Sponge Toffee with Chocolate Caps

Dec9

With the Christmas holidays knocking at my door (already) I am starting to do some of my baking, well I am attempting to. I like to make food gifts for friends and family and this year I have decided to make sponge toffee. I made this a few months ago and it disappeared very quickly. This is probably one of the easiest and fastest recipes I have ever done, really! And it tastes, mmmm so good! You just can’t stop with only one piece. Here it is …

Sponge Toffee with Chocolate Caps

- 2 1/2 Cups White Granulated Sugar

- 2/3 Cups Corn Syrup (I used dark, but golden and white is fine)

- 1/3 Cup Cold Water

- 2 Tablespoons Baking Soda (make sure it is a fresh box and your toffee will rise amazingly)

- 2 Teaspoons Vanilla

- 12 oz (ounces) Chocolate Chips (I use a mix of dark chocolate and milk chocolate), Melted

- Vegetable oil (for greasing pan)

- Candy Thermometer

METHOD:

Grease a 9 x13 (inches) cookie sheet with your vegetable oil. Set aside. You will need a large deep saucepan to make the toffee as it will expand when adding the baking soda, so get a BIG saucepan. In the saucepan, add the white sugar, corn syrup, water and vanilla. Clip your candy thermometer onto the inside of the pot making sure it does NOT touch the bottom of the pot. On medium to high heat bring your toffee to a boil without stirring it and cook until it has reached the hard crack stage, your thermometer should read 300 degrees. During the cooking process of the toffee, make sure any sugar crystals are not on the sides of the pot, you can brush these away with a pastry brush dipped in water. When your toffee has reached the desired temperature, remove from heat. NOW DO THIS PART QUICKLY and CAREFULLY as the toffee is very hot! Add the baking soda (mixture will bubble up in volume) and whisk quickly to mix with the toffee and quickly pour into the prepared pan. Spread it out very quickly with a rubber spatula, do not play with it too much, it does not need to be perfect. Set your pan aside to cool completely. Do not touch it until it has cooled completely, it will be hard though because it smellllllls sooooooo good. Once the candy has cooled completely you can score it into your desired sized pieces. Melt the chocolate chips, you can do semi-sweet, milk chocolate or dark, it’s all up to you. Dip the tops or corners of your toffee pieces and place on a sheet of wax paper to dry. I store my toffee in a parchment lined closed tin and put it in the refrigerator, it lasts for quite a while this way and stays fresh, it will not become sticky if you store it in the refrigerator. I make pretty packages for gift giving and it has always been a hit in the past, but the best thing is, it’s fast and easy and economical and most of all Yummers! :D

Sponge Toffee with Chocolate Caps

: Sponge Toffee with Chocolate Caps

Christmas Craziness

Dec6

How is everyone doing with Christmas now? Is everyone going cray cray with the shopping, the baking, the wrapping, the decorating, well you get it, the list goes on and on and on…

I am busily painting, I must confess the above has not gotten done, well okay except for decorating the tree, (and that is even a lie, Ooops! My daughter decorated the tree). Oh boy okay so I am going to be late in getting everything done, but that is okay, I will not stress out, I will do yoga! LOL

Here is a picture of my tree to get everyone inspired and get their tree up for the holidays, it’s not too early for the fake ones and you may as well get it up early and enjoy it for a longer period of time. Don’t you just hate all the work of getting out the boxes, unwrapping those oh so delicate ornaments, trimming the tree and what? it’s over a week later :0 Then ya gotta drag out all the boxes and tissu paper and put everything back! But we must love it, right? cuz we do it year after year! My real one will go up in a few weeks. Does anyone have any good ideas or tricks to help endure the life of a real Christmas tree? I just love the smell of a real tree when you walk into the house, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm like being in a pine forest

A little peek into what I have been painting and you can find them at my Etsy shop “Peonie’s Closet”…

Handpainted Mirror

Gears Of War Crazy

Nov17

I am a crazed fan of Gears of War. I love it, love it, love it. It is probably my favorite video game, I do play others but I find myself reverting back to Gears, always. New to video gaming about a year ago, I have probably indulged in over 400 hours of playing…Oooops

I have all three Gear games and I am sure all you other Gears fans alike, know that Gears Of War 4 “Judgement”, is about to be released March 19, 2013 Wooohoooo I can’t wait to get it. I have been reading a few reviews here and there, that Gears “Judgement” doesn’t quite play the same when everyone is out for blood. Lifespan is short but quick to respawn. Controls have also changed slightly but for the better. I am still learning in Gears three and my lifespan has never been long, I am not the best player out there that’s for sure, but I have fun trying to blast my opponent’s head off with my gnasher! Is that sick or what??! All in all I will most likely be in line purchasing “Judgement” when it hits the store March 19 next year, and dishing out the fee of $60.00 + (I am sure it will be around this price) will be absolutely fine by me.

Gears Of War 4 “Judgement”

Halloweenie Time

Oct28

Took some time out this weekend to decorate for all the Halloweener’s. I always try to do something that I can find around the house and it was really very inexpensive this year. If you put your mind to it and use your imagination, anything can happen. I first took a walk in the forest and gathered some old long branches that were lying around on the ground (money spent = FREE). I scavengered for the best looking and scariest ones. I am pretty lucky since I am right by a forest full of dead branches. But you can look right on your property, the park, just about anywhere and I am sure you can find some. Carrying them home (a 2 minute walk lol), I then planted them in some tall garden planters that I had around the house. I also filled them to the top with earth for stability. Once they were in the pots firmly, I began to decorate with the faux webbing (.99 cents at the dollar store for a bag with spiders and one bag goes a loooong way). I added some silhouette ghosts, some spiders here and there, a witches hat and Voila! A spooky halloween… I can’t wait for Halloween night muhahahhaha.

