As someone who’s been taking pictures of their food for almost six years, I always want the things I bake to look cute. When they don’t, I’m usually disappointed, but take comfort in the fact that if it tastes good, no one really cares what it looks like. I’ve dubbed this category “fugly but delicious”......
December was totally crazy with holiday parties, dinners with friends, preparing for Champagne & Cookies and getting ready for Christmas. I’ll hit you with the highlights: I had a catch-up dinner at Trevor with my friend Heather, and we ordered all the bar snacks, my favourite of which was the buffalo fried cauliflower with dill......
Today is my niece Rebecca’s 3rd Birthday, and I was convinced for this whole year that I’d be making a Frozen themed cake come December. To my surprise, my brother informed me that she wanted a “Shimmer & Shine” birthday cake. Shimmer & Shine, you say? Turns out this is Rebecca’s new favourite TV show......
Someone asked me last week how many cookies I make in December. I replied that I usually make about 10 different types of cookies, but she came back at me wanting to know the total volume. I guessed about two dozen of each type, so somewhere in the neighbourhood of 250 cookies. The look of shock on her......
Last week my friend from work had a couple of us over to her house for dinner, and true to form, I spent like a week trying to decide what to bake to bring over. I just find it so lovely when people open up their home to you and welcome you in. I feel......
I feel like shortbread has a bad reputation as a “boring” Christmas cookie. I made a traditional whipped shortbread for my first Champagne & Cookies party back in 2010, and I think it was kind of overlooked. Partly my own fault, because when there are nine other treats to choose from, a plain shortbread cookie......
This month started with a trip to London, which I will write about soon, and was obviously the highlight of the month (and year!). We almost don’t need a separate recap for November, except for a couple special things (coughFRINGScough): Back in September, Drake surprised us all with the grand opening for a new restaurant......
Christmas is coming early to Planet Byn, and we’re celebrating the release of Rosie Daykin’s new book, Butter Celebrates! You’ll remember the Butter Baked Goods Bakery from previous gushing here (when I visited the store in Vancouver last year) and here (when we hosted a giveaway for Rosie’s first book a year ago). I was......
Last December I made a bold declaration on this here blog of mine: I was done with apple pie. I had finally had enough after making Saveur magazine’s Salted Caramel Apple Pie for Christmas, and was ready to put that out into the world. I often have trouble with pie in general, mostly because I......
I made risotto for the first time back in 2011, and was so excited about it that I waited almost five years to make it again. That’s just what happens in my kitchen though. There’s always something new to make, so I forget about the things I made that I loved. Risotto also has such......