One more maple flavoured recipe if you don’t mind…I just love all things maple. Maple Frosted Apple Slab cake is full of cinnamon, ginger, apple and topped with a fudgey maple frosting. The perfect combination for a dessert, or snack, or meal – you choose. There is a lot of fresh apple in this recipe so I think it really should be in the snack category. One can’t have too many apple recipes.
Even though Spring is supposedly coming it sure is hard to believe when there is still a foot of snow on the ground outside. I have been craving fresh berries and the only ones available are California grown- but a craving is a craving so I caved and bought them. But disappointment soon followed – every one of those berries that looked so beautiful red and juicy were spongy white in the middle. What’s a girl to do with a container full of disappointment? She takes them and pops them in the oven and voila – Roasted Strawberries. What a transformation! From tasteless to sweet and juicy in just 20 minutes. Then take it up a notch and add vanilla ice cream and you have a wonderful dessert or midnight snack.
I have been blogging about baking for more than a year now and just today I realized that I haven’t posted my every day recipe for White Bread. Yes I know White Bread isn’t very healthy but really what tastes better than fresh bread spread with butter and topped with home made jelly or jam? Not much in my books. At least there is no preservatives or ingredients that you can’t pronounce in this loaf. This is my go-to recipe for dinner rolls as well – it is very versatile. This White Bread is also fantastic toasted spread with your favourite topping which in my case would be peanut butter and crabapple jelly.
Well this recipe is another foray into the gluten-free recipe world. I always feel terrible when I bring treats into work and not everyone can enjoy them so I am trying to incorporate some really great gluten-free recipes into my repertoire and according to the reviews this one is a keeper. Of course it could be that the main ingredient is peanut butter so really how could you go wrong with a recipe that is mainly peanut butter?
I love coffee cakes…they are simple and satisfying. This Pecan Maple Coffeecake has the flavour of spring – maple syrup! Maple syrup should be a food group all by itself. I love to use it in recipes and cooking or just stirred into my coffee. If you are lucky enough to live where maple syrup is produced then you will have access to maple sugar as well. Maple sugar costs almost as much as gold but it is a nice treat to use in baking or sprinkled on your oatmeal.
So it is a snowy Saturday in April- that’s right it is still SNOWING here!! Mother Nature has abandoned us and gone south for sure. Seeing as though it is a snowy mucky day I might as well be baking as what else is there to do besides laundry? I was in the mood for something a little sweet but not too over the top as I had already eaten too many candy coated Easter eggs last weekend. Baked Glazed Doughnuts sound like a treat that you shouldn’t have to feel the least bit guilty about…after all aren’t doughnuts supposed to be fried? Well these confections look like doughnuts but are a little more cake-like but still have all of the satisfying taste of a fried doughnut.
My children have grown up eating Genetti made by their paternal grandmother Doris from a recipe she learned from her mother-in-law Nicoletta. The only difference is that in this Italian family Genetti were called Ninna Nonna. For the last 30 years I never knew that the fluffy little cookies with a vanilla glaze really were derived from this Italian traditional cookie- Genetti. Where the term “Ninna Nonna” came from I don’t think we will ever know- but in our house they will always be known as Ninna Nonna. Now the other fact is that mine don’t taste quite that same as Grandma Doris’s, but as she past away this winter this rendition is all the family has left.
I can’t believe that I have been blogging for one year already and I totally missed Chateau Elma’s First Birthday! Not sure how that is possible, first that a whole year has gone by and second that I forgot when I started- must have something to do with turning that half century mark! But the centre of my kitchen is still there and flour is everywhere so some things haven’t changed.
When I first started this project of a baking blog I wasn’t sure that I would be able to come up with at least one new recipe every week- turns out that most weeks I was able to post two recipes. Now if I can only keep it up next year. The most difficult thing it turns out is taking the photos of the final product. If I have made the baked goods for a dinner or a special person it seemed a bit rude to cut into it to take photos while the daylight was just perfect. But I got over that and now no one seems surprised to see a piece missing and it is usually sitting on a pretty plate out in my sun room. That is where these Buttertart Squares were photographed.
Speaking of photos I have learned a lot about the different computer programs for optimizing my photos and most of the info is thanks to my Graphic Designer son Matt! I have really enjoyed watching and listening to him explain things to me- he actually learned things in college and he is brilliant at his craft. It is so nice to have an interest in common and something we can share that has definitely been the bonus of this blog. It isn’t every mother who can say that she can sit down with her 21 year old son and spend an hour together on a project. Not that he agrees with me- he usually doesn’t, but then I go ahead and do it my way anyway, after all I am the mom and I like girly stuff like cursive script and pink.
Thanks go out to all of my friends and family who have shared my blog on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. So great to see all of my daughter’s fellow law school students visiting my blog. If I can encourage young adults to cook and bake I will consider this adventure a success.
Hope you have all enjoyed the first year as much as I have and here is to a second year of blogging- let’s see where it takes us!!!
Well this isn’t my standard baking post- it is about baking but no dessert this time, it is all about Baked Sticky Chicken Wings! Once you try this method of making chicken wings you will never bother with frying again. The trick is in the dry rub and the slow bake, then adding a layer of yummy bbq sauce just at the end. Believe me- your family will love these wings.
The Perfect Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Frosting is a recipe that every home baker needs in their repertoire. What makes this Chocolate Cake so special is the simplicity of the batter and the frosting. The batter is mixed all in one bowl and the frosting has only 2 ingredients! I have posted this cake recipe before with a little more decadence but for this one it is all about the chocolate.
