Chococrêpe Review

I seem to still have high hopes for this blog even though I have been missing even longer than I had thought. Somehow life happened to me and now I  am in graduate school so I can get extremely busy!! I will try my best to catch up! Maybe this time will work!? These Christmas holidays I spent a lot of time relaxing with my family. It was awesome! I was also able to discover a new dessert venue! Chococrêpe on 620 Queen West. We were so excited when we found it that even though we had just come from another lunch venue we decided to spontaneously test out this new place.
We showed up mid afternoon and there were barely any clients. I think it probably had something to do with the fact that it had recently opened. Once we stepped into the restaurant the atmosphere was very inviting and modern. I loved the interior design of the place.

Since I was enticed by the idea of eating crepes and since it was during my vacation time, I had to have some more dessert. (That’s right I had a giant cookie prior to that! ) Normally I barely eat baked goods (surprising as it may be, but during vacation there is a bit more of that) So I checked out the menu and as usual had a hard time deciding. It was clearly an example of the paradox of choice and there were way too many choices! So I decided to do what I always do;  ask the server to recommend something that they have tried or that is the most popular on the menu. The chocolate, apple and cinnamon crêpe was recommended to me and so I decided to test it out. The waitress talked about the “high end quality” of the chocolate which seemed a bit like a sales pitch but, regardless I was hooked on tasting this supposedly magnificent crêpe.

When the crepe first arrived the presentation was very nice and it got me extremely excited to dig in!

If I am completely honest with myself, I have to say I was a bit disappointed with this crêpe.  Somehow the crêpe was missing that magical punch. It wasn’t particularly bad and nothing was wrong with it, I just didn’t find it to be an amazing crêpe. You could taste the chocolate was quality but somehow it didn’t sit well with my taste buds. The apples were not very tart and they just tasted plain. That may have been the problem. I feel sad that this place didn’t measure up to my  hopes but will continue to search for the ultimate crêpe. I still think that I maybe could  give the place another try and taste another crêpe. If you are a crêpe connoisseur and lover then I don’t know if this place is for you but if you want to try something different or just want a little treat then you should go check this place out.

Continuing to bake

I have been lost in the web for quite a bit of time. I have been busy with life. I managed to somehow get married in the process. I still plan on somehow bringing this blog back to life. I never stopped baking even though my blog may have been stuck in time. Here are some snapshots of things I have baked over the time I was missing in action, as well as a sneak peek of my most recent life event.

It’s been a long long time

It has been a long time. Since I last posted, not since I baked . I’m sorry for not posting very often. I’ve been busy with life and work. For awhile, I was thinking about making a blog with no comments just photographs. I am a timid person and posting my thoughts on the web seems a bit frightening. I think, with a glass of wine, I can overcome this. I hope everyone has had an amazing Christmas! I myself had a great time! Specifically, because the greatest dream of ALL TIME suddenly became realized on Christmas Eve!!! I got the Kitchen Aid Artisan Mixer in Empire Red!! I have been giddy ever since. I can’t believe how easy it is to bake now!! I have free hands for even more multitasking then before! Everything seems much smoother as well and tastier! I have fallen in love again! I hope my fiancee can forgive me!

Also, I think I’ve  gotten a bit lazy with photographing my baked creations. I’ll get into it once again! (Hopefully!)

This post, I think I’ll post everything that I’ve baked (and photographed) since the last post.

Here are some Christmas Cookies that I made. The first few are the ones I made for my co-workers.  The second ones, (the coloured dough ones) were from actual Christmas. The actual Christmas ones were lemon sugar cookies and gingerbread sugar cookies. It was the first time I actually used food colouring to colour the dough. It turned out well.

Today, I joined forces with another fellow baker and food enthusiast: Toni aka Young People Cooking to make Cake Pops. Bakerella’s famous Cake Pops. I got a hold of the book some time ago and visited a far away Micheal’s store for the ingredients.  We were both extremely excited to try them out.

The cake pops were actually pretty simple to make. I used one of the most basic cake pop recipes, from the cake pops book by Bakerella.  I pre-baked a devil’s food cake mix and bought a canned frosting. Then, we crumbled the cake very finely.

We mixed the cake with the store bought icing and began to form small balls from the mixture. After the balls were formed, we placed them in a freezer for a short while.

Then we melted the candy melts in the microwave. (The yummy candy coating for the cake pops).

