Wow. A lot has happened since my last post.

I have officially moved back to Toronto. Which is awesome. I know I mentioned that I was a little sad to leave Windsor, but now that I'm back in Toronto, I'm much happier. I work full time at Bunner's Bakeshop, which is so much fun. I really enjoy everyone I work with, as well as the job itself. As well, I've moved into my own apartment! It's cute and in an awesome location. Finally moved to the west side, who knew it was so much better over here?

I've haven't been doing too much baking at home, work eats up a lot of my time and plus, I love the goodies that we make! I'm looking to get back into the groove of selling baked goods/specialty cakes again, but I will wait for Easter to be over.

Let's see, what have I been up to the past four months?! Well I was part of the Totally Fabulous Vegan Bake-Off this year. It was fun, but stressful. I'm glad that I know what it entails now, so next year will hopefully go more smoothly. I made a gluten-free brownie, filled with a chocolate pudding and topped with coconut whipped cream. It was mega yummy, if I say so myself. I was the runner-up in my category, Glorious Gluten-Free Sweets. I have bigger and better plans for next year.

I'm baking for another event coming up, Vegan Rock. It's a fundraiser for the Toronto Vegetarian Association. I haven't been before, but this is the 5th year that it's taken place. (Can I just say that I've lived in Toronto for years but never knew about any of these awesome vegan events...what was I even doing?!) Anyways, it's a PWYC bake sale as well as show. So I will be donating some delicious goodies, and then hanging around to see some (vegan) bands play. This is taking place on April 6th. Check it out.

Well, I know that I am the worst blogger. I've admitted that to myself a while ago. But I am going to try and get back into selling and at least posting once every week/couple of weeks.

I'm so happy that the weather is finally warming up. I love winter but it definitely gets annoying after a while.

I hope everyone has a great long weekend.

New phone, new cakes.

I finally got a new phone! I'm very excited because now I can take better pictures. I still want an actual camera but until then, my phone will do.

The past few weeks have been quite busy. I've been spending a lot of time with some awesome people, and of course, baking. Actually, I don't spend as much time baking as I did before. I just don't have the sweet tooth I did before, so I'm only baking for orders. But it's nice getting back into the groove of baking. I actually have an working interview at a bakery in Toronto this week, which I'm quite excited/nervous about. It looks as though I will be back in Toronto by the New Year. Just a month ago, I couldn't wait to get back to Toronto. I really do love the city and all it has to offer. Now though, I'm less excited. I'm just going to miss all my friends so much.

Anyways, onto the baking. Here are a few things I've made lately.

Everything is handmade and edible. The cake is a simple vanilla cake with chocolate icing.

Super simple German chocolate cake.

This was so delicious! Double chocolate brownie cake. The photo does NOT do this cake justice...it's just so yummy.

1. My lovely cat, Turtle.
2. A huge bottle of Walkerville brewery Christmas beer.
2. Mega yummy breakfast: tofu scramble, spinach salad, pepper strips and toasted ciabatta.
4. Whole wheat pancakes with fruit and pure maple syrup.

Well that's my life recently! I'm making another cake this weekend, so there will be more pictures coming up. Oh and don't forget to add me to instagram: nafflescakes

Hope you have a great week!

Some things going on in my life lately.

So here are some things I've been making/eating lately. I have a few specialty cakes lined coming up in the next two weeks, so there will more blog posts coming up!

(Homemade graham crackers, marshmallows from APieCalyspe Now! and dark chocolate.)

(Apple spice cupcakes, and chocolate chip cupcakes with whipped ganauche.)

(Butternut squash soup, toast with avocado, and orange pepper.)

(Awesome pumpkins I carved!)

So that's what has been going on with me. Lately, I've been busy looking for an apartment and new job for when I return to Toronto. I am planning on being back in Toronto by January 1st, possibly before that depending on the job situation.

I hope everyone is enjoying fall. Personally, I cannot wait for it to snow! I'm just so excited for the cold weather.

Cupcake of the Month: October

Hi!

So I am really going to try and blog more. I know I've said this before, and I'm sure I will say it again. But I really would like to update more often. I am baking a lot more since I'm not working, so I just need to get into the habit of photographing what I make.

Well, it's apple season. I love to go apple picking, but usually I go too late. This year, I actually went at the right time! Sadly though, there were no apples to pick. Because of the multiple frosts we had earlier in the year, there is a shortage of apples. I mean there were apples, but they had already been picked. So we just had to pick them out of bins, rather than off the tree.

After my friends and I got apples, we made some apple spice cupcakes with a crumb topping. These were mega delicious, and I'm sad that we devoured them before I could take a picture.

BUT for my Windsor friends: if you order at least six (6) Apple Spice Cupcakes, I will give you 15% off your order. This discount will only apply to Apple Spice Cupcakes, and will only last for the month of October.

I hope everything is having a good month!

Wow it's been a long time. I have a million excuses but the truth is- I just forgot to post. Other things became more important and here I am two months later.

I have temporarily relocated to Windsor, ON. While I am still able to sell things to the GTA, specialty items such as cakes can only be sold here in Windsor.

I will be back in Toronto, I'm just not sure when yet!

I will try and update as much as possible, although I have yet to bake since being back here.

Talk to you soon.

Congratulations!

I just wanted to announce the winner of the giveaway Elycia held, It's Mel from Smiles from Mel!

As well, I'm sorry about the lack of posts. I haven't been baking much at home, which is unusual. Work has been mega busy, and filled with a lot of recipe testing-and eating. So I've been getting my sweets fix during work hours.

I just bought some delicious amber maple syrup from my local farmers market, so expect some yummy treats featuring that!

I hope everyone is having a great summer, it's going by so quickly! I can't even believe it.

Cherry cherry cherry.

I keep trying to make a perfect crumble bar, but I never succeed. Don't get me wrong, I do make some delicious bars. But none of them are perfect. Even this one; it's delicious, but not perfect.

It might be because I have no idea what I am looking for. As a kid, I never liked fruit as dessert. I ate fruit all the time, but dessert was chocolate or cake or cookies. So maybe I will just never find a perfect crumble bar because I will never think a crumble bar is perfect. Not compared to chocolate chip cookies or a slice of red velvet cake. Who knows.

Regardless, these were yummy and I'm going to bring them to a picnic today so hopefully other people agree!

I made these because I bought 8 dollars worth of cherries. That's a lot. And I didn't mean to. But it happened. And cherries hurt my stomach, but  they are delicious so I deal. But eating that many wouldn't be the best idea, so I cooked them down into a jam and made a crumble!

If any of you have a great crumble recipe, send it my way!

Alright, I am the worst at posting. And it's funny because I've made some delicious baked goods this week. I made baked donuts....twice. And they were delicous...twice. The second time I made them, I tried a gluten free flour mix and they turned out so good! I also made chocolate chip blondies, which were gluten-free as well. And then I made ice cream, vanilla with chocolate chips and peices of the blondies. Oh my god it was good. I don't normally do that much gluten-free baking at home. But I like to try new things and at work we are going to start making a lot of gluten-free products so I was testing some out.


But today isn't about what I made over the past week. It's about what you could possibly have me make for you. Over at Elycia's blog, she is having a giveaway to win some delicious goodies from me! You could win: 

6 double chocolate cookies
6  truffles (assorted)

4 filled cupcakes (assorted)
6 mini chocolate garbanzo bean cakes

So go over to her blog to see how you could win! (This contest is only open to Ontario residents, sorry!)

Oh and don't forget, you can still use the discount code from her review to get 15% off any treats! And I do ship all over Canada, so even if you don't live in Ontario you can still purchase some compassionate baked goods!

Well, I'm off to go test out a cherry crumble bar. But first, I have a question. Should I add chocolate?

Review

I just thought I should tell you to pop over to Elycia's blog to see a review of my goodies! I seriously read her blog everyday and I was so excited that she said yes to try some of my treats.

So please check out the review, as well as find out how to get 15% off your order! Oh and stayed tuned because I have more exciting news coming your way very soon!

Plain and simple.

I love pancakes. Maybe it's because as a kid, I never liked eggs. In grade 8 my friend made me have scrambled eggs because I had never had never had them before. Meh. Never ate them again. I can honestly say that I don't think I've had any other egg product, besides in baked goods. So when it came to breakfast, I liked pancakes. I actually rarely ever ate them with syrup. I just liked them plain. I was weird, and mega picky.

Now, I love syrup. I still don't use as much as most other people (it's way too sweet!) but the taste is amazing. These are my favourite pancakes ever. They aren't too fluffy, and aren't too flat. The texture is perfect and they taste great alone or with syrup, fruit or chocolate chips. Yum!

