Trifling around.....

One of the desserts that has always meant Christmas to me is trifle. It's long been my favourite and last year I attempted to make my first one. It was a success (according to my family anyway). This year I made 2 trifles, an adult friendly Chocolate/orange one and a child friendly chocolate blackcurrent/strawberry one.

They were both big hits. The chocolate/orange trifle was supposed to be a "candied orange and chocolate trifle" however since the candied orange part did not work out all that well I substituted the candied orange on top with grated milk chocolate. No one knew the difference and it was much nicer in my opinion. This one was made with the cake soaked in grand marnier and the whip cream topping had white chocolate incorporated with it. Although I'm not a fan of white chocolate the whip cream really balanced out the flavour and it was nice a creamy.



The second trifle was made with blackcurrent jelly soaked into the chocolate cake with strawberries and blackberries layered in the middle and whip cream with shaved milk chocolate again. Both were very simple to make and they were certainly enjoyed by all.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Ok, so it's a little past pumpkin season but I had to share these muffins that I made after Thanksgiving with my leftover pumpkin puree. I love, love, love pumpkin spice anything and muffins are no exception. The Tim Horton's at my work for some reason was not selling them this year. So...I was left with no choice to go the healthier and much cheaper route of making my own. Well I found this great recipe online so I decided to try it out. The muffins were a bit dense but delicious and the best part was that my 6 year old loved them as well. They made for a very special 'treat' and I've been baking them regularly ever since.

Update on baking

I found a recipe for some healthy muffins...ie: no sugar added and tried making them. Well they turned out great and I now make a batch regularly to have for breakfast each morning. They take almost no time to make now that I am becoming more and more experienced with baking.

Easter Cookies

It has been longer than I thought since I last updated my blog. I have been baking just not blogging, since I'm new at this hopefully you will all forgive me. I'll start with the "Easter" Empire cookies that were made for my family coming over for Easter dinner. My 6-year old helper was great at decorating the cookies as you can see.

Pastries

Truth be told the inspiration behind my newly found hobby has more to do with my upbringing than my mixer. My mum was a great baker, she didn't make anything fancy just perfect pastry every time and simple recipes mostly handed down from my grandmother. I used to look forward to coming home or visiting on the days my mum had baked to find butter tarts, almond cookies, ginger cake, scones and so much more. I have tried a few of my mum's recipes including the butter tarts and scones with great success. I have not yet been able to find her ginger cake recipe but I am still diligently searching for it.

Anyway here are butter tarts that I made using store bought pastry shells but the filling is all from scratch.

From Newbie Baker

Chocolate Chip Cookies

So I've been making chocolate chip cookies for years but recently I tried making them with my mixer. The result was (finally) a cookie that stayed soft on the inside even after cooling down. It's the same recipe I have used numerous times before but with the help of my baking assistant who is all of 6 years old and my new mixer the cookies turned out perfectly this time.

Here are the cookies:

From Newbie Baker

The mixer that started it all

I have been dreaming of buying a Kitchen Aid mixer for years. This past February thanks to saving up gift cards and waiting for just the right sale I was finally able to purchase one. It is black and chrome and absolutely beautiful. If it's possible to love an appliance this is the one to fall in love with.

From Newbie Baker