Finally, it was time for the fun part! We dipped lollipop sticks into the icing first, attached them to the cake balls and dipped the whole thing into the candy melts.  Afterwords, we shook the excess icing off using the specific method that Bakeralla suggested (tapping the hand holding the cake pop with the opposite hand).

We let the cake pops dry (Using our very own home-made stand, although to be honest it didn’t quite work out. We ended up placing them right on parchment paper to dry) and they were ready!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. I leave you with a video of Toni from Young People Cooking and I (making and trying the cake pops). http://vimeo.com/19114128 The password is “cakepops”.

The Hit!

A while back, I made a strawberry shortcake that turned out to be a real hit with my friends. Everyone loved it and asked for more and more and more, until it was all gone! I’ve been busy with a new job and some other things so I haven’t had the time to write a post. Finally, the newest update is here! I found the recipe from the pioneer woman’s website, her website even comes with step by step photos. I loved the photographs, they made my mouth water. Exactly why I decided to make the cake. Our friends also came to visit that weekend and they got to enjoy most of the cake.

Here is Pioneer Woman’s recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/05/strawberry-shortcakecake/

Ingredients

• Cake
• 1-½ cup Flour
• 3 Tablespoons Corn Starch
• ½ teaspoons Salt
• 1 teaspoon Baking Soda
• 9 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Sugar
• 3 whole Large Eggs
• ½ cups Sour Cream, Room Temperature
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• _____
• Icing
• ½ pounds Cream Cheese, Room Temperature
• 2 sticks Unsalted Butter
• 1-½ pound Powdered Sugar, Sifted
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla
• 1 pound Strawberries

Preparation Instructions

IMPORTANT: Be sure to use a cake pan that’s at least 2 inches deep! Before baking, the batter should not fill the pan more than halfway.

Sift together flour, salt, baking soda, and corn starch.
Cream 9 tablespoons butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well each time. Add sour cream and vanilla and mix until combined. Add sifted dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just barely combined.

Pour into greased and floured 8-inch cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 to 50 minutes, or until no longer jiggly like my bottom. Remove from cake pan as soon as you pull it out of the oven, and place on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.

Stem strawberries and slice them in half from bottom to top. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with 3 tablespoons sugar. Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries in two batches. Sprinkle each half with 1 tablespoons sugar and allow to sit for another 30 minutes.

Make icing: combine cream cheese, 2 sticks butter, sifted powdered sugar, vanilla, and dash of salt in a mixing bowl. Mix until very light and fluffy.

Slice cake in half through the middle. Spread strawberries evenly over each half (cut side up), pouring on all the juices. Place cake halves into the freezer for five minutes, just to make icing easier.

Remove from freezer. Use a little less than 1/3 of the icing to spread over the top of the strawberries on the bottom layer. Place the second layer on top. Add half of the remaining icing to the top spreading evenly, then spread the remaining 1/3 cup around the sides.

Leave plain OR garnish with strawberry halves.

IMPORTANT: Cake is best when served slightly cool. The butter content in the icing will cause it to soften at room temperature. For best results, store in the fridge!

Even though there are pictures and a description on The Pioneer Woman’s website, I will be putting my own photographs and putting a small description above each photograph. So if you find that I didn’t explain something thoroughly, go check out The Pioneer Woman’s page. That’s where all the details lie.

First you mix the dry ingredients together.

Then, you collect all of the other required ingredients like, the butter and the sour cream.  As you can see, not a lot of things can fit on my tiny counters.

You cream the butter and sugar together.

Add the eggs one at a time.

Add the sour cream and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients.

And mix!

Pour the mixture into a greased and powdered cake pan or do as I did. Pour into two greased and powdered cake pans. I really need to get myself a bigger cake pan..

While the cake is baking. Stem strawberries and slice them. Place into a bowl and sprinkle with sugar.Stir together and let sit for 30 minutes while the juices combine.

After 30 minutes, mash the strawberries and add more sugar! By the way, even though that looks like a meat masher, it’s not what I use it for.. Usually, I just use it for potatoes.. So I thought it was safe to use with strawberries.

Take the cakes out of the oven. Let them cool and eventually, transfer to a cooling rack.

To make the cake layers even, I sliced off the top uneven parts with a serrated knife.

Almost done but not quite there yet.

Next make the icing.

Combine the ingredients and mix.

