Blog Tour: All Four Stars by Tara Dairman

I'm so happy to be participating in my first blog tour for a book here! I've organized a bunch for work, so it's refreshing to be on the other side of things. And there's probably no one better to collaborate with for my first blog tour than Wendy (she's an amazing blogger - bookmark The Midnight Garden if you're looking for great reads), who is also a fellow food lover, and someone I had the pleasure of meeting at ALA recently.

Sometimes, timing is everything. My editorial director at work had an extra All Four Stars ARC from a colleague at Penguin Canada, so she gave it to me to read. Of course I devoured it and was so hungry after reading it. (I then passed the ARC to Steph at kitchen frolic - this is how word of mouth starts!) Later, reading the book blogs I follow, I find out that Wendy is hosting the blog tour. Do I sign up? YES! So here we are ladies and gentlemen.

All Four Stars
Written by Tara Dairman
Hardcover | 288 pages | Ages 8–12
ISBN 978-0-39916-252-7

All Four Stars is a fun middle-grade read for those who love food and writing - a combination of two of my favourite things. But wait, there's more! New York City, food review, desserts, grand schemes, and humour are also included.

The story revolves around Gladys Gatsby who has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven. Her fast-food-loving parents have no idea and are filled with horror when they find out. They don't know why recipes never work out for them and don't understand why people would want to cook when they can conveniently get take out. Gladys is cut off from cooking (and her allowance) until she can pay for the damages she's caused in their kitchen.

In attempts to have Gladys become more well-rounded after the kitchen accident, her parents devise a list of things she can do. It was so nice to see Gladys develop and grow in her social and school surroundings, to the point where a school assignment leads her to reviewing for one of the largest newspapers in the world. This is where the fun begins as Gladys figures out a plan to sneak into New York City, eat at the exclusive dessert restaurant, write her review, and keep her dream job a secret.

The book leaves you hungry for more so it's no surprise that there's a sequel in the works!

In honour of All Four Stars, I made some crème brûlée to celebrate. Gladys' troubles begin when she makes crème brûlée at home and loses control of the torch - revealing her secret hobby to her parents. The first time I made a classic crème brûlée, I used a tiny kitchen torch which took it's sweet time to melt the sugar. My dad walked in, took a look, and walked back out. He returned with his propane torch and suggested I use that instead. Much to afraid because it was super powerful, I declined and proceeded with my slow little kitchen torch and got scoffed at by my dad. I thought I would share that since Gladys had the opposite reaction from her dad.

This time, I wanted to try something different and made osmanthus flavoured crème brûlée. I felt that Gladys would have liked that extra ingredient.

Preheat your oven to 325°F (163°C). Place four 6-ounce ramekins in a small roasting pan or a baking dish with sides higher than your ramekins. Pour 2 cups of heavy cream into a medium saucepan and add in a teaspoon of dried osmanthus flowers. Heat the cream and occasionally stir to prevent a skin from forming on the top. When the cream starts to bubble and boil, remove it from the heat and turn off your stove. Let it cool and steep for 10 minutes.

In another bowl, whisk 6 egg yolks, 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon of salt together. Pour a third of the heavy cream into the egg yolk mixture while whisking. Continue to add the heavy cream until it is all combined.

Take the small roasting pan with the filled ramekins to your oven and set it on the oven rack. Gently pour hot water into the roasting pan - be careful not to get any into the ramekins! The water should reach about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the custard is set, it'll still be wobbly in the middle. Remove the ramekins from the roasting pan. Set it aside to cool in room temperature. Then cover and refrigerate overnight (or at least 4 hours). When your oven has cooled, carefully take out the roasting pan and pour the water out.

I wanted you to be able to see the osmanthus sprinkled throughout the crème brûlée, normally you would put the mixture through a sieve, but doing so would remove the osmanthus!

Look at that, super smooth! Sprinkle a teaspoon of granulated sugar evenly on top and set your torch on to it create that signature crunchy caramelized topping.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the All Four Stars Blog Tour! There are fantastic posts, excerpts, recipes, and giveaways at each stop.

