Vanilla Rum Buttercream Frosting

Vanilla Rum Buttercream Frosting

I used this cooked rum buttercream frosting flavoured with a bit of vanilla to frost the easy one-bowl chocolate cake that I made for my birthday. This recipe makes enough to frost a 9-inch, 2-layer cake. To frost the cake, I filled the two-layer cake and then gave it a crumb coat with about half of […]

Easy One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

Easy One Bowl Chocolate Cake

This is a classic, plain chocolate cake where all the ingredients are placed in a bowl and beaten together. Unlike other cakes (like the White Chocolate Raspberry Birthday Cake) where you have to combine butter, dry ingredients, milk, and meringue all in a certain order, this is super easy. I made this as my birthday […]

Arepas: Colombian Corn and Cheese Patties

Arepas: Colombian Corn Patties

Donatello makes delicious arepas. Arepas are different depending on where they are from and since Donatello is from Colombia, he obviously makes Colombian ones. They are are cornmeal patties stuffed with cheese and then fried. The trick with these puppies is to use South American cornmeal, which has been precooked and is finer than other types of […]

The Year In Books: September with French Lessons by Peter Mayle

The Year in Books: September with French Lessons by Peter Mayle

French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew by Peter Mayle chronicles the culinary adventures of an English writer living in Provence. While eating across the country with his friends, Mayle finds out how the French stress the importance of local and seasonal foods. One such example is how the chicken farmers of Bresse mark each bird […]

The Year In Books: August with Made in Quebec by Julian Armstrong

The Year in Books: August with Made In Quebec by Julian Armstrong

Made In Quebec: A Culinary Journey by Julian Armstrong is about the rich food, recipes, and agriculture of la belle province. Unlike some regions of Canada, Quebec has a strong culinary history, with quintessential Quebecois dishes like poutine, tourtiere, and tarte au sucre. Tomiko and I went on a little food tour of Quebec, and used Armstrong’s […]