Cookies, Cupcakes, and Cardio

Before Dawn

November 4, 2010 by Jenn

This morning at 6am, my spinning class was full! It is so great to see so many people coming to the gym before the sun even begins to think about rising. It makes it so much more exciting as an instructor as well…I can feed off the energy of the (mostly) women in my class. I love it! It also makes me hit the snooze button on my alarm when it goes off at 5:15am, one less time! I know I better get my ass to the gym. THERE ARE PEOPLE WAITING!!!! Here is the spin routine from this morning!

SPIN-J

Duration: 45mins

Warm Up

Sex is on Fire – 3:28 – 5/10 – seated/stand

Bad Romance – 4:27 – 6/10 – speed song – seated, turn up tension full turn @ :57- 1:29, 2:20- 2:50, 3:42-end

Morning After Dark – 3:54 – 7/10 – stair climbing – “dance on your toes”, keep your bum forward, chin/head up, light fingers on the bar, turn the tension up every 30s.

Ego – 3:03 – 6/10 – jumps (hover/stand) with sprints @ :40-1:12, 1:35-2:08, 2:23-end

Snuff – 4:36 – 7/10 – seated climb, turn tension up every 30s 1/2 turn

Somebody to Love – 3:33 – 8/10 – grind and climb – start standing, :40-:58 standing sprint, 1:26- 1:46 sit sprint, 2:28-2:46 stand sprint. Keep your tension at 8/10 throughout the song.

Take That – 2:47 – 7/10 – jumps between seated/hover/stand, every time song says “take that” switch position

Starstrukk- 3:23 – power sprint – sprinting tension – power sprint turn up tension 2 full turns @ :45-1:15, 1:45-2:15, 2:51-end

Hard Sun – 5:22 – 8/10 – climb – pick up pace @ 1:20 and 3:20, 2:00 and 4:00 full turn up “power ten” (countdown from 10)

Sing – 3:49 – 7/10 – hover, 1/2 turn up every 30s – every 30s put either R hand or L hand behind back (while hovering), make sure to alternate

Just Breathe – cooldown…keep those legs spinning, gradually lower your heart rate….stretch out those muscles.

Spinning or exercising is a fabulous way to start the day….I always feel so great throughout the day knowing that my workout is done, rather than feeling it looming over me all day long. Now, if only I could have people waiting for me at the gym EVERY day…maybe I would hit the snooze button one less time every week day 🙂 OR an even better idea would be to have people waiting at my door! I would definitely get up then…you probably wouldn’t come again…I’m not a pretty sight in the morning.

Have a great day everybody! Remember to find a way to sweat today.

Filed Under: Spinning Tagged With: spinning

Black Bottom Horse Cupcakes

November 4, 2010 by Jenn

After the failed attempt at colour flow horses (see Failed at Flow), I had to find another way to make Black Bottom Horse Cupcakes for my mom’s birthday. Here they are!

Black Bottom Horse Cupcakes

Cupcakes: These cupcakes are delicious! Make your favourtie chocolate cupcake batter, fill the liners 1/3 full. Cream together one brick of cream cheese, and one cup of sugar. When smooth, add one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Drop one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture on top of the chocolate cake batter. Bake for 20 mins at 350 F. They taste like cheesecake filled chocolate cupcakes. Mmmmm!

They were an absolute hit with my mom…thank god because they were touch and go for a while. Due to my schedule (massage!…priorities) I had left decorating the horses until one hour before mom’s birthday dinner. I ended up slightly stressed, and rushing! Not a good combo when you’re trying to fiddle with small pieces. I ended up with a VERY chocolately counter, VERY chocolatey hands…pants…arms…shirt. EVERYWHERE! Tip: For the love, leave yourself enough time to actually enjoy putting these cupcakes together.

Decorating: What you need…peppermint patties, mini m&m’s, vanilla icing (divided into one white icing tube and one light brown gel tinted tube), chocolate icing, hickory sticks. Ice all of the cupcakes. The peppermint patties become the horse’s nose…cover them in chocolate icing. For the ears, I used the patties cut into triangular shapes, covered them in icing and then used half a toothpick to hold them in place. The rest, you can probably see in the pictures. Have fun!

