• Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Quickbreads & Loaves,  The Breakfast Bin

    Biscoff and autumn are a nifty combination

    I’ve sung this song a million times before, but it’s simply inevitable that I feel this way around this time of the year. I can’t help it! I can’t quite hold back the green-eyed monster when all the beautiful orange-hued photos with scarf-wearing people in them begin popping up everywhere. I can’t help wishing that I live in a place where I can take Instagram photos of my boots nestled beneath a mountain of crunchy orange leaves; a place where the breeze is crisp and cool all-day long once the -ber months hit. Well I could spend all my energies wishing for autumn to magically fall upon this country, but unless…

  • Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Experiments & experiences,  Foodie Life,  J'adore macarons

    {Kitchen Diaries} Autumn Edition

    It’s November, which means I am officially starting my countdown to Christmas! Since we don’t actually celebrate Thanksgiving holiday here, we’re jumping right into festive, Christmas-y baking before the last week of November arrives. It’s my favourite time of the year and I’m super excited to make the recipes I have planned for Christmas already, but before that, I wanted to share some of the autumn recipes that did not make the cut. I’ve actually been pretty busy in the kitchen even though it’s not as apparent on the blog. Poor planning, crazy whims, and the desire to use ingredients screaming at me in the fridge have led me to…

  • Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  My favourite things,  Simple cakes

    The perfect first cake roll experience

    If I had known beforehand how easy and fun these are to make, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now telling you how this is my first time making a cake roll. I guess there is something about cake rolls that unnerved me. I’m not sure if it’s because I question my abilities to be gentle enough to make them look as good as the ones in the pictures, but I often find myself imagining how heartbreaking it would be to ruin such a piece of edible art. What I forgot to think about is how cake rolls are great examples of how bakers play with cake and icing flavour…

  • Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Cupcakes & Muffins,  The Breakfast Bin,  Timeless Treats

    The obligatory feel-good autumn season post

    Lately it has been a lot harder to get out of bed in the mornings. It sounds depressing when I say it like that, but what I actually mean is in our corner of the tropics we’re finally entering our version of autumn/winter. The “seasons” have gone from sweltering summer heat to insane downpours of rain and flooding, and now we’re at the glorious bed weather time of the year. My favourite!!! Of course it’s still hot since this is a tropical country after all, but it is considerably cooler than usual. The nights are longer too, and there are evenings I would only need an open window because there…

  • Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Cupcakes & Muffins,  My favourite things,  Reinventions of classics,  The Breakfast Bin

    In the absence of actual apple pie– Apple Pie Muffins

    You ever have days when you get a hankering for apple pie but you’re too lazy to go through the motions of making the dough, chopping up the apples, and all that? I do. A lot of times actually. So then you might ask, ‘Why don’t you just run down to the store and buy one?’ To be honest, I haven’t found a store-bought apple pie in my neck of the woods that tastes half as good as a homemade one. So what’s a girl to do in such a situation? Well this is the part where I tell you about how this muffin would be a nice substitute for…

  • Autumn baking,  Baking Recipes,  Quickbreads & Loaves,  Reinventions of classics,  Simple cakes

    San Francisco and Apple Crumble Loaf Cakes

    The other day I was checking my Instagram feed and I saw a friend of mine post a lovely autumn picture of orange trees lining a long road somewhere in New York. I immediately felt a bit sad, maybe just a tad jealous, mostly because I feel like I’m stuck here and she’s enjoying herself ever so much over there, living her dreams in New York’s fashion world and what-not. Well the weather here has been sweltering and summer-like, the rays of the sun blanketing everything with a yellow reminiscent of a morning in the desert. It’s literally impossible to walk outside without squinting against the harsh sunlight and feeling…