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.