Happy Mother's Day

Mom, I look up to you everyday. - Sylvia

Happy Mommy's Day. - Howard

Amish Soft Pretzels

This past weekend, our friend Julia (you met her here) came to visit. She had moved back from China and is looking to start a career in Toronto. On Saturday morning, while I was making us pancakes for breakfast, I noticed an egg sticking to the carton. We thought it was cracked, but only when we took it out did it break!

I had already used the egg I needed for pancakes, so instead of wasting this extra egg, my mom decided to make pretzels.

She had clipped this recipe from the Toronto Star and stuck it on our fridge:

It is pretty simple recipe, but instead of bread flour, we used all-purpose flour.

Don't they look cute? We also decided to add a little sweetness by sprinkling cinnamon sugar on top:

Ready for the oven:

Mmm, I love the texture of the pretzel:

Happy Mother's Day!

We love our moms very much!

As a special treat, I woke up early to bake banana cupcakes for my mom. She does not have a big sweet tooth like me, so no buttercream! In fact, I only added caramel to 6 of the cupcakes and chocolate ganache to 5 of them. The rest of the cupcakes are plain, just the way she likes them!

Above image: The original recipe is the banana-chocolate chip cake from Alisa Huntsman and Peter Wynne's Sky High cookbook. Just to let you know, I did not fold in chocolate chips in our cupcakes and omitted a few things that I did not have. But the end result was still soft, moist, and delicious!

Banana Cupcakes
Recipe adapted from Sky High: Irresistible Triple-Layer Cakes
(Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes)

2 1/4 cups of cake flour
1 1/3 cups of sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons of baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup of mashed ripe bananas
3 eggs
3/4 cup of milk
1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and have your cupcake liners ready.
2. Mix the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt for about 1 minute.
3. Add the mashed bananas and butter. Beat until well blended on medium for about 3 minutes.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, and vanilla together. Slowly add this mixture to the batter.
5. Scoop the batter into your cupcake liners and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.
6. Cool and garnish with caramel, chocolate ganache, whipped cream, or sliced bananas.

Thank you mom for always reminding us to:

• Drink more water!
• Go to bed early!
• Eat more vegetables!
• Wear warmer jacket!