Maple Fudge Brownies

Happy Canada Day!

Okay, it’s a bit early — but I’ve always kind of failed to see the reasoning behind posting a celebratory occasion recipe the day-of, simply because it doesn’t really give anyone time to actually make it, right?

Anyways, I love being Canadian.

I really dig where I live, despite the deary weather, high taxes, and reputation for overbearing politeness (we’re not all that polite to each other, really).

Can you believe that we’re among the top 10 most patriotic countries in the world? I guess a lot of us are flag-wavers after all!

I have this American friend who makes a hobby out of telling me all about how inferior Canada is all the time (it’s amazing to see how Canadian patriotism makes Americans bristle — oh, but guess who’s first on that list of most patriotic countries in the world?), but you can’t beat our poutine, our Timmy’s, or our insane penchant for busting windows and setting police cars on fire when one of our teams loses a Stanley Cup Final.

Yeeeah. About that last one… Canadians drink a lot of beer — that’s all I’ve gotta say that.

So, in honor of tomorrow being Canada Day, I bring to you my special “How Canadian Are You?” quiz! Let’s test your cultural knowledge!

Nutella Zebra Bundt

Any excuse to eat Nutella is a good excuse to eat Nutella.

Nutella reminds me of my childhood, but not entirely in a good way. I mean, when you’re a kid, you’ll eat nearly anything and proper food sanitation is the last thing on your mind, right?

Right?

So, it’s a good thing that high concentrations of sugar are a natural preservative and that kids have iron stomachs, otherwise I probably would’ve died from eating all the candy I dropped in the dirt, lunches I left sitting in the sun, snacks I shared with the dog, and open juice I’d leave out of the fridge.

My grossest 11-year-old food habit, though — hands down — was slowly drinking, all week long, from the same bottle of cola that I’d leave sitting on my bedside table, warm and going flat.

My sister’s grossest 11-year-old food habit — hands down — was slowly eating Nutella, all week long, from a jar she stashed in her bookcase, spoon left standing at attention in its silky folds of nutpaste.

Ahaha!

If you still have your appetite, read on!

I’m sure we’ve all got a few gross stories like that from our childhood.

How and when I stumbled across this zebra bundt recipe has been long forgotten — I saw it, I really liked it, I bookmarked it, then I came back to it months later and really liked it all over again.

The zebra stripes were particularly striking, and I like big bundts and I cannot lie!

Some people say they enjoy bundt cakes more than other types of cakes because of the low frosting-to-cake ratio — this is why bundts are great for those of you who scrape the icing off their cakes before eating it.

Of course, as a frosting-lover, I find that kind of behavior blasphemous, but, hey — I used to drink stale cola all the time, so I can’t judge.

Red Wine Chocolate Truffle Cake

Now that I go to pastry school, there are a few irrevocable things I have to accept about my life.

1. I will never have nice nails or smooth hands ever again.

2. My definition of “sleeping in” means waking up between 7 and 8 in the morning.

3. Every job I ever have will require me to wear an apron.

4. Sugar. Sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar sugar!

Actually, I don’t mind that last one. I love sugar. I swear I don’t care if I get a million cavities or diabetes — my mom used to tell me, “When you get older, you’ll find that you just don’t like sweet things as much as you do now!”

Uh, yeeeah — that has yet to happen (and it’s never gonna happen)!

In fact, I think my next piece of ink will be a sucrose molecule on my shoulder blade.

Although my life is currently in some serious transition — and rife with all the stress and anxiety that accompanies maturation and change — some things will always stay the same.

Oh, and speaking of mature: it’s what this red wine chocolate truffle cake is all about.

It’s got a rich and dense brownie-like crumb, but enough spice and complexity to satisfy your inner adult.

Cocoa-Kissed Road Trip Cookies

By the time you read this, I’ll be on the road!

Up to the land of perfect summer, The Okanagan — sunshine and orchards and wineries, oh my!

Since I’m always the self-designated Head of Everything Sweet and Snacky, it’s only natural for me to feel that no road trip could ever possibly be complete without some kind of baked treats in tow.

Originally I made these for a coworker to take on her cross-BC road trip (she doesn’t know how to bake, but she wanted her 14-year-old son to have something special to munch on for his birthday) and they turned out too good to not make again.

I love it when that happens!

Anyways, these cookies are a little chewy, a little chocolatey, and a little sweet — and they’re full of oats to keep ’em softer for longer, too.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

When I started to think about content post for today, I did a little math in my head and realized that this would not be the 1st, 2nd, or even the 3rd post in which I mention how much of a hate-on I have for raisins.

Geez. I just did a search on my own site and found that this post won’t even be the 4th.

Maybe it’s about time I either just stop ranting about the evils of raisins, or just eat a handful of raisins already.

Actually, I did kinda-sorta-maybe-accidentally-on-purpose eat a raisin the other day.

For serious.

Bouchon Bakery, Bouchon Recipe

When I went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago, I made a point of visiting the famous Bouchon Bakery.

It’s located on the bottom floor of the Venetian on The Strip — it took quite a bit of wandering and getting lost in a labyrinth of hallways to find it, but was well worth the journey!

I don’t know if the bakery makes everything on site or what (it didn’t look very big from the outside…), but they had it all — macaroons, eclairs, croissants, mousse cups, cupcakes, cookies, muffins, breakfast pastries, yum!

Deciding what to try was really difficult — I knew that I had friends back in the hotel room that could help me eat anything I bought, but it’s always better to exercise a little self control and conserve money, too.

In the end I spent nearly $30 on goodies and coffee and booked it back to the seedy hotel my friends and I were staying at so that we could dig in to my haul!

What a feast it was!

Though out of all the baked goods I tried that morning, only two were particularly delicious: one was the twice-baked apple cobbler croissant that tasted just like apple pie! Mmm!

And the other delectable morsel I tried that morning was the Bouchon Bakery’s signature sweet: the chocolate bouchon — moist and sweet and oh-so-fudgy!