Orange Chiffon

I made these orange chiffon cupcakes on Friday for my Mom to take on an evening out. They were my first attempt at this flavour and I think they turned out pretty well! I may have over-whipped the egg whites slightly, but otherwise they were light and zesty :) xo

Wedding Cupcakes!

Here are some lovely shots of my September wedding cupcakes from our photographer Zoe Collyer (zoecollyer.co.uk). Thank you Zoe!

xo

Apple Walnut Cake

I made this apple walnut cake with caramel cream cheese frosting this weekend, and it was the first time I have ever made caramel. Slightly stressful, I didn't want a bubbling burnt mess on my hands, which explains the lighter than normal shade ;) I chickened out in the browning process! Light caramel still tastes delicious, thankfully, and the cake was a hit! xo

A very special cake!

This was our frozen wedding cake from last November :) We defrosted it and had it for our 1st anniversary a couple of weeks ago. It was still really delicious and the prettiest cake I've ever seen xo

Happy Halloween!

The scariest cupcakes ever! These are chocolate with m&ms in side them with vanilla frosting. Spiders, spider webs and Boo! Very scary...

Happy Halloween :)

xo

Finally!!! A little update on where I've been...

I must apologize for the tardiness of this post! Things have been a little bit busy, and we only made it home yesterday. The cakes were a success in England :) Thankfully! And they looked really lovely on the day.

The little photos above were taken by the very talented Zoe Collyer, and there are more to be found on her blog: http://www.zoecollyer.co.uk/index.php/home/comments/ben_and_meag_cheers_to_love

Along with some non-cake related photos.

My goal is to get the recipes of these cakes up tonight on the recipe section of the blog.

Thanks again to Zoe and to all of our guests on 25th September for making the day so memorable. You were a pleasure to bake for :)

xo meag

the day is almost here!

we leave on friday for our international wedding extravaganza! last weekend i had my final test bake, of the hummingbird cupcakes, and they turned out great! i decorated some of them with pineapple flowers, and the others with sugar pearls. the pineapple flowers were really pretty, but ben pointed out that they are difficult to bite through which is a fair point as we'll be standing in a pub without forks and knives. more importantly, i think i am well prepared for everything that i may face by baking in a new unfamiliar kitchen, but the proof will be in the frosting! i will be posting the recipes on here after we return. wish me luck! xo

sponge no. 1

fresh from the oven:


with necessary toppings:

i'm so happy that this worked out! for some reason i was nervous to make sponge. something about the egg separating and the very few ingredients that it involves. the simplicity was intimidating! haha but it turned out really well - first of many sponge cakes! xo

super kid cupcakes!

sorry for the lack of posts! i haven't been my usual self since the long weekend, but luckily on Canada Day we went for a picnic with some very special friends! this called for some super cupcakes for some super kids, whose favorite colours are yellow and purple (in that order). i took another crack at the confetti cupcakes, this time without the almond extract. they were still very tasty, and here is a snap of what they look like on the inside! i didn't manage to get a picture before we left, so this is what they looked like after being knocked about a bit in our picnic bag. yum! xo

happy father's day!

what a day! 30 degrees and sunny, can't ask for much more....except for maybe a toblerone cupcake?! these were my very own creation and they were a success! first i made a chocolate cupcake batter and included pieces of chopped up toblerone. for the frosting i melted an entire dark chocolate toblerone bar and mixed it into the buttercream and it had to be topped off with a toblerone triangle :) i went a bit crazy with the frosting but everyone got out of here alive haha

happy fathers day dad! xo

chocolate fudge!

these were some super chocolate-y fudge cupcakes that i made this past weekend for a delightful bbq! this are most likely going to be the chocolate representative in september.

travel safe tong & keith and good luck in Australia! 

