Cookievonster makes Cupcakes too

Yeah, I do.... I make cupcakes too.

Only my regulars know this and they usually order the cupcakes with their custom cookie favours for their parties.

I kept it hush hush for the longest time, just because EVERYONE is making cupcakes.

And I wanted to be known as the Cookie Lady, more like the Cookie Auntie as all my friends' kids call me, but... I'm not that old!

So lets just stick with the Cookie Lady.

Or even better Cookie Missy perhaps? Pushing it I think :OP

Cupcakes are EVIL don't you think?

They're so so good, and oh so bad for you too.

But if you eat only one (if you can), guess they're not so evil hehehehe.

I make all my cupcakes with the good stuff!

Butter! Butter! Butter!

Fresh cream, fresh eggs, fresh fruits.

BUTTER!

D describes the frosting as dreamy fluffy 'ice cream' on a cupcake.

Mind you, he really does eat an entire bowl of frosting like he does ice cream all the time.

Double chocolate cupcake with Vanilla buttercream frosting.

Mini Fresh Strawberry cupcakes with roasted Banana cream cheese frosting.

Mini cupcakes - epitome of EVIL.

thee hee heee.... rubs hands together

And I love mini cute things. Especially when they are delicious too.

I can pop about 6 mini cupcakes at any one time. Hmmmmmmm... cupcakes.......

Fresh orange cupcakes with Grandmarnier dark chocolate ganache

I should have dressed it with my marshmallow flowers.... but we ate them all before I could even decorate them, did get this photo though.

Banana cupcakes with mini butterscotch chocolate cups & burnt caramel buttercream frosting & topped with chocolate shavings.

Phew! Say all that without taking a breath.

Playing with some frosting designs. Which one is your favourite?

Mine's with the cluster of rosettes, so .... 'wedding like' don't you think?

Oh no, I feel like a cupcake now. So.... gonna go make me some cupcakes, later! :OP

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.

Give the Free gift of a Smile & Hug this holiday season... and some Cookievonster Cookies!

What is the most contagious thing in the world?

An ugly ugly Frown.

And there is no pretty kind too.

Yeap, sad to say... human beings are unconsciously 'conditioned' to seek out and react with negative energy.

Start your day stressed, worried, angry, whether it be caused by yourself, a situation or someone else... you are guaranteed to bump into negative situations and people all day long.

That's the simple law of attraction.

What is the most powerful thing in the world?

A Smile.

What is the most powerful contagious thing?

(if we let ourselves be aware of it..)

Still ...a Smile

:O)

Scientifically, there has been many debates about how many actual muscles it takes to frown and how many it takes to smile. This however has been proven, a frown is followed by stress, anger, and all the negative energy you can muster.
What a waste of energy.

A Smile.... it lifts your soul, sets you free and some say, and I believe... is healing.

And... its FREE!

In the world we live in today, we need to spread a little more positive energy.

This holiday season give the positive energy of love.
Love has many different levels.

You can love your partner, your kids, and your parents.

You can also love a total stranger.

Its just an energy that you chose to project.

A Smile is Free, and given genuinely, it spreads like wild fire.

A joyous Smile plus a Hug.....

Volcanic eruption of joy and happiness!

:OP

I love hugging people!

Come visit me at one of my Holiday Markets this season.

Guaranteed a Free Smile from me, and if you like...

Definitely a Free Hug too!

Oh btw...if you smile at someone who frowns, even if they don't share and return the same energy,

it sure will drive them crazy,

which usually sets me off into a hissy fit of uncontrollable laughter!

Dates and details of my up and coming Holiday markets will be posted up soon.

Pls chk bk soon.

SMILE!!!!!

:O)

For your Christmas Cookie orders, please email me at

info@cookievonster.com

Halloween is scarily cute

I have a Halloween experience at least once a week at home.... "I see dead people"... NAH! Only kidding :OP

But if I did, I'd ask them for some winning lottery numbers, like the dutiful daughter I am as my Chinese mother would expect nothing less from me in a situation like that.

Once a week (maybe twice, I know... I know.... I have issues) I'd do a total scrub down of my bathroom. Well, what would you expect, I'm already in the shower, so I might as well clean it while I'm in there right?

Get ready for my weekly freaky experience as I know... some of you can relate to this :O)

Ever reached into the shower drainage hole and .... pull out...

HAIR?!!!!!

