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Turkey Shaped Buckeye Peanut Butter Balls

November 12, 2014 by Jenn

Chocolate and peanut butter is one of my most favourite combinations!  Whose isn’t it?  All those people who yell at me in capital letters that they are allergic to peanut butter.  I feel for you, I really do as I couldn’t imagine being without my addiction, but finding a substitution is probably something easier for you to do, than me.  There is also this amazing thing called Google. 

This recipe is a special one to me, as my girlfriend Melissa made it for us during a Christmas Cookie Exchange one year.  Unfortunately, a number of years ago, she passed away.  I felt so lucky being able to continue on using her Dad’s recipe for this creation.  I know she would have loved it, and I appreciate my time that I got to spend with her, albeit too short. 

You can make these traditionally by rolling the peanut butter mixture into balls, and dipping them into melted chocolate.  But if you’re looking for an adorable Thanksgiving treat, you have to try these.  They’re super simple, and the only thing that takes time is the setting of the chocolate.  I address this in the video, but I chose to use melting wafers/almond bark as they set faster than regular chocolate.

 

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Filed Under: Cake Pops, Cookies, Holiday Baking, No Bake Desserts, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: american thanksgiving, buckeye balls, chocolate, chocolate turkeys, peanut butter, peanut butter balls, peanut butter chocolate, peanut butter chocolate balls, peanut butter turkey, thanksgiving, thanksgiving cake pop, thanksgiving dessert, turkey

Surprise Inside Mustache Cake for Movember

November 8, 2014 by Jenn

 The time for mustaches to come out of closets and unite is upon us.  That well groomed neighbour down the hall now has a caterpillar growing on his upper lip.  That nice stay at home, father of 3 around the block now has a speckling of hairs above his mouth.  And that lawyer who works in the offices downtown?  He too has a sprouting of hairs on his lip.  Why are all of these previously clean cut men growing awkward, splotchy mustaches for the month of November?  It’s all in the name of charity.  

Each November men from all over North America (and probably further) grow mustaches that their wives and girlfriends object to fiercely, to raise money and awareness for men’s health issues.  The slogan from the Canadian Movember movement is “changing the face of men’s health.” To find out more information head over to Movember.

Since this is an event that haunts your eyes (I’m talking about my Dad’s attempt at a mustache) I decided that I had to make another video in support- MY way.  I’m not about to grow a mustache- nor would I try to.  

Making a surprise inside cake takes a bit longer than a regular cake, and involves a lot of preparation.  It is not technically difficult, but it looks like it is!  That’s my favourite part of these types of cakes.  They SHOCK the people that are eating them!  For this cake, you will need to buy mustache cookie cutters, prepare two different coloured cakes, and prepare an additional cake batter for the re-baking portion.  With all of the prep work done ahead of time- which you can do the day before with the baked cakes- the day of assembly can go quite quickly.  Re-baking the cake takes around an hour.  The mustaches inside do not dry out as they are wrapped in raw batter and it keeps the cake moist throughout the time in the oven. 

Whether you are sprouting some hairs on your upper lip, donating to the Movember cause, or just joining in the fun with this cake, I hope you like the baking and decorating process! 

 

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: Moustache, moustache cake, Movember, movember cake, Mustache, mustache cake, surprise inside, surprise inside cake, surprise inside moustache cake, surprise inside mustache cake

Giant Cookie Cake with Leftover Halloween Candy

November 5, 2014 by Jenn
 If you have a bunch of leftover candy from Halloween, this is the recipe for you!  If you ate it all your Halloween candy, good news- it’s all on clearance at the local stores, so go and grab some more before it’s all gone!  If you do not live where you participate in Halloween festivities, you can use any candy you want to!  I’m solving all of the world’s problems this morning- finding solutions to a lack of candy.  You’re welcome.  
 
