Pretty Sweet Christmas Menu!

As some of you know this year I am sadly not participating in Market Collective. It saddens me a lot but I am swamped with Christmas orders and it's the middle of November so the decision had to be made.
That being said, I didn't want to deprive anyone from enjoying my goodies this Christmas so I made up a very simple Christmas menu that requires no minimum order. I will be doing deliveries once a weekend up until December 21st.  (ordering details below)

Here she is!

To order:
Send me an email at vicki@prettysweetco.com or call me at 403-554-8425
Let me know what you would like to order, when and where you would like it and things will take off from there. Super easy!
- The last day to order is December 16th -


* I take cash or cheque made out to Vicki Manness, or email money transfers.

Have a great holiday season everyone!!

one wedding to rule them all

So I’m not going to mention the fact that its been over 5 months since the last time I blogged. I’ve decided that instead of talking about the fact that I should blog more and how sorry I am for leaving none of you hanging (let’s face it) and just accept the fact that I am a monthly (at best) blogger. I think I’m ok with this. And it means that if I blog more than that then I am exceeding everyone’s expectations. Win win.

This past October my lovely sister Jenny got married to her best friend Jon. They have a beautiful love and I thought it would make the most sense to start my 2013 blog posts off with this beauty.

I’d say it’s mainly because the cake I made for this wedding far exceeds any other cake I’ve done so I really just want to show it off.

My sister told me to do whatever I wanted – the cake I’ve always wanted to make. So I decided to challenge myself and hoped to really wow people. My entire extended family was coming in from Manitoba and the reception was at the amazingly beautiful Alloy – so the pressure was on.

Bring it.

My inspiration:

Maggie Austin makes absolutely beautiful cakes, I saw this picture and fell a little bit in love. I decided to do my own take on this

So after 2 seasons of One Tree Hill here’s what I whipped up

(all photographs courtesy of Mathieu Young and Jason Haughey)

Ladies and gents, the Cake:

This is my favorite cake to date. I urge someone else to dare me to make whatever I want so I can have as much fun and challenge myself as much as I did with this lovely. 

Since we're on the subject might as well show a couple more pictures of the magnificent couple and the wedding

I made the favours as well: Vanilla Bean and
Black Sesame and Salted Caramel Macarons (not a pain in my ass at all) 

The wedding party - I look like a fool as per usual

Beautiful

 So there you have it. I feel immense anxiety when I think of the fact that my wedding (whenever that will be) will have to follow this one

Chocolate, meet Caramel...

Well as most of you may know by now, as far as I'm concerned, if it's not chocolate or caramel why eat it?
Am I right?
Well even if you don't agree with that bold statement as if you could refuse anything that is chocolate and caramel. There is no better pairing in this world than that of a rich chocolate and a velvety salty sweet caramel. 


End. Of. Post.






Just kidding, there's more. 
So whenever I send my menu out people usually stop looking when they see the Chocolate Cake soaked with Sea Salted Caramel and layered with Caramel Frosting.

Drool

I don't really blame them though, I would also stop looking.  I'm such a sucker for this pairing and I thought why keep this all to myself?
 I have to share my super amazing knowledge with the entire world (because I'm very sure that the entire world reads this blog... don't they?)


So without further adieu here is my super special chocolate cake recipe, all the way from my Grandmother's recipe box. I hope you make it! 

Excellent Fluffy Chocolate Cake

(That's seriously what it's called, doesn't that title alone make you want to make it?)

3/4 cup softened butter

2 1/4 cups white sugar

3 large eggs

1 1/2 tsp salt

3 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

2 1/2 cups flour

7 1/2 tbsp cocoa

1 1/8 cup buttermilk

3/4 cup boiling water

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1.  Cream butter, sugar, and eggs together until very light and fluffy.

2.   Mix all the dry ingredients together.

3.  Alternate dry ingredients and milk into the butter mixture. 

4.  Add boiling water and vanilla and beat until just blended. 

5.  Pour into greased 9x13 inch pan or two 8 inch round pans. 

6.  Bake at 350 F for 30-35 minutes.

Once you make it you can either let it cool and then ice, or poke holes in the hot cake and pour warm caramel over the whole thing... and to be honest, why wouldn't you do that? 

