Monthly Miettes : Tomboy Cake

Out of the corner of my eye I saw one of the cutest, most beautiful things I had ever seen. A puppy? No. A child? Heck No.

A book? Yes.

Miette is a beautiful and charming book written by Meg Ray. It is full of 'recipes from San Francisco's most charming pastry shop'. The pages are scalloped and feature large, glossy pictures of cakes, tarts, and pastries.

                               


Aimee, the mastermind behind Food, je t'Aimee , fell in love with this book. She wrote to Meg Ray asking to do a blogging challenge called Monthly Miettes. Every month one recipe will be chosen and those who decide to take on the challenge will have a few weeks to bake, create, and blog about each recipe.

Enter, the Tomboy Cake.

The cake (shown above) looks delicate, soft, and classy with it's dark chocolate layers and baby pink buttercream frosting. I thought I'd mix it up a bit and throw my own spin on this cake!

The recipe was straight forward and easy to follow. Whats even better is that it tasted delicious and stayed extremely moist! Instead of making two 6 inch cakes, I used all the cake batter and made one 10 inch cake. I also made a simple butter cream and pumped it up a bit with pink coloring to make it more vibrant and fun! Next time I make this cake, I'll definitely use a different piping tip for the frosting. I'm not a fan of the star tip look.

On the top of the cake I used an offset palette knife to make a large spiral and finished it with some chocolate shavings.

This chocolate cake recipe will definitely be going in my book to use as a favorite and I'm excited to try next months Miette challenge!

Resolutions? Oh ... Right.

Rumour has it that January is almost over.

Seeing as my ass still won't fit into the jeans hanging in my closet and I just ate a rack of ribs for dinner, I'd say it's safe to assume that my resolutions have been kicked to the curb. I did jog/walk/awkwardly move to the bus today so that might count for something ... I'm not going to count on it though.

Instead of committing to working out 4 days a week ( that's not likely to EVER happen), cutting out certain food groups ( as a cook I eat/taste things all day), or stop baking ( come on. ) I've decided to make a commitment to do other things for myself.

Such as; learning how to ski, taking a cake decorating class, joining the Halifax Roller Derby team, making time to blog, and learning how to take some kick ass food photos!

In February I'll start making time for some of those things to happen .. hopefully!

I've already starting skiing and turns out it's a lot of fun :)

Hopefully everyone else's resolutions are going better then mine!

Cranberry Walnut Tea Scones

What are Tea Scones you ask?

Well, they're delicious. That's all you really need to know.

I'm learning (quickly) that my grandma's recipes rock. They never fail, and keeping with tradition these Tea Scones baked up beautifully and had the most wonderful light fluffy texture.

Now back to the question, What are Tea Scones? Well, if you really must have an answer, my only description would be that they are a mix between a tea biscuit and a scone, and are fast and delicious.

Cranberry Walnut Tea Scones

2 cups unsifted flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 butter
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup crushed walnut pieces
1/4 dried cranberries

• Combine all ingredients and blend well.
• Turn out onto parchment paper and spread to about 1/2 inch thick and cut into triangles.
• Bake at 400 degrees until golden brown, about 8 to 10 minutes.
• Finish with a sprinkle of icing sugar