Salted Caramel. YUM!

I had a craving for this delicious Salted Caramel & Chocolate Cake last night - so I made it. No occasion. Just cuz.

Recipe source: Sweet Paul, Fall 2010 Issue.

Pink & Blue and Parisian Treats

Everything on this plate was incredibly delicious and was made from scratch by my mum, brother and myself.

Macaron ♥. My brother German made these beautiful little treats in dark chocolate ganache and buttercream fillings. I do believe they're his own recipes.

I made and decorated my own cake. This was a new recipe that I tried from Chatelaine. It's their Velvety Beet Cake with Raspberry Icing - the pink came from the fruit and not food colouring. I diverted from their raspberry icing and concocted my own. I'll share it in the near future.

Amy and German decked out in pinks and matching with the theme.

This Is An Overdue Post: Birthdays and Halloween

Mouth watering croquembouche. Recipe from House & House, November 2010.

I left out the the candied ginger the recipe calls for and they turned out very well.

It runs in the family - we love to cook, bake and eat.

My brother made these chocolate macaroons for our mum.

Instead of birthday cake, I surprised my mum with the croquembouche she was drooling over in the pages of House & Home.

Aside from burning my fingers on hot syrup, and almost having it fall apart as we added the last bits, it was well worth the effort. (Scanned recipe pages from the magazine below.)

Then for Halloween, I made Sweet Paul's Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cake.

The cake and frosting were was simple enough to make and assemble. I did though have trouble with the caramel. Afraid to burn it, I pulled it off the stove too soon and my caramel was too pale and runny. I cheated and thickened it with corn starch and gave it a deeper colour with food colouring.

The cake was probably one of the richest, moistest (is that a word?!) cakes I've ever had. Doesn't help that I'm a chocolate addict.

Recipe for Croquembouche can be found here, here and here. (Be sure to click on all 3 links.)

Recipe for Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cake can be found here.

Impressive Dinner: Beef Bourguignon

Sweet Paul Magazine, page 65

I have Amy to thank for my recent obsession - Paul Lowe's blog Sweet Paul.

In the Fall issue of his online magazine he features amazing looking comfort foods and rich cakes. Since my in-laws visited on the weekend, I decided to try something new (which is either very brave or very stupid) and settled on SP's Beef Bourguignon (p. 65) followed with his Blueberry Streusel Cake for dessert (p. 51).

I started the Beef Bourguignon in the morning and left it simmering in my slow cooker for 4.5 hours and went out for the afternoon. By the time we got home, dinner was done. All I had to do was put together the streusel, which was easy, stick it in the oven and relax before dinner. We served the beef with some mini red potatoes and multigrain bread. (I had pictures but they were terrible due to poor lighting.)

The meal was impressive with rich flavours and the cubes of meat fell apart when pierced with a fork. We served four hungry people and still had left overs, which is always nice. The streusel didn't disappoint either (I made it with mixed berries) with it's of condensed milk topping. Everyone was licking their spoons at the end and was full and happy.

Now I just need an excuse to make SP's Salted Caramel and Chocolate Cake (p. 55). Halloween perhaps?

::: Nathalie

Recipe: Vanilla Cake with Summer Fruit

Chatelaine's Vanilla Cake with Summer Fruit

I've been awol from the blog lately since I've been working on the launch of the official Lime Shop website. It's up and running now so make sure you check it out!

Since I've been so busy, I've hardly had the time to bake but as soon as I saw this cake in my mum's Chatelaine, I knew I had to try it.

It's pretty simple to make and you probably already have all of the ingredients in your pantry.

I followed the directions exactly as stated in the recipe. In regards to cooking time, I found 65 mins was a little too much . I had checked the cake at 50 mins, but found the middle still needed cooking. (It's a lot of batter that you're baking through.) 65 mins was too much since the cake was a deep brown color and the edges where too tough for my liking. I resolved this by cutting away the edges of the cake to reveal the nice moist cake inside.

Decorating this cake could not have been easier. You literally drizzle your icing on top (if it's too runny, just add more icing sugar to thicken it) and decorate it with fruit.

The recipe calls for 2 peaches, thinly sliced. There was no way I could fit 2 peaches on this cake so I reserved the remaining slices in a bowl. My guests where more than happy to pass the bowl around the table and top their cake with additional fruit.

If you need a simple cake to impress your guests, definitely give this one a try. Just be sure to bake the actual cake an hour or two before your guests arrive to give it time to cool down before decorating it.

