Birthday’s at my Oma’s were always so much fun and engaging.  My role for the birthdays was always the designate cake decorator – my favorite cakes to decorate were my Oma’s black forest cake and her carrot cake.  I’m not sure what it was about the carrot cake, but it quickly became my favorite cake to eat as well as decorate.  I quickly started to request her carrot cake ever year.  This cake is so moist and tasty, and easy to make.  If you’re a fan of carrot cake in general, you’ll love this recipe; I guarantee it.

Do you want to indulge without the guilt? Here is my version of the classic apple crumble. It uses up your leftover quinoa and is sweetened with coconut sap sugar, which has a glycemic index of 35!. You don’t get much healthier than this when it comes to desert. Now if you really want to boost up the health-0-meter add in some toasted almonds or walnuts to the crunch topping. If you are like my husband and can’t eat apple crumble without the vanilla ice cream, well rest assured that you have saved yourself loads of fat and sugar in the crumble so go ahead and treat yourself to some vanilla frozen yogurt! It’s a great swap and keeps you eating healthy comfort food!

A word of caution – before you attempt to create this dessert, ensure that you have ample time and patience. Don’t get me wrong, when you pull this Danish braid out of the oven, it will be very rewarding. The process in getting to that final task is a little different, at least it was for me.

Each year when the seasonal farmer markers open their doors again, it brings a smile to my face. It’s one of the simple joys that that I look forward to. I love purchasing the delicious produced that is grown locally. A little challenge that I play with myself is trying to bake/cook the produce that is currently in season. Currently, that would be rhubarb, which is in season until the end of June. I’ve seen local strawberries making their first appearances at the markets. It’s still a little early for them, but this season is quickly approaching, mid June to mid July. I purchased some delicious strawberry rhubarb, from Lemington, ON, and decided to make a crisp. I realized that I haven’t bake anything with rhubarb before – I quickly needed to put a end to that.

A brownie doesn’t really need a description of their fudgy deliciousness. In my opinion, that first bite of a brownie tells you everything you need to know. Therefore, I’m not going to write anything further except that these brownies are delicious. The melted Skor bits on the top makes these brownies heavenly. That is all, enjoy!

The BBQ season is upon us; however, I’m sure some would argue that this is a bold face lie. The weather was frigid this weekend – to prove my point, my husband was barbecuing while wearing his winter coat, mitts and toque this weekend on Saturday. Regardless, many people have begun having BBQ get togethers.

What exactly does one make for a BBQ when there is no sun or warm temperatures to enjoy? I wanted something that festive, a dessert that would brighten the mood. I stumbled upon a couple of upside down pineapple cake, an loved the vibrant yellow colour. I knew this would be the dessert. In the end, I combined a couple of recipes resulting in my very first barbecue dessert of summer 2010.

My wife came back from a weekend trip with friends on Sunday and as she began telling me about their musings, she mentioned they went to IHOP for breakfast and she discovered the new Cheesecake Stackers. She stayed away from this monstrosity, but suffice to say, 7/10 girls did not. I don’t think we’ve ever seen such a high calorie to cost ratio before, that is, if we knew how many were in this beast!

We have a special guest staying with us this weekend, Andre’s sister, which meant that a fancy dessert/snack had to be made. I searched through the trusty Food & Drink magazine that the LCBO so graciously gives away, and settled on a maple tart. Enjoy!