Honey Vanilla Beehive Cupcakes

 

Happy Friday! The weekend is finally here and with it some beautiful sunshine and blue skies. The bright cheeriness outside on my way home from work today reminded me of these bright cheery Honey Vanilla Beehive Cupcakes that I had promised to share with you ohhhh about a month ago! Bad me, but I'm doing it now, that's what counts right?

 

I made these for the Winnie the Pooh baby shower I threw for my sister and her new baby Preston. You can read more about the baby shower, the food and the decorations here if you're interested! People at the shower went nuts for these things! I received compliment after compliment about how good they were, so hopefully you like them too.

 

Before you ask, no I didn't make the cute little bees on top of them (though you could do it yourself if you have time, patience and are good with fondant) - I bought these little sugar bees from Scoop n' Save in Langley for a super reasonable price (that's also where I found the adorable cupcake wrappers and the food colouring to make my icing that bright!!!).

 



Honey Vanilla Cupcakes
Minimally adapted from Half Baked - the Cake Blog

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup salted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tsp vanilla

For the frosting:

• 3/4 cup salted butter
• 4 oz island farms cream cheese (or other cream cheese, softened)
• 3 cups icing sugar
• 3 tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp vanilla
• yellow food colouring (if desired)
• yellow sanding sugar

see below next picture for method

 

Method

1. For the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking trays with cupcake liners. In a medium bowl, mix together dry ingredients -  flour, baking powder and salt. In a small bowl, mix together wet ingredients - buttermilk, honey and vanilla. Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time mixing until well incorporated. Gradually add the wet and dry ingredients, alternating, starting with and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until incorporated (don't overmix though).
2. Using a medium sized scoop, scoop batter into cupcake liners until 2/3rds full. Bake in preheated oven for 18 minutes or until tops spring back lightly when pressed. Allow cupcakes to cool completely on a wire rack before frosting
3. For the frosting - cream butter and cream cheese until combined and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue mixing until fluffy. Mix in honey. Gradually add a few drops of food colouring at a time until you achieve desired colour. Put icing in large piping bag fitted with a large round tip and pipe swirls of icing onto cooled cupcakes.
4. Dust cupcakes with sanding sugar and place sugar bees on artistically right before serving.

And that's how you make these lovely cupcakes. One of the keys to making them taste delicious - not sickly sweet, is to use salted butter - the salt cuts the sweetness and balances the flavour perfectly!

Hope you enjoy these little beauties as much as we did! Happy Baking my Friends!

Coconut Almond Bars

Howdy friends! How are you this fine, rainy Wednesday evening? I figured you might need a sweet chocolaty pick-me-up! I know I could. I made these quite a while ago and to be honest just never got around to blogging them. But I was flipping through pictures and noticed I had these lovely little shots my hubby took and I just had to share them with you!

This recipe is from one of my favorite baking books - Back to Baking by Anna Olson! I hope you enjoy as much as we did!

Coconut Almond Bars
Minimally adapted from Back to Baking by Anna Olson

Ingredients:

Base:

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup all purpose flour

Filling:

• 1 1/3 cup sweetened coconut flakes
• 1 cup sliced almonds
• 1 300 ml tin sweetened condensed milk
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp salt

Topping:

• 5 oz semisweet chocolate chips
• 2 tbsp. butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and line an 8-inch square pan with parchment paper so paper comes up the sides.
2. Melt butter and chocolate in a small pan over low heat, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Then add egg and vanilla and stir til blended. Add flour and stir. Spread this mixture into the bottom of prepared an and bake for 10 minutes until it loses its shine. Cool while preparing the filling.
3. For the filling, stir the coconut, almonds, condensed milk, vanilla and salt to combine. Spread over cooled base. Bake 25 minutes until light golden brown. Cool to room temperature before adding the topping.
4. For the topping, melt the chocolate and butter in the microwave on low heat, stirring often.  Pour mixture over cooled filling and spread evenly.
5. Chill the pan for about 2 hours to set the chocolate. Cut the squares while chilled, but then store and enjoy at room temp. I used a small round biscuit cutter to cut mine into cute little round shapes for a fun way to present them!

These bars have amazing chocolaty flavour, but they are a little on the sweet side! If you don't like super sweet treats, then these probably aren't the bars for you! If however you love a little sugar hit - get on making these right away to cure your mid-week blues!

Happy Baking Friends!

Sage, Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Lasagna

 Hey Friends! Its been a while. This weekend I felt particularly inspired to whip up a new recipe and it was such an amazing recipe, I just couldn't wait to share it with you. I'll pre-warn you - its a lot of work - see the full sink of dishes in the last picture! Since all three of the sauces are made from scratch, its a bit of work. But the results are soooo delicious - well worth the extra work! Save it for a weekend and do it up!

