Real Thanksgiving... American style

So I know that US Thanksgiving was 3 weeks ago, but I am a little slow getting these posts up (I am making a mental note to not let it go past one week of whatever event I am doing... good luck to myself)
Anyways - moving on - I told you on regular Thanksgiving that I consider American Thanksgiving to be 'real' Thanksgiving and I totally stand by that. NFL on all day long, 2 out of 3 of my teams won so not a bad day there... I shake my fist at you Aaron Rodgers...
Cooking all day long with my Dad is the best part, we really take it upon ourselves to make this Thanksgiving a little different than usual ones, this year our big deal was 2 Turkeys! Yeah I just said that. 
We did 2 -19 pound turkeys to get more dark meat and it's faster than one 25 pounder.


The best part, obviously, for me was the dessert. I try to be a little different and think outside the box from the traditional pie, but I still like to stick to pumpkin. It is my favorite fall flavor and I love making different things with it. Last year I made a pumpkin spiced trifle with cinnamon pastry cream and spiced whipped cream, oh memories.


So this year I made a personal sized pumpkin tart, bruleed on top with a whipped maple creme fraiche. Yummers!

Bruleed Pumpkin Tart with Whipped Maple Creme Fraiche

The picture is a little fuzzy, and it's the only one I have from the whole night, I started on the Prosecco a little early that day...


This year some of our very special guests couldn't make it and they were dearly missed, so we felt that we really had to do a good job in their honor and I think we accomplished that. 
Here's to next year!


This  post was very wordy...


Stay tuned for some Market Collective times.

Happy Birthday Em!

It's been a crazy long time since my last post and for that I deeply apologize because I know that you all rely on this blog in your day to day life.... (sarcasm ~ as if you couldn't already tell)


Anyway, I've been working on a whole bunch of stuff for my niece Emma's 7th birthday. 
Every year my sis and I do a big extravaganza for her friends and this year was...


                                                               Polka Dot Party!!!

Dessert bars are pretty much my all time favorite thing to do.  I try and do them as much as I possibly can.

I was really excited when Em said she wanted a polka dot party, there were just so many ideas that came a flowing. 

We've got the whoopee pies: 

Red Velvet with vanilla bean frosting

My favorite, the cake pops:

Chocolate with blue and gold, so pretty!

And let us not forget about the cake!

Vanilla and Chocolate marbled as per Emma's request

Katie also found the idea for these amazingly cute polka dotted cups:

Berry smoothies with marshmallow polka dots

As for everything else we just came up with in our pretty little minds. For the other party stuff and goody bags and such, visit Katie's blog to see

Hope that filled your void! Stay tuned for American Thanksgiving!! 

Thanksgibbing

Thanksgiving is one of my favourite times of the year, a close second to "real" thanksgiving which is obviously American thanksgiving... No, I am not American but who says you can't have two thanksgiving's a year? 


Anyways, this year I am off sweets and breads which is easier said than done, but I really try to make things that I can have and make them really good so I don't miss having things like pie... oh how I miss pie.
So I experimented with a pumpkin pudding with no crust, which is key. I can have maple syrup as a sweetener so I just substituted the sugar for maple syrup, cream instead of milk, egg, and spices, oh and of course pumpkin, the star of the show.

And voila! I topped it off with maple whipped cream and ate it all up. It was super yummy and I didn't miss pie at all. Well maybe a little... but definitely a perfect solution to a no carb situation.   


If you liked that see what I'll do for "real" Thanksgiving...

Happy Birthday!

My Sister's birthday was this week and if there's anything I love, it's a birthday. I just adore birthdays. 
So for her (certain age) birthday we decided to take a stroll down 17th Ave to take in a few shops and to get some amazing poutine!

Cowtown with Yam Fries

I was thrilled to see they had yam fries considering I am not allowed to eat potatoes (there's a difference.)  I had yam fry poutine topped with shaved beef. DELICIOUS. 


Later in the week we celebrated with friends and family and as promised I think I outdid myself on the cake this year. Better than last year, and that was tough to beat.
So without further adieu I present to you my new creation

Brown sugar apple spice cake with cinnamon caramel frosting topped with a drizzle of warm cinnamon caramel.... yeah. 

Next year is gonna be rough

Inspiration

My sister's 30th birthday is coming up and I always try to one up myself on her birthday cakes. It's the time of year when I am most inspired flavour-wise. I love autumn colors and flavours, warm caramels, spices, apples, and pumpkins. 
Last year I made a pumpkin cake with cinnamon custard and chai spiced frosting...
YUM
I'm not sure how to one up myself this year, especially because I'm taking a year off sweets (which is the worst punishment for a pastry chef and I'm not one hundred percent sure why I agreed to it) so I am looking for inspiration for her cake considering it's a landmark year. 

om nom nom

I will keep you posted on what I decide, I guess I'll get some advice from my sister as well...

Yikes!

So... this is my very first blog post. I'm not going to do the whole cliche thing and say "I never thought I'd be doing this but..." no, I have been meaning to start up this blog for a VERY long time and today is the day. 
With a little bit (a lot) of help from my sis I got it up and running. 
Basically this blog will be an ode to all things pastry, the events I do and my experiments - good or bad - and things that inspire me. 

Pretty much it's just going to be a pretty sweet blog. 
I apologize in advance for when I ramble on and talk about nothingness because I'm not the best with words...