Baking like whoa.

getting ready for this!

Cake School!

This is one of my cakes! I enrolled in cake decorating classes on a whim one day in the summer, and I had my first class last week. It was great, The class is full of people in their 20's and 30's, so no grandmas wanting to make those ugly doll cakes I have nightmares about, you know the kind

Anyways, We have only just started. but we ended the class last week with learning how to construct a rose. HARD.... RIDICULOUSLY HARD. I failed at this, but I know it will take a long time to master it. A girl in my class is holding a bakers market next month, Im considering maybe renting a table, but I'd like to split it with somebody! So Im looking!

Also...HUGE NEWS......I just ordered a kitchen aid mixer!!!! (GIRLISH SHRIEK!!!!!)
I wanted a red one ideally, but I found a display model on amazon.com and it is orange! So cute! I heart!!! It was a STEAL. They cost about $499 plus taxes and shipping on the kitchen aid site, and I got this one for $223.00 and that includes shipping to Point Roberts. I guess I better tell Billy's mom that it will be showing up sometime next week at her door! SO EXCITING. I have wanted one of these FOR-EVERRRR, and have been pricing them out since August, so needless to say I am doing a happy dance when I think about it's loveliness gracing my kitchen.

I will try and update more as I go through the course, it's early on, so not much to tell.
I have to bring in an 8" iced cake and 8 cupcakes to class on Sunday, as well as 3 containers of different consistency buttercream icings AND my class tool kit. Did I mention that I take a bus, skytrain and have to walk 3 blocks to my class? Yeah. Going to be a challenge for sure.

In other news, not much has been going on, Billy is almost done school, which is crazy to me. I like the friends he has made at school and I hope they continue to stay in contact if they all end up leaving Vancouver, I think he is part of a really good class.

We have gotten hooked on Mad Men as of lately, such a good show. We spent a few sundays watching back to back eposides and catching up. I also learned that my mom watches the show religiously, had no idea. I love the clothes and the furniture. We are going to be characters from it for Halloween, Im going to be Joan and Billy is going to be Roger Sterling

Im looking around for a red wig. Not dying my hair :P

I loooooove halloween and I love fall in general! So excited! Hope we find a fun event this year.

PacMan Cookies!

An oldy, but a project that I am still so proud of! I hand-formed my own seashell cookie cutter into a pacman ghost for these ones!

I'm feeling a baking project coming on, and Lars's birthday party just happens to be around the corner....I'm playing with fondant now! Should be interesting! *hope I don't crash and burn with this one!!! now that I have announced it via le internets!!*

WOW...uh...I'm a bit late. AWKWARRRRD...

So I lied to you all when I said "COMING SOON". Bet you didn't think SOON was equivalent to OVER A MONTH. Sorry. I have no good excuse, only the fact that it is still summer, and I have either been:

a.) Out, doin stuff
or
b.) playing too much bejewelled.

ANYWAYS.

"Irish Carbomb" aka Bailey's and Guiness CUPCAKES!!
These were so fun, we went to a beer themed birthday party (the host brews his own and it was just overall fantastic, his hefewiezen (sp.?) was something you'd stab somebody for, it was THAT GOOD.



I basically adapted this recipe here but omitted the whiskey and changed it up a little by actually adding a can of guinness to the cupcake batter itself instead of the traditional wet ingredients.

The frosting I followed to a tee. I didnt use the chocolate ganache filling because I thought they would be sweet enough on their own. Yes.




Ahh. All done. If I had more time I would have searched for my decorating bag and star tip to frost them all pretty-like, but I was un-organized (gasp!) and therefore had to resort to using a knife and doing it up old school.

I didnt write the recipe out because I linked to it if you so desire to make these :)

coming soon...

irish car bomb (chocolate/guinness and bailey's) cupcakes.

it's been way too hot to even think about turning my stove/oven on! But there is a birthday on Saturday and I have been WAITING for an excuse to make these. Hope they work out :)

what i have been doing (hint: it's not cooking)

...painting telephone poles!

These photos make me think I have hung them too high, but in real life they are pretty low. Im going to have to do some checking here.
Yeah, we have been doing a LOT of bbq-ing, thus my blog has been quiet, I figure nobody needs to see the 18th bloated veggie dog I have eaten this month. It's not impressive looking.

Amanda and I went to the vancouver flea market and looked around. One man proceeded to show us every single item he was selling, and said nothing other than this one phrase: "And look at this......and look at this......and look at this".Im not sure if it was the only english he knew, but we made an extremely awkward exit. Then it was off to Ikea, and then to Micheal's...we were feeling ambitious. All of this took place before noon. I didn't find anything at the flea market this time, Amanda bought some prints from a dark graphic novel to frame and hang, and then we found 5$ black frames at Micheals. It was a steal. I bought canvases and came home and starting cranking out these babies. Dean had suggested that I do some big ones, and connect the wires. Good plan my friend, I'm going to do more someday.

lemon bars

i am a baker by heart, cooking is just a front. I thrive when I'm making sugar-y stuff...even when I am staying away from eating it, like now.
Lemon bars are a surprising thing for me, seeing as I spent a good 25 years hating lemon-based desserts. I initially wanted to make these for Billy, he likes that kind of stuff, and they looked easy.


Then I tried one, and I was sold. Lemons are now off the hit list, leaving only pancakes, mushrooms and bananas as things I truly loathe! Do I sound neurotic? meh. These smelled so good that I swore I could hear my neighbors lingering in the hall by my door because anything that makes the hallway smell better than it's usual aroma of "hamburger helper" is like heaven.

These are really easy, even though they are a two-step process, I usually try and stay away from things like that..but this one is so simple, you should definitely make them....

lemon bars

Crust:
1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of butter, cut into small pieces and chilled in the fridge

Making the crust:
Preheat your oven to 350 F, line a square pan with tinfoil (I used an 8x8 glass baking dish)
and leave some foil hanging over the edges so you can remove the bars easily. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and sugar and mix them up well. Scatted the pieces of cutter over the dry mixture and use either a pastry cutter or something like that to work the butter in (I don't have a pastry cutter so I used a gigantic fork) until it resembles coarse crumbs. Press the crumbly mixture into the foil lined pan, make sure it's evenly pressed in, don't make the corners higher etc. Bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes or until you see it turning golden brown..don't worry about cracks, they are no big deal with these. Your kitchen should smell like shortbread-y goodness by now...lock your doors.

lemon part:
4 large eggs
1 and 1/4 cups of regular sugar ("granulated" if you are fancy pants)
2 tablespoons of lemon zest (grated from 2 whole lemons)
1/2 cup of lemon juice (again, from the 2 whole lemons)
1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
icing sugar for dusting on top

making the lemon part:
wash and re-use your medium sized bowl from making the crust, less clean up = happy.
In that bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar with either your fingers or a big wooden spoon, I used the spoon because I'm weird about hands + mixing things. The sugar will turn a lovely shade of pale yellow. Beat in the eggs, then the lemon juice, sift the flour and salt over the surface and mix them in. Pour the topping over the baked crust (it's ok if the crust is still hot from the oven) and continue baking for 25 or so minutes, or until you see the top is set and not sloshing around. Pull it out and cool. Dust with the icing sugar before slicing!