Jenn — Page 66

Edible Image Cakes

July 4, 2011 by Jenn

I’m about to admit that I was wrong.

This doesn’t occur very often, but when I’m wrong, and I know I’m wrong, I will admit it. HAHAHAHAHA. So not true. I will try to back my way out of it, blame whomever else I can (innocent bystanders, children walking by, Ruby . . . you get the picture).

But, now, at the ripe OLD age of 32, I am about to admit publicly, into the blogosphere, that I was wrong about edible images. I was convinced that they were a stupid idea, as I had only seen what one of the images looks like when it comes out of the DQ cooler, and I can still remember the disgusting taste that the huge, thick, chunk of pixilated-poor-image quality tasted like.

After getting to be a part of taste testing for the Sex and the City cake, and the Cranbrook Farmers Market cake, I can honestly tell you that the edible sheets that we buy taste like . . . nothing! You don’t even notice that it’s there. The sheets become one with fondant . . . or buttercream.

After working with Edible Images for a couple of months now, they are an absolute hit with me! I love having them as something to offer to our customers and we can do pretty much anything. As long as the image is big enough mind you . . . no Facebook downloaded pictures allowed . . . why are try always so small when you try to download them anyway?

Isn’t the art work on this logo amazing! We were so incredibly pleased that the image came out and gave the logo the justice that it deserved. Stunning work from this designer. Check out that beautiful “cat”.

These NDP cakes were made for my Dad . . . a strong socialist if you can’t guess!

This one we had fun with . . . Paul cropped an old picture of my dad, who originally had his arm around my mom, and slid Jack Layton in there in her place!

We surprised him with it at an NDP meeting he was having with the local executives. I think he was happy 🙂

So there you have it. I was wrong. I WAS WRONG! You can mark down that today was the day that I admitted to it. Finally. Now do I have to admit that I’m not perfect too?

Fortunate Friday

July 1, 2011 by Jenn

I’m WAY behind on my Fortunate Friday’s! It’s not that I haven’t been fortunate, it’s just that life has gotten in the way.

Excuses, excuses, I know. I’m really good at excuses. It’s my forte.

“It’s too cold out.”

“It’s too hot out.”

“I’m too tired” (no, not THAT kind of too tired!)

“I don’t have time right now.”

“I’m too busy.”

And I could go on, and on. If you don’t believe me, just ask Paul.

Now that I have thought all about the many reasons why I don’t have time to do this post, the most important thing that I am missing, is I LOVE MY BLOG! And no matter what time it is, where I am, or what the weather is doing, I LOVE to write.

I am fortunate that I love to write, and that it keeps me coming back for more 🙂 I have always loved to write, and often found it a source of comfort, especially in those dreadful teenage years. I went back and tried to read some of the journals that I wrote way back when, but they were so embarrassing! Filled with teenage angst, and drama, hopes and dreams. Um, not much different from now, but replace “teenage” with “thirty’s”.

I am fortunate that I discovered the Hunger Games trilogy! I’m onto audiobook #2, Catching Fire, and love it! I turn it up really loud so I can hear it being read over the hum of my KitchenAid, and it sounds like I’m with someone and that we’re arguing! Have you read anything really good lately?

I am fortunate to officially be on summer holidays! Whoop! As a teacher (by day), we work hard for 10 months of the year, and recuperate for the other two (without pay, I might add). Some say that we have an easy, cushy job, summers off, and long breaks, but I invite you into my classroom, to spend 10 minutes there, and see YOU do it! It’s way harder than it looks. Teaching take endless patience, adaptability, confidence, kindness, empathy, and most of all, a love and respect for the kids. I had a fabulous group of kids this year (including the one who peed in the middle of the school field), and I am truly going to miss them. I’ve only said that twice in my career- my very first class of Grade Ones (who are now going into Grade SEVEN!) and to the kids this year. I must mean it or something!

We have really had some good things happen this week with the Cakery. I am fortunate and thankful for all of those events. More info will come later…but now, it will bore you.

I am fortunate for these people’s genes . . .

