The sites look has changed and I have added new photos of my baked goods. I’m busy in the kitchen coming up with new treats. I will be posting on the site frequently so stop by often.
Now that I am an official business owner I have decided The Girl Bakes site needs a major overhaul. I will be adding new pages and a product list.
I plan to be finished by end of the week.
Stay tuned for the big reveal in which I will include a post and photos of my first outdoor market!
It is taking place at Bickford Community Center this Sunday, May 27 from 12pm to 4pm. I will have my tasty cupcakes there. So come and visit my booth!!!!
My friend asked me to make her cupcakes for her favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day. She asked for carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing. I made my basic carrot cake with cream cheese icing.
I then added a shamrock made out of fondant. I dyed it green, rolled it out and then cut it out with a cookie cutter.
I’ve been meaning to experiment with taking proper photos of the stuff I bake. I bought a white vinyl box and a light to start doing it. I had some time before my friend arrived to pick up the cupcakes so I did a quick photo shoot. All the photos on this post were taking during the shoot.
She had asked for 24 cupcakes but I had some left over so I decided to ice a few with cream cheese icing and added mint sprinkles on top.
I’m very proud of how these cupcakes came out. I think I am definitely getting better at making the icing. This cream cheese icing was thick and flavorful. Icing cupcakes is definitively easier.
No on to my next project. Not sure what it is yet but I can’t wait for it!
I have been meaning to post photos from one of my latest project for the longest time but I have been crazy busy with work. I’m stealing time on my lunch break to finally post this because I have been feeling guilty for not posting anything for so long.
Here are photos of the cookies I made especially for my sister’s Chapbook “Maybe” Launch Party. It was held at Playful Grounds in Toronto. A great place for families to sit, relax and enjoy a coffee, food, and even an alcoholic beverage while their kids play or enjoy a kid friendly snack. If you are in the Toronto area and need a kid friendly spot that is cool for adults check it out. Click here to check out the website.
The cookies were my traditional sugar cookies with black and white royal icing on top. I wanted to practice flood work so I offered to make the cookies for my sister. I still need more practice but I am learning new trick the more I practice.
The cookies were a big hit and my sister still had enough to bring back home to her kids. My sugar cookies are famous in her house.
They are meant to resemble and were inspired by the black and white cover of her first book and photos in the second book.
I made these sugar cookies especially for my sisters Chapbook "Maybe" Launch Party. They were a big hit!
Every time I visit London, England either as a stop over to another destination or as my vacation spot I make sure I go to the Battersea Pie Station in Covent Gardens. For one thing I love pies and for another their pies rock. For those of you not familiar with the concept of savory pies, it is a common thing in Europe. You can put anything into a pie. Although savory pies are not all that common here I have come across a Butter Chicken Pie in Toronto ( review to come).
I usually have the Steak and Guinness Pie when I go to Battersea (pictured below). The actual pie is flaky on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. The pie shell has a slight sweet taste but is not all distracting or unwelcome. There are herbs sprinkled on top that add a nice flavor to the pie.I just love cracking into the thing and watching the steam and stew slowly pour out. The stew itself is thick and the meat is nice and tender. It is has the taste of Guinness without being strong or bitter.
You can order the pie with mash potatoes and gravy. It is a bit filling to order it with mash but oh so satisfying. The gravy is perfect, not too salty, and compliments the mash while not overpowering the actual stew. I truly perfect trio.
There are lots of other options for pies and even sides so you can have something a bit on the lighter side. There is also a vegetarian option of Butternut Squash and Goats Cheese Pie that looks to be quite satisfying.
If you ever in London and need something fast yet hearty and very satisfying I suggest you go to Battersea Pie Station. They have recently opened up some new locations in London so there are plenty of chances to try out their pies if you are in that neck of the woods.
For more information check out the Battersea Pie website.
I have a new twitter account based around all my baking adventures. Follow me @GirlBakes.
The post below is about a Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake recipe I found in a “diet” book. It is one hell of a treat. Here is the link for the recipe http://www.prevention.com/health/weight-loss/flat-belly-diet/flat-belly-diet-recipes/article/fe98eda9cfb91210VgnVCM10000013281eac____
It is a tasty satisfying snack. If you have the time to bake it you should definitely give it a try.
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It has been so long since I have posted. I have been so busy working that when I get home I plop on the couch and take a nap and then I am off to the gym. Once I get back from the gym I make dinner and enjoy the evening with my significant other. Where in there do you see time to bake?
The funny thing is that because I knew I was going to be so busy being at work, not having time to make lunches and in an attempt to save money, I baked. What did I bake? Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake! OMG, it is so good, moist and chocolaty. I use to have my suspicions about chocolate zucchini bread but this one has a layer of melted chocolate on top that is hard to ignore.
I got the the recipe from the Flat Belly Diet Cookbook. I advocates eating a mono saturated fat in every meal to help reduce your waist line. I like the cookbook because it has some great recipes that are tasty and not “diety” at all but they all fall within a healthy calorie range. I was flipping through the book and saw the picture for Chocolate Zucchini Snack Cake and I knew I had to make it. So in light of needing a good snack I could take with me to work I made it and I was one happy woman. The top layer of melted chocolate is what hooked me. How could you resist something like melted chocolate? I feel sorry for people who are allergic to chocolate, I really am. It is a terrible tragedy that should be looked into. Money needs to be raised for these poor souls. I mean, to have to miss out on a food that delivers the same chemical reaction in your body that an orgasm does is truly sad. The awful thing is that allergies can not be cured so the charity idea is kind of a dead end. My heart goes out to you.
