Baked on Monday - Yo-yo Biscuits

Just got back from a very long shoot, hence the late post. As soon as I walked in the door, I ate two.
I baked these at about 8am today, but didn't have time to get all the biscuit pics until now.

Yo-yo Biscuits - makes about 32 biscuits

6 oz (180g) softened butter
2 oz (60g) icing sugar, sifted
6 oz (180g) flour
2 oz (60g) custard powder (I love custard powder)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Filling:

2 oz (60g) butter
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp milk

Preheat oven to 320f/160c. Cream butter and sugar in a mixing bowl. Sift flour and custard powder 3 times, than mix in with butter and sugar mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll large teaspoons of dough into balls and place on baking sheet. With the back of a fork, lightly press each ball down. This dough is delicious. Try not too eat too much!

Bake on middle shelf for about 15 minutes. Watch that the underside of biscuits do not colour too much.

To make filling, cream butter and sifted icing sugar until light and creamy. Add vanilla, then milk and beat well. Spread filling on bottom of one biscuit and sandwich together. Lightly sprinkle with icing sugar.

These yo-yos melt in your mouth. Enjoy!!!

Good night.

Rainy Weekends

Really, I think we can turn the switch on to "summer" now, can't we? Oh well, we're used to rain here on the west coast of Canada, so you can always float some paper boats in puddles.....

and drink lots of this......

or this (especially great if you can have someone draw a face on top)....

This coffee was made at Lakhoum in Richmond, Victoria Australia. Not sure if it's still the same owners. The coffee was perfect, not just cute!

I plan to catch up on some of my favourite blogs, work on a few craft projects, and go for walks in the rain. I'm kind of happy it's raining. What will you do this weekend?

Have a lovely weekend everyone. To all of you that live in the U.S., have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend. See you Monday for Baked on Monday 7!

Baked on Monday - Cinnamon Teacake

It's Victoria Day here in Canada, so it's a holiday Monday. Hope you're all having, or had, a great weekend!

I had planned on sharing this recipe with you last Monday, but that didn't quite pan out due to the serious illness of my computer while in NY.

My niece came by the day I made this cake, so she joined me in an impromptu tea party. I'm always up for one of those. It's a pretty delicious, spongy cake. Hope you enjoy it too!

Cinnamon Teacake (This is a Donna Hay recipe)

2 eggs, separated
1 cup berry sugar (a.k.a. caster sugar/superfine)
1 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder, sifted
60g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract

For the cinnamon topping:
25g unsalted butter, melted
2 tblspn brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 320f (160c). Place egg whites in a bowl and beat until stiff peaks form. Slowly beat in the sugar until thick and glossy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time, beating well to combine. Gradually add the milk, then flour, baking powder, butter and vanilla and beat until smooth. Line two 6" cake tins* with parchment paper and grease sides of pans with a little butter. Divide batter evenly and pour into cake tins. Bake for about 35 minutes or until baked when a skewer comes out clean. Turn out onto wire racks. While the cakes are hot, brush with melted butter and dust with combined brown sugar and cinnamon. Have a piece while still warm - delicious!!

* I didn't have two 6" tins, so I used my 8" tin and the extra batter made a few cupcakes.

Enjoy your day!

NYC and Ace Hotel has comfy beds

They also have guitars. At least they had one in our room, which we took turns playing after a late night out. I only know two chords, so I'm not sure what I was doing. 

Ace Hotel is quite a cool place. It's near the Flatiron building. Fantastic lobby/lounge, lots of taxidermy (sorry, I know that bothers some people), and incredibly comfortable beds and pillows. That's huge for me. Love the hallways, and the light box suite numbers. The only thing "off" was their coffee, but there are plenty of other places to get that.

Table in our room, guitar in background, room key card, front lobby, flower stand, room 607

Comfy bed with fab screen print canvas, bandages for my feet, lounge/lobby, stuffed birds

While in NYC, we went to "an evening with Eames Demetrios (Charles and Ray Eames' grandson), at ABC Carpet and Home. We could only stay for a bit, but it was a great panel of Brooklyn designers. I took a few pics of the 2nd floor of ABC as that's where the event was held. Eames talked about Powers of 10, a short film his grandparents did in 1977. I've seen it a number of times and love it. If you haven't seen it, you should check it out. Click here.

Vintage Italian ceiling lamp, Eames Demitrios (on right), simple vignette

The Arne Jacobsen egg chair, random milling around, patchwork egg chairs by Tal R

We found a great little show called Model Citizens Show. Some interesting jewelry, art, and this stuffed, faceless doll. I decided this was going to be my souvenir of this NY trip, as I couldn't shop much with a looming computer purchase or repair.

A few sights of a truly spectacular city. Didn't have much time to sight see, but caught a few images before we left.

I love the water towers dotted around the tops of buildings. 

If you're in NY, you have to check out this place. Make a reservation at La Esquina. You go through the diner to a secret spot in the basement. Fantastic food and a great crowd. 

As part of the ICFF, Green Point Works set up some of their cute Acapulco chairs on the back of a truck. I adore these and would love a few for our back yard. I have a thing for back yard chairs.