After the icing is ready.

Add strawberries and juices to each of the layers.

Place the cake halves in the freezer to make it easier for icing (as suggested by The Pioneer Woman).

Remove from freezer. Begin icing. Ice the bottom layer and then,  pile the second layer on top and ice that layer as well. For icing, I used my cake stand to make it easier. (It spins around!)

and finally, it’s finished!

Magnolia Cupcakes

So this past weekend has been very exciting.. My boyfriend and I got engaged in NYC. The trip was great fun. Another great thing about the trip was that we got to go to the famous Magnolia Bakery and check out the cupcakes! It was awesome. I love tasting cupcakes. So we went there and I chose to taste the Vanilla flavour. I have to say it was pretty good considering it was only vanilla. I think that if a bakery can make perfect vanilla cupcakes then that shows that they are good at what they do. I couldn’t resist buying a souvenir bag either. I was tempted to buy out the whole shop but I had to restrain myself.

This is me in front of the bakery.

So of course, after the wonderful tasting experience I had to recreate the goodness. So I browsed the internet until I found a recipe for those very same vanilla cupcakes from Magnolia. Here’s the recipe I found: http://hubpages.com/hub/Magnolia-Bakery-Cupcakes

I think they are a bit sugary but it’s completely my style. So GOOD!

I made them and this time I think I documented them a lot more. Hope you enjoy the photos!

First of all, I creamed the butter smooth.

Then, I added the sugar and eggs.

Following that I found out that I had no self-rising flour available. So I quickly searched online for a substitute and came up with this here: Make your own self-rising flour. Finally, I added the flour alternating with the milk and vanilla extract.

After that step I pretty much don’t have any more photographs until after I baked the cupcakes. Here’s that photo now:

Normally, I think you should level the cupcakes by cutting the tops of them with a serrated knife to get the tops to be more smooth and alike. However, this time I didn’t really care to do it because I was going to ice them with the 1M icing tip.

I left them to cool on the stove for a bit before I transferred them to the cooling rack. While they were cooling, I also started to make the icing. At first I think I softened the butter a bit too much. (I usually don’t waste time waiting for it to soften, I put it in the microwave for a few seconds) So I continued to add the sugar and the milk with vanilla extract. At first I thought that maybe it was going to be unsuccessful because of how runny the icing was. However, over the addition of more than 7 cups of icing sugar I came to see the icing get stiff enough for piping. For these cupcakes I used the 1M icing tip from Wilton.  Here’s a little link to the Wilton site, it has a few photos of the icing tip and how to make a 1M swirl (like I did for my own cupcakes): 1M swirl

I got this tip awhile back but I never found a coupler that works with it. The tip is too big for any of my other couplers. So, thus far I’ve never used a coupler with the tip which really turns out to be messy sometimes. (I just stick the tip into the bag without it)

These are the Wilton colours that I use.

I decided to use purple icing for the cupcakes.

In order to make sure that you don’t create a mess with the colour, I recommend that you use a toothpick and just poke it into the colour and then into the icing. The colour change will be gradual but this way you won’t make any mistakes.

Before I put icing in the icing bag, I place the bag in a tall glass and pull the bag out over it. It’s easier this way to put the icing in the bag.

I really think these cupcakes taste just like the ones in the shop. Hope you like them!

Chocolate Goodness

Baking has been difficult to do during the summer time. Lately, It has been so hot here. Temperatures have been as high as 29 degrees Celsius everyday for weeks. We have an A/C in the living room but unfortunately, it doesn’t cool all of our apartment. I have been avoiding using the oven for weeks now, trying to prevent our place from overheating. The place get’s hot even if I were to bake some asparagus for 3 mins. I decided to update the blog even though. Here are some older photographs of chocolate cupcakes that I had baked in honor of my sister’s graduation from university.

The particular recipe I found from a book my boyfriend’s mother gave to me as a gift.

Devil’s Food Cakes with Chocolate Frosting

Ingredients:

3 1/2 tbsp soft margarine

generous 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 large eggs

generous 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

generous 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1/2 cup sour cream

Frosting:

4 1/2 oz or 125 g semisweet chocolate

2 tbsp superfine sugar

2/3 cup sour cream

Procedure:

- Preheat the oven to 350 F or 180 C. Put 18 paper baking cases in a muffin pan, or put 18 double-layer paper cases on a baking sheet.

