Chocolate

XLIII

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to the level of everyday's

Most quiet need, by sun and and candlelight.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love with a passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints, -I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life!-and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

-Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Ann

Brownie Hearts

From: www.marthastewart.com

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus more for cake pan

2 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped

4 large eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

Confectioners' sugar, granulated sugar, cocoa powder for coating bites

Direction

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-by-13 inch cake pan. Cut a piece of waxed paper to fit the bottom, and press it onto buttered surface. In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine butter, brown sugar, and chocolate. Microwave on high for 1 minute; stir. If the chocolate is not softened, continue to microwave at 10-second intervals, removing before completely melted.

2. Beat the eggs and vanilla into the melted chocolate with a wooden spoon. Beat in the flour and salt. Pour into prepared pan, and smooth the top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out almost clean, 35 to 40 minutes. Let cool.

3. Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Turn the brownie cake out onto a baking sheet, and flip over onto a work surface. Cut out the brownies with a 2 1/2-inch heart-shaped cookie cutter. Dust with cocoa if you like. Form the scraps into 1-inch balls, and roll them in the coating of your choice.

~Makes 12 hearts

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Brigadeiro - or brazilian fudge balls - is the most popular and beloved brazilian treat. We love brigadeiro so much that we have shops dedicated only to brigadeiros! With ingredients such as condensed milk, butter and chocolate, is hard not to love these delicious, caramel-y-like treats.

The original recipe calls for chocolate powder - that one you put in the milk - but you can also use cocoa powder to make it less sweet, or you can do it like me and go for Nutella. Double yumminess!

PS.:You can wrap it up in a nice box together with Ann's scrumptious brownies and surprise your Valentine. =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

-Ana

Nutella Brigadeiro

1 can (395g) sweet condensed milk
2 tablespoons (40g) margarine
4 tablespoons Nutella
Chocolate sprinkles - about 1 cup, for decoration
Hazelnuts - about 50g, for decoration (Use 100-150g if you intend to roll them only in

1. Put the first three ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and stir until it bubbles. Keep stiring until thickened - about 6 to 10 minutes.

2. Put in a butter-greased dish and let it stand until cool enough to handle.

3. While you wait for the brigadeiro to cool, roughly chop the hazelnuts, place them into a baking sheet and leave it for 5 min in a 190ºC oven, or until it gets some colour - keep a close eye on it because it can get burnt very fast. Let it cool completely.

4. Once the brigadeiro has cooled, grease the palm of your hands with margarine and roll a small amount of brigadeiro into a ball and coat it with the chocolate sprinkles or the chopped hazelnuts. I myself preffer the hazelnuts because it makes the Nutella flavour stand out more.

Tip: If you are too lazy or you absolutely can't wait for the brigadeiro to cool, you can put them into shot glasses and eat it with a spoon. Just cook for 2-3 minutes less in step 1 and pour into shot glasses. Be careful not to burn your mouth. ;)

Yields ~20 brigadeiros.

Cinnamon

For some odd reason, I've always been reluctant to bake bread. It is probably a combination of the amount of time it takes, plus the messiness of it with all that flour and kneading, however if one follows the process of baking bread correctly, then the final product is well worth the work.

This weekend I baked my very first batch of cinnamon and raisin bread from scratch (if you don't count the bread machine I've used in the past.) I've always wanted to bake this bread, and after looking at several recipes I found an easy and straightforward cinnamon and raisin bread recipe from allrecipes.ca. It takes forever to make so you've gotta bake it on a day when you've got plenty of time to spare, even though that (time) is becoming much harder these days.

Although time consuming, there is something therapeutic about baking bread, and the smell of it as it's baking, especially a cinnamon and raisin bread, is heavenly.

-Ann

Cinnamon Raisin Bread I

By Faye Salisbury @ http://www.allrecipes.ca/

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup warm water (110º F/45º C)

2 (2.5 ounce) package active dry yeast

3 eggs

1/2 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup margarine, softened

1 cup raisins

8 cups all purpose flour

2 tablespoons milk

3/4 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles, then remove from heat. Let cool until lukewarm.

