tasty tuesday : lemon loaf

I love lemon-y foods. I love baked goods. In so facto, I love lemon loaves, and this one is particularly delightful. From the absolutely wonderful "Mennonite Girls Can Cook", this recipe is a must! Try it, you won't regret it, and you'll be dreaming of hot summer days, cloud-watching, and swimming. I don't know why, but somehow lemony foods make me think of these things. 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray two 7 1/2 x 4 x 2 loaf pans with cooking spray.

2. Sift together the dry ingredients in a bowl.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter and sugar on medium speed until light then add eggs in one at a time. Mix in the other wet ingredients.

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients together.

5. Divide the mixture between the two loaf pans and bake approximately for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

7. While the cake bakes, simmer the syrup ingredients together until the sugar melts.

8. Brush the syrup over the loaf after it has been cooled. 

9. Drizzle the glaze over the loaves and let it set. 

From the photos, you can clearly see that I've omitted the glaze, I simply did this for my own personal preference. I know, call me crazy, but sometimes I just prefer a simple, lemon loaf, with no extra sugary coatings. But I have made this recipe before with the syrup and glaze and it is delightful both ways! Whether you simply sprinkle some icing sugar over top or go all out, your loaf will taste delicious :)

weekly wrap-up: a week of love

Now I'm not a huge fan of Valentine's day (it's silly, and sometimes downright ridiculous), but I have to say that I had such a wonderful week full of love! 

I started the week out with making a big pot of spicy lentil soup with heart shaped biscuits.  It was so nice to have lunches for the rest of the week, and the biscuits brightened my day!

On Valentine's day I decided to get up early and make my roomie and I red velvet pancakes!  So good.

outfit post: captivating cloches

I love hats!  

I have always loved them, but I have really started wearing more this year - (possibly because I am a lazy university student and I don't feel like doing anything with my hair!)

I bought this dress on a whim one day, I was shopping fell in love with the adorable bird pattern.

dress: suzy shier // hat: champion jack's emporium // trench: urban planet  // shoes: sterling

p.s. ♥ jordyn

{ all you need is love }

Happy Valentines Day dear readers!

I am absolutely thrilled to present you with a Valentines Day tea party inspiration shoot that I organized and did the photography for here in Edmonton. Here's a little taste of what I've been up to.... For more love, please go visit my photography blog @ claracphotography.blogspot.ca and leave me some love too! 

Wishing you all an absolutely lovely day~ 

p.s.  ♥ clara

diy : dreamy floral crown

This DIY was inspired by a Valentines Day photoshoot that I've been planning for the past couple weeks. I've been dying to make a flower crown and to have it as a prop in a photoshoot, so this was just a blast for me to make! Hope you enjoy the loveliness that's about to ensue :) 

{  s u p p l i e s } 

- fake flowers! 

I stuck with just a couple of big fake peonies and then picked up a lot of "greenery" to get a more natural look. I found some fake twigs, lots of leaves, and a couple of white flowery accents

- wire  &  wire cutters

 - floral tape 

{  i  n  s  t  r  u  c  t  i  o  n  s  }

1. Measure your piece of wire so that it fits around your head and cut it at the proper length with your wire cutters. I doubled my wire to make my crown a little more stable. 

2. Cut your flowers/leaves/twigs down to manageable pieces. Start with a couple pieces and wrap your green floral tape around them and the wire. 

3. Repeat step 2 all the way around your wire! It's okay if you start off sparse, I filled my crown with a couple layers to make it more full. 

4. Close off your wire, make sure there's no wire showing by wrapping floral tape around. Feel free to use a glue gun to secure loose pieces....

and voila! you have yourself a beautiful, dreamy, and absolutely lovely floral crown =) 

Keep your eyes open for more from my Valentines Day shoot. The big reveal is tomorrow and I'm absolutely giddy with how lovely and dreamy this photoshoot turned out!

p.s.  ♥ clara

tasty tuesday: red velvet mini doughnuts

Well, I hope you're not quite sick of seeing Valentine's Day themed baking around here...but I promise this is the last recipe you'll see from us (for this year at least).  I made these last year when I was felt like doing something classic, but with a twist.  Thus, red velvet mini baked doughnuts were born!

Red Velvet Mini Baked Doughnuts
recipe from: Velveteen Baker

Ingredients: 
2 cups Flour
3/4 cups Sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Salt
3/4 cup Buttermilk (or put approx 1 tbsp of vinegar in your measuring cup and fill to 3/4 cup line with milk)
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp red food coloring (gel)
1 TBSP Cocoa powder 
2  Eggs
2 TBSP Butter, melted

Directions:
1)  In a large bowl, mix together buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, butter, and red food colouring.
2)  In a separate bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cocoa.
3)  Add flour mixture to wet mixture, and mix until just combined.
4)  Grease doughnut pan.
5)  Fill each doughnut cup about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way full.
6)  Bake at 425 degrees for 5-8 minutes (or until the top of the doughnuts spring back when touched.)
7)  Allow to cool for about 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Vanilla glaze:

2 TBPS Hot water
2 cup Icing sugar
1 TBSP Milk
½ tsp Vanilla

Directions: 
Mix all the above ingredients together in a small, deep bowl.  Instantly dip doughnuts and decorate immediately with sprinkles.

Then devour them!

p.s.  ♥ kelsey

red, black and gold valentine's day cupcakes

Well hello there friends!  I realize that it's not a Tuesday, so you may be wondering why I'm sharing pictures of food with you.  I was actually made these cupcakes as part of a styled shoot this weekend with the very talented Sarah Nickerson (from the Nickersons), as well as Ainsley (from Ainsley's Affairs).  It was a Valentine's Day shoot with a red, black and gold theme, and featured different local vendors from around Vancouver.  The shoot was for The Refinery, and I'll be sure to share it with you all once it's published!

Until then, here are a few of my own photos, as well as a very short tutorial (probably not actually legit enough to be a tutorial...) on how to make these yourself!

First, you'll need some cupcakes!  I chose to make my mocha ones (since they're nearly black!), but you can make whatever flavour you'd like!  {maybe chocolate, vanilla, or brown sugar pound cupcakes?}

Then, I made a double batch of our basic buttercream, and used a 16mm 45-9 Kaiser icing tip to pipe the swirls.  I topped them with gold sprinkles (from Michaels)....which are totally my new favorite!

Finally, the most intensive part....the royal icing hearts!  I used approximately 1 tsp of egg white and a few tablespoons of icing sugar (until I had to count to 10 for the icing to resettle once a spoon was drawn through it...you want it pretty thick!).  I coloured the icing red, and then piped the hearts onto plastic wrap (wax paper or parchment would work better!).

*The most important part for your hearts is letting them dry 100% before you try and pick them up!  It's best to let them set for 24 hours if you can!

OR, you can just melt down some red melting wafers (you can find these at Michaels!), which might be less scary if you've never worked with royal icing.

I made a few different sizes of hearts, and used a few of the slightly larger ones on my mini cupcakes!

xoxo

p.s.  ♥ kelsey