Some people (not naming names- ME) went out of town after purchasing Costco candy for all the trick-or-treators in the neighbourhood and have a ginormous bag of candy (that I don’t like) leftover- NEVER opened!  Oops.  If you’re like me, there is serious strategy to buying Halloween candy.  I buy what you don’t like, and then you won’t eat it.  Usually, that is a fail safe way ensure there is no snacking, BUT since I recieved so many requests for a new recipe on how to use up leftover candy, I had to go out and buy some. Had to.  HAD to!  Then I HAD to go out and buy more when we snacked our way through the chocolate candies.  HAD TO PEOPLE!! YOU MADE ME!!  I thank you for that.  My pants don’t, but I do.
 
 Making a giant cookie cake definitely saves time, rather than dishing out individual amount of dough to make smaller cookies.  You can do this with this recipe, but the fun is in serving a slice to your family or friends.  Triangular pieces are a change from the standard round cookie, as are chunks of candy!  If you choose to roll these cookies into rounds, bake them for 15-18 minutes, or until golden brown at 350F.  
 
Whether you choose to make this the traditional way, or in it’s giant cookie form as seen in our tutorial, it’s a delicious, and fast way to use up any candy/chocolate you might have hanging around! 
 

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Cherpumple: Triple Layer Pie in a Cake

November 1, 2014 by Jenn

What to call a pie in a cake??  A “pake”?  A “cie”?  Or what about “Cherappkin”?  Appcherrkin?  Pumpcherple?  CHERPUMPLE! 

I think I’m going to stick with “Pie in a cake”.  It much easier to figure out what in the world I’m talking about!  

This cake is admittedly time consuming since you have to bake three pies ahead of time, as well as prepare two types of cake batter.  It’s definitely an investment in your life, but it is bound to impress anyone that looks at it.  And most likely they’ll have to look at it twice to figure out what in the world they are looking at!  

Triple Layer Pie in a Cake

 To make the investment of time shorter, using premade pies from a grocery store bakery work excellently, as does using box mixes for the cake batter.  In the recipe below I have provided the link to all of our homemade versions of the pies, and cakes, if you are so inclinded for this big project.  

Since the cake was such a big project, I went with an easy, light covering.  Instead of using a heavy buttercream, I thought whipping cream would be best paired with the cakes/pies.  After all, there is a lot going on in this cake, so the last thing it needed was another element to confuse the taste buds. 

You can choose to go with any flavour of cake batter, as well as any type of pie when you’re making your own version of this.  The hardest part of that will be trying to name it!  

When you’re baking your pies, make sure that they are at least an inch (2 centimeters) smaller than your cake pan.  This will ensure that there is just enough room for the cake batter to completely envelop the pie.  You want to make sure that you spread the cake batter on the bottom, sides and top so that the batter prevents any of the pie from escaping while baking- especially in the fruit pies!  Roughly, I wanted an inch (2cm) of cake batter underneath and on top of the pie to help prevent that from happening. 

This “PAKE”, “CIE”, whatever you want to call it is super fun to make.  I hope you have a blast ! 

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Monster High Doll Cake – How to Make

October 30, 2014 by Jenn

A Monster High doll cake has been something that has been high on the request list for a while now, so when the opportunity came to work with Monster High AND Chef Dominique Ansel, we jumped at the chance!  Why wouldn’t we?  

Monster High dolls embracing differences and celebrating what makes everyone unique.  Each “ghoul” as the dolls are called, has a different monster lineage and live by the slogan “be yourself, be unique, be a monster.”  For example, Draculaura, is the daughter of Dracula, and Frankie Stein, Frankenstein.  I know the kids in my Kindergarten class LOVE these dolls. 

Chef Dominique is the genius behind the Cronut (a croissant, donut combination) and the Milk and Cookie Shot!  We have done our own takes of both of those recipes on our YouTube channel already, and loved making them!  His newest creation is the Shocklette Monster for the Monster High brand.  The Shocklette Monster treat is chocolate mousse, dipped in chocolate, encased in marshmallow!  It sounds freaky fab! 

 

 

You can follow Chef Dominque Ansel as he documents his progress on his Shocklette Monster treat over on his Instagram.

Since we were asked to join in and get in on the Monster High celebration as well, I decided to turn Draculaura, well her dress, into a cake!  What’s great about this cake is that you don’t need anything special, besides a Monster High doll.  A cake doll pan helps, but as you can see in my Barbie Cake video, you can also just use a tapered bowl to shape the dress. 