2. Dissolve yeast in warm water, set aside until yeast is frothy. Mix in eggs, sugar, margarine, salt, and raisins. Stir in cooled milk. Add the flour gradually to make a stiff dough. (it is more sticky than stiff)

3. Knead dough on a lightly floured surface for a few minutes. Place in a large, greased, mixing bowl, and turn to grease the surface of the dough. Cover with a damp cloth. Allow to rise until doubled.

4. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a large rectangle 1/2 inch thick. Moisten dough with 2 tablespoons of milk. Mix together 3/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons cinnamon, and sprinkle mixture on top of the moistened dough. Roll up tightly, and the roll should be about 3 inches in diameter. Cut into thirds, and tuck under ends. Place loaves into well greased 9 X 5 inch pans. Lightly grease top of loaves. Let rise again for 1 hour.

5. Bake at 350 degrees F (174 degrees C) for 45 minutes or until loaves are lightly browned and sounds hollow when knocked. Remove loaves from pans and brush with melted margarine.

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I love cinnamon, so choosing just one recipe was a very tough task. While flipping through a Cook's Illustrated Holiday Baking edition (2010) I stumble upon a Quick Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake and thought it would be perfect for the blog. I mean, it's a coffeecake, quick - in less than 15 min you will have a cake in the oven, it has cinnamon in it and streusel! Four perfect words.

The final result is a moist, cinnamon-y and fluffy-like-a-cloud cake. I think I used a larger pan than I was supposed to so I didn't get a thick layer of the streusel. I got a thin-crispy sugar and nuts layer instead, which wasn't a bad thing at all. I highly reccomend this cake, specially for you guys up north. A piece of this cake with a cup of hot coffee/tea/chocolate is perfect for a snowy day.

Keep yourselves warm! And for those of you who are enjoying the hot weather like me, don't forget to put sunscreen! ;)

-Ana

Quick Cinnamon Streusel Coffeecake

Streusel

1/3 cup packed (2 1/3 ounces) light brown sugar - used dark brown

1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) granulated sugar - used refined sugar

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 cup pecans, almonds or walnuts, chopped coarse - I used cashew nuts

Cake

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour - I used regular all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 3/4 cups buttermilk or plain whole yogurt*

1 cup packed (7 ounces) light brown sugar

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

3 large eggs

7 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. For the streusel: Mix sugars, cinnamon, and melted butter together in medium bowl until mixture resembles wet sand; stir in nuts and set aside.

2. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350ºF/180ºC. Generously coat a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.

3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a large bowl. Whisk buttermilk, sugars, eggs, and melted butter in separate bowl until smooth. Using rubber spatula, gently fold egg mixture into flour mixture and stir until batter looks smooth and well combined.

4. Using rubber spatula, scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top. Sprinkle streusel evenly over batter. Bake until streusel is golden and toothpick inserted into centre comes out with just a few crumbs attached, 40 to 45 minutes. Cool cake on wire rack for 15 min. before slicing and serving.

Serves 8 - I got 16 squares.

*You can make your own buttermilk at home! Add 1 tablespoon lemon juice into a small bowl and add 1 cup milk - whole, skimmed - let stand for 2 minutes and it's ready to use.

Coconut

It was my turn to choose the main ingredient for this week, and from my gi-normous list of possible things to bake I decided upon coconut. As far as I know we haven't made anything with coconut so I was excited to bake something with it. So this week I made Coconut Cranberry Cookies. Pretty funky huh? The recipe that I used is a mishmash of different recipes and I changed it up a bit so basically this recipe is something that I made up. I like my cookies to have three components 1: big; 2: soft; and 3: chewy and these coconut cranberry cookies definitely fulfilled my requirements but if you prefer them crunchy you can always bake them a bit longer.

-Ann

Coconut Cranberry Cookies

Ingredients

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup dried cranberries (if cranberries are unavailable then substitute raisins)

1/2 cup shredded coconuts ( I used sweetened coconuts but you can use unsweetened if you desire)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F.

2. In a medium bowl mix the shortening, brown sugar, egg and vanilla.

3. Add the flour, baking soda and continue mixing.

4. Fold in dried cranberries and shredded coconuts.

5. Roll tablespoons (I use a regular spoon if you want them big) of dough into balls and flatten them unto baking sheet a few inches apart.

6. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool before devouring them-cause you will!

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This week's challenge was to make something with coconut so I've decided to make Coconut Shortbread. This shortbread is amazing! Crunchy with a subtle sweetness that makes you wanna eat the whole batch by yourself. Uh-oh so dangerous.

I adapted this recipe from here. It's supposed to be  Toasted Coconut Shortbread, but I skipped the toasting the coconut part because it's so hot around this parts these days that we use the oven only when extremely necessary. 

Below, you will find the halved recipe. 

-Ana

Coconut Shortbread

Ingredients

1/2 cup (45g) unsweetened desiccated coconut - I used sweetened coconut

3/4 cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup (75g) granulated sugar

1/4 cup (25g) confectioners' sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract - I used essence

1 2/3 cups (185g) all-purpose flour - I used a little more than that

Directions

1. Beat butter and sugars in a large bowl until blended.

2. Mix in salt and vanilla.

3. Beat in flour in 2 additions. I thought my dough was a little soft so I added about 1/4 cup extra flour.

4. Stir in coconut.

5. Gather dough together; divide in half and wrap in plastic wrap. Put in the fridge to chill - about 30 min.

6. Preheat oven to 165ºC. Roll out dough in floured surface and cut into desired shape.

7. Bake for 20 min. or until light golden. Mine took 25-30 min. Cool on baking sheets for 10 min then transfer to racks and let it cool completely. Can be made ahead. Store airtight at room temperature up to 1 week.

8. Drizzle some with melted white-chocolate.

Yields 24.

Yogurt

This week's Challenge: Yogurt. Let's see what both of us came up with.

Yogurt Blueberry Muffins

Taken from Canadian Living.com

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

2 eggs

1 cup plain yogurt

1 tablespoon grated orange rind**

1/4 cup orange juice**

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups fresh (or frozen) blueberries*

*I used frozen berry mix instead

** Substituted lemon rind and juice

1. In a large bowl stir flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs, yogurt, orange rind and juice, and oil. Pour over dry ingredients. Sprinkle berries and stir until dry ingredients are moistened.

3. Spoon into greased or lined tin. Bake in centre of the oven at 375ºF for about 25 minutes.

Ann's Thoughts

I've wanted to bake yogurt berry muffins for a very long time, so when Ana suggested that we use yogurt I knew I had to do this recipe. Honestly, it wasn't my favourite. The muffins were not as sweet as I would have liked them so I would either increase the amount of sugar from 3/4 cup to 1 cup, or I would use a flavoured yogurt like mixed berry. I did like the lemony taste with the berries. These muffins were a hit among my family, so if I'm in the mood to be nice in the future, I know what to make.

Lime Yogurt Cakes

Adapted from here

Yields 8 mini cakes

125g butter, softened

165g super fine sugar - I used 130g

2 tbsp lime zest

3 eggs - I used 2 1/2 large eggs*

120g plain yogurt or sour cream

150g flour

* My eggs were a little on the large side and after the second egg I thought my batter seemed to be very liquid, so I decided to add just 1/2 of the third egg. If you're using small eggs I recommend using 3 eggs.

Preheat oven to 170ºC or 335ºF. Beat butter, sugar and lime zest until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until fully incorporated. Mix in plain yogurt - don't freak if the batter curdles at this stage. Mine did and it turned out okay. Add flour and mix well. Put in mini tins and bake for 15 min - mine took 25 min.

Lime Glaze

3/4 cup confectioner's sugar

Lime juice

In a small bowl, put the confectioner's sugar. Add the lime juice, 1 tbsp at a time, until it reaches the desired consistency.

Ana's Thoughts

Pretty easy and straight-forward recipe. It might look a bit oily when right out of the oven, but it will be normal when cooled down. I liked this recipe a lot. Not overly sweet - the way I like it - complementing well with the thin tangy-sweet lime glaze. I'll definitely make this again.

