Canadian Cookies in Australia

Watching the Olympics in Australia proved to be quite difficult. For one, there is a bigger focus on Australian competitors (obviously), which made it tricky watch Canadian competitors. Secondly, all the events I wanted to watch were at crazy times during the night or super early in the morning. 

One thing I knew I didn't want to miss was the final Men's Hockey games, as I always watch those at home! So, there I was, at 4am Saturday morning, bundled up on the couch watching the Canada vs USA semi-final. I cheered them on and for a split second, I felt like I was back at home again. 

The game ended sometime after 6am and I decided it was in my best interest to go back to bed for just a few more hours of sleep. However, once I laid my head on my pillow, my mind started wandering (as it often does) and I was thinking of things I could make for the final game on Sunday night. Once my mind was set on cookies, I couldn't get the thought out of my head. Needless to say, I was down at the Woolies by their 7am opening time to get the supplies I needed. 

Getting the maple leaf on the cookie was harder than I thought. Of course, in Australia, I am without all my fancy tools, so I had to make do with what I had. For the shape of the cookie, I used a wine glass for the round one and a knife for the others. I thought I could get the maple leaf on the cookies by cutting one out of cardboard to roll into the dough to make an indentation. Well, that didn't work as well as it did in my head, so I had to change up the plan. Instead, I used a toothpick to mark the points on the leaf, then played connect the dots in the dough. Although this wasn't time efficient, it worked well! 

 We found a place, which may have been the only place in the city, to watch the game with audio. It was at the Sports Bar in the Crown Casino. Each wall was lined with about ten tv's, tv's in the tables and a large screen up front! I don't think I've ever seen so many tv's in one place! 

We went early to grab seats, and good thing we did! We saw some red trickle in and some blue and yello (Swedes) trickle in little by little. When the game began, we quickly realized that the Canadians in the bar were outnumbered by Swedes...by a lot! (Yes, I took cookies to the bar! Ha Ha)

The game was so awesome to watch in an environment that was a mixture of Canadians and Swedes. I think it made it a lot more intense, although I like to think it was a given we would win anyway right from the get go. 

When the time ran out at the end of the game, all the Canadians in the bar came together and sang "Oh Canada" in unison. It was awesome to be surrounded by fellow Canadians celebrating the same moment in Australia. 

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Rider Pride Wedding

Oh how I love weddings! And I love creating wedding cakes and cupcakes! That is why I was thrilled when Rebecca and Murray asked me to make their wedding cupcakes and cake! Something you should know about the bride and groom is that they are HUGE Rider fans! I don't think I've ever met bigger fans that these guys! It was to no surprise that their wedding had a Ride Pride glow to it. They decided that the bride would get to choose the design and flavour of half the cupcakes and the groom the other half. Together they decided that they wanted a cake for them and their bridal party to share. 

Of course, being the Rider fans that they are, the groom chose chocolate cupcakes decorated with green grass and a chocolate almond football! The bride chose to go with a vanilla cupcake frosted with a swirl and embellished with a flower. The colours came together nicely when they were all set up. 

If you're a perfectionist like I am, you've probably already noticed that some of the liners are solid black and others are polka dotted. Believe me, I cringe at the fact that the liners didn't all match, but that is something I've just got to deal with living in a city with very limited choices when it comes to baking and cake decorating. I do all my Wedding Cake shopping either in trips to Calgary or online. I got the black cupcake liners online and as I was putting the last batch in, what do you know, I run out of black liners! The supplier shorted me TWELVE liners. I had to run to Bulk Barn, no black liners. Called Michaels, no black liners. Called Gale's, no black liners!! Can you believe that not a single place in this city carries a solid black cupcake liner - what the heck! Polka dots was my closest bet. I'm such a perfectionist that I debated baking everything over again just so the liners would match -- ain't nobody got time for that! 

The cake was Red Velvet iced with buttercream in a scalloped design. The cake topper matched perfectly with the theme as she is wearing a Rider jersey. I told you - big fans! It was so special that they asked me to create the cupcakes and cake for their special day! I had so much fun baking and decorating!