- Put the margarine, sugar, eggs, flour, baking soda, and cocoa in a large bowl and, using an electric hand whisk, beat together until just smooth. Using a metal spoon, fold in the sour cream. Spoon the batter into the paper cases.

- Bake the cupcakes in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until well risen and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

- To make the frosting, break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and heat until melted, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly, then whisk in the sugar and sour cream until combined. Spread the frosting over the tops of the cupcakes and let set in the refrigerator before serving.

That particular day I was rather tired so I made the cupcakes in two steps over two days. I made the batter and cupcakes on the first day and the frosting on the second day. It really saved on the amount of cleaning I had to do and it was less exhausting.

My family was actually coming to visit for the occasion so I had to multi-task to prepare the food. I found myself making soup at the same time as frosting the cupcakes. (And I guess I was sipping on a cappuccino as well )

Back to baking

So, I’ve been busy with life I guess you could say. I have baked quite a bit in the past few weeks, it’s just I was always postponing the post.  Now I think I will do it finally. What have I baked? Well… I made some more peppermint sugar cookies and decorated them. Specifically, for Mother’s Day. I went online and bought some cookie cutters for the occasion. I went to www.flourconfections.ca I believe they are located in Kitchener, Ontario. The service was really great and fast. I am very happy with my purchase. I got some cookie decorating supplies as well. I got some disco dust and some edible pearls. I am very excited  to use these things! I have also baked biscotti for the first time. I have to confess though, that I haven’t been very consistent with the documentation of my baking. I have photos of this and that, here and there but nothing too extensive.

Today was Mother’s Day. My mother came to visit me and  we visited a dessert restaurant where we had the most amazing desserts! Check it out here: www.desserttrends.ca. Apparently, the chef has prepared food for the Queen and the Pope! The desserts are really quite creative. There were mainly tarts and mini desserts. Even though the desserts may appear mini, we all had trouble finishing them because they were just so filling. They remind me of the desserts found in patisseries in Montreal. These desserts definitely school dufflets.

This update is going to include some photographs that I’ve taken of my baking recently. Hope that you enjoy them!

This is where I got the Biscotti recipe. It’s this month’s Food and Drink Magazine from the LCBO.

Cherry Almond Biscotti

Ingredients:

Butter, to grease cookie sheet.

2 cups (500 mL) all purpose- flour

3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar

1 tbsp (15mL) baking powder

Pinch salt

1 cup (250mL) coarsely chopped almonds

1/2 cup  (125 mL) dried cherries

1 tbsp (15mL) grated orange grind

3 large eggs

1/2 cup (125mL) olive oil

1/4 cup (50mL) fresh orange juice or amaretto

Glaze:

1 egg beaten

Pinch salt

1/4 cup (50mL) granulated sugar

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 325F (160 C). Butter and flour a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, chopped almonds, cherries and orange rind.

3. Whisk together eggs and olive oil. Stir in orange juice. Make a well in the middle of dry ingredients and slowly stir in liquid ingredients to form a dough.

4. Divide dough and place on cookie sheet. Shape into 2 loaves, about 9X5 inches (23 cm x 13 cm). Brush on beaten egg and sprinkle with salt and sugar.  Bake for 30 minutes or until dough is a golden colour with cracks on top. It will not be firm to the touch.

5. Cool on racks for 20 minutes, then cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) slices. Place on cookie sheets and bake for 15 minutes on each side or until golden brown and dried out. Cool on racks.

Makes 24 pieces.

I decided to try it out after reading the instructions. The recipe was for Cherry Almond biscotti. However, after searching ALL over the Loblaws and not finding a single package of dried cherries! I settled with dried cranberries.  I think it still made for some pretty scrumptious biscotti.

The dry ingredients assembled.

The dry ingredients mixed.

Wet ingredients ready to be added to dry mixture.

This next part was a bit difficult because it required making a well in the dry ingredients and then slowly pouring the wet mixture into the middle of this well. To be honest, it wasn’t as successful as I had hope it would be. My interpretation of  it resulted in a rather sticky dough which really didn’t resemble the photograph as much. However, in the end, the biscotti tasted really good! I was impressed with myself.

This what the dough looked like which got me a bit worried.

So this is where I forgot to photograph the rest of my progress. Except, of course, the final product. I have a photo of the final product.