But if you have self control cool the cake, and layer it with frosting swirled with caramel and your guests (or just you) will know who's boss.

Photo courtesy of Kyle Chow after some om nom-ing

Birthday Birthday Birthday

May and June is a busy busy time in the Manness family, first we've got my birthday, then Mothers day, my Mom's birthday, my Dad's birthday and then Father's day.
It's an intense couple months for everyone, not to mention the fact that everyone is on diets (or at least trying to be) so my making cakes for every occasion is not appreciated. 


I decided to make these birthday cake cookies to take to all these events rather than make something for each (whether they made it to all the events, I'll never tell). I saw the recipe on this blog and thought they looked delicious. I'm a sucker for birthday cake flavours and I'm crazy for sprinkles.


Here's the revised recipe, for the original just click on the link above.


Makes over 2 dozen delicious cookies.


Birthday Cake Cookies!


1 box vanilla cake mix
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup sprinkles


if the dough is a little dry for your taste add another egg or a tbsp of oil.

Drop cookies on you cookie sheet, place in a 350 degree oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy for any occasion, or no occasion at all!

I'm back I guess?

There have been so many topics I’ve been wanting to blog about but I haven’t been finding the time at all. When I’m stressed I bake not blog and so let’s just say I’ve been having a heavy baking time and an extremely light blogging time.

I quit my job of over 2 years to be a nanny in the summer and it’s definitely an interesting change. After a month of eye-twitching stress (literally… I had a 4 week long eye-twitch) I made the decision to make the switch and I feel very stress free now so I think it’s time to get back to the blogging. I’ve got lots to share with you so let’s do it!

Starting out with my favorite thing, Market Collective!

This is my new table location and I love the corner! Kate and I got to spend some quality time with our neighbour vendor, the lovely Rebecca King. 

While I love doing the markets, this May edition of MC is going to be the last one I do for a bit (maybe just a month because I’m probably going to get the itch to do it) but I am taking June off due to a wedding and perhaps July.

I absolutely love being a part of this community and fear being forgotten but I need some time to re-group. Kate and I have been doing them straight since December and have been loving every minute of it, but it’s time to make some summer time plans.

This time around was possibly the best lineup of baked-goods I’ve had, let me tell you why…

Allow me to introduce you to Maple Stout Cupcakes with Maple Frosting and Candied Bacon

Yeah

I’ve never liked one of my own flavors more than this one. Something about the stout and the bacon combined with the sweet maple, I know this combination is super hot right now, but why not join the trend I guess.

Another thing that I’ve started doing is scones, I absolutely love scones but everywhere you go they are dry and give you dry mouth. Not desirable. I’d like to pave the way for the moist scone, that leave your mouth wanting more instead of wanting water.

I also put my muffin top pan to good use and made chocolate caramel whoopee pies. Enough said.

Another great thing is that I sold more cake stands this time around than ever before and I think word is definitely getting out there so thank you for that Calgs, I couldn’t have asked for a better Market Collective send off.

During this next month I am getting my etsy shop set up to sell the stands and packaged baking so fingers crossed for that!

I hope you don’t miss me too much and I am always available for private orders if you get an intense craving. 

Until next time!!

Pretty Sweet Cake Stands!

The wait is no longer! 
Here are some photos of my current inventory of Repurposed Vintage Cake Stands.
Please don't judge my photography skills... I have absolutely no skill when it comes to lighting and I don't even know what else. Usually I get my sister  to do stuff like that for me because she's pretty dope at it, but I couldn't burden her with this task so I decided to just do it.
They aren't terrible (I don't think) but like I said don't judge me... just accept it.


Here we go! 

To Mother With Love

The Rooster

So there you have it folks! Here is my first collection. 

If you have an interest in one of the plates send me an e-mail: vicki@prettysweetco.com 

Also keep checking back here because I will post pictures of my new ones as soon as they are ready.