Baked...for Canada Day

Ah, long weekends. Love them, even if I'm working for most of it. I'm in Victoria BC, for a few shoots, but back for July 1st - Canada Day. What are your plans?

Lately, I've been playing around with different flours in my never ending attempt at being healthier. Interesting, because as I write this, I have a wee bit of a hangover. ;) These were made with quinoa flour and almond meal, and they're pretty delicious. Similar to a friand, really.

Let's call them Canada Day cupcakes - makes about 10 medium cupcakes. 
3/4 cup almond meal
3/4 cup quinoa flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
125g unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup berry/caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk

For topping:
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup (or to taste)
fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350f/180c.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the almond meal, quinoa flour and baking powder. In another bowl, beat the butter, vanilla, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, and mix until combined. Stir in the dry ingredients, a little at a time, until combined. Fold through the milk.

Spoon, evenly, into cups and bake for about 20 minutes, or until lightly golden and springy to touch.
Cool on a wire rack.
For topping, beat whipping cream and maple syrup together until it's, well, whipped cream! Top cooled cupcakes with whipped cream and a raspberry. Enjoy!

Have a good weekend everyone and, to my fellow Canadians, have a fun and safe Canada Day long weekend!

Easter Weekend Observations

Are you still enjoying a long weekend? It's been sunny and perfect, here in Vancouver. Full of chocolate rabbits? I'm officially done with hot cross buns and chocolate anything....for awhile at least.

This is a little of what I got up to this weekend...

Worked on pics of a shoot I did with Ami McKay, of Pure Design, and stylist Crystal Carson. That also happens to be one of my images turned into a light box. Love light boxes.

Played around with some Impossible Project film with my sx-70. A little tour of Vancouver, "polaroid" style. Have you tried this instant film? Not like the old style polaroid film that would develop within minutes....this takes about 45 minutes, depending on the temperature, camera, etc. Still love it though ;) 

My contribution to the family Easter dinner: cupcakes. I used the Wacky Cake recipe, but added a caramilk chocolate egg in the centre, and iced with butter icing and coconut. 

Easter always brings out a little pastel in me. 

What did you do this long weekend? Still enjoying it? 

Have a great day! Back soon.

Janis

City Living in NYC

This past April, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Jen Ramos of Made By Girl, her husband Matt and Darla the boxer, at their NYC apartment. A small space and, wow, was it ever organized! Their home is in a special issue of Style At Home that's all about organizing. Here's some more of our shoot....

Jen's perfectly tidy office and paint studio. Turquoise candle holders from The Cross. 

Some of Jen's paintings and prints. You can check out more of her work here. 

Matt whipped up a small smorgasbord for us. He's not a chef, but he could be. So delicious. 

Hard to keep my eyes off this box of Sprinkles cupcakes during the shoot. 

Do you live in a small space?  We do, but I can't call it organized. Any special tricks for de-cluttering? Feel free to share your ideas!  

Have a lovely day!

janis

Weekend Observations

Did you have a nice weekend? It always go by so quickly, doesn't it? Sigh.

A little bit of my weekend....

Working on the images from the Butter cookbook shoot. 

I scouted this fun home recently. Keep you posted on where the entire story ends up!

 "Love" print by Jen Ramos of MadeByGirl. Merci, Jen!

What did you get up to this weekend? Fill me in!

Back soon.

Janis

Baked

Hope your week is off to a good start! I've got heaps of photo editing to do, and deadlines looming. Oh well, nothing a cupcake can't help.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Coconut Buttercream - makes 12 cupcakes

150g unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup almond meal
1 cup all purpose or whole wheat flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

To make cupcakes: Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Lightly spray a 12 cup muffin tin with vegetable oil, or line with paper liners (I didn't seem to have any of those kicking around).
Beat butter and sugar, with an electric mixer, until smooth and creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat until well combined.

Pour in milk and almond meal, and blend. Sift in the flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt, and mix together until well combined.

Scoop batter into cups evenly and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack before icing.

Coconut Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups icing sugar
2 teaspoons coconut extract
2 tablespoons coconut milk
unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on tops

To make buttercream: Beat the butter, with an electric mixer, until smooth and creamy. With mixer on low speed, slowly add the icing sugar, a little at a time, then coconut extract, and coconut milk. If it's too thick, add a little more coconut milk. Spread over top of cupcake, then sprinkle with coconut. Enjoy!

Have a great day! Back soon.
Janis

PS
I've done a "behind-the-scenes" of a photo shoot for The Cross, over at Poppytalk today. It was so much fun!

