Catching Up!

Goodmorning Everyone!!

I know...I haven't been here for-EVER! Instead of telling you all these excuses for why I haven't posted in sooooo long, I decided I was going to tell you what's been going on in my life since my last post, which was late June.

Those of you that know me, also know that I am getting married this coming November.
I had posted it here along with my New Years Resolutions (yes...more than one!). #5 was "eating healthier" because I wanted to be healthy and also lose 25 pounds for the wedding. I am happy to anounce that I lost 30+ pounds!!! I am ready to be a bride! [Staying away from all those sweets I was making wasn't as easy as I thought, but I managed!]

If you live in Cyprus, or know someone from here, then you know how HUGE weddings here are. Mine is going to be relatively "small" with only about 1000 people invited (no.. I didn't accidentally add a 3rd zero... I meant one THOUSAND). It's tradition..I wanted to avoid it and have a smaller wedding, but I couldn't. So preparations for such big event start early on.

In July, I ordered my wedding dress. I am not saying anything more than that because we wouldn't want my fiance what it looks like - I promise pictures AFTER the wedding!

Around the same time, we started to design the renovation of the house. We had real bad luck with that, but without getting into any details, I will let you know that you should ALWAYS hire someone with the proper degree (don't be embarassed to ask to see it, it's their proof that they are good enough for the job you need done) and also, ask around for prices! I found an architect for 5000 euro CHEAPER than the designer we hired at the beginning who lied and said she could do the architectural plans for us. But as I said, I'm not going into details. Let's just leave it at that (the whole thing gets me really angry!). Regardless, it took a few months of running around and making appointments with civil engineers and the designer and contractors...we decided to leave this for AFTER the wedding. Good things come to those who wait, right?

Even though this blog is about my passion for baking, I also LOVE to cook. After I finished my diet (which had a set menu for about 6 months) I started my stabilizing. It's for another 4 months and you try to keep your weight stable so you don't gain everything back on (which happens most of the time once you finish a diet... I know, it happened to me, too!).
So the fun part was that I got to create my own menu, but follow some basil rules (that are harder to keep than I thought) and also have a complete FREE day! That's when I started to do Menu Planning.
I was really excited at first, keeping up with all the grocery shopping and recipes, but at some point, the wedding took the best of me. Because remember those 1000 people I mentioned above? Well, someone has to invite them! Meaning that me and my fiance go to some of these peoples' houses, and being a hospitable people in general, we are always invited for a cup of coffee and some cake or sweets or whatever else these people have to offer...unfortunatelly for me, no seems too rude, not finishing your cake ALSO rude.. so I end up drinking too much coffee and too much sugar with no nutrients coming my way. AGRRRR!!! Only one week to go and then I am back to my menu planning (which I looooove!!)

Following my menu planning, I also created a great recipe folder. I don't have a picture of it, but I should tell you what I did in a later post (or this one will be miles long!) I did a binder for food, and I am going to be making one for desserts AFTER the wedding.

During my menu planning time though, I made some desserts I had never made before so I can try new things.
I had some extra Macadamia nuts at home, and I decided to make Key Lime Bars with them because my cousin visited from England, who LOVES sour things. I mean, if you see how many lemons he uses for each piece of chicken he eats, you'll think he's having a slice of chicken with his lemonade!
I thought I had a picture of them, but I can't find it anywhere to show you. They didn't look like anything special, but they tasted real good.

I also saw a recipe on the cover of a GoodFood magazine that I tried. Now that one I loved! AND I have a picture!
Peach Melba Cheesecake (no-bake).

I also made some Chocolate Cherry Tart. It was also really yummy.

Wow this IS a really loooong post. I guess there is a lot of catching up to do! I will leave it off here and continue tomorrow. I have exciting things to share, like a logo (I KNOW!) and a competition, and some Pirate Cupcakes! All in good time!


-xoxo-

Strawberry Cheesecake Cupcakes

Hello everyone!
I woke up this morning and I couldn't wait to tell you about my news!

