Chocolate Banana Cupcakes

                  “Cupcakes are not an indulgence... they're a way of life!" ~ @cupcakesquotes


I haven't baked in a LONG time! Actually, the last time I blogged was a few days before we adopted a very special member into our family... Lucy!
If you follow me on Twitter then you already know ALL about Lucy! We've had her for almost 5 months now, and it has been BUSY! It definitely hasn't left me with much time to bake!

However, now that Lucy is growing up, is perfectly trained and has BASKETS full of toys to occupy her, I can get back to baking!
So this week we were invited to a dinner party AND I had some bananas that were perfect baking material. ( i.e. they had gone bad!) So I whipped up some Chocolate-Banana cupcakes with chocolate buttercream icing, topped with slices of caramelized banana's on top! They were SO GOOD!

I think the friends we brought them to liked them too! :D
If you want to make chocolate banana cupcakes, the Joy of Baking cookbook has a very similar recipe to the one I used!
I hope to get back to baking in the next little bit... With whatever free time I have. In the meantime try this recipe for yourself! Good luck! And happy baking!!!

                                    

Viennese Cookies!

Cookies are made of butter and love.  ~Norwegian Proverb

Today I made a batch of Viennese cookies, and YES! the 1st ingredient was love! Ha Ha Ha!

I think other then a batch of 'package' cookies where all you have to add is water, these were the quickest cookies I have ever made! What took the longest was the actual baking time of 12 mins per batch!

I love this picture because it shows a lot of my new stand- that I made! I saw the 'How to' on a  craft site and made it in under 5mins! 

The cookies are mostly butter, but the fun part is that they are dipped in chocolate! If you want to make a batch, here is a simple recipe similar to the one I used! 

You could totally get away with making these in under 20mins for last minute guests coming over!

My husband now has fresh cookies to bring to lunch with him tomorrow to share with his friends! :D

... And I have homemade cookies for a girlfriend of mine that's coming over tomorrow! 

FYI these cookies also store really well incase you want to keep them on hand for children or a little indulgent snack!!

Up next: Last blog for the month- Paris Brest!

Sound be FUN!!

Macarons!!

macaron: n. A chewy cookie made with sugar, egg whites, and almond paste

So Macarons- what can I say?! Don't make them!!!! Ha HaHa! To every baker out there who's successfully made more then 1 batch of macarons you are my heros! People including David Lebovitz who make blogs about fail proof macarons, I proved last week that I can still screw it up! ! :)

Macarons are hard to make, and I knew that! I just had no idea the ratio of fails to triumphs I would be about to encounter! 

Luckily, I didn't freak out when my 1st batch flopped, or the 2nd! However, I did jump up and down for about 45 mins when the 3rd batch came out perfect (ask my husband!) Then the following day I made the vanilla bean buttercream for the red berry macarons (pictured above) and no matter how much icing sugar I added to the buttercream it remained liquid! I must've added at least a bag and a half in the end and still nothing! So the score so far is 2 failed batches of macarons, and failed buttercream. I decided to quit for the evening and start fresh the next morning! And that's exactly what I did- to no avail! I would say that day 2 was probably worse then day 1! 

Day 2 I attempted David Lebovitz chocolate macarons with chocolate ganache! Well there was no point evening making the ganache because yes, count them-1,2,3 batches went into the garbage that day! Booo Hooo! So I made this post with the 1 chocolate macaron that came out and my 3rd batch of red berry ones!

I do have to mention that I decided to make these on probably the biggest heat wave of the year, and I know that didn't help! However, in general these cookies are finicky! Am I giving up all together? No! I have one more recipe  I would like to try in the future... I'm gonna take a break on macarons for now- and after that we'll see where we stand! :)

Have you ever made macarons? What recipe did you use?

Chocolate Madeleines

A new British survey has revealed that 9 out of 10 people like Chocolate. The tenth lies. - Robert Paul

Today I made Chocolate Madeleines. This twist on the classic cookie is truly amazing!

I've made Madeleines before ( see "It was a MERRY Christmas", January) and  they are a light spongy cookie that is very flavorful and aromatic. The amount of chocolate that was in them wasn't very much, so you were still able to taste the butter, vanilla and a couple of the other 'secret' ingredients I threw in! :)

If you want to make these, here is a similar recipe to the one I used. My batch yielded about double the volume that this one will and I added some extra spices to add more flavor. What I would do differently next time is to add more cocoa! Even though I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, I think they would be tastier with more cocoa powder. If you want to get really creative with them you could add the zest of half an orange.

I've read that Madeleines are best served slightly warm or at the very least they must be served the same day they are made. Which means... no leftovers!

