Wednesday, December 26, 2012

And So Normal Life Resumes

Merry Christmas!
 
I just wanted to drop in one more time before the Christmas season comes to a close to wish you all the best this time of year. I can only imagine how many gatherings and services you all attended, how much turkey, steak, and stuffing was eaten, and how much love and presents were exchanged between families and friends.
 
I, for one, had a fantastic Christmas, as my family always ensures. I spent Christmas Eve at home with my immediate family and Christmas day with the extended family in Winnipeg. When all was said and done, I couldn't have asked for a better family to get to call mine.
 
I also have a few baking projects from the holiday season that I wanted to share before it was too late. Enjoy :)
 
 
A tangled mess of Christmas lights on chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.

 
Cupcakes in homemade cupcake jars! The lids are made with caulking and lots of sparkles!
 
 
Peanut butter, chocolate dipped Bugles! I must toot my own horn, these are incredible!

 
Powdered sugar snowman donuts for Grandpa! A childhood favorite!
 
 
Did someone say Gingerbread time?!
 

The Gingerbread Village created by my mother and I.
 
Now I've saved the best thing for last...hold your horses everyone. This is going to be good!
 
 
 
.......are you ready?......
 
 
 
 

.....here it comes.........

 
 


 
Taaadaaa! Business cards, stickers, and a personalised notebook for my "business!"
 
 
Well, I won't take up too much of your time on this fine Boxing Day. So go forth and be merry!
You are all a blessing to me,
Sydney


Thursday, December 20, 2012

It's Beginning to Look A lot Like Pinterest

Merry four-days-til-Christmas! Are you ready? I am so ready! Now don't let me rant about how fast it came and how I can hardly even believe it's in four days and how much wrapping paper I've gone through already and how much more I'm going to go through in the next four days and how I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when they open their presents and and and....Christmas is in four days and I'm excited.
 
End of story.
 
I do have another story though! Okay, it's not much of a story but it will do. Who loves Pinterest? Everyone loves Pinterest. And who loves food and secret santas and friends and Christmas? Everyone loves..the aforementioned items. So with that rationale, my friends and I hosted a Pinterest Christmas Party!
 
It was a grand time. Every one who came brought some food item they had been waiting to try from their Pinterest boards. There was so. much. food. And it was all so good!
 
What did I bring? Hmm...well I do love cupcakes. And I do love chai tea. I'll let you do the math.
 

Now I must apologise for the lack of decent pictures. I might have forgotten until the party was underway to take pictures, so these are the results. But nonetheless, I made chai cupcakes.

I was slightly sceptical about the recipe, most of the reviews were pretty negative but i gave it a shot anyways. And I don't know what those grumpy people were complaining about. They really were excellent!

Chai Cupcakes
  • 1 cup milk
  • 3 chai tea bags
  • 1/2 cup plain (or vanilla) yogurt
  • 3/4 cups white sugar
  • 1/4 canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 + 1/4 cups flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1/3 teaspoon ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • a pinch of black pepper
*Preheat oven to 350*
*Bring milk to a boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat, add tea bags, cover and steep for 10 minutes
*In a small bowl, mix together the milk-tea, yogurt, sugar, oil, and vanilla
*In a larger bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and spices together.
*Pour wet ingredients into the dry and blend until mixed.
*Divide batter into prepared cupcake pan and bake 20-25 minutes.
*Frost with your favourite icing!

I used my regular vanilla with some added cinnamon and cloves to match the spices in the cupcakes.

 
The flavour of these cupcakes was so identical to chai tea, it blew my mind. I was eating a cupcake and then it was like "Why does it taste like I'm drinking tea?!" It was the most magical and confusing experience ever.
 
And since this was a Pinterest recipe, I gave them a little credit.
 

You know our society is sad when the letter "P" stands for Pinterest in so many people's minds, my own included.

Well anyways, Thursday night laundry is calling my name.
Pleasure chattin' with you again. Have a merry Christmas!
Love you all,
Sydney
 

Friday, November 30, 2012

Once a Princess, Always a Princess

Tutorial Alert! I've been wanting to get to this one for a while now, but life happened and I got caught up in various things. So here I am now, and I am still very excited about this cake!

