Looking Back: 2011

Happy New Year! How many of you celebrated all night long and did the countdown? We did. That is why we thought it would be best to have this post scheduled. ;)

We missed doing this in 2010 (we did it for 2008 and 2009), but we're bringing it back. Here's a look back at our favourite posts of 2011.

Howard's Top 3 Favourites:

1. Home Cooking: Sylvia's savory dinner because it's the best savory dinner she's made for me (even though it wasn't exclusively for me). 
2. Lady M Confections and Ladurée and Sucré: NYC in the rain because we made the day fun even though it could have easily been miserable. 
3. Kurt and Diana: KD's wedding because it was our first mass undertaking and we were able to pull it off with success (I hope).

Sylvia's Top 3 Favourites:

1. Lemon Soufflés: An impressive, delicious, and difficult dessert to master? Challenge accepted! I got to learn from my mistakes and gain an understanding to the not-so-secret creation of soufflés.
2. How: Pinwheel Cupcakes: This was something that I wanted to make for awhile, the idea danced in my mind for a couple of months, and they turned out quite nice! Whimsy!
3. Calvin and Hobbes Birthday Cupcakes: Fun. These were so fun to make and blog about.

We also wanted to start 2012 with a giveaway. We feel that this is the time of year when we all feel the most ambitious. Maybe this year you'll make healthier desserts or cook like a Michelin starred chef?

BabyCakes
Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery
Written by Erin McKenna
For confectionists of all kinds, delicious alternatives lie within: Red Velvet Cupcakes, Chocolate Shortbread Scones with Caramelized Bananas, Strawberry Shortcake, and BabyCakes NYC’s celebrated frosting (so delicious it has fans tipping back frosting shots!), to name just a few.

Momofuku
Written by David Chang and Peter Meehan
Momofuku is both the story and the recipes behind the cuisine that has changed the modern-day culinary landscape. Chang relays with candor the tale of his unwitting rise to superstardom, which, though wracked with mishaps, happened at light speed. And the dishes shared in this book are coveted by all who've dined - or yearned to - at any Momofuku location (yes, the pork buns are here).


Giveaway Regulations and Conditions: 

• The New Year Giveaway is open from Sunday, January 1, 2012 to Thursday, January 12, 2012. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Thursday, January 12, 2012 will not be considered. 
• There are three ways to enter, you only have to do one:
  1) Post in the comment section below:  I want to spend my new year reading ______________. (Fill in the blank with the title you would like to win.)
  2) Post on A Baked Creation's facebook page: I want to spend my new year reading ______________. (Fill in the blank with the title you would like to win.)
  3) To enter via twitter, tweet: I want to spend my new year reading ______________ with  @abakedcreation (Fill in the blank with the title you would like to win.) 
• Please leave a way for us to contact you.
• Winners will be randomly chosen and announced here on A Baked Creation. 
• The winners will have 7 days to claim their prize. If we do not get a mailing address, the prize is forfeited.
• This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only! However, if you have friends and family with a Canadian or American mailing address, feel free to enter. There will be four different winners, one for each book.
• Disclaimer: The giveaway copy of BabyCakes and Momofuku were not sent to us by the publisher.
• UPDATE: Winners have been chosen and notified! Congratulations to Rosebud5192 who will be receiving a copy of BabyCakes. Congratulations to Cat who will be receiving a copy of Momofuku.

Best of luck!

Joanna and Julian's Wedding Photos

Remember back in August when we made those book cupcakes for Joanna and Julian's wedding? I had promised to post photos of their cupcake tower/table and ... the wait is over! The following photos were taken by Adrian Tamas at Black Sea Creative:

The light and airy venue.

I love the details for this, Joanna and Julian used their favourite books for the seating chart! Instead of having book covers or the title, they used simple black and white symbols. You do know which table this is right?

I like how V is smiling behind the napkin in this one.

Na na na na na na na Batman!

