For the Love of Baking
We’ve been having a heatwave where I live right now, so it’s the perfect time for barbeque! Throughout BBQ season, I like to have homemade burger buns on hand. We use them for traditional hamburgers, veggie burgers, or even pulled pork. I find the homemade buns taste better than most store-bought and don’t fall apart as quickly when you are eating them.
I wanted to create a tart that tasted like the caramel macchiato coffee I used to love drinking in my early twenties. Here is what I came up with!
This week was my husband’s birthday, so of course, I had to make another cake! Two flavours that my husband loves are banana cake and cream cheese frosting. I was inspired to combine those two elements with a bananas Foster filling, which contained bananas and toasted pecans in brown sugar and rum caramel.
Yesterday was my birthday! This was my 2nd birthday on lockdown, so I decided to make myself a birthday cake. Since we were celebrating both my birthday and Mother’s Day this weekend, I thought that something spring-themed in both flavour and decoration would be nice.
I was inspired by a French YouTube video to make a lemon-lime tart. After 3 tries, I made the perfect tart!
My Mexican Hot Chocolate Cookies filled with Dulce de Leche were so tasty and have been such a popular recipe, I decided to try another stuffed cookie. This time decided to work with my Next Level Chocolate Chip Cookies. I thought they would be too sweet with dulce de leche inside but figured some chocolate ganache would work well.
My latest YouTube video is about my Maple Bacon and Pecan Sticky Buns! I have made these several times now and just love the soft moist buns and the flavour combination of the maple and brown sugar with a slight spicy kick of chipotle powder. The salty crunch from the bacon and pecan topping is out of this world!
After watching an episode of the Spring Baking Championship I was inspired to make a “Hot Cross Bunny.” The result was both cute and delicious!
I LOVE making biscuits. They are the perfect accompaniment to soup or stew and in the winter, I generally make them at least once a week. Over the years, I’ve picked up a few tricks that make biscuits with lots of flaky layers every time! I have shared this recipe before but this time, there is a YouTube video to go along with it 🙂
Focaccia is a favourite in our family! We love this particular recipe because it makes a spongy, flavourful bread. You can alter the base recipe with the toppings of your choice, including tomatoes, fresh herbs, olives, potatoes, peppers and many more! I have even used this recipe to make focaccia art! Given how much we …
I’m on a bit of a dulce de leche kick these days… It’s so easy to make and I actually like it better than regular caramel. It has a tangy and nutty undertone to it and it stays soft, even when cool. This weekend I wanted to see if I could make cookies stuffed with …
For my latest YouTube video, I made one of my favourite quiche-like tarts. I came up with this recipe while doing my Great British Bake-Off bake along back in the fall.
I was inspired to try making a cake that looked and tasted like a giant peanut butter cup. Here are the results!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Since I had so much fun making a mirror glaze cake a couple of weeks ago, I decided to make one again this weekend. I went with a chocolate-hazelnut flavour profile this time. I am so happy with how both the mirror glaze and the cake flavour turned out. This is the best cake I have ever made!
These easy brownies are prepared in less time than it takes to preheat your oven! The fudgy, chocolatey brownie pairs amazingly with the sweet and tangy dulce de leche on top. The sea salt that is sprinkled on top brings these brownies to a whole other level!
Last weekend, I decided to try out a Valentine’s Day-themed cake. Last year I did a chocolate raspberry heart-shaped cake. I didn’t want to do chocolate this year, so I thought something red would be a good jumping-off point for my cake. After some thought, I settled on a cherry and almond mousse cake that I would top with a mirror glaze.
For this week’s video, I decided to film one of my favourite recipes for dinner rolls. The recipe for these rolls comes from my husband’s grandmother. We eat them at just about every holiday meal and they are one of my favourite parts of the meal! This recipe is also one of the most popular recipes on my website so far.
Butter Tarts are a classic Canadian dessert. This easy butter tart recipe features a buttery, flaky pastry filled with a gooey caramel-like filling.
For my first live YouTube video, I made a decadent raspberry chocolate tart. It’s easy to make and delicious!
These sticky buns are made with a tangzhong dough for a soft fluffy bun. The topping of maple, bacon and pecans makes them a wonderful salty-sweet breakfast treat.
My Christmas baking often involves a lot of marzipan. This year, I made and sold Christmas fruitcakes and some German Stollen and also incorporated marzipan in some some of Christmas gifts. I just love marzipan, but it’s not cheap to buy. To save some cost, I decided to make it myself this year. The only …
It’s not Christmas in our house until I bake a batch (or two) of my grandmother’s shortbread cookies! This simple recipe produces a cookie that is balanced and crumbly as shortbread should be.
