Baking becomes a breeze

Having a gorgeous KitchenAid at my disposable has made baking on a whim an absolute breeze. Well as long as I have the required ingredients on hand then I am able to quickly turn my baking wish into a reality. Since her first use whipping up a batch of cupcakes, as documented in this post, Kambie has been used twice including making scones using a recipe I found here. I used a coffee mug to make the scones round, as this was my preference over a wedge shape. As soon as they were fresh out of the oven I had to sample one of them with a lashing of margarine and a dollop of homemade raspberry jam, which I told you all about back in July.

I wouldn't have minded if the scones had risen a bit more, but practice will make perfect and they did taste delicious. I should know seeing as I ate five of them. For our third adventure together, Kambie and I whipped up a batch of peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies or, as the chosen recipe calls them, outrageous chocolate chip cookies. A friend had requested the key ingredients be combined as part of a cookie creation. He used to be my best guinea pig until he went all healthy on me. However, I had promised to make a big cookie for him after his wedding and so here is me following through on this promise, maybe slightly later than planned.

As I mentioned, baking on a whim is now a breeze and the cookies turned out perfectly. I baked the smaller ones for fifteen minutes and the large one for twenty-two minutes, but I recommend keeping an eye on them to ensure none are overcooked.

I had to perform some quality control on the cookies and can confidently say they meet the mark. Nice job Kambie!

Musical musings for September

With only one full day left of September, I bring you this month's musical musings. This month saw my iTunes library grow by a cool dozen catchy tunes. Carrie Underwood, whose concert I am going to this coming Thursday dominated the purchases with four songs. Listening to her music gets me more and more excited for the concert. The only other multiple song artist was Carly Rae Jepsen, who contributed two. The return of Glee, a few weeks ago, meant that it wouldn't be long before another of their cover songs would be snapped up and of course it wasn't long at all. The rest of the list is made up of a nice combination of old favourites and emerging artists, who have made it into the charts:

1. Inside Your Heaven - Carrie Underwood
2. Mean - Taylor Swift
3. Good Time - Carly Rae Jepsen & Owl City
4. One More Night - Maroon 5
5. Strangers (feat. Pusha T) - My Name Is Kay
6. How We Do (Party) - Rita Ora
7. Chasing Pavements (Glee Cast Version) - Glee Cast
8. Curiosity - Carly Rae Jepsen
9. Summer Paradise (feat. K'naan) - Simple Plan
10. Wasted - Carrie Underwood
11. Get Out Of This Town - Carrie Underwood
12. Do You Think About Me - Carrie Underwood

September's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Seasonal inspiration

It is probably time for me to start putting away my summer attire and begin to dream of my fall must-haves. The colder, wetter weather will mean lots of layering and protection from the rain. With this in mind, I would love a pair of riding boots as well as a pair of either loafer-style shoes or lace up oxfords/booties. I was quite envious of my friend's recently acquired lace up booties, from Paris nonetheless. However, I will probably have to settle for one or some of the below, images courtesy of Spring:

To cope with the chill of outside and warmth of inside I plan on layering up dresses, tank tops, tops and sweaters with jeans, leggings or pants. Therefore, I definitely need to add more tank tops and sweaters including long, oversized ones to my wardrobe. Forever 21, as their website showcases, has a large colour selection of tank tops and I would love one of each if that were possible.

Not to be outdone in the fashion stakes, American Eagle's sweaters, images acquired from their website, seem to be just what I am after.

Lastly, I would love a warm winter jacket, one that is a bit more outdoorsier in style rather than polished like a coat. Where better to look than The North Face, where I spied these two beauties on their website:

I know it is quite the list of must-haves, but I am hoping to purchase some of them when I am in San Francisco for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend.

The simple pleasure of TV show watching

I feel like the change in season to fall means a lot of things so I wanted to talk about them all while it still felt relevant, hence the multiple posts on one night. I may not be a stereotypical couch potato, but I do have a bunch of TV shows that I love to watch, whether it be at their original viewing time, as a rerun or online. The end of September usually means the beginning of the return of many of the TV shows I have come to love. It also provides the opportunity for me to become attached to new viewing pleasures, although I really don't think I have time for more. Since when have I let a little thing like time stop me. This fall I will be spending time shedding tears of laughter and sorrow as I dive into the storylines of the following shows:

• Gossip Girl (CW Network) - the final season
• Glee (FOX Network)
• Modern Family (ABC Network)
• The Vampire Diaries (CW Network)
• Grey's Anatomy (ABC Network)
• Supernatural (CW Network)

Some TV shows that impressed me with season one and left me eagerly awaiting their return were:

• Hart of Dixie (CW Network)
• Revenge (ABC Network)
• Homeland (Showtime Network)
• Once Upon A Time (ABC Network)

The only reality-type show I watch is NBC's The Voice and really just for the bromance (for lack of a better word) between Adam Levine and Blake Shelton. It doesn't hurt that they are both quite easy on the eyes. Seeing as all of this is clearly not enough, I am still going at my own pace to get caught up on the US version of The Office. Now, I have added How I Met Your Mother to the list of shows to get up to date on. I am glad I did because this is such a funny show with a great cast and it is quite addictive to whiz through episode after episode in one sitting. In case you were wondering, yes there are new TV shows that have caught my eye and seem worth a look:

• Revolution (NBC Network)
• Last Resort (ABC Network)
• Emily Owens MD (CW Network)
• Nashville (ABC Network)

Gosh, on reflection, this is quite the list, but I guess that is what happens when there are so many TV shows on offer these days. Maybe one or a few of these will make it onto your viewing list if they aren't there already.

Nashville TV show poster (image courtesy of IMDb)

Changing of the season

For me the arrival of fall is heralded by the return of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes and Cobs Bread pumpkin scones in combination with the drop in temperature and the darker skies. Thankfully the rain that Vancouver is famous for has not descended upon us just yet. So I wanted to take this opportunity to have a think about and document the things I wish to do in fall 2012. I hope I am more successful with this season than I was with summer. Upon reflection, my summer list was a bit of a flop and I have no one to blame, but myself, although I did have a pretty great summer. I only ticked off two things from my list - 2. Catch a Canadians baseball game and 4. Make a delicious summer-inspired cheesecake, as seen here. I am not completely sure that I can call the cheesecake summer-inspired, but I did make one nonetheless. Anyway this brings me to my fall 2012 list:

1. Drink copious amounts of Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes
2. Bake delicious pumpkin-based goodies using Kambie, my new KitchenAid stand mixer, who I introduced to you all here
3. Go to the Vancouver Aquarium, which was on my summer list
4. Come up with an awesome costume for Halloween
5. Scare myself silly at PNE's Fright Nights
6. Attend a Giants ice hockey game

I was aiming for a solid ten items on my list, but at the moment I can't conjure up that many. If this six aren't enough to keep away thoughts of the impending weather to come, then the things I already have locked in for the season most definitely will. These include Carrie Underwood and Snow Patrol concerts, Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in San Francisco and two weeks back home in Australia for my best friend's wedding. I guess my fall 2012 has all the makings to be a really good one.

My 2011 pumpkin scone attempt as showcased here 

My baking dream come true

Yesterday was a fantastic day and not because it was a Sunday or that it was still sunny in September. These two things were good, but definitely did not compare to my new purchase/gift (massive thank you), a KitchenAid Professional 5 stand mixer. Canadian Tire had a sale too good to resist and I had really wanted one for so long, which is something I have mentioned many times. Kambie (every important investment needs a name) could possibly be the love of my life. It seems too soon I know, but she is just so pretty and shiny. I did have better photos to display, but I managed to accidently delete them off of my other new purchase of the week, my Sony camera, which I mentioned here. Sometimes technology isn't your friend, but I don't think I will have a problem with Kambie because she runs like a dream well once I locked the bowl in properly. Rookie error I guess, but I think no damage was done.

For the first of many uses, I decided to make cupcakes. Well actually I was going to make cupcakes this weekend anyway, but what better way to do so then with a gorgeous new KitchenAid stand mixer. I choose the flavour for the frosting before I thought about the cupcake variety. A white chocolate frosting seemed only natural even though there was chocolate overload in my last baking project. I didn't have to search too hard for the frosting recipe as it was the first one to come up in Google and can be found here. The one thing I found with this recipe was that I needed to add an extra cup of confectioners' sugar to get a thicker consistency. I also didn't add in the salt because I used salted butter.

The cupcake flavour took a little bit more effort to choose, as I was being quite indecisive. I eventually settled on a lemon cupcake using the recipe I came across here. I didn't have a lemon zester so I didn't use the zest and I found that the mixture was only enough for a dozen cupcakes. However, I felt that this was the perfect amount of cupcakes.

If I could take a minute to critique my work because I am my own worst critic, I just have a couple of things I would like to improve. The cupcakes did taste delicious, but I wouldn't have minded a more intense lemon flavour and a firmer frosting consistency. The finishing touch on the cupcakes were colourful leaves, which seemed quite fitting given the recent season change. In case you were wondering, and I almost forgot to mention this, I used the Wilton No. 12 round decorating tip to shake things up a bit with the frosting application.

I can't wait to create the next baking project with my new and hopefully lifelong investment. We work well together even if I am still a messy baker with her in my life.

Michaels comes to downtown

I should have mentioned this sooner and I am surprised that I haven't, but one of my favourite stores, Michaels, recently opened a new location downtown. Interestingly enough, this location sees it hold court with the likes of Hermes, Brooks Brothers and Tiffany & Co. just to name a few of the high end establishments in residence nearby. Of course I had to check out what was on offer and I wasn't disappointed. The store was pretty quiet considering it had only recently opened. This just meant more supplies for me to choose from without having to patiently wait for someone to step away from what my eyes had spied and my hands were itching to pick up. Purchases had to be made even though I wasn't really in need of anything, not that this has every stopped me before. I settled on a few Wilton baking supplies including a round cake caddy, which was perfect for transporting the birthday cake I mentioned here. It would have actually come in handy for previous projects too. So, I guess you could say I did need the cake caddy.

I definitely didn't need the sprinkles or the icing decorations I bought. However, sprinkles are my big baking weakness...I just love them. I mean who doesn't need spider mix sprinkles, especially with Halloween just around the corner. It definitely doesn't matter that I already own two types of Halloween-themed sprinkles I haven't opened yet. What can I say except that I am weak. I think my little sprinkle obsession could one day be cause for an intervention or maybe even a cameo appearance on a hoarders-type TV show, but for now I will keep on buying them to my heart's content. 

The pumpkin icing decorations were so cute I couldn't resist and I think I will use them just as the picture on the box suggests.

Before I sign off the other big news is that I finally got a new camera, which is actually responsible for these photos. I didn't think anyone would appreciate a cheesy photo of me in my pjs looking into a mirror taking a photo of myself so you could see the camera. Instead, I settled for a photo of the box. I am excited to experiment with my new Sony camera and hopefully it will last much longer than my previous one. All I can say is thank goodness I got the extra two year replacement plan on that camera.

Celebrations

I managed to somehow let a whole week pass without blogging, but not due to a lack of inspiration. Now I find myself celebrating my one hundred and fiftieth post, which is quite exciting. I thought it only fitting then that I mention a big celebration that happened the weekend before last. My lovely friend Steph married her prince charming Michael and it was a beautiful occasion. I was lucky enough to be more involved then just your average guest and happily assisted with the reception set-up. It was an honour to be involved in the day and thankfully the rain held off long enough to not ruin any photos. I wanted to share a couple of snaps sans people, but it really was an amazing celebration with the ceremony held at the Chapel at Stanley Park followed by the reception at the Teahouse in Stanley Park. 

September has been a great month so far so it does seem only right that it involves a milestone related to my blog. I started the month in Whistler, which is a great town to get to both in summer and winter. An awesome time was had by all and included a trek up to the Whistler Mountain Summit, a bike ride and a paddle on a lake just to name a few activities. We even managed to see three bears from the safety of our gondola. 

I hope the summer weather sticks around for a while and the month ends on a high just the way it began. Here is to many more interesting and inspirational things to write about.

Chocolate layer cake

Things have been so busy of late that it totally slipped my mind that August marked the one year anniversary of my blog. I am a little bit disappointed in myself that I didn't acknowledge this fact at the right time. However, I am so happy that I have kept up with the writing and the ramblings, which all started here. I hope to one day look back on all of these posts and remember the inspiration and events that fueled this creative project. It feels like forever since I have mentioned baking on here, but I bet it hasn't been as long as it seems. Last week marked a milestone birthday for my housemate (and resident photographer) Hillary so I was more than happy to bake her whatever flavoured cake she desired. Chocolate was the chosen poison and as such a recipe was found here to bake. I followed the recipe as written except I did not cut the cakes in half, as they did not rise enough to do so. I felt that if I tried to they might have broken when being put together into the layers. Nonetheless, it turned out well and I had fun with the decorating. You can never have too much chocolate when it comes to this type of cake so of course that is what I used for decoration.

It was a fun baking project and I had some help with the whole kitkat, twix, kitkat, smarties pattern because it surprisingly gets tricky to remember the order when you are actually doing it.

Hillary and I are co-workers too, but I managed to keep the finished product a surprise until the next day when it was her actual birthday. The cake was completed with a single lit candle and some Joshua Jackson bunting. 

The story behind the bunting would require another post in itself, but lets just say Hillary was floating on cloud nine on her birthday eve courtesy of some Fringe filming witnessed in person. Of course, it wasn't the show that had this effect, it was the handsome lead actor.