A Season of cakes in Review (Part 1)

Hey everyone,
This year has sure gone by so fast!  and as of late I have been crazy busy with work, trying to maintain a somewhat healthy lifestyle and spending time with family and friends.  But this past summer I have gone cake crazy and managed to decorate a bunch of cakes for so many different occasions!  Here we'll take some time to look back on some of those delicious cakes that I proudly made:

Ego Boost 101

So I have been on hiatus from blogging for the past couple months due to the sheer laziness that seems to follow me everywhere I go.  Don't get me wrong; it's not like I've been hiding under a rock these past months or anything, actually- quite the opposite; I've been working so much and doing so many things that whenever I do have down time I find myself sleeping/resting rather than bloggging or catching up on my presence on social media.  Well, lets hope this will be the end of that for the time being.

Cake Decorating- Final Cake!

Hey everyone, so for that past couple of months I have been taking a cake decorating class at Michaels craft store.  As much as I want to take a full time baking class- I unfortunately don't have the funds or the time to enroll in one.  So instead I decided to take these once a week classes to not only learn but to develop this hobby of mine.  Last Wednesday was my last class for this particular course (they have 4 courses being taught, each focusing on different parts of cake decorating i.e fondant, buttercream, flowers) and we had to bring our own cake, frost it and finally decorate it with fondant and things we made in previous classes.

Taco Tuesdays

Hey everyone, I can't believe it's already half way through April and I haven't posted anything since March!  My apologies, I have been working so much that I haven't had any time to properly plan a blog post or to really do anything worth blogging- until now.

My March Madness Dinner party!

So after a very successful 'One year Anniversary of Living on my Own' dinner party last February, I decided to follow up this month with another dinner party!  This time around, I pushed my apartments limit capacity a little by having a total of 8 people come over and enjoy my hopefully good cooking/baking.  Surprisingly,  8 people somehow comfortably managed to fit around my little table meant for 6.  What was more surprising was that we were all able to sit around my little 425 square feet apartment and play video games all night.

Lavender Earl Grey Cookies

Hey everyone, sorry for not posting anything for awhile- I've been a little busy with work and other projects but I promise I'll keep updating as soon as I can.

Time to 'Chai' something new

Last week, I had to biggest craving for cinnamon rolls.  Something about the balance of sweet with spice just makes everything nice!  Truth be told, I haven't made cinnamon rolls since home economics class in high school, so it has been quite sometime since I tried.  Luckily, since then Pinterest has been my go to for recipes and sorts.  So I went to Pinterest and found this amazingly simple recipe for them here: Cinnamon Rolls.  Considering the lack of preparation; I think it turned out pretty well.  But here's a twist I added to this already amazing dessert-  I made a chai tea glaze to put on top!  Instead of making a homemade cream cheese frosting for it, I figured since I work at a tea salon, why not try to fuse the 2 things together? 

Candy Cane Hearts?!

Ah, Valentines Day.  One of the most looked forward to holiday for a sugar fiend like me.  Candy, sweets and every form of chocolate imaginable are just at my fingertips!  My favourite part of Valentines day is the day after because of all the on sale chocolate-  I usually try to stock up enough to last me until Halloween; well lets say Easter.

Now, last year I was browsing Pinterest and found this really cool and simple way to use up any leftover candy canes from Christmas (if you had any) and turn them into a sweet Valentines day treat!

It's been a year!

Hey everyone! So as of the first day of February, I have been officially living on my own for a whole year!  Who would have thought I'd survive living on my own?  Trust me, I didn't.  Now to celebrate this, I decided to have some close friends over for dinner.  Now,  I'll tell you it is hard to try to schedule a dinner will most of friends because everyone seems to be either juggling 2 jobs or a job and school- so to make plans that work for everyone takes a lot of planning.  Luckily, I managed to pick a night that worked for everyone (Sunday night).  I did however, worked all day that Sunday so I had to make sure I had enough time after work to cook the meal.

Here's a whole Lobster tale for you.

So here is my first attempt at some sort of restaurant review.  Hopefully it's the start of something different to my blog.

Orange Creamsicle Cookies

Hey everyone! So I'll be the first to admit that with this beautiful sunny weather lately here in Vancouver it doesn't at all feel like Winter, more like late Spring.  So when my good friend Taryn challenged me to make these Orange Creamsicle cookies from my Pinterest board, I happily took on the task.  Nothing reminds me more of spring than running to the ice cream right after school and getting a Popsicle.  Now if I was lucky or had enough money I'd opt for an Orange Creamsicle or Cotton Candy bar.  Now these cookies are small, compact but melt in your mouth delicious (and pack quite the flavour!)