xo

a flock of hummingbirds

finally! i have been wanting to make hummingbird cupcakes for ages but something always came up! hummingbird cupcakes, based on hummingbird cake, are a unique flavor made up of banana, pineapple, cinnamon and pecans topped off with cream cheese frosting. yum! i think of them as an alternative for carrot cake. very dense and moist, and naturally a vehicle for cream cheese frosting :) these are a serious contender for september due to their uniqueness and deliciousness! xo

i (heart) vanilla and chocolate

this is not a new recipe, but it is a good one! vanilla cupcakes with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. i added the hearts even though it's not valentines, just because i love cupcakes ;) awwwww haha

xo

new poll :)

check out the new poll in the right hand column! please vote if you have had any/all of these cupcakes! also, there is a new feature as you can now choose more than one if you just can't pick one favorite xo (totally unrelated vanilla/chocolate pic attached)

rainbow bit! (aka funfetti)

i made these lovelies yesterday for a bbq-turned-dinner party (what happened to the weather?!?). my inspiration was my fave box mix, rainbow bit. these were good, not quite to the level of real rainbow bit, but what are the 'bits'??? if anyone knows, please tell me! i just substituted rainbow jimmies into the batter and sprinkled them on top of the frosting. definitely a fun recipe xo

retire to dessert

happy retirement dad! i made these 'golf inspired' cupcakes for a party at Cirillo's Culinary Academy on Dundas West. it was a great night and the cupcakes went down really well! there were three flavors; the 19th hole (chocolate stout cake with chocolate whiskey ganache and chocolate whiskey frosting), it's a gimme (vanilla cake with raspberry curd swirl and vanilla swiss meringue buttercream with raspberry curd drizzle), and sand trap (chocolate stout cake with caramel frosting). there wasn't too much that screamed 'golf' about the flavours, just the names :) 

xo

its a cupcake bouquet!

my piping skills have definitely improved and i was able to work with modeling chocolate for the first time :) i was very happy with how my bouquet turned out in the end, even if one cupcake kept falling off and the frosting completely slipped off another haha it must have been all that humidity...i can't wait to make more of these very soon!!! xo

coming up...

no new baked goods to report, i am saving all of my baking energy and ideas for my next bonnie gordon class on May 1st, cupcake bouquets! i will learn piping techniques to make frosting look like real flowers, i can hardly wait! xo

cupcakes for a cause

mmm rainbow velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting :) i baked these this weekend to be sold at a bake sale for a good cause. i hope they've raised a lot of money! i had some issues with the frosting, it didn't come together as well as it has in the past, i will have to investigate this further. they still taste great! three colours of 'red' velvet cake, all the same flavor. i will definitely try this again in the future! xo

G.I.rls night cupcakes

we had another fab G.I.rls (girls) night on wednesday in honour of a baby and an award within our division at work. i brought some cosmopolitan cupcakes! the recipe called for 15 cosmopolitans :) so my first stop for ingredients was to the LCBO. they were well received! this was definitely a fun recipe and worth repeating xo

official easter cupcakes

better late than never! here are the easter cupcakes i made last weekend for our easter sunday dinner. i decided on two flavors, coconut and lemon and made regular size as well as mini cupcakes. they were good, even though i messed up the coconut ones and forgot to add the third egg ;) i had more fun with my grass piping tip and i attempted to 'stripe' the piping bag for the lemon cupcakes and it turned out alright. i am on the waiting list for the next decorating class so fingers crossed and we may have some cupcake bouquets in the future! xo

spring/easter cakes!

here are some easter egg cupcakes, i had lots of fun using my new grass piping tip :) and my new mini cake pan! there will be more baking fun all week, i can't wait! these are chocolate buttermilk cupcakes with vanilla swiss meringue butter cream.
here's another great pic by lionel :
http://greenteaandicecream.blogspot.com/2010/03/meag-brought-over-more-delicious.html

and the winners are...

the first two rounds of voting have finished and the most popular flavors are chocolate with white chocolate frosting and the chocolate cheesecake cupcakes! round three is now up so please vote away :)

this weekend is going to be all about the mini cupcakes with my new mini pan and some fun spring/easter decorations xo

last but not least from the weekend...

i had to do something with the left over chocolate butter cream from the mini cake filling :) xo

practice makes perfect

in preparation for lindsay's arrival on sunday i made two mini cakes for us to fondant, using the techniques i learned in my course yesterday. this picture is one of them following the 'crumb coat' step, before the final mask. this time i made two-layer vanilla mini cakes with chocolate swiss meringue butter cream filling and vanilla frosting.

once she arrived we started playing with fondant! see below...

it turns out that covering such small round cakes with fondant is more difficult than i thought it would be :) good thing i had a patient instructor! eventually the cakes looked like this...

and then i was let loose on her butterfly shape cutters!!! it was a bit messy...but so fun! thanks for all the tips and tricks bevi :) xo

baking & butter cream class

i am finally posting about my amazing weekend :) 

i had an amazing time at my baking and butter cream class at bonnie gordon. it is really nice to be supervised by a le cordon bleu trained pâtissier and told what you do wrong. i learned a lot about ingredient combination techniques that i was unaware of and my cake masking skills have definitely improved. the first picture is the final product of my whole day's work on saturday, a vanilla cake with a layer of mango swiss meringue butter cream and frosted in vanilla swiss meringue butter cream.

now that i had such a great time at bonnie gordon i can hardly wait to take another class but i know i need to pace myself. which class should i take next: preserves and fillings for cakes or cupcake bouquets??? decisions decisions!

this second picture is of my cake in action on saturday night alongside a fabulous tarte tatin, yum! xo

big baking weekend!

this weekend i have a couple fantastic baking events happening! the first, tomorrow, is my class at bonnie gordon on baking and buttercream http://www.bonniegordoncakes.com/ which i am super excited for! i plan on taking pictures all day, so hopefully they will let me, and then posting all about it afterwards. on sunday one of my best ladies is coming over to teach me fondant techniques :) this will also probably result in many pictures and hopefully some little works of art. watch this space...
xo

Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

i hope that says what i think it does :) happy st. patrick's day everyone!

to celebrate i made some seriously drunken cupcakes. they are chocolate stout (guiness) cupcakes with bailey's chocolate ganache filling and bailey's butter cream frosting and you can taste the alcohol! haha

when you make filled cupcakes the centre of the cake must be removed before you can pipe in the filling and then you replace just enough to cover the top above the filling. once you have repeated this 24 times there is a bit of cake left over from the middle of each cupcake. in the spirit of not wasting anything that has been soaked in spirit ;) i made a few cake pops out of the left over cake. this is easy and delicious, just take some crumbled cake and mix it with frosting or in this case the extra ganache, and then roll into even sized pops. melt some chocolate or melting discs and dip the pops in and top with any sprinkles or decorations and put in the freezer for a few minutes just to solidify. and then you have delicious bite sized cake pops!

shamrock cakes being enjoyed :)

glad you liked them guys!

http://greenteaandicecream.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-deliciousness-from-our-friends.html

xo

shamrock cakes

happy st. patrick's day week! i went all out this weekend with these green (red) velvet cupcakes. different recipe for the cake as it didn't contain any butter, same cream cheese frosting though with a bit of green for good measure, and the shamrock sprinkles! the real st. patrick's day recipe is coming up this week, i can hardly wait! xo

happy birthday kk!

happy birthday kk! these are banana cupcakes with cream cheese butter cream frosting for tomorrow's post birthday lunch dessert :) i hope you had a fab birthday day off, see you back at work tomorrow! xo

doug's ice cream sandwich

my brother is in his 3rd year of the hospitality program at guelph and this semester he, along with some classmates, gets to run the campus restaurant. this is the dessert item they have chosen to serve, home made ice cream sandwiches. looks soooo good! good luck doug, wish i could be there! xo

sunday scones

this post is only a couple of days late, but still delicious! we made these raspberry scones for breakfast on sunday as well as for tea that afternoon. they turned out really well! too bad we made them so large, otherwise we may have been able to enjoy them for a bit longer...

noix de coco

spring is in the air :) and tonight we had some friends over for dinner, so for dessert i baked these coconut cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting. they were really good! definitely a contender and will be making it into the next voting round. i toasted the coconut myself for the topping and swirled on the frosting instead of piping it. deciding to use vanilla frosting rather than coconut frosting is key in this combination, the cake was lovely and light so adding more coconut may have over done that flavor. i am hoping to do a bit more baking this weekend as well as enjoy the weather!