Hope you all liked the new format of the blog. I did. ;)

[Updated: We forgot to add 1/2 stick of butter to the recipe, sorry! It's already been corrected.]
This entry from Oh So Sinfully Delicious is super, extra, sweet! Why? Because we've made the next recipe in Brazil! All week long under the hot, hot Brazilian sun, we thought long and hard about what recipe we should do next. We wanted to do something that was totally different, so what did we come up with? Doughnuts! Okay, so they aren't Brazilian, but a) we've never made doughnuts on this blog before and b) we wanted to make doughnuts with a South American twist. The recipe is taken from the blog Joy the Baker, who retrieved this recipe from Gourmet magazine December '06. We made two batches of doughnuts, the first was a variety of regular doughnuts such as chocolate dip, and chocolate dip with rainbow and chocolate sprinkles (that's probably the first time we've typed "chocolate" so many times in one sentence!) The second batch were jelly filled doughnuts but instead of jelly we used dulce de leche (that's the South American twist). If you can't find dulce de leche, refer to this entry to make your own stash.

Doughnuts

Ingredients

1 (1/4oz) package active dry yeast (2 1/2 teaspoons) or 30g of fresh yeast

2 tablespoons warm water (105-115f)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for sprinkling and rolling out dough

1 cup whole milk at room temperature
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

3 large egg yolks

2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 cup Chocolate dip

1/2 cup dulce de leche

1/4 cup of rainbow/chocolate sprinkles (optional)

About 10 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

1. Stir together yeast and warm water in a small bowl until yeast is dissolved. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (This is an absolute must. If this does not happen discard and start a new batch.)

2. Mix together flour, milk, butter, yolks, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and yeast mixture in a mixer at low speed until a soft dough forms. Increase speed to medium-high and beat 3 minutes more. (This step can be done with a spoon and bowl)

3. Scrape dough down side of bowl (all around) into center, then sprinkle lightly with flour (to keep a crust from forming). Cover bowl with a clean kitchen towel (not terry cloth) and let dough rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (Alternatively, let dough rise in bowl in refrigerator 8 to 12 hours)

4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out with a lightly floured rolling pin into a 12-inch round (1/2 inch think). Cut out as many rounds as possible with 3-inch cutter, then cut a hole in center of each round with 1-inch cutter and transfer doughnuts to a lightly floured large baking sheet. Cover doughnuts with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a draft-free place at warm room temperature until slightly puffed, about 30 minutes (45 minutes if dough was cold when cutting out doughnuts). Do not re roll scraps.

Now we must confess that after cutting the doughnuts we did not wait for another 30 mins for them to rise (they were already super puffy), and we did re roll the scraps, and in our opinion they came out perfectly fine. That could be because we used fresh yeast.

5. Heat 2 1/2 inches oil in a deep 4-quart heavy pot until it registers 350F on the thermometer. Fry doughnuts, 2 at a time, turning occasionally with a wire or mesh skimmer or a slotted spoon, until puffed and golden brown, about 2 minutes per batch. Transfer to paper towels to drain (Return oil to 350F between batches). 

Chocolate Dip

7 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp chocolate powder, such as Nesquick

1 tbsp margerine

2 tbsp milk

Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan at medium heat. Stir constantly until it  comes to a boil. Keep stiring until it thickens slightly - aprox. 1-2 min. Do not overcook or it will become very hard and impossible to dip the doughnuts in.

Start dipping the doughnuts imediately. If it starts to harden,  reheat it until it softens.

Dulce de Leche Filled Doughnuts

1. Repeat steps 1-4, however in step four do not cut a 1-inch hole in the center.

2. Put the dulce de leche in a pipping bag attacched with a small round tip.

3. Plunge the tip into the side of the doughnut, less than 1 inch deep. Squeeze the bag gently  and start withdrawing the tip slowly.

4. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

Ann's Thoughts:

First of all I want to say that Brazil was amazing!!!! I tried so many different Brazilian foods and baked goods, I was in heaven. It's funny that in Brazil we ended up making doughnuts which is so American but I've never made homemade doughnuts and before going back home Ana had purchased a doughnut book, which inspired us to make them. The only draw back to making doughnuts is that they are time consuming. It needs yeast to rise and that could take up to one and a half to two hours to rise. What was great about these doughnuts is that without the extra ingredients (the chocolate dip or dulce de leche) they are not sweet at all, which is a plus for those who cannot or not a fan of super sweet things. Out of the two batches that we made, my favourite was the dulce de leche, they were irresistible, it was hard to control myself not to eat more than just one!

