Hilary makes dessert

Apple Torte

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

With the weather having cooled off enough for me to cook without breaking out into a sweat, I decided it was time to rev-up the oven and bake again.  Craving something with apples in it, I was perfectly pleased with the simplicity of Canadian Living’s Apple Tort recipe.  The recipe also allowed me to pop down to the NEW specialty grocery market in my neighbourhood and pick up some apples (I used spartan).  This store is actually a two minute walk from my house, and will be a great place to go to pick up last minute blogging ingredients for foodie adventures in the future!

In the past, I’ve made one other apple dessert using a Canadian Living recipe (see the results: layered apple cake, a father’s day treat), and this apple torte turned out just as well, if not better, than that cake (and it was good!).  Being a huge fan of toasted almonds, I sprinkled an extra handful on top of the torte, along with some brown sugar, to add some colour to the top of the dish.  My pictures (and taste buds) benefitted from these last-minute additions, and they made the torte wonderfully photogenic.

Pool Party Cake (!!!!!!!)

~ Hilary ~ 9 Comments

Before I begin this post, I feel it is important to note the following:

What you will see below is the cake of my childhood dreams.  When I was young, my mom had a copy of Canadian Living’s “Kids in the Kitchen“cookbookwhich I would flip through occasionally, wondering how in the world one was able to cook.  Now, a decade later, I return to my humble beginnings to complete the pièce de résistance of all Canadian Living cakes: The Pool Party Cake(each word deserves a capital letter because, to me, it is a holy entity of awesome). To be honest, I’m a little surprised my mom didn’t make me this cake as a child; I guess there were very few pool parties to go to in Northern Ontario and my birthday was in winter…

When I first heard back in June that we were planning to have a potluck at work, I very nearly had a happiness heart attack.  I KNEW that the time had finally come for me to make this cake, and that the world was finally prepared to be exposed to its sheer wonder.  Also, the cake kind of doubled as a surprise birthday cake for one of my wonderful work supervisors, Jeremy, who was (against his will) getting a belated birthday celebration at lunch.

Let the cake-making begin: Buying all the candy supplies was the hard part – I spent a solid half hour in the Bulk Barn, carefully measuring out gummy candies and determinedly marching up and down the aisles in search of the elusive vanilla wafer cookie (turns out I needed to get them at Walmart).  A short time later, my shopping was complete, and with my new 9×13 glass cake pan filled with goodies, I waltzed (bused) home, anxiously wondering what the results of my cake attempt would be.  Due to some sort of miracle, the cake turned out perfectly.  Despite a minor meltdown that occurred when a deep crack developed through the middle of the cake, the process was rather uneventful and my neuroses was kept at bay for the most part…

Of course, my adventure to deliver cake to potluck continued this morning when I had to find a way to transport said item to school.  Normally I would just ride my bike, however, I had invested too much time and emotion in this cake to see it slide off my handlebars and run over by my Schwinn bicycle.  And so, my worried ass took a cab to school and, in an attempt to pay the driver with my debit card, almost granted the cake a death-by-debit-console-falling-in-pool disaster.  Luckily, everything except my sanity made it to work in one piece.

I would also like to note one final thing: if someone on Ace of Cakes somehow stumbles on this post, please give me a job and/or let me tour your shop.  I promise I would only freak out a little.

Hilary and Cake: an intimate moment. Also, note the wafer cookie entering my mouth…this was because of a failure in cake architecture that caused several half-wafer pieces to come unattached from their other sides.  Beware future cake-makers.


Some happy potluck-ers/amazing co-workers, pre-cake arrival, pre-food coma.

Arrival of cake for the birthday boy!


Happy Belated Jeremy!
(Thank you Iman and your ever-speedy facebook uploads for these last two pictures)

END OF STORY? I am addicted to making cakes.  Next time, I try conquering fondant.

Gord’s Dinner, Part Three: Chocolate Volcano Cake

~ Hilary ~ 1 Comment

BY FAR THE MOST DELICIOUS, DELICATE AND DIFFICULT THING I HAVE EVER MADE.  I am so proud.

I’ll keep this short and sweet.  In my mind, these chocolate volcano cakes are the Holy Grail of dessert and, being a self-proclaimed chocoholic, I knew I would go to extreme measures to ensure that they were completed perfectly.  The recipe was from Canadian Living, obviously, and the preparation instructions originally scared me to death.

