Sharing the love .... and calories

I was asked to make a tiramisu for a party today and me being me, can't follow recipes... and I really wanted to make a trifle instead.

Its summer and berries are everywhere and that's always yummy in my tummy!

I really wanted to make a berry trifle!!!

Like seriously, I really wanted a refreshing summer berry dessert.

So I decided to make a Berry Tiramisu instead. It turned out delish!!!!

WARNING!

This is seriously additive, and although its a light and fluffy dessert, try not to eat the entire bowl by yourself. If you did... well... go for a run I guess :OP

I made the Berry Tiramisu in a large trifle bowl piled up high with goodness for the party,

and a little glass for myself for portion control *heh heh heh*

Happy summer! Here's the recipe if you would like to make a yummy dessert for your BBQ parties, or simply just for yourself.

Berry Tiramisu

Ingredients

• 6 eggs (separated at room temp.)
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 cups whip cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 container mascarpone cheese (475g)
• 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
• 1/4 cup kahlua
• 2 packages ladyfinger cookies
• 2-3 cups of mixed fresh berries (I used raspberries, strawberries and blueberries)
• Chocolate shavings (I used Dark chocolate, but feel free to use any chocolate you prefer, try orange chocolate or hazelnut chocolate)

Directions

1. First make the custard by whisking together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils for 1 minute. Allow to cool, cover and chill in refrigerator till cold. Be careful not to scramble the custard while boiling, just make sure to stir constantly and not over cook the mixture. It should be silky smooth and coats the back of a spoon.
2. In a medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form.
3. Whisk egg whites till stiff and out aside. Whisk mascarpone till creamy and add in custard until smooth. Fold in egg whites till fully combines. This will make the cheese mix fluffy like clouds :OD
4. In a small bowl, combine coffee and kahlua.
5. Dip ladyfingers with coffee mixture and arrange the soaked ladyfingers in bottom of a trifle bowl. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over ladyfingers, top with a layer of berries, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with chocolate shavings.
6. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or two if you can wait that long (but the longer you let it set, the yummier it gets).

Enjoy your summer everyone!

Hey there....

I'm back!

:O)

Well, I haven't really gone anywhere... oh! hang on, I lie. I went home to Australia and Malaysia for a few weeks earlier this year to visit some family. Make that lots of family!!!

My baby cousin got married *tear* and it was a beautiful beautiful gorgeous wedding.

Congrats cuzzies! *love*

Cookievonster updates... hmmmm.

Where to start.

Let me see.

Lets start with the newest addition to the family - Churchill.

In the peak of my crazy holiday baking, my Cuisinart mixer croaked on me, and it was only a year old! I had worked the poor baby to death! People, take note. Cuisinart mixer, pretty awesome. Has a fabulous big 7 quart bowl, functional shape and size. Whips and mixes better than any Kitchenaid mixer. I know this because when the Cuisinart broke down, I had to use 2 Kitchenaid mixers to do what the one Cuisinart did.

Problem with Cuisinart, it runs on an electronic circut board, its digital, and that's where it loses out to Kitchenaid. Since all functions on a Kitchenaid are manual, its straight forward, strong and durable. Anyway... the circut board on my mixer blew and I was without a mixer at the worst time possible. I had to order parts to fix it, bla bla bla, it was going to take 2 months, bla bla bla...

OMG! ARGHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! was all I could think of while I freaked out.

Working with 2 little mixers was a huge juggle and by the end of the 2nd day without my Cuisinart, I was ready to explode, condemn the world, bite anybody's head off, kick in doors and walls, scream till my lungs collapsed,

i.e. be as dramatic as I could be :OP

Then... Christmas came early.

While I was battling with the 2 mixers, stressing out and making doughs in tiny batches, D came home and yelled, "make space on your counter for me now, now!" and runs back out.

I thought to myself... Oh no he didn't!!!!!

Was he absolutely insane, and I must say, brave, to dare ask me to clear my table while I was in the mist of baking.

The next thing I saw were these 3 guys struggling like mad and lugging in this monster of a machine.

Its....its....

BEAUTIFUL!

It is huge, but silent. Strong yet agile and graceful. Its simply impressive and for any home baker,

its plain Awesomeness.

It has such character I had to name it.

So everybody, meet the giant of home mixers who has taken up a quarter of my island.

This - is - Churchill.

D and the whole family, mainly Dad *big hugs*,

had chipped in to get me Churchill for Christmas to save my 'behind'!

BEST

CHRISTMAS

PRESENT

EVER!!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

oxoxoxooxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxooxox

As for the Cuisinart. I got it fixed, works perfectly now, better than new too. And its sitting nicely in storage. I kinda feel bad for it, but oh well... I can't move Churchill out of the way even if I wanted to anyway :OP

Sorry Cuisinart, Churchill's here to stay.