The background of the cake you ask? Well one of my co-workers asked me to make a "girly" cake for her sisters, one of my previous youth leaders, daughter's dedication. Not gonna lie, "girly" was a hard theme to narrow down! I literally spent hours just thinking of all the possibilities. But finally I decided upon this here cake:


I did a similar design on a previous cake made for no occasion in particular. But absent minded me forgot to take pictures of the process and therefore I never made a tutorial. Does anyone even try my tutorials? Hmm...who knows. Either way, I appreciate you taking time out of your day to read this,

What does one need to make a cake like this...what shall I call it? Fish scale-type cake...or something like that. Well it's pretty simple actually:
  • Cake to be decorated (mine here are two 8" round vanilla cakes)
  • Icing in the color of your choice
  • Icing bag(s)
  • Large round tip and coupler
  • A spoon or offset spatula (either will work)
  • Patience!!!
So start with the usual, you know things like fill your icing bag and stuff. For this cake I didn't crumb coat it but if you want a thinker layer of icing than go for it.

Alright, let's begin. Take you icing bag and pipe a dot on the bottom edge of the cake.

With the back of your spoon (or spatula) flatten the dot, pulling slightly to the right


Pipe the next dot on the tail of the previous one. Continue going around the cake until the first layer is completed.

Once you get to your starting point, your dot may be squished and kinda ugly, but once the whole cake is done I promise you won't even notice it.


The top is the same idea just with a slightly different angle. When you get to the middle, add a few dots in the centre to fill it in completely.


That's about all, I believe. Now the ombre coloring is totally optional, I just thought it was
super girly. And for that, I shall share my action plan:

So  basically make your icing and add a very small amount of whatever color you are using. Pipe the first row around the bottom of the cake and empty your icing bag into the remaining icing in your mixing bowl. Add a few more drops of the color until you notice a subtle difference. Re-fill the bag and do the next row. Continue this until you finish the cake.

Near the end of this, I had a really hard time darkening the pink so I added a few drops of red to make it different.

And that folks, is how your make a ...fish scale...cake. I really need to come up with a more creative name for this.

Thanks for joining me here on this lovely Friday evening.

Stay warm,
Sydney :)

Friday, November 09, 2012

Forget Love, I'd Rather Fall in Chocolate

Well Halloween has come and gone once again, and just like every year...my participation was limited to baking. How can one not bake when pumpkins and ghosts are in season? That only has the potential to be the cutest thing ever baked..well maybe not, but pretty close.
 
Well regardless, my third annual Halloween-baking-for-my-classes continued into my final year of high school. Once again, it's the days I bring baking that you would never believe how many people wish they were my friend...and the main reason people like me is revealed!
 

Just as a catch-up, since I haven't been blogging for the last three years, these are my past (and most recent) pumpkin themed desserts. I have to say, my first ones (the bottom left) are still my favourite. I literally spent days making each little pumpkin and giving them all different expressions.

This year, since I was feeling so adventurous, I did some pumpkins AND some ghosts. I'm brave like that.


I call this picture "Ghosts in the Pumpkin Patch." So if one day I die (which according to science, is inevitable) I'm requesting that this picture be printed and hung in a museum somewhere near the Mona Lisa. I'm trusting you, my faithful readers, to take care of that. Please and thank you.


These pumpkin guys, I must admit are not my design. I saw them somewhere and I cannot for the life of me remember which site it was! But nonetheless, I loved the idea and adapted it to my own use.

I used the #70 leaf tip for the orange part; starting from the outside of the cupcake and working my way to the middle.
For the green leafy p
arts, I used the #66 leaf tip, just slightly smaller than the one used for the orange-ness.


These guys are great. Not to throw my own parade, but they are adorable. Let's be honest.

And not only are they just the cutest, but also the easiest to make!

Yes, it's the whole deal, folks.

Take y'er  #12 big circle tip..ha forget that. Cut the end of a piping bag and don't even dirty a tip! Self-proclaimed laziest baker on earth, right here.


