Crazy Days! But here is Day 2, 3 and 4

I apologize for the lack of posts, it's been a busy week getting things done that probably should have been done a few weeks ago. I have been playing around with Pearl Dust on the Roses and trying to find a way that will work and look great...I haven't had much success :( So I've taken to ordering some different items to try, and I'll find more ways to use the stuff too! It's a great little place from up in Toronto area, which is great because it's all Canadian dollar and cheaper shipping! I also finally got the release forms all printed, now just to get them filled out and organized!

Anyways, this will be a brief blog as it's after midnight and I do intend to be up in the morning to finish everything since I've got the day off!

Without further ado...Here is Day 2 - Rules of Three

Day 3 - Black and White

 Day 4 - Texture

I did 2 different ones for this one, as they were both really cool! Can you guess what they are?

Photography Challenge! Day 1

This will be a little bit different for here, but I've decided to do a 30 day photography Challenge. So on top of regular posts for food and crafts and what-not, I will be posting a photo a day. This will help me with my new camera, to get use to it and as well to experiment with it and see what it's capable of.

Here is the Challenge:

So here is my Day 1 Selfie!

:) I've got to say, I really love my Canon Rebel T4i

Happy belated Valentines Day...

Or my favourite day...the day after Valentines Day when all the candy and chocolates and cake decorating stuff goes 50-75% off! haha

I'm not a person that particularly cares about Valentines Day, but it is fun for the kids when they get to have little parties in the classroom and have treats... ie it's not a bad day for me because I usually end up helping my sister come up with something for her class. Her school was handing out Candy Grams, but a couple of her friends have a red dye allergy, so she wasn't able to buy anything for them and felt pretty bad about it. We came up with something for them too!

When she came home upset about the candy grams, we decided that we would make them our own candy gram! I've got tons of candy molds and some I haven't used, but were perfect for Valentines Day for sure! Megan got to choose which one to use and I helped her do them. Here's the final product...

Of course neither of the girls did the Challenge because they "didn't want to have their face online"...yet they have facebook with a million pictures of themselves on there...and the other just wanted to eat hers...Darn 12 year olds. (yes, I'm peeved about it...I thought it would've been a cute idea). So I made an extra one and did it myself, then once the girls (my sister and her friend) saw me doing it they wanted to. So here they are

Then we made a batch of mini cupcakes, which really surprised me as to how many I was able to get out of the mix. I think we made about 50 total...that's a lot of cupcakes! I had so many left over that I was able to take some into the ladies I work with. They were all really excited about it...yet we work in a bakery...Really?! haha!

Of course, I didn't have any decorations, so I ended up going to the Bulk Barn before hand so we had a ton of decorations to put on them.

K's Melt "-in-your-mouth-" Aways

Cheesy name, I know...I couldn't come up with anything better.

We make something like this at work, but it's different in it's own ways. This was all just a big experiment for me.

What I came up with is a basic bottom of Honey Grahams with butter, then Coconut, and lots of different chocolate chips...

***THIS WAS SOOOOOO HARD MAKING BEING ON A NO JUNK FOOD CHALLENGE THIS WEEK!!!!***

...so it's sweet, and goo-y! (So I've been told)

Here she is...

Line an 8" cake pan with parchment paper (NOT wax...I found this one out the hard way during this! Thought I grabbed a different box of paper than I actually did...Oops!) Fully melt 1/4 cup of Salted Butter in a small bowl. Add in 1 1/4 cups of Honey Graham Crumbs. Once fully mixed pour into the lined pan and bake for 10 minutes.

Once it's finished in the oven let it cool for about 20 minutes. While you wait gather your other ingredients separately. These are all estimated measurements, I was measuring for a little while, but since I was experimenting I was just going with it, if anything it will be LESS than what I've written here (sorry about the un-preciseness!). 1/2 cup of sweetened Coconut (plus extra for later), 1/4 cup White Chocolate Chips, 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, 1/4 Butterscotch chips and about 1/2 (I estimated when I was putting mine on) cup Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Once it's cooled sprinkle on the Coconut and layer the different chocolate chips

Sprinkle the extra coconut on top, then your condensed milk. Stick it in the oven for about 15 minutes and then let cool. Once it's cool, cut the square size that you want and freeze on the paper over night. Take it out the next day and re-cut where you previously cut (it'll be easier to cut with the guidelines you made the day before). Serve cold (it'll be a less goo-y, sticky mess!)

The only complaint I got was that I had served it warm the first night because everyone wanted to try it, and that the pieces were too small!

So here's what you need:

1 1/4 cup Honey Graham Crumbs
1/4 cup Salted Butter, melted
1/2 cup Sweetened Coconut (plus extra for on top)
1/4 cup White Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup Milk Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup Butterscotch Chips
1/2 cup Low Fat Sweetened Condensed Milk

"Skinny" Peanut Butter Oat Granola

Yesterday I started another No Junk Food Challenge today and I need to find some healthier snacks for me to have with my lunches for work this week aside from the obvious fruits and veggies. So I got hunting on Pintrest and came across this recipe and it looked delish! I just had to try it! Of course, I had to go grocery shopping to be able to make it.

Here we go!

In a saucepan, add Coconut Oil, Peanut Butter, Honey and Vanilla. Don't let it boil, just let it get creamy and rich.

In a large bowl, add in oats. The recipe I was following called for Rolled oats, I just used Quick oats. Then pour the peanut butter mixture over the oats and mix well. Let it stand for 5 minutes, or more.

Add in Mini Chocolate Chips and sprinkles if you please, there aren't many, so it's not that bad in the over all mixture. (My dad complained that there wasn't enough chocolate or sprinkles and that it was "too healthy" for him)

Once it's all mixed together you can make them into bite sized balls OR put it in a bar form like I did. Once you have the mix in the pan make sure it's pressed together really well! For a little added stickiness to hold everything together I drizzled a bit of Honey over top.

Stick 'er in the fridge for a good hour, then take it out and cut into bite sized pieces (I put mine in 1/2" squares).

So here's what you need :

1/4 cup Coconut Oil
1/4 cup Light Peanut Butter
1/4 cup Honey (plus extra for drizzle)
2 1/4 cups Oats
1/4 cup Chocolate Chips
2 tbsp Sprinkles (Optional)

The recipe is Copyright of BruCrew Life, but it was just way too good to pass up sharing with all of you.

The Cake Sampling

Alright, so I promised last blog that I would show you what I did for the cake sampling. Now I qon't give away what I am doing for the final project, as I would like that to be a surprise for the day and for the guests.

So for the cake sampling I did both white and chocolate cakes. I did plain Buttercream icing, Almond Buttercream icing and I did Cream Cheese icing (which didn't taste all that great so I didn't end up using it.). Then for fillings I did Custard, Lemon and Strawberry Mousse. I also showed the difference between using icing as the outside, and having fondant on the cake.

There is a large difference between the 2. The taste is quite different, even though there is a thin layer of icing on the cake to hold the fondant in place, it is still quite different. Buttercream icing is really sweet, buttery goodness. Fondant is basically sheet icing...not quite, but really when it boils down to the simplistic answer, that's it. Fondant is hit and miss. Some people don't enjoy the taste of fondant, where as others do...I find if you've had 1 bad experience with it, you won't really try it again, unless you're adventurous and re-try it you may find that there is one that we really enjoy.

Anyways, without further ado here is the sampling.

Plain Buttercream - No filling

Almond Buttercream - No filling

Custard filling with Buttercream Icing

Lemon filling with Buttercream Icing

Strawberry Mousse filling with Buttercream Icing

Just an example of Fondant covered cake with the Gumpaste/Fondant Roses and Leaves