In December,I am more closely looking at I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita. I first read about macarons when I was devouring food blogs back in university, around 2006/2007. They seemed to be a mysterious, legendary delicacy that I had no hopes of finding in the small university town of Guelph. Fast forward to today, you […]
baking
Matcha Swiss Roll Birthday Cake
I have been baking my own birthday cakes since I was about 13 years old, and in the past several years I have insisted on making birthday cakes for my family too. This year I made Tomiko a White Chocolate Raspberry Layer Cake and I made our brother Karlos a Chocolate Turtle Layer Cake, and I […]
DIY: How To Make Vanilla Sugar
Once you have a vanilla bean, it is really simple to make your own vanilla sugar. When we lived in Saudi Arabia, it was impossible to buy vanilla extract since it was made with alcohol – and alcohol was illegal. Instead, I would bring Dr. Oetker vanilla sugar from Germany every summer to use in my […]
DIY: How to Make Lavender Sugar
This is a lovely way to lightly scent sugar with the floral essence of lavender. I like to use it in place of regular white sugar in some baking (excellent in shortbreads), sprinkled on some sugar cookies, or even as a sweetener in a cup of tea. It takes a few days to ‘steep,’ but […]
First Time Baker: Almond Blondies
Donatello is a great cook, but he doesn’t know how to bake. This would not be a problem, except that he is also a cookie monster. He quickly devours every batch of cookies I, Meinhilde, and Ryan bake and none of us can keep up. I decided to show him how to bake his own treats. To make it easier […]