Okay so now you're wondering why after posting a picture of four different ghost guys, this cupcake gets it's own picture. Well let me tell you! THEY'RE TWINS! Twin ghosts. Ghost twins. Ha, I thought they were extra cute because there's two of them on one cupcake. Like double the cuteness.

Well even though Halloween was over a week ago, I still felt the need to do a Halloween post.

So that was it.

Boo.

Happy Halloween!
Sydney

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Oh the Controversy!

There are many arguments in this corrupt world of ours. One off the top of my head? Donut or doughnut? Well Google says both are correct...but that just can't be! How can one word have two spellings? Is one American and one Canadian? Apparently both are used in the states, with "donut" being a variation of a "doughnut." But right now my spell-checker is telling me that donut isn't a word..well what the garbage? This makes no sense. My whole post will be confusing now. From this sentence on, I will use the word donut...feel free to mentally replace it with doughnut if you so prefer.
 

October 17.

Hmm what happened on October 17th?

Well, October 17th is the 290th day of the year.

Rick Mercer was born on October 17th.

Aaaaand, my Grandpa was born on October 17th.

Now my Grandpa is just wonderful...let me tell you! Since I wasn't able to make it to Winnipeg to see him on his birthday, this is my version of a birthday hug. So Happy (late) Birthday, to the best Grandpa ever! :)
Now for years my mom has followed tradition and made my grandpa donuts for his birthday. This year, I had the privilege of helping in the process!

Let me give you fair warning to ensure you don't get to excited here: I am no donut expert...but for a first attempt I'd say I succeeded.

Cake Donuts/Doughnuts (take your pick)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon melted margarine
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 cup milk
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 3 1/2 cups flour
*Heat oil in an electric skillet...or however ya wanna do it
*Combine all ingredients
*flour surface (with lots of flour!) and roll out dough approximately 1/4 inch thick
*cut out with your handy-dandy donut cutter..or a regular circle cutter with a hole in the middle
*slowly drop a few donuts, one at a time, into the hot oil
*Once you can see the one side  browning, flip them over and brown the other side
*remove the donuts from the oil and place on paper towel to cool
*This can also be done with the donut holes to make "timbits"


These donuts are delicious as is or coated in some extra goodness. Such as icing sugar, or cinnamon and sugar.

This recipe, like many of my favourites, is from my great-grandma...she must have been one heck of a baker!

Well, thanks for tuning in again.

Drop in again shortly to see my Halloween cupcakes!

Toodles, Happy Halloween,
Sydney

Ps. Donut or Doughnut?!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Would you be so Kind as to be my Cherry on Top?

"So we grew together,
Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
But yet an union in partition.”
-William Shakespeare
 
Lately I've found myself in a trance of Shakespeare's quotes. There's something about the wording of his writing that just works; it successfully portrays an idea yet at the same time is a piece of art. And who knew that he Shakespeare had a quote about cherries...well not exactly about cherries but in regards to cherries.
 
Anywho...how's life been treating y'all? I've been pretty busy lately with a bunch of different stuff, ranging from essay writing to scholarship applications to university applications to school essays...okay so I've been doing a lot of writing lately. But I do enjoy writing, so writing I shall do.
 
And surprisingly I've been baking a fair amount too...one always manages to incorporate their favorite activities into their busy schedule. Weird..."Ya I'm too busy to do anything...oh wait, my cookies are done!" Hmm, and such is my life.
 
A few weeks ago one of my dearest friends had a birthday, so in response I baked up some cupcakes for her surprise party. Surprise would be putting it mildly...surprised she was!
 
All too often I feel like when I bake I just use other people's recipes without altering them enough to call them mine...yet over the last few weeks I've been tweaking every recipe I use.
 
These....


...for example, are supposed to be Orange Cupcakes. Yet somehow they turned into Lemon Cherry...I don't even know how! Okay, I lied. I do know how. The only store within walking distance had no oranges so I was forced to find a way around it. And somehow I ended up buying lemons and cherries.

And since said friend loves cream cheese frosting, that is just what these cupcakes got.


