Dessert By Candy

Swedish Princess Cake

Sweden holds a special place in my travel experiences. It is one of the few countries I never planned to visit yet I somehow ended up in more than one occasions. Back in 2007, I spent a few days in Stockholm, Kiruna, and Jukkasjärvi as part of a whirlwind destination wedding at the Ice Hotel. In 2012, my Danish host took me on a day trip to Helsingborg (home of IKEA headquarter) while he was in the city for business meeting. My exposure to this Scandinavian country may be brief but all of the experiences were most memorable. For this very same reason, all the Swedish dessert I managed to sample left strong impressions.

Earlier this year I was on a Swedish baking streak experimenting with semlor, kanelbullar, lussekatter, and rye loaf. Prinsesstårta (Swedish Princess Cake) was high on my priority list except I felt intimidated by the technical challenge. Procrastination ensued and I put the thought on the back burner. Last Saturday my friends and I had our annual Cake Day, a day on which we celebrate baking, laughter, and friendship. In 2013 I made Mont Blanc, Chocolate Root Beer Bundt, and Gateau Breton. It was my first time taking part so I did not know what to expect. The sheer amount of baking, washing, photos, and great food all under controlled chaos was mind boggling. But I would not trade my invitation for the world. With last year’s experience fresh in my mind, I brainstormed for cake ideas.

For Your Cuppa

I wish I am more excited. The countdown is on before my long flight to Sydney Australia but I haven’t even started packing yet. My fridge is mostly empty, as is my laundry basket. I exchanged some currency and my passport is at the ready. I have a wish list of e-books to purchase so I will be reasonably entertained when I’m not sleeping on the plane. I have a reservation at Tetsuya’s and I want to eat lots of lamingtons. I got in touch with some skaters in Sydney and will join them for Wednesday night skate. Beyond that, I made no plans at all and will play it by ear. I’m happy to relax instead of filling my schedule to the brim.

These lemon poppy seed muffins are probably the last thing I bake in a while. The recipe from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours was one of the few muffin recipes I had not tried from that cookbook. It was predictably good and I was particularly happy with the good balance of flavours. One of my pet peeves with muffin recipes is butter overload. It bothers me when I lift the baked muffins and see a pool of butter left behind in the pan. Thankfully, this was not an issue at all with Greenspan’s recipe.

My Favourite Baking Plum

Italian prune plum is one of the last plums to dot the farmers market before we immerse ourselves among apples, pumpkins, and brussel sprouts. It always makes me a little wistful for the summer gone by yet excited for the arrival of my favourite season. Similar to last year, 2013 racing season has been a total wash out for me. I am restless and a little panicky that I have to rebuild my fitness from the grounds up yet again. I am *thisclose* to being completely clear of my knee infection. I can’t wait to resume my workouts (ouch) but certainly do not look forward to weeks of soreness thanks to being couch potato for a month. Oh boy.

Back to the plums. Yes, Italian prune plum is a thing of beauty with addition of sugar and heat. The flavour deepens and the colour turns to a majestic shade of ruby. Every week I return from the market with a small basket even when I am too busy to bake. I just cannot help myself. Thankfully, plums are less fussy than many other stone fruits. They can sit patiently on the counter for a few days without getting overripe. Last Saturday I spent a lazy rainy afternoon turning them into luscious treats.

As I discover, one of the many joys of staycation is the relax pace of life. I am not trying to check off as many to-do items on my list as humanly possible. I can take the time to savour the minutes, focusing on one thing at a time. I am so used to living in a constant state of stress that I don’t even recognize those physical stress symptoms anymore. I thought it is the norm. No wonder my body takes such a long time to heal from any injuries, major or minor. Last Saturday, I slept in, went to the spa, decided not to brave the downpour for an outdoor food truck event, baked a plum kuchen, baked plum poppy seed muffins, and watched X-Men on television. Definitely not one of my more productive days.

Waste Not

Despite my love of good food, I am not a frequent participant of the numerous food events held in and around my city. I do not consider myself a homebody but compare to many of my food loving friends, I really do not get out much. Last week was an exception. On Tuesday, I enjoyed a most wonderful evening filled to the bream with great food, great drinks, great atmosphere, and a great cause. The Stop’s Night Market was an all-you-can-drink-and-eat festival featuring high profile local restaurants and popup vendors. Money raised from this event was enough to provide three days of healthy food for 9000 people! Check out the great recap by foodpr0n and Bon Eats.

Earlier in the week, I also caught wind that ACE Bakery celebrates their 20th anniversary with a series of artisan incubator workshops. I signed up for Friday’s Spirit Tree Ciderie Tasting Workshop not knowing what to expect. I love cider and the course description mentioned guided tasting. That was already more than enough incentive.

Use That Apple Butter

Any avid jam maker can tell you it is all too easy to overstock the larder. I try to keep mine in manageable supply which explains why I am down to my last jar of apple butter. That beloved batch was made with lots of apple cider vinegar. At first, the apple butter tasted too sharp to my liking. But a few months in, the flavour mellowed and I grew to really like it. I wanted to use it for something special.

It is now maple season in eastern Canada and saps are flowing. Maple baked goods are everywhere I look. Last weekend I stopped at Cora’s for brunch. On my way out, I picked up a recipe card that caught my attention. It was a recipe for Apple and Maple Muffins, “the ideal lunchbox recipe”. I generally don’t get distracted by randomly distributed recipes but something about the ingredients spoke to me. Three things were aplenty: diced apples, maple syrup, oats. The recipe actually sounds healthy!

Coconut, Blackberry, Lime

I’ve been sheepishly buying and devouring imported blackberries from Mexico. So juicy! So sweet! So cheap! My inner locavore wags her finger in disapproval every time but I cannot help myself. It is the dead of winter in Toronto. Every direction I look is grey, slushy, wet, and miserably cold. Sparkly winter wonderland it is not. Those little pops of dark violet remind me of warmer days.

You know what else leads my imagination to warm places? Coconuts, the quintessential tropical flavour. I previously wrote about my family’s love of coconut sweets. When an impromptu chance to visit Dad came up last weekend, I decided to bring him a small treat. Ever since that time I made 101 Cookbook’s Blackberry Macaroon Tart, the combination of blackberry and coconut left a lasting impression. Of course, making a tart crust and filling were a bit too involved for a spontaneous afternoon. I wanted a simpler approach.

Glorious Morning

How do they come up with a name like Morning Glory Muffin? I am most definitely not a morning person so it’s hard to fathom those early hours of the day being glorious. You know what is also deceiving? That morning glory muffins are healthy and virtuous and fitting for January when everyone vows to eat better for the rest of the year. Virtuous they are not.

Golly, they do taste good though. Perhaps even gloriously good. Packed with shredded carrot, grated apple, coconut, dried cranberry, pecan, orange, and wheat germ, how can they not? This is the muffin equivalent of the ubiquitous Everything Bagel. There is a bit of everything to please everyone.

National Chocolate Cupcake Day

I don’t normally post on Thursdays nor do I have much to say on Thursdays. This is the day my mind wanders to all the possibilities the weekend may bring. This is the day I fret about kitchen projects that I ought to wrap up. This is the day I frantically pack my bags if I am spending the weekend out of town. Which is all to say I don’t write on Thursdays.

Today I’m making an exception because it’s National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Every day is a designated food holiday of some sort, 365 days a year. Why does chocolate cupcake inspire me to react? I blame it on insomnia. I would rather make something in the kitchen than tossing and turning in my bed. So today I celebrate. I celebrate with a recipe that I longed to make for months.

Muffin, A Crowd Pleaser

Set aside my prejudice that muffins are not the healthy breakfast option it aims to be, I love to bake muffins. They are not challenging. They barely dirty any mixing bowls. They can be made from pantry staples without a special trip to the grocery store. I always feel a bit nostalgic because muffins are one of the first North American treats I learned to bake.

My best friend remembers in vivid details the time she stayed over at my place and woke up to the smell of freshly made blueberry muffins. That must have been over ten years ago. It was a small gesture on my part because the house was devoid of breakfast food. But it left a deep impression on her because fresh out of the oven muffins was an unexpected treat. That was when I learned the crowd pleasing quality of muffins.

I don’t have a favourite muffin recipe. Part of the fun is trying out different recipes. The flavour is always familiar. I rarely branch out to more adventurous combinations because muffins just seem like the wrong canvas for experimentation. However, within the familiar confines of blueberry, lemon, banana, bran, chocolate, cranberry, pumpkin, I’m happy to play around with minor adjustments.

Tinkering With Perfection

I woke up in the middle of the night with an irrepressible urge to bake something with peaches. That was 3am this morning. I really ought to be in bed but alas it just did not work out. If I really want to legitimize my strange sleep schedule, I could have said I am a true fan of the Summer Games. I’m sure that excuse will come in handy starting tomorrow. As for today, there was no excuse why I was up at that hour.

After watering all the plants in the house and checking my email, my urge to bake still didn’t go away. So I ate a peach. The proverbial eating a peach over the sink with juice running down my hands held true. A peach at its seasonal best really did not need to be tinkered with. It is perfection wrapped in the prettiest shade of red, orange, and gold. What was I thinking?! I was about to send a few innocent peaches into the blazing heat of an oven!

That feeling lasted about 30 minutes. Next thing I knew, I got out my mixing bowls and scaled out ingredients for a batch of Ginger Peach Muffin.