Sage, Butternut Squash & Goat Cheese Lasagna
Recipe adapted from Meals in Heels by Jennifer Joyce

Ingredients:

• 2 kg butternut squash, seeds removed, cut into chunks
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 heads garlic, top 1/4 inch trimmed
• 2 small onions, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp. chopped sage leaves, plus 15 whole leaves
• one package of fresh lasagna pasta sheets
• 1 cup coarsely grated parmesano reggiano

Tomato Sauce:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 package mild Italian sausage
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1.2 kg tinned whole roma tomatoes, pureed in a food processor
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Goat Cheese Béchamel

• 2 1/2 oz butter
• 1/3 cup plain flour
• 3 cups 1% milk
• 100g goat cheese

Method:

1. Preheat oven 400F. Place butternut squash on two baking trays, drizzle over a little oil and season well with salt and pepper. Drizzle garlic with a little oil and season with salt and pepper, wrap in foil and place on tray. Roast for 40 minutes or until the squash and garlic are soft. Remove the foil from garlic and set aside with squash to cool. Reduce heat to 350F.
2. Heat remaining oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and chopped sage and cook for 8-10 minutes or until softened. Add squash, squeeze the roasted garlic from their skins into the pan, season with salt and pepper and roughly mash. Place in food processor and puree until very smooth. Set aside.
3. To make the tomato sauce, brown sausage in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and cook for a few minutes until golden. Add pureed tomato and season with salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. Cover with lid and let simmer for 40 minutes or until thickened. Set aside.
4. To make béchamel sauce - melt butter in saucepan over medium heat. Add flour and stir continuously wit a whisk for two minutes or until mixture becomes slightly coloured. Pour in milk and whisk quickly until there are no lumps. Continue whisking for another five minutes or until béchamel thickens. Add the cheese and stir until melted and smooth. Set aside.
5. To assemble the lasagna - spread a little tomato sauce over base of 4 litre capacity baking dish (you'll need a fairly big one - you can see mine overflowed a bit when it baked because I didn't have a large enough pan). Cover with a layer of lasagna noodle sheets. Spread over one-third each of béchamel, then mashed pumpkin and tomato sauce. Repeat two more times, finishing with a layer of tomato sauce. Then sprinkle liberally with parmesan (you'll have some extra left over to sprinkle on slices when you serve). Scatter over the whole sage leaves and bake for 40 minutes or until golden. Remove and let stand for 10 minutes before slicing.

And that's that! It is a lovely flavour combination and was a huge hit with my family! I will definitely be making this one again! You can also make it ahead by making your sauces, assembling the lasagna and then refrigerating or freezing until you're ready to bake it. I hope you enjoy!

Happy Cooking my Friends!

Winnie the Pooh Baby Shower

 

This past weekend I had the honour of hosting a baby shower for my sister's first baby! As you can imagine, I wanted the shower to be something super special and something that everyone would enjoy. The pictures below chronicled some of the decorations, table layouts, and menu items that were part of the shower. The theme was classic Winnie the Pooh! Hope you enjoy!

 



Hundred Acre Wood Acorns

 We made some simple decorations that included:

• Clouds made from white cardstock (large size) - hung from the ceiling around the gift/ refreshment table with fishing wire
• Welcome banner made from cardstock, hung from twine (purchased from Michaels)
• Silly Old Bear banner for front of food table (cardstock, hung from twine with wooden clothes pins)
• Simple flower arrangements for the tables
• Burlap table cloth (burlap purchased from local fabric store)
• Framed pictures of the new baby and his family
• Beehive drink dispenser (Homesense for $24)
• Mason jar drinking glasses with yellow and grey striped straws

Tigger Tails

 The menu included:

• Hundred acre wood acorns
• Tigger tails
• Piglets in blankets
• Hunny Vanilla Beehive Cupcakes
• Hunny roasted nuts
• Rabbits garden with hummus & onion dip
• Strawberry & Hunny Lemonade
• Various tea sandwiches (cucumber, egg salad, cherry-cream cheese pinwheels)

 Inspiration for the menu and decorations came mainly from this lovely blog: Handmade by Meg

Hunny Vanilla Beehive Cupcakes

 How to make 100 acre wood acorns: take one Hershey kiss, glue to one side of a mini cookie (I used Mr. Christie) with melted chocolate, then glue a chocolate chip onto other side of mini cookie. Easy peasy!

How to make Tigger Tails: Take pretzel sticks (I couldn't find full size, so I used some half size pretzels I found at Super Store). Dip in melted orange wafers. Let set. Then drizzle "stripes" with melted semi-sweet chocolate chips mixed with 1 tbsp. shortening.

Piglets in blankets were simply hot dogs cut up into quarters and wrapped with pilsbury pastry then baked in the oven til browned.

 Strawberry Hunny Lemonade:

• 1 lb strawberries, washed, hulled and quartered
• 2 lemons, washed and quartered
• 3/4 cup honey
• 6 cups water

Combine strawberries, lemons and honey in food process and pulse until quite smooth. Strain mixture and discard solids. Add six cups cold water and taste. Add more honey or sugar if desired. Serve over ice!