Lemon Cherry Cupcakes
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2/3 cup white sugar
  • 3  eggs
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon  vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 cup milk
*pre-heat your oven to 350*
*Blend sugar and lemon zest until moist
*Beat in butter and eggs, one at a time
*Add vanilla and lemon extracts
*In a seperate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt
*On low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the previous mixture
*Fill cupcake liners and bake for 18-20 minutes

Cream Cheese Frosting
  • 8 ounces cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 tablespoon shortening
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 cups icing sugar
*Mix first 4 ingredients
*Slowly add the icing sugar until you reach the consistency you're looking for, more or less than stated
*Pipe or spread over cooled cupcakes


Can we please just take a moment to notice how nice the yellow sprinkles look...so yellow, only yellow. Okay now lets journey back to the hour before I decorated these guys

 
OCD...maybe. But hey, I really wanted only yellow sprinkles and this was the only way I could achieve that goal. Mission accomplished.
 

Well, my darlings, that's all I've got for you tonight. Thanks for tuning in and feel free to drop me a comment anytime you feel like it,

Have a good one,
Sydney :)
 



Thursday, October 04, 2012

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Do you ever wish you could rewind time and live a part of life over again? Or maybe have the pleasure of experiencing something you weren't around for? If such a magical event really did exist...I would love to go back a few hundred years and see life in the 1800's. Just to get a sense of life before technology picked its way into our world and captivated everyones minds. Not that I'm bashing technology..I do enjoy it and see its value. However, I do wonder what life would be like without it.

Now anyone who's been reading my writing for a while will be aware of my laziness when it comes to baking. Who cares if the recipe says to mix one thing in one bowl and another thing in another bowl and then add them together and so on and so forth. Really? I have neglected to do that in almost every recipe I use...and has a disaster every occurred? No, not one that wasn't fixable! My point, you may be asking? Everything used to be so much easier! None of this complicated garbage that wastes your time and energy. Plop everything in a bowl and throw it in the oven and walk away until it's done.

And anywhoooo...now to the point of this post.

 
Whenever I think of old school baking...my mind always wanders to cinnamon. Why? I have no idea. Don't question my wandering mind. Now according to my googled sources...waaay back in the day,cinnamon had a value of approximately five times that of silver! Man, that's just crazy! But nonetheless...cinnamon is a grand thing.
 
And since I do enjoy baking grand things, I created some cinnamon cupcakes.
 
 
Now would usually be the time when I switch to purple font and share the recipe with you. Buuut well..I kinda, maybe, sorta, perhaps might have forgotten to use a recipe.
 
But I can guesstimate how I made these beauts.
 
So if you refer yourselves to "my" vanilla cake recipe you'll find the basis for my random baking session. And from there..I added some cinnamon until it tasted good. I think I added about a teaspoon to the batter and then using just a basic buttercream I added some cinnamon to that also.
 
 
After piping the cinnamon buttercream I sprinkled them with a cinnamon and sugar mixture and topped them with glazed cinnamon sticks and some of those nasty little silver ball things...those were kinda more for looks than taste...because lets face it, they taste gross.
 

What is that antique looking book in the background, you ask? Well it's just that. I tried looking for a publication date but failed to find one. However, I can tell you that it's extremely old and falling apart that the seams. It's from a local antique store, I believe. And I haven't tried any of these recipes but I sure do plan on it...and of course you will hear all about it!

And that about sums up this post. I have a major back-log of pictures that are awaiting a post to accompany them, but I'm slowly making progress. Yet I'm still baking and therefore...it's a never ending circle. But never fear...I'm getting there.

Well I guess it's time to go enjoy some tea and a good book. So toodles to you, my darlings.

Stay warm and have a splendid evening,
Sydney

Saturday, September 29, 2012

You're the Straw to my Berry

Well there goes summer, it came so fast I can hardly believe it's over already! But school has begun and life is back in routine once again. No complaints from this girl here.
 
So forgive me for taking almost a month to get to this post...life has been doing its thing and leaving me no time to hang out with you guys. But Saturday has come and here I am.
 
My parents celebrated their 24th wedding anniversary on September 10 (now you know how long I've been procrastinating with this post). But anywhoooo, as per tradition, I made them something sweet for said celebration .
 
Chocolate. Strawberries. Almonds. Helloooo, Heaven! These were one of those random recipe searches...which on a normal day result in a big, fat fail. But to my delight, they were wonderful!  
 