 ... which is fine by me! Ha Ha! I'm sure they won't go to waste at home! 
These cookie/cakes would be a great addition to any tea party or posh get together where there will mostly be finger foods. Or they could be served along side homemade jams at a brunch for a more rustic feel!

Until next time everyone!! Enjoy the beautiful day!

National Donut Day

Donuts. Is there anything they can't do?

~ Matt Groen

How funny that today was National Donut day in the USA and I decided to randomly make donuts last  night!!

Actually I've been itching to bake for weeks, however I've been busy with either friends, work, errands etc. There's a couple of things that I've wanted to make to showcase on the blog, one was Definitely homemade mini donuts. 

Even though summer is really busy and my work schedule for this month is out of control, i've pre-planned what i'll be making and I can give you a heads up now of the coming blogs, I'm not exactly sure of the order but it will be something a little like this:

~ Chocolate Madeleines (if you remember just after christmas when my family bought me that ginormous, extravagant Kitchen Aid mixer, Madeleine cookies were the 1st thing I made with it!) Now I'm going to do a slight variation to the traditional Madeleine and make her CHOCOLATE! The Madeleine is already a confusing cookie, is it cookie? ... is it cake? Maybe a little of both! :) But I have a feeling people will be leaning closer to cake after trying my chocolate Madeleine!

~ Viennese cookies, I found this recipe recently and I thought how simple and what a cute little homemade cookie to have on hand for any last minute visitors who stop in!

~ MACARONS, Now I know Macarons are every bakers worst nightmare... but I can't help it, I LOVE THEM! With all the different flavor and color combinations, they are the cutest accessory to any party! But, I am going to leave you in suspense to what flavors I chose- so if you love Macarons, stay tuned for that blog!

~ Paris Brest, and last but certainly not  least to the month of June will be Paris Brest with expresso cream. Speaking of unexpected visitors in the summer, this jaw dropping pastry is a prefect solution to those nights when you are having guests and don't feel like sweating over an oven to deliver something with a punch. This dessert is a 10/10 for looks, flavor, and calories! :) ... But who's counting anyway!

Well, anyway if you are a follower of the blog thats what you can look forward to in the month!

Getting back to National Donut Day and my full day of baking to bring to you- da da da daaaaaaaa! Mini donuts & donut holes/timbits/munchkins (Not photographed! :(  Unfortunately!) 

Here they ARE:

I had an inspiration once from a photo I saw of all  different pastel colored donuts and I though it looked so beautiful and innocent ( innocent as in, so light & fluffy and calorie FREE! Ha Ha) So when it came to glazing I could have gone the old fashion route with chocolate or maple, but instead I opted for a plain vanilla with pastel colors instead.

Don't let these donuts fool you though! They are called raised donuts, so they require yeast and unlike most homemade donuts are not super dense, they are more like the donuts you would get from a coffee shop such as  Tim Hortons Or Dunkin Donuts. They are fluffy inside and Very Yummy! However, they did take almost exactly an entire day to make! I started making my dough around 11am yesterday morning and between proofing & waiting and rolling out and shaping and  proofing & waiting, Ha Ha! I put my glaze on at 1:48 am this morning! They were dry enough for me to add the nonpareils at around 2:30am! Oufff! That was a big job! I'm happy I did it though because I've always wanted to make my own donuts, but I don't think I'll be making these on a regular basis! If your looking a recipe for homemade donuts you can go HERE. It's a little similar to the one I used and modified!

I plan on giving these away, so- ANY TAKERS! Lol

This is all the ingredients it took to make these yummy donuts!

Hope you had a wonderful National Donut Day, and scarfed down plenty of donuts! See you next time when I blog about Chocolate Madeleines!!!

Homemade gourmet bread

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou.

~Omar Khayyam

This week I embarked on making my own bread. I had staked out a couple of different recipes and was really undecided on which one to use. so I consulted my bread expert, Sophie. As long as I've known Sophie she's always baking something, especially bread. I've seen her whip up a batch of bread in minutes using not much more then a bowl, loaf pan and her hands. Sophie gave me her older sisters favorite recipe that she's been using for ages, and it was amazing.

The bread came out so full of taste... I didn't even know bread could be so flavorful!

And while it was still piping hot we all had a slice with butter, Wow!

All I know is I am SO thankful that I don't have Celiac Disease, because to not be able to enjoy this gluten rich bread would be so depressing!

I can't wait to start exploring with more breads, I've even gone out and bought tons of yeast and flour so I can come up with my own variations of different gourmet breads. The one I might try next is chocolate cinnamon raisin ! Yum!

