Tuesday 29 November 2011

MARSHMALLOWS!

So stoked! I've been waiting to try these forever. They're soooo good and so cute! I love making homemade marshmallows and it's retarded easy! If you ever wondered what marshmallows are made of... it's basically sugar and gelatin. Complex, right? Certainly not the healthiest of recipes, but what on here is? The best part about making homemade marshmallows is flavouring them any way you want... vanilla (classic), cinnamon, lemon, orange, strawberry, almond, peppermint, coconut... I could go on. I used MAPLE! How good would that be with hot chocolate? Damn. If you're feeling especially adventurous, coat them in chocolate, candy or toasted coconut.

WARNING: ATTEMPTING THESE MAKE YOUR KITCHEN, YOUR TOOLS AND YOU UNBELIEVABLY STICKY AND COATED IN SUGAR.


and here are the photos of the mess.

it starts as a mixture of sugar, corn syrup and water. so nutritious. 

then you dump it into a bowl of gelatin and beat. and you beat for a very longgggg time......

before picture (nice liquid.)


AFTER PICTURE! about to jam mixer.


crazy mess.

3 hours later.

 and the cutting...



beautiful, delicious finished product.

Sunday 20 November 2011

mo cookies

in the spirit of movember, in which countless men grow their 'staches to both raise awareness for prostate cancer and entice the ladies, my friends and I held a movember party. for this party, I luckily found some moustache-shaped cookie cutters to make some treats.


since I had to make cut-out cookies, and didn't want to do something boring like plain sugar cookies, I decided to look into something more exotic. chocolate shortbread was something I was looking into, but with one secret ingredient..... cayenne pepper!


I used this shortbread recipe and added the cayenne myself (about 1/2 tsp). I omitted the pink pepper, but   also added 1 tsp of cinnamon. Instead of the cacao nibs, I finely chopped a bar of dark chocolate (to measure about 1/4 cup) and added that as well. I also recommend not baking these for the full 20 minutes the recipe calls for, because my first batch burnt within 15. I found that 10-12 minutes was about perfect.

....and they were perfect! dark, chocolatey, rich, and just when I thought I should have added more cayenne, BAM the warmth and spice of it comes in strong at the end (but isn't overwhelming). I can't wait to make these again (probably included in christmas baking.)

obviously they were a hit at the party :) (see cookie models below)



Sunday 13 November 2011

carrot cake!


Last night we had an early christmas celebration with the family, so I decided to make some carrot cake cupcakes from scratch (with cream cheese icing)! The recipe was great and they turned out perfect! However, if you like your carrot cake to be a bit spicier you could add some nutmeg or allspice, as this recipe only called for cinnamon. Voila!

Here's the link to the recipe.