Not sure what was happening here, but it was set up in the meat packing district. I had a couple of drinks by this point. 

A couple of views of the Standard Hotel. An absolutely stunning mid-century building.

A lovely random place to rest blistered feet, Tom Sachs Hello Kitty sculpture at Lever House, another lovely resting spot.

ICFF opening party at the MoMA.

Little Italy. 

That's it for New York. Do you have favourite restaurants, shops, galleries to go to when in NYC? Please share! 

Happy Friday everyone. See you for Baked On Monday # 5 (I think)!

New York - ICFF

Back from New York with a few blisters, but had a great time despite my shredded feet. Still have some images on my lap top, and won't be able to grab them until my computer is fixed, so for now here are some sights at the ICFF in New York.  This is a fair size list!

Tom Dixon had a "Flash Factory" (debuted in Milan) where "factory workers" assembled Etch, a brass and stainless steel light and candle holder.

I didn't get back to get a shot of their booth but this company, Snow Peak, was one of my favourites at the show. It's been around for decades. Since I love camping, I might just invest in some of the pieces.

Timorous Beasties is a company out of Scotland. You have to check them out.  I love the lamp shades and wallpaper.

I've always loved Deborah Bowness, so it was great to meet her. She was shy, so I didn't force her to be in the pic! Love this wallpaper.

I know, you've seen them a million times, but I will always love Eames chairs. They were showing the new colours. They make me happy. We saw Eames Demetrios, Charles and Ray Eames' grandson, speak at ABC Carpet and Home. Cool guy, but more on him later!

Fun collection of candle holders, lamps, vases and mirrors. The Parrot Party Collection is by Lladro Atelier.

Hand blown glass light fixtures by Caleb Siemon. Beautiful colours.

Kerf Design creates custom cabinets and furniture that can be installed or you can do it yourself. Love the colours they use. They had a cute kitchen set up that had a vintage look. Sorry, don't have a pic of that, but do check out their site.

Hanna Tonek Bonnett is adorable, and so is her work. Her 'saga' vases and tea cups are especially lovely. The vases are textured on the outside, printed on the inside. Click here for more info.

Metropolis is a fabulous publication and so was their "booth". An Airstream. It was a happy site.

I can't find my pics of the Molo booth, so I think they might be on my laptop. Oh well. Their booth was chosen "best booth" at the show. It was incredible. They're a Vancouver based group - yeah! Image from here.

I love Florence Broadhurst. She was a wallpaper designer from Australia and her designs are now in rug form. They are sold through Cadrys an Australian company. If you don't know about Florence, click here. Quite an incredible story.

That's it for now! I'm going to post some more NY pics on Friday. Have a good night!

Baked on Monday

Well, maybe. I know I didn't actually bake it. I'm still in NYC, my 2.5 year old MacBook Pro died and the recipe for my cake was on it. So I thought I'd post this pretzel until next Monday. It was pretty tasty, and I'm trying to look on the bright side as well as take my mind off the fact that my computer died at such a young age.  Grr. Apple, I'm mad at you.


Other than that little blip, it's been heaps of fun here in NY. Will post some pics of the ICFF on Wednesday. There was some pretty great stuff there. Until then, have a lovely day!

New York City

I was hoping to get so much more accomplished this week, but it's kind of flying by. I did manage to re-open my etsy shop, but still have many more images to add to it. I guess there's always next week.
I'm going to NYC tomorrow for the ICFF, so I plan to do a post while there. Looking forward to getting out of dodge for a bit.

Hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Baked on Monday

Hope all you had a great weekend!

I'm off to a late start today, as I have a surprise guest - my 11 year old nephew Jake! He's going to hang out with me today, so I thought he should help me bake.  Then I will get him to clean the toilets ;)

Apple Cupcakes - makes about 24
(I think this is a Donna Hay recipe)

250g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups superfine (called berry sugar in Canada) sugar
4 eggs
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon for dusting

for caramelised apples:
40g butter
1/3 cup superfine sugar
3 granny smith apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced

whipped cinnamon icing:
500g butter, softened
2 cups icing sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

To make the caramelised apples, place the butter and sugar in a large pan over low-medium heat and stir until dissolved. Add the apples and cook for 10 minutes or until caramelised. Remove apples from pan and cool completely.

Preheat oven to 320F/160C. Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined. Don't over do it. Fold in the milk and spoon mixture into two 12-hole cupcake tins lined with paper cups. Top with apples and bake for about 20 minutes, or until a bamboo skewer comes out clean. Cool on wire racks.

To make the whipped cinnamon icing, place the butter in the bowl of a mixer and beat for 5 minutes. Add the sugar and cinnamon and beat for another 10 minutes or until light and creamy. Ice cupcakes with a palette knife and dust with cinnamon. Now eat immediately!!!

Try to wait until they cool, even just a bit, to avoid injury....it's hard to do.

I know, I shouldn't have let him have two, but I'm the Auntie. We can do that.
Have to start thinking about the next Baked On Monday....what to bake? Hmm.

Check out Poppytalk for a fun "day in the country" story I shot with Heather at Missing Goat and Jan of poppytalk. Lots of fun!

Have a lovely day!