Around Valentine's day it felt like spring was on the way. It was nice enough outside that I didn't need a hat, I started planning our garden and thinking about camping and picnics and pretty dresses. But winter was having none of that happiness, it has decided to stay f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Instead o...

My boyfriend and I had a low-key plans for Valentine's Day. We were going to have a nice breakfast, possibly see a movie, plus I had made a dessert the night before that was waiting in the fridge for us. However, things turned out differently thanks to a couple of morning mishaps. Mishap ...

These savory little muffins with their tangy, warm, melty cheese are a little bit addictive. You pop one into your mouth and even if you leave the kitchen you suddenly find yourself beside them again 'trying' another one. I made these for brunch and every single of them disappeared before the ...

The title says "cake" but I really feel that "bread" better describes what this is. Sweet yeasty dough cut and slathered with butter and lemon infused sugar is baked and then spread with lemon cream cheese icing. Once its iced you can just peel the slices off, no need to cut (who has time to ...

It had been a while since my boyfriend and I last hosted brunch, so we put together another one this weekend. I had some recipes that I wanted to try and my boyfriend had been wanting to re-create a brunch dish that we had eaten at Medina Cafe in Vancouver. Plus, brunch is awesome.. so there's...

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert. With a fancy-pants title composed of dessert techiques I had never heard of I was pretty sure that this w...

Roasted banana cupcakes and creamy, fluffy whipped vanilla buttercream topped with strawberry, chocolate, or pineapple sauce and a cherry. I wanted to make some Valentine's Day cupcakes but I wasn't really feeling the traditional Valentine's Day decorations with the red and white hearts and li...

Two pieces of moist chocolate cake with marshmallow icing sandwiched between them = a whoopie pie. My friend Noelle was visiting me this weekend and we had important plans to drink copious amounts of tea, eat dim sum, and visit a show at the art gallery. I hadn't planned on baking anything ...

Over Christmas break I had the pleasure of learning how to make cheese empanadas from my friend Natalia's mom Maggie. I love visiting their family and eating all the delicious Chilean food that Maggie makes. While we hung out in her kitchen in our pajamas Maggie showed us how to put together t...

The 2010 December Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Penny of Sweet Sadie’s Baking. She chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ to make Stollen. She adapted a friend’s family recipe and combined it with information from friends, techniques from Peter Reinhart’s book.........and Martha Stewart’s ...

I have been wanting to make marshmallows for a long time but I kept putting it off for a number of reasons. Firstly I have a pantry stuffed with bags of store bought marshmallows that I use for marshmallow fondant.. so making my own seemed a little pointless Secondly, I don't really just eat m...

Vodka infused with cranberries and lime : great for making holiday cocktails for for giving away as a gift. It's incredibly easy to make, all you need is time to let it sit. The vodka can be made in any quantity, you just need is a jar with a tight seal on it, vodka, cranberries (fresh or ...

I had my doubts about candied peels. Store bought varieties are bitter and unpleasant and all in all they have always seemed like something that would always be too 'old' for me. However I was very very wrong. Like most things, the store bought version does not represent how these taste when...

Making your own flavored alcohol is really easy and leads to some extremely delicious drinks. This recipe makes a peppery gin that is perfect for caesars and other savory drinks. I used a 1/4 cup of black pepper corns and the rind of half a lemon for the flavor combination. For the alcoh...

Cinnamon spice sugar cookies all dressed up as winter coats with the help of some homemade fondant. I looked out my window a few mornings ago and was surprised by the very sudden arrival of winter. It had been warm and sunny and then *bam* snow everywhere! I have been wanting to get aro...

A small break from baking this week (except for the usual bread baking) to shower our new kitty with attention. We decided to adopt an adult cat from the shelter earlier this month and we finally went and picked one out this weekend. I was pretty much dying from cat-related excitement all we...