Fancymolasses

Fried Dough

2013-04-27T11:35:00.000-04:00

Throw away the diet this week, dough is where it's at!

Once upon a time I saw a donut cutter at a Williams-Sonoma in Toronto, and yesterday I finally got to try my hand at using it. Being from Hamilton, aka, the birthplace of Tim Hortons, donuts are an important part of my life I must say. ;)

The recipe is from Krissy's Creations. It's a great, simple recipe, and they're BAKED! Yay for no deep frying! I mean, they're still bad for you, but whatever... :P

The only thing I did a bit differently was adding more flour. I just kept adding as it was mixing, until the dough was sticking together. Maybe another 3/4 cups.

You can even get a little creative and try different toppings. I tried Oreo cookie crumbs and cocoa nibs.

Now where's my coffee!

Blingy Wedding Cake

2013-04-07T16:14:00.000-04:00

I know I've been MIA for a while due to work and such, but here's a wedding cake I did this past weekend. Simple, clean and BLINGY!

I do think I'm getting the hang of fondant covering, which I've had so many problems with in the past; cracking, air bubbles, fondant sliding off, you name it. I was really happy with this one!

Cake underneath is Victoria sponge, with vanilla bean frosting.

Urban Craft Show review

2013-03-12T10:58:00.002-04:00

Well my first time at the Urban Craft Show went really well! I sold all but 2 lemon curds and one broken cookie (which I've been advised to give as samples next time).

Chocolate cupcake went REALLY fast. As did my bikini cookies. There were tons of kids there too which I didn't expect for some reason, lol. I learned a lot and met a lot of nice people. Good times!

I've actually decided to keep my cake making as a fun hobby for the time being. I've recently had a ton of day job freelance work come flooding in, and realized there are some goals I'd still like to accomplish art wise. Baking takes A LOT of time and patience, is hard to do alone, and there are so many things I want to improve on, so we'll see what happens.

Lots to do! :D

The Insane month of March

2013-03-07T21:08:00.000-05:00

This month has been a bit crazy! Ok more than a bit.

I've got two freelance jobs going on at the same time, and I like both, but I'm kinda kicking myself for it now. Achy hands at the end of each day >_<

Plus I have the craft fair, and a baby shower cake for family, which I really REALLY wanted to do. Why do I do this to myself? Overachiever much? Oh well I think I may be taking some serious time off after all this is done. :D

For the craft fair I decided to try and get a dummy cake together, just to have a nice display. It's the first dummy cake I've done since cake school really. I should do more of these. I'm not entirely satisfied with the design, but I'm kind of fascinated by the metallic trend with cakes going on right now and I wanted to give it a try. :P

I really do love how the anemones turned out though. Maybe I should just go into making gumpaste flowers!

Urban Craft Show!

2013-02-26T12:38:00.001-05:00

Come see me at the Urban Craft show and get your treats on! March 10th!

V-Day

2013-02-15T16:12:00.001-05:00

A little late with this post, but it doesn't matter, cause Valentine's day should be EVERY day!

In celebration, here are a few wedding blogs that aren't sucky. Cause I was one of those "offbeat" sorts of brides who did things differently. There's a community out there for our types! ;)

Rock N' Roll Bride
Offbeat Bride

Farmville Inspired - Strawberry Lemonade!

2013-02-03T21:09:00.000-05:00

This weekend I decided to try making strawberry lemonade.

Doesn't it look good? It is! And a good way to get rid of the winter blahs.

I got the recipe from My Baking Addiction, and it's pretty much a keeper! I thought it was a bit too sweet, so next time I may use a bit less sugar.

2/3 cup - 1 cup sugar
1 cup of water
2 cups strawberries
1 cup lemon juice
4-6 cups cold water (I used 4 cups)
ice
1 sliced lemon

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan. Place over heat until the sugar is dissolved. Let cool.

Place the strawberries in a food processor or blender, with 1/4 cup of water and puree.

Place the sugar syrup, strawberry puree, and lemon juice in a pitcher. Add 4 cups of water, ice and a sliced lemon and stir to combine.

Farmville Inspired - Apple Scones!

2013-01-31T20:03:00.000-05:00

Anyone who knows me in real life knows I'm kind of addicted to Farmville 2.

One of the things I love most about it is the kitchen, where you can craft yummy looking foods! Each thing in the menu looks so tasty, it makes me want to try to make it in real life...

...so maybe I will!

I made some apple scones! Kind of a combination of a few recipes, plus adding a few twists of my own. Does that make it my recipe? Not sure. But they turned out pretty good!

Farmville Inspired Apple Scones:

85g chilled, unsalted butter, cubed
250g all purpose flour, sifted
250g whole wheat flour, sifted
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp sugar
2 apples peeled, cored, and shredded
56g apple butter
200ml buttermilk
1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Cover a flat baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and both flours until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the baking powder, sugar, salt and cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, mix the shredded apple with the apple butter. Beat the egg into the buttermilk and add to the apple mixture.

Make a well in the centre of the dry mix and add the apple mixture. Mix until combined. Using a spoon or ice cream scoop, drop the dough onto parchment pape.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until slightly browned on the edges. Serve warm.

Winter wedding cake

2013-01-27T10:04:00.000-05:00

I did a big wedding order this weekend! 100 strawberry champagne cupcakes with a 6 inch top tier. All of the cupcake wrappers were handmade.

Happy Holidays!

2012-12-23T11:53:00.000-05:00

Knitting Basket Cake

2012-12-22T13:03:00.000-05:00

Gifts for all!

2012-12-21T12:27:00.001-05:00

Cookie cups - tutorial!

2012-12-21T12:26:00.002-05:00

This dessert is great if you need something quick for a party, or just feel like something chocolatey, which was my dilemma one wintry evening...

I also happened to have some sugar cookie dough on hand (cause who doesn't). I use Peggy Porschen's sugar cookie recipe, but any cookie dough will do.

You will also need:
-A mini cupcake pan
-a saucepan
-1 cup chocolate chips
-3 or 3 tablespoons of milk

Roll out your sugar cookie dough to around 1/8th of an inch (you can do a bit thinner if you'd like). With a round or flower-shaped cutter, cut out 12 cookies.

Turn a mini cupcake pan upside down, and place the cookies over the cups, trying not to let them break (if they do, add a bit more butter to your mix).

Let chill for about 10 minutes in the fridge and heat your oven to 350F. Bake them in the oven for 8-10 minutes.

In the meantime get your saucepan on the stove. Throw your chocolate chips and bit of milk in and turn on low, continuously stirring until the chocolate melts.

When your cookies are done wait until they cool before pouring a spoonful of chocolate into each cup. Let the chocolate set in the fridge... or if you're greedy just eat them while they're still warm and gooey, hee hee XD.

Using my baking powers for good!

2012-12-16T16:23:00.001-05:00

Every year there is a campaign in Ottawa to raise 3000 cupcakes for the Ottawa Mission's annual Christmas dinner! So this year I participated! Read more about the Cupcakes 4 Christmas campaign here. Anyone can donate, and it's nice to be able to use my powers for something good! They are always especially in need of vegan or gluten free cupcakes (which I did ^_^).

You can also donate used clothing and household stuff at any time! Tell 'em Fancymolasses sent ya ;)

Christmas cookies!

2012-12-09T18:06:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning!

2012-11-18T09:19:00.002-05:00

All that's needed is a piece of cake and some tea...

...aaaand I forgot to make the tea!

Strawberry Champagne!

2012-10-30T08:49:00.001-04:00

Peggy Porschen's Strawberry Champagne recipe from her book Boutique Baking! (I left out the pink because the bride wanted it in a cream color). ;)

Sooo yummy too!

Halloweeny!

2012-10-27T20:38:00.001-04:00

So I got like 4 different cake orders this weekend, making it my busiest weekend so far! Yay!
Here's a sample of a cupcake order for Dance With Alana studios! Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing and Oreo "dirt" crumbs, topped with a gummy worm!

Happy Halloween!

Nightmare Before Christmas cake

2012-10-27T14:44:00.000-04:00

The animator in me loved making this Nightmare Before Christmas cake!

My Wedding Cake - part 5

2012-10-05T14:11:00.001-04:00

Here are some pics of my finished wedding cake! Everyone really enjoyed it, and I had fun making it!

This was a whiskey sponge cake with rum buttercream icing and mango curd in between each layer.

My Wedding Cake - Part 4

2012-09-24T21:09:00.003-04:00

Almost showtime!

Here are some covered mini cakes!

Here's my disaster area! ;)

~Leisl <3

Flowers!

2012-09-16T17:19:00.001-04:00

My Wedding Cake - Part 3

Lots of sugar flowers being made!

For our cake I chose the hibiscus (for the Caribbean side) and clovers (for the Irish side). The only cutters I could find were 4 leaf clovers... but I guess they'll come in handy around St. Patrick's day anyways!

It's really nice to be able to use the skills I learned in London!

Playing with food...

2012-09-09T12:02:00.001-04:00

AKA My wedding Cake! part 2-

I really enjoy the taking pictures part of making cakes. It's like doing a fashion shoot. It's a skill on its own.

This was a white chocolate/whiskey cake I tested out, adapted from a Peggy Porschen recipe. It wasn't whiskey-ish enough though, but it tasted amazing! Very caramel-y. I threw some lemon curd on it to see how it would taste, and of course the lemon just overpowered everything else. I would like my cake to have some sort of tropical fruit involved though. Probably mango. Maybe lime. More testing MUST be done!

OMG I'm getting married in 3 weeks. Let me freak out just for a second.

O_o

My Wedding Cake! - Part 1

2012-09-08T14:24:00.001-04:00

I'm getting married at the end of the month!

Our wedding is going to be really small and casual. A lot of it is DIY. Like these invitations I made! Y'know, cause I'm all artsy and stuff...

And of course, I'm making my own cake! It's going to be a mish-mash of our various cultures (Caribbean/Irish), and of course will include lots of booze! I've been experimenting today, so stay tuned for more posts to come!

~Leisl <3

Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes

2012-08-26T15:05:00.001-04:00

Angel food cupcakes with strawberry buttercream and lemon curd filling! A perfect end-of-summer dessert!