Nanaimo Bars 2.0

A repost of the Nanaimo Bars recipe I first posted in 2009. It's a modification of the City of Nanaimo Official Recipe. This time with more pictures!

Ingredients: 
1 cup + 3 tbsp cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 tbsp cocoa
1 egg
1 1/4 cup graham wafer crumbs
1/2 cup ground almonds
1 cup shredded coconut
2 tbsp + 2 tsp cream
2 tbsp custard powder
2 cups icing sugar
8 oz (200 g) dark or semi-sweet chocolate

Step 1: In a medium saucepan on low heat melt together 1/2 cup butter, 1/4 cup sugar and 5 tbsp cocoa powder until it becomes a liquid. Stir almost constantly. 

Step 2: Beat in 1 egg and stir constantly until the egg cooks and mixture thickens.

Step 3: Remove pot from heat. Mix in cookie crumbs (1 1/4 cups), ground almonds (1/2 cups) and coconut (1 cup). Stir until well combined.

Step 4: Press mixture into an 8"x8"x2" (or equivalent) pan. I usually line the pan with parchment paper for easier clean up but it's not required. Then pop the whole thing in the fridge while you work on the next step.

Step 5:  Cream together 1/2 cup butter, 2 tbsp + 2 tsp cream, 2 tbsp custard powder and 2 cups icing sugar until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

(Note: This step should probably be done in a proper mixing bowl rather than a sauce pan but I don't currently possess any mixing bowls so it is what it is)

Step 6: Spread the custard over the crust. Try not to get crumbs from the crust into the custard. Then put the whole thing back in the fridge.

Step 7: Melt together 8 oz chocolate and remaining butter (3 tbsp). I usually do this in a microwave, in 30 second increments, stirring after each. But right now I don't have a microwave so I did it on the stove on low heat.

 Step 8: Marvel at melted chocolatey goodness

 Step 9: Spread chocolate over custard. Try not to mix the custard with the chocolate too much. Then refrigerate until chocolate is set, 4-6 hours or overnight.

 Step 10: Cut into squares. I try to make them small, maybe 1"X1" because they are very rich.

Step 11: Enjoy!

Amazing Brownies

This is a truly amazing brownie recipe. Very rich and chocolatey. I've been meaning to post the recipe for a while but I keep forgetting. It kind of has weird measurements...

2 1/4 sticks of butter or margarine (about 1 cup + 2 tbsp)

2 1/4 cups sugar

5 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp flour

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp cocoa

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

(Optional 3/4 cup nuts or 1/2 cup other flavoured chips, ie white chocolate, butterscotch or peanut butter)

Preheat oven to 350. Line a 9x13 pan with parchment paper and then spray with PAM. In a saucepan melt together butter and sugar, until butter is completely melted. Allow to cool slightly, then transfer to mixing bowl. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Stir in vanilla. Add flour, cocoa and salt. Stir gently until well incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Bake for 35 min. Cool completely before cutting. 

Veggie Tales Christmas Cake

I made this cake yesterday for a Christmas party with a bunch of my friends. It also happened to be the day before the birthday of a friend of mine who loves Veggie Tales. So I incorporated the two into one cake.

Teen Girl Squad!

I haven't posted in a while, but I have good reason for it. Since the last post, I have moved! No longer at home, I'm out on my own now with a couple of roommates. Getting used to a new kitchen is a little different, but it's working well and I'm super happy.

Yesterday was my one roommate's birthday. Last year, I made her a flower cake for her 11/12ths birthday (because she was moving to Africa for her real birthday). Now she's back and so this year, I went a little different... Teen Girl Squad!

From Teen Girl Squad Episode 9!

Tuxedo Cake

 I made this 'Tuxedo Cake' for a friend's birthday yesterday. It was inspired by the version Tuxedo Cake that Costco sells.

To make it, I started with my Black Forest Cake recipe, because I knew the cake needed to be sturdy and my usual chocolate cake recipe is not quite dense enough.

I made it in a 9x13 pan.

2 cups + 2 tbsp flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350, grease and flour the 9x13 pan. Combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well. Add in eggs, milk oil and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into prepared pans. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

I allowed the cake to cool and then I cut it in half. Then I cleaned out the 9x13 pan that I had baked it in and then I lined the pan with tin foil so that it would be easy to lift the finished cake out.

To make the filling, I used cook-and-chill pudding, as opposed to chill-and-serve, because it solidified more.