The decorating part is tedious, but they turned out so well…if I don’t say so myself…and they’re delish. Of course, seeing the enjoyment on my mom’s face, makes it worth it! Happy Birthday Mom! I love you.

Here’s what the colour flow horses ended up looking like . . .

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: cupcakes

Just Where is the Cardio?

November 3, 2010 by Jenn

I was beginning to wonder that myself . . . yes, I’ve been busy baking, and with the pressure of a mid-week bake for my mom’s birthday, I’ve not had a focus on cardio for the blog…BUT I’VE BEEN DOING IT!!!! Thank god….all this baking requires sampling (the best part of baking…mmm). The gym I work for PAYS me to do cardio, remember that piece from the About Me section you should have memorized?

What I will do with the cardio posts is provide you with playlists and some moves that you can do while you’re either spinning, running, or hiking. I hope that you are able to take something from the future posts. Remember: if a girl (me) who used to weigh as much as a small car can do it, you can drag your ass out and do it too!

Here is the first SPINNING post.

Duration – 60mins – H

Warm Up

New Divide – 4:24 – seated/stand – turn tension up @ 1:05, 2:18, 3:15

I Gotta Feeling – 4:41 – 30s seated/hover/stand, turn it up a 1/2 every time you sit

Infinity 2008 – 6:24 – 20s sprints, start @ 1:00

Gimme Sympathy – 3:45 – standing jog and standing sprint @ :45-1:00, 1:05-1:20, 2:15-2:30, 2:45-3:00

Rooster – 6:15 – seated climb – turn up tension every 45s

The Fixer – 3:00 – hover – 30s, R/L hand behind your back (alternating)

Burn It To The Ground – 3:30 – 8/10 tension, standing sprint @ :50, 1:38, 2:55

Kids – 5:25 – slides

Wannabe – 2:55 – high speed or high tension

Sound of Freedom – 4:30 – seated sprint

Shook Me All Night Long – 3:30 – ladder 1/2 turn up and stand, 1/4 down, sit down

Take a Chance – 4:04 – student choice

Dancing in the Dark – 4:03 – standing climb

Cooldown

Remember to stretch 🙂 …and towel down your sweaty parts

Filed Under: Spinning Tagged With: spinning

Failed at Flow

November 2, 2010 by Jenn

I have failed at my first attempt at colour flow. This is a technique that is a special decorating method used to make detailed icing decorations for cakes and I thought that it would be simple enough. SO WRONG!

All you SUPPOSEDLY need to do is outline an imagine that is overlayed with wax paper with the colour flow icing, wait a day or two and VIOLA, you have a hardened image to use to decorate. I attempted to do this with simple horse head images that I printed off. *Using Google Images is really good for finding simple images*

Needless to say, I have abandoned the colour flow technique this time, I will try again and I’m off to search for a new horse cupcake decoration technique that I can pull together for my mom’s birthday TOMORROW! ARGGGG!

Filed Under: Randomness Tagged With: color flow

What I’m Reading

October 31, 2010 by Jenn

Secret Daughter – Shilpi Somaya Gowda

A volunteer at the hospital noticed that I was reading this book, and she had nothing but great things to say about it, and about Shilpi Somaya Gowda’s other two novel’s. I’m planning to find those to read as well.

So far, it’s pretty gripping . . . gets you interested right from the start.

Filed Under: What I'm Reading Tagged With: books

Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2010 by Jenn

I’m celebrating Halloween this year with a candy corn theme…I actually don’t like the stuff at all, but it looks pretty. I saw a post on another website for Candy Corn Fudge (www.tasteandtellblog.com), thought it would be worth a try for my upcoming dinner party with my friends. I figured that I needed a second dessert, and I found some wicked radical Candy Corn Sugar Cookies (www.othersideoffifty.com) to go with the fudge.

