The leftover frosting dilemma

So I made a birthday cake for one of my coworkers.  A delicious, rich, chocolate salted caramel creation.  But I ended up with extra dark chocolate frosting... Does this ever happen to you??

Honey and Spice and Everything Nice

 

The weather is finally warm and feeling like summer is just around the corner, but it sure feels like it took its sweet time.  (Get it? Sweet?)  Ever since a really warm spell we had in March, I have been done with the cold.  So when single digit temperatures appeared again, I decided to make this fall inspired recipe to beat the cold.  Beer and honey spice cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting and honey spice sponge toffee.  

Macaron mayhem

I know it's been a really long time since I posted... I can come up with plenty of excuses like work... work... wedding planning... travelling to Ottawa for Easter... running training... and work but none of them make up for ignoring you guys for so long.  So here's a double post!  Kind of.  They are the same kind of dessert, but two different flavours!

Many of you have probably heard that macarons (or French macaroons) are notoriously difficult to make.  But the truth is, they're not.  They're just extraordinarily hard to make perfectly.  A macaron will still taste delicious even without the perfect little foot or perfectly smooth shell.  And once you realize that, it's a lot less stressful.

I got the urge to make macarons this weekend after going to our wedding cake tasting at Cake Opera Co. and seeing/eating some of their macarons.  There's nothing so pretty as row after row of brightly coloured, cute, little, round treats.  But what I love most about macarons, is thinking up unique flavour combinations for them, really the possibilities are endless!

This time I opted for one to mimic a dessert flavour, and one to mimic a cocktail.  Hence the birth of the lemon meringue pie macaron and the margarita macaron.

Raspberry Meringue Heaven... I mean Roulade

 
One of my coworkers had a birthday party last weekend, and his wife always cooks/bakes up way more delicious food than a regular party-full of people can consume.  It is impossible not to over-eat at these parties, and I usually limit my eating before the party so that I can eat more there...

But this time, there was one dessert that I loved especially: a raspberry meringue roulade.  I always thought I didn't like meringue.  But it turns out I only don't like the meringue that is typically on top of lemon meringue pies; like the ones that are mostly soft sponge with just a little crisp on top.  What I do love is the meringue in this roulade: crispy on the outside, mostly chewy on the inside, with just a little bit of sponginess.

And along with the sweetness of meringue is the cool richness of whipped cream and these tart little bursts of raspberry.  The crispy meringue melts in your mouth and the whole thing combines into this heavenly experience.  You should definitely go make this right now!

Superbowl snacks... dessert style

I have to say, I am not a football fan.  The Superbowl is the only football game I watch all year.  But there are some events that just seem to inspire interesting and delicious foods, and the Superbowl is one of them.

I love Superbowl snacks: sliders, nachos, jalapeno poppers.  But this year, I was hit by an idea to make each of these into a dessert form.  Don't worry, I didn't make jalapeno buttercream or anything... (although that doesn't sound half bad)... I just made desserts that look like their savoury counterparts.