Ana's Thoughts:

First post of the year! What a better way to start than by baking homemade doughnuts. Super yummy, soft, delicious doughnuts. My mouth is watering just thinking about it...I think I need another batch. =p

I've had this doughnuts before but this was the first time I've actually made them myself. First time I've made any kind of dough, actually. And it was so easy! So far, this is one of the best doughnut recipe, in my opinion. But I still have to try my doughnut book. I'll keep you posted. ;)

Go (dough)nuts and make some right now.

For the past four and a half months, we have showcased our baking experience on our blog. It's been quite an experience as we have tried recipes from around the world, from North to South America; produced holiday treats, such as Halloween and Christmas (see recipe below), made some celebratory treats (remember cupcake day?) and even meet a celebrity baker (see last week's post) we are closing a chapter in Oh So Sinfully Delicious by making our last baked good...

...in Canada. Ana will be going back home to Brazil, however, I (Ann) will join her where we'll continue baking more recipes. However, before we leave this great, but cold country, we couldn't possibly leave without doing some Christmas baking. This week we decided to do a classic with a twist-Chai Gingerbread Cookie. This recipe was taken from Chatelaine 2010 holiday cookie collection. These cookies are simply amazing and would make a great addition to your holiday feast.

Chai Gingerbread Cookie

From here
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup fancy molasses

1 chai-tea bag

Directions

1. In a large bowl, using a fork, stir flour with spices and baking soda. Slit open a chai-tea bag. Stir 1 tbsp (15 mL) of the leaves into flour mixture along with spices. In a medium bowl, using a wooden spoon, beat butter with sugar for 2 min. Beat in egg, then molasses. Make a well in centre of flour mixture, then pour in molasses mixture. Stir until most of molasses is absorbed. Gently knead until dough is an even colour. Divide into 4 portions
2. Shape each into a ball, then flatten slightly into a disc . Wrap separately with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 min or up to a week. Or overwrap with foil and freeze up to 1 month.
3. When ready to bake, remove dough from refrigerator. Let stand at room temperature until soft enough to roll, 5 to 10 min. Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Lightly spray or oil a baking sheet. Place a disc of dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Roll dough no thicker than ¼ in. (0.5 cm). Cut out shapes with cookie cutter. Place on baking sheet about 1 in. (2.5 cm) apart.
4. Bake in centre of preheated oven just until edges begin to darken, 7 to 10 min. Remove cookies to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough. Store in an airtight container in a cool place up to 1 week or freeze up to 1 month.

Ann's Thoughts

Well what can I say, we ended this Canadian blog with a bang, these cookies were amazing, I would even have to say, the best cookies that we've baked so far on this blog. That's not to say that our other cookies were not good, because they were, but these chai gingerbread cookies came out perfectly, not even Ana could find fault in them.

Our cookie decor was not that great, but we still had fun decorating them. My only advice would be to use royal icing. It's thicker and easier to work with when decorating cookies. We decided to make these cookies last minute, so we had to improvise and use water and confectionar sugar which makes for a runny icing mix but Ana was able to make the outline of the cookies and we used whatever candy we had on hand for the decor.

To wrap things up, these cookies are awesome, and you absolutely have to try this recipe out. And as the famous poem goes: "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"

Ana's Thoughts

One word: yumy! These cookies are fantastic. Best gingerbread cookies evah! haha I've had gingerbread cookies before and they were not even close to these ones we've baked. They will be my go-to gingerbread cookies from now on. Super easy to make, super fast - 10 min. tops - and no need refrigerating after cutting, that's a plus for me. And they are delicious - did I mention that already? What else do you want from a gingerbread cookie? Go make them. Now. =)

This is our last post of the year. =( Unfortunately, our busy schedules - haha-  won't allow more baking, but we'll be back next year with tons of tasty goods for you. We here at OSSD wish you all a Sweet Xmas and a wonderful New Year, full of joy, peace, love and cookies!...and cakes...and chocolate...and pies..... =D

Identification: Mr. Gingerbread Man
Cause of death: Yummyness

See you soon!

