Happy Birthday Merry Christmas to Me!

Hello Kitty! Who is your friend?

2009 has been an exciting year. Thanks to the Baking Beauties I fancy myself as a good little baker now. I have really enjoyed learning about baking, learning the importance of following a recipe correctly, and learning that sometimes its not me but a bad recipes. Butter tarts have been causing me some issues lately, but I refuse to give up just yet.

My hand blender took a real beating this year (funny??!?!). I have broken dough hooks and the motor is a little sad these days. Boxing day sales just couldn't be resisted and while Andrew dragged me from electronic store to electronic store I happen across an amazing deal. I am now a very proud own of my first stand mixer.

Today was my first try and I couldn't believe the wonder. I whipped up a pie crust dough in a snap and I didn't have to worry about my warm hands melting the butter chunks. The final crust was light and flakey - my best to date!

The pie filling wasn't too shabby either, a mix of fruit from the fridge and freezer that needed to be used which included blueberries, raspberries, peaches and lemons.

Nectarine Upside-Down Chiffon Cake

I was really excited to try making this cake. A brown sugar, butter and nectarine topped cake with an almond streusel centre layer.

The cake was a dream to make. Maybe it was because it only took an evening rather than a multi-day event. I enjoy baking, but I don't enjoy all the waiting called for in so many recipes.

This cake is really good. Andrew loved it, which was a nice surprise. My only complaint is that there is a ton of butter in each layer, and the cake was very moist (almost wet) as a result. It took much longer than the indicated bake time and I probably could have baked it even longer.

Really nice to flip and remove the pan and have the cake look perfect. Much much better than the Boca Negra incident.

Cranberry-Walnut Pumpkin Loaves

These loaves are full of so much goodness. I nice bread loaf with large pieces of walnut and explosions of cranberry. Once you start snaking on this bread it is impossible to stop yourself before it is all done. It is a nice bread that has great flavours and not too sweet.

The recipe is two days of work, with all the rising and chilling. Since the loaves were so good I didn't think it would be a problem to whip up another batch a couple of days later. But the second batch was a disaster. The loaves were under cooked and retained a wet texture.