 

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Filed Under: Cakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: black cake, cake, chef ansel, chef dominique ansel, cronut, doll, doll cake, dominique ansel, dominique ansel bakery, draculaura, draculaura cake, monster, monster cake, monster high, monster high cake, monster high doll, monster high doll cake, pink black cake, pink cake, shocklette, shocklette monster, shockolatte, shockolatte monster

3D Baseball Cake

October 25, 2014 by Jenn
Plaaaaaaaay ball!  
 
It’s World Series time in North America, and if you don’t know what that means, its Major League Baseball’s final show down of the top two teams of the season.   I’ve never been much of a baseball fan, but around this time of year, something makes me what to watch the World Series.  It must be the hype and excitement!  
 
I never played baseball growing up as a kid- I was a soccer player- but I did have one exciting incident back in grade four or five where I learned to “watch the ball” the hard way.  The last thing I remember is hearing “Jenn, watch the ball!” being yelled at me by my dad (he was my Gym teacher), and then WHACK.  Ball right in the back of the head.  Ouch.
 
This cake is made easy because there is no carving involved.  I was shopping at the Bulk Barn (as I do pretty much everyday) and I saw this 3D ball mold.  At the time, I didn’t have a specific cake in mind, but I bought it anyway.  When I finally realized the baseball season was coming to an end, to celebrate the World Series, I decided to use the pan to make a 3D baseball!  There are so many other sports balls that it can be used for as well.  I’m looking forward to making basketball, golf balls, soccer balls and more baseballs with this pan.  I also used one of the domes to make the spider body in the 3D spider web cake I made a couple of videos ago (shocker!!!).  
 
When decorating a cake with the star tip method, it does take a lot of time . . . and pain if you have tendinitis like I do (too much cake decorating!).  I love the final look of this type of cake though . . . it’s worth the pain!  
 
For this cake, I wanted to add a second element beyond the ball for a more complete cake.  That is where the idea for the field came in.  The ball can stand alone if you don’t want to have the additional element (or work), but I think that it “completes” the cake.  
 
Good luck to the final teams in the World Series this year!  And to those of you who are ending your baseball seasons as well.  
 

 
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Devil’s Food Cake Halloween Cupcakes

October 19, 2014 by Jenn

I usually put my blog posts up when the video goes live in the mornings, but Paul and I have been fortunate enough to have spent the last four days in Toronto hanging out (and working) at Buffer Festival!  Which means the Paul end of things (the video) was scheduled and ready to go before we even left, and the Jenn end of things (the blog post) was not.  I apologize to those of you who wait to hear my insightful additions to our current video in the form of the blog. Thanks for that Mom.  Actually, I don’t even think she reads it!  She’s really great at sharing on Facebook though 🙂

The last couple days, and months, and pretty much year have been incredible ones for Paul and I.  We are incredibly fortunate to have dream jobs as creators on YouTube. Neither of us had been to Toronto before, and I love it here!  I love the shopping, I love the culture and I love that there is any kind of food you could imagine here!  We had the most amazing Thai food right behind our hotel our first night here.  I haven’t seen a cupcake though.  It’s been a nice break from them. We attended the Buffer Festival Industry day on Thursday and set up a booth to serve our Pumpkin Spice Latte cupcakes.  Make sure you check us out on Facebook and Instagram for pictures of all the fun things we did that day.  On Friday we attended a couple of screenings; Rhett and Link, and Epic Meal Time.  Rhett and Link seem like incredibly nice guys, and their screening was great to sit through.  They showed the audience the evolution of their channel(s) and we even got to watch Monday’s upload ahead of time!  It’s a great one!  The EMT screening was a showing of a couple of episodes of their new TV series, Epic Meal Empire.  It was great to see those guys in person as well, and I even met Harley on the street . . . and totally fan girled on him.  I was supposed to be professional, but that didn’t happen!  I’ve watched him for so long, that I was just honored to be able to talk to him.  Last night we finished the night off with a creator party at the pop-up YouTube Space TO, and had a blast.  Google always treats us incredibly well.  At the party, we were in the company of amazingly talented people . . . to name drop unabashedly, my friends Harley, Rhett, Link, and Shay Carl.  There were soooooo many others that I knew were amazing creators, but being so busy, I don’t have a lot of time to consume my own medium!  This morning, with very little sleep, we headed off to YTSTO again, for a couple of workshops.  One on Creator Development, which we have had before, but it’s always good to have a recap and check in, and then another presentation from Rhett and Link.  They have created themselves quite the empire and they have so many exciting things in store- including a new morning show with women! 