Are they not the most beautiful people? Inside and out. By the way . . . I’m calling Mom, Steve, you stole the good looking genes in the family! xoxo

I can’t leave a Canada day post without sending out a Happy Canada Day! There are many things that I don’t agree with in this country, but we live freely (mostly…it would be really nice if we didn’t have to charge tax on cupcakes!), we are free to speak our minds (and write it in a blog) and we are free to associate in ways that fit ourselves (especially in Vancouver . . . riot much?).

Happy LONG weekend everyone . . . do you have plans? What are YOU fortunate for?

Filed Under: Fortunate Fridays

Cranbrook Farmers Market Video

July 1, 2011 by Jenn

We had a fabulous time at the Cranbrook Farmers Market and JJ’s Custom Cakery will be there throughout the Saturday’s until September 2011. We are very proud to be a part of such a community spirit invoking event! Come out and say hi!

Filed Under: Videos

Cranbrook Farmers Market

June 29, 2011 by Jenn

This weekend marked the opening day of the Cranbrook Farmer’s Market 2011 season! This year marks the third year that the market has been running, and it is getting bigger and better every year! There are tons of talented people that have come out of the woodwork to show off their creations, produce and general community spirit!

I have to say . . . IT’S ABOUT TIME CRANBROOK GOT SOME CULTURE and spirit! And uniqueness. (Cranbrook rant done.)

I have been going to this market for the last couple of years as a customer, but this year, Paul and I decided that we wanted to be a part of it! We brought JJ’s to the market! We did a couple of indoor markets in Windermere in the spring, but that paled in comparison to the number of people that came down 10th Ave this weekend! It was great people watching, and a great chance to get to catch up with people you haven’t seen in a while!

It was VERY different from the “other side”. I decided to do a pros/cons list for this (because I’m a dork)! When’s the last time you made a pros/cons list? Grade 4?

Pro: I didn’t spend any money. Con: I didn’t have time to leave my booth!

Pro: I didn’t have time to leave my booth! Con: I didn’t get to see all of the beautiful jewellery I kept hearing about.

Con: Our cupcake balloon flew away! Pro: A man CLIMBED a tree to get it out! I gave him free cupcakes. Thank you monkey-ability man, whoever, and wherever you are.

*Note, when putting a helium filled balloon away in a truck, make sure the windows are shut (not just the doors). Yep, that was me that did that, but I did try pretty hard to blame Paul for leaving the windows open. (That’s the balloon in the pic below….try to take your eyes of the two cuties selling cupcakes).

Pro: We are working out all the kinks in our booth set up. Con: We still have a lot of kinks. And scrapes. And scratches. On us, and the &#%^ gazebo. Poor Paul. I’m not my finest early in the morning.

Pro: My mom came to refill our change drawer when we ran out. Con: She brought like $20 in nickels.

Pro: I made a lot of cupcakes. See my cake fridge? Con: I didn’t get to eat any of them.

Pro: I have the greatest FREE labourer in the world! She is my cupcake expert equal. Con: We don’t get to talk because we’re too busy!

Pro: The market allowed me to FINALLY meet my first blog friend! Karen from Toronto Girl West! Con: I acted like a dork . . . and forgot how to talk. It was like meeting a celebrity! I can’t imagine what I would do if I met (uhhhh, insert current favourite star here…I can’t think of any as I have been in the kitchen too long!).

Despite my large dose of dork, I LOVED meeting Karen! Go and check out her blog, because she is an amazing. And what a photographer she is! I love her pictures, she’s always travelling, and she is so real! I love reading her blog because I totally relate to things that she is saying. Besides, we both like to workout, eat, and have small dogs!! How could be NOT love each other?

The market overall was a great success, for us at JJ’s and I hear from all the other booths as well. The organizers were great, right from the start, I loved their organization (it’s the teacher in me), and stickiness with rules (being the anal control freak that I am, of course I would love to follow the rules).

If you’re around Cranbrook this summer, please come and stop by our booth. We are alternating between the Cranbrook Market, and the Baynes Lake market throughout the summer. If you want to know specific dates as to where we are, shoot me an email and I will let you know! jenn@jjscustomcakery.com

Filed Under: Randomness Tagged With: Cranbrook, cranbrook farmers market, cupcakes, farmers market, market

S’mores Cookies

June 26, 2011 by Jenn

SUMMER!!