These are the pics in day-time. I will be carving out my pumpkins the morn of Halloween and will take a few shots at nightime to get that spooky eeeerie feeling.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FOLKS!!!

Halloween Haunt Entryway

Black Forest Cake A La Grande

Oct15

Wow! what a few months it has been! Working, activities, events… I just can’t keep up it seems. I am sure most of you have days (months :O ) like these and it seems like it is never ending, I am finding it very hard to find “ME” time, Oooops.

Anyhow, I finally found a moment to get on my blog and blog about a wonderful cake recipe I made this past week for a special birthday. This was my first attempt to make a Grand “Black Forest Cake” (which was the special guests favorite). I searched the Internet endlessly for a recipe I thought would really be deliciously yummy. I wanted a really moist cake and a true to true made Black Forest Cake using all the actual ingredients. Even the Kirsch Liquor :O (not just cherry liquid for me). I wanted to make an authentic german Schwarzwälderkirschtorte (Black Forest Gateau).

So this is what I came up with. I will post the link where to get the recipe below. Now mind you this was fairly easy to make, however you have to have patience because there are a few steps, and you can actually make the cake a day ahead (I made my cake in one day and put it in the refrigerator for one day to allow the cake to absorb all the cherry liquid that has the kirsch (Cherry liqueur) in it, made me feel like the cake was fresher hahaha, if you make the cake a day ahead, it sits in the refrigerator for two days), and do the cherries step a day ahead as well, and actually doing the cherries the day ahead is better because they should soak in the kirsch for at least a day (and the liquid as well). This recipe was great because it also includes a how to video. So here is my finished product, drumroll please (LOL)…

Black Forest Cake Supreme

So this is my four layer Black Forest Cake. I did double the recipe from the Joy Of Baking Site, as I wanted a BIG Supreme cake and I also cut back on the Kirsch, using 2 Tblsp. for the cherry mix and using only 1 Tblsp. for the cherry liquid mix. However I do recommend using the 2 Tblsp. for the cherry liquid mix as in the recipe. I was a little nervous about the Kirsch overpowering the cake, (have you ever smelled that stuff ?!) but it actually made the taste, oh my ummm well YUMMY! So go ahead and follow the recipe. I did also hold back on spreading the liquid on the cake, again that overpowring the Kirsch took over on me, but go ahead be liberal the cake does not get soggy (just don’t go craycray). But like I mentioned I did double the entire recipe to make the cake pictured. This cake was delicious, it is actually a Genoise cake and verrrrrrrrrry good. Everyone enjoyed the cake and there was none left for take home goodies (well I still have quite the bottle of Kirsch left, so I will definitely be making this again, my thumbs up!).

*TIP: Please use ACTUAL Sour Cherries for this recipe, (they come bottled or canned) not maraschino, maraschino cherries can be used to decorate the top of the cake, cherries with stems are preferrable, but I could not locate them for my recipe boohoo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ot5YdDTLTBY

Black Forest Gateau Recipe: http://www.joyofbaking.com/printpages/BlackForestCakeprint.html

Blonds Blond Diamond Barbie

Sep18

Phillipe and David Blond are one of my Favvvvvvorite designers. With their new Blonds Blond Diamond Barbie doll coming out in December 2012 (mine is ordered and I can’t wait to get my hands on her), listen to their amazing interview. When you get a Barbie doll named after you…. well hello! you know you have arrived, LOL! Enjoy

Amazing interview at Barbie Collector with Phillipe and David Blond….. LUV IT!!! Hear it at Barbie Collector now!

http://www.barbiecollector.com/news/exclusive-barbie-collector-audio-interview-blonds

TV Fall Line-Up

Sep2

I don’t know about any of you, but I am looking forward to some of my fav tv shows returning this fall. One in particular, “American Horror Story”, which begins on FX Wednesday evenings, October 03, (US) and October 17, (Canada), 2012, the season 2 series will have a whole new story line. Returning actors (whom will also have all new character roles), Jessica Lange (Sister Jude), Evan Peters (Kit), Lily Rabe (Sister Eunice), Sarah Paulson (Lana) and Zachary Quinto (Dr. Thredson). My favorite character, ”Constance” (played by Jessica Lange in season one), will no doubt continue to be my favorite in season 2, her character now “Sister Jude, a sadistic nun”. Season 2 I hear and read about plays in an Asylum, set in Massachussets at the Briarcliff Manor Mental Institution (this should be good!), and some new and interesting characters have been added to this seasons cast. Adam Levine (Leo) and Jenna Dewan-Tatum (Teresa) play a married couple… Chloe Sevigny, “Shelly the Nymphomaniac Inmate”, James Cromwell (will play Dr. Arden), Blake Sheldon, Chris Zylka, Joseph Fiennes, Clea Duvall, Mark Consuelos. American Horror Story, begins just before Halloween, could it get any better Muhahahaha

AMERICAN HORROR STORY 2 ”ASYLUM”