Tuesday, July 1st: The Midnight Garden
Wednesday, July 2nd: The Reading Date
Thursday, July 3rd: For What It’s Worth
Friday, July 4th: The Spirit of Children’s Literature and me!
Monday, July 7th: Xpresso Reads
Tuesday, July 8th: For the Love of Words
Wednesday, July 9th: Finding Bliss in Books
Thursday, July 10th: Candace’s Book Blog
July 7th – 10th: Cuddlebuggery, Great Imaginations, Lone Star on a Lark, Log Cabin Library, The Hiding Spot, Fic Talk, Carina’s Books, Karen Brissette @ GoodReads, Book Jems, Sporadic Reads, and The Social Potato Reviews

Win a copy of All Four Stars!
Thanks to our friends at Putnam, we have 8 finished copies of this lovely book to give away throughout the blog tour. All you have to do is fill out the Rafflecopter form below and leave a thoughtful comment below telling us why you’re excited to read the book! Visit each stop to earn extra points, or you can also tweet, pin, etc. Open to U.S. and Canadian residents aged 18 or older, or 13 or older with parental permission. Good luck!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Giveaway copies are provided by the publisher, and photographs are courtesy of the author.

Surprise-Inside Cakes

I have been following Amanda on iambaker.net for a long time now. She has a great collection of topic-specific blogs and even prettier posts about sweet and savory confections. I couldn't wait for her book, Surprise-Inside Cakes, to release! If you were particularly fond of the tutorials she's shared on her blog like I was - Ghost Cake, BOO Cake, and the Countdown Cake, you'll enjoy this book. You can feel the patience she's giving with her clear cut instructions. I was also lucky enough to be able to connect with Amanda and ask her a few questions about the process!

Sylvia: Did anyone take a look under the dust jacket? I love that there's something special stamped on the case. How do you read the symbols stamped on the case? It is still "Surprise-Inside Cake" or "You never know what you'll get inside a cake"?

Amanda: That just depends on who is reading it! ;)

Sylvia: Okay, how many cakes did you go through to make this book? You mention baking over 50 cakes in 30 days in the acknowledgments, do you have an exact number? I am just trying to imagine all the ingredients you would have had to stock up on! How many carton of eggs, milk, and sticks of butter? How many bags of sugar? I'm not even a "number" person, but I find this fascinating!

Amanda: I made about 60 cakes all together. It was an insane amount of ingredients! I was buying flour and sugar in 25 lg. bags and running out frequently! I didn't keep track of specific numbers, but I definitely got strange looks at the grocery store! :)

Sylvia: How many attempts are required for you to be satisfied with the surprise inside? Do you do a lot of trial-and-error or at the level you are now, are you able to hit it bang on during your first attempt? Was there a cake design in the book that required more than a few tries before you were happy with it?

Amanda: Since I had a short timeline for the book, I would often think of a cake and then make it. If the design was awful and unrecognizable, it didn't make it in the book! Some of the cakes we left in are rough-around-the-edges, but I left them in for sentimental reasons or for inspiration.

Sylvia: You take beautiful photos for you blog, I was a bit surprised to see that you didn't take them for the book. How was it working with Susan Powers?

Amanda: Susan is so talented and added a level of sophistication for the book that I greatly lacked.

Sylvia: I have to say, I loved reading each cake introduction, you have a great personality that shines through and you're thoughtful in each of your cake dedications. In response to your Kiss Cake and also being from Canada, I would love to see a maple leaf inside a cake! I do hope you'll try it soon! The one about Beth Moore made me laugh, so often we think BFFs are made through cake!

Amanda: Thank you! I am now starting to work with twice-baked cakes and could easily do a leaf now! Will hopefully blog that soon! :)

Sylvia: Is there a second book in the works?

Amanda: Nope! No second book right now.

Sylvia: Okay, last one! Favorite dessert in the whole wide world?

Amanda: Mr. Donut donuts with frosting inside and powdered sugar outside. I haven't seen a Mr. Donut in 15 years… how I long for those delectable treats!

My favourite design in the book is the Herringbone Cake. To my dismay, it's the most difficult one by Amanda's standard. So I'm just going to bookmark this until I reach the expert level to attempt it!

Rudolph!

Bunny! I seem to be drawn to all the animal cakes.

Now for the fun part, if you want this cook to bee yours (see what I did there?), enter by leaving a comment below telling me what design you'd like to find in a surprise-inside cake. North American mailing address only and giveaway ends on April 8, 2014 at midnight EST. Please leave me a way of contacting you (e-mail address, twitter handle, etc.), otherwise, check back when the winners are announced!

Disclaimer: A copy of Surprise-Inside Cakes by Amanda Rettke was sent to us for review. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of this book. All opinions are our own.