I'm really into site like King Arthur Flour , and epicurious.com recently! So hopefully that means more yummy blogs to come! :)

Hope you've all had a great week!

Happy Easter! Easter eggs

Large, naked raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who lie in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter.  ~Fran Lebowitz

I trust you all had an excellent Easter or Passover. I was very busy that week. I came home from an international flight, prepared an Easter brunch for some family & extended family. We had ham, bacon, sausage (all really healthy stuff), a onion ham and two cheese quiche, baked beans, roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes, pancakes, pea soup & Mimosas. 

It was delicious! For dessert we had coffee, tea, apple crisp, and homemade french Canadian sugar pie! I'm not going to lie, Thank God  we have many couches, and a spare bedroom, because our guests all had to lay down after that much food. Ha! We had a fantastic time. The piece de resistance that day was my Easter favors I made for everyone. If you live in Canada or have ever visited Canada you might have heard of Laura Secord. It is a gourmet chocolate shop that you can find in most malls. At Easter time, they have about a 3 inch long, and 2 inch thick Easter egg filled with a sweet & salty thick filling- it's to die for. It's so rich that you have to cut it in slices and portion it out for a couple of days! Here's my version of the Laura Secord Easter egg:

I tried to break down the recipe and match Laura Secord's egg exactly! It was pretty dead on, and tasty!

Our guests were all shocked at the end of the evening when they got to take one of these home with in a gift bag with Easter ribbon!

Do you have any yummy, go to Easter dessert recipes?

All about Cupcakes

“Friends are like cupcakes in my pantry of memories.”

- Anonymous

This week I experimented a bit with flavor. After making Cookie dough Truffles (see previous blog), I made Vanilla bean cupcakes with some rich 'Bourbon' vanilla bean I had recently picked up on a trip to Germany. I also added some lemon zest, which made them very aromatic. I tried a new recipe, and they came out a little more dense then what I'm used to (I really like a light & fluffy cake) but that's par for the course when trying something new! 

Even though the cupcakes were a little dense, I would definitely make them again because they were so yummy! They tasted exactly like a cupcake I one had at Petits Gâteaux for my birthday last year!

The concept for the 3 different designs was as simple as this, I had a dozen cupcakes and three different design ideas I wanted to try! Ha Ha!

First I started with the 'Birthday' cupcake:

The Idea here is fairly simple. These would be great for any kind of party or celebration. The pink on white makes them whimsical and makes me think of my birthday parties when I was a little  girl! The pink decorating sugar is very girly, but the decorating sugar could be any color. For example, if it were green they would be great for St. Patrick's Day! The point is that they are simple and tasty without being too over the top!

Next, 'Not Your Typical Fairy Cakes' cupcakes:

A Fairy Cake is what the British & sometimes Irish call a cupcake... especially when they're really cute! :)

These little blue cupcakes were just another way to use my way yummy icing with blue gel coloring! Getting back to the icing, I have never had icing this good before. Growing up with a mom who is a pastry chef, buttercream icing in our house was as common to find as water! And maybe because of that, I hated it! When I moved out, one of the first desserts I made was slathered in a 'tin' frosting, and I loved it! Since then when making most things I always stuck to tin frosting, but when trying to decorate cakes/cupcakes you need something a bit stiffer- here's where the buttercream icing comes in. Yuck! Not anymore, though! I came up with my own delicious recipe for buttercream icing. It is buttery yet sweet and smooth! It's amazing! You will just have to try it I guess!

Lastly, Chocolate fudge buttercream:

Since I'm not the biggest fan of chocolate, I'm not the best judge of these cupcakes. So i'll just tell you what my husband said about them. "They tasted fresh, and were delicious! The frosting was light, fluffy and flavorful, it's consistency was like chocolate mousse, but with more flavor!"

I finished off the chocolate puff of frosting with a shaved dark chocolate from Belgium! The frosting recipe also had some rich melted chocolate inside!!

I really love making cupcakes! They always make people happy!

!!

Also today, as I announced on Twitter, I was at the printer finalizing my business card! I'm so excited, by next week my box labels and business cards should be ready! I wanted to give you all a sneak peek at it:

If your wondering, the name 'Madeline' comes from a cartoon that I used to watch when I was little. The cartoon was about a little Parisian orphan who lived in Paris and was always getting into trouble! Because of this cartoon, I have always wanted to have a daughter named Madeline and my husband assures me that this will never happen. Not because we are not having children, (because we are clearly having children) but because he's never been partial to that name! Ha! 

Also, 'Madeline' also comes from the cookie/cake 'Madeleine' !!

Until next time, I hope your all having a fabulous week!

xo

As Promised, Cookie Dough Truffles!