This recipe has been adapted from The Joy of Vegan Baking.

Pancakes.
Yields 6-8

1/2 cup spelt flour
3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 tsp flax meal (optional)
1 tsp pysulium husks (optional)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup non-dairy milk
2 tbsp vegan margarine
3 tbsp maple syrup (You can use agave or brown rice syrup, but I find maple has the best flavour!)

Melt the margarine and set aside. Measure all dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Add all wet ingredients together, whisking just until mixed. Using an ice cream scoop, measure and pour batter onto a lightly greased pan. (You don't have to grease the pan, but I like my pancakes nice and dark so I always do.)


If you are using all-purpose flour instead of pastry, reduce the total amount of flour to 1 cup. Some other variations are adding fresh or frozen fruit, chocolate chips, cinnamon, coconut, and so much more. Really, the options are endless.

Now I know these aren't the healthiest, which is why I try to use the best ingredients possible, and I don't eat these everyday.


I hope you enjoy!

Anniversary

My two best friends celebrated there 5 year anniversary on Friday. I've been friends with them since high school, we used to live together and now we live in the same apartment building!

Last year, I made them molten chocolate cakes with raspberry coulis. They were delicious, but this year I wanted to make an actual decorated cake. I had a million ideas in my head, which is a good and a bad thing. I'd much rather have a lot of ideas than not be able to think of anything. But also, if I don't decided on one definite idea then everything gets jumbled and causes me to freak out. Meaning, I freaked out yesterday.

I love decorating cakes, I do. But I'm known to go a little crazy in the process. Thankfully last night, I was alone while decorating. It's honestly better that way so people don't have to see the hysterical me. On a side not, I did work in a bakery as a cake decorator for six months. I was much more calm in that position. It only starts freaking me out when it's all on me.

Well, after a lot of bumps, I decorated a beautiful cake. A mishmash of ideas made into one, delicious cake.

It's two layers of chocolate cake, one later of toasted coconut cake with whipped ganauche inside. The outside is covered in a chocolate ganauche and then covered in chocolate and vanilla buttercream.

I'd say that it all turned out right in the end.

Oh also, I got a twitter! I'm mega late on the bandwagon but I'm just really bad at social media things. AKA why I don't have a facebook. But yeah , I have only "tweeted" once but we will see how it goes. My name on it is NAFFLESbakeshop. Follow me?

Toasted.

Oh my god. I was never a huge fan of coconut growing up, and even now I wasn't sure if I really loved the taste of coconut. Regardless, I wanted cupcakes but I wanted something different. To be honest, I haven't really been craving chocolate has much as I normally do. To prove it, last week I bought two Godiva chocolate bars and I haven't snacked on them at all. Which is crazy because I love Godiva and because I'm a chocoholic and have an issue.

I was looking through some cookbooks for inspiration and saw a recipe for toasted coconut cupcakes. I had all the ingredients, so I decided to try them. The original recipe is from VCTOTW, but as always, I altered it a little bit. They were supposed to be chocolate coconut, but I just wanted  them to be coconut. So I took out the cocoa powder and replaced it with flour. As well, I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose. I also did not add any coconut exact, I didn't have any. And these had a perfect coconut taste so I don't even think they needed it.

I HAD to try one went they came out of the oven, and instantly I was in love. But I've been craving the whole cupcake experience, which includes icing. I wanted chocolate icing, but not buttercream. I didn't want to add any sugar to it either. I then stumbled upon a whipped ganauche icing. Now, I love ganauche. I make it all the time. But I have never been able to whipped it into a nice, light, frosting. I have tried so many times. I tried different coconut milks, using just coconut cream, using other non-dairy milks. Everything. And it has never worked. But because regardless of how many times I fail things, I keep trying. So I tried again. And succeeded! I think my chocolate:coconut milk ratio was wrong before. It became lighter and fluffier and ugh, so good!

So these bad boys are definitely going to be made again. All the time. But I will add some more flour next time because they are quite crumbly. These are not the kind of cupcake to eat in bed with the lights are off. Like I did.



Ganauche:

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate. (I used Godiva dark chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips.)
1/2 cup coconut milk.

Chop chocolate into small peices and set aside in a bowl. Bring the coconut milk to a boil, stirring to make sure it doesn't burn. Once boiled, pour over the chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes before stirring. Then, mix until smooth. Let this cool on the counter until thick. (I let mine cool for over an hour, just because I had other things to do.) Using an electric mixer and beat until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Then rub it all over your body.

