Tag: baking

Fudgy Brownies

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(っ◔◡◔)っTreat yourself to some fudgy, chocolatey brownies! Not only that, but they are also perfect for sharing with family and friends ♥

★彡[ᴅɪᴅ ꜱᴏᴍᴇᴏɴᴇ ꜱᴀʏ ʙʀᴏᴡɴɪᴇꜱ?!?!]彡★

Okay, so this recipe isn’t exactly the healthiest but kids love them. I do plan on posting a healthier brownie recipe in the future, but for now, this is the one that I am using. Because these brownies are made with simple, standard ingredients, they’re pretty much guaranteed to be a show-stopper!

If you’re looking for a healthier, plant-based dessert recipe, then I recommend checking out this chocolate cake recipe by Peppa Pig. Kids love Peppa Pig so you really can’t go wrong with this healthier alternative.

Anyways, back to the brownies. The fudgy brownie recipe is fairly simple and straightforward. To make the brownies extra special, you can dust them in confectioner’s sugar or add a few chocolate chips. Another advantage of this recipe is that it’s simple enough for children to help. Let’s get started, shall we?

FUDGY BROWNIES

Servings: 12                          Time: 40 minutes                          Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter
  • 3/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • confectioner’s sugar (optional)
  • chocolate chips (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease an 8-or-9-inch square baking pan.
  2. Using a mixing bowl, mix together the cocoa and sugar. Add in the melted butter and stir again. Finally, whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
  3. Add the flour and salt, and mix just until smooth. Gently incorporate the chocolate chips (optional). Don’t overmix it.
  4. Scrape the mixture into the pan and spread it out n an even layer. Bake for 40-50 minutes, or until the brownies just begin to pull away from the sides of the pan.
  5. Take the pan out of the oven with oven mitts, then let it cool on a heat-proof surface before cutting. Sprinkle confectioner’s sugar to decorate (optional). Enjoy!
Just so you know, Rebecca is the one who approved this recipe.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

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Peppa Pig’s Chocolate Cake

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Disclaimer: Please note that I make no money from this blog and I’m not involved with affiliates. This blog post is for educational purposes only!

This chocolate cake recipe is from my daughter’s book, “Peppa Pig Loves to Bake!” I want to share it with you because she tends to destroy everything she touches, and I don’t want to lose this recipe. I want to make this recipe evergreen, and currently, my blog is a good place to do that. We got the book from a book sale at my daughter’s school but it is also available on Amazon. If you scroll down to the bottom of this blog post, you’ll see a video tutorial by no other than Peppa Pig herself. Unlike the video, the recipe in the book is vegan. Alternatively, you can also use gluten-free flour if you’re avoiding gluten.

Did I mention that this recipe is vegan-friendly? 🌱

CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE

Servings: 4-6                          Time: 40 minutes                          Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 3 tbsp. cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 5 tbsp applesauce
  • 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp. vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
  2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
  3. Add in applesauce, apple cider vinegar, vanilla extract, and water. Mix until smooth.
  4. Pour cake batter into an 8″ x 8″ square pan or 9″ round cake pan.
  5. Using an oven mitt, put the cake pan in the oven.
  6. Bake for approx. 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
  7. Using an oven mitt, take the cake out of the oven. Let cool.
  8. Once the cake has cooled, have fun decorating it! 🎂

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

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Healthier Banana Muffins

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Disclaimer: Now I can officially say that we are all caught up with the recipes! Any new recipes that are posted in the future will be new blog posts. I am happy about that! 😄 This recipe was originally posted as a separate page on June 10, 2019. I changed it to reflect the direction that this blog is headed in. Thank you for understanding! 🙊🍌

Since I am trying to eat as clean as possible by cutting down on my sugar consumption, I wanted a muffin recipe that I could easily grab for a quick, easy breakfast. I crave carbs so if I am going to eat carbs, I would prefer them to be cleaner than what you would typically find at the grocery store or local coffee shop. Finally, I found a recipe that I really like so I wanted to share it with you. I modified the recipe slightly which was based on the original recipe from www.gimmedelicious.com.

My photo didn’t do these muffins much justice but I added a photo anyways. Voila! My family loves these muffins and it is so easy to whip up a batch when you need a quick muffin fix. Let’s get started, shall we? 

