Easy Biscuits and Butter

If this blog was to be called something else . . . I would seriously consider calling it Biscuits and Butter! I highly question if there is something better than warm biscuits out of the oven with butter . . . or jam . . . or both. 

I am neither a Grandmother, nor am I from the South so I don't blame you if you are skeptical about my biscuit knowledge, but I am going to break the southern grandmother stereotype and this Canadian Girl is going to share her easy and delicious biscuit recipe! haha

2 cups Flour
3 Tbsp Sugar
3 Tsp Baking Powder
1 Tsp Salt
1/4 Cup of Cold Butter (or shortening)
2/3 Cup of Cold Buttermilk  (if your dough is too dry add a splash more milk)
        * You could substitute regular milk if you don't have any buttermilk
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

Sift all dry ingredients into a large bowl. Cut in Butter with a pastry cutter or if you work quick enough not to melt the butter use your fingers.
Add Milk and stir until the dough combines, add more milk if it's still too dry. 

Roll out dough until it's 1/2" thick. 

Using a round cutter cut out your rounds . . . if you like them more rustic then just cut them into squares.

Then you arrange them on an ungreased baking sheet. Now, if you like crispy biscuits, like I do, arrange them about 1" apart on the sheet. If you like softer biscuit arrange them so that the edges are just touching each other, I thought that was pretty cool . . . my granny taught us that!

In a 425 degree oven, bake them for anywhere from 10-13 minutes. Keep an eye on them!!

There you have it . . . biscuits worthy of any Southern Grandma.
Always served with some warm Sour Cherry Jam!!!

Lastly, I am in LOVE with these ceramic berry containers from Anthropologie!! I love it when ordinary, disposable items are made permanent. So cute and odd at the same time. I love items with a little bit of quirk to them . . . like my white ceramic gnome.

I hope you'll try this simple biscuit recipe, they may have you say'in:

"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit, that girl can bake!!"  :) haha

If I ever see another cupcake again . . .

it will be too soon!!!!

Our adoption agency was having a Birthmother's Picnic. It's a really sweet idea, adoptive parents and children celebrate their birthmothers. It's not just for families with open adoptions, you can go just to honor your birthmother where ever she may be. Even families with children adopted from far away countries come to pay tribute.

How could we say resist making cupcakes for such an amazing cause?
We ended up making just over 250 cupcakes for the day. Half chocolate and half vanilla, all with a vanilla buttercream icing!

It was a really nice day . . . they cupcakes were a hit and we both collapsed on the couch after, exhausted and thoroughly sickened by smell of cupcakes.

Here's a couple pictures I snapped while in the midst of our cupcake storm.
Before: 

After: 

 Each cupcake had it's own fondant topper. The cupcakes with yellow icing had small white flowers and the cupcakes with white icing had small yellow flowers on top! 

 Thank goodness I married a man, who can saddled up with some oven mits and help me bake! I'm not sure I could have pulled this one off by myself.

Have a great weekend!!!!

Organic Shortbread

Lee has only one request on Valentine's Day . . . Organic Shortbread cookies!

The Organic part makes them sound kind of healthy when in reality they are definitely NOT! But I figure by using organic ingredients maybe we wouldn't have to feel so bad about sneaking an extra cookie or two.
This is an amazing, super simple recipe that everyone always loves. I have had more requests for this recipe, than Cindy Crawford has had for her phone number ;)

So here it is:
1 cup Butter (we buy our Organic Butter from Target)
1 1/2 cups Flour (we buy our Organic Flour from Target)
1/2 cup Icing Sugar (we buy our Organic Icing Sugar from Trader Joe's)

Combine all ingredients in a mixer, and beat for 10 min.
You can either drop teaspoon amounts of batter, or use a piping bag and pipe teaspoon amounts of batter on to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. (I use a pastry bag with a large star tip and pipe circles onto the parchment paper)
 Cut a cherry in half, you can use glazed cherries or maraschino cherries or a nut or whatever you would like and place in the middle of the cookie.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for approx 12-14 minutes.

I hope you'll consider making these for your Valentine this Thursday!

Mustache Cake

First "I Mustache you a question."
What kind of cake do you make for a 37th Birthday Party????
A Mustache Cake, of course.