The new addition to the Cookievonster baked goods family

Introducing....

the MINI DONUT MUFFINS

I haven't been blogging for a while now.

I won't lie.

I was just plain lazy and I can't sit still long enough to complete an entire blog, even a short one. Something flickers at the corner of my eye,

I get distracted and I vanish into another world.

Lately, it has been the Sun. It was this little thing called 'Summer'.

Every morning when I get up, its shimmer sparkles on my young garden and make the fresh blooms glow and gloat with the widest joyful smiles.

It was impossible for me to stay indoors on the computer, so... I built a deck this summer to sit out at the back with my lap top. Unfortunately, sitting out in the sun got me even more distracted :OP

So.... I'll just have a to back track Cookievonster events now that the raining season has begun and I am stuck indoors.

Here goes...

I have a thing for cute little things. As long as they are teeny weeny and adorable. I love 'em!

I started Cookievonster with average to giant sized cookies, but as I ate, I felt awfully guilty after devouring just one cookie, and felt even worse when I follow it up with another cookie (..and another... and....). So most of my cookies were turned into mouth-popping mini cookies.

Some of you might know that I also offer mini bundt cakes topped with some pretty ooey gooey decadent toppings.... Mmmmmmm. But they were a bit messy to eat, and they were a two bite cake. I wanted to create a 'ONE BITE' treat.

I thought about all the one bite desserts out there and remembered that I love jam filled donut holes. Mmmmmmmm... Donuts! In the end, this is what I came up with. A healthier version of a donut, not fried but baked - I made Mini Jam filled Donut Muffins!

My first recipe was a fresh raspberry jam filled donut muffin with cinnamon and vanilla sugar. Oh my! I popped 8 in a row! Delish! Mind you I'm greedy and I have a big mouth to fit all the food that I eat all day long, but for the less greedy, the mini donut muffins are more like one and a half bites, but they are still cute n tiny!

After that initial jam donut, there is now a series of Cookievonster mini donut muffins.

1. Mini Jam donut muffins with Cinnamon sugar.
2. Fresh Lemon curd filled donut muffins with toasted Coconut.
3. Date and Fig mini donut muffins with butterscotch glaze.
4. Fresh Apple mini donut muffins with butterscotch glaze.

YUM!

Afternoon Tea at Van Dusen Gardens

61st Annual Rose Show and Craft Sale

at the gorgeous Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, BC

Sunday 20th June, Father's Day, 12:30pm-4:30pm

Father's Day cookie Set

Flower Cookie Pop - 3 cookies

Waffle Ice creams to welcome summer

I'd like to invite you along with the rest of your family to the

Vancouver Rose Society 61st Annual Rose Show and Craft Sale this Sunday,

at the beautiful Van Dusen Botanical Gardens.

Come celebrate Father's Day at Van Dusen Gardens, especially if your dad is an avid gardener, come for a stroll and have afternoon tea or coffee in the perfect setting for a special day.


This year they have taken a “sweet” turn and welcomed some Bakery Market vendors,

and Cookievonster, that'll be ME incase you're wondering who :OP

will be serving up some yummilicious baked goodies for the day,

such as mini donut-muffins, mini cakes and an assortment of fantabulous cookies,

including some Father's Day, Canada Day and Garden themed decorated shortbread cookies.
There will be tables to sit and enjoy a tea party with yummy treats, and still take some home.

We are also looking forward to seeing an array of tables with Garden related products.

The Rose show will also feature a judged Rose show in over 150 classes, 25 awards, expert demonstrations, throughout the show by leading rose experts and judged photography exhibit,
Of course, there will be Roses of every possible kind and size,
Hand tied bouquets and blooms at the end of the show for sale

as well as other perennial plant material.

Vancouver Rose Society Annual Rose Show, in Floral Hall, Cedar Room & Covered Walkway.
12:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Hope to see you this Sunday :O)

Cookievonster's new 'LOADED' cookie

Green Tea Shortbread cookie

'TEA PARTY' with Cookievonster

HAVE A COOKIEVONSTER "TEA PARTY"

Box of assorted freshly baked Mini goodies ONLY $10

A different TEA PARTY surprise every week

ONLY at the Baker's Market,

every Saturday 11am-3pm.

I've always dreamed of having my own little English Cottage, or an old Tudor mansion or castle wouldn't hurt, with an English Garden filled with roses, peonies and every other plant imaginable surrounding the house. All snuggled up in a cozy leather arm chair with a woolly blanket and a cup of tea... OK, so I lie, only Coffee for me, but cookies and cakes for sure! and looking out into my garden with one or two faithful companions by my side. How perfect would life be. Of course in my dreams... it never rains in England. And that's because I've been there twice and it never rained! How lucky!

I had mentioned that the 1st thing I ever baked was a fruit flan, the second thing were scones, some 4 years later. When I moved into my first house with my buddy Bruce way back then, we were so excited.

