chocolate wedding cakes

I was craving chocolate today which made me decide to write about something chocolaty.  I was reading about Nicky Grant, a patissiere and chocolatier based in Cornwall (UK), and her unbelievable chocolate creations.   These cakes look so delicious.  They remind me of a cake my brother had for his bar mitzvah.  It was a white chocolate cake covered in white chocolate swirls and I remember the best part of his chocolate cake was picking off all the chocolate swirls and eating them.  The swirls of chocolate adorning and cascading off these wedding cakes are simply spectacular.  When you don’t feel like fondant, chocolate cakes are a great alternative.  (all cakes from Nicky Grant)

 

layered cake

Happy Birthday Lindsay…. this cake should be for you!

via Style Me Pretty

billy lloyd

Billy Lloyd is a master when it comes to creating simple, paired down, everyday ceramics for the home.  He graduated from Camberwell College of Arts in 2006 and just set up his own studio this year.  I love his pieces, especially the ones below.  Billy is currently exhibiting his work at Origin: the Contemporary Craft Fair, located at Old Spitafields Market in London until the 28th of September.  As the tagline of the show states ”Made: Not Manufactured.”  It reminds me of Toronto’s One of a Kind show that takes place twice a year.  Best of luck to Billy in his career.  I’m sure his products will fly, globally.

via craftform.com

via home build life

via cockpit arts

via dulwich on view

via ceramics photography

peach brandy jam

What better way to close the summer than to make jam.  I had my first lesson in jam making the other week by a good friend of my mom who wanted to do something special together for my engagement.  It was truly a memorable gift and I have step by step pictures to show!

I can now make jam on my own and as a result of my lesson, I learned that jam is something you can really get creative, with different combinations of fruits, spices, liquors etc.  The sky is the limit.  For some reason I was always afraid of making jam (similar to my fear of making bread), but after walking through all the steps with someone, I realized, it’s not that hard.  Once I move into my new apartment in Prague, I hope to try another recipe (if I can find pectin) and make use of all the great, fresh produce from the farmer’s markets that run three times a week in the city.

the jam helper

two cakes for rosh hashanna

Last week, I made two killer apple cakes for Rosh Hashanna (September 27/28).  The first is a tort that I modified from apple only to pear, nectarine, apple.  The second is an apple nut coffee cake.  Both are from the Toronto, golden oldie, Kinnereth Cookbook and both are super simple to make.  I made a couple changes to the apple nut coffee cake.  For starters I used vanilla low fat yogurt instead of sour cream.  I also upped the apple quantity from 2 cups to 3 because I like more apples.  Finally, I added raisins to topping mix and split up the batter like a normal coffee cake so there is a ribbon of topping in the middle in addition to on top.  Pictures below- Any other good apple cakes out there? Please share!

Apple Nut Coffee Cake by Sheila Masters in the Kinnereth Cookbook

Cake:

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs at room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sifted flour

1 tsp of baking powder and of baking soda

1/4 tsp of salt

1 cup sour cream (I used yogurt)

2 cups of chopped apples (I used three and a mix of different apples)

Topping:

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used walnuts + pecans)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp of cinnamon (I used a lot more but didn’t measure)

2 tbsp of melted butter (which I omitted)

Instructions:  Preheat the oven to 350 F (180C). Grease a 9″ springform pan.  Cream together shortening and sugar.  Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture and alternate with yogurt or sour cream as you add dry ingreds. Fold in apples.  Pour half the batter into cake pan, then sprinkle with half of the topping mixture.  Then pour in the rest of the cake batter and top with remaining topping. Bake for 35-40 min.  Let cool then remove from pan or freeze until use.

Apple/Nectarine/Pear Torte modified from the Kinnereth Blueberry Torte

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter at room temp

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp salt

Filling:

Enough ripe fruit to fill a 9″, 10″ or 11″ springform + 1 cup of sugar, 4-5 tbsp of flour, juice and rind of half a lemon + 2 tbsp of cinnamon (or more if you like cinnamony flavour)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).  Cream butter and shortening.  Add sugar and cream well.  Add beaten egg.  Sift dry ingredients in a different bowl and then add to creamed mixture.  Reserve 1 cup of this mixture somewhere because you will use it to crumble over the tort and form the topping.  Pat the remainder of the dough in your springform and bring it as high up the sides you can (evenly)- leave about an inch to the top of your pan free of dough.  Cut up all the fruit, and mix with flour, sugar, lemon rind/juice, cinnamon and then put it into the prepared pan.  Sprinkle some more lemon juice on the fruit in the pan.  Then go back to the cup you reserved, take some flour in your hands and add to the dough to make a crumble/streusel and sprinkle on top of fruit. Bake for 1 and 1/4 to 1.5 hours.  Fruit should be bubbling and topping should be light brown.  Let cool for a bit and then carefully remove from pan.

