March 2012 - Je suis alimentageuse

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

29 March, 2012 2 Comments

Chocolate Cupcakes with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Buttercream

So many great things have happened over the last couple weeks! Lots of opportunities and changes have popped up for me, and I think I’ve decided what I want to do! I love video games, I love computers, I love learning about new technology, so I’m going to college for computer programming so I can translate video games and/or code! Yay! I’m pretty excited. So I’ll be staying in Ottawa for the time being. Huzzah! (EDIT: I am no longer sure about my life decisions. A recent acceptance for a Master’s program has made me confused. I’ll keep you folks posted XD) But more about these cupcakes. I wanted to experiment more with swiss meringue buttercream, and boy oh boy was this buttercream amazing!

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Filed Under: Buttercream, Cupcakes, Desserts, Miscellaneous, Vegetarian Tagged With: chocolate, chocolate cake, chocolate cupcakes, raspberries, raspberry puree, raspberry swiss meringue buttercream, swiss meringue buttercream

Easy Baked Macaroni and Cheese

26 March, 2012 5 Comments

There’s something so comforting about a bowl of Mac and Cheese. I love the soft noodles swimming in creamy cheese sauce, with occasional surprises of crispy cheese or the baked crust. The warm feeling of the bowl in your hands as you’re curled up in front of the TV, or the aroma of baked cheese in the air when you pull it out of the oven. Oh my goodness. I love Mac and Cheese.

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Filed Under: Appetizers/Sides, Dinner, Vegetarian Tagged With: cheese, classic, comfort food, crust, mac and cheese, macaroni and cheese

Black Sesame Macarons

24 March, 2012 3 Comments

Boy, am I relieved that Macaron Week is OVER. Holy. It’s weird, but a failed baking project has this sad feeling of defeat. Kind of like getting the wind knocked out of you. I had a really great batch of raspberry dark chocolate macarons, which were scrumptious, but this batch was kind of disappointing. Although they turned out okay, I had high hopes for these. Let’s go over what I did wrong:

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: food, sesame seeds, swiss meringue

Raspberry Dark Chocolate Macarons

23 March, 2012 24 Comments

Oh. My. Yes. I thought the salted caramel ones were good, but these were spectacular. A big thank you to Sarah who helped me make these! She helped me dye my hair (I had to redo the red cause it was fading) and then I paid her in macarons. SO DELICIOUS. This flavour combo reminds me of Cake Boss and how Buddy Valastro gets all stoked about his cakes with “chocolate ganache topped with fresh raspberries. Mm. Delicious.” Yes. Read that in a super NJ accent.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: dark chocolate, macarons, raspberries, raspberry

Hazelnut Nutella Macarons

22 March, 2012 4 Comments

Nutella is delicious and it’s basically a ganache, so why not smush it between two hazelnut cookies? HAZELNUT HEAVEN! I love hazelnuts, they have this lovely flavour that is 100x better when paired with chocolate. However, I think I may be allergic to raw/whole hazelnuts in large quantities because it started to make my throat kind of itchy. Also, since they seem a bit more dense than almonds, they didn’t rise as well. They were also crispier than my normal macs, but that’s okay, because they softened after being in the fridge overnight.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: cookies, dessert, egg whites, food, gluten-free, hazelnut, macarons, nutella

Salted Caramel Macarons

21 March, 2012 10 Comments

DAY FOUR OF MACARON WEEK!

This batch of macarons went beautifully! This flavour is probably my second favourite flavour. It was my favourite until I made the raspberry chocolate ones. Goodness gracious. But anyway, only four of these cookies cracked! So many cookies to eat! I attribute it to one of my new friends, Allan, who is currently studying at Le Cordon Bleu. He came to help me with macarons and his magical sugar expertise! This batch of buttercream was EXTRA buttery but it was amazing. I also recently bought fleur de sel imported from France, so the next time I want to make caramels with fleur de sel, they’ll be extra classy.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: caramel, cookies, dessert, food, french, italian, macarons, salted, vegetarian

Peanut Butter Chocolate Macarons

20 March, 2012 1 Comment

These macs were a bit of a disaster. I noticed that more and more of my batches were getting cracked, so I decided to lower the temperature to 300 instead of 350, and boy oh boy was that a mistake. Check out the fail: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: chocolate, cookies, GF, gluten-free, italian, macarons, peanut butter

Rosewater Macarons with White Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

19 March, 2012 2 Comments

DAY TWO OF MACARON WEEK!

This batch of macarons was kind of intriguing. I had always wanted to try some of the more floral flavours (like green matcha tea, lavender or earl grey), but rosewater essence was something that peaked my interest during my occasional rounds at Bulk Barn. So I thought, hey, why not? These macarons were really nice, they were lightly flavoured with rosewater, it wasn’t that noticeable, and the white chocolate ganache was DELICIOUS. I’m not usually a fan of white chocolate, but the swiss meringue buttercream was a -perfect- combination for the white chocolate. Light, buttery goodness.

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Filed Under: Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: dessert, food, macarons, rosewater, swiss meringue, swiss meringue buttercream, white chocolate

Lemon Poppyseed Macarons

18 March, 2012 4 Comments

First day of Macaron Week! So many new and exciting things happening today =) I officially have my own domain name (sorry if some of you are subscribed to my Blogger still, just delete that one and add this one!). I switched over to WordPress because I wanted my own domain and I liked the other WP blogs I’ve seen. I want to add a life-related blog to this, and Blogger doesn’t really let you do that; you can only have different “pages” but not different blogs on the same blog. Whatever. Anyway. YAY! IT’S MACARON WEEK! I’ve made 6/7 macarons so far, and the seventh one is SUPPOSED to be lavender, but I can’t find lavender anywhere that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. Therefore I went with black sesame seed because the other ones I’ve seen are super pretty so I wanted to make some!

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Filed Under: Buttercream, Cookies, Desserts, Gluten-Free, Macarons, Vegetarian Tagged With: cookies, dessert, food, lemon, macarons, poppy seed, poppy seeds

Spinach and Kale Monster Soup

12 March, 2012 2 Comments

In light of St. Patrick’s day, I bring you something GREEN! Use this soup to cure your hangovers this Sunday after a night of drunken festivities. This soup does not look appetizing, but I promise you that it is super tasty and PACKED with healthiness. Kale is just amazing for you in every way, I think I read somewhere that it reduces the risk of cancer. CANCER? Jeebus. Spinach is just tasty, and it’s topped off with these surprisingly tasty nutritional yeast flakes. These things have an odd, cheesy flavour to them, despite being perfectly vegan. And as you all know, I’m going on a quinoa spree right now because I discovered that quinoa is SO MUCH CHEAPER at the Organic Herb & Spice Food Shop than it is at the local grocery store. And it’s so much easier to cook than rice. =/

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