And I have long long long dark hair. I'd reach in and yank out this lump of hair that is long , slimy, yucky and gross that goes on and on.... and worse... it looks like I am pulling out a severed head ! Every time I half expect a real head attached to that lump of hair, turn around and gorily evilly smile at me, dripping with blood and slime, GROSS RIGHT???!!!

Did I succeed in making you gag? Squeal? ... a little maybe? ehheheheh... Well....

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

xoxoxo

Thankful for great family, friends & mini shortbread pumpkins

Its Thanksgiving in Canada, and for me this is only my 4th Thanksgiving here.

What is Thanksgiving all about anyway? My first year, it was all and nothing but the turkey!

Yeap! I admit I have my ignorant times. I'm not shy about it. Mind you, I think letting go of a whoopie is hilarious too at certain occasions, and I'm not shy about that either :OP

This year however, I celebrated Thanksgiving for the right reason, for family. A certain event that took place the past few months has taught me a lot about family, living life consciously, simply, and gratefully. I am thankful for everything I have, and also for everything I do not have, as it makes me stronger and more aware of the things that are truly important. I am more forgiving as I become more thankful, and most importantly, I have learnt to forgive myself for the past and live in the present.

I am thankful for the friends who have embraced me openly when I first moved to Vancouver, and for D's family who has made me one of their own. I am thankful for my family at home as we grow closer each day even though we have never ever been so far apart, (but thank god for web cams). I am also grateful for everyone whom I have met along the way in the journey with Cookievonster.

This Thanksgiving, we had our turkey, and it was the BEST turkey ever! A gift from a true friend, whom I am thankful for for having in my life, PLUS the turkey. I had been raving about this turkey for over a year now since I had it at her place, and now my family knows why I kept going on and on like a mad obsessed turkey crazed lady for months. Turkey crazy-lady I am not, but greedy I definitely am :O)

At this moment I must remember to be thankful for my blessed metabolism, which allows me to eat like there is no tomorrow, and not have to be rolled around like a pumpkin. This I am sure will not last forever so I better eat more in the next few years before my metabolism calls it quits.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and may your lives be filled with love and gratefulness, and may you be thankful for every present moment that you are blessed with now.

oxo

Happy Canada Day everyone :O)

Bacon heaven, in a cookie...

Who loves Bacon? Hands up!

ME! ME! ME!

I LOVE BACON!

Last Christmas a friend gave me a bar of chocolate. Not just any chocolate bar. It was a fancy gourmet BACON chocolate bar. A Vosges Mo's Chocolate Bacon Bar to be exact. I had seen a bunch of desserts made with bacon on TV lately. Its the "IN" thing, that and Matcha. Green tea is vastly promoted as a healthy ingredient, a healthy habit, and Bacon... well, I'd promote it simply as AWESOME! Bacon makes me happy. I have bacon and eggs as often as I can, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Saturdays, Thursdays, Wednesdays, Sundays and Fridays.

After I had a piece of the bacon chocolate, I definitely had to make something chocolate and bacon. How can I not? Two of my absolute favourite foods in the whole world!

I did my research as usual, and went and tested all sorts of bacon from the deli. Picked up some sausages and cold cuts at the same time too, just to keep the bacon company :OP

In the end, I settled on the aromatic Applewood Bacon.

I started making various versions of bacon brownies, because I loved the chocolate bar so much. MMmmmmmmm... they were GOOD.... and rich.... and very very good. I topped my brownies with some home made smoked coffee infused sea salt to intensify the flavours of the bacon and chocolate. Everyone raved about how wickedly good they were. Addictive, sinful and fantabulous! I was very happy with them, bacon makes me happy, bacon and chocolate makes me even happier.

I had planned to add the Bacon brownie to my list of goodies for sale at the market, but I am Cookievonster after all, and at the Baker's Market, I am situated next to Lily (Yaletown Brownies) who specialized in some pretty decadent brownies.

So I decided to switch and make some bacon cookies. It was an easy task, all I really did was mix the applewood bacon into my Chunky Chewy Brown butter Chocolate Chip cookie and sprinkled it with some coffee sea salt.

Why change a good thing? I still loved my chocolate chip cookie, and it made perfect sense to combine the two. Heavenly. So happy!

Well, now my Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookie has taken over the sales of the Chocolate Chip cookie, so I only make the Bacon one these days for the markets.

So calling all bacon lovers out there, drop by the BLIM Market this Sunday 23 May, 2010 @ the Heritage Hall (Main & 15th) and pick up some delicious mouth watering Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies.