St. Patrick's Day Cupcakes

This past weekend I wanted to make a treat for gaming night that had a little St. Patrick's Day flare. Cupcakes are always a great go to for me, and I took to Google for some ideas, as I didn't have any shamrock accents (sprinkles, cookie cutter, etc.)

I found a fun recipe on allrecipes, that had a burst of colour inside a white cupcake. I had my winner.

I started with a white cake mix, which I substituted unsweeted applesauce for the oil. I always do this when I make a cake mix and I love the flavour of the finished cupcakes/cake.

After mixing up the batter, I put 2/3 of it into baking cups (about 21 baking cups).

The remaining third of the batter I dyed green and piped it into the middle of the cupcakes.

Using a resealable bag as a makeshift pastry bag, I snipped off the end and added a baking tip, so I could accurately squeeze the green batter into the center of my cupcakes. I actually used a baking tip that was far too wide for this purpose, and the green batter rushed out faster than I was expecting. Because of this, adding the green took very little time but some of the cupcakes got green batter on more than just their middles. I decided I could fix it in post (with all the icing on top, I was sure no one would really notice).

I made my favourite icing, marshmallow buttercream. If you haven't tried it yet, do give it a shot. Really, really, good.

In the baking cup

Unwrapped

Surprise! It's green inside!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Hope you are having a great day!

Happy Pi Day!

It's Pi Day! And that is a great excuse to make a pie and carve a mathematical symbol into it!

My favourite pie right now is Raspberry Pie, and this one was made with a pre-rolled Pillsbury crust, which was waaaaayyyyy to easy to use. Might be my go to from now on, if I'm not feeling up to tackling a crust myself.

Making the pi pie was really easy. I just printed out a pi symbol, cut it out, and placed it in the center of my pie so I could carve around it.

And believe me, this pie was mathematically delicious!

So Happy pi day friends! Are you doing anything pi oriented?

Snickers Bar Squares

One of my favourite aspects of being part of a RPG group, is that I get to bake and share treats with my gaming friends. I love making sweet things for this particular group of people as they all genuinely enjoy yummy treats. My friends are also very open about how much they appreciate the goodies too - which always makes me feel great. I was raised to see food as love so I am happy to have so many wonderful people to share my baking experiments with. This is the good life! :)

Our most recent get together I made Snickers Bar Squares. This recipe is slighly adapted from the amazing yoyomax12. Definitely check out her YouTube Channel. Her videos are awesome.

This is a no bake recipe that has four layers, each of which has to set in the fridge before you can start the next layer. I was marathoning Breaking Bad when I made these, so each layer was made between an episode, or about every 45 minutes.

Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper and set aside.

Layer One: Chocolate
Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips
3 tbs butterscotch chips
3 tbs peanut butter

Add ingredients to microwave safe bowl. Melt in microwave, stirring every 15 seconds, for 1 minute.

Pour into prepared pan and place in fridge to set.

 

Layer Two: Nougat
Ingredients:
3 tbs margarine
2/3 cup white granulated sugar
3 tbs cream
1 cup marshmallow fluff
3 tbs peanut butter
2/3 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped salted peanuts

Add the margarine, sugar, and cream to medium saucepan on medium heat. Stir and cook until it begins to boil. Continue to boil for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter, vanilla, and marshmallow fluff. Stir in chopped peanuts.

Spread nougat over the chocolate layer and place in the fridge to set.

Layer Three: Caramel
Ingredients:
200g caramels (about 28)
2 tbs cream

Unwrap the caramels (*note: unwrapping them is the worst*), and place in small saucepan with cream over low heat. Stir until completely melted and smooth.

Spread over nougat layer and place in the fridge to set.

Layer Four: More Chocolate
This layer is the exact same as layer one.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup milk chocolate chips
3 tbs butterscotch chips
3 tbs peanut butter

Add ingredients to microwave safe bowl. Melt in microwave, stirring every 15 seconds, for 1 minute. Spread over caramel layer and leave in the fridge to set.

Once hardened, cut into delicious squares.

Share with friends and enjoy!

I cut these a few hours before taking them to gaming night and found the caramel got a little unruly, and oozed a little out of the squares. Next time I might add a little less cream to the caramel layer to make it a little firmer.

Everything is a Photo Opportunity #25

There is nothing better than a sleepy kitty. Gary always looks completely blissed out when she's sleeping, and this picture shows her in one of her favourite windows catching some zzz's. I also love this photo because you can see green grass out the window, something I can't wait to see again.

1st Year Gryffindor Scarf: Finished Object

I remembered that I loved knitting, so in January I picked up my needles and started working on some projects. I finished a winter hat for John and have now finished a scarf for me. And not just any scarf, this is a 1st year Gryffindor scarf that allows me to show off my Harry Potter love in public. I have a long black coat which easily doubles as wizards robes, so I am not kidding around when I wear this scarf.

I recently wore it to my local library, and I planned my visit for when my favourite librarians were working. They are fun and sassy and are sometimes loud in the library, which makes them even more fun. We always find time to chat while I'm checking out books and they often compliment my coats (which are pretty much all hand me downs, but it still feels good). I walked in and they said:

"So what cool coat do you have today?"

"No new coat, but I made myself this Harry Potter scarf."

"On purpose?"

"Yep" and we all laughed.

I had my normal winter hat on and she said:

"Well I'm glad you have just a regular hat on..."

To which I finished: "Because otherwise I'd just be an adult in a Harry Potter outfit?" Pretty much.

We all had big smiles and then discussed how great it is to be fun and weird and to not have to conform to what "others" might think is cool. It is definitely very freeing.

I''m currently doing a re-read of the Harry Potter series and am halfway through book 7. I have taken to wearing my scarf indoors while I'm reading it (or outdoors while listening to the audiobook). Feels festive and good.