Vegan Cupcakes? Vegan Brownies? You bet!

Recipe taken from here

As I've mentioned a few times now, I really am considering going vegan. I've been pescatarian for well over a year a now, and haven't eaten pork or been in almost eight years. I have always had an interest in becoming vegan at some point in my life but never really did any research or anything towards it. Last year I bought a "Becoming Vegan" book that I am beginning to read, and as I read many blogs out there, and attempting many vegan recipes, I know that it wouldn't be that challenging for me. With that being said, I found a recipe the other day for vegan cupcakes. I was in the mood to try them out today, so I reduced the batch to 1/4 each (one vanilla batch, and one chocolate batch) this left me with two cupcakes from each batch. While making these cupcakes I was so tempted to lick the bowls (both looked like frosting, beautiful vanilla and chocolate frosting, yummy!) however, I didn't because well, the apple cider vinegar curdled the soy milk and to me that just doesn't scream yum, if you know what I mean.

As you all know cupcakes and ice cream are my weak points when it comes to food, however, cupcakes even more so than ice cream. These cupcakes were delicious, and the fact that they were vegan made me enjoy them that much more because I didn't feel guilty for enjoying each and every bite down to the last crumb. I believe that some people, when they think of vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, egg-free cooking they think that because it lacks certain ingredients it also means that the taste is missing as well. This certainly is not the case for these cupcakes. They are fluffy, moist, tasty, sweet and just cute.

As you can see it is just as fluffy as a non-vegan cupcake.

When I first tried them, I cut one vanilla, and one chocolate in half. Needless to say my favourite was the vanilla, however, the chocolate did come close. My mom preferred the chocolate one, as I split both the halves with her. What I liked most about the cupcakes were that the exterior were so crunchy and sweet and inside was still oh so spongey, moist and fluffy as I said above. I would definitely make these cupcakes again. Next time playing around with some spices... in the vanilla I'm thinking I would add some anise, oh delicious!

This is a great cupcake for anyone a-like, but I think it would be even better to server to your non-veg friends to show that eco/creature friendly foods could be just as tasty if not more sometimes. On another note, I think it's important for us foodies to post recipes that may not be exactly what we follow. What I mean here is, yes I am not vegan, but I am posting a vegan recipe (despite of my intentions on becoming vegan I am not at the moment), however, if there are more options on the Internet, and it allows people the opportunity to try out some of these recipes perhaps without actually going out and advocating the cause this can help make a difference. If people know that there are in fact, healthy, tasty and simple vegetarian meals out there, perhaps they won't be so easy in going to a fast food restaurant and getting that greasy burger and fries because instead they could go home and make a tofurky sandwich with some baked potato fries or baked onion rings. Who knows, but all I know is, there are so many people out there, who are all, "Vegan recipes can't be good, they lack so much flavour", that isn't the case, as you will find with these cupcakes.

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup soy milk
• 1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2/3 cup light agave nectar
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

Chocolate Cupcakes:

Same ingredients all through out except you need to alter the flour for the addition of cocoa powder, or else the chocolate cupcake will be very dry.

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  

Directions:

Line muffin pan with cupcake liners and preheat oven to 325

Mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl; allow to sit for a few minutes to curdle. Beat in agave, oil, vanilla, and almond extract. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mix until smooth.

Fill liners two-thirds full. Bake 20 to 22 minutes, until knife or toothpick inserted into the center of the cupcake comes out clean; do not over bake, cupcakes will be dry.

These cupcakes need to cool at least an hour before topping or filling, and also to develop the flavor and texture properly.

Vegan Brownies

Recipe adapted from here

Since I was so impressed with the vegan cupcakes I figured I might as well try another vegan dessert. The recipe I was anticipating trying was right up my alley. I’ve seriously become very fond of walnuts lately since I’ve been putting it on my oatmeal quite frequently. Walnuts and dates are meant to be lovers. This brownie was incredibly tasty, however I did find it to be incredibly chocolatey – that didn’t stop me from taking another bite after another and so on. I really liked this recipe, however, in trying to cut the pieces for everyone it was so crumbly. It was so crumbly that it kept falling apart. So I kept having to squish it together, try and cut it, a piece would fall apart and the whole event would happen again. I ended up getting nice squares in the end though, but it was a long process. Would I make these again? Probably not. As much as I loved the taste, and texture it was a lot of work to cut them (however, making the brownie took less than three minutes). I loved the taste of these just disliked the crumbliness during the cutting stage. Nonetheless, vegan dessert number two was highly successful in taste.