This easy cake has more apples than cake! With a multitude of apple layers, rum soaked raisins and a hint of spices, this easy cake is the perfect tea time treat!
Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on perfecting a cruffin recipe and I came up with a recipe and method that yielded delicious, flaky pastries!
A couple of months ago I saw a picture of a baklava cheesecake on Reddit and I’ve been wanting to make one ever since. I figured this was the perfect time to try it out!
Last week’s theme for the GBBO was the 1980’s. For the signature challenge, contestants had to bake quiche with their choice of fillings. For the technical challenge, they had to bake finger doughnuts filled with raspberry and custard. Maybe this is a British thing? I don’t think I’ve seen finger doughnuts before. They reminded me …
I wanted pumpkin muffins that were not dense and had a good spice flavour. After a few tries, I finally created my perfect pumpkin muffin recipe!
This year we skipped trick-or-treating and had a Halloween themed pumpkin layer cake instead.
I ended up making two tarts for the tart challenge of my Great British Bake-Off Bake-Along! This pomegranate tart was so pretty!
My pastry week bake-along featured some disastrous eclairs, my twist on a Cornish Pasty and two fantastic tarts!
For the technical challenge in the chocolate week episode of The Great British Bake-Off, Paul challenged contestants to make a chocolate babka loaf. I’ve made a babka before and posted a recipe for Cinnamon Babka a few weeks ago, so it wouldn’t be a huge challenge for me, so I left this one to last.
For the celebration cake portion of my chocolate week bake-along, I made a coconut white chocolate cake filled with lime curd and surrounded by a white chocolate collar.
For chocolate week in my Great British Bake-Off bake along, I started with an raspberry macadamia nut version of my family brownie recipe.
For my GBBO bread week bake-along, I made a soda bread filled with caramelized onions, Gruyere cheese and thyme.
I tinkered with a family recipe for soft rolls and the results were the softest bread rolls I’ve ever had!
For week two of my Great British Bake-Off bake-along, I made almond and hazelnut Florentine Cookies with semi-sweet and caramelized white chocolate on top.
If you have been reading my blog, you will know that I have tried a few recipes from The Perfect Loaf recently. Each recipe has been a huge success! Last week, the author, Maurizio posted a picture of his Sourdough Cinnamon Babka Bread. It looked so wonderful, I had to try making it this weekend! …
For my signature bake for cake week, I made a Hazelnut-Chocolate Battenberg Cake.
This recipe is for those who want homemade pumpkin pie but don’t enjoy making pastry!
For my sourdough bread bake this weekend, I decided not to do the usual crusty artisanal loaves and try something different. Since I have had great success with recipes from The Perfect Loaf, I decided to try out his Pain de Mie recipe. Boy was I glad I tried this one!
The weather has started to cool off and the leaves are starting to change colour where I live. Time to crack open a can of pumpkin puree and bake some pumpkin scones!
My first attempt at baklava went really well. The only problem? Waiting until the next day to try them!
I took a classic French Apple Tart and amped up the flavours with a brown butter crust, a layer of salted caramel and some salted caramel pastry cream!
To celebrate my in-laws’ 51st wedding anniversary, I made a heart-shaped layer white cake with raspberry filling and raspberry cream cheese frosting.
It took me three tries to get this recipe right, but I really love this final version. The fresh raspberry taste against the rich chocolate brownie cookie is a fantastic combination!
I wanted to modify my recipe for sourdough focaccia so that it could be made with commercial yeast. But how to do it?
Since March I have been making two loaves of sourdough bread every week! One of my favourites is the Jalapeno-Cheddar Loaf!
An easy homemade pizza recipe that is ready in one hour from start to finish!
Last night I tried baking a new kind of treat … Chocolate Chip Cookie Cups filled with salted caramel. I think I have a new baking obsession!
This sourdough focaccia bread is amazingly soft and flavourful! It takes just about the same amount of time as making a good focaccia with commercial yeast but tastes much better!
This peach galette with brown sugar caramel has a rich and flaky and a boost of flavour from the almond extract and nutmeg.
These crackers are an easy way to use your sourdough discard. The dough takes seconds to put together and doesn’t require any kneading. The mix of herbs and sourdough tang make these crackers pop!
Some peach filled macarons to celebrate peach season!
These chocolate filled brioche buns are rich and buttery with a flaky crust. When served warm, they ooze a luscious chocolate filling! You can make these in a fraction of the time it would take to make croissant dough!
These easy no-bake chocolate peanut butter bars are a delicious blend of salty an sweet thanks to a couple of unusual add-ins!
This recipe for Apple Pie Layer Cake will blow your mind! Brown Butter Cake with liquid cheesecake and apple pie filling, pie crumb, pie crumb frosting and an apple caramel all come together for one amazing layer cake!
