Macarons

So there's this Japanese dessert cafe next door to Gyoza King on Robson Street, and I'd never been there before, despite knowing full well what it was. A dessert cafe. That I hadn't tried. Sometimes I don't know what's wrong with me.

I still wouldn't have tried it yet if I hadn't been in an agreeable sort of mood as I rocked past it today, and noticed a chalkboard outside mentioning macarons. That got me in there right away, I'll tell you. "Do you have macarons? You do!" I squeaked. There was chocolate, maple, green tea, and strawberry, which they sold prepacked in single flavours, 5 for $3.50. I would have liked an assortment, so that was too bad. I chose maple, not having seen it before, and fortunately had cash, since they were cash only.

The macarons weren't fresh baked today, as they were pretty dry, and the flavour was not outstanding. I'd give them another try though. There were lots of gorgeous looking parfaits and cakes in the cafe, which I have more hope for as well.

Chicco, 1504 Robson St.

I've got Olympic fever

I was so excited on Thursday night for the opening ceremonies the next day (I didn't get to go, I was just looking forward to seeing them on TV) that I whipped up some Olympic-themed cupcakes. I used the chocolate cupcake and basic buttercream recipes from Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, except that I used butter instead of the margarine/shortening combo called for, because I'm no vegan, and as we all know, butter is made of real ingredients and margarine is totally gross and artificial.

Anyway, I also made the Bhangra Burritos (sans tortillas, so it was really just a chickpea potato curry and I highly recommend it) and Green Rice from the Rebar cookbook, so by the time I got around to icing the cuppies, I'd been standing in the kitchen for 3 hours and was sick of it. Hence why the piping got a little sloppy. They were delicious anyway. Go Canada!

Spontaneous choreographed dancing breaks out in Vancouver

Even you anti-Olympic glum bums have to admit this is awesome. The winner of the video blogging contest I mentioned awhile back has only been here a few days, and he's already more in the know than I. Thanks Dan HB! More of his posts are here.



It felt like I spent half my weekend on Robson St., so how did I miss this?

Quick Breads

I've gotten into the habit of whipping up a loaf of quick bread every week or two, and taking a slice to work for a morning snack. It's nice to have something sweet and carby to look forward to. I slice the bread up and wrap each piece in plastic wrap, tucking them into a large ziploc bag in the freezer. Banana bread is my go-to quick bread, but lately I've been branching out, thanks to the recipes I've discovered on the enticing website Joy the Baker. Here are some of my favourites.

When it comes to banana bread, I'm lucky that Orangette seems to like it as much as me, because she's posted several recipes, most of which I've tried. This is the one I've come back to, time and again. I omit the sugar topping and chocolate chips now, because I'm not so fond of any chocolate in the morning that's not Nutella-based. Banana Bread with Chocolate and Cinnamon Sugar

This Honey Cranberry Cornmeal Quick Bread is awesome, and what I'm currently snacking on. I like the crunch of the cornmeal, sweetness of the honey, and tang of the cranberries.

The Vegan Pumpkin Walnut Bread was moist and had great flavour, and one recipe makes 2 loaves as a bonus. The second loaf seemed to go over a treat when I took it to my in-laws' on Christmas morning.

These are coming up next in the rotation:

Low Fat Oatmeal Banana Bread

Lemon Drenched Lemon Cake (she tagged it 'breakfast' ok?!)

Raspberry Almond Bread

Do you have any great quick bread recipes?

Woe is my breadmaker

I got a breadmaker for Christmas (technically Kelly got a breadmaker but HA HA HA) and I have no idea how to use it. I just wanted one because the only kinds of bread I like to eat are around $5 a loaf, plus the girls on Crimes Against Food (awesome podcast if you're a foodie) approve of them. I thought I could save money and make some quality bread.

Now I have one and I don't know the first thing to do. Even though I've made bread from scratch, the instructions made me a bit nervous about screwing it up, and instead of having any sensible basic recipes, it just told me how to make crazy loaves. I want to master multigrain before I attempt, you know, kalamata olive parmesan basil loaf.