Ingredients:

• 3 cup raw walnuts
  
• 1/8 tsp salt
  
• 22 pitted Medjool dates
• 2/3 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped
• 2 tsp water
  

Directions:

Place the walnuts in a food processor fitted with the S blade and process until coarsely chopped.

Remove 1/2 cup of the walnuts and set aside in a small mixing bowl. Add the salt to the food processor and process until the walnuts are finely ground. Add the dates and process until the mixture begins to stick together. Add the cocoa powder and process to incorporate. Add the chopped walnuts, dried cranberries and water and process briefly, just until mixed.

Pour the mixture evenly into an 8-inch glass baking dish and press down with your hand to compact. Cut into squares.

Yield: 16 small brownies (8 servings)

Enjoy your Earth and Creature friendly desserts!

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies + Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies + Pumpkin Raspberry Cupcakes

Pumpkin Molasses Cookies

Recipe taken from here

As I have mentioned time and time again, fall spices are my absolute favourite flavours. I look forward to the fall all year long so I don't look like a crazy making molasses cookies in the summer. However, I sometimes give into the "crazy" and make them in the summer instead of making strawberry shortcakes, jam or blueberry muffins. I just love the flavours. I was dreaming up of a recipe for pumpkin molasses cookies when I was looking at a blog and POOF the work was done for me already. I was so so so excited! You really do not understand. These are absolutely fantasticccccc cookies and have everything you can ever hope for. The only thing is... this recipe is soooo incredibly annoying to work with. I froze it for over an hour but that pumpkin, ohhhh the pumpkin it just didn't want to cooperate so the batter was INCREDIBLY cakey and sticky. I still managed to make the cookies they just weren't the prettiest little puppies of the bunch. Who cares though. This is such a great cookies especially for the pumpkin and molasses lover, ahhh!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of applesauce
• 1 cup sugar
  
• 1/2 cup of pumpkin
• 1/4 cup of molasses
• 1 egg
• 2 1/3 cups of flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt

Topping:

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp allspice

Directions:

Beat butter in a large bowl until fluffy. Add sugar, pumpkin, molasses, and egg and mix until well combined. Add remaining ingredients and beat until a well-blended batter forms. Refrigerate dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or two, if you’d like to prep a second sheet while the first one bakes). Fill a bowl with your rolling sugar and spices. Roll tablespoon-sized balls of batter in sugar until well coated and place on sheet. The cookies will spread, so give them a couple inches of room. Bake 10–12 minutes, or until cookies look cracked. Let them sit on the sheet for a few minutes after removing them from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Oatmeal Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe adapted from here

My second last pumpkin recipe of the season are these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies with oatmeal. When these came out of the oven I seriously thought I was going to have a melt-down. I couldn't wait for them to come out of the oven. They smelt SO delicious. As stated on my post with the pumpkin pie chocolate cups post, chocolate and peanut butter go SO well together. The aroma that they give off then the flavours they release, oh my goodness, it shouldn't be legal that's how good it is.

I was really excited for these cookies, because when I found them, they didn't look like your typical cake-like pumpkin cookie. Unfortunately mine didn't come out as crispy as I wanted but they weren't as cakey as most pumpkin cookies so I was really excited! This is a really nice cookies, especially because of the added oats, yum!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granola mix
  
• 1/2 cup old-fashioned oats, uncooked
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
  
• 1 cup mini Kisses chocolates

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, oats, baking soda, and salt. Mix applesauce, gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each addition. Stir in chocolate chip.

For each cookie, drop a heaping tablespoonful of dough onto lightly greased or parchment paper covered baking sheet. Bake 13 - 15 minutes, until cookies are firm and lightly browned.

Pumpkin Raspberry Cupcakes

Recipe adapted from here

At this point in the game you guys already know that cupcakes are my weakness. This is why you will not see many cupcakes on my blog. You see cookies, cookies, cookies, but that's because I am able to steer clear from cookies, cupcakes however though, I cannot.