It's been a while since I last posted any yummy cupcakes, so I decided I will share my NEW flavor with you. I have baked this before, but the thing is I was afraid to put it on the menu. Then a new customer calls, who found me through my Facebook Page, and asked for 3 flavors of Cupcakes, but nothing with chocolate...hm...no problem but most of my Cupcakes have some kind of chocolate something in them..!! Thinking to be done: Vanilla Cupcakes? Sure, a classic, we can put those in. Then no Chocolate Cupcakes, but how about Nutella Cupcakes? Well the cupcake is Chocolate with Nutella filling so again, no. How about Banana Cupcakes?? But I make them with a Chocolate Frosting so ...NO! I did the Red Velvet ones for her because you can barely tell there's cocoa in there. We should have a voting...the cocoa is only there for the color, right? I should do a blog post discussing Red Velvet! Then the other option was Lemon Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting but the customer did mention these were going to children in school so not a lot of children care for lemon-anything. So that's out.

You know what comes next...right? I had to put the missing flavor into play. I thought, who doesn't like crumbled cookies? ON TOP of their Frosting? Young ones or old ones? If I could, I'd smash the Cupcake into the Digestive Cookies (I'd use Graham Crackers if I lived in America but *sniff* we don't have those), only if it wasn't for destroying that beautiful swirl of the Frosting. I loooooove crust anything, so you know I love the idea of this Cupcake.

Am I keeping you in suspence? You want to see the picture, right? Ok ok here's the picture, we'll chat more below it.

See the strawberries at the bottom? And the crumbs on top? Ooooh Heaven!!! (...ok just don't tell my nutritionist I had one of these.. I will find a different excuse for not loosing all the weight I was supposed to...like an alien forced me to eat it or something?)

I did 2 Cupcake deliveries right after I finished assembling these...and then went on to a BBQ and took some with me to see what people think. I am getting to the part where I didn't clean the kitchen afterwards and now it's bugging me. So off I go to work, and then straight to the kitchen cleaning..and living room cleaning (that's where the picture taking took place).

Oh oh and one more thing...I had some time on my hands yesterday so I took some really nice pictures of the Cupcakes I baked for my new customer. I will be sharing soon because I am REALLY escited with the result! You'd think a professional photographer took the pictures. Can't wait to share :)

Chocolate Blackout Cake

No, I haven't forgotten about you. It's just that I've been super busy with life and baking. I thought while I have a Cheesecake baking in the oven, I'd share with you what's up with me.

First of all.... I took the biggest step EVER for my career. I. Quit. My. Job. That's right! It was really hard for me to do, but I have given my resignation letter, and as of February 1st, I will be a full time baker! Yeih me!!!

Then, I baked a LOT of Carrot Cakes. Apparently, that's my forte. Everyone LOVES my Carrot Cake. You've seen it before right here. I baked 2 of those today, 1 yesterday, and after I'm done with the Cheesecake in the oven? Yeap, that's right! I'm baking yet another cake for a delivery tomorrow morning. I also had a girl ask me if I can turn it into her Engagement Cake. That's how much she liked it! So I'm working on some ideas for that. 200 people. Wow! A Carrot Cake for 200 people that doesn't look like a wedding cake. Ok.. we'll see how that goes.

Also, yesterday was one of my bestest friend's wedding. It was also the groom's birthday so the bride asked me to bake him a Chocolate Birthday Cake. So I did a Chocolate Blackout Cake. Have you ever had one of those before? It's strictly for Chocolate LOVERS! It's a Chocolate Cake basically, and instead of having frosting, it has Chocolate Custard.
I worte Happy Birthday for him in Greek, and then I closed the top of the box so I could deliver it to the hotel...and the cake was too tall and all the writing came off! So...since I was going to be late, I rewrote it with what I had on hand, and it came out looking a little bulky.

It looks all nice and innocent here, and look how it looks with the writing.

See the yuck-y "O" on the first word? (For all those wondering, it's Happy Birthday in Greek). Well..remember how I said "what I had on hand?" What I DID have on hand last minute, was some Cream Cheese Frosting that was left over from the Carrot Cake I baked in the morning. I mised it with some blue paste color and voia-la! It looks gooey, too, but the whole "birthday" deal lasted about 30 seconds, there was no picture taken of the cake and people just downed it! So other than this picture I am sharing with you guys, no one else will know!! It was a surprise so the photographer didn't get the chance to snap a picture. Thank. You!

Off I go to take out the Cheesecake from the oven. This is how my Cheesecake looks like:

I call it "The New Yorker." The ultimate New York Cheesecake.