The pretty cupcake table! Who needs cake stands or towers when you can build it from books?

A nice balance of scattered cupcakes around the main book tower.

The topper is so adorable, their two pet cats are even included.

I also love the paper flowers they made!

This makes me happy. =)

Venue: Whistler's (995 Broadview Avenue, Toronto, ON M4K 2S1)
Photographer: Adrian Tamas, Black Sea Creative (more blog photos)

Joanna and Julian

This has been one fantastic weekend and I'm so eager to share it with you, because it contained so much happy stuff!

First, we got to make lots of chocolate cupcakes for Joanna and Julian's wedding day. Now, who doesn't like the smell of chocolate wafting out of the oven?

Second, we got to decorate these cupcakes with books! You know how much I love books right? You might also want to check out Joanna and Julian's engagement photos. You can see how much the both of them love reading too! I actually met Joanna through publishing, she also works at a children's book publisher and is a published author. If you like fairy tales, please check out her book, Fractured: Happily Never After?

For their wedding, we made a bunch of books that were monogrammed with the letter "J." This worked out beautifully since both their names started with that letter. Here's how you can make your own fondant books:

Fondant Books

Rolled fondant

Gel paste colours

Clean toothpicks

Water

A rolling pin

A knife

Step 1: Roll fondant on your practice mat or clean work surface. Either use a small rectangle cutter or your clean knife to cut a piece of "pages."

Step 2: If you don't have coloured fondant, dip a clean toothpick into your gel paste and knead it into the fondant. Roll out the coloured fondant and lay the "pages" on top. Use your knife to trim around the three sides.

Step 3: Peel off the excess fondant.

Step 4: Gently fold the book's cover over. If your fondant isn't sticking, dab a tiny bit of water in between the cover and pages.

Step 5: Trim off the excess fondant. Make sure the cover and pages align (if that's the look you're going for).

Step 6: Have fun decorating the book! Create an indent close to the spine for that cinched look. If you have tiny alphabet stamps, emboss your cover with them. Keep them away from the sun and store them in a dry, clean area. Allow them to harden a bit to stay book stiff.

The best part is that you can customize the orientation, colour, spine, cover, and size of these books! You know I love blue and brown:

Some over-sized gift books, I even attempted a die-cut cover:

Here are some landscape books:

Can you guess the letter these cupcakes form from a bird's eye view?

Yes, the letter J!

You probably guessed by now, Joanna and Julian had a book themed wedding. Instead of table numbers, each table represented a favourite book of theirs, and the boutonnieres and bouquet were made from paper (beautiful origami work). I'll share those photos once the photographer sends them to Jo and we get permission to post them here!

ALA 2011 Annual Conference and Exhibits

Hello friends! If you're wondering why it has been a little quiet here, it's because Howard and I went away last weekend. I had a work trip for ALA's Annual Conference, and upon hearing that it would be in New Orleans this year, Howard wanted to tag along. We'll be sharing our wonderful eats soon, but for now, I wanted to share the book part of the trip first.

I had some time to explore the other exhibitors and decided to show you some old and new baking cookbooks! First up is Workman Publishing Company:

Alice Medrich's Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies was published last fall, but it still drew me in. One can always use a collective cookie cookbook! Plus, look at the books behind it:

Last year we also saw The Cake Mix Doctor Bakes Gluten-Free by Anne Byrn release (don't forget about our review of The Cake Mix Doctor Returns!).

The poster that caught my eye was Artisanal Gluten-Free Cupcakes by Kelli Bronski and Peter Bronski, this book was a very recent release.

It looks like gluten-free is getting very popular in the baking arena!

The Baking Answer Book by Lauren Chattman looked very handy. I did a quick flip-through of the book and liked the Q&A format.

I walked into Dorling Kindersley's booth and asked if there was an advance copy of Illustrated Step-by-Step Baking for me to see. Not yet as this comes out in September!

