Baking from the Farmers Market: Strawberries

Chocolate and Strawberry Buttercream Cake. Delicious! I love this cake because the light and fruity strawberry puree buttercream frosting compliments the richness of the dark chocolate cake. I have also been moving toward a more rustic approach to decorating that you will see more of. 

Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Puree Buttercream

 Another treat I swoon for is the combo of a biscuits and fruit. To die for! Here I have whipped up Strawberry Shortcake Cookies and man they were perfect! I love strawberry shortcake but what I want to to get all the flavors in one bite. Here is it. Bake this one up before its gets chilly outside. 

Strawberry Shortcake Cookies

 You can get just about anything at your local farmers market these days and I highly stepping out of the chain grocery store and hitting the streets for true, organic, local farming. Both recipes highlight farmers market fresh organic strawberries and organic cage free eggs.

Enjoy the rest of summer! Bake on!

Queen of Hearts

What do you do to show the one you love just how much you love them? I certainly don't wait until Valentines day, one specific day of the year to show the ones I love just that I do. And how do I do that you might ask? Baked goods baby!

This Valentines I was inspired most by two things, the upcoming opening of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and the 2006 Summer issue of Donna Hay Magazine. This issue inspired me to bake when I was studying abroad in Australia in 2006 and still is the most inspirational magazine for the baker in me. Everything from the recipes, the themes and most importantly the food photography. Check it out sometime. Now you ask what these two have in common? Well, I did my best to recreate it and hopefully I did Donna Hay justice. Let the pictures roll.

Caramel Paddies made with puff pastry

Chocolate Heart Cookies with Royal Icing

Blueberry, Pear Heart Pies

Tea Time Brownies dusted with powdered sugar

Lovely Citrus Cupcakes with Cointreau Icing

  

 

 

Will you be my Valentine? 

Love, Sarah

Christmastime is here again!

Every year I plan to make a lot of my holiday gifts from scratch or by hand. Gifts tend to be more from the heart and sentimental when you make them yourself. This year I planned and actually accomplished making cookie boxes for close friends and family and small truffle boxes filled with goodies as stocking stuffers.

The cookie boxes included recipes from my favorite chefs. Chewy Ginger Cookies, Grandma Doyle's Sugar Cookies, my favorite Coconut Macaroons, Chocolate Holiday Cookies and Chocolate Caramels. My favorite part of all this is the presentation, assembling the boxes, wrapping the caramels in festive wrappers and putting the cookies in cupcake liners. It really ties a cookie box together.

Carmels and Macaroon Truffle Boxes

I know at times it may seem overwhelming, trust me, at one point I couldn't stop working. I had glitter all over the floor, double stick tape stick to me while pulling cookie batch after cookie batch out of the oven. My suggestion to you in times when it just doesn't seem possible to make a lovely gift when its a whole lot easier to go buy something...assembly line baby! Making something is way better for your soul, your receivers heart, and all around better for mother nature. Here's how:

1. Choose a box that fits well with what you want to put in it and how you want to ship/give it.
2. Pick out festive papers and stickers for labels with a special touch
3. Embossing makes your crafts pop of the paper. You can find the powder and heat gun at your local craft shop
4. Pick a paper to line the inside of the box. This can be a tissue paper or parchment. I use wax paper because my Grandma wrapped everything in wax paper
5. Organize an afternoon of baking. I split the days in half, make all of the dough on day one and bake all the cookies on day two.
6. Assembly line! Build all your boxes, make and apply your labels, line all your boxes and fill them up.

Here are some photos of what I did this Christmas.

Layer 1

Layer 2

Layer 3

Final Cookie Box

I hope your holidays are full of warm cookies, sweet cakes and family and friends. Happy Holidays from the Mixing Bowl!

Birdie Doyle's Sugar Cookies

My Great Grandma Doyle was known as Birdie - short for Alberta. The things I remember about her the most was her house and our stays there. She had this old clock that hung on the wall in the long hallway that would go off on the hour. I am sure it was a piece that maybe her Grandmother gave her. We would stay with her in the summers and she packed our lunches for our visits to see our Dad during work.

For my sisters and I our favorite sweets that my Grandma would make were her sugar cookies. This cookie was thin but soft and creamy. Its really the small touches that made this cookie so memorable. I loved this lady and her special touches. She wrapped egg salad sandwiches in wax paper and made it so pre-Martha Stewart. The best part was dessert.

So, last week I made them again with the raisin in the center and all and had to share them with my sister and my workmates. I hope they enjoyed them! I sure did!