HOWEVER, the other day as I was blog perusing I came across the devil. By me saying the devil what I mean is this. I found out that you are able to freeze cupcake batter. This was probably the worst information I could have ever come across because now I have no excuse NOT to make cupcakes because I can store the batter for another day! I read that it freezes perfectly, and it tastes' just as good as the first time you made them. I haven't tried it yet since I just froze the batter on the weekend, but I am really excited to see how they turn out (especially because these cupcakes ROCKED).

When I found out that I could freeze the batter I knew that the last of my pumpkin mix was going into a cupcake recipe. I was going to make pumpkin whoopie pies but I'm sorry cupcakes trump that. I found a simple recipe that incorporated my favourite spices and instead of adding chocolate I decided to add raspberries. Raspberries and pumpkin are definitely a beautiful beautiful combination they go together like peanut butter and jam. These cupcakes were so amazingly tasty I did not want to stop eating them, therefore, I forced myself to only make six and to store the rest of the batter so I could test what I read and so that I could taste what I put together on another day and MAYBE share the experience with others too. These are a must-make flavour combination, even if you don't want to try these soft-pillowy pumpkin cupcakes you need to at least try pumpkin and raspberry together maybe even with some white chocolate, oh my gosh!!! Onto the recipe already? I think so.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup applesauce
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 cups pumpkin puree
  
• 2/3 cup water
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1 1/2 cups raspberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, beat together the oil and sugars. Beat in the eggs, pumpkin, water, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir to blend. Then gently stir in the raspberries.

Scoop the batter into the lined muffin tins.

Bake for 20-21 minutes or until muffin tops spring back and tester comes out clean. Remove the muffins from the oven, and cool them on a wire rack.

Raspberry Cookies - no recipe :(

I lost the recipes for the following cookies but I wanted to post them anyways just because I loved the colours of them. I figured this is a good enough post to show them on since they have raspberries in them. I really wish I still had this recipe because these were to die for, they disappeared the day they were made. They were gooey, sugary, and full of fruit, ahhh I wish I still had the recipe! Dagnabbit...

Savour the last of your pumpkin goodies until next season (unless you're like me and will get around to making some more pumpkin goodies in a few months!)

Microwave Cupcake + Two Different Types of Salmon + Peas and Prosciutto (Without the Prosciutto) + Spinach Dip

Recipe taken from here

Microwave Cupcake

I love making cupcakes and cakes, but since there's only myself and one other person living in the house it seems foolish to make a whole batch or a whole cake for just the two of us. So when I found a recipe for a cake in a mug instantly I was drawn to it of course. My friend and I had decided to have a movie marathon day, and I thought what better dessert to make than an individual cake, not only is it perfect in size, but it's more special, I mean it was made SPECIFICALLY for YOU. It was great. I got really worried when I was microwaving it because it became to gigantic it looked like the cake was about to jump out of the mug, however the last couple seconds of the cake being in the microwave it decided to settle and become small, which made me happy. My friend loved it, it was moist and just the right amount of richness. I decided to top it with fresh fruit and confectioner's sugar.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon powder (optional)
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp caster sugar (more or less)
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp oil
• 2 tbsp milk

Preparation:

Combine & Whisk all ingredients together in a bowl. Pour content in a coffee mug.

Cook for about 2.5 minutes on full power in microwave. (Cooking time may vary a little with the power of your microwave)

Microwave Cupcake

For dinner I had decided to make two different kinds of salmon. I figured I would make these two because I had them in my recipe box for a long time and figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone. They were both absolutely fantastic. The one that I preferred however was the salmon with soy sauce and brown sugar. Oh boy, I can't even tell you about the flavour of these two salmons, it's something you have to make for yourself to see, definitely an enjoyable meal!

Soy Sauce and Brown Sugar Grilled Salmon

Soy Sauce and Brown Sugar Grilled Salmon

Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds salmon fillets
• 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup olive oil

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir together lemon pepper, garlic, salt, soy sauce, brown sugar, water, and oil until sugar is dissolved. Place fish in a large resealable plastic bag. Pour soy sauce mixture over fish and seal bag. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Lightly oil grill grate and preheat grill for medium heat. Place salmon on the preheated grill; discard marinade. Cook salmon for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Asian Salmon

Asian Salmon

Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/8 tsp fish sauce
• 1/8 tsp dark (toasted) sesame oil
• Dash chili powder
• 1/2 tsp slice scallions or chives
• 2 cloves minced fresh garlic
• 1/4 tsp minced fresh ginger or 1/8 tsp powdered ginger
• 1/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1/2 lb center-cut salmon fillet

Directions:

Line an 8″ x 8″ square baking pan with aluminum foil. Place salmon, skin-side down, in the pan. In a small bowl, combine soy sauce through ginger. Pour 1/3 of the soy mixture over the salmon. Sprinkle panko evenly over the salmon. Pour the remaining soy mixture evenly over the panko, making sure to soak it through. Spoon any panko that falls off back onto the salmon. Set it aside for 15 minutes.