 
And since I am such a generous gal, I shall give you the pleasure of knowing the recipe!
 
Strawberry Cupcakes
  • 1/2 cups butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/3 cups milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups sliced fresh strawberries
*Pre-heat oven to 350*
*Beat butter until it's smooth, add sugar followed by the eggs
*In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients
*Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the milk until completely combined.
*Fold in sliced strawberries and vanilla
* Fill the prepared cupcake tin and bake for 20-25 minutes.

Strawberry Buttercream
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 2 cups icing sugar
  • 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (blend about five strawberries in a mixer...a magic bullet works magically)
*Cream butter and then gradually add sugar
*Mix in the puree
*Slather those cupcakes in this tasty creation
**I noticed that the icing got stiffer as it set in the fridge...so if you want a stiff icing for piping swirls on the cupcakes, leave it in the fridge for an hour or so before using it.
 

As far as decorating goes, I spread the buttercream because I didn't let it harden up in the fridge (patience, Sydney...). Then using some melted chocolate I added some detail and used the rest to cover the strawberries (cut in half first) and almonds.


Nothing overly fancy, but they turned out pretty elegant looking. And very delicious might I add! But don't be fooled by their decorating...these cupcakes are beauts even without frosting!

 
Here we can note my weird obsession with beautiful food...*tear* she's so gorgeous!
 
Well there you have it...I hope you pleasure yourself with trying these guys out. You won't be sorry, I promise!
 
And that's that...over and out,
Sydney :)

Sunday, September 02, 2012

A Cake Fit for a King

Well here we are, less than one week from school starting. I can't believe this time of year came around so fast. Summer usually passes pretty quickly but this year was ridiculous! In a good way of course. As I've mentioned multiple times already, camp was wonderful! But not gonna lie, it will be good to get back to the routine of school. Weird that that is exciting to me...but it really is. Well maybe not the early mornings but other than that, I'm excited. Nerd Alert...I know, I know. But hey...I am okay with that now.

So this here, is what happens when my mom goes to Winnipeg for the day and leaves me home alone. Don't panic, guys, I cleaned it all up before anyone got home.



Now I'm not a big fan of fondant...I know, as someone who loves decorating cakes that sounds odd. But I just don't enjoy it...working with it or eating it. But when someone asks for a fondant cake, you suck it up and make a fondant cake for them. And that is what I did.

 
A Knight's Castle was the theme for this birthday party. The birthday boy, you ask? My sister's little nephew.
 
Now since fondant and me don't get along very well...I had prepared myself for a very testing cake...but to my surprise it wasn't bad at all. Well, okay, my fondant riped in one spot..BUT! Syd the Baker, can she fix it? Syd the Baker, YES SHE CAN!  Sorry, I got a bit excited there. That was the time when the little decoration guys came in handy and you can't even see the rip.
 
 
The main part of the castle was made with my usual vanilla cake but to make it more interesting, I added some sprinkles to the cake batter prior to baking it. And then it's iced with vanilla buttercream and marshmallow fondant. The towers were made with chocolate cake and the same icings.

For the towers, I was a bit unsure of how to go about them. I started with the idea of covering paper towel roles with fondant...but if ya can't eat it, it's lame! So I had to make them edible. So long story short I made a sheet of the chocolate cake and cut out circles once it had cooled. Icing the circles was a bit of a struggle but I got 'er done.

 
To finish it off, I dusted some luster dust on the castle and added a door and some grass around the castle. And that, was my castle cake.
 
I'm told the birthday boy and his friends loved it and that is all I was aiming for.
 
Well folks, that is the just of what I had to say today..but before I go... I have one thing to ask of you. Facebooker, have you liked my page yet? If not, go forth and do so! (here it is)
 
Have a happy Sunday and may your back to school season be wonderful.
Love always,
Sydney :)

Monday, August 27, 2012

And, Darling, You are my Sunshine

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending a gorgeous wedding of some friends. And as an added bonus they had asked me to make their wedding cake! You have no idea how terrified I was at that thought but figuring this was a great opportunity, I had to take it. And after months of fret and millions of wedding cake-making articles, the time finally arrived to begin creating my first all real wedding cake.