I love the LONG hours of daylight.

I love the warm mornings and evenings that you can wear tank tops.

I love camping and living in the lake. I’m convinced that my mother birthed me in a tub (even though she says she didn’t) because I LOVE the water. I would live there if I could . . . lakes, rivers, oceans. But, take a bath . . . NEVER. I hate the bath, I feel it is a chance to for you to sit in your own dirt. At least in the lakes, rivers and oceans you have a chance of encountering fresh water!

As I said, I love camping and nothing brings about the feeling of summer better for me than it! I haven’t had the fortune of getting out in our trailer yet, but, that hasn’t prevented in me from indulging in my favourite summer time treat . . . S’MORES! I adore the fire toasted marshmallow, gooey chocolate, and crunch of a graham cracker delight.

I had been craving one so badly, that when I saw this post, I had to make them for my staff’s next social luncheon. The recipe was fairly simple, the one hiccup being that you need to let the dough sit in the fridge for an hour (and not snack on it while doing so). For some reason, I hate letting the dough sit. I know it is a baking necessity, but it seriously bothers my patience…or lack-there-of!

Other than the dough in the refrigerator problem . . . the rest of the recipe is fairly straight forward. I scooped out the dough using my cookie scoop (to ensure equal sized cookies) and then you bake for around 8 minutes, pull them out, put on the chocolate chunks, and mini marshmallows and put it back in the oven until the marshmallows swell up nice and beautifully!

The original recipe comes from une-deuxsenses blog and I have adapted it to the steps that I took!

Smores Cookies

1 3/4 cups flour

1 cup graham cracker crumbs

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup light brown sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

2 eggs

2 cups chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups mini marshmallows

2 regular Hershey bars, roughly chopped

In your KitchenAid mixer (or other, less superior mixer hahaha), combine the butter and sugars and mix until fluffy. Mix in the eggs and vanilla until combined. Next, add the flour, graham cracker crumbs, salt, baking soda and mix well.

Stir in the chocolate chips then cover and refrigerate the dough for about one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 F. Using a cookie/cupcake scoop, portion out the dough and roll into a ball. Drop onto a greased baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of dough, leaving about 2 inches between each to allow it to spread. Bake for 8 minutes, then remove from the oven. Push a 3 – 5 marshmallows and a few pieces of a Hershey’s bar into each cookie. Return to oven and bake for another 2 – 3 minutes until golden brown and the marshmallows are a bit toasted. Let cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy the cookies . . . and the summer!

And in case you haven’t heard, I have the CUTEST NIECE in the world! How intelligent is she . . . reading at the age of 6 months. Love her. xoxoxo

What is your favourite summer time treat?

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: chocolate, cookies, marshmallow, smores, smores cookies, Smores Cookies Recipe

KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus Vs. KitchenAid Classic Mixer Review

June 21, 2011 by Jenn

As a house warming/recovering from surgery present, my mom bought me the KitchenAid Professional 5 Series! I have been dying for something bigger than my KitchenAid Classic. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE my Classic, but the size of the orders that we have been getting lately require more and more product to be pumped through my little Classic. With the wedding season and Farmer’s Markets coming up, I am going to need to be able to double recipes, if not triple, and the Professional will allow me to do this.

Filed Under: Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: KitchenAid Classic Mixer, KitchenAid Professional Mixer

Healthy-er Carrot Cupcakes

June 21, 2011 by Jenn

If you are a regular reader, or a friend of mine, you know that I also teach spinning at our local fitness facility . . . I’ve been on a bit of a hiatus lately, but I’m starting back up in July . . . oh, that saddle is going to be painful! Good thing I’ve been riding my mountain bike around.

Anyways, the point of me telling you this, is that for our last group instructor meeting, where we all get together (as we hardly see each other due to our various schedules) and talk about what’s going well, classes we might want to look at adding etc, I was asked to bring cupcakes. BUT, do you think that a group of fitness instructors want to eat a huge sugary cupcake? My guess, was no, they’re not like me (aka they are F.I.T. and I’m the round (literally) odd-ball), so I set out to find a “cupcake” that was:

1. not a muffin (an easy disguise),

2. low in sugar,

3. low in fat, and

4. that tasted like it was none of the above!

