Sweets

Bee pollen cupcakes with jam.

June 24, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

The jam part of this recipe is quite simple. I had mulberries in my freezer that I mixed with cane sugar and brought the mixture to a boil. After a few minutes, the berries starts to fall apart and the jam appears. Since they have a LOT of annoying little seeds, after blending the mixture even more (I used the trust worthy hand blender for that) I’ve strained it to remove them. What’s left is more like a coulis than an actual jam but it doesn’t matter because it’s delicious.

You may use any other types of berries or fruits as long as they have a little tartness to them. That little tartness will be balancing the sugar of the bee pollen which is the star of today’s recipe.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than ever before, I’m mostly buying local produces or at least as much as possible. Intermiel was the first local company I happily gave my support to as they were so generous with me in the past and still always repost my instagram stories. Beside being total sweethearts, I like knowing my money goes to passionate people which is exactly how this apiculture company started.

Today’s bee pollen cupcakes were my way to celebrate receiving my second online order from them and the recipe was created from another recipe for vanilla cupcakes made for a friend a few weeks ago. If you remove the bee pollen of this recipe, they stand great on their own as well without being too sweet. The original recipe was topped with diplomat cream which you can image is sweet enough.

On this have a wonderful day and hope you enjoy this recipe.

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Carrot cake with cream cheese butter cream

April 20, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

My nephew’s first ever birthday cake. <3

Such an honour to have had the chance to make this for this little boy starting his life in quarantine. No worries, he’s good and well surrounded plus, he liked the cake and the frosting so it’s confirmed: he’s also pretty cool.

Cakes aren’t something I dare to make often, for obvious reasons. Luckily this delicious experience turned out to be perfectly moist and, just as I hoped, with a strong flavour of cinnamon and a touch of sweet nutmeg. You can manually grate the carrots for this but, my personal favorite will be to use the hand blender. The icing is not fully solid, nor too drippy either so it’s easy to spread and won’t fall everywhere as it sits in the fridge for a few hours. Without being too sweet, it’s a definitely noticed added sweetest that balances all the strong and subtle flavours of the cake which I hope you will enjoy.

Another important trick to remember is to FOLD the dry ingredients in to the wet ones. As we want a crumbly texture in result, the goal is to avoid the flour having time to build too much gluten which would create a more elastic texture once baked. Gluten development happens when we over mix the batter like when we make bread. As when we want to make a batch of perfectly crumbly muffins, making cake isn’t much different.

Oh and guess what?? You make this beauty a good day in advance and keep it in the fridge overnight until you’re almost ready to serve. For top notch results, leave it outside of the fridge for 30 minutes before serving.

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Hot Chocolate mix, gluten free brownies

March 25, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

The end texture of the mixed almond flour and chickpea flour is INCREDIBLE.

Soft, almost melt in your mouth but still a bit chewy and cakey at the same time. The idea was to make a worthy chocolate afternoon binge while using a minimum amount of ressources as we all know what’s happening in the world today. Since this new reality, my cooking has switched a bit and is focussing even more on managing waste and using limited produce to create delicious meals and snacks. Follow me on Instagram, if you’re not already, to see what I come out with almost every day.

When coming up with this recipe, I remember looking at the thin choice of chocolate snacks in the pantry. Truth to be told, I try not to have chocolate in the house because I’m too immature for that and ALWAYS end up eating almost all in one sitting. People that are close to be know that I still prefer a fruit tart over a chocolate cake but it’s hard to say no when it comes to brownies.

Also because eating too much high in gluten ingredients hurt my stomach a little, it’s been fun to experiment with gluten free baking. This recipe is a great success, hope you get to try it.

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Honey & raspberries cheese cakes

February 20, 2020 by Ariel 1 Comment

The idea here was to make individual cakes that weren’t too sweet but just enough to balance the tartness of the raspberries. You can absolutely change the topping for any other berries or fruits you might prefer. The final texture is a mix between a regular cake, a sponge cake and a cheese cake.

I dare you to try to eat only one.

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Week day wholewheat carrot muffins

February 3, 2020 by Ariel Leave a Comment

There’s a few snacks out there that reminds me of my childhood and carrot muffins is one of them. Fight me on this but, the best way to enjoy them is warmed up with soft salted butter. This is a much lighter version of the classic carrot muffin of my childhood because, let’s face it, there was probably a ton of oil in those. Nonetheless they are perfect for the lunch box and the recipe gives exactly five beautiful muffins for each day of the work week. For those afternoon snacks at the office when you’re craving something sweet without gaining a million pounds.

Since the final sugary taste is noticeable but not overpowering, they would be amazing with a sugary cream cheese glaze but, that would make them super caloric and let’s reserve those for the weekend.

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Peaches & olive oil skillet upside down cake

July 29, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This was a fun little Saturday experiment.

