You know what I love about summer? Baking in your bikini. Try it. It’s great. It is waaay too hot out to be standing in a kitchen with a 350 degree oven on fully clothed. So today, as I was tanning on the back deck and decided to bake – I didn’t bother getting changed. And you know what else? Doing the dishes in your bikini is great too! No worrying about the water splashing up – especially when your washing chocolate covered baking dishes. Today was bikini baking day – and it was just what I needed.

This past weekend I had a meltdown – and it wasn’t because it is so hot out. No. I had a meltdown because there are people in this world who think its perfectly fine to steal from other people. Yup – I was a victim of theft. After work Saturday I wanted to go shopping to pick out a dress for an upcoming friends wedding this weekend. I had been out the night before and had my bag with me which had all my clothing, personal items like makeup and hair stuff and a bag of brand new baking supplies which I had just bought the day before. at a specialty store. Needless to say I was quite upset when I saw it was all gone. I had spent quite a bit of money on clothing on my weekend away to Whistler, and my birthday trip to Vegas so it was a little hard to believe it had all been taken. C’est la vie! The “want” list of items to buy keeps getting put on hold due to unexpected expenses! Such as my car – and the replacement of all my things. I had needed wanted a new camera desperately! Sure mine is fine and it takes pictures – but it’s got some hiccups and a new one would have been awesome! As well as a new pair of runners… the list could go on and on.

Also, I had bought some baking supplies for upcoming things I had wanted to make, like hand held pocket pies, and cupcakes which I was going to make for a wedding shower the next day and another upcoming shower. Now I have to go re-buy all the food colouring, cookie cutters, molds, piping bag and tips etc etc. So today I felt like I needed to make something to take my mind off of it. I had been thinking of making this recipe for quite a while now. I had seen a Cupcake contest by Duncan Hines, which I would have liked to have made something for but found out it was only available to the States – like most online food contests. While I had been brainstorming for it I had looked online for some new and interesting ideas I could turn into a cupcake and found a recipe for a Marquise cake. It is typically a sponge cake – made on a cookie sheet pan – which you then cut out and place into a loaf pan to make a shell type outer cake layer and then fill with a dense mousse like marquise filling. I had been thinking about turning into something slightly different, something like an Ice Cream Marquise Cake. Though I’m sure a traditional Marquise with the dense rich mousse filling is just as delicious.

It’s a perfect summertime dessert – it’s simple and doesn’t require a lot of time. You can make it a day or two ahead, as it keeps well in the freezer wrapped properly. You can change this dessert into any filling type you like – maybe with frozen yogurt? or ice cream speckled with fresh fruit between the layers, or with a vanilla cake or even mint ice cream. There are lots of different options – and its so simple! Simply take it out of the freezer a few minutes before cutting, and use a large cake knife slightly warmed under hot water.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer =)

Follow the link for step-by-step picture directions ..

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Make this cake today. Trust me. I had been wanting to bake something else with rhubarb ever since the last cake I made. It was an alright cake, but I wasn’t impressed with it like I thought I might be. I was looking for something more, something better. Something like This! I had this great idea to make a cake slightly based on a zucchini cake, but instead using Rhubarb. However the actual idea worked more than when I tried it. The Rhubarb doesn’t shred so easily, so I had to do it all by hand. But it was totally worth it. I said I wouldn’t, but I definitely ate the piece I photographed this morning, after an already large piece last night. It had to be done.

The cake could easily be turned into a sheet cake, or a loaf cake depending on what you’d like to make. It’s really easy and Rhubarb is now in season so it should be readily available. Although, I had gone to safeway to get dinner and cake ingredients, and had to go to Thrifty’s instead because they had no Rhubarb. And I wasn’t going home without it!

This would be perfect after dinner, or for breakfast. I topped it with cream cheese icing, but you could just as easily dust it with icing sugar. And it can all be made in one bowl – so easy clean up!

Make it…now!

Shredded Rhubarb Cake

Recipe by Bakeaholic

Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 3-4 tsp ground cinnamon
• dash of nutmeg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• about 4 stalks rhubarb
• 1/2 cup non-fat natural plain yogurt

Directions:

1. Shred/tear rhubarb and set aside. You can try using a grator for this, but I found it just mushed it up. So I cut it into quarters and peeled it by hand.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs, oil, and sugar by hand using a whisk.
3. Slowly add flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla.  Thoroughly combine.
4. Add Rhubarb and Yogurt, stirring until well blended.
5. Pour into greased and flowered bundt pan, and bake for 45-55 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Start with 45 minuts, and check to see if it needs longer.
6. Cool for 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.  Remove from pan and cool completely.

You can top it with icing sugar, or make a cream cheese icing by combining a package of cream cheese with a tiny bit of milk, and a few cups of icing sugar.

The cake will keep covered or a 2-3 days. If it lasts that long!

If you make this cake please credit and link back to me – I’d love to see it =)

I have a confession to make, I’m addicted to Seinfeld. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before, my dog Lainey is named after Elaine, and I pretty much related anything and everything to the show every day. So when I began making this bundt cake for dinner at my boyfriends house I couldn’t help but remember the episode about serving dessert after dinner.