This here is the only photograph I have of the recently baked Mother’s Day cookies. As you can see they are teapots, mini hearts and Eiffel towers.

That’s all for now. Hope you enjoyed the photographs.

Martha Stewart’s Strawberry Cake

Lately, I was sick with the Norwalk Virus. It was really extremely unpleasant. I thought I was dying at one point from all of the horrific symptoms.  The worst part of it all was that I couldn’t eat anything for a few days. This resulted in an extreme loss of energy and the worst hunger I’ve ever experienced. Especially since I was still browsing cooking blogs and recipes while in bed. Let’s just say my mouth was watering. I spent a particularly long time staring at this one Strawberry Cake from the Martha Stewart website.  As soon as I felt better I decided to make it. I found it was so easy to make, the ingredients are very basic. I found pretty much all the ingredients already in my kitchen. The only thing I had to go out and buy were the strawberries. The cake was delicious, I definitely recommend it to everyone. It would be the perfect recipe for a beginner baker. Easy to bake,  wonderful presentation and taste.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.
2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.
3. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.
4. Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

During my cake baking I did use a glass pie plate so therefore, I had to lower the oven heat by 25 degrees in order to account for that. So I had set the oven to 325 degrees in the beginning and later to 300 degrees.

I left the butter out to reach room temperature but I’m afraid it never did really reach room temperature. So the butter was a bit on the hard side. This happens to me quite a bit even though I know that this is a very important step in baking. I somehow always manage to get away with it.  See here the clumpy butter and sugar mixture.

I have to say the dough was very tasty as well!

Delicious!

I hope you get a chance to try this recipe out! You won’t be disappointed.

Red Velvet Cake with Raspberries and Blueberries

Sometime ago I made a birthday cake for a friend. It was the red velvet cake with raspberries and blueberries. I thought I might share my experience of making it with you. I found the recipe online and will share it with you here.

Ingredients:

Cake

• 2 1/4 cups sifted cake flour (sifted, then measured)
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 tablespoon red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 large eggs

Frosting

• 2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

• 3 1/2-pint baskets fresh raspberries
• 3 1/2-pint baskets fresh blueberries

For cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch-diameter cake pans with 1 1/2-inch-high sides. Sift sifted flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into medium bowl. Whisk buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar, and vanilla in small bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition. Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions.

Divide batter between prepared pans. Bake cakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 27 minutes. Cool in pans on racks 10 minutes. Turn cakes out onto racks; cool completely.

For frosting:
Beat cream cheese and butter in large bowl until smooth. Beat in vanilla. Add powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

Place 1 cake layer, flat side up, on platter. Spread 1 cup frosting over top of cake. Arrange 1 basket raspberries and 1/2 basket blueberries atop frosting, pressing lightly to adhere. Top with second cake layer, flat side down. Spread remaining frosting over top and sides of cake. Arrange remaining berries decoratively over top of cake. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour before serving.)

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Red-Velvet-Cake-with-Raspberries-and-Blueberries-108256

I did not have sifted flour. So I just sifted the flour twice. It seems to have worked out.

Here I put the dry ingredients into a bowl and mixed them together.

I mixed the buttermilk, food coloring, vinegar and vanilla.

Using my hand held mixer I mixed together the sugar and butter. I added the eggs (one at a time).

I beat in the dry mixture alternating with the buttermilk mixture.

I divided the batter into two prepared pans.

I baked the two cake filled pans until the toothpick came out clean after being pricked into the cake.  After cooling the cake layers completely I began working on the second part of the cake, the frosting.

I beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla and powdered sugar together.

I spread the frosting over the first layer.

Added the berries.

Placed the second layer over top and began frosting the whole cake. I did however make a small mistake. I didn’t have time to do a crumb coat on the cake and so there were crumbs all over the frosting.

Even though there were crumbs in the frosting, the cake tasted amazing. This cake is really quite easy to make. I chose it because it was written in the recipe that the cake could be made in a day. I really did manage to finish it in less than 4 hrs, except for the crumb coating part (which would have taken me a bit longer).

Valentine

Valentine’s day is always an excuse to bake heart cookies, cakes and to eat all of the sweetest goodies without remorse. Take this heart shaped chocolate cookie made by Bakerella. It makes my mouth water and it intrigues me in an aesthetic kind of way.

I will be going away for about a week and a few days so once I do get back I will update with more goodies.