Oma’s Maple Cake

 

A quintessentially Canadian dessert – cake bursting with maple flavour. This is a super-special recipe I’ve been wanting to share for a while, one that comes from my husband’s grandmother.

Valentine’s Day Cupcakes

Celebrate Valentine’s Day with pink, hearts, and togetherness in these cupcakes! Vanilla cupcakes and frosting are swirled with pink and topped with minty candy hearts.

As I came in from shoveling snow to bake these cupcakes, I was thinking about how much I associate snow with Valentine’s Day. The first year we were dating, my husband and I spent Valentine’s Day huddled in my dorm room weathering a massive blizzard (massive even by Canadian standards.) Perhaps because of the chance we’ll be snowed in, we’ve never been into fancy Valentine’s plans. It’s usually a nice dinner and dessert at home, followed by a cozy movie or game night. Since V-Day is a Sunday and we have the Monday off (thank you Joseph Howe), I imagine we’ll be watching Downton Abbey live instead of off the DVR for a change!

These adorable cupcakes are the perfect dessert for a special Valentine’s Day dinner. They’d also be really cute for a school party.

Maple Pecan Streusel Coffee Cake

Covered with gooey glaze, sweet streusel and crunchy pecans, this coffee cake beats its dry, store-bought cousin by a mile! Try it for a holiday breakfast, a simple dessert or just with an afternoon cup of tea!

Baseball Cake Pops

Like many other Canadians, we have been living the roller coaster of Blue Jays baseball! My husband is a big fan, so we have been following the team since spring training. However, since they began their upward climb at the trade deadline, we have been eating, sleeping and breathing the Blue Jays! Baseball isn’t my favourite sport, but the more I watch, the more I enjoy it. It’s been fun to get caught up in the hype, when the whole country is rooting for a team. It almost feels like the Olympics. We were very happy that they won last night, and will be cheering them on tonight!

Once the Blue Jays made the playoffs, I wanted to make a baseball themed treat. Cake pops came to mind, because they’re round like baseballs! These would be great for a World Series celebration, or for a Little League team party.

Nanny’s Rhubarb Cake

This rhubarb cake recipe comes from my Nanny, my Dad’s mother. Nan was known for her baking, and a number of her recipes are on my “to blog sometime” list. I’ve thought about sharing some of them before but haven’t been able to find the words to talk about her. But I have a big patch of ripe rhubarb in my backyard and it’s been almost exactly a year since she died so today you are getting rhubarb cake and Nanny stories!

Celebration Cupcakes for Two (We bought a house!)

I am a huge fan of small-batch desserts. I love to bake and we love sweet treats, but when we’re trying to eat more healthily, we don’t need an entire pan of brownies in the house!

Desserts for two are perfect for those occasions when you just “need” something sweet. A treat to perk you up after a hard day at work or an indulgence to celebrate good news. We’re total chocoholics, so this XXL Double Chocolate Cookie from Sally’s Baking Addiction shows up pretty frequently at our house.

But for this occasion, I was looking for something a little more springy and celebratory. The cause for festivity: we bought a house!