GEORGE: Thank God that’s over.
ESTELLE: The mother seems to hit the sauce pretty hard. I didn’t like that.
FRANK: And who doesn’t serve cake after a meal? What kind of people? Would it kill them to put out a pound cake? Something!
GEORGE: So, they didn’t give you a piece of cake? Big deal.
ESTELLE: It is a big deal. You’re supposed to serve cake after a meal. I’m sorry. It’s impolite.
FRANK: Not impolite…it’s stupid, that’s what it is. You gotta be stupid to do something like that!
ESTELLE: Your father’s absolutely right. We’re sitting there like idiots drinking coffee without a piece of cake!

I’m going to have to side with Frank and Estelle, especially when I’m a guest at someone’s house. I always love to bring something sweet for after dinner. So today I was thinking of making another strawberry buttermilk cake but I had seen rhubarb at the store last week and had really wanted to use it. I don’t think I’ve ever used it in baking before – I think I found it tricky or hard to use it. So I had stayed away. Not that I didn’t like it, I definitely love strawberry rhubarb pie. So When I saw it I knew I wanted to bake something with it soon. And today when I decided I wanted to bake something I knew it was going to involve rhubarb.

*Also! I just recieved an e-mail from POM Wonderful asking if I would like to try their products! I’m super excited to recieve a case of their juice and create a recipe with it! Keep following to see what happens =)

I found this recipe from Good Things Created.

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I saw this post on Tasty Kitchen today as I was browsing the site. My Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins were also in the feautured section on the site! If you’ve never been to Tasty Kitchen, although I’m not sure who hasn’t heard of The Pioneer Woman, Ree, by now. I am a regular pioneer woman junkie. I think it’s one of the many websites I visit when I first turn my computer on. I’m addicted. I found her site about a year or two ago when I first developed my addiction to food blogs, and I read her entire story Black Heels to Tractor Wheels in probably two sittings. I was hooked. I love her site, and her new cookbook. Which, I really hope she makes a tour up into Canada so I can meet her! Tasty Kitchen is a website launch of hers that is a community cooking and baking network. It’s free to join and you can meet lots of different bakers on it.

Now, back to this cake. My mom came home from work yesterday with a big container of strawberries. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make with them, which of course was my first thought when I saw them. So, I plopped a few into some yogurt and went on my way. And then to work. You remember, my high-heel wearing 7 hour shift. Yesterday it was only five high-heel-wearing hours. And that was enough. So this morning when I woke up at 8:30 on a saturday morning, with Lainey next to me and my mom off to Osoyoos for the weekend, and another night of high heel wearing work ahead of me, I decided to bake something. I think I’ve officialy substituted baked goods for lunch, cereal for breakfast of course and something for dinner. This recipe comes from The Caramel Cookie with a few adaptions. It’s a very fluffy light tasting cake studded with delicious strawberries. I love summer and all it’s fruit and veggie goodness.

Tomorrow I’m making a Louis Vuitton Suitcase cake as requested for a friend, with a Louis Vuitton Shoe of course. Stay tooned!

In the meantime, please if you have strawberries around and a cup or two of flour, try this delicious cake, it’s perfect to whip up if someone stops by for a visit.

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Alright, maybe I jumped the gun on the whole “summer’s here” thing. It’s currently hailing rain outside my window. This morning it was sunny, however it’s taken a turn this afternoon and now I’m stuck inside on my day off while it pours outside. Of course, to keep me busy I thought why not bake something. I had asked my mom earlier how many banana’s we had in the kitchen and she replied “you mean the two rotting ones?” I said yup. Perfect. I had seen this recipe a long time ago and thought it looked so good! So I knew the if there were rotten bananas around I would be making this.

It’s a simple cake base on top of caramelized bananas. My boyfriend’s mom had given me three new spring-form pans at Easter and I’ve been wanting to use them ever since. I had only had one very large spring-form pan which I use to make cheesecake in, but I had wanted something smaller to make more of an everyday cake. Because why not have an everyday cake? They came in size 8 1/2, 9 and 10” and their perfect for cheesecakes, mousse cakes or any other cake. However, this might be one time where you would opt to not use it. I had this idea that hey, an upside down cake wouldn’t that be super easy made in a spring-form pan so I can just pop it right out! That would usually work, however the caramel sauce seeped out of the bottom and dripped on the bottom of the oven. So I set it ontop of a small pizza pan to stop the dripping. You could also wrap the bottom of your spring-form with aluminum foil before hand. I’ll have to remember that next time! (more…)

I made this for christmas dinner this year instead of traditional pumpkin pie! We had a smaller dinner on christmas, and the larger italian seafood feast on christmas eve. I made tiramisu on christmas eve, and then it was all adults for christmas so I thought a more grown up version of the dessert would be good. It’s a really simple recipe and you can make it the day before, so it requires no day-of prep! (more…)