While salmon rests, preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Roast salmon for 15 minutes. Remove from oven, and wrap the aluminum foil around the salmon. Let rest for 10 to 15 more minutes. Serve hot

Peas and Prosciutto (Without the Prosciutto)

Recipe taken from here

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
• 1 spring onion or 2 scallions, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, chopped
• 1 lb fresh or frozen peas
• Salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• About 2 ½ ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, torn into bite-size pieces

Directions:

Melt about half of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook slowly to soften. Do not allow to brown. Add the peas, stir to combine, and then add the remaining butter. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender and sweet, about 10 minutes. Add the prosciutto, and stir to mix. Then turn off the heat, cover the skillet, and allow to sit for 5 minutes. Taste, and season as needed.

Serve warm.

Spinach Dip

Spinach Dip

This was just something I whipped together. I was in the mood to make a dip and didn't really feel like following a recipe. I had spinach left in the fridge from the Farmer's Market and figured what better way to use up the spinach than to make spinach dip? Hearty and delicious! It did turn out quite well if I do say so myself, it was gone within the first few minutes of it being served.

Ingredients:

• A couple squirts of lemon juice
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• Bunch of fresh parsley
• 1 tsp dill
• 1 container of sour cream
• 3 tbsp herb and garlic cream cheese
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 green onion stalks
• 1 bag of fresh spinach

Directions:

In a medium bowl toss all of your ingredients together. Let rest for a few minutes to allow the ingredients to pick up the juices. Serve with pita bread or nachos.

Enjoy!

The Happy Baker

Since Christmas there has been one cookbook that I haven't bought. I have wanted and wanted and wanted it, yet every time I went into my local book store they never had it. I didn't want to order it online either since at the time I hadn't been working. I kept talking about this book to people, and funny enough when I moved back home and went to my dad's girlfriends place she surprised me with the book! The title is The Happy Baker by Erin Bolger. I absolutely LOOOOOVE this book! The pictures are beautiful, the recipes are simple, and there are whimsical heartbreak stories all through out the book. This book is incredibly genial. To be honest, this is the book that made me want to start blogging even though I didn't own it. This is definitely a must-own book.

So, I knew when I got this book I wanted to work through every single recipe. So far I'm at about 15. I figured I could definitely complete this book over the next few months. So far I'm doing pretty well. I decided that I am not going to change the recipes AT ALL. I wanted to make it exactly like the book. If for example the dough is too dry or such I will add water, but I will not change ingredients around to please my palette. I decided however that I will not be posting recipes unfortunately since it will take too long to type out. With that being said I am going to be giving honest opinions about the recipes.

I think this is a book that you shouldn't just take the recipes from as if they are random one's found on the internet, this is DEFINITELY a book that must be bought! I cannot brag enough about it. Trust me, the comments I get and the praise is definitely worth it.

Slow and steady wins the, peanut butter cupcakes - fan-friggin-tastic! These were so so so good. I had made these for a friends birthday, and they were definitely a hit. With the moist chocolate cupcakes, and the rich and creamy peanut buttery icing on top, these are sure to fill any craving. They were amaziiiing.

Better late than never peanut butter crispy cups - I have to admit this one I SORT of changed the recipe... I still used milk chocolate and peanut butter chipits, but I used Lindt instead. These were soooo awesome. As mentioned before I love Rice Krispies. They are so simple in flavour, but their crunchiness just does it for me. With the added Lindt chocolate, oh boy, they were to die for!

You are not as sweet as my sugar cookies - This recipe I was not very impressed with to be quite honest. The taste was absolutely impeccable, but the dough was one of the worst doughs I have ever worked with. If I were to make these cookies again, I would use another sugar cookie recipe and just add lemon juice and roll them in coconut.

