This is why I make cakes!!!!

Monkey Cake

Here are some of my latest cakes, enjoy!

Cakes and Cupcakes

I've been busy this summer! Here are a few of my recent works, enjoy!

Three tier buttercream cake. The bottom layer is chocolate, banana and caramel, the top two tiers are carrot with classic cream cheese icing.

This a the topper to a cupcake tower. The cupcakes were chocolate mint, lemon and vanilla.

Sock Monkey Party! Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!

Finally we have the Princess Party cupcake tower. This was the topper.

World Travel

Latest Cake... This is a world travel theme cake. Hope you like it!

PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE CHUNK BROWNIE

YUMMMM!

If you're one of the peanut butter and chocolate lovers amoung us, you will love these! Sorry to all of those with peanut allergies :(. Adding peanut butter cookie dough to your favourite brownie recipe brings the experience to a whole new level.

Make some peanut butter cookie dough and place in fridge.

In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa and salt, set aside. In another bowl, melt the chocolate and butter over a double boiler making sure the boil isn't touching the simmering water below. Remove the melted chocolate and butter and add the sugar, eggs and vanilla, stir until it is well mixed.

Add the sifted ingredients and mix until it's all incorporated. Pour into a 9 x 13 greased and parchement papered pan.

Remove the cookie dough from your fridge and place tablespoon size pieces throughout the batter pressing them down slightly. Bake for about 25-30 minutes until it's puffed a bit and springs back slightly when pressed.

When it cools, drizzle liberally with chocolate ganache.

BROWNIE RECIPE

Sift together and set aside:

1 cup flour

¼ cup cocoa

½ t salt

Melt together:

1 cup butter

6 oz bittersweet chocolate

Stir into chocoate:

1 ½ cup sugar

1 T vanilla

4 ea eggs

Add the sifted dry ingredients, mix until it's incorporated and pour into a greased 13x9 inch pan. Press in the peanut butter cookie dough pieces. Bake at 350F until it springs back slightly when pressed, about 25-30 minutes.

EURO-SPEC CAKE

From start to finish with out the hours of work! If you're up for a challenge try a carved cake.

Step one was to build the structure to support the cake. If I could guess, the finished cake weighs somewehere around 50 pounds so making sure the support system won't crumble, at the worst time of course, save heartbreak from happening.

Now it's time to build. As you can see, the bottom half of the cake is chocolate and the top half vanilla. The two flavours are separated by a layer of fondant and then a cake cardboard. There are wooden dowels in the chocolate layer to support the vanilla cake. Don't try to make the cake pretty, your goal right now is to get the rough stucture to look like a semi truck.

Starting to look like a semi truck!

It's now time to make it look pretty. Once you've crumb coated the entire cake cover it in a thick layer of butter cream. Chill it for about half an hour then smooth it out by placing a layer of plastic wrap on the area you want to smooth out and gently rubbing with your fingers. Now the fun starts. If you are working from a model, take the most prominent features and translate them to the truck.

Now the fun starts. If you are working from a model, take the most prominent features and translate them to the truck.

The finished truck. Now the scary part, delivery! Let's hope the truck survives it's last trip before demolition!

Crispy Oat Cookies

Soft and chewy? Crisp and dunk-able? Whatever kind of cookie lover you may be, these crispy oat cookies are sure to be a strong contender gracing your cookie jar! I must admit, I usually go for the soft and chewy cookie but the softies aren't always practical. Say you want to send cookies to a friend but they won't get there for a couple of days... Chewy cookies have peaked and are on their way down. In comes the crispy cookie! With a shelf life crushing the competition! These crunchy goodies will arrive with plenty of goodness to go around.

Here's the recipe....

7 oz butter, room tempurature

1 c sugar

1/4 c brown sugar

1 ea egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 c oats

1 c flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp baking, powder

1/2 tsp baking, soda

1 c walnuts, chopped and toasted

1 c chocolate chips

Now let's make some cookies!!!!

In a medium bowl, sift together your dry ingredients. To a large bowl, add your butter and the sugars.

With a mixer, beat your butter and sugars until they're well mixed and starting to get fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat for a couple of minutes.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate chips and walnuts.

Roll the dough into balls that are about an inch in diameter. Wet your fingers with a bit of water and pat the dough balls flat. Bake at 350 F for about 14-16 minutes until they are golden and firm around the edges.

Time to get a glass of milk or a hot cup of tea and dunk away! Next time you make them try adding a 1/2 cup of coconut for an extra dimension. Yummmm!

Enjoy