An easy and delicious peach & olive oil skillet cake that gives an interesting rustic feels, like something your grand mother would have made and put on the table. I’ve debated serving it inside the skillet itself but it looks so much better reversed in the plate. The cake batter comes out very light as airy while the subtle yet noticeable aroma of the olive oil is a wonderful pairing with the peaches and the brown sugar.

Hope you get to try this.

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Poor man’s pudding (Pudding Chômeur)

June 27, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This recipe got a decent amount of attention on Twitch because not only it’s super delicious… it’s also super easy to make.

Pudding chômeur (direct translation – poor man’s pudding) is a French Canadian classic dessert our grand mothers used to make in the Spring when the maple trees are dripping down their delicious sap to make maple syrup. You can absolutely substitute the maple syrup for a more basic sugary syrup, if you don’t have any but, I don’t think you can call it “pudding chômeur” if you do that. Neitherless to say, it will come out delicious for sure and I really hope you get to try this.

Are you a sugar bug? …because if you are, this recipe is for you!

Got hyperactive kids at home? …this might be the last thing you should be feeding them XD

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Apple & ginger crumble

June 27, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

This is actually a pretty easy recipe. Although, when I first made it on Twitch, it wasn’t optimal. There was not enough fruit to crumble ratio but the result became some delicious “cereal” that kept me well fed and happy for the few days after the stream. Yesterday, I made it again to tweak the recipe and take photos. The result is a wonderful dessert that I’m eating with a spoon as we speak!

Hope you get to try it and if even if you’re not a fan of apples or ginger, you can make it with pretty much any fruits you like. This is the kind of easy going recipe that you’ll learn to love because the possibilities are endless.

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Spiced, gooey brownies with candied ginger

April 1, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

Ohhhhh snap. These are the good ones.

When I first made this recipe, a few week ends ago, my bestie and I added a little secret ingredient to make them “magical” and then we went on this crazy adventure all around Montreal. Allow me to be dead honest, some parts of this adventure is a little blurry today but overall we had a blast and I’ll forever cherish this memory. Today, I’m offering you the updated, upgraded and non magical version of this delicious creation which I hope you’ll love as much as I do.

The recipe doesn’t make that many brownies and can easily be a serving for one. I used a much smaller pan (6″ x 8″) to make sure they are thick enough so all the gooeyness shines through. It’s also my fifth time tweaking this recipe (my friends are drowning in brownies from all the previous batches as it would have been impossible for me to eat everything) to make sure they are banging and I really think they are!

If you’re a fan of decadence and gooeyness, you got to try this recipe. Enjoy!

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Angel food cake

March 20, 2019 by Ariel Leave a Comment

It took me a little time to tweak this one even if it’s a very simple recipe. Most of everything found out there (I thought) uses way too many egg whites and since I live alone, the last thing I wanted was to end up having to eat a huge cake on my own. Not that I wouldn’t be able to eat it in full but, this where I have to draw the line at being a solitary foodie.

So this recipe only uses 6 egg whites and make a much smaller cake which is perfect if you live alone and/or you just don’t like to share your food (like Joey from Friends). The most important aspect of this preparation is to make sure you start with stiff peaks when whisking your egg whites AND that you take your time to fold the flour/powdered sugar mix in to the egg whites. After this, you’re pretty much set and you’ll soon have a deliciously fluffy sponge cake to devour.

Growing up, this cake has always been my all time favourite and if I had known how easy it was to make it, I would have stopped buying the pre-made ones at the grocery full of bad ingredients. Everything is always better when it’s homemade so don’t get too intimidated by the procedure, it’s really not that complexed.

Angel food cake

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

Author: ZestyandSpicy.com

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 1 cake

Ingredients

Bowl 1
- ½ cup of all purpose flour, sifted
- ½ cup of powdered sugar, sifted
Bowl 2
- 6 room temperature egg whites
- ½ cup of regular cane sugar
- ½ teaspoon of cream of tartar
- Pinch of fine sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon of almond extract

Instructions

- Pre-heat the oven at 350, DO NOT GREASE the tube pan.
- Sift all the ingredients of the bowl #1, reserve.
- Mix in the egg whites the cream of tartar, both extracts, salt and a bit of the sugar and start whisking with an electric mixer. Gradually add more cane sugar while mixing on the fastest level until the full ½ cup if incorporated and you end up with STIFF PEAKS.
- Take the flour/powdered sugar mix from the bowl #1 and VERY SLOWLY FOLD IT in to the egg whites. Take your time on this step, if you go too fast, the cake won't rise as much as it should.
- Transfer the batter in to the UNGREASED mold, smooth the top and put in the oven for 45minutes.
- Cool down the cake upside down on a cooling rack and gently unmold once it's fully cooled down.