The colors for the wedding were a deep red and yellow, so for the cake the bride wanted white and yellow. The yellow was a last minute addition but I think it really brightened up the cake and gave it a pop of color.

It was a three tiered cake with each tier a different flavor of cake. Starting at the top and going down the cake, it was chocolate, carrot, and vanilla on the bottom. For the chocolate and vanilla I used my favorite recipes and the carrot was made with the bride's favorite recipe. As far as the frosting goes, it was vanilla buttercream all the way. For the frosting, I just piped with a #47 Wilton tip and went all around each tier.

 
And so was the finished product! I was and still am quite pleased with it. For a first, I think it is wonderful.
 
For the most part, everything went smoothly. I had a small scare with the carrot cake, but in the end it all worked out. The carrot cake has a habit to rise and then fall very drastically. So I just had to make a second cake to make up for the height lost from levelling the cake out.
 
 
It was smooth sailing for the set up as well. Well...I had a small anxiety attack in regards to the flowers not being at the venue when I was told they would be...but they got there eventually and I got them on the cake before the newly weds arrived.
 
 
So thus was my first real wedding cake journey...and t'was an exciting one.
 
 
One the best feelings in the world would have to be when people run up to your cake and start taking pictures of it...slightly nerve-racking, but exciting nonetheless.
 
Well, I'm home from camp for good now...and school starts next week! Eeeks! Who am I kidding, I couldn't be more excited to get back into the routine.
 
Well I hope you had a superb Monday and have a great rest of your week.
 
Until we meet again,
Sydney :)

Friday, August 17, 2012

Love and be Loved

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, CHELSEA & DANNY!


So...this happened on Tuesday, while Chels and Danny were at work. Ha, Surprise! :) For those of you who do not know, Chelsea is my older sister and she got married last August, making this past Tuesday her first anniversary! Yay.


This also happened....beautiful, hey? Me and mom thought so! But I'm not ALL mean! I made cake too...therefore making me a nice sister!

My original plan was to remake the top tier of their wedding cake. It was just a dummy cake but the icing has yellowed and it was kinda gross looking.


This is their wedding cake from last year and they had saved the top tier. So after multiple hours spent between my mother and I, we finally chipped the topper off the royal icing. And then I decided to remake it with real cake instead.

 And then after I started making it I decided that I would just make a whole new cake. Who wants the same cake, twice? And my creative juices were just flowing!


Hello, anniversary cake! I used their cake topper and the same Lemon poppy seed cake recipe that they had at their wedding. And other than that, I flew by the seat of my pants. Pyjama pants...but whatever.

My tactic for this one was "grab a tip and go." Let me explain: you reach into your icing tip set, grab a random tip, and start piping! And it turned out quite lovely.


I worked with the #47 tip and just created some ruffle-type stuff. And that there, folks, was the most professional line I've ever written on this blog. Ha, sorry I'm tired! But anywhoooo:

The cake was pretty good, well I didn't try this one...but last summer it was! So I just assumed this one tasted the same. And with that said, I shall give you the recipe!

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 1/8 cup white sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 tbsp lemon zest (I used 3 lemons)
  • 4 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds
  • 1 1/3 cups butter
  • 5 eggs
*Pre-heat oven to 350..
*The recipe calls for a 9x13 loaf pan, but I used a 6" round with a 3" height...so a normal 8" pan would work
*Beat together flour, sugar, salt
*Mix in the lemon zest, poppy seeds and butter
*add eggs one at a time
*Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes (I found that the time varies greatly depending on the pan..so check it often and use your nose)

The End!

Try it out, if ya wanna! You won't be let down, I promise!

Well my wedding cake progress is quite lovely! I just have to assemble and add flowers tomorrow before the reception! Here's a sneak peak at what the tiers look like!


3 tiers, 3 flavors, 2 colors, 1 design. Yes I am quite pleased with this.

The wedding's tomorrow so I shall post pictures afterwards some time. The cake will be decorated with some real flowers to match the bride's flowers. So excited!

Well that's all the time we have for today, folks. Join me next time as i take you through my very first wedding cake journey!

Have a gooder,
Sydney :)