A letter to Spring

Dear Spring,

Sitting here on a Friday night, with a patch on my left eye (don't ask... it's not that interesting really....) I realized that I have been slacking off on the blogging and the cooking, and I have a perfect excuse for it.

Cakes!!! Yes, cake is always a good excuse for anything!

I have been selling cupcakes to a little restaurant downtown and making quite a few cakes as well, so getting home from work means the oven heats up, the fondant starts rolling or the Cuisinart mixer is in over time. Sometimes it's all of the above.

I know for a fact that many cooks/bakers out there, just like me, what makes them most happy is to see the reaction on people's face when u cook/bake for them. Seeing the different emotions people have is like getting an endorphin shot for me. Shocked, ecstatic, amazed, amused, confused. All in a good way mind you. The one thing that always happens with the cakes, is they don't want to cut them LOL!

 A quick Optimus Prime cake for friend 30th birthday. Chocolate cake & strawberry buttercream. 

I didn't have the right colors, so I had to paint over it after, hence the streak :(

Banana cake and Amaretto buttercream. The colors and the little characters on the cake are from the birthday girl sketch book. She's amazing!!!!

For two very lucky birthday girls who have such caring people in their lives. Chocolate cake, Vanilla cake and both with strawberry buttercream.

Left: For 1 of my best friends' 30th birthday, green tea cake & dark chocolate matcha  ganache. 

Right: Baby shower for my soon-to-be niece, chocolate cake and strawberry buttercream.

My happiness goes into overload when afterward, people come to tell me "It not only looks good, it tastes delicious!" My heart literally flutters... Yeah, nerd, I know LOL!

...*Sigh*... I have nothing to complain about. Life is simply yummy and beautiful. The sun is coming out more often. I've switched to a lighter jacket and no longer wear my boots. The birds are getting louder. The squirrel who lives in the tree behind my house seem to appear more often (I don't know where he is hiding his food, but he seems to be carrying something EVERY SINGLE TIME!)

So Spring, will you please come and stay a while? I promise I won't take you for granted. I will enjoy you to the fullest all the while not forgetting how lucky I am compared to thousands and thousands of other people in the world. I won't pout when you need to rain. I will accept you even with the cold breeze that you sometimes bring. I know nothing lasts forever, and you will eventually leave, but I think we will have a great time together.

Your faithful friend, "Tramie"
Waiting for you.

Amaretto Dark Secret

This passed Sunday my friend and I participated in a charity event called Cupcake Camp, where bakers, professional or amateur, donated bunches and bunches of cupcakes to raise money for a good cause.

3500 cupcakes were on site and the funds raised this year ($8000!!!!) is going to Kids Help Phone Canada.

Lots of people (about 700!!!) came to support by buying all kinds of amazingly cute cupcakes, and it was so great. There was a contest as well, for best pro design, taste, best amateur design, taste, etc. The room was hot and it was hard for me to stay focus most of the time, but it was all worth it.

I donated 48 cupcakes and they were called Amaretto Dark Secret: Amaretto cupcake, banana cream cheese frosting and an amaretto dark chocolate truffle in the middle of it all. I thought it was quite good! So I will go ahead and share the recipe with you, because I'm pretty sure some of you out there get weak in the knees when it comes to alcoholic dessert. Ya... you know who you are...

Amaretto cupcakes (makes 24)
adapted from a recipe I found here

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup butter or margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 cup milk (I used skimmed milk)
• 1/2 cup amaretto cream liquor
• 1/4 cup amaretto liquor or a bit more ;)
  
• 1/3 cup slivered almonds (I didn't add this)

Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter and brown sugar until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Alternately add 1/3 of the flour, then the milk and the amaretto cream, then 1/3 of the flour and all of the amaretto, beating well after each addition. Add remaining flour; mix until smooth. Stir in almonds if using.

Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Bake at 375ºF for 14-16 minutes or until muffins test done. Cool in pans for a few minutes then remove and cool completely.

Cut a cone off of the top of a cupcake, slash a bit of the tip, put a little truffle inside and close it up.

Amaretto Dark chocolate truffles

• 2 oz. cream cheese, soften
• a handful of dark chocolate pellets, or chips, melted
• a shot of amaretto
• a shot of cream of amaretto

Mix cream cheese and melted chocolate together well, then add the alcohol. Roll into 24 truffles.

Banana cream cheese frosting

• 2 bananas, ripe, mashed
• 4 oz. cream cheese, soften
• 1 cup butter, soften
• 1/2 -1 cup of powdered sugar, depending on how sweet you like your frosting (the bananas will sweeten this a lot already)

Mix the bananas with the cream cheese well. Beat in the butter until creamy, then slowly add the sugar 1/4 cup at a time, according to your taste. Frost! Or... eat some with a little spoon...?

