Aprons: The Baker's fashion statement

I figured with a blog title "flour on my apron" that I had better actually post something about aprons. Hey, if people can write about fashion and talk about shoes, coats, blouses, jeans, accessories, why not talk about aprons?

As silly as it sounds, I love my apron. I chose a more hostess style apron with ruffles. I love that it looks like I'm wearing a dress instead of a "working" garment. The colors are bright and some of my favorite ones to wear.

There are so many choices when it comes to aprons. You can chose something simple with clean lines or something more detailed and ruffled, full length or half length, something with color or something neutral. Here are some of my favorites (from etsy.com, of course!)

I love this half apron. The colors are so vibrant and there's something about the Celtic-inspired floral print I love. You can find the listing here.

Or for the color weary, a white ruffle half apron. I love how it almost looks like a tutu!

As simple as this apron is I love how clean and crisp it looks. The pleating is adorable and the bright green stitching is a fun surprise!

I love this one because it reminds me of my grandma. Enough said.

This is one of my all-time favorites. In fact, I love every single one of this store's aprons!

I j'adore the French farm chic of this half apron (Actually, all their stuff is cute, too)!

Or if any of my previous picks are just too much for you, there is this simple, yet still adorable, option!

There are still unbelievably so many more aprons to choose from. Oh, and don't worry, I am definitely going to have themed apron posts, too!

Happy Baking!

Gadgets & Tools - Measuring Cups & Spoons

It may seem silly to give advice on measuring cups and spoons but I have some. When my husband and I created our wedding registry we pretty much selected one of each thing or maybe at the most two of each. For example, we selected only two kitchen towels. We ended up with around seven or so and at first I didn't know what to do with so many. Now I am so thankful to have so many on hand! I've realized you can never have too many kitchen towels.

At first I only thought I would need one set of cups and spoons. I quickly found out I was wrong. I would highly recommend that any baker have at a minimum two sets. Having two sets saves a lot of time and hassle. My grandma gifted me another set of spoons and I love them. I think they are an older set of hers and they have uncommon measuring sizes, which is awesome. Nowadays, both the cups and spoons come in standard sizes. I often find this frustrating. My wonderful husband has been looking for unique size cups for me. We finally found some at Williams-Sonoma. They included a 3/4 cup which I really need. We held off on buying them at the time. Of course, when I now go onto their website I can longer find the cups. Second piece of advice: If you find something you need or desire for kitchen, don't waste time and buy it!

I also probably don't have to mention how much fun it can be to shop for cups and spoons. There are a lot of fun sets out there that can add quirky character to your kitchen. All of mine are Martha Stewart red. I love the way they look next to my pewter gray stand mixer.

Happy Baking!

Tea at the Empress

This last weekend I was treated to a short vacay to Victoria. It was my Christmas present from my mom. We were joined by two friends, Cherri Seese and her daughter Sydney. The highlight of the trip was tea at the Empress. It was an awesome time and I just had to share with you the treats we enjoyed. This is why I want to learn more and maybe one day become a pastry chef!

Baking with Love - Celebrating a family matriarch

This last weekend our family had the pleasure of celebrating my grandma Ru's 85th birthday. Her only wish was for the whole family to be there and we did not let her down. It was a great night of chatting, laughing, and eating desserts.

That's thing about this family - we love our desserts. Most specifically, we love apple pie. That might be an understatement. Apple pie is essential to any family event. I first learned how to make apple pie from my grandma. A few years ago she helped me make one as a birthday present for my dad. He, too, loves apple pie. One of the biggest compliments he ever gave me was that he like my pie. We have such high standards so this was a big deal!

I have yet to master my grandma's recipe. I don't even think I have it in my recipe book. I have been trying other recipes that I have found online or in cookbooks. The pie I made for Gram was a combination of three different recipes. I wanted to make mini apple pies but I didn't have circle cutter in the right size. So, my pie became a pleated crumble topping apple pie.

But one of these days I'm going to make sure I have my grandma's recipe. Traditions are what make a family a family. And when it's a baking tradition, well, that's something extra special.

