When you get a cake recipe in baking school, there is usually a one-line instructions section. It looks something like this, “Use the creaming method.” That is because there are six basic methods for mixing a cake (creaming, two-stage, one-stage, sponge, angel food & chiffon) and repeating the steps again and again is just a waste of paper! Today I hope to explain why we mix cake the way we do so you won’t be tempted to skip a couple of steps and just throw it all in a bowl.
The most common ingredient in baking is wheat flour and from it we get gluten which is one of the three main things that give structure to our baked goods. Let’s go into a little of the science on gluten so we can understand a little bit better some of our baking techniques.
Why I do I love making homemade ice-cream? Let me count the ways: 1) It is not as sweet as most commercial ice-cream, 2) I can get creative and make the perfect flavour for my dessert, 3) It has no artificial “junk” in it, 4) it is rich and creamy and has a pure flavour. There, have I convinced you?
No offence to the cakes decorated with strawberries and whipped cream in the pattern of a maple leaf, but I like to go with a slightly more grown-up dessert, so I turn to Butter Roasted Cherries served with ice cream! This is sooo easy to make, the most difficult part of this dessert is pitting the cherries.
I love homemade marshmallows! Guests are always “wowed” by them, (although once they see how easy they are they may not be as impressed) and you can easily customize them with booze, fruit, nuts and chocolate.
Deep-Fried Jello, Crispy Chicken Feet on a Stick and Canadian Bacon Pickle Balls all sound interesting, but nothing really lives up to those mini doughnuts…warm from the fryer and sprinkled in cinnamon sugar. But Stampede is still more than six weeks away and I am not inclined to deep-fry this afternoon, so luckily I have a recipe for doughnut muffins that does a very good impression of this Stampede favourite.
If you have a toddler in your life, then you have heard of Smash Cakes. For those of you living adult only lives, smash cakes are all the rage for celebrating first birthdays. The birthday boy or girl is given a small cake of their very own to, you guessed it, smash it!
When we told people where we were going to Cuba, everyone said, “Mona, you know the food is not good.” Well, they were right, but it is possible to sustain yourself (and not only on the fresh fruit garnishes of your rum drinks). Based on my experience and chats with others who have travelled to Cuba, here are my tips for surviving a Cuban All-Inclusive resort.
Unfortunately, many of the recipes out there can be quite bland and decorating them with royal-icing just adds sweetness not flavour. After many attempts, I finally landed on the recipe below for Vanilla Sugar Cookies from Williams-Sonoma. The addition of vanilla bean makes them exceptionally tasty.
With spring in the air, beet carpaccio is a perfect appetizer to celebrate the season. It is light and fresh tasting. I made this last weekend when some friends were coming to our house for a drink before we went out to dinner. I wanted to have something to nibble on but I didn’t want it to ruin our appetites.
The reason for our trip was for our son to do some football training (soccer for us North Americans), so fancy dinners were not really on our agenda. However, when you find out one of Britain’s hottest young chefs is working his magic in your hotel you order the boy a pizza and head downstairs!
I also love scone because they are so easy to make. In about 10 minutes I can have a batch ready to go in the oven. When we have overnight guests, I love to tempt them out of bed with these warm, mildly sweet treats.
