Baked

I hope you had a great weekend. Were you mothers out there, treated like queens? We had a quiet one around here, filled with a little work and a short baking session. Made a cake for my mom. Super simple and delicious.

Lemon Almond Cake with Coconut - makes one 8 inch cake

1 cup almond meal

1/2 cup sweet rice flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

4 eggs + one egg white

4 oz. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Zest of one large lemon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Unsweetened coconut for top of cake

Lemon Glaze:

1/2 cup icing sugar

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

To make the glaze: in a small bowl, mix together the icing sugar and lemon juice. 

Preheat oven to 350f/180c. Grease and line the bottom of an 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper and set aside. 

In a large bowl, whisk together almond meal, rice flour, baking soda, baking powder and sugar. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs in another large bowl, until foamy. Add the buttermilk and butter, and beat until combined. 

Beat in the lemon juice, zest and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, a little at a time, and beat for about 2 minutes. 

Pour batter into cake pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer, inserted in centre, comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, carefully invert cake onto a cake plate or stand. Top with a thin coat of lemon glaze and sprinkle with unsweetened coconut.  

Have a great day! Back on Wednesday.

janis

Hello Friday!

To all you moms out there, Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all get spoiled rotten. 

Back soon!

janis

Baked

I haven't done much baking these days. Life has been a touch hectic, and I've been working on on The Butter cookbook, with Rosie Daykin, so I really haven't needed to bake!  Thank you Rosie for all the cupcakes, cookies, and bars ;) I did need a little something, the other day, when I was trying to sort out my office (after the tax year end fiasco). These fixed my orange cookie craving for the day. The recipe has been adapted from Alice Medrich's recipe in Pure Dessert.

Buckwheat Orange Cookies - makes about 60 (if using a 1.5 inch cookie cutter)

1 1/4 cups gluten free flour mix (or regular all purpose flour)

3/4 cup buckwheat flour

1 teaspoon guar gum (only if using gluten free flour)

8 oz unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)

rind of two medium oranges (make sure to use organic oranges)

1 teaspoon vanilla

Sift the flours together into a medium size bowl. In another bowl, beat the butter and sugar together, until smooth and creamy. Stir in the orange rind and vanilla.  Add the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms. Split the dough in half and flatten out each piece, then wrap in plastic wrap. Chill over night. 

When ready to bake cookies, preheat oven to 350f/180c. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes and place about 1 inch apart, on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until just slightly browned on the edges. 

Carefully transfer the cookies to a wire rack, and allow to cool completely. You can eat them as is (delicious), but I had some white chocolate, so I melted it, along with a splash of cream, in a saucepan over low heat. I drizzled the chocolate over the cooled cookies. Extra delicious. 

Have you baked with buckwheat before? Though it's name sounds wheaty, it isn't, so it's perfect if you're aiming for a gluten free diet. It also tastes so flipping good, and is better for you too (I'm trying!). 

Have a good day! Back soon.

Janis 

A Happy Home for Monday

Did you have a good weekend? Hope so. We started Sunday morning off with an early morning call from my sister. She told us a couple of very silly people tossed a brick through the window of our restaurant, and helped themselves to a few bottles of liquor. We have cameras, and these guys provided some fun images! If they weren't ballsy enough, a passerby, noticing the window had been smashed out, waltzed in and helped himself to a few treats. Guess he thought, "why not"? Not the end of the world, only a little irritating. ;)

To kickstart the week, I'm sharing the home of Shereen, Wilf and Silas. I shot their pretty home last summer, for Style At Home, and it's featured in the June issue. Designed with the help of Shereen's good friend, Nancy Riesco. Between the two of them, they've created a home full of personality. I've mentioned Shereen before, and her beautiful line of jewelry - click here for a refresher.

Silas hanging out with Leo, on the settee that Shereen found on Craigslist. Nancy had it reupholstered. Love that orange mirror. 

Red and blue is a great combo. 

Knowing this family, their home suits them perfectly. I love coming across that, as it doesn't happen all the time. If you'd like to see Shereen's home office, I posted pics a few weeks ago. Click here for a look. 

Pretty Friday

Hello weekend! I'm wrapping up the week with some shots from a shoot I did for Barefoot Contessa, a women's clothing store, a few weeks ago. It's the perfect place to shop for all things pretty and lady-like. I'm hoping that these springy pics will trigger spring to commence, here in Vancouver ;)

Model: Olivia Renshaw

Back soon!

janis

Colours,Patterns and Wallpaper

I'd like to introduce you to interior designer, Lael O'Brien. I shot her home last summer, for House and Home, and it's just out now in the June issue. 

Lael is a huge fan of wallpaper, and has used it throughout the house, along with pops of colour and fun patterns. Here's a little peek....

You can also watch an interview with Lael, and get a tour of her home, at H&H online. Click here to watch.

Have a great day! Back soon.

janis

Weekend Observations

I hope you had a great weekend! What did you get up to?

Most of my "observations" for this weekend involved invoices, bank statements and receipts. In Canada, today is the deadline to get your tax statement in for 2011. Yikes. Nothing like the last minute. My apologies to my accountant. I promise to do better next year. Seriously.

In between ripping apart my office, searching for receipts, I also observed a little prettiness....

Cathy Terepocki ceramics are sold at Walrus.

For more info on VanDusen Gardens, click here.

That's it for today!