Margaritas........

Cookie Style.

Red Velvet cake and Tarts with Mascarpone

Red Velvet cake...done, mini Tarts.....done...Cream Cheese sugar cookie dough...done.  Cookies are going to be this evenings project since my wife made twelve dozen cookies yesterday and they have to be delivered today. The Red Velvet cake recipe was one from the Waldorf Astoria in NYC and is from the 20's or 30's. The Tarts was just something I thought I'd like to do so just made a few up to sample. Sugar cookies are ready to roll out and I still have to make some pourable fondant to make either Margarita or Martini shaped cookies. So far this is what we have.

It's a gray Vancouver BC day.....

Its' been around 56f today and of coarse raining. While the rest of the United States is enjoying summer weather we are still waiting.
I have been apprehensive about our upcoming trip so I am just trusting that God will provide us with safe and mechanically uneventful journey.
In other news.........baking. Can't do much with the rain, trying to get the apartment together so we can move next month but there is only so much you can do ahead of time. Anyways thought I'd make a few things this weekend starting with cream cheese sugar cookies, maybe Martini cookies this time. Then I thought a cake would be nice so I'm going to throw together a Red Velvet cake  with the traditional frosting. Maybe if there is time and I'm bored enough I'll make an Italian Cream cake for Petit Fours Don't ask why I'm baking all this stuff I just hope to find enough people with sweet tooth's to take the majority of it.

four weeks and counting

before we leave cross country again. This will be something like our forth or fifth cross country journey  in the last two years, each one enjoyable in their own way. Our last cross country tour took us through about 39 states, numerous state and national parks, national monuments and sixteen thousand miles.

This will be our last cross country road trip for awhile but we hope to be traveling other places which will require air travel. This upcoming road trip we will be going via I90/I94 the most northern route. We have traveled I90, I80, I70 and I40. After this trip it will pretty much leave just I10, the southern most route, and hopefully the most enjoyable.

We are planning on taking eight days so it will be a relatively easy drive. Haven't really looked at what to do along the way so I'm open for suggestions if anyone want to leave a suggestion in the comments box. The only stop I really have planned is the Alien (themed) burger place, and right now I'm not even sure where that is located. No rush we still have a few weeks.

Fathers Day BBQ...

Nothing like BBQing over charcaol. For those of you who enjoy the traditional Fathers Day BBQ I'm with ya. Who doesn't love BBQ anyways? Well as of this moment it is pouring rain and tomorrow doesn't look any better. The BBQ must go on, it's not really a big deal to BBQ in the rain it's just nicer to have all those friends to be able to hang out in the yard.

Anyways my contribution to tomorrows events....BBQ cupcakes....Whaaaaaaaaaat? Yes BBQ cupcakes, not exactly what your thinking but they do have BBQ chicken, hotdogs and kabobs. So here they are :)

If you love coffee....

try some Double Macchiato Cupcakes. The recipe calls for four teaspoons coffee extract but I used six. I like mine a bit stronger. Also infused them with a bit of the icing, kinda a double shot. Sprinkled with a little dark chocolate and mmmmmmmm.

Rainy Day Retry....

Surprise it's raining today! Well it is the northeast so it's to be expected, besides we had our two days of summer already.

Today was my rainy day project, camouflage cup cakes, well camo frosting. I tried to do the tri-color all in one shot but all I managed to do is waste some icing. Baker in the weeds.....lol. For those unfamiliar with the term "In the weeds" it means that whatever your doing isn't turning out the way it's suppose to or the way you want it to. So I simply got out the weed whacker and changed things up a bit. Camo frosting can be done numerous ways, icing, fondant etc. I went with a butter cream. I don't care for butter cream icing but it is easier to work with and I didn't really feel like working today. So this is how my cupcakes turned out......

Where have all the Orcas gone?

Ahh an early five am morning a light drizzle of rain a short hour drive and an hour and a half ferry ride and we were almost at our destination. As we stood in the center of the traffic circle, our breath visible in the morning mist, our guide arrived along with the trailer of Kayaks. Total pick up five people and then off across the island to Small Pox Bay our launch area. We arrived to meet the rest of our group which had camped at the park overnight. Including our guide we had a nice group, ten people.
After unloading the Kayaks and carrying them down to the beach through the sea weed, getting our paddles and spray skirts and a safety briefing we were off in search of the elusive Orca whale. The Orca is not an actual whale , it is the largest member of the Porpoise family.

As we started out for the day and rounded our first corner we viewed our first Bald Eagles nest and sat in a resting position in a patch of Bullwhip seaweed for a short learning session on their growth etc. As we kayaked further on we encountered a few Harbor Seals and then the Dahl Porpoise started escorting us on our excursion to about a mile south of the Lime Kiln Lighthouse. We beached the Kayaks in Dead Mans Bay for our lunch break, chatted with each other for a little while and then back into the kayaks for our return trip.

The name of our launch point "Small Pox Bay" was named that way as they use to bring people who had small pox down to wash them in the bay as they believed it would heal them. Dead Mans Bay was named that because the Indians use to call it that after finding a dead man there.

As we venture back to our launch point we got to watch a pair of Bald Eagles flying overhead hunting and calling to each other. At one point of our return trip a Golden Eagle swooped down from the trees along the shoreline and snatched  a fish from the water. I must say I was a bit skeptical of entering the eddy water on the way back as it was traveling two-three miles an hour as the tide was coming in. It was a bit rough but everyone did well. The porpoise returned and once again escorted us to near our point of return.

While we didn't see any Orca we did have a great experience kayaking nearly eight to nine miles. We found out that for some reason all the Orca pods have moved out to sea, maybe to follow the Salmon.

Samoa/Buttercream cupcakes

I had some left over ingredients so why not use them up right?
Made a few Black Forest cupcakes with a homemade caramel center and a light colored chocolate butter cream sprinkled with some toasted coconut. Then made a few Samoa cupcakes. Black forest cupcake filled with caramel, topped with a gooey toasted coconut/sugar topping  and dry toasted coconut. Both with a nice  little chocolate ganache ribbon.
In my baking world I have a few events coming up with one-hundred plus people each so I probably will not be doing to much additional baking.

In our world of travel.....we are headed out to spend the day on the water, kayaking with the Orcas near SanJuan Island/Friday Harbor WA. We hope to get some great photographs of all the local wildlife along with some up close experience with the Orcas. Since we are not going to be there until monday and have a long day we probably won't be able to post any photo's until Tues or Wed.