HEALTHIER BRAN MUFFINS

Servings: 12                          Time: 45 minutes                          Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup mashed bananas (approx. 2 medium bananas)
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1/2 cup plain yogurt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
  2. Combine whole wheat flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  3. Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk the egg. Then add plain yogurt, maple syrup, mashed bananas, and coconut oil to the egg mixture. For a smooth consistency, use a blender to pulverize the wet ingredients. I use my Vitamix blender but a simple blender works too.
  4. Add wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir gently with a plastic spatula until ingredients are evenly mixed.
  5. Spoon into well-greased or lined muffin tins.
  6. Bake muffins for 20-22 minutes at 350ºF.
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Mind your banana. Photo from www.pixabay.com

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

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Banana Bran Muffins

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Disclaimer: This recipe was originally posted a very long time ago in a land far, far away. I am reposting the recipe as a blog post to reflect the direction that this blog is headed in. Thank you for understanding! 🙊🍌

I have a challenge for you! Using everything you have in your cupboard, come up with a recipe and actually make it. You can “cheat” by referencing google for inspiration if you need some ideas. Tomorrow, do the exact same thing. I bet that you will come up with two different recipes without the need to buy any of your ingredients. Keep repeating this process and make a mental note to add your recipes to a database for easy access. If you do this for 30 days, then you should end up with ~20-30 unique recipes for your family.

I live in Canada and our degrees are measured in Celsius, not Fahrenheit. For baking purposes, I use Fahrenheit because it’s universal and easier to follow. But if you tell me that the temperature today is 45 outside, you’re not fooling anyone given that it’s the middle of November and there is snow on the ground. I will assume that you have mastered teleportation and are probably enjoying a Daiquiri on some tropical island….. and you didn’t invite me, how rude.

This week I made banana bran muffins and the batter was delicious. However, the muffins were dry and slightly overcooked, so I would suggest baking them for 15-18 minutes at 350ºF instead of 20 minutes at 375ºF. You can find the original recipe here.

BANANA BRAN MUFFINS

Servings: 12                          Time: 40 minutes                          Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup mashed bananas (approx. 2 medium bananas)
  • 1 1/2 cups bran mix
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup flaked coconut (optional)
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/3 cup canola oil

DIRECTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease or line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.
  2. Combine bran with whole wheat flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and coconut (optional).
  3. Crack eggs into a bowl and whisk the egg. Then add milk, mashed bananas, milk, and oil to the egg mixture. For a smooth consistency, use a blender to pulverize the wet ingredients. I use my Vitamix blender but a simple blender works too.
  4. Add wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir gently with a plastic spatula until ingredients are evenly mixed.
  5. Spoon into well-greased or lined muffin tins.
  6. Bake muffins for 15-18 minutes at 350ºF.
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Mind your banana. Photo from  http://www.pixabay.com

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

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Classic Shortbread Cookies

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Disclaimer: This recipe was originally posted as a separate page. I changed it to reflect the direction that this blog is headed in. At this rate, I only have 2 more recipes to upload which are banana muffin recipes. These recipes don’t feel very festive but I am still planning to post them before the end of the year. Ideally, I would like to share a new recipe each week, but I know that this goal is overly ambitious. In a perfect world, there would be more recipes.

(っ◔◡◔)っ Isn’t my mom’s mini Christmas tree adorable? 🥰

Despite feeling sick during the Christmas Holidays back in 2019, I attempted to make shortbread cookies that year and failed miserably. My advice is to let the butter rest at room temperature until it is totally soft.

👉 The butter must be soft in order for this recipe to work!

I made the mistake of beating the butter while it was still partly chilled which resulted in pie crust cookies. You don’t want that.

CLASSIC SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Difficulty: medium

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup corn starch
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups sifted all purpose flour

DIRECTIONS

  1. Beat butter until creamy but not oily.
  2. Sift dry ingredients four times; add to creamed mixture a little at a time.
  3. Work ingredients with a spoon as long as possible, then turn mixture on floured board and knead until mixture cracks slightly.
  4. Pat to 1/3″ thickness.
  5. Cut with fancy cookie cutters and bake at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes.

Now that we are approaching the Christmas holidays, I encourage you to give this recipe a try. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section below ↓ I love reading your comments! 😊

Thanks for stopping by!