Three's a crowd, rocky road bars - Two words: absolutely amazing! The shortbread base was really good, I had to add a bit more butter than stated since it was too crumbly with the amount in the recipe, but the taste was definitely there. Then the toppings, oh, just too perfect! Delicious!

So far so good bar - I had brought these to a party and they got eaten up in less than ten minutes, need I say more? The only thing I noticed about these bars is that the white chocolate didn't want to stay on top of the bars unfortunately, but they were still very good!

No pain no gain, raisin cookie - these cookies were definitely an oatmeal cookie. They were hardy, rich, crumbly, crunchy, anything you could ask for in an oatmeal raisin cookie. I liked these a lot, but after having the nice buttery oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, I would vote those ones number one. But these were definitely an awesome recipe, especially for those true "oatmeal raisin" lovers, which I am, but I just found these ones to get hard a little to quick, and I am a soft cookie lover. These did not last too long in the house though, that's for sure!

For the love of toffee cracker goodness – I personally didn’t try these because I can’t eat crackers, bread products etc… unless I make them, (don’t know why yet…) however, I did bring these into the office, and they were gone after a few minutes. My friend kept telling people, “these are horrible, you wouldn’t like them), needless to say many people ended up taking her favourite treats, she was very upset, while others were not so upset, hahaha.

Almost paradise bread - This was one of the first recipes from the book I tried. I had made it for the bf when I went to visit him. I cannot describe how amazing it is. I am a little biased however since it incorporates ALL of my favourite fruit EXCEPT canteloupe, however it includes: mango, pineapple, bananas and coconut. Could it get anymore perfect than that? This bread was amazingly moist, flavourful and smelt incredibly amazing, there is even cinnamon in it! AHHHH. I am currently drooling just thinking of how it tasted. Yummmmyyyy!

Short on love, not on shortbread - Not a fan AT all. The taste was there, yeah... but the recipe was so incredibly dry I was contemplating just throwing the whole darn thing out. I had to add so much water and it was still dryer than the Sahara. I will definitely not make these cookies again unfortunately.

Erin’s go-to cookie – these were definitely a great cookie. Anything with oatmeal, chocolate, peanut butter and COCONUT, is good in my books. These cookies definitely didn’t last long.

Bite my peanut brittle, bi-atch – ughhh... I don't know what is up with this recipe. I had to take it off much sooner than stated and it still burned like crazy. Even the burnt stuff didn't taste good. Awful, awful, awful!

My mom didn’t like you anyway, cupcake – these were a good cupcake, but out of the three cupcakes in the book definitely my least favourite. I’m not a GIGANTIC fan of chocolate cupcakes so with the chocolate frosting it was too much. Chocolate lovers definitely approved of this cupcake though, which is always a good thing!

I’m so done with you and the horse you rode in on, haystack cookies – to be honest, I haven’t tried these cookies yet nor has anyone else. However there are chocolate, marshmallows AND pretzels, all things of mine that work so well together and are some of my favourite sweets, so I’m pretty sure this will be a winner in my books.

I’m pretty awesome, yum yum squares – coconut, walnuts, and brown sugar, yuuuuuummmmy. She definitely hit the nail on the door with these bars, so so so good!

I need a real man, maple pumpkin pie - Pumpkin is one of those flavours that I cannot believe the whole world isn't hooked one. Whenever someone tells me they don't enjoy the flavour I literally want to strap them down and shove pumpkin down their throats. To me it is a necessary flavour in life. I mean, it is autumn, Hallowe'en, Thanksgiving, happiness, ugh everything about it just makes me feel warm inside. This recipe was so so so good. The crust was mouth watering and the pumpkin filling itself OH MY GOODNESS. The recipe for the filling was definitely proportioned wrong however... there was way too much for the pan measurement, so mini pumpkin pies it was! I am however glad that there was too much because these mini pumpkin pies were astounding. Ughhhh sooo goooddd!! My pictures may not be the best proof for how this pie actually was, but the pictures in the book and the flavours definitely say otherwise.

Best friends forever, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies - mouthwatering, amazing, orgasmic, drool, love, happiness, fantastic, buttery, sweet, nomnomnom, yuuuuuumm. Oh my goodness! Great great great recipe. This definitely wasn't as oatmeal-y as I was intending for it to be but it came out oh so amazingly. If I were to make it again I would just add more oatmeal because the flavours were there, every single necessary flavour was in that cookie! Fantasticcccc cookie.