Baked

Well, that's a wrap for our labour day long weekend. Hope you all had a fun one! We've ended ours with a baby shower (for my new niece, Alice), and some really good cupcakes. I had to make sure the remaining cupcakes went with anyone but me. I cannot be trusted. The combo of almond and orange is just too much.

Almond Cupcakes with Orange Glaze - makes about 48 mini cakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk

Orange Glaze

2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
Food colouring

To make cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 350f/180c.
In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, then add almond extract. In another bowl, whisk together flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt - stir into butter mixture alternately with milk, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of milk. Spoon batter into paper lined cupcake tin.
Bake for about 20 minutes, or until skewer, inserted in centre of cupcake, comes out clean. Transfer to cooling rack to cool completely before icing.

To make glaze:
In a small bowl, mix together all ingredients. You want this to be quite runny, not a thick icing. Spread over tops of cupcakes, and eat immediately!

These are so easy to make, and a recipe I use often! Again, almond and orange. Mmmm.

It's so late in the day, so I hope your Monday was a good one!

Back soon.
janis

Baked

Hello Monday! I'm trying to be a little peppier on Mondays. Hmm. Still think we should have a 3 day weekend. Hope your week is off to a good start!

This weekend I made a batch of cupcakes to take to our friend Daniel, co-owner of the shop Walrus. He had a special birthday, so he deserved some sparkly cupcakes. Sparkly cupcakes need sparkly wine to go with them. It was a fun way to wrap up the weekend. Oh, and the Canucks won too!

Vanilla Cupcakes with Pistachio Praline Whipped Icing - makes about 36 mini cupcakes (this is a Donna Hay recipe)
4 1/2oz/125g softened unsalted butter
3/4 cup berry/caster sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 eggs
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk

Pistachio Praline:
5 1/4oz unsalted pistachios
1 cup berry/caster sugar
1/2 cup water

Whipped Icing:
1 cup berry/caster sugar
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
3 egg whites

To make the pistachio praline, place the nuts on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Place the sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and stir, until dissolved. Increase the heat and bring to a boil. Cook for about 8 minutes or until dark golden brown. Remove from heat, allow the bubbles to subside and pour mixture over nuts. Allow to cool completely. Break praline up into small pieces, place in a food processor and process to a coarse consistency. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 320f/160c. Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs, and beat well. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined. Fold through the milk, then spoon into mini muffin tins lined with muffin papers. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.

For the whipped icing, place the sugar, water and cream of tartar in a saucepan over high heat and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 3 minutes. Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar mixture and beat until thick and glossy. Spread the icing over the cupcakes with a palette knife and top with the pistachio praline. Eat and enjoy. These are incredibly good.

 

These are really simple and fun to make. Would be great for Easter brunch too. 

Have a good day! Back soon.

janis

Baked - Velvety Beet Cupcakes. Yes, beets.

Did you all have a nice weekend? Hope so! If you're in Vancouver, wasn't it great to see sunshine on Sunday? Ahh, I can feel spring...almost.

I came across this recipe in Chatelaine magazine. I have to say, this magazine really does have some of the best recipes....and the finished product always turns out. I love that there are beets in this chocolaty cupcake, adding folate and some fibre to this delicious treat. Does not taste "beety", if you're wondering ;)

Velvety Beet Cupcakes with Raspberry Icing - makes 12 cupcakes

1/4 frozen raspberries
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 of 398ml can of beets, rinsed, drained and patted dry
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup safflower oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 of 250g block light cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup icing sugar

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Measure out raspberries and leave on counter.
Line a 12 cup cupcake tin with paper cups or spray with oil. Stir flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Puree beets in a food processor or blender. Beat sugar with oil until combined, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg, then beets and vanilla. Gradually beat in one third of flour mixture until just combined, then half of buttermilk. Repeat additions, ending with the last third of flour.
Divide batter among muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.

Bake in centre of oven for 20-25 minutes, or until a skewer, inserted in cupcakes, comes out clean. Cool in pan for 15 minutes, then remove cupcakes and place on wire rack to cool completely before icing.
To make icing:
Push raspberries through sieve, into a bowl, using the bottom of a ladle. Discard seeds. Stir in cream cheese and icing sugar until evenly mixed. Spread over cupcakes.

Have a great day! Back Wednesday.

P.S. Since I've been asked about my 2011 calendars, I've added a few more to my shop. Thanks so much to all who purchased one!