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!