It was so so easy and you don't need a mustache cake pan just a regular old round cake pan. I just used a simple white cake recipe, and made two 8" round cakes. I stacked one cake on top of the other with a layer of SUPER FRUIT jam from Trader Joe's. Then I followed Spooniest's directions on cutting the cakes, it's basically a Ying and Yang shape.

Super easy, super cute! Two of my favorite things. Three of my favorite things if you include cake!

 One thing that was NOT easy was Icing this bad boy. As hard as I tried there was still some icing smeared on the marble slab, and smoothing out the icing was almost impossible. But it tasted amazing so all cosmetic imperfections were forgiven!

So Happy Birthday to an wonderful man, a thoughtful husband, a loving puppy daddy, and an overall amazing human being! 

Be back tomorrow with some Bookcase updates!!! 

Homemade Marshmallows

You might be asking "why make my own marshmallows when I can buy a giant bag at the store for less than $5?"
Homemade marshmallows are to store bought marshmallows,
what pizzeria wood fired oven pizza is to a pizza pocket.
Or your mother's famous meatloaf is to a lean cuisine.
Yes a store bought marshmallow will do the trick, but it's not nearly as good. Homemade marshmallows are a dessert all to themselves.

They are amazing . . . simply calling them marshmallows doesn't do them justice. They are tiny clouds of sugary goodness. ;) hehe

They were insanely easy to make (albeit a little bit sticky), and very very good. Definitely worth the effort!

• 3 packages unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 cup corn syrup (Light)
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• Powdered sugar for dusting after. 
• another 1/2 cup water.

1) Pour half a cup of cold water into your mixer bowl (it is best to use a kitchenaid mixer or other stand mixer because there is a lot of mixing about to happen).
2) Add 3 packages of unflavored gelatin to the water, let sit.
3) While the gelatin in sitting, add the corn syrup, 1/2 cup water and sugar to a small pot and heat until granulated sugar dissolves.
4) Once sugar is dissolved, raise heat until it reaches around 250 degrees (or just under) it's suggested that you use a candy thermometer to do this. I don't own a candy thermometer (I know, the nerve), so I just used a meat thermometer and watched it go close to the 250 mark.
5) Turn the mixer on, and slowly mix in the syrup we just made in the pot.
6) Once it's all in the mixer, turn on high and beat for 10-15 minutes! Add Vanilla.
7) Dust an 8" x 8" pan with confectioners sugar, and pour out marshmallow mixture.
8) Let cool on the counter for a few hours, or overnight.
9) Loosen edges and pull out of the pan. This was the hardest/stickiest part. You'll have to figure out your own way of doing this, it's a bit difficult and a bit messy but nothing too crazy.
10) Cut into large squares, and dust each with confectioners sugar so they don't stick together.

Done! Fairly easy and oh so worth it. Just imagine a cup of hot chocolate with a homemade marshmallow on top!

The Best Blueberry Muffin Recipe

While I feel slightly uncomfortable declaring something "The Worlds Best" when it technically hasn't won any titles, and I haven't tired every blueberry muffin in the world so I don't really know. But I do feel fairly confident in stating that this is at least in the top 10 best blueberry muffins in the world! ;)
This is the muffin you make when you have out of town guests and they're staying the night! This is the recipe you choose when your mother-in-law visits! These are the wife of the year, bonus points, extra credit Blueberry Muffins!

It's a three part recipe, first you make the batter with the blueberries, then you stir in a blue berry paste, and lastly you top with the streusel topping! Bake and you're done. 

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. You don't need your mixer for this you can definitely just use some elbow grease and a wooden spoon!  Make sure to mix in the blueberries last and just fold them in gently! 
Blueberry Muffin: 
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 1/8 cups Sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
¼ cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup 2% milk                  
3/4 cup Greek Yogurt  

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Pop some cupcake liners into a muffin tin. Drop a big spoonful of batter into each liner. 

Stir in topping: 
1/2 cup Blueberries
1 tbsp water
1 tsp Sugar

Throw a half cup of blueberries into a small pot, turn the pot on high and add the water and sugar, stirring frequently. Smoosh the blueberries with the back of a spoon in the pot. You're trying to make a wet jamy like topping.
Drop a big dollup on top of each muffin:

Then stir in a bit, we use a wooden skewer, you just want to spread it around the top a bit!

Lumpy Sugary Streusal topping: (aka. The Best Part)
4 tbsp brown sugar
3 tbsp white sugar
1/2 cup flour
5 tbsp melted butter

In a bowl, mix together ingredients. It should form a big lump (add more flour if it needs it, the mixture texture should be kind of like pie dough). Break up the mixture between your fingers so it's nice and crumbly!!! Crumble all over the top of each muffin!

Bake at 375degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. If your oven runs hot, 15 should be enough, if it runs cool it might need 20 min. Keep an eye on them, if you stick a skewer in the middle and it comes out clean, they're DONE!

This recipe makes about 24 muffins! And they really are worth the extra effort! I Promise!!!! 

Owl Cupcakes!

Recently I had the chance to make some cupcakes for a very special little girls first birthday. My cousin's daughter had an owl themed 1st Birthday Party.
Every owl party needs some owl cupcakes! Honestly I was surprised at just how CUTE they turned out!

They were super simple to make, we used Oreo cookies and M&M's. The only part that was kind of a pain was pulling the Oreo's apart.

About half the Oreo's broke, some of them when I pulled them apart and some when I tried to smooth out the cream in the middle.

Some Buttercream icing died PINK, Brown M&M for the pupils and Yellow M&M's for the nose!

Hooooooo Thinks they're cute?? hehe

Strawberry Cream Pie!

This recipe was adapted from Crumbly Cookies Recipe found here.
I changed a few things but not much, I'm not a huge fan of almond extract so I cut it out, and graham cracker crust was from here. It's was SO delicious and so easy to make I had to share it!!!!
Strawberry Cream Pie:

 Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (it's about 10 smashed up graham crackers) I buy graham cracker crumbs in a bag from Walmart!! :)
5 TBSP butter, room temp.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix butter and crumbs together and press into a tart shell or pie plate.
Bake for 10 min.
Filling:
- 1 8oz block of cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cups whipping cream
- 1/3 sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 carton strawberries, sliced into thirds or halves
Whip up the cream until it forms peaks. Meanwhile mix the sugar, cream cheese and vanilla extract. Fold in all of the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.
Fill in cooled pie crust with filling. Top with strawberries!
Chill in the fridge for about an hour!
EAT!!!

It took 10 min to make and was So worth the effort.

 (If you'd like a larger, thicker filling feel free to double the recipe, I've made it both ways and either way is good, although half the amount = half the calories ;)
I Hope you'll try it! It was Amazing!

Halloween Baking!

A Halloween classic around our house would be Witch Finger Cookies, they're super easy to make and a holiday favorite of Lee's.

Here's the Recipe:

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup icing sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 tsp vanilla cubububdkdjfgoe
2 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
3/4 cup whole blanched almonds
1 1tube (19 g) tube (19 g)red decorator gel, (blood for fingers)

In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla; beat in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. (I'm not going to lie I totally didn't refrigerate the dough :)

Press almond firmly into end for nail. Squeeze in centre to create knuckle shape; using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle.

Place on lightly greased baking sheets; bake in 325°F (160°C) oven for 20 to 25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for 3 minutes. Apply nail blood with  red decorator gel. Remove from baking sheets; let cool on racks. Repeat with remaining dough.

And it wouldn't be a holiday around here without cupcakes!
Devils food cupcakes with vanilla icing, and chocolate sprinkles!!

Have a great weekend!!!! We'll be working on the Barn Door, around here, hopefully it will get completed and we can move on to the hardware part of the project, with any luck . . . and no more illness . . . we could have a new door this November!!!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes everywhere and not a one to spare

The cobbler's children have no shoes and this baker ate no cupcakes haha

We had a super busy weekend, baking up a storm over here . . . Wedding Cupcakes. Although I would much prefer a baking storm to Hurricane Irene, hoping all of you are safe and sound!

Since they were all white cupcakes I wanted to display them on a bright stand, but spending $20+ on something to display cupcakes was not really an option. A simple white stand is worth the investment, but something crazy that might only get used a few times in it's life isn't.
So, a trip to a second hand store to look for some lonesome, one of  a kind dishes was in order.
I think that when shopping secondhand you have to keep your options open, and that's exactly how we snagged these flower dishes and hideous cups for $6. I had originally planned to buy one large dish and three smaller dishes but when I found this little set I couldn't pass it up!

