Saturday, May 18, 2013

Key Lime Coconut Cheesecake Mousse


Music is such an integral part of life.

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Coffee & Walnut Doughnuts


I've been so blessed to have not one, but two amazing Moms in my life. One gave birth to me and the other gave birth to the love of my life. 

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Thursday, May 9, 2013

Chocolate & Pretzel Peanut Butter Cookies - Gluten Free*


If I could offer you one piece of advice, it would be this. 

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse Cups


Think back to when you were a kid. 

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

I went to FBC2013 Conference and all I got was this fabulous swag...


As the amazing posts from the FBC conference have been pouring in, I found myself feeling guilty. Guilty for not having this magnificent story to tell straight away about my experience. Any chance I had to sit down at the computer, I would stare at a blank page, counting how many times the cursor blinked a minute, hoping to catch out the previous count time before. I didn't. 

Computer - 1.  Jenny - Nil.


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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Boston Cream Whoopie Pies

Last week, an unfathomable and truly heinous act of hate struck the beautiful city of Boston.

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Thursday, April 11, 2013

Monkey Bars


This weekend, I'm off to the Food Bloggers Of Canada's first ever food bloggers conference. 

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Pudding Eggs


I don't know about you, but Easter totally caught me off guard this year.

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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Chocolate Carrot Coconut Cupcakes


Did you ever go on vacation, only to wish you had another week to recover from the one you've just been on?

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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Chocolate Oatmeal Raisinets Cookies


This post was going in a whole different direction until a friend of mine posted something on Facebook this morning that made me chuckle.

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Ganache Cupcakes


So today, it's one's birthday. 

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Sticky Toffee Sweet Rolls


New Year's resolutions. 

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Chocolate Blackout Cake


In our house, we celebrate pretty much everything.

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Saturday, January 19, 2013

The Brunette Baker is TWO!


Today is my Two Year Blogiversary!

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Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Chocolate Tiffin


January 6th marks the 12th day of Christmas. 

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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Super Easy Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Biscotti


Growing up, I suffered from an acute case of Middle Child Syndrome. 

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Cherry Blintz Brunch Cake


My husband and I aren't big fans of going out on New Year's Eve. 

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Monday, December 17, 2012

A Day of Silence


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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Snickerdoodle Poke Cake


I think my neighbors are in the middle of a Christmas decoration turf war. 

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Monday, December 10, 2012

White Chocolate Cranberry Blondies


I've been making a lot of costly mistakes recently.

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

White Chocolate Peppermint Popcorn


Best. Popcorn. Ever. 

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Hot Chocolate Peppermint Cupcakes


Let's talk Christmas music.

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Beer and Bacon Brownies


These have bacon in them. And beer.

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Monday, November 19, 2012

Apple Pie Cupcakes


Here is a friendly reminder to all of you reading this:

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Friday, November 16, 2012

Harvest Nut Pie Squares


Guess where my husband is as I speak and you read?

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Monday, November 12, 2012

Pumpkin Custard with Warm Maple Syrup



Pumpkin Custard with Warm Maple Syrup.

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Thursday, November 8, 2012

Pumpkin Pecan Chai Bars


I never had a sweet tooth until after I had my daughter. 

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Monday, November 5, 2012

The Best Pumpkin Bread Ever (with Cream Cheese Glaze)


Okay, NOW pumpkin can come out and play. 

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Friday, November 2, 2012

Candy Bar Blondies


I'm officially Halloweened out. 


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Friday, October 26, 2012

Kitty Litter Cake


This is exactly what you think it is.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Double Chocolate Twinkie Mummy Pops


Normally I don't like to provoke arguments that I know will only end up in bar-type fight scenarios; glasses smashing, tables upturning, someone crying over in the corner, but sometimes life hands me lemons and I'm fortunate enough to proverbially chuck them at people.

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Monday, October 22, 2012

Peanut Butter Biscoff Oreo Brownie Cupcakes

I'm a woman of few words these days, but I will say that if you're an Oreo, peanut butter, Biscoff, or brownie lover, then these are the treats for you - huge bonus if you love them all. Each component somehow manages to make the other taste even better than if they were on their own.

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Friday, October 5, 2012

Halloween Polka Dot Brownie Cheesecake Bars


I know it's only the first week of October and I'm already all up in your grill with Halloween treats, but I figure it will be here before you know it, so you'll be thanking me soon enough. Or not. Whatever. 

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Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Mushroom, Spinach, and Ricotta Pie


Okay, so I know what you're thinking.  

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Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Italian Ricotta Cookies


 

I had an industrial-sized hankering for some chicken quesadillas the other night. 