Savory Baking - Meat and Potato Pies

I love baking desserts and sweet treats but I also love baking savory dishes. Earlier this week I thought I would try to make something with the extra onion and chuck steak I had on hand. After perusing my Harry Potter cookbook (yes, I have one, and yes, I will post a review sometime!), I decided to try making meat and potato pies. The recipe was really similar to the Cornish Pasty recipe (from the same book) so I knew it wouldn't be too complicated. I cut the cooking time in half, though, since I didn't really have three hours to prepare dinner. I think the long cook time for this is to allow all the flavors come through. All ingredients go into a skillet and I tried to let them simmer as long as I could.

The dough was a simple pastry dough. I mixed it up and let it chill while I cooked the filling. Once ready, I rolled it out to make my little pie crusts. I didn't have a large enough cookie cutter to make the bottom crust so I actually used the lid to my flour container. It worked perfect! I sprayed my muffin pan with Pam, added the bottom crusts, filled the crust with the meat filling, and added a top crust. A little brush of egg wash and the pies were ready to bake.

These smelled so amazing as they baked. Both Ryan and I were really excited for dinner. I think these turned out amazingly. Surprisingly, I found them to be a bit easier to make then Cornish Pasties. I will have to check the freezer for more chuck steak because I can't wait to make these again!

Gadgets and Tools - Stand Mixers

I thought it would be fun to have a segment on baking gadgets and tools. My first installment is on my favorite kitchen tool - Stand Mixers! Other than my own hands I have found my stand mixer to be my most valuable tool. Every baker should have one. Not only are they super functional but they come in so many different colors that they become like an accessory for your kitchen. Having not known where we would be living after we got married, I picked out a sleek pewter grey color. I love that it's neutral and can fit into any decor I may decide to do later.

I interviewed one of my co-workers on what she likes about her mixer. Shayla has either the 4.5 or 5 quart KitchenAid Tilt-Head Stand Mixer in white. She loves that the bowl size is perfect for her household (her and two roomies) and that it is small enough to not take up too much room in the dishwasher. In comparison, I have the 6 quart KitchenAid Bowl-lift Stand Mixer. Since I love to bake loads and loads this bowl size is perfect. I can easily make a double batch of almost anything. Shayla laughed that hers would not be able to handle that; there would flour everywhere if she tried to make a double batch in her bowl. I, in turn, thought that was funny since I have flour everywhere no matter the bowl size.

Another positive on the smaller mixer is that it can easily fit on the countertop. Shayla's sits nicely under her cupboards and she doesn't have to haul it out of the pantry every time she wants to use it. You will find me, on the other hand, bending from me knees and hoisting the mixer onto the counter. However, I love the larger size because I can easily make double batches (which is a requirement sometimes. If I don't make a double batch of gingerbread cookies my husband will eat all of them with none to share with others!).

I hope these tips are helpful, if not entertaining to read. Picking out the right stand mixer for your household and baking style is really important and will make a big difference on your own baking adventure.

Happy Baking!

Baking with Friends - Cinnamon Swirl Cake

This weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with my friend Honor. We had an awesome Pho dinner (if you have yet to try it, you need to. Best. Thing. Ever.) and then we spent the rest of the evening baking. I was really excited because I wanted to try a new recipe and plus it is always fun to bake with a friend. This is another recipe I found on allrecipes.com. It is a cinnamon swirl cake. Honor helped by chopping the pecans. The recipe called for walnuts but I already had some pecans in the pantry.

I love this girl because she is as picky about how to chop nuts as I am. We both like to get the pecans finely chopped. Neither of us like chunks in our desserts (we're two peas, Honor and I) plus I feel like the finer chopped nuts bring out more flavor. It really makes a difference!

The batter is a really simple cake batter. I was excited to try the swirl part. The trick is to layer half the batter in the form, add the cinnamon layer, and then add the rest of the batter. Well, Honor and I figured we added about half of the batter only to find that towards the end we probably added three quarters of the batter. So we thought we would just see how it turned out. After baking, the cake smelled amazing. The cinnamon and pecans added such a comforting smell to the kitchen that it felt like Christmas. We sliced the cake to see how it turned out and it looked beautiful!

I was so happy with the final product except for one thing: since we added too much batter before the cinnamon layer I would be cutting off most the cinnamon if I leveled the bottom of the bundt! Oh well, it still tasted great.

I was glad to share the fruit of our labors with Honor's family. I did end up taking a little bit home. I knew my husband would love this and I just had to share with him, too!

Thank you, Honor, for a fun night of baking!