A tube of silicone and 12hour drying time later the cups were stuck to the plates,

And we had a cupcake stand :)

Add some white wedding cupcakes,

 a little banner and it's complete.

The cupcakes were rainbow sprinkle, with white icing, and little fondant flowers. I wish the pictures did them justice, but the white on white on white doesn't really show up well on camera (kind of like me haha).

I hope you liked our $6 cupcake stand as much as I do! It's funny because we made it to save money on something we didn't plan on using often, but I want to use it all the time now :)

Total Cost: $6 for plates and cups
                   Tube of silicone FREE (left over from another project) but if you don't already had a tube lying around it's another $4!
I think this project would be great with some mismatched plates and some candle holders in between, or super cute coffee mugs! It was so easy!! I hope you'll try it!
Linking to:

Key Lime Pie aka. HEAVEN

Key Lime Pie is hands down my favorite desert! I could eat it until I died, at which point you could chop me up and I'd taste just like Key Lime Pie! (wasn't that an appetizing thought?)
anyway,
I've tinkered with recipes over the years, always trying to find a yummier, easier recipe. I've found it! It's delicious, and I'm about to gain a ton of weight!

Crust:
1 cup finely ground graham cracker crumbs
2 1/2 tablespoons finely ground graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup sugar
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
3 large egg yolks
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
2/3 cup fresh Key lime juice , (about 23 Key limes total)
1 cup sweetened condensed milk, (14 ounces)
2 Key limes, thinly sliced into half-moons

Make crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Stir together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and butter in a small bowl. Press evenly onto bottom of an tart dish. Bake until dry and golden brown, about 10 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.(Leave oven on.)

Make filling: Put egg yolks and lime zest in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on high speed until very thick, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add condensed milk in a slow, steady stream, mixing constantly. Raise speed to high; mix until thick, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Add lime juice; mix until just combined.
Spread filling evenly over crust using a spatula. Bake, rotating dish halfway through, until filling is just set, about 10 minutes. Let cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight, or just dive in with a fork, I have tried all three ways, it's always good haha~

We serve it with a dollop of whipped cream, and a little key lime garnish! It's soooo good! And relatively inexpensive, just a $2 bag of key limes, a Graham cracker crust, (homemade or store bought with way is good) I recently saw them on sale for $1.50 at walmart, a can of sweetened condensed milk $3 and some eggs . . .  Not to bad at all!!

Try it, in my opinion it's the best summer dessert  . . .or breakfast . . . whatever!

Our 1 year Blogaversary!!

It's been one year this month!!! WOW! It's been so much fun, way more work then I thought it would be, I've cried (when blogger erases my posts), I've laughed a TON (you guys leave the best comments). I've been brought to tears over sweet emails and comments.

I just am so incredibly grateful for all of you! Everyone who's ever left a comment, or sent an email. Those of you who leave comments everyday. I can't thank you enough. You've given me an outlet, you've given me a voice and I wanted to THANK YOU! Although THANK YOU doesn't feel like enough!

To thank you, I do what I always do when looking to say Thank You . . . I baked!
HAPPY 1 YEAR BLOGAVERSARY Maillardville Manor!!!

We'll be celebrating our Blogaversary all week this week, we've got TONS of posts lined up this week! Look for at Least 2 a day! Everything from FAQ to some shots of our Beautiful Province :)
Stay tuned we've got another one today!

Cupcakes on Friday ? ? ? ?

Sorry about the missing post yesterday, we were busy with the LIVING ROOM! It's just about done :) So happy to finally have it finished! Although I'm already itching to make a couple new throw pillows for the armchairs :)  Look for the post new week!!!

But for today, we are missing flowers :( Well not really it's just you've already seen them, in our $50 hallway reveal :) I really mean $68 Hallway reveal! So I figured you wouldn't want to see them again!

So I changed it to Cupcakes on Friday!! Just this once :)
Lee's work was having a going away party for one of his coworkers so I thought Easter Cupcakes would be good! They're White Cupcakes with Confetti Sprinkles inside, and Vanilla frosting on top!! I was told they're like Easter in your Mouth! haha

I popped a little mini egg on top, because seriously who doesn't like mini eggs??

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY!