Where to Begin...

Well, the CAFP bake sale is over! The goodies are all either sold and eaten (en masse, I might add), or sitting in all us volunteers' resoective fridges. Try as we might, we couldn't sell everything - there was simply too much food to be had, and too many people skipping class this Hallowe'en! Ah well, no matter. It's giving me lots of blog fodder for the next couple days! Sales or no, I had a great time. I even got to dress up, and my mom helped me "Hallowe'en-up" my crutches with orange crepe streamers! Thanks to Johana for helping me carry the gratuitous amount of sweet treats from car to school to car again - I couldn't have done it without you!

Here's a brief overview of the goodies: from Johana, a delicious-looking peach yogurt Bundt cake (surrounded in the photo by my cupcakes!). Sabrina brought "Flanjello", a flan + Jell-O + sponge cake concoction that was so pretty to look at and I bet tastes even better (I couldn't sample... *sob*). CAFP president Christie brought meringue bones, double-chip marshmallow cookies and frosted chocolate sables (the ones you see in the top left photo), and Rose brought spicy cheese and pepper scones. I brought three kinds of cookies (these two and a buttermilk-vanilla concoction I'll get to sharing soon), miniature apple pies (adapted from Novel Eats), two types of cupcakes and caramel coated apples. There were a ton of other additions too, but I didn't pay attention to who brought what! Can we say sugar high??

So, with the recipes... I guess I'll do the simple and prettier one first, though the name makes it sound otherwise! I knew cupcakes would be a hit at the bakesale, because... really, who doesn't like cake? So I scouted around the internet and found a keeper on Shmooed Food. Then, I did something I never, ever do: I de-veganized the recipe! I couldn't help it... I had buttermilk to use up from Thanksgiving still! I frosted these with a basic buttercream icing, then sifted cocoa powder overtop and added candy pumpkins for a "pumpkin patch" effect. These are just vanilla cakes at heart, so if you leave out the sprinkles they'll look "normal", but not as fun!

Vanilla "Slime" Cupcakes
Makes 18
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1/3 cup mixed orange and black spinkles
1 cup sugar
¼ cup oil
¼ cup applesauce
1 tbsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF, and line a cupcake tin with paper wrappers or grease.
2. Mix vinegar and buttermilk in bowl and set aside.
3. Whisk together the flours, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sprinkles.
4. Add sugar, oil, applesauce, and vanilla to the sour milk.
5. Add to the dry ingredients and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes.
6. Fill tins 3/4 full and bake for 15 minutes, until a cake tester inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 143.8
Total Fat: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 0.3 mg
Sodium: 14.6 mg
Total Carbs: 25.4 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.9 g
Protein: 2.3 g

More Bake - Sale Goodies

As Friday draws near, I'm becoming more and more consumed with bakery goodies for the CAFP fundraiser. Yup, this is another mouth-watering treat! Apple cider mix, apple flavouring and the best part of all - toffee bits - make these some pretty special cookies. Because it's a fundraiser after all, I made these pretty much steering-wheel sized (it took me three giant baking sheets, and I only got 20 total!), but normally I'd cut the size down. They aren't too sweet either due to the cider mix, and they stay chewy because of the corn syrup. I can't wait to see what the folks at school think! As long as they vote "yes" with their wallets and their tastebuds, it's all good!


Sorry the post is so short, but ya know, it is midnight! I gotta sleep sometime, in between cookies and class!

Toffee - Apple Cookies
Makes 36
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 (3/4 oz) packets apple cider drink mix
1 tbsp golden corn syrup
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp concentrated apple flavouring (Lorann's brand is what I used), optional
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup toffee pieces (like Skor)

1. Heat oven to 375°F, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In large bowl, beat shortening and sugar until fluffy.
3. Beat in drink mix, corn syrup, flavourings and egg.
4. Mix together flours, baking soda and salt.
5. Beat into creamed mixture.
6. Stir in toffee pieces.
7. Bake 12 minutes and cook on wire racks.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 67.7
Total Fat: 3.9 g
Cholesterol: 8.1 mg
Sodium: 16.7 mg
Total Carbs: 7.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.2 g
Protein: 0.6 g

Spelunking

Have you ever seen quite so many photos of fridges and cupboards in one place? I took my camera into the kitchen this afternoon so I could submit an entry to a blog event I found called "Beyond the Fridge Door - Time to Share Your Hidden Secrets" created by Confessions of a Food Nazi. It sounded like so much fun I couldn't resist!

So, just what is beyond my fridge door? Let's break it down:

Fridge:

Water, Jell-O, low-fat yogurt, unsweetened vanilla almond milk, 1% and 4% cow's milk, Italian bread, week-old Italian cream cake (leftovers from my stepbrother's birthday), a fruit drawer of peaches, apples and grapes, plastic containers of diced tomatoes and cooked beans, my sourdough starter, blocks of margarine (my baking stash), nasty bacon, porchetta, capicolla and salami (stepfamily's), soft (low-cal) margarine, veggie crisper filled with broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, baby carrots, brussels sprouts, red peppers and lettuce. Whew!

Freezer:

Breadcrumbs, pizza pockets, fish fillets, shrimp, ice cream, a couple types of bread, kaisers, steaks, water bottles, ice cubes, spring rolls, frozen crushed tomatoes, frozen peas, Costco chocolate muffins, Parmesan, hot dogs and ice packs.

Bottom of Main Pantry:

This is the "communal goods" area... everything not in our fridges or freezers that's food related lives here! Some main players: pasta, cereal, green, orange pekoe, Oolong and herbal teas, coffee, pancake mix, syrup, vinegar, oil, unopened lemon juice, crackers, TVP, Nutella, peanut butter, honey, cocoa powder, oatmeal and Splenda.

Top of Main Pantry:

All the baking and spice stuff lives up here, along with a few big boxes of tea. Most of this is my junk I use for making stuff for the blog... too much for me to list, but all the extracts, sugars and flours are here.

Bottom of Side Pantry:

All the canned beans, soups, tomatoes and fish are in here. As well, all my personal goodies that I don't use for baking (like my almond mik tetras, Liquid Smoke and tofu) are on this side of the pantry.

Top of Side Pantry:

This is my stepfather's domain, or "Land of the Costco Purchase". Here, you'll find giant jars of mixed nuts, bags of tortilla chips and if you look close enough, a jar or two of cheese dip *gag*. I bear no responsibility for this part of the closet!

So, what's hiding in your kitchen caverns?? Send your entry to the event soon - you have until the second of November (I think!).

Seasonal Sweets

Ah, bake sales. I love them - the baking, the selling, the cash flow...

This weekend was spent in the throes of preparation for this Friday's fundraiser to help out my nutrition students' association, and I'm not all the way done yet! I had planned 2 types of cookies, 2 kinds of cupcakes (spookily decorated, of course!) and a batch of mini apple pies to sell. So far, I have everything but the pies baked, and I need to decorate (and fill) the cupcakes. Oh yeah, I made a batch of this too... but that doesn't count - it's all mine! I think I did pretty well, considering I was more or less a "flamingo" in the kitchen" - I'm still battling that d@mn tendonitis, and crutches are such a pain in small spaces!

The first thing I made this weekend, though, was a batch of these "candy corn" cookies. To up the "candy" taste of them, I used brown sugar and butterscotch extract (which I used here before), and of course the colours were made from the magic dyes in the bottles haha. I think they were rather festive two-bite goodies... and I'll have to let you know what we got for them!

Candy Corn Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen
2 tsp cornstarch
5 tbsp cold water
1 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp concentrated butterscotch extract (optional)
2 cups flour
2/3 cup spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp yellow food colouring
1 tsp red food colouring

1. Line a standard loaf pan with waxed paper (leave an overhang) and set aside.
2. Combine cornstarch and water in a small bowl, set aside.
3. Cream shortening and sugars.
4. Add egg and cornstarch mixture, beating well.
5. Beat in vanilla and butterscotch extracts.
6. Whisk together flours, baking powder and salt.
7. Slowly beat into the creamed mixture. Blend will be very stiff (add water / flour if necessary).
8. Remove 1/3 of the cookie dough and press into the bottom of the loaf pan.
9. Thoroughly beat yellow colouring into remaining mixture.
10. Remove half of the remaining dough and press on top of the white batter in the loaf pan.
11. Beat red colouring into the last third of the cookie dough to make it orange, press into the top of the dough layers in the loaf pan.
12. Fold waxed paper over the dough block and place the pan in the freezer for 2-3 hours.
13. Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper (do not grease).
14. Remove dough block from the freezer.
15. Slice rectangular pieces from the short end of the "loaf" about 1/4-1/2" thick, and cut each slice into triangles (to resemble candy corn pieces). Place on sheets.
16. Store remaining dough wrapped in the loaf pan to maintain shape.
17. Bake 8-9 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.
18. Cool cookies completely on sheets.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 70.2
Total Fat: 3.6 g
Cholesterol: 5.4 mg
Sodium: 2.2 mg
Total Carbs: 8.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.3 g
Protein: 0.7 g

In-Betweensie Food

Ah, the lag time between Thanksgiving and Christmas... I don't think any period of time is more of a paradox! One one hand, it's calm: no major parties, gifts to buy or places to go. On the other hand, it seems like everything else piles up! I know that these days it seems like both everything and nothing is going on... and these are the days that demand good-quality, nutritious and comforting meals that you don't have to think about in order to enjoy!

I managed to find myself a can of my favourite baked beans at Bulk Barn the other day (while picking up bits and pieces for my bake sale blitz!) and I got myself an acorn squash today at the orchard with a view to stuff it in some way. There are only two ways I'll eat that particular plant: "fries" (AKA oven sticks) or stuffed with something tasty. This way is a winner, for sure!

Well, I must be off, the oven's buzzing!

Low - Sugar Stuffed (Inter) Holiday Squash
Serves 2
1 (15 oz) raw acorn squash
12 medium Brussels sprouts, chopped
1 (415 g) can vegetarian baked beans in tomato sauce (I loooove the British Heinz)
2 tbsp low-sugar barbecue sauce
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp sugar-free syrup
2 tbsp water

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Halve squash lengthwise, scooping out seeds. Place on a lined baking sheet.
3. Combine remaining ingredients in a bowl.
4. Divide evenly among the hollows of the squash halves.
5. Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until tender and gooey, covering halfway through with tin foil.

Amount Per Serving
Calories: 299.1
Total Fat: 1.0 g
Cholesterol: 0.0 mg
Sodium: 914.7 mg
Total Carbs: 63.3 g
Dietary Fiber: 15.6 g
Protein: 15.2 g