There's nothing in my trusted recipe websites about breadmakers, and the websites I can find are unappealingly designed and crammed with ads. Have you any leads for me?

Starbucks Stumble

Boo-urns, Starbucks. Boo-urns. As I've mentioned, the only drink I get at Starbucks is a vanilla soy earl grey tea misto. Today I ordered it and it came to almost a dollar more than when I had it on Friday. "WHAT IS UP?", I delicately inquired. The supervisor swooped in and explained that they are replacing all their teabags with loose tea, so there are no more tea mistos, just more expensive tea lattes, and regular tea prices are also going up. Maybe cashier-with-the-same-glasses-as-me should have explained that before she rung me up, huh? I already find Starbucks to be particularly special in that the quality of their service and hot drinks are consistently hit-and-miss. This enforced drink change has put me over the edge. I hereby vow to no longer purchase hot drinks from Starbucks. (Um, I still think their ice tea and smoothies are pretty good, okay?) I am really awesome at keeping my vows, so watch out!

Preparing to Fly

I'm flying from +11° Vancouver tomorrow to -11° Ontario. In preparation, I decided to research my food options at the airport, since I usually buy something to take on the plane to eat. Such is the life of a foodie, am I right? Anyway, I was geekily excited to find out that there are a few new places to eat, and the one I'm most interested in is the Camden Food Co. They are apparently a British sandwich company. OMG I LOVE BRITISH SANDWICHES. Here comes the true food geekery- I looked up my departure gate to see if it was anywhere near the Camden Food Co., and sweet!, it's right next to it. I can't expect too much from airport food, but hopefully this shop will be a vast improvement on the regular overpriced fare.

Sweet Sweetness

Source

I get irrationally excited when a blog I read mentions another blog I read. So it really made me happy today to see an interview with Christa featured on Cakespy today. Awesome interview, Christa and Jessie!

This coffee is disappointing me

I broke my coffee fast today with a drip coffee from Waves, and I have to say it doesn't taste very good. Will you take me to Caffe Artigiano?

Christmas Cake

I've been salivating over this devil's food layer cake ever since I saw it on the cover of Bon Appetit a full year ago, so I volunteered to be in charge of dessert for Christmas dinner.

I knew the many components of the recipe couldn't be whipped up in one evening, so I made the cake on December 23, and wrapped it in foil and left it at room temperature like the recipe said, although I knew from baking school that it would be a lot easier to cut the cakes into layers if they were chilled. Right when I got home from work on the 24th, I made the white chocolate cream, which needed 4 hours in the fridge, and the dark chocolate ganache. After 4 hours had passed, I procrastinated another 2 or so, which was my big mistake. The ganache, which I'd put out to soften at room temperature, had not softened one bit, even though much longer than the suggested 30 minutes had passed. I tried to soften it using a bain marie, but I didn't want it to get hot, otherwise I'd have to wait even longer for it to cool down or I couldn't layer it with the cold cream. It ended up being fine anyway, because it didn't get too hot, and the delay gave the cakes longer to chill and firm up for slicing, since I'd stuck them in the freezer after my crumbly first attempt at sawing into them horizontally.

After I managed to get everything assembled, I put the cake in the fridge while I made the frosting. Recipe warning sign: "whisk constantly by hand for 8-9 minutes." That hurts, okay, especially since I was doing it over a pan of simmering water and burning my face off. After ten minutes and still no resemblance to marshmallow creme, I called in Kelly, who tried whisking for about 2 minutes before asking why I wasn't using the whisk attachment on my hand mixer. "I don't think I'm supposed to", I whined, and then promptly gave in. What do you know, it worked. Don't tell Bon Appetit I cheated. I frosted the cake in a manner which would have been a fail in baking school (and that's why I quit, ha), sprinkled chocolate shavings on, and was done by 1 a.m. Whew.

As a palate cleanser and for the vegan in the family, I also made green apple sparkling cider sorbet and cranberry orange sorbet, both from my love David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop. It was all very well received, and I was proud. Would I make it again? If I did, I would certainly allow more time, but I don't know...I already have my eye on another showstopper of a cake.