I’m finally getting used to taking pictures of all the steps…the addition of the tripod was a great improvement…thanks Paul! I’m really enjoying getting to share the baking that I do. Not getting to eat it (HELLO, getting fat!!..where IS the component of cardio on this site anyway!!!!) is worth the happiness that others get from enjoying the fruits of my (labour..haha) KitchenAid.

I started with the Candy Corn Sugar Cookies as the dough has to cool in the refrigerator for at least one hour. I was initally skeptical about the recipe using powdered sugar (which took me forever to figure out that in Canada its our icing sugar). They actually turned out lighter, and fluffier than sugar cookies normally do.

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies (recipe from Betty Crocker’s Fall Baking)

1 cup butter1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 large egg
Grated zest of one medium orange (1-2 TBSP)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/8 tsp orange gel food coloring
1/8 tsp yellow gel food coloring
Coarse sugar to decorate (I couldn’t find in the grocery store this morning so I omitted)

In large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar, egg and orange zest with electric mixer on medium speed. Stir in flour, baking soda and cream of tartar.

Divide dough into thirds. Tint one portion orange, one portion yellow, and leave the third portion plain. Flatten each portion into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

On separate sheets of lightly floured wax paper, roll each portion of dough into 12X9 inch rectangles. Place orange rectangle on top of yellow rectangle, using waxed paper ends to help flip dough over. Top with plain dough rectangle.

This was perhaps the most annoying part of the whole recipe!! Trying to roll this fragile dough was a lesson in patience.

If you've ever rolled sushi with a sushi mat, then this will be easy for ya. If not, good luck.

Cutting the roll after it had been in the fridge for about 2 hours.

So pretty.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut dough into 1/4 inch slices. On ungreased cookie sheet, place slices about one inch apart. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until edges are set. Cool one minute before removing from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Candy Corn Sugar Cookies

Onto the Candy Corn Fudge…

Candy Corn Fudge (adapted from www.tasteandtellblog.com)

2 1/2 cups White Sugar

1/2 cup butter

5 oz. evaporated milk

2 cups marshmallow creme

1 cup white chocolate chips

yellow and orange food colouring gel

candy corn for decorating

Ingredients...all ready to go.

Line an 8×8-inch pan with foil. Let the edges hang over the sides of the pan. Butter pan or spray with cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, butter and the evaporated milk. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Continue to boil for 5 minutes over medium heat, stirring constantly. Remove pan from the heat.

That's the butter, milk and sugar...blechhh.

Add the marshmallow creme and white chocolate. Stir until mixture is smooth. Pour 1/3 of the mixture into one bowl, and 1/3 of the mixture into another bowl. Color each with yellow or orange food colouring.

Spread the yellow fudge into the pan and top with the orange fudge. Pour the remaining 1/3 of the mixture on top. Top with candy corn.

It looked so nice at this stage...I should have left it like this!

Let cool to room temperature. When ready to serve, cut into 1″ squares.

Ooey gooey mess!

I’m not sure what went wrong with the fudge, but it didn’t seem to solidify properly. I used fat free condensed milk instead of the full fat (what was I thinking?) and perhaps that’s where my error was…upon re-reading the directions, I also failed to let the mixture boil for 5 minutes…maybe I was a little premature stating that I was used to this blogging business! Even though it doesn’t look as pretty as it did in the original recipe I found, it sure tasted good!

See what I'm talking about with regards to presentation? Beauty!

So, on to the party! But, first I had to stop to make a delivery of these treats to my parents. Much to my shock, this is what I found when I got there:

Uhh, Dad?

After recovering from this shock, I went to find my mom, and she was dressed as a witch! It’s nice to see everyone getting into the Halloween spirit. It is definitely one of my favourite holidays…and apparently, one of parents’ as well. On to Jessica and Brandon’s…..

Arriving at dinner...Cassie, Jenn, Jessica

Jess always cooks something deep fried and delicious but her and Brandon stepped it up a notch tonight…MEAT LOG!

Check out that woven bacon! That is art...for your stomach.

Well done you guys...it looked intricate, and tasted awesome...and I don't even like bacon!

