I’ve been interested in raw foods for a while now but I hadn’t yet dabbled into the actual ‘cooking’/eating of it- until now. I decided I would make a raw cheesecake. As I study to become a holistic nutritionist, I think it is very important to experience many different ways of eating, in order to be able to give effective information to my future clients. I’ll definitely be trying more raw foods but I will probably stick to savoury recipes. I was thinking of purchasing a pack of cookbooks from …

I was interested in using phyllo dough as it’s something I don’t often use. While searching for a recipe, I thought about apple strudel and such, but then I came across a Chocolate Cherry Strudel- different, and delicious-sounding! This dessert was whipped up in just a few minutes- it was SO easy! I got the recipe in the Joy of Vegan Baking. I didn’t change too much, except I used a mixture of dark and semi-sweet chocolate, instead of pure semi-sweet. I think dark chocolate is a bit more diet …

What better way to welcome Spring than with a lovely Hummingbird Cake! This was my first time trying a hummingbird cake and I must say….DECADENT. LUSCIOUS. WONDERFUL. It was delicious! This cake was polished off in no time at all! It was densely packed with the goodness of bananas, pineapple, pecans and spices and the addition of cream cheese frosting just made it to die for! I was curious as to how this cake obtained it’s name, but it seems there are about a zillion explanations for this question. Some …

I love the combination of chocolate and peanut butter and after seeing chef Michael Smith of the food network make these, I could not resist! I made mine in teeny tiny mini muffin cups, but you could follow Michael Smith and use large ones, which I think would be delightful, but I knew that if I only made 4 big ones, I would have eaten them before anyone else got a taste…
Homemade Peanut Butter Cups

8 ounces of 70% bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
1 …

This month’s Iron Cupcake theme was coffee. Now, I’m not a huge coffee drinker though I do usually have one cup a few mornings each week. For this competition, I wanted to create an extravagant cupcake that didn’t only feature coffee, but one that took after a yummy, fattening, Starbucks drink! I took a recipe for Mocha Chip Pound Cake Cupcakes and added my own touch my making Dulce De Leche to fill them with. Then, I made a Cinnamon Whipped Cream Frosting and placed a chocolate-covered coffee bean on …

In September it was my boyfriend’s birthday, so I really wanted to make a special cake. I decided it was time to try out rolling fondant. For this cake, I decided to cover it in white fondant and then ice the logo of the BC Lions football team in coloured buttercream. My boyfriend has seasons tickets for the lions so we had been to a few games together and watched the rest on TV. I was really proud of how it turned out, as it was my first time using …

These were soft and chewy, melt in your mouth cookies! I adapted the recipe from Anna Olsen’s chocolate chip cookies. Perfect with a glass of milk!
Ingredients:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
8 oz combination of bittersweet chocolate cut into chunks, white chocolate cut into chunks, and butterscotch chips
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cream together butter and sugars until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.
Stir in flour, cornstarch, baking …

For my dad’s birthday this year, I decided to try something new- instead of a traditional birthday cake, I made a Baked Lemon Cheesecake. The cheesecake was different, in that there was no sour cream or cream cheese in the recipe. The “cheese” part came from ricotta and greek-style yogurt. The finished product was wonderful and actually ended up tasting like a lemon meringue pie! My family loved it, and I’m sure your family will too- recipe coming soon!