Congratulations Rebecca and Murray! I wish you a lifetime of happiness and Rider Pride together! 

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Fresh Flower Wedding Cake

I am always so thrilled when a couple asks me to make their wedding cake. I've been lucky enough to please three happy couples so far, with some more coming in the future. 

Kassidy and Michael wanted a tiered white cake with buttercream frosting for their wedding and other than that, they let me take creative control! I was so happy to take this project on because I have never made a tiered wedding cake before and I knew I was up for the challenge! 

I had a whole bunch of fun putting together this wedding cake. I spent a day baking the cakes and another day was spent icing and putting everything together. I was so excited to ice the cake and put my first tiered wedding cake together that I somehow missed baking one of the cakes! I came back to my cake the next day with enough time to ice everything together and realized my mistake. To say the least it was chaos in the kitchen for a while, but everything turned out just fine! 

On the day of the wedding, I attached some BEAUTIFUL fresh flowers that coordinated with everything and that were set aside for the cake. I played around with them for a while until I got them to sit just the way I liked them. I've got to say, the fresh flowers were the PERFECT finishing touch to the cake!

The beautiful bride and her groom were thrilled with the cake and how it all came together. By the sounds of it, they were eating it all through the next day! 

*All the cake pictures were done by Oriana Skiba Photography & Design. Make sure to go check out her Facebook page and throw in a like.

KAITS 

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Guinness Goodness

If you were to ask me what my favourite type of beer is, it's likely that I would mention any kind of stout. Although I am a fan of many beers, especially craft beers, my favourite of all is something dark, creamy, and filled with dark roasted flavours. Guinness has all the essentials for my favourite type of beer, which is why I love it. Its an Irish stout that is loved world wide!

Its nothing new that Guinness is a great beer to cook and bake with, and by no means did I come up with this recipe. I thought I would make these delicious Guinness cupcakes topped with Bailey's Irish Cream frosting for St. Patrick's Day! Cooking and baking with Guinness shouldn't just be limited to an Irish holiday, so I have big plans of doing more baking with Guinness in the near future. It offers wonderful flavours and pairs well alongside anything chocolatey! 

When I found this recipe, I was all over it - I knew I had to make them! It was a quick and easy recipe to whip together and the house smelled like delicious Guinness as I was baking. The cupcake itself turned out really moist, light and flavourful. I whipped up a batch of chocolate ganche and filled the inside of the cupcake to offer and rich chocolate experience. I topped these guys with a frosting made up of Bailey's Irish Cream, to keep the St. Patricks Day theme alive!

 If you would like to give this recipe a try, Click Here, and follow Sharyn at Living Artfully! 

Kaits 

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Cowboy Cookies

Oh my goodness! It has been forever since I've posted anything in this blog, but in all honesty, it's been forever since I've had time to do any baking!

The begining of the year few by as I traveled back and forth to Calgary several times and finishing up my third year at university! The summer was no different, it was jam packed and some how all too suddenly past by as well. Now, I am into my second month of internship and finding it all very busy! 

For now, I have some pictures of some wonderful sugar cookies I made in the summer time after I returned from Calgary Stampede. At Stampede, the only thing I bought was a set of lovely cookie cutters, and of course, I HAD to use them right away! So I baked up a perfect bunch of sugar cookies and iced them as soon as I could! 

For the cookie, I used a recipe I found on Sugarbelle's website. Here's a link to the recipe! Everyone should definitely check out her website! It has so many helpful things for cookie makers and the designs of her cookies are phenomenal! If you follow her basic sugar cookie recipe, you will absolutely fall in love with the taste of the cookies.

After baking and cooling the cookies I whipped up some icing and flooded the cookies with it. I went back and added a few simple detail once the icing had set. I love the way they turned out, especially for it being my first time "flooding" cookies. 

Let me know what you think of my Cowboy Cookies! 

KAITS ;)

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