Christmas baking

Every year, I give away baked goods as Christmas gifts. I definitely put more love into it and more time and energy than shopping. And by the time I'm done, I'm exhausted. But it's all worth it when I hear the recipients say things like, "OMG, it's so good!" or "What's in this? Crack?" (it's true, people do say that).

So, this year, I decided to forgo sugar cookies all together (which I usually give out) and baked other stuff. Plus, I knew that if I did sugar cookies this year, I'd spend days and days decorating them (because I realllllly wanna practise decorating) and they'd end up stale. MERRY CHRISTMAS! Here's a stale but pretty sugar cookie!

Instead, I whipped up some Ginger Snaps/Gregs, Double Chocolate Chip cookies/Roberts, Brownies, French Macarons and whole LOAD of Bananarama Breads, Lemon Poposeed Loaves and Pound-for-pound cakes. My kitchen became a bakery/factory full of 10kg bags of flour and sugar, bricks upon bricks of butter, cartons of eggs, piping bags, food colouring, vanilla, measuring spoons, measuring cups, prep bowls, pinch bowls, stainless steel bowls... IT WAS A MESS. But an organized mess...just in a very small space. And it spread into our dining room, which was where all the goods were left to cool or left to be stored until packaged...in our living room. My nights were long but full of sweet, sweet aromas.

Mess. See?

Now my hands are dry as a lizard's back, my mixer is on a well-deserved vacation, but, my loved ones' bellies are full.

I hope you're feeling full from the holidays...and not just from the food, but from the love of the ones with whom you share your life.

Cheers to 2011!

New Site!

I've been working on a new design for the Treeh's Treats site for months. I started very slowly earlier in the year and only recently have been working many late nights to finish it up. So, how do you like it?

It definitely does more of the things I've wanted it to do, and is more easy to navigate.

It was also really fun to write up descriptions for all the baked goods. I found myself laughing out loud at some of them (or maybe it was because it was so late at night). My husband called me crazy. That's not something new.

Anyway, as I try out new recipes (ooooh nuts, I can almost taste you!) and perfect them, they'll make their way onto the menu. You'll hear more about my experimenting right here.

Enjoy!

Thoughts on Fondant

I've worked with fondant a few times. A few. It's really easy to work with (a lot easier than I had initially thought), and it makes things look soooo pretty...HOWEVER, let's be honest. Who really likes eating fondant? Do you know anyone who actually likes the stuff? I admit I didn't eat the fondant from our wedding cake. I didn't eat the fondant from the cakes and cupcakes I've made with fondant on them. BUT, I did eat the frosting UNDER the fondant. I ate the sweet butter creams and the smooth cream cheese frostings. Yum. And I'm not even a lover of frosting.

So, while I do understand the need for an aesthetically pleasing treat, I prefer to place the emphasis on the quality of the taste than the appearance. That doesn't mean I won't take an occasional order for something with fondant on it. ;)

Going nutty

I'm dying to bake with nuts. All the concoctions in my head are nut-based, only I can't try them out because I'm on a nut-free diet for the next few months (and have been for 8 months now). I could try them, but then I can't eat them myself and well, who wants really wants to bake and not eat what they baked, right?

So, I haven't been able to experiment as much as I'd like and instead have been experimenting with my cooking instead. Much to my husband's excitement, I've been cooking all sorts of different stuff, only going back to my old repertoire of stuff occasionally. I should have taken pictures of all the stuff I've been cooking...so maybe I'll start doing that now.

Happy Halloween!!!

Club cupcake?

I've been reading more and more about bacon on cupcakes. Apparently they're quite tasty. I'm not sure what they'd taste like, but I'm curious. Maybe it's the salty and sweet thing that makes them so delicious. Maybe I'll try 'em out.

Experimenting

I've been experimenting with a few recipes in recent weeks. One of them is Congo Bars, also known as Brookies. Essentially, they're a brownie and chocolate chip cookie in one. Dee. Lect. A. Bull.

Available to order

Cupcake revolution

Cupcakes have been around forever. Or, at least they've been around since I was a kid, which was over 20 years ago. I'm sure they were around way before that too. I had my first cupcake in junior kindergarten. A classmate's mother brought them for her birthday.

Having said this, for the past few years, I've found it strangely interesting that cupcakes have only really taken off in recent years. People everywhere have been looking to make the best, most beautiful, most creative ways to make a cupcake.

I, personally, find the most simple ones to be good. It's one thing to have a pretty cupcake, decked out to the max that you don't really wanna eat it, and another to have one that is delicious (and another to have one that is pretty AND delicious!). I have two in my fridge right now that I haven't eaten because they're so pretty. I think I just might go raid the fridge and eat one in a few minutes.

Let them eat...pie?

Summer's coming and that means all sorts of fruits are going to be in season and cheap! Yay! So that, in turn, means, it's time to make pie! I'm hoping to expand my "pie repertoire" this summer. Stay tuned for pics and reports on how these pies are going!

I also want to experiment with pie crusts. Sometimes I get lazy and just use the frozen ones...especially when they're on sale (which has been pretty often lately!). I only have two pie crust recipes -- the usual pie crust and the flaky crust, but I'd like to learn to make different variations of them. I also want to experiment with pie crust designs. As much as I love the traditional lattice and also the simple pie crust, I'd like to try out other designs.

Now if I could just find some people to feed all these experiments to...

P.S. Here's something my nephew sent to me when we were going back and forth about baked goods. He's a huge cheesecake fan, and as I've learned, a pie fan too.

All the time in the world...

...and no butter and no eggs.

I have officially begun my maternity leave this week and have already found that I need something to do, other than watch Oprah in 4 different time zones.

I was really itching to do some baking today and when I opened my fridge, found that I'm almost out of butter and have only 2 eggs. This will not do.

On another note though, I did buy a mega pack of chocolate chips and have a lot of brown sugar and icing sugar on hand. Also, I think we're starting to make a dent in all the leftovers in our fridge, so there'll be some room for storing cookie dough.

I think I'll do some groceries tomorrow and look for a rattle cookie cutter.

Under construction...

Thank you so much for being so patient with this site!! It has taken me some time to get work done on it, but slowly and surely, it'll come together. I've also started uploading some pictures for you to see and hope to have the list of items to order up soon.

Feel free to drop me a comment!!

♥Treeh