Looking Back: 2013

Happy New Year!

Better late than never? Yes, I think so. Although we can technically say we're still celebrating the Lunar New Year (thank goodness there's two back-to-back new years for us).

2013 was a big year. Howard and I hit a lot of milestones and took many first steps together in our relationship. Normally, we would each share our top picks from the year, but since we had so many great ones, we thought we should share them together!

Chronologically speaking, 2013 started off great. As per tradition, we counted down with close friends and went out to try someplace new. Sure, the food wasn't great and the drunken atmosphere wasn't our scene, but we had fun that night! There were many Winterlicious experiences and dinner parties. Weeks passed and our close friends all introduced new additions to their family and to our group. These bundles of joy have cheered us up and we applauded them on their many small achievements (smiling, laughing, being able to hold Sophie the giraffe, flipping, sitting, and now they're moving from milk to other foods) throughout the months. What's more, Howard and I were blessed to be named godparents!

The summer went by in a blink and we continued our Summerlicious lunches and dinners. We finally went looking for a home and were taught many tough lessons from the real estate business. No such luck as we looked at tiny units after tiny units. How do people find affordable housing out there?

Autumn meant we would be embarking on our annual road trip to New York City. This year, we went on a macaron tour and feasted on some great desserts. Then, (even though I suspected it) Howard moved us into our next big step in our relationship by proposing in Central Park. Eeeee! Sparkly! Also during this trip, we found new favourite restaurants: Mile End Deli and Missions Chinese Food.

Back home, we answered many unanswerable questions about our upcoming wedding (which we still haven't started planning!) and continued our search for a place we could call home. Ladies and gentlemen, it did happen. We finally came across a place that we liked. Rushed to get a mortgage approved. Started looking for furniture and dreamed about future upgrades. Got our keys on the closing date. Cleaned the place from top to bottom. Waited for power to be restored and ice storms to pass. Settled disputes about parking spots, range microwaves, and cracked toilet tanks. S-l-o-w-l-y started to move in.

Tips for buying a home. Get a good real estate agent. You'll have many, many questions about the process and they should be able to answer everything to your satisfaction. Get pre-approved for a mortgage first. We were in no rush to buy and was casually looking at listings that we thought we would like, but when it came time to finalize the offer, you'll want that mortgage ready! Check and double check for anything that may need to be fixed or replaced before closing. Use your viewings and visits wisely. Get a good lawyer!!! We found our lawyer to be terrible at communicating with us and answering questions - they didn't seem to understand that first-time buyers need clarification sometimes!

So as you can see, we managed to keep ourselves busy from December to January. Sorry for the silence and lack of posts here! But so many great things have happened and we couldn't have done this without the support of our family and friends. Seriously. We want to thank everyone for their housewarming gifts and even tokens of congratulations for our engagement and new place.

Some of you may know this, but as a baker, I rarely cook! We are slowly learning our way around a new kitchen and learning new things about making savoury food. Roasted cauliflower - I like. Spaghetti sauce that lasts us a week - I'm on the fence. Pork cutlets - I love. Flank steak and salad - I love. Frozen lasagna for lunch - I try to avoid.

So in addition to baked goods, if we find something that works, that tastes great, and is easy to make, we'll be sharing it here with you.

I peeled string off beans for the first time last month and was so proud that I took a photo. Now you understand the level of noob I am at cooking. Heck, the first few weeks after we officially moved in, it took me almost two hours to get dinner ready. By the time we cleaned up and was ready for bed, it was way past my bed time. I think we're getting better are preparing quicker meals and packing lunches, it just takes practice and experience!

Sprinkles in the Southwest Giveaway
In efforts to keep the New Year joy going, I'm also hosting a giveaway for two cookbooks written by two fellow bloggers. One sweet and one savoury. Let me know in the comments below which one you'd like to win before midnight on Sunday, February 23, 2014. US and Canada only (sorry international friends).

Sprinkles! Recipes and Ideas for Rainbowlicious Desserts by Jackie Alpers

OR

The New Southwest by Meagan Micozzi

UPDATE: Congratulations to Stephanie, winner of The New Southwest. Congratulations to Dominique, winner of Sprinkles! Please check your inbox for an e-mail from me.