I started with the vanilla filling and I followed the directions on the box for cooking, except that I used half milk and half whipping cream, instead of all milk to make the pudding. When it was ready, I poured the vanilla pudding all over the cake and spread it evenly. Then I chilled the cake in the fridge for an hour or two.

After this, I made the chocolate pudding, again using half milk and half whipping cream. I then poured this on top of the vanilla pudding. Then I chilled this a bit more, before topping it with the second half of the cake, and putting it back in the fridge.

Finally, I made some chocolate topping using 2/3 cup whipping cream and 1 cup chocolate chips melted together, and then cooled slightly. I spread this topping all over the top of the cake, and then I let it chill some more.

Then, just before it was time to leave I took the whole thing out of the pan, trimmed off the excess around the edges and topped it with white and dark chocolate shavings.

The bowl of leftover goo, from the cake trimming.

Valentines Chocolate Cheesecake

So, I finally found a heart shaped springform pan, so I made a chocolate cheesecake for my family for Valentines.

Chocolate Fudge Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/2 cups vanilla wafer crumbs
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup butter

Cheesecake:
2 cups chocolate chips
3 bricks (250 g) cream cheese
1 can sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 300. Mix together crust ingredients and press into a springform pan. Melt chocolate in double boiler or microwave (I find microwave is easier and works just fine with chocolate chips). Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy. Add in sweetened condensed milk and beat in until smooth. Add in chocolate, eggs and vanilla and beat until well blended. Pour into pan and bake for 55 minutes.

Starbucks Cake

This was probably one of my favourite cakes to make. It was a fairly basic buttercream transfer, that just turned out really well. Plus I had the great fun of surprising the friend I made it for. :)

Chocolate Truffle Loaf

So after last weekend's banquet we had some ingredients left over, including six pounds of mandarin oranges, 1.5 liters of whipping cream and about 4 bricks of butter. So I've been trying to use these things up.

Fortunately it was a friend's birthday this past week so I made him a chocolate truffle loaf 'cake' and used up a significant portion of the whipping cream and some of the butter. (I'm taking the oranges to the school today to feed to hungry university students studying for exams)

Chocolate Truffle Loaf

3 egg yolks
1/2 cup whipping cream

16 oz semi-sweet chocolate (2 boxes of the Bakers stuff or that much in chocolate chips)
1/2 cup corn syrup (the recipe said light, but I just used regular)
1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup icing sugar
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

Line loaf pan with plastic wrap.

Whisk together egg yolks and 1/2 cup whipping cream. Set aside.

In a medium pot melt together chocolate, corn syrup and butter on medium heat until melted and well combined. Stir in egg mixture and continue to cook for about 3 minutes, or until it starts to thicken. Let cool to room temperature.

Mix together icing sugar, whipping cream and vanilla and beat on high speed with electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

Fold whipping cream into (cooled) chocolate mixture until it is one consistent colour.

Pour into prepared loaf pan. Cool in fridge for several hours until firm. (I did a couple hours in the fridge and a couple in the freezer because I was in a hurry)

Turn out onto serving plate and remove plastic wrap.

This was a super rich, super tasty dessert and my mother has requested that I make it for Christmas Dinner. :)

Mousse!

This past weekend my church group had our annual Christmas Banquet! This year I was in charge of most of the food for the event, which was a bit of a step up from last year when I just did the desserts.

But of course, this being me, I did still put a lot of emphasis on making sure the desserts looked and tasted fantastic.

Wanting a change from last year, but still wanting something individual and elegant, I went with mousse this year. And since not everyone likes pure chocolate, we did a mixture of Chocolate and White Chocolate Mousse.

Dark Chocolate Mousse

2 tbsp cold water
1 envelope unflavoured gelatin
1/4 cup boiling water

1 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups whipping (heavy) cream
2 tsp vanilla

In a small bowl with lots of surface area combine cold water and gelatin. Let stand for 2-5 min, then stir in boiling water until gelatin has dissolved. Allow to cool while you prepare the rest of the mousse.

Stir together cocoa and sugar. Add 2 whipping cream and vanilla and whip until stiff peaks form. Blend in gelatin until well combined.

Spoon into dessert dishes and chill for at least 30 minutes. Garnish as desired.

White Chocolate Mousse

12 oz white chocolate (I cheated and used chocolate chips)
1 envelope gelatin powder
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream

Melt white chocolate in a double boiler (or the microwave if you are super careful).

Stir gelatin into milk and let sit for a few minutes. Microwave the gelatin-milk until it is almost boiling. Stir milk mixture into white chocolate. Allow to cool.