Or put it in a piping bag and decorate your cupcakes. Either or.

OH also, I must apologize for the pictures. I know I really lack skills in the photography department but I am trying  to improve. I promise they will get better soon!

I got my hair cut and found this super awesome candle holder? at a thrift store. (I have no idea what it is..)

Competition.

Okay since I never post anymore, I decided that I need to put something up! I'm written some posts but then didn't take pictures of the baked good that went along with it. I swear one day I'll get better at automatically taking pictures. I do plan on using some of my income tax refund to buy a new camera. Because mine sucks. And my phone camera also sucks. So I usually use my boyfriends phone. But he is usually not home when I bake, which leads to no pictures.

ANYWAYS, I'm going to post some pictures from a baking competition I was in last year. It was at the school I went to for Baking and Pastry Arts. Every year there is a competition between students in the program. 12 people are allowed to compete, and there are 3 categories. Bread (which includes croissants), cake and cookies.

The year I participated was the first year they made it mandatory to make croissants. We all had to use the same recipe, so it was just about how they looked. My croissants were the best looking ones in the competition. Sadly, you didn't get any sort of prize for that. But it was mentioned in the local newspaper!

Sadly, the things I made were not vegan. I know, I know. I wasn't completely vegan at the time, and they school supplied the ingredients. If we wanted to use other things then we would have to pay for it and I was the poorest. Excuses, excuses. I honestly wish I would have made everything vegan since I know I still would have done as well, but oh well!

For the bread category I made: Whole Wheat Honey Oat bread. It's my go to bread. (now I used brown rice syrup, maple syrup or agave.) It's a nice dense bread, great for stews and soups. Yum, now I want to make some.

For the cake category I made: Chocolate cake with chocolate raspberry mousse, covered in chocolate ganauche in a chocolate cage. Yeah I know. My only issue with the cake was the ganauche. The consistency was off and I should have fixed it but didn't and I am still kicking myself for that.

The cookie category I made: Cream cheese cookies with a pink glaze. These are childhood favourite. I make vegan versions all the time, subbing in vegan cream cheese. I personally HATE cream cheese, but these cookies are just sweet and delicious.

And out of 12 people, I got 2nd place in breads, cakes and overall. So no gold, but I guess three silver isn't so bad.

I also need to give a shout-out to my assistant, Nicole! Every participant had an assistant to help weigh ingredients, grab things, etc. She was the best and I could not have done it without her!

Fail.

During  the week, I decided to make a dry mix for red velvet cupcakes. I like doing this, since it makes it much easier to do some quick baking. But, it's only a good idea if you make sure you measure everything correctly!

Last night I went to make the cupcakes and fill them with chocolate ganauche. (I had some ganauche in the fridge from earlier this week) And we had this awesome idea of putting a spoonful of the ganauche in the raw batter. Normally, I core the finished cupcakes and pipe in the filling. But this would be easier and maybe even more delicious.

Sadly, I think I forgot to add a 1/4 cup of flour. Because they did not turn out well. They were so flat, and all the chocolate just fell to the bottom and blah. Such a disappointment. I mean, Adrian still ate 5 last night. But I didn't even finish one.

I want to start making lots of dry mixes, but obviously I need to make sure I really pay attention to the amounts I'm putting in!

Fudge-y.

I have tried so many brownie recipes. Personally, I like cake-y brownies. But I have yet to find a recipe that I absolutely love. Before I was vegan, I had a great recipe. But it didn't veganize super well, and I still need to work with it. Adrian, on the other hand, prefers fudge-y brownies.

I absolutely love the book The Joy of Vegan Baking, I've been using recipes from it for years. One recipe I had never tried was the brownies. Since they were fudge-y, I never thought I would make them. But last night I really felt like baking, but had NO IDEA what to make. I wasn't craving anything. Finally, Adrian and I decided that I should make brownies.

They ended up being delicious! Personally, they are a little dense for me but mega chocolate-y. Like the last recipe, I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all purpose, and organic cane sugar instead of white sugar.

I will definitely make these again.

Anyone have any good cake-y brownie recipes?

Kobo.