Martha Stewart's Cakes

Remember the books that started it all? Martha Stewart's Cookies, Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, and Martha Stewart's Pies & Tarts. Well guess what? There's now Martha Stewart's Cakes, a collection of loaves, bundts and tube cakes, coffee cakes, single layer cakes, cheesecakes, icebox cakes, and layer cakes.

My colleagues at work wanted to celebrate the release of this new book and asked Barb from Two Enjoy Cake and I to bake a little something for the office. So armed with advance copies of the book (swoon!), we did some baking on the weekend.

I ended up choosing the Vanilla Layer Cake (page 283) because I've already tried the One Bowl Chocolate Cake (twice), a variation of the Chiffon Cake, and a variation of the Pineapple Upside-Down Cake. So let's start with the basics!

Vanilla Layer Cake
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cakes
(Makes a 3-layer six-inch cake, or a 2-layer eight-inch cake)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line your cake plans with parchment paper.
2. Using a stand mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and sugar until combined, about 1 to 2 minutes.
3. Add in the eggs and beat until it's well incorporated, it'll look smooth and fluffy.
4. Add in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined.
5. Add milk and vanilla extract and mix until smooth.
6. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. I like to smooth out the top of the batters but create a little well or dip in the middle because the cake will rise higher there.
7. Bake for 35 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Cool for 15 minutes and turn cakes out on a wire rack to cool completely.

See the little dome? This is normal! Don't fret, as you can level the tops.

I don't like leveling. But it has to be done! Slice the tops off carefully and trim off any excess to make sure each layer is even. Next, the recipe calls for a creamy vanilla frosting.

Creamy Vanilla Frosting
Recipe from Martha Stewart's Cakes
(Makes about 3 3/4 cups)

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
5 cups confectioner's sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Using a stand mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium-high speed for about a minute until it's creamy.
2. Reduce the speed and add in the confectioner's sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Slowly add in the milk and vanilla extract. Beat until smooth for about two minutes.

I like to pipe my fillings on to create an even layer, but you can always spoon it on and flatten it with a spatula.

Cover the top and sides with a light coat of frosting. Place the cake in the fridge for 15-30 minutes. This helps seal in all the crumbs. Later, warm up the leftover frosting by giving it a good mix and then plop it on top of the cake. Use a spatula to evenly cover the cake.

This step was extra and isn't in the book, but I couldn't help myself. I love vanilla and chocolate combinations. I mixed up a quick chocolate ganache (semi-sweet chocolate + milk) and glazed it over the cake. This is also known as Sylvia-can't-create-smooth-frosting-sides-and-needs-to-hide-it.

One more shot. There's no such thing as too many chocolate-dripping photos.

You know your office loves cake when there are cake stands available (I didn't have to bring one in). I also made a little bunting out of wooden skewers, string, and printed Avery labels for our friends at Crave. Barb, who makes fabulous treats on Two Enjoy Cake, made Martha Stewart's Double-Chocolate Cake (page 296).

After the obligatory photos (see the behind-the-scene photo here), the team dug into Barb's cake.

Camera phones are a staple for blogging. We had to take photos of the interior!

Here's mine! Those chocolate crispy pearls don't stay still. Next time I'll have to gently nudge them into the ganache.

GIVEAWAY
Thank you for reading all the way to the end here! To reward you, we're giving away three copies of Martha Stewart's Cakes here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

• The giveaway contest is open from Tuesday, September 24, 2013 until Sunday, October 6, 2013. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Sunday, October 6, 2013 will not be considered.
• To enter, leave a comment below telling me which flavour your prefer: vanilla or chocolate?
• Three winners will be randomly chosen and announced here on A Baked Creation. 
• This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A.

UPDATE: Congratulations to Stephanie, Monica H, and another Steph! You will each be receiving a copy of Martha Stewart's Cakes.

Disclaimer: I was given a copy of Martha Stewart's Cakes by a colleague at work. The three giveaway copies are also sponsored by Random House of Canada Limited.

ACE Bakery's Best Sandwich Contest

Hi friends! We just wanted to let you know about Canada's Best Sandwich Contest, hosted by ACE Bakery, Bob Blumer, and food blogger, Julie Van Rosendaal of Dinner with Julie. They're searching coast-to-coast for the country's best sandwich recipe! If you have one or would like to make one up, it's super easy to enter. Make your sandwich, snap a photo of it (totally optional), and submit it here. That's all. And you could win the grand prize!

Canada’s Best Sandwich Contest: 20th Anniversary Edition will be accepting recipes on the ACE Bakery website from now through September 24, 2013. Each entry will then be reviewed by Bob Blumer, Julie Van Rosendaal, and ACE Bakery, and scored based on their taste appeal, creativity, innovation and originality.

On October 7, one regional finalist from Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland) will be announced. Each regional winner will be awarded a $1,000 cash prize, as well as a $1,000 donation to their charity of choice.

The regional winners will then be invited to Toronto to participate in a Sandwich Showdown on October 17, where they will prepare their own recipes. Bob Blumer, Julie Van Rosendaal, and Marcus Mariathas (ACE’s Master Baker) will judge the final creations and decide on the winning recipe. The creator of the winning recipe will be awarded an additional $20,000 – $10,000 cash prize to take home and $10,000 to donate to their charity of choice. Sounds good to me!

As a little nudge and inspiration for you to enter the contest, the lovely folks at ACE Bakery are also sponsoring a $100 gift basket of ACE Bakery products! Enter using the Rafflecopter embedded below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Giveaway:
- ACE Bakery will ship the prize directly to the winner.
- Only open to residents of Canada.
- The giveaway ends on September 29, 2013 at midnight.
- Winner will be contacted by email 48 hours after the giveaway ends.
- If you have any additional questions - feel free to send us an email!

Looking Back: 2012

Happy New Year! We hope you had a fantastic night, whether you were out celebrating, on your couch by the fireplace, or under the covers and asleep already.

There's always something nice about waking up to a new year, even though there isn't anything really different. I guess it's just the feeling. But it's nice, it does feel like a fresh start, even if it's all imagined in my head! It's the same feeling I get when I wake up on my birthday. Regardless, here's two of my favourite blog activities, looking back at some of the year's highlights and hosting a giveaway!

Howard's Top Highlights:

Lemon Macarons: When it comes to desserts I always prefer citrus flavour profiles, so these were extra delicious.

Mille Crêpes Cake: My favourite birthday cake ever. Also brought back a "look what the cat dragged in" memory Sylvia and I shared while we were in NYC on a rainy day the previous year. Fun times!

Chelsea Market: Food market! What else is there to say?

Dreams of Sushi: I'm salivating while dreaming of eating sushi made by Jiro. Doc, what should I do??

Pok Pok: I can't say I had fun getting to this gem, tired and wet after a long day of shopping. But I can say it was definitely worth the trip. Also, now I know how their recipe is supposed to taste. Attempt number three, here I come.

Sylvia's Top Highlights:

Um, my latest obsession with MACARONS! Chocolate filled macarons, lemon macarons, snowmen, festive macarons, and matcha macarons. I'm so happy to have had some success in making these temperamental cookies.

Decorating cupcakes to the theme of Jon Klassen's award-winning pictures books. I had an amazing palette of colours and characters to work with and seeing everyone's expressions when they saw the cupcakes was easily one of the highlights of my year.

Gosh, it was a really good year. 2013 is going to have a tough time topping this. I got to attend an event for Thomas Keller. I got to have brunch with Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen. I even got to collaborate with some amazing kitchen and food brands this year. And even received a feature in Today's Parent magazine!

Making easy peasy pizza! I must have held a few D.I.Y. pizza parties all thanks to this recipe.

Well, I also found out that flan wasn't hard to make. So I made a bunch and luckily it's one of my parent's favourite desserts.

That pretty much sums the year up! We missed doing this in 2010, but if you want to look back with us, we did it for 2008, 2009, and 2011.

So now that it's a new year, we have to see what amazing cookbooks are missing from our wishlist. If you didn't receive these under your tree, in your stocking, or through a secret Santa exchange, you're in luck! We're giving away the following cookbooks:

Giveaway Regulations and Conditions:

• The New Year Giveaway is open from Tuesday, January 1, 2013 to Sunday, January 13, 2013. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Sunday, January 13, 2013 will not be considered.
• There is one main way to enter: by commenting on this post. There are also some bonus entries in instructions #2-6:

1. Post in the comment section below: I want to spend my new year reading ______________. (Fill in the blank with one of these titles: La Tartine Gourmande, One Girl Cookies, or The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook)
2. To enter via Twitter, tweet: @abakedcreation I want to spend my new year reading ______________. (Fill in the blank with the title you would like to win.)
3. To enter via Facebook, post on our wall: I want to spend my new year reading ______________. (Fill in the blank with the title you would like to win.)
4. Follow us on Pinterest, let us know who you are in the comments below.
5. Follow us on Instagram, let us know who you are in the comments below.
6. If you're already following us on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram, just mention it in the comments for bonus entries!

