Tin Can Trial

Halle's first, first birthday is this Saturday and we have been busy planning and working on projects for a good chunk of this week. Though we have a bakery making Halle's birthday cake, B's Mom and I decided to tackle her smash cake ourselves. After doing some searching on pinterest, I came across the idea to make tin can cakes...

{Geek ever After via pinterest}

{via Oh Happy Day!}

So, on Tuesday while Halle was napping, we decided to try making our own cake from a can to see if it would work as Halle's smash cake for Saturday. B's Mom raided their cupboards and found a nice big can with tomatoes. We opened it up and emptied the tomatoes into another container and then washed out our can...

Even after rinsing and washing it a couple of times, it still smelt like tomatoes, so I thought instead of spraying it with something to make it non stick, that we would line the can with some parchment paper. So I traced and cut and made some parchment lining for our can...

With this being a trail cake, we opted to use an out of the box cake mix to see how things went. B's Mom had mixed it up while I was making our liner and when I was all done, we filled the can halfway up with our cake mix and popped it into a 350 degree oven to bake...

After 15 minutes in the oven, it still wasn't ready, so we decided to just leave it in there and check on it periodically to make sure it was coming along nicely. In the end it took closer to 35 minutes to bake. We just made sure it looked nice and firm and that a toothpick came out clean. Then we let it cool on a wire rack completely. 

Once it was completely cool, I was able to turn the can upside down on a plate and it slid right out - easy! 

Because it didn't bake completely flat, I had to cut the top off to get it exactly what I wanted it to look like. 

I just continued slicing off layers and used some Pillsbury icing to do a light ice between each layer. Then using an icing knife I did a quick and dirty ice of the whole cake. Nothing had to look fancy since it was just a first attempt to see how the whole thing would work out...

Not bad for our first attempt (I'll need to cut the top a little more straight next time! Whoops!). We also learned that we will fill our can a little more than half way next time, to give us a slightly larger cake. The final one will also have some pretty sprinkles on it to give it some pretty for our baby girl.


So there you have it - our attempt at a cake in a can! I can't wait to share the final smash cake and all of the other details from Halle's first party with you next week.


Have you ever tried baking a cake in a can, or tried out any other fun baking projects? Would love to hear how you have used pinterest to create your own party fun!

A Festive Little Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a great weekend! We packed ours with as many festive activities as we could. Here's what we got up to...


1. On Friday night, I had to do some prep for my baking that needed to be done on Saturday. In particular - I had to crush up whole Oreos, and doing it by hand seemed to work best. Halle wanted to help...

2. Then, up went the tree. We were able to get as far as getting it set up and the lights on, and just a few ornaments, before a certain baby needed to get to bed. She must've been exhausted from crushing all of those Oreo's, and helping Daddy with the lights for the tree...

3. On Saturday morning, I made some delicious baked french toast for breakfast, and we got a few more ornaments on the tree before bundling up and heading out to the Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Clause Parade. We ended up leaving before Santa arrived since it was pretty cold and someone was ready for a nap...

4. When we got home, we finished decorating our tree! I love it! (I will share pictures on Thursday...promise!)


5. The afternoon was dedicated to whipping up some delicious Peppermint Cream Bites. It was kind of frustrating, and I suggest that if you plan to tackle this recipe - follow your instincts. You'll definitely need more than 2 tbps of butter to make the cookie crust stick!


6. Sunday, Halle and I headed out to my hometown and to a cookie exchange hosted by my cousin. So many yummy cookies to eat and bring home - what's better than that?

7. While we were off sampling cookies with family and friends, B and my Dad were back on the home front working away on our bathroom! I can't wait to share more updates with you soon.


8. And I saved this till last since it wasn't actually over the weekend. On Tuesday evening (after Halle's appointment for the first of her four month shots), we took her to see Santa, and this was the result...

BIG SMILES - and we love it! I think she could just understand what the photographer was saying... who was raving about what a beautiful baby she was. Yup - we're totally in trouble.

Did you get up to any fun and festive things this weekend?

True Canadiana - Tasty Butter Tarts

Now that I am stuck at home daily, trying to find things to keep me busy, I've decided to make a list of items I'd like to try baking while on maternity leave. If you've been reading this lil' ol' blog for a while then you'll know B is more of the chef around here, while I usually stick to baking (mind you - that is also slowly changing now that I'm home all day). 


Regardless, I took some time the other day to explore Joy of Baking and make a record of some yummy sounding recipes, and then got to work on my very first one.


Now, there are many reasons to love being Canadian, but with my sweet tooth, one thing that I seriously love are some tasty Butter Tarts! Who's with me? When I saw this recipe on Joy of Baking I knew that this was the first recipe I needed to test out. So last week, I pulled out all of the ingredients and spent an afternoon baking away...

{Ingredients for home made crust}

What You'll Need...

For Pate Brisee (Short Crust Pastry):

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon granulated white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/8 to 1/4 cup ice water

For Butter Tart Filling:

1/3 cup unsalted butter softened

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 light cream (half and half)

1/2 cup raisins, walnuts or pecans (optional) - Even though I love raisins in my butter tarts, I omitted them this time so that B would eat some as well

Start with the Crust...

In a food processor, place the flour, salt, and sugar and process until combined

Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal (about 15 seconds) 

Pour 1/8 cup (30 ml) water in a slow, steady stream, through the feed tube until the dough just holds together when pinched.  If necessary, add more water. Do not process more than 30 seconds

Turn the dough onto your work surface and gather into a ball. Flatten into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for about one hour before using. This will chill the butter and relax the gluten in the flour
After the dough has chilled sufficiently, place on a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough and cut into 12 - 4 inch (10 cm) rounds (I used the top of a small cup for my mini butter tarts and the top of a large pint glass for my large butter tarts)
Gently place the rounds into a 12-cup muffin tin. Cover and place in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to firm up the dough. 

Next, make the filling...

In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar
Beat in the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla extract
Stir in the cream
If using nuts and/or raisins, place a spoonful in the bottom of each tart shell and then fill the unbaked tart shells with the filling 
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for about 15 -20 minutesor until the pastry has nicely browned and the filling is set
Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool
Serve at room temperature or chilled 

Of course, I had to sample one once they were cooled and before B came home (with a huge glass of milk... which I can't get enough of these days...)

SO YUMMY!

Are you a Butter Tart fan? Have you tried or will you try out this recipe? I must say... I will definitely be saving this one away for future use! Again - for this and more delicious recipes, check out Joy of Baking.