Whip whipping cream until soft peaks form, fold in cooled chocolate mixture.

Spoon into dessert cups and chill for at least 1 hour. Garnish as desired.

As you can (kind of) see in the pictures we had different kinds of garnishes. Plain white chocolate with white chocolate chips on top, plain chocolate with candy cane, white chocolate with raspberries on the bottom and the top of the mousse, with raspberry syrup on top, chocolate with raspberries, white chocolate with blueberries and blueberry syrup and chocolate with blueberries. Again, I was a little busy this year and kind of forgot to bring a camera, not that I really would have had time to take photos anyway.

Chocolate Ice Cream

I haven't posted in ages... and I can't really say I've been busy either, I've just been playing way to much Minecraft. But I've also been creating some tasty creations, and then forgetting to photograph them. Anyway, one of the things I've been making a lot of lately is ice cream. I was given and ice cream maker for my birthday and I love it. This is my favourite recipe so far, its a chocolate base which you can then turn into whatever you like!

Chocolate Ice Cream

1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups whipping/heavy cream
1 cup light cream (Creamo, or half & half)
1 tbsp vanilla
Whatever mix-ins you like! (I've done rocky road, which is marshmallows, peanuts and chocolate chips and also caramel-pecan, which is pecans and caramel sauce)

Mix together sweetened condensed milk and cocoa in a saucepan. Cook over low heat until smooth and slightly thickened. Allow to cool slightly. In another bowl, combine whipping cream, light cream and vanilla. Stir in cocoa mixture until well combined, this works best if you whisk it in, or if you wait a few minutes so that most of it can dissolve into the mixture and then stir in the rest. Chill for several hours until cold. Then freeze in ice cream maker using manufacturer's directions. Mix in your extras according to the directions for your ice cream maker.

Pretty much, this is the best ice cream I've ever tasted. Also, the recipe is super flexible and so you could make a ton of different flavours from the same chocolate base!

Mario Cake: Take Two

So this cake was for my brother's birthday last week. So far I'd only ever made him one cake before, it was the first cake I decorated and it was kind of really lame.

I knew I had to do better this time. I had a few ideas, but then my Mom and I found him a copy of Super Mario 64 for his birthday. Then his girlfriend found him Mario Kart for N64. Then my grandmother bought him a Mario t-shirt. So I figured we should do a retro-mid-90s Mario Birthday. And I made him this cake.
Here it is with the game box in the background. And his copy of Mario Kart as well.
Oh, and the cake was chocolate, with chocolate icing, as usual. :)

Ordination Cake

This Sunday our church had an ordination ceremony/celebration for one of our pastors. So, of course, there was cake. :)

I wasn't super thrilled with how it turned out. It was supposed to look like a cloud with a beam of light shining out of it onto the little figurine of our pastor. But everyone just thought it looked like a funny looking mushroom. Also, I need to practice printing on the cake.

Engineering the Cake

So every year our school celebrates Engineering Week. This is a week with social events like games nights and bowling, fun competitions, like (banned) soldering competitions and edible car races and charity events, like smashing cars. Also, during E-Week there tends to be a significant increase in the number of large items found hanging off of the local bridge. And at the end of the week there is a wrap up event to announce the winners. This year, they wanted cake at the wrap up event, and so I was asked if I would be willing to provide a pair of cakes for the event.


I'm really happy with how both of these turned out. They were a lot of work, but I really enjoyed it. Each of the cakes is made up of four of my regular 9x13 recipe of chocolate cake. And the icing is my standard chocolate butter cream. I used an excessive amount of red food colouring to get the colours right, and overall I was really happy with how it turned out!

Jedi Mickey Cake

I made this cake yesterday for one of my good friends who loves both Star Wars and Disney.
Its Mickey Mouse as a Jedi!
With lightsabers around the edges of the cake.

Eclairs II

I made Eclairs again. And they were pretty much equally amazing as they were the first time. For the recipe and the story behind the first time I made them, the post is here.


Don't the look super duper tasty?That would be because they are!

Anyway, something I learned from the two times that I made them. The recipe that I have makes way too much filling. Unfortunately, it is a little hard to halve a packet of pudding mix. So I would suggest making two batches of the pastry and doubling the chocolate topping recipe. Also, try to put the chocolate on as fast as possible because the topping solidifies fairly quickly.