(Side note, I’m making a new cupcake for JJ’s and I’m going to call it the Fun Free cupcake and it’s going to be Gluten Free and Dairy Free…bahahaha!)

A carrot filled cupcake seemed like a good start, as I knew the vegetable thing had to be on my side! So I searched my beloved Tastespotting (which I recently had gotten my photo rejected from AGAIN. Lord, how do people do it!?!?!) and found just the recipe that I had been looking for! It is from Tessa at Handle the Heat, and is called Healthier Carrot Cupcakes! This recipe uses whole wheat flour, a small amount of oil, and applesauce for binding!

Here is what you do:

Carrot Cupcakes with Lemony Cream Cheese Icing

Found at Handle the Heat

For the Cupcakes

• 3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour or whole wheat flour

• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1/4 cup canola oil

• 3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1/2 cup natural applesauce

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded carrots (about 2 medium carrots)

• 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts (I omitted this as I was unsure about allergies)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners.

Sift together the first 6 ingredients.

In a large bowl, whisk the oil, brown sugar and eggs until well combined.

Whisk in the applesauce, vanilla and carrots.

Add the dry ingredients and mix until combined.

If using, stir in 1/4 cup of the chopped walnuts.

Divide the batter between the muffin cups. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Cream Cheese Icing

• 4 ounces 1/3 fat cream cheese

• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted

• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest

With an electric mixer, beat together the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar and lemon zest until smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cupcakes and sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped walnuts. The cupcakes should be stored in the refrigerator for about 3 days.

I hope you enjoy them . . . and make them for the fitness buffs in your life!

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: carrot, carrot cake cupcakes, cupcakes, Healthy, whole wheat

Fortunate Friday

June 17, 2011 by Jenn

This weekend we are making our official public debut in Cranbrook! So fortunate, fortunate, fortunate!

We will be at the Taste of Cranbrook all day Saturday, June 18. Every third weekend in June, our little city of Cranbrook celebrates Sam Steele Days! It’s like a small version of the Calgary Stampede. But, without the chuck wagon races, bull riding, calf roping, horse races, fair rides, and millions of people. Basically, it’s nothing like the Calgary Stampede.

But, Cranbrook’s ole Sam Steele Days, DOES have World Gym’s Strongman competition (shout out to the fellow employees at WG!), fair FOOD (come to our booth!), a PARADE that still throws out candy, a KIDS parade where kids get to dress up themselves and their bikes, a Wiener Dog race (WTF?), and the adult favourite of the events . . . beer gardens!! Many good times have been had at those beer gardens back in the day by this girl . . . can’t recall much of it, but I know it was FUN!

I can’t wait to see the people and see the other vendors on Saturday! Next weekend (June 25 . . . Happy Birthday Bestest) we will be at the first Cranbrook Farmers Market of the 2011 Season! Whoot!

And in other news . . .

I am fortunate to live near to a bird sanctuary called Elizabeth Lake. These are some of the shots that Paul and I took when we were out one evening this week for a walk along the water. I felt like singing “Oh Canada” while we were handing out with these stunning Canadian Geese. Don’t you think the look very regal? I even saw a muskrat! I had no idea what one was . . . it looks like a cross between a wet rat and a beaver.

What are YOU looking at?

Any bird lovers know which kind of bird this one is?

I think I might be slowly starting to enjoy birds . . . they are not off my hated list just yet though. It will take MANY more walks through the sanctuary in order to erase the damage of the chicken coop as a child.

Amanda, Kristy (aka Bestest), Christy, Kristen, Me, Jill

I am also so very fortunate for my girls . . . we missed you Kimmie. Mwah! This was taken at my friend Kristen’s bridal shower last weekend.

Filed Under: Fortunate Fridays Tagged With: Cranbrook, sam steele days

Edible Image Cakes

Fortunate Friday

Cranbrook Farmers Market Video

Cranbrook Farmers Market

S’mores Cookies

KitchenAid Professional 5 Plus Vs. KitchenAid Classic Mixer Review

Healthy-er Carrot Cupcakes

Fortunate Friday

Happiness is Homemade

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