It was the oldest town house on the block, next to a train track, the whole house would rattle when the train passed by. It was cold and dark, the walls peeled, and as for fun, we used to throw things at the wall to watch the brick wall crumble into tiny bits. He took the room on the 2nd floor, I took the top floor. This house was so old it had a manual 'maid's bell' from the top floor.

We were sure it was haunted too. We used to wait for each other to finish school or after work late at night so we could meet and come home together, simply because it was a little scary at the beginning. I also remember the old wood fire place we'd use to hover over in winter to keep warm. There was a fire place in every room, not that it ever warmed up the bedrooms at all, smoked us out though, but it was nice!

The whole house squeaked, windows jammed, lights were too dim, BUT it had a working oven. It was the best fun Bruce and I ever had when we first moved in. He made chicken rice soup, and I made scones. I can't remember much about my scones, but I sure do remember his chicken soup, yum!

Where am I going with all this? Ever notice how certain food brings back memories of good times? Food and good times always seem to go together.

Oh yes, TEA PARTY! I love tea parties! I started organizing Tea parties when I was about 2, with all my toys, my plastic tea set, and some of mum's cookies. LOVED TEA PARTIES!

I still love a good Tea Party.

But I'd like to have it in England somewhere if I can :O)

For now, I'll have to settle for my own little tea parties in my back yard which I had spent the last 2 years turning into a proper garden from scratch.

'Always do what you love and you'll love what you do' people say all the time. Since I love tea parties, I had decided to make a box of TEA PARTY mini cookies and mini cakes. A perfect tea party should have a good assortment of baked goods, so I have planned to put together a variety of mini goodies every week till Mother's day week just for the TEA PARTY box.

I hope you'll drop by and grab yourself a box of my Tea Party goodies, and start your own precious memories of good times.

My Cream Cheese chocolate fudge cookie

It was one of those nights where I was tossing and turning in bed unable to fall asleep. When that happens, I usually think of food and end up making myself a vegemite cheese sandwich, or a vegemite banana cheese toast sandwich… I know… it’s a bit odd but I love it.However, that night I thought best to skip a late night supper. Unfortunately, that just made me think of food all night long. But then again, I am always thinking about food. I’m greedy like that :OPSome people read novels in bed, some read magazines, I read recipe books or surf online for recipes, and imagine cooking or baking them and what they taste like. I want to make everything I read, especially when there are pictures that just make me drool. Needless to say, I always end up getting even hungrier in the middle of the night and end up going down to have my sandwich anyway.

My mum makes a pretty wicked chocolate marbled cheesecake and that was on my mind that night, simply because I was craving chocolate. Then I thought to myself, “ that would be a pretty good cookie too”. I got all excited and surfed the net, and sure enough, there are lots of chocolate cream cheese cookie recipes out there. Yum yum!

The following days, I tried a couple of recipes out. All of them mixed the cream cheese into the dough, and I didn’t find that the cream cheese flavour stood out enough. If it was going to be a cream cheese cookie, I would like the see the cream cheese and taste it, just like my mum’s marbled cheese cake.

So instead of mixing the cream cheese into the dough, I marbled it in. I was so happy with it, because it sure looked pretty and mum would be proud. Heh heh...

Still, I really wanted the cream cheese to be more profound. The trial went on and on, until I thought of the ‘thumb print’ cookies. Why not just stick a dollop of cream cheese in the middle? Well, the end product ended up becoming my Signature and best selling cookie, and my very own favourite cookie. Never do I fail to make some extra ones for myself when I have an order for it. It taste just like a rich creamy chocolate truffle that has a little crunch but still melts in your mouth.... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yum!

After writing about it, I have to go and make myself some right now when I log off *wink*

The Rebirth of the Classic Oatmeal cookie....

I grew up in Australia, and in Australia we call an Oatmeal cookie an 'Anzac' cookie, and besides my tub of 2.5kg of Vegemite, my house is always stocked up with homemade Anzac cookies. How I wished that I also had a stash of Caramel Koalas at home too.... mmmmmmmmmmm.... Caramel Koalas.......mmm...

Everyone who has tried it loves this oatmeal cookie, and Sally calls it the 'Best Ever Oatmeal Cookie'....why.... Thanks Sal.
There is just something about it that is very satisfying, like a mug of hot chocolate. Especially when the oatmeal cookie is sticky, gooey and chewy with a little golden crunch on the edges, scrumptious!

These oatmeal cookies are usually just made with rolled oats and coconut, which are simple yet delicious. To add more umph! to the oatmeal cookie, I toasted some almond slivers for extra depth of flavour and added some dried apricots for a little extra sweetness and a touch of tartness. I guess that might qualify turning a plain Oatmeal cookie into a perfect Breakfast cookie :O)