'Death By Chocolate' Mousse

I made this for Valentine's Day this year. I really wanted to put it in a Heart Shaped Springform pan, but unfortunately, I didn't buy the one I saw and when I went back to the store to buy it, it was gone. And I couldn't find any more.

Death By Chocolate Mousse

21 Oreos
1/4 cup softened butter

1 cup whipping cream
1 pkg (12 oz/350g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
2 cups whipping cream, chilled
1/4 cup sugar

1 cup whipping cream, chilled
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9 inch springform pan. Using a food processor crush the Oreos. Then mix in the butter and blend. Press this into the bottom of the pan. Bake for about 5 minutes. Allow to cool.

Put the chocolate chips, vanilla and salt in the food processor. Bring 1 cup of whipping cream to a boil on the stove. With the food processor running pour the boiling cream slowly into the chocolate mixture. Process until no lumps of chocolate chips remain. Pour into bowl and allow to cool to room temperature.

Add 1/4 cup sugar to 2 cups chilled whipped cream in a metal or ceramic bowl, preferably pre-chilled as well. Beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold into chocolate mixture. Pour into crust. Chill for at least 6 hours.

Just before serving, beat the remaining 1 cup of cream with 1/4 cup of sugar until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon onto the top of the mousse.

As you can see in the picture, I didn't do the last step. My family decided that there was already enough whipping cream involved already. Also, I apologize for not having a better picture. But this was a really, really tasty dark chocolate whipping cream dessert.

Black Forest Cookies

Black Forest Cookies

1 cup margarine
1 box chocolate instant pudding mix
1 egg
2 cups flour

1/4 cup white sugar

approx 66 maraschino cherries

1/2 cup chocolate chips
3 tbsp margarine

Preheat oven to 325 F. Beat softened margarine and pudding powder together. Add egg and beat well. Add flour slowly, beating between additions. Beat until no dry flour remains. Roll into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball in a sugar. Place each on a cookie sheet and dent. Bake for 5 minutes, remove from oven and press the dent in again. Bake
for another 10 minutes. When they have cooled slightly put a cherry in the center of each dent. Heat chocolate chips with margarine, until melted. I like to do this in the microwave. Drizzle melted chocolate on the top of each cookie. If you want to do this to look really fancy, put the chocolate in a icing piping bag with a small circular tip attached.

Homemade Turtles

Everyone loves Turtles... you know those chocolate-y caramel-y pecan-y treats that come in a flat box at Christmas. And you know what's better than the turtles from the store? Turtles made at home of course!

And it helps that they're not too hard to make!

So first you unwrap a whole ton of caramels and put them in a bowl with some milk.
Then you microwave them in 30s-1min intervals stirring in between until they are all melty
Then you throw in a few handfuls of pecans
Then spoon the pecan caramel goo onto a PARCHMENT PAPER lined cookie sheet (not waxed paper, I discovered that using wax paper was a very bad idea)
Then freeze the carmel blobs for an hour or more. While you're doing this microwave some chocolate according to package directions. Finally, take the caramels out of the fridge and drop them in the chocolate.
Cover them in chocolate. If they start to get too soft put the caramels back in the refrigerator. Drop the chocolate covered caramels onto another parchment paper covered cookie sheet and put them back in the freezer.
A few hours later you will have the most amazing homemade turtles, just be sure to let them thaw a bit before you bite in. :)

Toy Story Cupcakes!

So, I saved the best for last this week. I made these cupcakes for a friend who was having a birthday over the weekend, you may remember the cakes I made for her last year. This summer I posted on Facebook asking for suggestions for what to make for my brother's cake and this particular friend suggested Toy Story characters. Those weren't exactly what I was thinking of for my brother but I made a note of her suggestion for when her birthday rolled around.


I'm still working on perfecting the art of buttercream transfers, so there are some issues with the eyes and also with the alien's ears and half of Woody's hat being missing, but overall I'm really happy with how these turned out. And I had so much fun making them on Sunday, it was great! Plus the look on my friend's face when she saw them was priceless. :)

We all live in a...

So last year for my brother's birthday you may remember that I made him a Homestarrunner Cake.

And this year I figured I had to some how top that. Now, my brother is probably the biggest Beatles fan this side of the 1960s and so I figured I could do something involving that...

I found a promo image for the Yellow Submarine movie and decided to recreate that.
Right down to Ringo's massive nose!

I also had some leftover cake which I used to make a replica of their album 'The Beatles' - more commonly known as 'The White Album'. It was a little difficult though, due to trying to put perfectly white icing on a chocolate cake.