::: Nathalie

CHATELAINE'S VANILLA CAKE WITH SUMMER FRUIT

Makes 12 Servings

FOR CAKE:

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tbsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 1/2 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla

2 1/4 cups milk

FOR ICING:

3 tbsp milk

2 cups sifted icing sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

3 160 g containers berries

2 thinly sliced peaches

1. Preheat oven to 325F. Spray a 9x13-in. glass baking dish with cooking spray. Line bottom with parchment paper. Spray again. Stir flour with baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.

2. Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium speed in a large bowl until butter is creamy. Add sugar. Cream together until fluffy.

3. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Beat well to incorporate. On low speed, add a third of the flour mixture followed by half of the milk. Repeat additions, ending with flour.

4. Scrape into prepared pan. Smooth top gently. Bake in centre of oven until it is deep golden and a cake tester inserted into centre of cake comes out clean, 65 to 75 min. If cake becomes deep golden before it is done baking, cover very loosely with foil. Cool on a rack 10 min, then remove from pan and cool completely, about 2 hours.

5. Whisk milk into icing sugar until smooth. Whisk in extract. Spread over cooled cake. Slice cake, then serve topped with berries and peaches.

Picture Blog: Aprons, Bracelets, Cake Fail and Diana

Busy weekend with 2 birthdays for the in-laws, hosting Sunday lunch at our house, baking, and making aprons and bracelets. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

My niece Mackenzie with her Moomin apron. I made it for her 6th birthday. That's me trying to hide behind her.

An array of new bracelets coming soon to The Lime Shop.

Diana modeling some of her favorite picks.

Cake Fail! I cut corners and bought Duncan Hines cake mix and frosting. It was the worst cake I've ever had to work with. Crumbs galore and it was on the brink on falling apart. Yes, those are Reese's Peanut Butter Cups heaped on top.

More cake fail. Cupcakes were also Duncan Hines. They didn't rise well and were kinda greasy. They tasted decent though.

Diana making faces.

The End

::: Nathalie

Good Deals and Some Organization

For someone who loves designer handbags, I can be pretty thrifty. I also get stupid happy when I come across a good bargain. This weekend, I picked up the Martha Stewart Cupcakes book, that I've been wanting forever, for about half the cost. (Oh happy day!) Of course this meant I had to go home and get baking.

I picked a recipe for something simple, yet different, where all of the ingredients were at hand - Brown-Sugar Pound Cakes with Brown-Butter Glaze. (Or as Geoff likes to call them, "butter and sugar cakes with butter and sugar icing".) These cupcakes are rich, delicious, dense, and yet surprisingly fluffy at the same time. YUM! I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who loves cupcakes, or anyone who just enjoys baking.

The next day Diana and I went to Ikea for some organizing tools. Diana focused on her bedroom, buying a dresser drawer and shelving unit. I bought kitchen stuff: jars, a bookshelf for my cookbooks, and the 3 tiered serving platter that was sold out back in December. The kitchen shelf looks so cute, that I now have plans to paint the cabinets white, put in subway tiles and redo the floors. Spring cleaning has begun!


::: Nathalie

The Gluttony That Ensued

I've been a bad, bad girl.

Have you ever seen the movie Julie and Julia? If not, we highly recommend it. However, I would advise dieters to be careful, because watching it made me go WAY over the 1500 calories I'm supposed to eat a day.

Nathalie had me over for dinner tonight (because a good bff always feeds a bff). We had pasta and lemon drizzle cake. Here's the thing, when people say 'cake' they usually mean a slice (or two if you're being bad). We took bad to an entirely new level and ate an entire cake between the both of us.

Now our breathing is labored and Nathalie's threatening to vomit lemon.
It's a good thing that I'm wearing a skirt, because if I was wearing pants I'm pretty sure I wouldn't fit in them.

With a heavy heart (and body),
D

Post Valentines Day

It's been a busy and emotional weekend and somehow, for my own sanity, I've managed to accomplished a fair bit.

Valentines Day was sweet: a trip to the AGO, dinner at home and renting Revolutionary Road. Our meal consisted of seared tilapia served on Swiss chard with steamed carrots and pan fried baby potatoes with a light olive oil lemon sauce. Dessert - classic red velvet cake.

And finally, just this evening, Diana and I managed to finally get our Etsy shop up and running -thelimeshop.etsy.com. Similar to our previous online shop, Lime., we're featuring handcrafted iPod and iPhone (coming soon) cases, along with a variety of other accessories.

We would love it if you checked out our shop.

We hope you enjoy the rest of your long weekend.

::: Nathalie

Mmm... Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday René!

Chocolate fudge cake with buttercream frosting and crumbled Oreo cookie edging.

Check out this website for awesome recipes and ideas. Her butter cream frosting is so simple and so delicious. This weekend I'm whipping up the Red Velvet Cake for my other brothers birthday. Mmm!

::: Nathalie