Goodies Gourmet Soaps

The reason I have not blogged in so long is because I have been busy with my new business venture.  By no means does it mean I will stop baking, but a lot of my time has been occupied with designing my new website, coming up with ideas, making my product, etc.

So I guess it’s time to reveal my new venture...GOODIES GOURMET SOAPS.  Yes a soap company, I know that you are thinking, soap???  Well it’s not really that far from baking.  All of my soaps are in the shape of baked goods and sweets (cupcakes, ice cream, popsicles, donuts, etc.) and all smell absolutely amazing.  Some scents I am working with presently are: strawberry shortcake, birthday cake, baked alaska, cherries jubilee, creamsicle, bubble gum and for the fall, pumpkin pie.  

My new website isn’t fully functioning yet but I plan it to be by the end of the month.  For now I have twitter and facebook.  I just finished my first craft bazaar and have two coming up in November and December, just in time for Christmas.  Mid November I will have my full Christmas line complete.

Here are some photos for my product so far.  Please add Goodies to twitter and like on Facebook.

Thanks for your support!

Time Lapse Video - Making Ice Cream

I’m hosting a retirement party for my parents in October and the theme is going to be Oktoberfest.  My boyfriend’s (german) parents are catering the party and of course, it’s my job to make the desserts.  I have decided to go with apple strudel and black forest cupcakes.  To go with that I have decided to make two ice cream flavours.  I wanted to test drive my recipe for Vanilla Bean, Sour Cherry and Kirsch ice cream.  There is no actual recipe for this ice cream so I needed to try it out.  

The ice cream turned out great, next time a little less kirsch and it will be perfect.  My boyfriend wanted to try some camera stuff out so here is a little time-lapse video of me making the ice cream.  Check out and his other stuff at mk:photographics.  Enjoy!

Healthy Low Fat Granola

My boyfriend and I just got back from an excellent kiteboarding trip to Oliphant, Ontario.  The geography there is excellent for kiteboarding and we were lucky to have sunny skies everyday.  I decided to make some healthy granola to take on the trip to keep us going all day long.

I made some changes to the original recipe that I used.  The granola wasn’t moist enough so the granola bars turned into a bag of loose granola.  Here is the modified recipe.

2 cups quick oats

1/2 c. wheat germ

1/4 c. sesame seeds

3/4 c. unsalted sunflower seeds 

1/2 c. flaxseeds

1 c. honey

3/4 c. natural peanut butter

splash of vanilla extract

1/2 c. dried cranberries

1/4 c. raisins

1/4 c. dried blueberries (you can omit this and use any other dried fruit, these blueberries are quiet expensive) 

1/2 c. almonds

Heat peanut butter, honey and vanilla in a pot on the stove until it is fully melted.  Roast the wheat germ, oats, and all seeds in a frying pan for about 10 mins until toasted (don’t burn).  Line a baking pan with wax paper.  Toss the toasted mixture with the wet mixture in a bowl and spread in the baking pan, press down firmly into the pan.  Let sit for about 2 hours.  If the mixture doesn’t hold put it into a ziplock bag and you have granola rather than granola bars.

I mixed some of mine with vanilla yogurt and it was awesome.  It alone is awesome too!

"How to" video - Pavolva

Production budget is going up.  Well not really we’re just trying some new things out.  

This “how to” video is how to make my (new) favourite dessert pavlova.  Even my Mom who “doesn’t” like dessert love this.  

Please check out the video and let me know what you think.  Also Marc, the man behind the camera has just re-launched his photography site at www.mkphotographics.com please check that out too.  

Sweet Talk

I recently sat down with Madalina from Duh-licious.  We talked about cupcakes and what came out of it was an interview up on her blog called Sweet Talk.  Hope you will go over and check out the article.  


Note: Originally posted on August 12, 2010

Birthday Cake Ice Cream

August 2nd was my boyfriend’s 30th birthday, I had promised I’d make him a birthday cake. As I usually do I got a little sidetracked and decided instead of decorating a cake I’d use the cake in some sort of birthday ice cream. I had to think of what I’d put into a birthday cake ice cream, it really didn’t take me that long as I make cakes all the time. Frosting, sprinkles and cake, that was the easy part but I wanted to make the ice cream base a little different. My boyfriend loves sweetened condensed milk so I made the base with that.

The ice cream turned out really nice, although not enough fat content (will definitely change that for next time), I used light cream which in Ontario is 5%, I ideally didn’t want to use anything under 10% but the cream was already bought when I noticed the difference. What was my saving grace was that the frosting added a little extra creaminess.

This ice cream tastes awesome, it’s like a giant birthday party in your mouth. Here’s the recipe if you want to try it too.

1 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 cups light cream (I’d use whipping cream next time)
1 cup of pre made cake
1/2 cup buttercream frosting
2 T. sprinkles

Whisk the condensed milk and cream until it is fully mixed together. Add the liquid to your ice cream maker and follow manufacturer’s directions. With about 2 minutes left add the sprinkles. When complete add the frosting and mix throughly then mix in the cake. Transfer into an air tight container and put in freezer until the ice cream sets to your desired consistency.

Lemon Sherbet Video

Here’s my newest “how to” video.  This time I’m making Lemon Buttermilk Sherbet from David Lebovitz’s book The Perfect Scoop.  I modified the recipe by adding lemon liqueur which gives the sherbet a silkier texture.  Also I use the term sherbet and sorbet interchangeably which is wrong.  There is a difference between the two.  Sherbet has dairy in it while sorbet does not, I know this fact but seem to confuse them all the time.

Hope you enjoy the video...make sure to watch it until the end (my favourite part).