• Please leave a way for us to contact you (e-mail addresses or social media handles).
• 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 three different winners, one for each book.

Best of luck!

UPDATE: Giveaway is now closed. Thank you to those who entered!
Congratulations to Amanda for winning a copy of One Girl Cookies!
Congratulations to Rebecca for winning a copy of The Cookie Dough Lover's Cookbook!
Congratulations to Carmen for winning a copy of La Tartine Gourmande!
Happy reading and cooking everyone!

Blogger Brunch with Smitten Kitchen

How many of you would wake up early on a Saturday morning and head into your office?
I'm guessing there's no show of hands.

But what if I told you that brunch would be served and you would get to meet Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen? And it wouldn't just be a meet-and-greet, you would get to have brunch with her, ask her any question, and have a copy of her cookbook signed? Yes, that early morning is starting to look enticing....

I was one of the lucky handful of bloggers invited to a brunch at Random House of Canada Limited. Even though I work there, I was sent an official invitation to attend as a blogger! Trust me, I was over the moon when I received it and quickly RSVPed with fan girl enthusiasm.

I had both my work and guest hats on. Before the day of the brunch, my colleague asked me to make some Smitten Kitchen items from the cookbook. We each called dibs on a recipe, made it, and brought it in for the brunch buffet.

This was truly a Smitten Kitchen brunch! And when you're with bloggers, you know that no one is touching the food until photos were taken.

Monique from the production department made these amazing Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns. Who doesn't like cheese? Who doesn't like swirl buns? As Deb writes on page 49 of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, these "are dangerous, dangerous buns."

I agree, they are highly addictive.

Mike from sales really outshone us all with Mom's Apple Cake (page 239 of the cookbook). The cake was delicious and I probably could have eaten a couple more slices.

Our incredible host and organize, Lindsey, of the online marketing department treated us with Big Cluster Maple Granola (page 26).

Poor Deb! I don't think she got many bites in during all the conversations: we learn which appliances are kept in her tiny kitchen - just four major ones: a food processor, a stand mixer, a blender, and an emulsion blender. It's all about priorities when there's limited space! She recounts that she did not like Brussel sprouts as a child, but has grown to love them now. However, she still doesn't eat fish! And her favourite brunch dishes were all the ones we made. ;)

After we had our fill of the food, Deb was busy signing copies of her book for us!

Deb and Syl! Yay!!!

I would be wrong not to thank my fellow colleagues who also took time out of their busy weekends for this event. Many thanks to Lindsey, Monique, Sheila, and Michael for planning, organizing, and hosting such a lovely brunch.

Are you wondering what I made for the blogger brunch? Brownie Roll-Out Cookies (page 210 of the cookbook)!

They are ridiculously easy to make. The dough is so pliable and easy to work with and great at holding their shape after you cut them.

It's no secret, but these make such good ice-cream sandwich cookies! So if you're looking to make your own at home, make these cookies! They're soft and chewy and are great milk-dunking cookies.

The best part was when Deb saw them, asked who made them, and was overjoyed that they were similar in shape to her's. Then she proceeded to snap a photo, which I captured. I'm such a dork.

Oh, one more thing. I don't know if you're interested, but I have a signed copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook to give away. Interested in winning it?

Giveaway contest regulations and conditions:

• The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook giveaway contest is open on Sunday, November 18, 2012 until Sunday, November 25, 2012. Entries submitted after 12 midnight EST on Sunday, November 25, 2012 will not be considered.
• To enter, leave a comment below telling me which Smitten Kitchen recipe you would like to make.
• A winner will be randomly chosen and announced here on A Baked Creation.
• Please leave an e-mail address or twitter handle, in the case that you are the winner, we will be able to contact you.
• This contest is available to residents of Canada and the U.S.A. only!
• There will be one winner. The winner will be chosen in a random draw. The winner will receive a signed copy of The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman. If the winner does not respond with an adequate mailing address in a week, their prize is forfeited and a new winner will be chosen. Best of luck!
• UPDATE: A winner has been chosen and contacted. Congratulations to Stephanie! Thank you to everyone who entered our giveaway!