 Thanks for stopping by! Check later this weekend for the cupcake recipe! They were absolutely delicious! :)

Have a great weekend my friends!

Parmesan Cornbread Mini Biscuits for SRC

Hi Friends! I know its been a while! I do have some cool things to share with you, but I am just trying to get motivated this new year to start sharing with you again. I just haven't been feeling that inspired... I think that's why I procrastinated so much this month before even looking at my assignment for SRC (which by the way, I had two months to work on, but no, I baked and blogged the night before it was due). I am now so sad that I procrastinated to much - the blog I was assigned is AWESOME!!! I was assigned the blog Mangia this month. It is a great blog written by a beautiful gal named Chelsy. Check out her blog - I'll still be here when you get back! I've flagged a couple more recipes to try from her blog this coming weekend because everything just looked so mouthwatering.

I decided to make Chelsy's Black Pepper Cornbread Biscuits (with a couple of my own twists!) and man were they delicious! Even hubby who swears he doesn't like anything with cornmeal loved them! If you click the link above you can find Chelsy's original recipe - its gluten free, so for any of you who like to cook/ bake gluten free or for those of you that must, do have a look! Otherwise, my non-gluten free take on the recipe can be found below.

Parmesan Cornbread Mini Biscuits
Recipe adapted from Mangia

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cornmeal
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp prosciutto and chipotle sea salt (or regular is fine too!)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. honey
• 2-3 tbsp. finely grated parmesan

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a mini-muffin pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (except parmesan). In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, water, eggs and honey. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until ingredients come together and are just moistened. Add a bit more water if necessary to get a muffin batter-like consistency.
3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tin filling about 3/4 full. Sprinkle each mini muffin with a bit of parmesan. Bake in preheated oven for 10-11 minutes or until just set and golden on the sides and bottom. Let cool slightly then enjoy on their own or with a bit of butter!

These little guys would be delicious with chili or stew - awesome for dipping! Or just delicious for a little afternoon snack. Either way, do try them out - they come together in under half an hour and make the house smell great! Thanks Chelsy for an awesome recipe - I look forward to trying several more. :)

 



Peanut Butter RIce Krispies for SRC

I had a crazy weekend with some very unexpected and exciting news! I can't share details with you yet, but this news totally threw off my plans to tackle my SRC assignment on Sunday as I had originally planned to. It completely slipped my mind and I'm so sorry because I was assigned such a fantastic blog this month!!!

I was assigned Cook with Sara. I chose to make the rice Krispy squares but opted to use a slightly different flavor profile with peanut butter and chocolate rather than the caramel chocolate combo she used. Both I'm sure would be fantastic! Check out the recipe here. 

I chopped up mini peanut butter cups (approx 1 cup chopped) and stirred them into the Rice Krispies. Then I drizzled the bars with melted peanut butter (1/4 cup) and chocolate (1/4 cup). They were soooo good!

Thanks Sara for the delicious recipe and the many more recipes that I can't wait to try (check out the Cappuccino Crinkles - they're next on my list!!). I apologize for the lateness of my post!

Happy Baking my Friends!

Mini Slider Buns

You know how some things are just better and cuter in miniature form? Burgers are totally one of those things for me. I'm not one to love burgers, but give them to me in a tiny version and I'll eat a plateful! The only annoying thing about making sliders is that it can be hard to find the mini buns you need to make them. Well, look no further, just make your own - they're easy, super cute and way better than store bought. {Hang in there for later this week - I'll post my slider burger patty recipe and the toppings I used when I served these at my friend's cocktail party} Plus, your guests will go crazy for them - so be sure to make lots!!

I found this recipe via a random google search for mini slider buns on a blog called Lauren's Latest. What a great find! She has some awesome recipes on there, so be sure to pop over there and have a look. :)

Mini Slider Buns
Recipe minimally adapted from Lauren's Latest

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs, divided
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• sesame seeds for sprinkling

Method:

1. Stir warm water with yeast and honey. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside to proof (about 5-10 minutes or until mixture is foamy).
2. Place butter in microwave safe bowl and melt. Remove from microwave and stir in milk and 1 egg. Stir to incorporate. Pour into bowl of a stand mixer. Pour yeast mixture into bowl of stand mixer and sprinkle with salt and two cups of the flour. Knead with dough hook until all flour has been incorporated. With mixer on low, add remaining one cup of flour gradually (you may not need all of it). Knead on low until dough is smooth and slightly sticky. Place in well oiled bowl, turning dough to coat. Set aside to rise for one hour until doubled in bulk.
3. Punch down dough and form into small balls the size of golf balls. Place on parchment lined baking tray. Cover and let rise another 30-60 minutes.
4. In a small bowl, beat remaining egg with two tablespoons of water. Brush tops of buns and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake in 350F oven 12 - 15 minutes or until golden brown on top.

Happy Baking my Friends!