Goodbye men, hello dolly squares – so so so so so so good. Oh they were FANTASTIC. They were soft, chewy, tasty, sweet, crunchy everything that is awesome. Oh I loveddddd these!

Maybe it’s destiny, dream bars – same as the above, so amazing! The only thing I liked less from these bars between the hello dolly squares is the fact that this was a brownie base, I much prefer a graham cracker crust, I love how sweet they are, brownie bases in my opinion are a little too heavy. With that being said however, it was perfect for this bar!

it’s not me it’s you, sea salted caramels – I didn’t try these… seeing as I know what went in them, I felt as though if I had of tasted them I would of probably fallen in love and developed diabetes. There was so much sugar in these, oh boy. I wasn’t too impressed by the look of these either. I did everything to a T and the caramel came out a little lumpy unfortunately. As well as, the sea salt wouldn’t stay on top of the caramel for whatever reason. However, everyone I gave these too that tried them loved them, but did say they were incredibly sweet. To be honest, I wouldn’t suggest making these… oh well you win some, you lose some.

I need a man that has bigger balls than my banana bread – as I have posted before, I have found my number one banana bread, and nothing has come close to it in my books. Erin’s “almost paradise bread” was definitely an amazing bread, but it wasn’t a banana bread. This bread was a hit with my family and friends, but myself personally I found it to be a little lacking in flavour, and it wasn’t moist enough for my liking. The thing I did like about this recipe is that it did include apple sauce which is always a nice touch, that many people don’t include in their baking.

Just me, myself, and pie – I personally didn’t try this because I really despise chocolate pudding. It makes me want to gag just looking at it, how I made this pie/cake I’m not sure but I did. I made it for my mom’s boyfriends birthday, there were kids at the celebration and if they have any say in how good this cake is, they definitely made me believe it was good. One little boy had two huge pieces, and asked for some to take home but his mom said no. I also brought two pieces into work for my friend and she devoured them like a little kid. If you’re a chocolate pudding lover and love golden graham crumbs this is sure to please.

Getting lucky ain’t just for the Irish cream cupcakes – oh so good! Bailey’s is definitely one of my favourite alcoholic drinks, just because it is so creamy. When incorporated into a baked good, it’s just that much better. And when it’s added TO the icing as well it’s just the cherry on the sundae. These were so good, and flavorful. The only downside to this recipe is that I did find the cupcake wasn’t moist enough. I would definitely make these again however. Very flavorful, I can still imagine the smell and how happy I was while I was making these!

Always a bridesmaid, Nanaimo bars – this may not be the prettiest Nanaimo bar picture you’ve ever seen, I had a really hard time cutting these out, but let me tell you, they were amaaaazing! I made these for the bf’s dads birthday. He absolutely loved them. I had kept a few for myself to bring into work. Well, let me put it this way… my one friend liked them so much she licked the bag clean. I mean, licked it CLEAN. No word of a lie. They were so rich and decadent, and they are sure to put any dieter back into limbo. They were fantastic… well the sliver of a piece I had, yes I resisted the temptation. But that itty bitty piece I did try was sinful. It was so tasty. Nanaimo bars are one of my all time favourites. After making it however, and knowing how much sugar and fat went into making these I was terrified at the nutritional value of these beautiful little friends. If you aren’t a giant pansy like me, and don’t care about how much junk you put in your body, MAKE THESE! If you’re going to make one thing, especially from THIS book, make THESE bad boys! Go on, go do it!

Wow, I’m still single in the city, munchies – oh boy! Salty and sweet could you ask for anything more? Simplicity? Yes, this recipe definitely serves that as well. Two ingredients, and it is a mad easy recipe. I don’t think any working person could ask for a simpler recipe that delivers taste.

I just bought my first condo because I’m still single caramel shortbread – my friend who licked the bag clean on the Nanaimo bars pretty much ate the WHOLE dish of these bars. These were definitely a rich and decadent treat. And for any caramel lover out there, this recipe is a must. Not only does it taste wonderful, the presentation is absolutely gorgeous as well!

Healthy maple almond granola – yuck. I absolutely adore granola, this however was horrible. I don’t know why. It looked amazing but tasted horrible. I’m not sure if it was from my side, or if the recipe just sucked. That’s all I have to say.