ladies event spring cupcakes

Even though the ground is white the spring ladies event must go on!

indulgent easter cupcakes

We're always looking for a new way to make regular cupcakes more fun and more indulgent! We decided to experiment with chocolate eggs and our newly found vanilla cupcake recipe.

Vanilla cupcakes...or cake for that matter...is notoriously dry. We have tested and tasted numerous vanilla cupcake recipes and finally found one that meets our standards. This recipe is simple and produces moist results time and time again. We can now offer vanilla cupcakes as an option.

So. Take a yummy vanilla cupcake and bake it with a cadbury creme or caramilk egg inside and you have perfection! We decided to experiment with this concept and tried baking the cupcakes with a regular chocolate egg, a creme egg, and a caramilk egg. The result was so tasty that we have decided to offer this as our Easter cupcake. Contact us soon to place your order and wow all your friends and family this Easter with these indulgent tasty treats!

Fresh out of the oven

Cadbury creme egg centre

Caramilk egg centre

valentine's day

We completed a couple of orders for valentine's day. All of them topped with very tasty soft chocolate sugar cookies. The cookies were so much fun to decorate...especially since we discovered a new and easy technique that results in perfection every time!

We were also asked by a good friend to make a special valentine's delivery to her loved one!

This was such a fun delivery to make. On Valenine's Day I went to our friend's husband's workplace to surprise him and his classroom (he's a teacher) with these little cupcakes! One box of cupcakes had "Why do I love you so much?" written in fondant on the cookie topper and the second box had "Happy V-Day" written on them. 

It was so fun to walk into the school office knowing that our friend's husband had no idea these cutie cupcakes were coming his way! Unfortunately I wasn't able to stay until he came down to the office to see his reaction, but if the reaction of all the ladies in the office was any indication, they were a hit! 

stories from barely burnt cookies and more

During the week of Christmas we completed a rather large order. We split the order, each baking cookies and cupcakes. Julia dropped in for lunch and brought her part of the order around noon on the day of delivery which was to be in an hour or so. 

Interesting things tend to happen when we are together and any sort of baking occurs.

I had been baking all morning. The kitchen was a disaster, not a clear space on the counter. The dining room table was full of Christmas gifts that needed wrapping. There were now three small children in my home. I had just completed decorating two dozen mini chocolate cupcakes with white chocolate peppermint swiss meringue buttercream and needed a place to put them.

I couldn't use the floor or coffee table in case one of the children messed with the box. I couldn't use any kitchen or dining room table space. So the only other logical place to put the box with two dozen decorated cupcakes was the bed in our spare room. I placed them on the bed, ran into the kitchen to grab another box of cupcakes, and returned to discover a crushed box oozing with frosting.

The cat sat on it.

Not funny.

I gasped, Julia ran in, and we jumped into problem solving mode. We thought about salvaging some of the cupcakes but the frosting was drooping off the edges making a major mess of things. Thank goodness I had baked the entire chocolate cupcake recipe into mini's as my plan was to bring some to a family gathering. I screeched "how many cupcakes do we have left?" in a panic stricken voice to Julia who was busy counting. I could just imagine myself re-baking all two dozen cupcakes one hour before delivery. 

Julia breathed a sigh of relief. There were 24 mini cupcakes left and enough frosting to decorate.

Our next problem was the box which was full of oh-so-tasty white chocolate peppermint buttercream. That was our last box for mini cupcakes. So while I decorated another two dozen cupcakes, Julia painstakingly cleaned the box.  

In the end all the cupcakes and cookies looked lovely and were enjoyed by their recipients. Potential disaster averted!

We are fully aware that in all likelihood none of this would have happened if Julia had dropped off her baking and left immediately. Things just get crazy when we bake together...hence the name "barely burnt!" 

However, the craziness is fun and in the end we do get a good story!

the deep-fried mars bar experiement

We have a confession. Our chocolate obsession runs deep and wide.

This obsession mostly involves high quality European chocolate. Long ago did we lose interest in nondescript foil covered chocolates and easter bunnies and would rather save room for the good stuff. However, everybody has a weakness and our chocolate obsession weakness involves mars bars and the deep fryer.

The deep-fried mars bar first entered our awareness after participating in Chocolate Fest. (What self-proclaimed chocolate enthusiast wouldn't attend this annual festival of yumminess?!). We discovered a peculiar menu item at Fergies Fish 'n Chips...the deep-fried mars bar. One bite and we were both hooked.

In preparing our family Christmas fondue menu this year, we decided to add batter and mars bars to the table. The end result was delectable.

Crispy on the outside. Warm and gooey on the inside. It doesn't get much better than that!

ode to the chocolate chip cookie

The chocolate chip cookie. Our first love.

We have both experienced many baking moments dedicated to the almighty chocolate chip cookie. Many of our childhood memories involved chocolate chip cookies as we're sure is true for countless other children. Most everyone seems to have a favourite recipe of this iconic cookie in their back pocket.

The chocolate chip cookie has been difficult for us to master. This cookie has been over-baked in our respective kitchens more often than we care to admit. We've picked up many tips over the years on how to bake our favourite cookie but we haven't yet found the perfect recipe.

We decided to launch our blog with an ode to the chocolate chip cookie because for us it represents where we've come from, our love for quality baking no matter how simple or complicated, and how we strive for perfection in our baking. We will test, taste, and re-test countless recipes before we are satisfied and feel confident in what we are able to offer.

We fore see many more chocolate chip cookie moments in our future as our quest for the perfect recipe continues. And let's face it...we're both a sucker for warm, fresh out of the oven, gooey, chocolatey goodness!