Baking – Page 4 – Making A Life

On the sixth day of Christmas…Gingerbread cookies

December 18, 2014December 18, 2014spaleksicLeave a comment

Gingerbread cookies are my favorite type of cookie yet I have never baked them. For some reason I though that they were difficult to bake. I was pleasantly surprised that they are not difficult at all and they are a hit with the kids.

I found the recipe here, and made a couple of changes. I doubled the recipe, added a little more brown sugar to compensate for the super dark molasses I bought (having no idea that there are different ones), swapped the butter for vegetable shortening and added more cinnamon because I love it. I also added more eggs (5 total) because the dough wasn’t sticking together as well as I would expect. I let the dough sit for 2 hours as instructed and it rose quite a bit. It was super easy to work with, and the thicker you roll the dough the squishier the cookies.

On the first day of Christmas…

December 13, 2014May 11, 2015spaleksic2 Comments

Two years ago I started a blog called Crafting through the holidays, and I wrote about a craft, baking, or holiday inspired project everyday for the 12 days of Christmas. It was my first attempt at blogging, and two years later I am still at it.

So on the first day of Christmas my true love made for me….. Reindeer cupcakes!

reindeer cupcakes

There was a cupcake fundraiser at my son’s school this past week and these reindeer cupcakes were my contribution.

I used pretzels for the antlers, M&M’s for the eyes and nose, and a chocolate button for the snout. I was thinking as I was making these that chocolate or yogurt covered pretzels would be good too.

On the first day of Christmas two years ago my true love gave to me a Veggie tree, check out this link for more info

veggie tree

I also made a cookie version of the reindeer cupcakes last year, check out this link for more info.

Date Night Apple Pie

August 30, 2014spaleksic1 Comment

Are you looking for something to do on date night? Have you baked a pie together? We are always looking for things to do together at home after the kids go to bed, it seems that we get stuck doing the same things every week. But this week was a little different, this week we baked an apple pie. When I was out pedaling the excess plums around our neighbourhood, one neighbour insisted that we take apples in exchange for the plums. So with a basket of local apples we set to work. My husband is an excellent cook, but we rarely cook together because we have two little kids. Its hard enough for one person to cook in our house never mind both of us together, someone needs to keep the kids from terrorizing each other. So it was a nice treat to be able to be in the kitchen together without someone holding on to my arm, sitting on my foot or yelling at me. Even if you don’t have kids cooking or baking together can be a nice change if you don’t do it often.

My husband cleaned the apples and prepared the filling while I made the crust. This is a dairy free apple pie because we have one little person who has an issue with dairy, but you can easily substitute butter in the same quantity below.

Rolling out the crust

Crust in the pie plate

Pie Crust

Ingredients

2 3/4 cups flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chilled margarine (margarine was in the freezer for about 10 minutes)
1/3 cup ice water

Instructions

Mix flour, sugar, and salt together
Using a pastry cutter blend margarine into flour mixture until it looks like small peas. I used my Kitchenaid mixer without an issue.
Sprinkle water mixture while mixing until the dough forms into a ball. You don’t want the dough to be too soft.
Cut the dough into 2 balls, a larger one for the bottom and a slightly smaller one for the top.
Put the balls into the fridge.
Grease a 9″ or 9.5″ pie plate.
Prepare the surface for rolling out the pie crust with flour, and flour the rolling-pin.
Take the larger ball from the fridge and roll it out, and place the rolled dough into the pie plate.
Fill the crust with the apple filling
Roll out the top of the pie crust and place over the apples.
Pinch the edges closed, and make holes in the top with a fork for the heat to escape while baking.
Bake at 425 degrees for 40 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.

Ready to eat

Preparing the apples

Apple goodness

Pie Filling

Ingredients

8 medium apples
1/3 cup melted margarine
1/2 cup of brown sugar
cinnamon – as much or little as you like
Chocolate chips, or chopped nuts – as many or few as you like
1/2 cup of brown sugar

Directions

Wash, peel and core the apples
Melt the margarine
Toss apples in margarine, sugar and cinnamon
Mix in chocolate chips, or nuts as you wish
Pour the apple mixture into the prepared pie crust

Keep cooking, and dating.

Logan’s Birthday Take 2

August 29, 2014May 11, 2015spaleksicLeave a comment

IMGP2111

I love to entertain, and I am often looking for any opportunity to throw a party. Logan had 2 birthday parties for his second birthday, one with family and one with friends. I know that throwing parties can be a lot of work, and some people just groan at the thought of throwing one. But it’s not work when you really enjoy the preparation and the party planning. In truth Logan’s birthday was just another reason to get friends together and have a chat, get caught up and have a bite to eat.