 

 

tort crust

 

ripe pears

 

tort dough consistency in cuisinart

 

the tort "middle" melange of fruit

 

tort with topping unbaked

 

topping covers almost the entire tort

 

lightly browned topping after it has been cooked

 

tort out of the pan

 

 

coffee cake just out of oven with raisin top

 

olive & olives

There is a fabulous new store in Leslieville in Toronto called Olive & Olives.  This store is a Montreal export and was born out of two women’s passion for Spain, language, travel and olive oil.  Their first Toronto store is beautiful.  The interior is wall to wall products, light wood, brick and a big tree with white Christmas lights.

We spent close to an hour in Olive & Olives speaking to the knowledgable staff who walked us around the store, introduced us to the store’s myriad of products and then did a tasting of three oils.  By tasking I mean, drinking olive oil out of small paper cups (straight up); bread was our pallet cleanser.

It is a great store for expanding your personal olive oil collection (drinking, dipping or cooking) as well as house-warming/host/hostess gifts like preserved lemons, olives, peppers in cute cans.  Finally, they also offer a variety of classes that are written on their chalk board at the front of the store.  Address: 779 Queen Street East, Toronto

Two reviews of the store here and here.

vegetarian lunch

Sorry for the brief delay in posting. Life has been hectic.  Lots of positive changes in August and September and a whole slew of new posts coming your way.  I wanted to write about weekend lunches and why we don’t do them often enough in Toronto.  Two weeks ago we hosted a lunch for my cousin and his wife as a post wedding celebration.  My mom and I downloaded a bunch of vegetarian/vegan recipes to honour the newlyweds and spent all morning in a chopping frenzy.  It turned out to be a delicious lunch, extremly filling and very healthy.  I liked it better than having a big dinner and think I may start hosting lunches more regularly.  Hosting a lunch as its benefits:  you don’t feel stuffed before bed, you typically don’t feel like having a big dinner following, you have the rest of your day ahead of you.  I remember reading in an issue of Australian Vogue Entertaining and Living that profiled family lunches and I recall thinking to myself, why don’t we do that here in Toronto.  We had a broccoli, raisin and radish salad with a tahini dressing, a walnut spicy humus, a zucchini fritata, a vegan carrot, pepper, celery salad with a citrus dressing, falafel balls, a coleslaw and fruit for dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

I did not fall off the face of the earth I promise.  I actually switched continents and moved to Europe; Prague to be exact.  More from Prague soon.

coutume cafe

I wake up this morning from having too few hours of sleep last night to a blackberry message on my cell phone from my fiancée.  What does it say?  He has found the best coffee shop in Paris called Coutume Cafe.  He is in Paris this weekend attending a wedding with his family and has a couple of days to explore the city and make me jealous (not really, but just a bit).  So I google Coutume Cafe and I am astounded at the space he got to sip his morning java.  Of course it is stunning, swanky interiors by French company, Cut Architectures and looks like part lab part vintage chic store.

Apparently, Coutume Cafe has made a good name for itself as a roaster and cafe in the city that is known for crappy coffee.  My parents have been to Paris a couple of times, both of whom are coffee drinkers and I always remember them saying how awful the coffee is.  My fiancée, another coffee snob (who has s siphon- if that means anything to you), bbm’d me this morning to tell me he found an awesome coffee shop.  For him to say that takes a lot, trust me.  More on Coutume, the owners, the space and the coffee situation in Paris, here, here, here and here.   Most recent bbm- he has made it to Laduree and vows never to eat another macaron again from anywhere else because they are so good.  Thank you Antoine Netien fo roasting such delicious coffee (compliment from my man + his sister).

If you find yourself in Paris, here is how to locate Coutume:

47 rue de Babylone, 7ème arrondissement
Metro: St-François-Xavier or Sevres-Babylone

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