Anyway, that’s the long winded reason why my blog post is late.  “Jenn,” you ask, “can’t you schedule your blog posts like Paul schedules the videos?”  Yes, I can.  But I can’t figure out our server’s time zone! 

I’ve been wanting to do these devil cupcakes since last October.  I wanted to do them last year, but we ran out of time.  I figure waiting a year to see if I really like an idea is probably a good thing.  If I still really liked it, then I would definitely make it.  I don’t have any regrets when it comes to cake videos we’ve uploaded, but there are some ideas that looking back, I know I could have done them better.  When I’m developing an idea/recipe, I want to make it as fabulous as possible.  So when thinking about what would go well with a devil cupcake, devil’s food cake was the obvious choice!

The difficulty for this recipe came when attempting to dip the cupcakes.  If you do not place them in the fridge, the buttercream is likely to plop off and fall directly into your red melted chocolate. Make sure it’s solidly set on the cupcake before dipping, or you’ll ruin your red chocolate like I did while practicing! 

If you’re still with me and reading, thanks again Mom, I won’t take up anymore of your time . . . so here is the super simple video for how to make your own Devil Cupcakes.

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Filed Under: Cupcakes, Holiday Baking, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: buffer fest, buffer festival, buffer festival 2014, cake, chocolate cake, chocolate dipped, chocolate dipped cupcake, cupcakes, devil, devil cake, devil cupcakes, devil's food cake, dipped cupcakes, epic meal time, Halloween Cupcakes, hallween, hi hat cupcakes, red dipped, rhett and link, shay carl

How to Make Edible Fake Blood & Bloody Halloween Cupcakes

October 15, 2014 by Jenn
This idea is gross.  There’s no way around that.  If you don’t want to think about squeamish things, don’t keep reading!  But, if you need something for Halloween that is disgusting, then this is perfect for you! 
 
In this tutorial, I show you how to make edible BLOOD!  If blood covered cupcakes doesn’t revolt you enough, then definitely add our Heart and Brain Cupcakes to your dessert buffet.  The combo of the two cupcakes is sure to scare and frighten people away from eating them!  Who needs a diet when you serve bloody, heart and brain cupcakes?!?
 
To make the edible blood, all you need is corn syrup, chocolate sauce and red gel paste.  You can get away without the chocolate sauce, but it adds a bit of flavour to the mixture, rather than the pure sugar rush of just using the corn syrup.  Don’t worry, you’ll still get a sugar rush from this combination, it will just taste better!  Also, the chocolate tames down the brightness of the red gel paste, which makes for a more realistic blood colour.  I don’t have a ton of experience when it comes to blood, but I do know that it’s not fluorescent red when it comes out of my mishaps.  Adding a small amount of chocolate helps with that.
 
If you want to add an additional element of gore factor, fill the middle of the cupcakes with a bright red cherry filling that will burst out when you first bite into the cupcake.  I’m sure that will be gross enough for the goriest, gore lover!  Also, teaming these cupcakes up with “broken” fingers, and “blood” filled syringes, like we have in the final shot of the video, will help make for the perfect Halloween scene.  If you can handle it, that is!
 
We have lots of other Halloween ideas up on our YouTube channel, so make sure you check out our Halloween playlist! 

 
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Filed Under: Cupcakes, Tutorials, Videos Tagged With: bloody, bloody cupcakes, edible blood, fake blood, gory, gory cake, gory cupcakes, Halloween, Halloween Cake, Halloween Cupcakes, halloween idea, how to make blood, how to make fake blood
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