"There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles." - Author Unknown

These truffles have been begging to be made for about three weeks, since about Valentine's Day! If you remember I had 3 desserts planned for Valentine's Day, but since (right now) we are only two at home, it would have been way too much food. Once in awhile we get this adorable little raccoon named Phillippe that comes by for a snack and ends up polishing off any of our left over sweets, but most of the time we are just two!

So one by one I made the desserts, but staggered them out one week at a time. I started with Cake Pop 'Kisses' for Valentine's Day, then Nutella Sandwich Cookies the next week, and finishing this week with Cookie Dough Truffles!

I found this recipe fairly simple and it only took about 45 Minutes to make them (not including chilling time which is about 3 hours). That's not bad for a dessert that can be frozen and unthawed anytime you have guests over, it's actually a time saver! Ha! I still have to practice chocolate coating things in a double boiler, so far the 'two fork method' seems to be working... but there's got to be something simpler... Will get back to you on this!

I wish I could have shared them with all of you, because the cookie dough taste is immense! Even as a person who doesn't like chocolate, I liked these!

I'm not too sure what I'm going to bake next, maybe Cupcakes or Lemon Bars? I got this amazing German cookbook when I was there last, and it has some amazing recipes that I think you will soon see featured on this blog! But, If you have any ideas for things for me to try out and blog about, let me know! Either write me a comment below or as most of you do, on twitter @flightattdntjen !

Hope you enjoy the pics!

(Big THANX again to Jon for lending his camera <I swear I'll get it back to you soon! ;) > & to Dave for being my photographer once again, Because I am rubbish at taking photos!)

I didn't say this on my last blog, but I meant to... if you want the full effect of the image you can click on it to see it in full!

I hope you like sweets because these are sweet

Couldn't resist! They looked too yummy! Ha Ha!  Just kidding- It's staged!

The recipe says it yields 5 dozen. Not quite, but it was still a lot.

Cookie dough- Yum! Who can say 'no' to yummy cookie dough
I think this is my all time favorite picture!

Packaging! Goodbye treats! Glad your not all staying in my house!

Box that got sent to my BIL!
I get to borrow his camera... he gets paid in sweets!
Good trade, I think! ;)

Happy 27th Birthday David!!! Fondant piano cake

“Birthdays are nature's way of telling us to eat more cake.” Anonymous

Last year for my husbands birthday I was starting to get into cake decorating, so I made him a checker board "Black & White" themed cake. The very next day, feeling inspired I was lost in a web of cake designing websites and came across the idea for a fondant piano cake. Because my husband is known for being a piano player I thought this idea was genius! So for a year it has been in the back of my mind to make this cake for him this year! I wasn't too sure how it would turn out considering I have never touched fondant in my life, but it didn't stop me from going out and buying everything I could possibly need to do this cake. Lots of money was spent, enough said! Ha! (Thank God most was reusable tools!) 

So, basically my introduction to using fondant was a baptism by fire, seeing as I had never taken a course. My mom (the pastry chef) gave me a couple of tips over the phone, which were mostly useless, because I wasn't smart enough to follow them correctly, humpf! My cake was baked, cut to shape, and crumb coated at least 4 hrs in advance- too bad the fondant part took me over 6hrs. Fondant is really tricky, and if you attempt to use it for the first time, especially if you are coloring it yourself, I would do a mock cake a few days in advance. 

Here is how my cake turned out:

My husband was thrilled, and honestly a little shocked too I think. Ha Ha! It was a bit of a surprise that it wasn't a store bought cake, or even a home-frosted-wobbly-lettered-looking-job! 

If coloring fondant yourself (which is a tricky job, when you can buy pre-colored fondant for around the same price at any cake store) give it time and let it breathe! This probably sounds a little silly, but just like buttercream icing, or painting a wall- icing/fondant takes time to go darker. Don't constantly keep adding coloring to get it darker, you can always add more but you can never go back lighter. Also don't forget to keep it well covered to keep it from going hard. 

Wish I would have had a better camera, these shots just don't seem to do the cake justice! ;)

Rolling out the fondant is also extremely tricky, hence the 6 + hrs it took my to get the fondant right. Too thick and it will tear once rolled out over the cake, and too thin and will tear as you try to lift it. These are the kinda of stupid problems I encountered when trying to make this cake. Also measuring is KEY. Measure the circumference of your fondant once rolled out, measure your cake and then measure it again. You can never over measure! When decorating with fondant, strips, dots, or stars- try to keep consistency by... yes! Measuring! ;)

Can't wait 'til the next time I make a fondant cake. Now that I've already had my 6hr self taught lesson, I think I'm ready to handle anything!!!!