We are so excited to present a very special entry this week. On Friday, December 2, 2010, we got the opportunity to meet one of our favourite food bloggers, Angie Dudley, who is famously known as Bakerella. Her cake pops have been loved by thousands of people across North America and around the world. She has been on the Martha Stewart show, and is currently touring across the nation, promoting her book: Cake Pops.

Since we had the opportunity to meet the queen of cake pops, it only made sense that we make our own batch. We made Bakerella's classic cupcake pop, which are alike mini cupcakes on a stick. Pretty sweet huh?

The instructions for cake pops are pretty long, so below is the link to the cupcake pops on her blog. You'll have fun making these pops, we promise!

Cupcake Pops

You will need:
1 box cake mix of your choice
1 can ready made cream cheese frosting
Wax Paper
Lolipop sticks
Candy melts (Purple and Light Cocoa, for us)
Sprinkles
Smarties/M&M's
Flower cookie cutter (1.25" is the best)


Instructions
Click here for detailed instructions (with photos and a video).


Ann's Thoughts:

It was Ana who first introduced me to Bakerella. So it was perfect timing that Bakeralla came to Toronto last week Friday and Saturday for a book signing of her recipe and guide book to making cute but delicious cake pops. Ana and I came about half an hour early anticipating her arrival, and I have to admit that we were both star struck at her presence. Overall it was a great experience to meet her, and it inspired us and renewed our passion for baking.


At first Ana and I were going to make snowmen pops just so it ties in with the whole winter, December, Christmas theme. Well, let's just say we later had some reservations of making something so artistically "complicated" (we were afraid of being too ambitious like we were when we made the spiders for our Halloween addition), so we decided on making her classic cupcake pops. Making these cupcake pops are not all that hard. The difficult part was finding the mini flower shape cookie cutter required for the shape of the cupcake. All together Ana and I went to about six different stores until I was able to find one in Michael's, which Ana said is a bit big...so for those who are interested in making cupcake pops, good luck finding the cookie cutter!

Not only were the cupcake pops cute, but they were so good. I gave my share of cake pops out to a few of my co-workers and it was a hit. These mini cakes are fun to make, and I'm already gearing up to making another batch later on this week.

Ana's Thoughts:

After a (long) hiatus we are back in the kitchen and with a super special recipe and post. Last week we had the pleasure to meet one of the most talented blogger out there. Bakerella! She came to TO as part of her book tour and we couldn't miss the opportunity. So off we went to one of her two book signings ( I had the chance to go on both =D ). The first one was held at Teatro Verde. It was a small signing. She was so nice with everybody, always smiling and chit chatting with her readers (fans?). Sadly, the only thing yours truly was able to mutter was "Hi. Nice to meet you." Creative, I know. XD Oh, and we have the chance to meet another blogger, Sweetopia! Her blog is amazing and her cookies are awesome. It was a great day for this blogger here. =)

The next day, I went to Williams Sonoma to her second signing. I was a little surprised to see so many people there. The second floor of the store was crowded with people, all of them holding their (fancy) cameras and snapping shots like crazy, trying to document every moment. She talked about how she started with the cake pops, the blog, a little bit about photography, and why the name Bakerella. You can read in details here.

After the signings I was very excited to make the cake pops. Bakerella's book provides step by step photos and she gives tons of tips along the way to help you get the perfect cake pops so I was feeling confident. It's a little time consuming and you have to plan ahead but it's very fun and easy! Well, aside from molding the pops that is. I had trouble shaping them. It's not that they are complicated, I think the problem is with me - Ann had no problems with it. In fact, she was the one who molded all the cake pops. I guess I need to practice.

Coating the pops were a little tricky - our candy melts were a little thick, even after we added some vegetable oil in it, but in the end our pops turned out pretty cute. This was the cuttest thing we've ever made for the blog. =D Ooh, and they tasted good, too!