A Twist on Something Old

Hello Sweets,

Well I am happy to say that the cupcakes I made for the party were a huge success!  Needless to say we stayed a little later than planned so that is why there was no post last night.  Which brings me to my big announcement for the week, drum roll please, I am officially going into business :)  I'm starting small and slow, with small functions like birthdays and what have yous, but if all goes well I may give it 100% of my time.  I actually already have a new job set up for a little boys birthday, when I get more details I will of course be sharing with y'all.  I do need to take a moment and give a HUGE thank you to my love Nathan, without your encouragement I wouldn't have put myself out there, you're amazing!  Also a thank you is owed to my mother and sister for a little push too ;)

Since it's Sunday and I now have to do some research and look at setting up a website for my little biz, I thought I would do a quick little post on something new I tried while in Texas.  Y'all know how much Nathan loves my cinnamon rolls, well instead of my traditional cream cheese icing I decided to go with something a little unusual.  It was a huge hit, so now y'all can try it with your cinnamon rolls next time!

Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients

8oz cream cheese, softened

2Tbs butter

2Tbs light brown sugar

1Tsp vanilla

1Tsp almond extract

1Tbs honey

1Tbs icing sugar (last minute addition)

 

Directions:

1)  Melt butter and allow to cool.  In a large bowl combine cream cheese, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and almond extract.

 

2)  Beat with an electric mixer, when mixture starts to stiffen stop and add honey.

 

3)  Continue to beat until light and fluffy.  Be careful to not over mix or it will collapse.

 

4)  Upon taste testing the mixture I found it needed a little more sweetness to compare to traditional cream cheese frosting so I added the icing sugar.  Mixed for a couple of minutes and bingo!

  

This icing compliments the cinnamon rolls very well, as it brings out the sweetness of the brown sugar but not too much :)  I think this icing will be made every other time just to change things up a bit.

I can't begin to tell y'all the nervous but excited feeling I have right now, I've literally been grinning while writing this entire post!  So if you or anyone you know lives in the London Ontario area or in the Dallas/Fort Worth area please feel free to contact me for an estimate.  Of course I am not in both areas at the same time so it will be based on my schedule, but hopefully I can be there for your next sweet treat needs ;)  Until next time.....

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

Love Straight From Natures Heart

Hello Sweets,

I am sorry I didn't get this post to you yesterday, but I had a pretty bad migraine that had me laid up all day :(  But I really wanted to get this creation out of my head and into the oven so I went to bed early last night in hopes of gaining some headway, now I'm not one hundred percent, but I'm able to do part two of the three part creation (and was smart enough to do part three tonight too!).

So when you think of all the gifts we get from nature what do you see?  If you're from Texas maybe you see beef, if you're from Mexico maybe you think of guacamole, but if you're from Canada every child goes to the sugar bush for fresh maple syrup!  So that is precisely the star ingredient in today's post :)  Maple syrup is delicious in a variety of ways but there is one thing that I have never had, and that is maple infused icing, which made me determined to try and create my own.  This is a very simple recipe as it is a butter icing but depending on your sweet tooth you can play around with the measurements.

Maple Butter Icing

Ingredients

3/4C butter, room temperature

4Tbs icing sugar

3Tbs maple syrup or table syrup

 

Directions:

1)  Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl (I started with a couple of tablespoons of the icing sugar to slowly work to the right taste), and with an electric mixer blend until smooth and creamy.

2)  If needed continue to add icing sugar spoonful at a time.  If not using right away store in the refrigerator (remove 1-2 hours before icing cakes).

 There you have it, a simply sweet icing that can be used on a variety of cakes, muffins, or sweet style breads.  Or you can use it the way I did, but you'll have to come back tomorrow for me to tell you that ;).

I know this is a short but sweet post (see what I did there lol), but my shoulders and neck are really sore :(  so I think it's best to call it a night.  Make sure you come back tomorrow for the conclusion of Canuckette's original creation (is it weird that in my head it sounded like the old school batman announcer lol)  Until next time...........

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo

 

Straight From Granny's Kitchen

Hello Sweets,

How are you all doing post holiday?  Are you all baked out?  Are you turkeyed out?  Or are you just finally getting to put your feet up?  Nathan and I are just finally getting to put our feet up, and I think we both forgot how much running around there is to do with Christmas.  Wrapping presents was pretty hard for me because of my shoulders, so I listened to my body and wrapped in stages lol.  Overall it was a great Christmas and everyone was happy as they could be :)

 How cute is Berries the reindeer?!?

I have a recipe today that comes from Nathans granny, Dora.  She is a sweet lady, born and raised in Texas, and is full of all sorts of kitchen knowledge (aka other uses for cream of tartar) :).  So when she stopped in with a recipe from Nathans late grandfather for me to recreate, I was flattered and honored to carry the torch in the family.  The only thing I didn't use from the original recipe was the icing, which I was making later at night so opted for the icing I used for Nathans birthday cake (you can find it here), with another Canuckette twist of course.  So let me share this gem of a family recipe with you now :)

Dede's Chocolate Sheet Cake

Ingredients

2C all-purpose flour

2C sugar

1/2C shortening

1C water

4Tbs cocoa

2 beaten eggs

1 Tsp baking soda

1 Tsp vanilla

1 Tsp cinnamon

 

I will apologize in advanced for the lack of pictures, Nathans uncle was over my shoulder the ENTIRE time

Directions:

1)  In a large bowl; sift together sugar and flour.

2)  Mix shortening, water, and cocoa in a sauce pan, bringing to rapid boil.  

3)  Pour over the flour and sugar mixture and stir until well mixed.

4)  Add the remaining ingredients; eggs, baking soda, vanilla, and cinnamon and mix well.  Pour into a greased pan (large cake pan), I ended up using a cupcake tin instead and lined them with cupcake papers.

5)  Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Let cool for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.  Icing them once they are completely cooled.

*Side Note:  for the icing I added peppermint extract to give it a festive touch (use your taste buds for this part)*

 I ended up adding little candy cane sugar decals to make them even more festive :)

So there you have it, another family recipe passed down to the next generation.  What makes it even better is that I am getting them from both sides to create my own family recipes to share with my children :)

So now that the Christmas hoopla is finally over I can share with you the super fun gifts that I made for the ladies in the Texas family.  As you guys know I have a pretty kick ass pecan pie muffin recipe (click here). Well every time I make them, the family rants and raves about how tasty they are.  So I decided to make jars with all the dry, non perishable ingredients and completed it with the recipe written on a cute gingerbread man (add full recipe on the back).  I then finished it off with some festive ribbons, a silver bell, some fun Christmas stickers, and sticky tags to label for all the special someones.  I snapped a few pictures of the completed jar so you guys could see it for yourselves :)

   

The only road block I ran into was that the recipe calls for pecans to be added at the very end before placing into the oven, but thanks to Michael's, I got some festive zip lock bags that I placed on top and it filled the jars perfectly.  Now all the special family ladies in my life have the fabulous recipe for themselves always on hand, and they have a super cute recipe card now too!  I even had one extra left over so I decided to label it for Nathan, for when he misses me it'll be like I'm already there :)

So there you have it, all my Christmas recipes and super cute gifts, I hope you all enjoyed them as much as I did.  Tomorrow I will have a southern recipe to share with you and I will show you some of the super amazingly awesome kitchen gadgets I got from Nathans family, so don't forget to come back and check it out!  Until next time..........

Stay sweet,

Jennifer xoxoxo