Hot!

On a hot and humid day like today, it's hard to get motivation to do any sort of cooking or baking in a kitchen without any air conditioning. I ended up braving the heat to make some double chocolate cupcakes for my family, more specifically my grandma.
I decorated the chocolate cupcakes with a fudge-like frosting with just a swirl for a minimalistic feel (which can also be described as: the point at which the heat was just getting to be too much!). Regardless, there's nothing like a classic chocolate cupcakes to put a smile on everyone's face (including my brother who has piano practice tonight; aka his least favourite activity in the world).

Congrats Faith and Luke!

Happy Monday! This weekend was a busy one full of baking, a dance recital, a wedding and work. Although busy, I had such a great time.
On Saturday evening I attended a wedding at Enoch Turner Schoolhouse for Faith and Luke (my best friend Maia's sister). It was such a gorgeous wedding! Everything from the flowers, venue and decor inside was perfect! I wish I had taken more pictures but I completely forgot!
For the rehearsal the night before I was excited to have been asked to make the desserts. I made cupcakes, sugar cookies, cheesecake and a flourless chocolate cake. The cupcakes were a vanilla based cake with a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream icing. I decided to get into the wedding spirit and made mini "wedding cakes" using three different sized cupcakes and stacking them to represent the tiers. I thought the result was great! I also made swirl cupcakes with a single royal icing flower placed on the top. The sugar cookies were made using a wedding cake cookie cutter and decorated with royal icing.

The flourless chocolate cake (I used this recipe) turned out delicious (a little piece was stuck to the pan that I just had to sample!). This dessert is perfect for individuals with gluten intolerances (as the name of the dessert suggests, this dessert is indeed flourless!). Just be sure to thoroughly butter the springform pan and follow the instructions with regard to whisking in 1/4 of the whipped egg whites into the chocolate mixture before folding in the remaining egg whites. This ensure that during the folding process the two mixtures have a more similar consistency which maximizes the volume of your final batter. The result is a moist and and decadent dessert!