Here are a few things I learned from these cakes/morsels from heaven:

1. How to separate the yolk from the egg white
1a. When you continuously blend egg whites, a heavenly, peaked mixture comes into existence.  I knew this happened, I have just never experienced the magic before.
2. These cakes are called volcano cakes for a reason.  One of them blew up as I tried to pick it up.  My counter consequently suffered a chocolate flash flood.
3. A set of six ramekin dishes for $9 is the best investment a girl can make.
3a. I need a second job to afford all the extra dishes I am buying to make my food plating a pretty process.
4. The picture below DOES NOT do this cake justice.  If I could include a scratch-and-eat feature on wordpress, I swear you would all love me.

“Happy Birthday Canada” Cupcakes (and a brief narration of Canada Day from in front of the Terry Fox statue)

~ Hilary ~ 3 Comments

If there is one thing that you need to know about me, it is that I love my country.  With such knowledge now in your craniums, I’m sure it’s not hard for you to guess just what it was I was doing on July 1.  Decked out in my red shorts and Canuck shirt, I trekked to downtown Ottawa, to experience Canada’s birthday the way it should be celebrated: on Parliament Hill.

(It was windy, we were trying to fly)

11:30 a.m.
 So the Parliament Hill thing didn’t really happen…apparently you have to come a wee bit earlier than 11:30 if you wish to even claim a smidgen of space on the Hill.  Alas, myself and a few of my fellow Summer O leaders camped out in front of the Terry Fox statue, where we managed to see the Queen in her red pantsuit (very patriotic of her) and get scared as 21 shots rang out into the afternoon heat.  Special shout out to Iman who found her soulmate on this balmy July day: a tall, photo-taking, prominent jawline man who we have appropriately named Eric (after Prince Eric in The Little Mermaid).  All in all, my feet were run over by strollers, bicycles and walkers, but not even sore feet could smother my patriotism!  I swear, if they had played that Olympic “I Believe” song, I would have broken out into tears.

My tippy-toes view of the day’s events:

Mass chaos ensued as we tried to escape the drowning push and pull of red-and-white…

On to the treat!
Since it certainly isn’t everyday that your dear country turns 143, I thought I should do something extra special for this Friday’s treat, in honour of this festive occasion.  Between coming home from being swamped downtown and going to see the fireworks at night, I managed to churn 27 pretty little cupcakes out of my ghetto student kitchen.  I even melted red chocolate into maple leaf moulds!!  Come on, how cute is that?  Even after a long, frustrating struggle with the Stove from Hell and our pathetic mixer (I am so buying a counter mixer with my Visa reward points), we were complete.  Here is the result, which I am rather pleased with.

So what did I think of Canada Day in the capital?  AWESOME!!  Next year’s plan?  Parking myself on Parliament Hill at 8:00 a.m. sharp, picnic blanket and Canada flag in hand (and painted on my face).

I hope you all had as great a Canada Day as I did!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie

~ Hilary ~ 4 Comments

In honour of the first official Summer Orientation Leader sleepover held last night, I decided to postpone Friday’s treat until Sunday, so I could make something extra special and extra tasty.  Unsure of what dessert would warrant additional “oohs” and “aahhs” from my co-workers, I flipped through my Canadian Living cookbook, hoping to be inspired.  Just as I was about to give up and make some lame cookie recipe, I found it; the dream dessert of my childhood, combining what are possibly my two most favourite things: chocolate peanut butter pie.  If someone had made this for me as a kid, I swear I wouldn’t have been able to run to the kitchen fast enough.

The recipe boasted a deliciously crunchy chocolate wafer crust (which isn’t shown in the photos because I did an absolutely miserable job of cutting my plated piece), a rich peanut butter-infused filling (there was whipping cream folded into it!!!!), and an AMAZING chocolate drizzle.  How AMAZING you ask?  Let’s just put it this way…I was piping chocolate sauce into my mouth for 15 minutes straight after the completion of the pie topping.  All in all, the pie was extremely rich and decadent, but it turned out absolutely perfect.  Warning if you plan to make this (and I highly suggest that you do): with a painful amount of chilling required, leave an entire afternoon free for complete preparation.

There is a leftover piece of pie sitting in my fridge which I am supposed to be saving for my roommate’s boyfriend (peanut butter foods are his Kryptonite); however I am seriously considering eating it, and supplying him with one “IOU a piece of the best pie ever” ticket.  We shall see.