Kiera found a way to make better use of the gooey fudge...ICING on the cookies!! YUM!!!

Filed Under: Cookies Tagged With: candy corn cookies, candy corn fudge, cookies

Jewellery Party Cupcakes

October 26, 2010 by Jenn

Tonight, I spent the evening baking Carrot Cake cupcakes for my friend Brenda’s jewellery party on Wednesday night. It might have been the excitement to take a picture at every step, or it might have been the killer massage I got on my exercise induced shoulder injury, but whatever it was, the cupcake attempt tonight was pitiful! I’m embarrassed to post the pictures, but hopefully with the right decorations and proper amount of icing (meaning gluttonous amount), they will end up tasting better than they look.

Yes, I had to cheat. It was the pressure of the first posting of pictures.

First step: Cheat with a box of mix. But, in order for it to give off the air of scratch baking, add one cup of grated carrots to the mix after following the directions on the box..and 1/2 cup of raisins if you so desire.

Use the mixer to mix the grated carrots and raisins in briefly (about 30 seconds). Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl.

Yes, I could have cleaned off the spills, but lets face it- I'm learning, and I'm also a complete MESS of a baker. There is stuff EVERYWHERE when I bake.

Tip learned during this section of the baking process–don’t fill the damn cups so full!! It makes for a huge mess, and the cupcakes end up way too big. Baking in the ridiculously sized oven I have (apartment) makes the baking of over filled liners even more difficult. Try to get even baking with that situation!! Oh well, one day I’ll have a convection oven that doesn’t fit on my counter.

Here they are in their ugly glory...not my best attempt. Notice the one on the bottom that I ripped into to check whether it was done or not.

Now for the best part…ICING!!! Icing is my fave….basically, I make cupcakes so I can eat the icing. I could eat it by the bucketful, and claim to not get a stomach ache, but really, how gross would that be….but oh so delish.

For this recipe, I went with my tried and true Cream Cheese Icing Recipe. Take one brick of cream cheese, mix with 1/2 c. of butter, 1 tsp of vanilla, and 2 c. of icing sugar.

No, I didn't eat the entire bowl of icing...I forgot to take the picture. Rookie move Jenn, rookie move.

I make up for the empty bowl with this pic. Icing in the bag, all ready to go.

For these cupcakes, I used tip No. 9….mostly because I couldn’t find my bigger one. It ended up working out ok though…just needed to use a really slow hand. One of those nifty individual cupcake holder things that Wilton makes would have come in handy…but then of course you don’t get as much icing on your hands that you can lick off later.

Icing step one...mmm, look at it's gooey goodness.

Sprinkles and rings were purchased on my last trip to Vancouver...so pretty.

Completed project!

Jewellery party cupcakes are completed! A simple and relatively easy (duh, I used a cake mix and completely cheated!)…but, hey cut me some slack…I’m a beginner. On my way to world baking domination mind you.

Filed Under: Cupcakes Tagged With: carrot cake cupcakes, cream cheese icing

Champagne Toasts

October 25, 2010 by Jenn

This is it! The inaugural entry into complete narcissism. I can hardly wait to indulge…and indulge you!

The site is finally up and running. After a couple of brief setbacks “Oh my god, why does computer text look like another language?”, and initial shock…”Ewww, it can’t look like that!” . . . Cookies, Cupcakes and Cardio is here! And I actually like it . . . not as much as THE ONE template that I REALLY wanted, but oh well…this one’s pink, and cute. Anything pink is cute.

How did this idea all get started? Let’s blame the KitchenAid Mixer on this one. $200 later for the Mixer and $7.49 for the domain and an obsession has begun.

Filed Under: The Beginning Tagged With: cupcakes, KitchenAid Mixer

Before Dawn

Black Bottom Horse Cupcakes

Just Where is the Cardio?

Failed at Flow

What I’m Reading

Happy Halloween!

Jewellery Party Cupcakes

Champagne Toasts

Happiness is Homemade

Join Me On:

Subscribe

Site Stuff

Happiness is Homemade

Join Me On:

Subscribe

Tags

Site Stuff