Now, here are some of my favorites from Cupcake Camp. Enjoy!!!!

My friend's entry for Best Amateur Design. Isn't it adorable????

This one won Best Montreal Theme: Youppi jumping out of a poutine


Poutine!!!!!! Awesome!!!


This one won Best Amateur Design. So cute!!!

Happy Halloween!!!!

Oh boy...

So, I was immediately M.I.A again after the first disappearance due to our Europe trip back in the summer. But this time, it wasn't such a pleasant one... My laptop went into a coma after an attack of trojans, malwares & who-knows-what, even though the only porn I ever went to look at, was the ones on Tastespotting & Foodgawker... I was lucky enough to get tremendous help from a couple of friend, who backed up everything I had, then proceeded to wipe out the whole thing & gave my precious a new life. Cheers!!!!

It took a while, but Tramie's Kitchen is back!!!! Technically, the kitchen never shut down, but that's just too many details... I'm just excited to be back and share my yakking & goodies. Yay!!!!

Tomorrow is Halloween, and it would only be appropriate for me to post something that has to do with it, right? So here is my share of ghouly, gross & weird-looing cupcakes for this wonderful day.

All cupcakes are chocolate, and frosted with cream cheese base frostings that come in various flavors:

Jack, from Nightmare Before Christmas, is covered in Lemon cream cheese frosting and melted dark chocolate.

Owl, is frosted with Dark Chocolate cream cheese and Peanut Butter cream cheese, decorated with mini Oreos, yellow Cry Baby candies, and split Toasted Marshmallow Jelly Beans.

Pumpkin, is frosted with Peanut Butter crweam cheese, Green Tea cream cheese, melted Dark Chocolate. The spaced-out looking spider is made out of fondant, cut Red Licorice Wheels and White Chocolate pellets.

Pumkin is made of fondant, and the basket is Green Tea cream cheese frosting.

Mummy: Lemon Cream cheese Frosting with eyes made from yellow colored White chocolate pellets.

And the obvious Eyeball of Lemon cream cheese & veins of Peanut Butter cream cheese frosting. Topped with an eye of Green Apple Gummy Ring and a Dark Chocolate pellet.

So what are you serving for your Halloween party?

Strawberry mousse cake with chocolate chip cookies bottom

Bleh! I've been nursing a cold for the passed week. You know, the slow torturous one that starts two weeks in advance, with muscle pain and headaches, then "BAM!" just like that, it hits, and you're completely thrown off balance.

Left with no energy & no appetite, I lost the desire to cook. I KNOW! It's soooo wrong!!! Everything tastes mediocre or yucky, so I haven't cooked or baked ANYTHING at all... except for birthday cakes. Ya, this is the third one in 7 days. LOL!!!! It was a friend's birthday dinner yesterday, and so I made what I was told to be his preference, Strawberry Mousse.

I didn't want to turn on the oven, so instead of making a cake base, I made it with crushed chocolate chip cookies & cream cheese. The rest is simply strawberries, cream, a bit of sugar and gelatin.

The base:

• 16 chocolate chip cookies (I used the Compliments ones, but Chips Ahoy or anything similar is fine)
• 1/2 block of cream cheese (4 oz)

Line bottom of a 9-inch spring form pan with
Crush the cookies in a big bowl. Soften cream cheese in the microwave for 1 minute on medium power. Mix cookies & cream cheese together, using your hands to mash them together well. Press in bottom of baking pan. Refrigerate.

The mousse:
(adapted from Joy of Baking Strawberry Charlotte)

• 1 bag 600g frozen strawberries, no sugar added, thawed
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 pouches of Knox gelatin
  
• 250 ml whipping cream

Puree the strawberries in a blender, add the sugar according to your taste. Reseve 1 cup in the fridge.

Sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 cup of strawberry puree, let sit for a few minutes. Stir and microwave for 15 seconds or until the gelatin has dissolved. Add it to the rest of the puree and mix well.

Beat the cream with a mixer until soft peek form, then fold the puree into it and continue beating until stiff peak. Spread over the cookie base and refrigerate a few hours.

The glaze:

• 1 cup of strawberry puree
• 1.5 Tbsp of Knox gelatin

Sprinkle the gelatin on top of the puree and let it sit for a few minutes. Microwave for 15 seconds or until the gelatin has completely dissolved. Mix well and spread over the top of the mousse.

Decorate to your desire & enjoy! I am off rolling myself in the blankie & fry like an imperial roll... (Oh yeah... I'm s.l.o.w.l.y getting my appetite back)

Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Raspberry Ganache

Last Sunday we went to a friend's family cottage for his birthday/pizza party. They have an awesome wood oven that he built by himself, so we basically just made pizza, ate, drank & hung out near the lake.

The infamous wood oven that my BF would love to have


Coogee, the best dog EVER!