Speaking of allergies, I have a few food allergies myself, nothing as sad as chocolate but they are a burden. I mention this because since I was making the chocolate zucchini snack cake for me I made it without eggs and baking powder because I am allergic to, well, eggs and corn (corn starch is an ingredient in baking powder). My point is that even though it was technically vegan chocolate zucchini snack cake it was still moist and yummy. Vegan does not mean dry or tasteless.
Well readers, that is it for now. I must go and eat something then ice cupcakes for the crew to celebrate our last day working on the kids film fest. I made marble cupcakes with chocolate chips, topped with vanilla icing. I am looking forward to tomorrow being a bit of a cheat day for me as I will definitely be having one!
Here is another archival post from last year. This one was written after I made brownies for the nice dinner I was making for me and my boyfriend. We were partaking in Earth Hour so we had dinner and dessert by candlelight. I’m not sure why I didn’t take any photos of the finished product but I included the link for the recipe if you ever want to try to make them yourself.
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I was reading through the most recent addition of Martha Stewart Living yesterday morning. It was a special issue, “The Best”. One of the articles was on editors Top Chocolate Deserts. As chocolate is one of my utmost favorite things in life I was intrigued. There was recipes for a ridiculously decadent looking chocolate cake with chocolate icing, yummy chocolate chip cookies, and double-chocolate brownies. Just one look at the picture of the brownies and I was instantly inspired to bake them.
Here is the link for the recipe:
I had a plan to go down to St. Lawrence Market to buy ingredients for that evenings dinner. I was in the mood to support local farming and eat really fresh food. Since I was already going down I thought I would get the stuff I needed to bake the brownies. It felt so good to go down to the market. I was getting all caught up in the experience. Shopping like this makes you feel alive and part of something, a community. Groceries stores suck in comparison. When I am in a grocery store I can really sense how corporations and mass production has really ruined food in north America, but I digress.
I bought some really good stuff for a really good meal. My menu for the evening was butter chicken with veggies and fresh naan bread, homemade brownies and ice cream. I thought brownies were going to be difficult to make. An ideal brownie is chewy and fudgy. These textures are not necessarily easy to achieve. As soon as I got home I got to work. I began by melting the chocolate. I have to say that melting chocolate with butter is one of the most satisfying things to do in the kitchen. Putting together all the ingredients was relatively easy and all I had to do was put the batter in the oven and bake them. I left them in for 30 minutes as my oven seems to cook things 5 or so minutes quicker than recipe ask for, the recipe asked for 35-40 minutes.
The aroma of chocolate goodness filled my apartment and made me feel good. Once I took the brownies out of the oven I could not wait to eat them but I had to wait because first came dinner. I devoured my tasty butter chicken next to candle light as my boyfriend and I were participating in Earth Hour. I then heated up a couple of brownies and served them with vanilla ice cream. Let me just say I was in heaven. They were velvety, moist, fudgy, and full of chocolaty flavor. They were better than I could have imagined. I don’t think I could eat a store bought brownie after that. I was surprised at how easy they were to make.
So now that I have tried brownies I am going to move on to chocolate chip cookies. I am no stranger to baking chocolate chip cookies. They are one of my favorite cookies. I think how I am going to approach these cookies is by cooking my tried, tested and true recipe that I have always baked and try out the one in the magazine to see which is better. I have a busy week but I am going to try to make these cookies tomorrow or at the very latest Sunday. I won’t ask for luck as I have been making these cookies since I can remember. What I will ask for from you, my readers, is the strength not to devour them when they are done. I have my first 5k race of the season this weekend and I really need to stay on track!)
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I was so happy today because I brought some of the brownies I made the other day into work. My co-workers loved them. I got some great compliments and I was even told to quit my day job and bake for a living. I wish it was that easy. That comment really made me feel great because along with being a filmmaker and working free-lance in the biz I want to be a pastry chef. What a weird combo, right? In an ideal world I would do both and maybe in the real world I will. That compliment made me think that everything I have been doing so far is worth it. I love baking, I have a passion for it, and I think I have a talent. I rarely screw up a baking project. It is funny how something so small can reassure you of something so big.
I was going to make the chocolate chip cookies tonight but then I found some carrots in my fridge and was inspired to make carrot cake cupcakes. I had a busy evening with cooking dinner, yoga, and doing laundry that I only had time to grate the carrots. I will bake the cupcakes tomorrow. My plan is to make a batch of regular cupcakes and vegan cupcakes because I need to watch what I eat. Not only do I have my race on Saturday but I have food allergies and I really can’t eat eggs. I need to stop. The food violations are getting out of hand and my body is asking me to stop. I will make the cupcakes tomorrow and I will make cream cheese icing to go on top so they won’t be completely vegan but it will be “vegan” for me. I promise, readers, that I will make the chocolate chip cookies. This week will just have to be jammed packed with cupcakes, chocolate chip cookies, and I almost forgot that it is Easter weekend so I HAVE to make my traditional Easter sugar cookies. I will post about those later.
Good night everyone! May vision of sugar cookies dance in your head!
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If you read this post you should have noted that I promised to make chocolate chip cookies. I never ended up making them and writing about it but now I think I will. I promise dear readers I will give you a chocolate chip cookies post real soon. I also mentioned in the post red velvet and carrot cupcakes. I am not sure if I posted on these. I will have to see but if I haven’t I will bake them again and give you a new post.
I will continue to pull up archive posts in the next couple of day but I promise new stuff is coming. I have so much to bake, eat, and review.
The Girl Bakes 