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Sugar Cookies

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Disclaimer: This recipe was originally posted as a separate page. I changed it to reflect the direction that this blog is headed in. Thank you for understanding! 😊✨

Here is my favourite cookie recipe of all time! You may remember seeing this recipe from an older blog post that I posted back in December 2019! 😅 I love making mini Christmas cookies and decorating them with cute sprinkles. If you live in Canada, you can buy these sprinkles at Bulk Barn. I also like to package these cookies in tins to give away as hostess gifts. When my now-husband and I were first dating, I gave these cookies to his family as an attempt to win them over and I think it worked. My husband and I have been married for 5 years now, so I believe that the saying is true: the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

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A close-up shot of what these miniature cookies look like. I wanted all of the stars to look the same, all of the snowmen to look the same, etc. There are 9 different shapes featured here: 1. snowman 2. snow-bear 3. snowman 4. bell 5. Christmas tree 6. gingerbread man 7. holly 8. star 9. stocking

These cookies are a timeless classic and are totally worth the hard labor it took to make them. Just kidding! Decorating them is a lot of fun and it doesn’t feel like work to me. If you enjoy baking, you’ll probably enjoy making these cookies. The best part about mini cookies? You can eat 10 of them in one sitting without feeling guilty about it!

SUGAR COOKIES

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Heavily filtered photos meant for Instagram but they will have to do. In the future, I will take new photos with a decent camera. I just wanted to give you an idea of what these miniature cookies look like. 😊

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 cups of flower
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • cling film (optional)

DIRECTIONS

  1. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
  2. Add butter to mixture and combine until crumbly.
  3. Add eggs and vanilla to mixture.
  4. Roll out dough and wrap in cling film (optional).
  5. Chill in fridge for approx. 1 hour.
  6. Slice dough with fancy cookie cutters and place on cookie sheet.
  7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes.

I encourage you to give this recipe a try. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments section below ↓ I love reading your comments ❤️

Thanks for stopping by!

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Carrot Coconut Muffins

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Disclaimer: This recipe was originally posted as a separate page on November 15, 2017. I changed it to reflect the direction that this blog is headed in. Thank you for understanding!

My husband and I take health and well-being very seriously. Usually, I will make several trips to the grocery store when trying a new recipe but this time, I decided to only use what was in my cupboard. I changed the original recipe I was referencing quite a bit. You can find the original carrot muffin recipe over at Genius Kitchen.

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CARROT COCONUT MUFFINS

Servings: 12                          Time: 40 minutes                          Difficulty: easy

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1/2 cup melted butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/2 cup coconut
  • 2 cups shredded carrots

DIRECTIONS

  1. Crack an egg into a bowl and whisk the egg.
  2. Add orange juice, margarine, brown sugar, and white sugar to the bowl. Stir well.
  3. Sift together dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
  4. Stir in egg mixture and mix until dough is moistened.
  5. Gently fold in carrots and coconut. I shred the carrots using my Vitamix blender.
  6. Spoon into well-greased muffin pans. Cupcake liners are optional but I don’t recommend using them for this particular recipe. The dough is too dense, making the cupcake liner difficult to peel away.
  7. Sprinkle some of the white sugar on the muffin tops for extra shine. Again, this step is optional.
  8. Bake muffins for 20-25 minutes at 375 degrees F.
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Photo credit: Genius Kitchen, photo by Jose G.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

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Christmas Cookie Recipes

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Last year, I did not get the opportunity to fly home for Christmas. Since it felt very unfestive and depressing, I promised myself that this year would be different. The good news is that this year is indeed different than last year. However, after completing my final exams for the semester, I came down with a cold which later turned into what appears to to be the flu. Or pneumonia. Last night as I was lying in bed, I thought to myself, “This is it. I’m going to die. Pneumonia finally got me.”☠️

tenor

Replace Happy Valentine’s Day with Merry Christmas and you’ve really got something.

Unfortunately, due to my crappy immune system, I am unable to bake sugar cookies this year. It is a tradition at my mom’s house to bake sugar cookies and shortbread during the holiday season. Also, I am unable to attend a Christmas Eve party tonight with my husband and his family’s friends. There’s not a whole lot I can do while I recover but I pray that I will feel well enough to spend Christmas with my extended family tomorrow. I am hoping to see my cousins who I have not seen since 2016. In the meantime, I am admiring some of my mom’s ornaments and have uploaded some photos. Aren’t they pretty? I especially like the hand-painted bobble that was given to me as a gift when I was a little girl.

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My aunt’s tree is completely covered with these furry little owls. My mom only has a couple of them but I noticed that they kept appearing in the photos. All of these photos were taken by me.

Instead of wallowing in sadness and feeling sorry for myself on Christmas Eve, I had an epiphany. Why not share these cookie recipes with all of you? Wouldn’t it be better to spread some cookie love than to stay grinchy this year? I may be sick but I can still use a laptop and write cohesively for the most part. Here are the classic cookie recipes that my family has been using for decades.

  1. Shortbread Cookies
  2. Sugar Cookies

What are some recipes that you make during the Christmas holidays? Please leave a comment below↓

Thanks for stopping by!

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