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Monday, September 24, 2012

Almond Joy Cupcakes


ALMOND JOY CUPCAKES

Cake:
1 box devil's food cake mix - I used Duncan Hines
½ cup canola oil
3 eggs
1¼ cup coconut milk
24 single bars of Almond Joy, Bounty, or Mounds 

Coconut frosting:
cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup finely shredded coconut
⅔ cup coconut milk 
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or paste
½ teaspoon coconut extract

Chocolate coating:
2 cups good, quality chocolate wafers or chips
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening


Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners; set aside.  

In a large mixing bowl, prepare cake mix according to box, with the exception of changing up the water to coconut milk. 

Place a tablespoon of cake batter into each cup and coat the bottom, I used a skewer to evenly coat it.

Place a coconut chocolate bar on top and cover with more batter, filling it until ¾'s full. 


Bake for 18-20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from oven and allow to cool for a minute or so. Remove from tins and transfer to a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. 

Using a mixer, beat butter until fluffy. Carefully add powdered sugar and coconut milk. Add vanilla and coconut extracts. Mix well. Add coconut and blend until incorporated.


Line cupcakes onto a tray. Pipe frosting onto cupcakes into a mound shape and place an almond on top. Place tray in freezer for 5-10 minutes to help solidify for dipping. 


Melt wafers or chips along with shortening in a heatproof dish for about a minute or so. The dish needs needs to be deep enough as well as wide enough to dip cupcakes into. Use care when melting chocolate as you don't want to overheat chocolate. It can and will seize up. 


Once chocolate is melted, remove cupcakes from freezer a few at a time and dip until frosting is coated. Once I dipped, the almond's shape from inside didn't show up, so I added one on top of cupcake as well immediately after it was dipped. 

Place in refrigerator to allow chocolate to firm up.


 Yields: 24 Almond Joy Cupcakes. 

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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Caramel Cashew Cookies


I took my daughter to her bestie's birthday party this past weekend. 

The event was held at a super fun indoor play center - a place we visit frequently when the weather is less than stellar to release some pent up energy that somehow and for some reason only seems to occur in kids. Especially mine.

Anyway, there were about 3 or 4 other birthday parties in motion at the same time, so as you can imagine, a space that is very large when empty can get pretty busy and confined the more bodies you cram into it. This, however, is not my issue. 

My issue is the mothers of the children that are invited to these parties. Now, let me just say that I'm not sitting here saying I am a perfect Mom or Mother of the Year - not by a long shot and far from it, but what the hello operator is wrong with some of these women? And just to clarify, I'm not talking about any of the mothers at the party we were invited to. They were all lovely. 

What got my knickers in a twist this particular day was four mothers standing around, pointing out random children's outfits and how awful they were!

As my mouth was on its way down to the ground, I was like, 'Did I hear what I think I just heard?' Are you kidding me? Your have to stoop so low and talk about a child? Yes, I understand that we are all entitled to our opinions, but there are just some topics one doesn't discuss - especially in public. Let's not even talk about the hurt the Mom of one of those children would have felt had she been privy to that conversation.

It took all my wits not to lose the plot and whack them upside the head with a double issue of Better Homes and Gardens that was sitting on the table next to me.

What's even more remarkable was as soon as one of them left the group, to use what I assume was the facilities, the three other women actually started talking about her! When did I step into an episode of Real Housewives of the Sad and Pathetic?

As if the universe heard me mentally complaining, a few minutes later, no word of a lie, one of them got rammed in the back of the leg by a kids Cozy Coupe car, lost her balance, and spilled her coffee on the woman next to her.

Seriously, you can't make crap up like this. It was FABULOUS. I don't think I ever laughed so hard at someone else's misfortune. Too bad she wasn't wearing all white, but the light pink top was good enough for me. 

Moral of the story: Make cookies, not gossip. No one gets emotionally hurt that way. 


CARAMEL CASHEW COOKIES

2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt 
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1¼ cup cashews, roasted, salted, and chopped 

Caramel Drizzle

24-28 caramel cubes
¼ cup heavy cream 

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, salt, and baking soda together. 

In a separate bowl, using a mixer, combine butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.

Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture and blend until incorporated. Add cashews and stir with wooden spoon. 


Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour in refrigerator.  

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheet with silicone mats or parchment paper.
 
Using a medium ice cream scoop with a retractable mechanism, scoop out dough and place on prepared baking sheets. 


Bake cookies 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. Mine took 11 minutes.
 
Remove cookies from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheets for several minutes before transferring to a wire rack. 


To make caramel drizzle:

Place caramels and heavy cream in a non-stick saucepan on stove over medium heat; stir frequently.  Once caramel starts to bubble, remove from heat, continuing to stir until cubes are completely melted. Using a large spoon, drizzle over cookies.



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