I recently bought a Kobo e reader, and I have to say it's great! I wasn't sure if I wanted one, since I hate reading computer screens for a long time. But it's so easy to read, doesn't turn my eyes at all, and is so convenient. I think I love it most for the fact that I can get all the cookbooks I want for low prices (or free!) and am able to have all the recipes in one place.

I've been looking for a perfect lemon poppy seed muffin recipe for years. I've experimented with many recipes but never found anything that I loved. I saw a recipe for them in Vegan Brunch, and decided to try it since I love so many of her recipes.

They turned out really well! While I won't say they are perfect yet, they are so so so close. I did make some initial adjustments, which could even be the reason why I don't think they are perfect yet. I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose. This was my first time using no all-purpose in baked good, and you can't even tell that they are whole wheat. It's wonderful and I will be baking with whole wheat pastry flour a lot more. As well, instead of white sugar I used organic cane sugar. It's just a little less refined.

While at the store today I also picked up some coconut palm sugar, which I'm very excited to experiment with. I have lots of baking plans this week, I can't wait to get started!

Oops.

I am the worst. In the past three days I have made chocolate swirled banana bread, and brown sugar cupcakes filled with chocolate ganauche. They were both delicious, but I forgot to take pictures!

I made a small loaf of the banana bread on Sunday, and sliced into almost immediately out of the oven. While I am not a huge fan of banana bread, Adrian is and well, we had bananas to use up. I added the chocolate to make it more inviting for myself. It was tasty, a little too dense for my liking but Adrian loved it.

Yesterday I made the cupcakes because it was Victoria's Day! My friends and I went to the beach and watched the fireworks, so I brought along some cupcakes. I mixed multicoloured sprinkles into the ganauche so it would kind of resemble fireworks. They were delicious, I was easily make those again.

I'm sorry for the no pictures post. I really need to get a better camera so I can take better pictures/be more excited to take pictures.

Hope everyone had a great long weekend!

Basic.

I had some of the cookie dough from the cupcakes leftover, so I obviously had to make cookies. While chocolate chip cookies are so simple, they are probably my favourite cookie. Nothing beats homemade cookies.

The park was so wonderful yesterday, I think I'm going  to go back there today. It's even warmer today! But now I need to decide what to bring for a picnic...

Double dessert.

I've been baking basically everyday, it's great. I've been trying to try different things, hence the garbanzo bean cakes I made earlier in the week. Yesterday, I really want to make cupcakes, but I didn't want to make plain old cupcakes. So I decided to make rainbow ones. But still, that wasn't enough. So then I decided to bake a cookie inside each cupcake I've seen people do this before, but normally they freeze the dough first so it will still be raw in the cupcake. I didn't  have time to freeze the dough, so I just chilled it in the refrigerator.  And to be honest, they ended up tasting great!

I used the chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Joy of Vegan Baking, except tweaked a bit to suit my taste buds. The cake batter was one that I've been working on for a while. I still don't think it's perfect, but it's pretty damn close. And the frosting is from VCTOTW.

These ended up being mega delicious. My friends absolutely loved them, and I really should have made more than 6.

Well, I must get some food ready for a picnic today! It's a long weekend and it's supposed to be gorgeous out everyday, I'm so excited!

Beans beans beans.

I've been trying to eat less soy and fake meat products lately. Which means I'm adding a lot more beans to my diet. It's super easy thought since I love beans and I love challenging myself to make new/different things.

There's this cafe in my hometown that made this delicious chocolate garbanzo bean cake. Every time I went there, I would get a slice of this cake. It never seemed healthy or anything less than indulgent.

Well, it's been a long time since I've had any garbanzo bean cake since it was not vegan. (Eggs!) But today I decided that instead of daydreaming about it everyday, I would just veganize it. I used this recipe and just changed a few things. Obviously instead of eggs, I used an egg replacer. (The brand I use is PaneRiso since it's the only kind I ever see in stores.) As well, I used agave instead of white sugar. Mainly because I didn't have any white sugar. I barely use it anymore so I always forget to buy more. All I did for the conversion is I used just over 1/2 cup of agave, and I took out 1/4 cup water from the recipe. (Basically, I just used 1 tbsp of water per "egg" as opposed to 2 tbsp.) I also baked mine in a cupcake pan, which I greased and dusted with some cocoa powder. They turned out so cute! And quite delicious. I'm going to try freezing some of them to see how well they freeze, but I'm super happy with the result.

I can't wait to have these with some berries and powder sugar for dessert tonight!