Valerie

Lemon Layer Cake with Lemon Curd and Buttercream Frosting

By: Valerie August 8, 2013December 5, 2020

Cakes and Cupcakesbuttercream, cake, curd, lemonLeave a Comment

As one might remember, my last attempt at making a triple-layer lemon cake with lemon curd and Swiss lemon buttercream was not very successful. Actually, pretty much everything went wrong when I did those recipes. However, I had vowed to redo the recipe to prove to myself that I could do it. Fortunately, there was a recipe in the book for the same cake but for a smaller version (the other one was made to me a wedding cake!). As such, I did this smaller cake which has the same components and the same ingredients. I was very pleased with how this one turned out.

Lemon Curd (Version 2)

By: Valerie August 6, 2013December 5, 2020

Custards, Puddings and Souffléscurd, lemon2 Comments

This recipe for a lemon curd is simply a smaller batch of an earlier recipe, making about half the amount. I had similar difficulties as the first time I did it, but in the end it came out well. After 2 hours, the curd was as I would expect: shiny, a nice consistently and lemony.

Lemon Buttercream (Version 2)

By: Valerie August 5, 2013December 5, 2020

Frosting, sauces and garnishesbuttercream, lemon, swiss7 Comments

Lemon Swiss buttercream. Oh, the difficulties I had when making this recipe the first time for the larger batch. Succinctly, it was my first time making buttercream with egg whites and the result was a very runny and lumpy mixture. Not pleasant. Fortunately, with helpful comments and suggestions from Anna and other readers, I tried this recipe again, which is simply a smaller batch. I don’t know if it is the new stand mixer, increased patience on my part or the fact that I had your tips in mind, but the result was a heavenly, fluffy, spreadable and lemony Swiss buttercream. Pure delight.

Toffee Softies

By: Valerie July 28, 2013December 5, 2020

Cookies, Bars and Biscotticookies, sugar, toffee2 Comments

I realized that it had been a while since I had made cookies. So I made these! These cookies quite resemble, in appearance at least, the Salted Orange Toffee Slices that I made at the beginning of this blog, but they are nonetheless different in taste. Although this recipe was just as simple to follow, these cookies were softer and more chewy than their predecessor, with a predominant taste of butter, sugar and melt-in-your-mouth toffee bits

Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding

By: Valerie July 24, 2013December 5, 2020

Breads, Muffins and Scones, Custards, Puddings and Soufflésbanana, bread, chocolate, puddingLeave a Comment

Bread pudding. This is a concept I never really grasped. Why would you want to purposely wet bread and eat it so? In my mind the result would be a soggy and unpleasant mixture. This recipe, however, yielded a dessert that was none of that. Admittedly, I think that I slightly undercooked the bread pudding and as a result it was a bit “wet” still, but I could tell that perfectly cooked it would have tasted even better.

White Chocolate Black Pepper Scones

By: Valerie July 12, 2013December 5, 2020

Breads, Muffins and Sconespepper, scones, white chocolate4 Comments

Confession time: I have never had a scone! Until recently, I never actually realized that such a thing existed. Since I have come to realize what a scone looks like, however, I have not been enticed to try one. I always wondered: what are they supposed to be? A cake? A cookie? Some type of bread snack? To my inexperienced eyes, scones looked dry and crumbly. How wrong I was!! Today I made the white chocolate and black pepper scones and…. my oh my.

Progress report !

By: Valerie July 11, 2013December 5, 2020

Uncategorizedobjectives, progress2 Comments

After writing the last post, I realized that I had successfully, or for the most part at least, completed 1/5 of Anna’s cookbook. That is, I completed 40 recipes out of the 200 recipes found in “Back to Baking”. When I first started in October, 9 months ago, I purposely decided to not set myself a deadline. With my studies, work, volunteer work and other obligations, I did not want to make myself go insane by doing 200 recipes by a set deadline. As can be deduced from this blog, baking is one of my passions.

Lemon Meringue Pie

By: Valerie July 4, 2013December 5, 2020

Pies and Tartsitalian, lemon, meringueLeave a Comment

This weekend I had my family, consisting of my parents and my two younger sisters, over for diner. In an attempt to reconcile my mom with my food and baked goods (she is admittedly not a huge fan of homemade goods), I decided to make the lemon meringue pie in Anna’s cookbook. This was perhaps a risky endeavour, as my mom adores lemon pie and would thus be an honest critic, and also… I do not like lemon pie (gasp!!).

Autumn Carrot Wedding Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

By: Valerie June 17, 2013December 5, 2020

Cakes and Cupcakescake, carrot, cream cheese3 Comments

Father’s Day is coming up this weekend. That can only mean one thing: it’s time to make a cake! It felt good to get back into baking after taking a small break (I was moving and everything was packed!). My dad uncharacteristically and specifically mentioned that he would very much like for me to make him a carrot cake for the occasion. Who am I to refuse?

D’Artagnan Bars

By: Valerie May 24, 2013December 5, 2020

Cookies, Bars and Biscottichocolate, d'artagnan2 Comments

As is often the case, lately I have been craving chocolate. Fortunately, I can always count on Anna to have a wonderful chocolate-containing recipe in her cookbook. This time I opted for d’Artagnan bars, a dessert with which I was not familiar with but later learned is similar in taste to the chocolate bar 3 musketeers. Like the peanut butter nanaimo bars, these chocolate bars are composed of three layers: the chocolate cookie crumb base, the fluffy chocolatey filling and the top chocolate glaze. So much chocolate!