Butter Chicken

Last November I went to India for a business trip. It was amazing! It was cool to experience a new culture and, of course, new food. A few months after I got home I decided I wanted to try some new food and so I decided to hunt for some good Indian recipes. I know that butter chicken isn't 'real Indian food' but that's what I tried first. So here's my recipe, which is actually a combination of many other recipes. 

2-3 chicken breasts

1 onion

2 cloves garlic (I use about a teaspoon pre-minced garlic from a jar)

1 can diced tomatoes (large can)

1 can coconut milk 

1 tsp chili powder

2 tsp garam masala 

1 tsp curry powder

(Spice amounts are estimates, change to your own preferences)

Rice or Indian bread (such as naan or chapati) as a side

Chop up chicken breasts into small pieces and fry in a wok or other large pan with high sides. 

Chop up onion and garlic. Add to cooked chicken and fry. 

When onions are soft, add the spices to the pan and fry for a minute or so. 

Purée the tomatoes using a hand blender or food processor. Pour puréed tomatoes into chicken/onion/spice mixture. Pour coconut milk in and stir. 

Simmer for 15-20 min. While it is simmering cook rice or bread. 

Serve by pouring sauce over rice or with bread. 

UCM Grad Cake 2013

For the third year in a row, I made the grad cake for my church. Grad was in April... but I'm posting the cake now. Oops...

I wanted it to be a three tiered cake... but I had some structural integrity issues. So it ended up being a two tiered cake with an extra cake off to the side.

 

Covered in grad hats of course!

Panda Cake!

I made this cake for my summer roommate's birthday. She loves animals and all things cute. And her boyfriend told me panda's were her favourite.

Isn't he so cute? I think its the cutest cake I've made. It was hard to cut him up and eat him.

Gummy Birthday Cake

One of my close friends loves gummy candy of all kinds. So for her birthday I made a cake... and covered it in gummies.... lots and lots of gummies.

 There were a lot of gummies on this cake. The goal was 95% gummy coverage... I think I made it.

 If you look closely the cake say 'Lisa' on it. But this turned out to be hard to see.

 Wrapped around the base of the cake were 3 foot long gummy snakes. They ended up having to take scissors to the cake to cut them.

Gummy overload!

Flamingo Cake

I made this one for a co-worker's 40th birthday.

Apparently flamingo's and 40th birthdays are a thing... I really don't know why, but I've been told they are.

Vanilla Cupcakes

I've been on the hunt for a decent vanilla cake or cupcake recipe for a while now, and I've finally found one I like. It's light and fluffy and tastes like butter and vanilla. I really like it. I made these for my friend's birthday the other day. I topped them with chocolate icing and white sprinkles... so it makes it hard to tell from the picture that they are vanilla cupcakes.

2 1/4 cups flour
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/3 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla (or more)
2 eggs
1/2 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups.

Mix together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the milk, vanilla and butter and beat well at medium speed for at least one minute. Add the eggs and beat again at medium speed for at least three more minutes, scraping the bowl as you go.

Fill muffin cups about 2/3rds full. Bake 20-25 minutes.

Adventure Time Cookies!

A couple weeks ago it was my boyfriend's birthday. I really wanted to make him a cake, but he lives about 8 hours away during the school year and cakes don't mail very well. So, I made him cookies instead!

 

Adventure Time Cookies! It's one of his favourite shows, so I figured he'd enjoy them. I made them with my sugar cookie dough and then decorated with royal icing, because it would ship better than buttercream. They actually held up really well to the shipping process. 

That's what they looked like when he found them! Of course then he told me that they were way too nice... and he can't bring himself to eat them. Except for the purple one, who is his least favourite. And he also ate the few non-Adventure Time ones that I squeezed into the box.

 

Then my roommates and I  ate the rest...