Red Velvet Dreams

Hey everyone,
 
So this past week was my friend Tasha's 24th birthday and I wanted to do something real special for her.  Now honestly, I don't have as much disposable income as I want to get a her nice present so I had to look at my more DIY/crafty side to figure out what to get her.  I was browsing Pinterest when it clicked! I was going to use the skills I had started developing from class to make her a birthday cake!

Impromtu Photowalk

Hey everyone! So today I got the chance to work with the lovely Kelsey Forsyth on a really fun photoshoot/walk. It really was a spur of the moment thing with no real theme to it. We just met up, grabbed some coffee (well I did) and we just walked around the seawall taking shots and really just goofing off. There were a lot of great shots but here are a couple of my favourites! (with a little bit of editing)

Mandatory selfie

A look to the future

Hey everyone, so as part of my goal to blog more I've came up with a bunch of things I thought would be great to start blogging about (you know besides my usual baking and DIY projects).

Welcoming in 2014

Happy New Years everyone! I hope everyone had a lovely holiday and didn't overload themselves with too much work and food (like I did!). Well now that we are early in the new year, I thought it would be great to post some of my New Years resolutions up here as a visual contract to everyone what I will be trying to accomplish this year. Now I know a lot of people are against resolutions because they can't keep it or they don't want a specific day to initiate change or whatever else the matter be; but I love it. I love the idea of being able to change your lifestyle and having a whole year to try to keep it. Now unfortunately I know I am horrible at keeping resolutions because after about 2 months into the year, I lose motivation or forget. But that's why I love making so many resolutions because one or another tends to stick. And it often doesn't have to be huge lifestyle changes for me, like last year my big resolution/ goal was to finally get an agent for acting and I did....eventually. This year I've got resolutions and goals that I feel I could really accomplish. And without further ado, in no particular order, here they are!

My Sweet Tooth for Christmas

Hey everyone, so here is a follow up to my last post on Christmas. But instead of all the Christmas decor and crafts I want to show you all the Christmas baking I've done this past season. Now I will admit I was pretty ambitious this season, considering all things. I somehow made time while working practically everyday to make a bunch of goodies that I was able to share with most my friends.

So I was browsing Pinterest and saw this amazingly really easy recipe for a chocolate truffle, that I had all the ingredients for stocked in my pantry. This was the first time I had made truffles, and as simple as it was to make it, I found it there was a lot of waiting time- particularly waiting for the chocolate to settle before scooping them into chunks, then letting them settle again before rolling them into balls. I then coated them with simple confectionary sugar or a cocoa/sugar mixture.

Happy Holidays

Hey everyone! So I know it's been almost 2 months since my last post but in my defence, this time of year is always so busy for me. You see around this time of year is when I usually take on another part/full time job to add on to my other one, making me have to juggle 2 jobs plus all the Christmas celebrations. So pretty I haven't had a single day off since December 3rd, but hey that's life right? Come the New Year it's gonna get a lot less intense.

My first Christmas tree

Mad for Madelines!

Hey everyone, so here's another quick and fast treat you can make for your friends and would be perfect for tea!  The first time I made these were last year when my dear friend Anna gave me a madeline pan for Christmas because I was talking about them so much.  It was for a Secret Santa exchange and I had casually mentioned it to her one day and she somehow remembered and got me one! 

A seasonal favourite; Pumpkin Marshmallows!

It's officially my favourite time of year!  The leaves turn beautiful shades of red, the brisk wind sets and scarves and toques are becoming a common sight.  And there's pumpkin flavour everything!  From lattes and pies to marshmallows! There's no shortage of pumpkin anywhere and that is completely 100% fine by me. 

Starting this month I want to do something different and will help add some consistency to my posts; a marshmallow of month flavor!  I recently discovered how to make them and I can't seriously stop.  There's so many different flavour combinations you could do and you can have them alone as a dessert or a perfect topping to hot chocolate!

Stanley Park photo shoot!

Hey everyone! So for today's post I thought I'd post up some of the shots I took for a fun photo shoot I did with my friend Susan!  We headed off to Stanley Park in Vancouver because A, it has beautiful surroundings and natural backdrops and B, it wasn't so public haha.  

I managed to take a lot of amazing shots with my camera (considering I don't really know how to use it to its full potential- I somehow managed to make it work!). I shoot with a Nikon d5000 with your basic kit lens and a fix focused lens as we'll- maybe someday I'll get a better lens but for now it does it's job.

Plus with finally purchasing an IPad I put it to good use and edited all my photos (well the ones I like) on it.  I took close to about 250 shots and here are the top 30ish? (In my opinion) with a little help of iPhoto, so enjoy!