I think it'll be quite good as I like the art in The Illustrated Step-by-Step Cook. Didn't spot any other baking books, so let's visit the next booth:

The piping bag and cupcake on the cover caught my attention. The Vegan Girl's Guide to Life by Melisser Elliott. When I was snapping this photo, the gentleman working at Skyhorse Publishing also recommended I take a photo of Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky, which came out in the spring.

Walking an aisle over:

I picked up Cake Boy and was disappointed to find that it was a dummy book (the pages inside were blank). The cake on the cover looks delicious and this is scheduled to be available in October.

Macarons by Berengere Abraham has such a beautiful and soft coloured cover. Lovely photography inside as well.

Over at Chronicle Books, the charming Miette by Meg Ray. You can't see it in the photo, but this book has scalloped edges!

Like I said earlier, can't have too many cookies, here is Milk & Cookies by Tina-Marie Casaceli.

Then there was this petite gem at Random House. Not a cookbook, Pastry Paris by Susan Hochbaum is a collection of pastries photographed in Paris that parallels architecture. Quite clever and quirky!

I know I'm probably missing a whole lot of dessert-like cookbooks, but the convention was huge and I didn't get a chance to visit every booth!

I did end up buying a book (I couldn't resist), the very adorable My Milk Toof by Inhae Lee. I would recommend checking it out as ickle and Lardee do make cupcakes in one of the comic strips!

Publishers don't usually give out cookbooks, so I picked up an advance reading copy of Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler for some in-flight reading. While waiting for the plane, I saw someone reading Jonathan Dixon's Beaten, Seared, and Sauced, and well... I kind of wanted to trade. =P

Year One

Year One Giveaway Contest

And the Winner is...

Congratulations to Mike! For his entry, he said that his favourite baked creation was the nursery rhyme cupcakes.

Thank you to Avanika [YumsiliciousBakes], vandana slathia, and The Scootabaker for the comments! Thank you to our readers for entering! Finally, we must thank Anna from Hachette Book Group for Confetti Cakes for Kids and Jessica from Random House of Canada for Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes and The Whimsical Bakehouse. Our previous reviews can be found here.

Year One

Happy 1 year birthday lil blog!

Wow, time just flies.
^time^
See what we mean? Time is just soaring away in those tiny wings.

*cue montage music*
It started out as a fun weekend at our nearest Michael's store (which was not in the city we live in). We had a fantastic Wilton instructor, Antonella, who taught us all three levels of Cake Decorating. And we learned a lot about cakes, buttercream, royal icing, colour flow icing, gumpaste, and fondant. We would highly recommend taking these courses if you want to try your hand at cake decorating.

We're glad that we started this blog and we hope that you have enjoyed our baked creations! Thank you to our followers, everyone who became a fan on facebook, followed us on twitter, and added us as a contact on flickr. Most of all, thank you for all the comments and conversations! Finally, a huge thank you to all our families and friends for their support and inspirations.

Okay, we're getting the signal to end our speech... so let's move onto the fun stuff: Giveaway time! We hope you love cake/decorating cookbooks, because we're giving this awesome set away!

Bookish Treats:
Confetti Cakes for Kids
Martha Stewart's Wedding Cakes
The Whimsical Bakehouse

To enter the Year One Giveaway Contest:

1. Under this post's comments, please leave your: Name, E-mail (or some kind of reliable contact), and tell us your favourite creation from our blog or your favourite books! Easy stuff!
2. This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only - sorry International cupcake lovers! =(
3. The Year One Giveaway Contest contest is open on August 18th 2009 until August 28th 2009. Comments posted after 12 midnight EST on August 28th will not be considered.
4. The winner will be randomly chosen on August 30th 2009 and then announced on August 31st 2009 on our blog.
5. Don't forget, you are allowed 1 entry by commenting (any more than that and they will not be considered or deleted) and please leave your correct contact information! Best of luck!