean it up ;)

no help

the kids were bugging to help make something after school today and when it came down to it, if it wasn't cupcakes, they weren't as interested. so they made mini marshmallow and toothpick structures and i made "grammy's chocolate cookies". i first made these cookies a couple christmases ago and made the "wild" addition of peppermint extract to it. some people don't like the combo, but me- i love the combination of chocolate and mint, and these cookies are beautifully dark chocolate and chewy... as long as you don't leave them in the oven too long. like i did. oops. the second batch turned out great though! grammy's chocolate cookies

adapted from martha stewart's cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (2 sticks plus 4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar, plus more for dipping
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, 2 cups sugar, and eggs on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add vanilla, and mix to combine. Gradually add dry ingredients, and combine with mixer on low speed. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, and chill until dough is firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Dip top of each ball into sugar. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until set, about 8 minutes. Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

of course, they were more than happy to eat the cookies...

fruit fly

every year derek's dad travels to palm springs californa where his arthritis can have a little break from the wet wintry weather here in vancouver. every year he brings back the biggest grapefruits you have ever seen. now, i'm not the biggest grapefruit fan. seth, our little fruit fly, is. i was looking for something to bake with the grapefruits and came across this recipe from martha stewart's baking handbook. the recipe was, as usual, really easy to follow, and the cookies turned out okay. like i said i'm not big on grapefruit, but i think these would be just fantastic as orange and clove. i also rolled the first batch too thin even though i rolled it to 1/8"- i think they should be a little bit thicker, and you probably don't need to make a full batch of the filling- i had lots left over, and i put lots in the sandwitches.

after i got the first few sammiches put together, seth came up to grab a couple- one for himself and one for daddy- and i heard him say, "these are my favourite cookies ever!"

awe, thanks chubbers!

Grapefruit Sandwich Cookies

Grated zest of 1 Ruby Red grapefruit, plus 1/4 cup freshly squeezed juice
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
3/4 cup cake flour (not self-rising)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg yolks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; set aside. In a small bowl, combine zest with 1 tablespoon sugar; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and remaining sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Add egg yolks, and beat until combined, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in reserved zest-sugar mixture. Add flour mixture in two batches, alternating with the juice, and beat to combine.
Turn out dough onto a piece of plastic wrap, and shape into a 1-inch-thick disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, about 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll out disk to 1/8 inch thick using a lightly floured rolling pin. Using a lightly floured 2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds and place about 1 inch apart on prepared sheet. Bake, rotating sheet halfway through, until edges are golden, 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes. Transfer parchment paper and cookies to rack to cool completely.
Using an offset spatula, spread 1 tablespoon filling onto flat sides of half the cookies. Sandwich with remaining cookies, keeping flat sides down. Once filled, cookies can be kept in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Grapefruit Cream Filling
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons freshly squeezed Ruby Red grapefruit juice

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Beat in honey. Add juice, 1 tablespoon at a time, until filling holds together and is smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a small bowl, cover, and set aside until ready to use.

gingerbread army

i don't know how people know it, but apparently i scream, "i can bake wicked cookies!"

last weekend i was approached by another parent at ella's ballet school, asking for donations of baked goods... "you look like a mum that knows how to bake!" is what she said. i was totally caught off guard, and once my name was down on the volunteer list, it was, "oh! you're the artist!" i had no idea the other parents referred to me as that. nice though.

so as prep for the bake sale i made some gingerbread men (thank you meagan for making the dough for me)... an army in fact... i can fit 15 cookies on each of my cookie sheets, and i think there was at least 6 trays. i also made an equal amount of sugar cookie stars and snowflakes. once i ice all of them i'll post more pics.

gingerbread cookies
(adapted from a martha stewart recipe)

6 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses

1. In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture; combine on low speed. Divide dough in thirds, and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpats (a French nonstick baking mat). Set aside. On a lightly floured work surface, roll dough 1/8-inch thick. Cut into gingerbread people shapes. Transfer to prepared baking sheets.
4. Cut out desired decorations and place on cookies. Press currants into dough to create eyes and buttons. To create hair, roll a piece of dough into a ball and pass through a clean garlic press. Attach hair to heads. Bake until crisp, but not darkened for about 20 minutes. Let cookies cool on wire racks.
5. Decorate with royal icing.

chocolate chip cookies

it's raining out. the kids are going nuts. what do we do? bake cookies! mmm, warm from the oven chocolate chip cookies...

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2tsp pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 cups chocolate chips

pre-heat oven to 350 degrees, line cookie sheets with parchment or silpat.

in a medium sized bowl sift or whisk together the flour and baking soda, set aside. in the bowl of an electric mixer ,fitted with the paddle attchment, on medium cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, scraping down sides with a rubber spatula as needed. add eggs one at a time, incorporating well. add salt and vanilla. add flour mixture until just combined and then toss in the chocolate chips. do not overmix.

drop dough onto prepared sheets about 2" apart and bake for 8-11 minutes. cool on sheets for one minute and then transfer to wire rack to cool.

mmmm!