Logan is learning to speak and is putting words together in an attempt to communicate in sentences. Pulling a party theme from his common words and phrases we came up with a woof woof puppies theme. Food consisted of hot dogs, smokies in crescent rolls, chips, veggies, and plums from the yard. It wouldn’t be a party with out Happy Cupcakes which were also dog themed. For the doggie bags I made the kids dog ears, and puppy treats (malt balls). There were also balloons dog themed of course.

Dog themed cupcakes and dog dish cake

Doggie bags

Puppy treats

Dog ears

Sasha with his dog ears

Logan modelling his dog ears

Logan and his happy cupcakes

Pictures of the Logan and his friends at the party.

Keep celebrating!

Logan’s 2nd Birthday

August 3, 2014May 11, 2015spaleksicLeave a comment

Logan turns 2 in less than a month, but we celebrated a little early this year. We live 5,000 km away from all of our family so family birthday parties don’t happen often. This past week we were fortunate to have my parents, sister and niece in town so we took advantage and threw Logan a pre-birthday party. He is still a little young to understand what a birthday is but he is old enough to understand cupcakes. I made him some Bear cupcakes at least that is what they were supposed to be.

Here are some of the pictures of the birthday boy, and his party guests.

Peach and Rat Season

July 24, 2014June 28, 2016spaleksic2 Comments

peaches1 Three years ago we bought the house in the city with a yard slightly bigger than a postage stamp. We moved in at the middle of August and on the third day while I was cleaning a paint tray in the kitchen sink I looked out the window and saw a rat. A huge ugly long-tailed rat sitting on the kitchen window sill. I freaked out, completely. After calling my husband to observe the rat, I called the real estate agent and demanded that he get the compost bin out of the yard. Sorry about that Brad. There was no way I was going anywhere near the compost bin to find out what was living in it. When the real estate agent did get the compost bin removed we learned that it was yard waste only.

We also learned that we had a peach tree with rotting fruit which had attracted the rat. How is it possible that we bought a house with a postage stamp sized yard without realizing that there was a mature peach tree and two plum trees. Well I don’t want to say that I am completely oblivious so I will tell you that we bought the house in April before any of the tree’s flowered, and the trees are on a strip of land about 3 feet wide at the side of the house, the opposite side from the front door. Or I was so concerned with the interior I couldn’t give a rats ass about the plants, trees and bushes. All are true. I now give a rats ass about the trees because I have no desire to see a rats ass ever again.

So it’s mid July and the peaches are ready. I have picked them, cleaned them and turned them into a fantastic peach bread. The recipe is below if you happen to have a peach tree and a desire to keep rats away.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 tablespoon baking soda

1/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon cinnamon (or as little as you like)

2 eggs

1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup chopped almonds or other nut

1 1/4 cup chopped peaches

Directions

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Blend the eggs, coconut oil, and vanilla until well beaten. Mix the flour, salt, sugars, baking soda, and cinnamon in a separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in 2 parts mixing throughly. Add the peaches, and mix until they are dissolved into the mixture. Add the almonds. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan, and pour in the mixture. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until done.

Be-nana Bread

July 13, 2014July 13, 2014spaleksic4 Comments

When I was younger we would spend part of each summer at the cottage, and Saturday mornings were reserved for the “market”. For a couple of years my aunt & nana had a table and sold crafts, and we tagged along with our crafts. We got to know the other vendors and local cottagers. I believe it was at the market where we met the Hilborn family. We also met Dick Marshall from Valley Haven Farm he sold eggs, chicken’s, baked goods and my favourite jam. This recipe for Banana Bread belongs to him (which I have altered slightly) it is from the one cookbook I own called the “Carling Market Cookbook”. Banana Bread or Be-nana bread as the kids call it is a house favourite.

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 1/4 tspns baking powder

1/2 tspn salt

1/3 cup butter or coconut oil (I use coconut oil because we have a dairy allergy in the house)

2/3 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2-3 crushed ripe bananas

Optional Ingredients:

Often I add a 1/2 cup of two of the following to the mixture, chocolate chips, walnuts, sun flower seeds, raisins, or dried cranberries. Sometimes I top with dried banana chips, it just depends on what is in the pantry.