The weather was great. The sun was shining. The breeze was subtle & almost omni-present. And the bugs... well the bugs were hard at work. I've got 6 humongous bites on my neck to show for it and they are each as big as a peanut!!!

Nonetheless, the bugs didn't stop the pizzas from tasting delicious. Right out of the oven, "ooh" "aah" hot on your fingers but you still don't want to stop grabbing.

We topped the pizzas with home-made tomato sauce, sliced bocconcini, prosciutto, pickled eggplants & arugula. Killer combo, I loved it! I basically just kicked back with a glass of red wine & let the men cook. Somehow "men", "smoke" and "fire" just always go so well.

We finished off everything with a birthday cake that I made for him: Chocolate cake with chocolate & fresh raspberry ganache.

Chocolate cake
(adapted from Kraft's Best Ever Chocolate Cake)

• 1-3/4 cups each: flour and sugar
• 1-1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. MAGIC Baking Powder
• 2/3 cup butter, softened
• 4 square BAKER'S Unsweetened Chocolate, melted, cooled
• 1-1/4 cups brewed coffee
• 3 eggs

Heat oven to 350°F. Line bottom of two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. In a large bowl, beat all ingredients except the eggs with electric or hand held mixer on medium speed 2 min. Add the eggs and beat an additional 2 minutes. Pour into pans and bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake layers in pans 10 minute, then remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely, about 1 hour or so.

Ganache:

• 300 gr. dark chocolate pellets 65%
• 300 ml. whipping cream 30%
• one 6oz box of raspberries, washed and dried with paper towels.

Place the chocolate in a bowl. Heat the cream in a pot over medium heat for a few minutes, until it starts forming small bubble on the rim. Take off heat and pour over the chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes.

Stir chocolate & cream mixture until well blended. Let cool a few minutes.

Scoop out about 1/4 of the ganache in a smaller bowl. Choose 16 best looking raspberries ans set aside, mash the rest into the small bowl of ganache. Sandwich this between the cake layers.

Crumb coat the cake with some ganache, place in the fridge to harden up, then take cake out and pour the rest of the ganache over the cake. Let drip over the sides and decorate with the pretty raspberries.

The only decent picture I could take of the inside of the cake

My birthday cake

Speaking of birthday, I had mine too a couple of weeks ago. And let me tell you, I don't think anyone has ever gotten a birthday cake as AMAZING & AWESOME & FULL OF LOVE as mine.

It was made by one of my best friend Catherine and it took her FIVE days to make it: my favourite alien of all time, Stitch.

See, that's not just a sprinkle of love. That's a truck load of love and then some more.

As you can imagine, I was more than happy when she removed my blindfold. Speechless. Surprised. Awestruck. Anything you can think of. My heart fluttered & I was completely light-headed.

And then I was sad to cut into it, but at the same time really excited... *sigh*... it's hard being an adult with complex emotions... lol!!!

I can finally move on & grow up now, because I got the best birthday cake EVER.

Cat! Je t'aime and I dedicate this post to you :) xoxoxoxox Merci encore!!!

Yup, I went for the ear first...

The talented Catherine with her creation, whom I poked his nose to look for cake snot...

It's almost too painful to look at this picture, but I wanted to show you how it looks inside.

P.S: These pictures are from various friends that were conscious to remember to take pictures, at the time the cake was revealed. Thanks guys!

Birthday cake pops

I made these cake pops my cousin's bf K's birthday. Of course, totally inspired by the amazing Bakerella. She always has such crazy great ideas, it's awesome! (THANK YOU BAKERELLA!!!)

Her basic cake pops are made with: one 13x9 cake, made from cake mix as according to instruction on box; 1 can frosting (16 oz) Candy melts (1 lb package)

I used what I had on hand and made 40 pops total:

• 9x9 chocolate ricotta cake (I made this a couple of weeks ago, only used half of it & so I stored the rest in the freezer & thawed it 1 hour in the plastic wrap before I started the pops)
• 1 pkg cream cheese (8oz)
• White chocolate
• Dark chocolate
• Lollipop sticks
• A big block of styro-foam so you can stick the pops in to dry

Mash the cake up into bits & crumbs. Soften the cream cheese and mix into the cake with your hand really well so that it adheres when formed into little balls.

Insert lollipop sticks. Put in fridge to keep firm while melting white chocolate in a double-boiler over very low heat, because white chocolate is capricious & it will be ruined if the heat is too high.

Take the "naked" cake pops & dip into the white chocolate. Wait for them to dry, then do the same with the dark chocolate, if you'd like.

I decorated the pops with numbers for every year that is K's age. Since he's not so old, I had left over pops to play with.

I hope K & my cousin like them :) But like I said, if they're not his taste, at least there is the love.