Blogging and Baking

I can't believe I have just one more day of work (with my day job) and then the summer is mine to create, craft, and of course..bake!  I love baking but I have to be in the mood for it or creatively motivated.  In this case I am being creatively motivated to do a lot of baking for my Uncle's 60th birthday party on Saturday.  I love my uncle Doug and I'm happy to contribute however I can to making his party a success and in this case that means baking up a storm over the next couple of days! 

I've been spending the last few days getting my baker's "hat" on, figuratively speaking, and trying to figure out what's best to bake, what I should store it in, where will I store it, and again..what to bake?!  I am one of those people that, before I do anything, I have to be mentally and physically prepared to complete the project from start to finish.  On the upside this makes me a great multitasker, but on the down side..I am one hell of a procrastinator too!  I should have started my baking process on Sunday but here it is Wednesday and I'm just getting started..but that's okay, I work well under pressure!

Anyhow, I thought I would share with you one of the yummy ideas I'm planning on making.  I've only made these once and I'm still amazed by how well they turned out the first time.  I'm crossing my fingers they will turn out just as well, if not better, the second time around.

French Macarons!  I'll include the link for the recipe at the end of this post if anyone else wants to try them. 

 A few tips I will note, as I learned from my mistakes the first time around..1) make sure you have a good mixer or hand blender for when you are making the meringue.  My mixer does not do well with small amounts so I was pretty much just stirring around the egg whites instead of whipping them and it took me 10 minutes to whip them by hand. 2)  The recipe says to use paste food colouring and I highly recommend this..I used regular food colouring and while the cookies still looked okay and tasted just as good..as you can see by my photo - the colours came out more pastel than bright!

 I made sure I understood the directions well before I started and that I had the right baking tools on hand.  It paid off to be prepared, because in the end the recipe is actually very simple to make, as long as you are using the right equipment.  For example, I made sure I had a good sieve for sifting the icing sugar and ground almonds..it made it so the cookie batter was nice and smooth.

Also it is very important to let the cookies dry before baking and to make sure you adjust the heat as directed on the recipe so you don't burn your cookies and so they are able to rise properly and develop the 'claws' on the bottom of each cap.

I'll post pics soon of my second attempt, unfortunately I won't be able to let you taste test them..but I can do that for you :)  hehehe.  Just teasing..here's the link for the website where I got the recipe (Giver's Log).  I'm very happy to send more people to this blog..it's got some fabulours DIY ideas!!  http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1089

Have a great day!