Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I don't know about you, but this new year brings for me an amazing sense of freedom and well-being. Almost like I could tackle anything. Which might have something to do with the loads of awesome gadgets I got for Christmas and the 2nd kitchen we've set up in the old bedroom. I am planning on focussing a lot of my attention this year to exploring more recipes and techniques, which means I'll have a lot more to post. And hopefully, without school to worry about, I'll have the time to do it all. 

Both sides of the family were really looking out for me this holiday season and I have a new bright red KitchenAid Architect Food Processor. It's so pretty I've spent much of my time just looking at it and stroking the smooth finish. I also received a Kenwood immersion blender with so many cool attachments. I can't wait to get started making all kinds of soups and purees this year. Maybe I'll even be able to make my own pistachio paste so I don't have to take out a loan to purchase it from Farinex (at a whopping $80/canister, ouch!).

The other major item was a new digital SLR Canon EOS Rebel 3, courtesy of a really great boxing day sale. Paired with my new book on food photography, I have absolutely no excuses for blurry iPhone pictures anymore. It's going to be a bit of a process, so please bear with me while I experiment with the new camera and lighting techniques. Hopefully, it will only improve. In the meantime, I predict a lot more cat photos while I'm playing with it, as the lazy bums always seem to be around whenever I take off the lens cap.

Bright Eyes looks like he'll smiling at me

Headley stretching out along the couch

The first baking project of this year was a simple carrot cake that's been in my family for years. Phil has been on my case for a couple months now to make him a carrot cake and I can't blame him. After all of the decadent mousse cakes I was making at school, I was really excited to get back to making a regular cake. But I wouldn't be me if I didn't try to fancy it up a little bit.

The cake itself uses 2/3 apple sauce in place of oil to help reduce some of the fat content of the cake. I also finds it gives the cake a bit more of an elasticity than using full oil. I've found a really delicious cream cheese frosting that I normally use with pumpkin cake. It has a portion of butter in it that just makes it so much richer and smoother than the normal frosting with just cream cheese. I made two batches of it and added chopped pecans and shredded coconut to one of them. I layered the cake in 4 layers with the nutty frosting between each layer, then used the plain cream cheese frosting to smooth along the top and sides of the cake. I had hoped to make a smooth finish to the cake with the plain icing, but impatience got the better of me and I just slapped it on. Despite the mediocre appearance, the result is so decadent and delicious. Phil's eyes simply lit up when he took a bite of it; I don't think it will survive the week in this house.