Instructions:

Blend until creamy the butter (or coconut oil) and sugar. Beat into the butter mixture 2 eggs and the ripe bananas. Mix flour, salt & baking powder in a separate bowl and add to the wet mixture in three parts mixing throughly. Add in the optional ingredients. Grease a 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ loaf pan. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake one hour at 350 degrees or until done. Cool before slicing.

Keep baking, crafting and creating.

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Worms, Dirt & Sprouts

June 6, 2014May 14, 2015spaleksic1 Comment

When I ask Sasha what he wants to eat for dinner, the standard responses are worms & dirt, or bugs & worms. He is a five-year old boy, so no surprises there. Now if he was served worms, dirt or bugs I am sure that his response would change. Sasha graduated from pre-school this week, and I thought that these little sprout cupcakes complete with worms & dirt would be perfect for the occasion.

What you need to make these:

Chocolate mini cupcakes
Chocolate icing
Chocolate cookie crumbs
gummy worms
mint
mini clear plastic shot glasses

Directions:

bake & ice cupcakes with chocolate frosting
dip the tops of the cupcakes in the cookie crumbs
to get the little ones involved, give them a cold mini cupcake pan and the little glasses, have them put one in each circle
Put a worm in each little cups – again a very kid friendly task
fill the cups 3/4 full with cookie crumbs – Sasha did this task also using a spoon to scoop in the crumbs
put in a mini cupcake (wrapper removed)
top with a sprig of mint before serving (if you put the mint in the cupcakes and refrigerate the mint wilts)

The kids and some of the parent’s at pre-school loved them. The kids loved pulling the worm out of the dirt. I like them because they represent my little guy sprouting, plus they are fun.

Keep celebrating, baking and creating.

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Chocolate Bird’s Nests

April 21, 2014May 9, 2014spaleksic5 Comments

For Easter I made up a batch of these Bird’s Nest cookies. They were a hit with someone!

Ingredients:

4 ounces semisweet chocolate
1 cup small chow mein noodles
12 small chocolate or malted egg shaped candy

Directions:

Melt chocolate. You can microwave or use a double broiler.
Add chow mein noodles and stir to combine (if the mixture looks too loose, add some more noodles).
Using 2 spoons, spoon onto parchament paper and shape into nest.
Put little chocolate or malted eggs into nest and let the chocolate set up for about 30 minutes in the freezer.
Remove from the freezer an hour before serving.

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Lego Party

March 24, 2014March 28, 2014spaleksic1 Comment

This will be the last post about Sasha turning 5 I promise, but birthdays bring out the crafter in me so I thought I would share. We rented the gym of the local rec center for Sasha’s party for the second year in a row, it comes with a bouncy castle, ride on toys, and sports equipment. But the very best part is that I don’t have to clean up after the party. Sasha chose a Lego theme which was fine by me and quite easy to decorate for. My husband and I have an agreement about throwing parties; he is always happily in charge of the menu, cooking and drinks. I take care of invites, decorations, presents, and dessert. This arrangement is also the way that all holidays operate and it works perfectly for us.

Every year I have made Sasha a birthday shirt to wear to his party, this year he requested dark green one which I found at Joe fresh for $1.94 and stamped FIVE on it, piece of cake. Unfortunately for me I had to walk through the women’s section to get to the kids clothes so while the green t-shirt was a deal the final bill wasn’t $1.94. Sasha and I made old school paper invitations to give to the kids in his class designed to look like Lego blocks. We hung a felt Happy Birthday bunting over the table of treats which I whipped up. Using Lego that we had on hand and a picture easel I made the 5 sign which Sasha now has proudly on display on his bed side table. The coloured boxes contained Slinky’s which I tried to decorate to replicate Lego blocks for the take home gifts for the older kids. I love a bargain as much as I love making crafts and the Slinky’s were a steal at $0.75 each at Target. The kids also took home candy Lego which Sasha and I packaged with a little thank you note. I went to a couple of stores before I found Lego candy so hit up the Bulk Barn if you are on the hunt. I also used the Lego candy to decorate the cupcakes along with a Lego/Five flag made from paper straws and printed images. I made 3 1/2 dozen cupcakes for the 30+ people at the party. The cupcakes are on a board which I made from 2 pieces of laminate flooring glued together and wrapped in aluminum foil. I used the same cupcake platter last year because it’s a great way to serve the cupcakes, all of the kids can just grab one, or two or three cupcakes from the center of the table. Sasha and Logan both had a great time, and I imagine all of the other little people did too. Until next year.