I know we’re at the very end of rhubarb season, but I couldn’t let the season go without sharing my Grandma’s recipe for rhubarb meringue cake. It’s also a bittersweet day because today would have been her 83rd birthday. My Mom sent me a photo of her handwritten recipe last month, but I was so caught up in all my jam making that I didn’t have any rhubarb to spare. Once I slowed down on the jam production, I set aside some extra stalks.

When I first made this cake, I had no visual guide and only a very briefly written recipe, so I was constantly texting my Mom questions: What size of cookie sheet do I use? How thick is the cake suppose to be? Is it supposed to be meringue? How thick??? My fingers turned red and went numb chopping up stalk after stalk of rhubarb and after I spread the thick, fluffy meringue onto the unbaked cake base, I started panicking and was convinced that I had done something wrong. We were just about to eat supper (poor Trevor was hovering around the counter waiting for me to move so he could get his food), so I put the cake in the oven, set the timer and hoped for the best.

(more…)

The post Rhubarb Meringue Cake appeared first on She Bakes Here.

Living in a large highrise building means that there are lots of people moving in and out on a regular basis. In the 14 months since we moved in, we’ve watched lots of moving trucks come and go. Having moved many, many times, I understand the stress of packing up your personal belongings and entrusting movers (or close friends) to take care of your things as you move your life from Point A to Point B.

Besides packing for a move, you have to make the conscious decision of what to keep verses what to throw out, give away or donate. Is it really worth it to move our 7-year old broken couch when we plan on purchasing a new one in the near future? Do we even have room for this extra bookshelf? These were definitely things I had to keep in mind when we moved downtown since we were swapping a larger living space for a shorter commute (still one of the best decisions we’ve made).

(more…)

The post Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cake appeared first on She Bakes Here.

Growing up, I remember my mom owned a sweater with the phrase “30 never looked so good.” It was a white pull-over sweater with crazy fonts and coloured shapes – think Saved By the Bell styled clipart. When I was a teenager, it become one of my mom’s favourite sweaters to wear while doing chores around the house and at the time I remember thinking how “old” 30 seemed. To a kid like me, being 30 was practically a lifetime away. I still had high school and university to get through. Not to mention that late 20’s post-university phase of figuring out a career, buying a house, balancing a bank account and walking successfully in high-heels. Pretty much everything that I thought responsible, serious adults did once they turned 30 and have everything figured out.

(more…)

The post Strawberry Yogurt Cake with Coconut Whipped Cream + On Turning 30 appeared first on She Bakes Here.

When I was younger, I was always willing to bake cookies upon request, muffins for morning road-trip breakfast and the odd family meal when my mother was pregnant with my sister and couldn’t stomach the sight and smell of raw meat. Being in the kitchen at a young age was a learning experience for me and there were a lot of trial and error periods. Such as learning the difference between teaspoons and tablespoons when it came to measuring salt in chocolate chip cookies. Or figuring out the right pan size so that our lasagna would come out in four layers instead of two (resulting in a delicious, but very flat lasagna). The biggest learning experience though, and one that I still struggle with today, is learning about what flavours work together.

I can remember one time where I almost used olive oil in a boxed brownie recipe. My mom caught me mid-measurement and taught me a lesson I’ve never forgotten: “olive oil is not for baking.” This is something I’ve carried with me still to this day, and may explain why I currently own three (yes, three) bottles of extra virgin olive oil in my kitchen pantry. Although I love pairing a good olive oil with a loaf of fresh bread (which may also explain my collection of balsamic vinegars too), I was always a little bummed out that I couldn’t use any of it for baking. That is, until I recently started doing a little research and realized that it was not so much avoiding the use of olive oil in baking, but finding the best flavour pairing that goes with it.

(more…)

The post Simple Lemon Olive Oil Cake appeared first on She Bakes Here.

I’m embarrassed to admit how long I’ve been holding to this recipe. Remember when I went to visit my Grandma’s house and we made cinnamon buns? That’s how long. Trevor and I didn’t even have a wedding date picked out yet. And now here we are, as newlyweds, and I’m proud to say that I finally made my Grandma’s honey castella cake recipe.

(more…)

The post Honey Castella Cake appeared first on She Bakes Here.

Trevor and I had a mild panic attack over the weekend when we logged into our WeddingWire account and the countdown kindly reminded us that it was 20 days until our wedding.

Ummmmm, say what? Seriously where did all this time go? Did we not just celebrate the 4-month before wedding date yesterday? (Not really, but you get the picture).

(more…)

The post Chocolate Espresso Quinoa Cake appeared first on She Bakes Here.

This Valentine’s Day-ish treat has been brought to you by the flavour vanilla.

I know, I know. You’re all sitting there scratching your heads thinking “but where is the chocolate? Won’t somebody think of the chocolate?”

As it goes, every year sometime between the months of December to February, I always find myself growing sick of chocolate. I see it littering the grocery store seasonal aisles and instead of feeling inspired, I just want to run. This year is no different and now I feel that if I see another foil-covered shaped treat, I’ll throw it to the floor and step on it.

(more…)

The post Easy Vanilla Cake in a Bowl appeared first on She Bakes Here.

Last week, I was able to convince Trevor to accompany me to the first annual Canada’s Baking & Sweets Show in Mississauga. When I first heard about this conference, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. A show all about cupcakes, cookies, icing and fondant? A place where I could sample baked goodies from all over the Southern Ontario and beyond? I knew I had hit the jackpot!

The morning of the show, I made some green smoothies to counteract all the sugar we were about to consume and we hit the road. Upon entering the conference, we were greeted by the Halloween and Wedding themed cakes on display for the professional baking competition. It was surreal seeing these cakes up close and knowing that they were edible.

All the booths were selling baked goods and they were quite generous with their free samples as well. For my first purchase, I spent a good time checking out the adorable little boxes of macarons at the MoRoCo Chocolat booth before setting on a single passion-fruit macaron at the Vanille Cakes and Confections booth, as they were individually priced at $2 each.

Trevor was surprising game with trying one with me and now I can finally say that I’ve eaten one – we are macaron virgins no more! Now I just have to find time to try making them myself.

Since we opted for the (cheaper) Friday tickets to the show, we ended up missing Buddy from Cake Boss. I got my fix visiting the Pam Baking Spray booth and posing with the life-size cutout.

My second purchase was a red-velvet cupcake with delicious cream cheese icing. I was too smitten with it to take a picture.

Trevor’s favourite booth was the Sprucewood Hand Made Cookie Company, who was very generous with the serve yourself free samples. They made your usual shortbread cookies, but their standout product was their savoury cheddar shortbread cookies. We were big fans of the cheddar/rosemary flavour and must have stopped at that booth at least three different times. I’m sure Trevor and his lactose intolerance paid for it later.

There were plenty of cake booths, but my favourite had to be from La Casa Dolce. Their movie themed cake blew me away.

Also, a pancake/maple syrup cake anyone?

Beside baked goods, there were also candy booths, a bagel booth, and plenty of fondant and baking supply booths. I spent a good time wandering around Golda’s Kitchen booth before Trevor pointed out that this was the third time I had migrated myself there – lol.

The cake pop booths reminded me of Bakerella. Even though I met her last year, I’m crossing my fingers that she can be a guest speaker next year!

I managed to pick up a ton of business cards and pamphlets for baking classes around the GTA, so hopefully I can get back into the swing of taking classes and baking again. This conference really inspired me to start baking again, so hopefully there will be some new and exciting recipes on this site soon.

I’m already thinking about the deliciousness of next year’s conference – haha!

The post Canada’s Baking & Sweets Show 2011 appeared first on She Bakes Here.

(You can read about the last three classes – Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3).

Spring is near.

Is it though?  I’m having a hard time believing it. At the beginning of the week, it snowed, but now it’s raining. I seriously haven’t seen the sun in about five days. Isn’t seeing the sun once in a while supposed to be part of the whole spring thing?

Hehe, spring thing. (Don’t mind me, I’m tired, its been a long, non-baking kind of day).

I didn’t have anything interesting to write on my final cake for my Michael’s basic cake decorating class last night, but I did enjoy learning to make the roses.

These are called ribbon roses and they are the simplest roses to make. I had a bit of a hard time because my icing was a little soft (stiff icing is key for making these).

I also loved the border. I attempted the border shell, but the icing decided it had a mind of its own halfway around the cake.

The cake was a homemade marble cake made with almond milk (thinking of Trevor’s milk allergy) and whole wheat flour (long story, but I made the cake during a snow storm and I ran out of white flour) with almond-flavoured buttercream. It was a little dense, but Trevor loved it.

Some things I learned in yesterday’s class:

1). After icing your cake, do you still see spatula markings all over the surface? My teacher had a great idea how to smooth it. Let the cake sit for 10 minutes to let the icing stiffen slightly, then place a sheet of parchment paper over the top of the iced cake and gently use the spatula over the paper to smooth out the creases and lines. I did it in the beginning of class and it made my icing look much more smooth and even.

2). Use a long piece of thread to drape over the iced cake to help line up your lettering before you write on your cake. This helps keep the words straight (something I didn’t have on me) and it is removed in a pinch with minimal markings to the surface of the cake.

3). Rather than having your roses laying flat on the cake, give them more dimension by places a small glob of icing (preferably the colour of the iced cake or the rose itself) on the surface of the cake and gently place the rose on top. I did that and it made the flowers stick out a bit more at different angles.

I was planning on taking the next level class right away, but they are all filled up until the beginning of April. Plus, I’m not sure what my schedule is going to be for the next couple of weeks, so I don’t want to commit to a class until I have a few other things in my life straightened out.

Have a great weekend!

The post Michael’s Basic Cake Decorating Class – Day 4 appeared first on She Bakes Here.

(To read about Day 1 of the cake class, click here).

Above is the cake I decorated for day 2 of my Michael’s store cake decorating class, basic level.

This week’s class was much more hands on, as last week we pretty much just watched our instructor make icing and decorate a cake. This time we had to bring our own cake and 2 batches of homemade icing, along with our materials from our kits and instruction booklet. I also brought along some icing gel colours to make the icing different shades.

When I got to the class, the first thing we did was level the tops of our cakes and then flip them upside down, as the bottom of the cake was much sturdier to ice than the fluffy top. It was then optional to cut our cake in half and fill the middle with either icing, jam or pudding. I brought along chocolate pudding mixed with strawberries.

We then iced the cake with our icing and then learned how to create the cupcake design with clear piping gel. I’m not a big fan of piping gel, as I can’t see myself using it too often. I would much rather learn how to make flowers, which will be next week’s lesson when we bring cupcakes!

(more…)

The post Michael’s Basic Cake Decorating Class – Day 2 appeared first on She Bakes Here.