Easter Giveaway Winner

It's time to announce the Easter Giveaway Winner.  Are you ready? Fingers and toes crossed?

First off, I would like to thank all of you who entered this Easter draw.  These giveaways are my chance to thank my followers for all their support!  As far as prizes go, the cupcake kits seem to be a big hit so I think including one in each giveaway is going to be a must.

The Easter Giveaway prize winner is in for a real treat - 1 incredible Meri Meri kit suitable for decorating up to 24 cupcakes.  Such cute liners and toppers!  Plus a secret prize too :)

A recap of the grand prize

1 Fantastic  Easter Cupcake Kit
Plus a secret prize

 

I again used my preferred online giveaway tool, Random.org, to select the 1 winner!

And the winner is: My 3 Kids (Janice)!

CONGRATULATIONS!
Please email me at lemondropfoodie@yahoo.ca to claim your prize.

For those who didn't win, be prepared for the next giveaway coming soon!

Linda @ Lemon Drop

Gluten-Free Banana Muffins

I stumbled upon this gorgeous muffin recipe while surfing foodgawker the other day.  The photo lured me in and once I saw the ingredients list I was hooked.

Now, as is the norm for me, I switched things up a bit - adding some extra spices and going with my all-time fave Agave Nectar as sweetener.

These muffins are light, moist and taste just like banana bread.  Consider tossing in some mini dark chocolate chips or chopped walnuts too. They would make great additions to this yummy baked treat.

Easter Cupcake Giveaway

Let's welcome spring with an Easter themed giveaway. This one has a twist too - the winner will also receive a surprise baking/decorating treat as well as the main prize.

What is the main prize?  This great Meri Meri Easter Cupcake Kit -  24 liners and 24 toppers in bunny and egg designs.  How cute is that?

I love Meri Meri products but they can be quite hard to find. I spotted this one on a recent shopping excursion and new it was perfect for my spring giveaway.

The extra surprise gift will be a lovely compliment to this cupcake kit and you won't be disappointed. 

Now you will need to act fast if you want to participate. This giveaway closes at 11 PM next Wednesday to ensure enough shipping time for Easter.

Just follow the steps outlined below for your chance to win ! 

GIVEAWAY TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Minimum requirements (1 chance to win):

• Be a follower of this blog and add a comment to this post stating you are a follower. To follow, simply scroll down on the right until you see the Follow button in the sidebar. Then join up!

Please do ensure that you meet the minimum requirement or I regret to say that your entry won't be counted.


Additional chances to win:

• Minimum requirements must still be met

• Publish a post on this giveaway in your own blog and link it back to this post (+2 more chances to win)

• Add a link at the side of your blog (sidebar) to my blog. Feel free to use any image from this post if you want to (+ 1 more chance to win)

• Provide a link to your blog in your comment and leave the post/link on your blog for 1 more week after the giveaway has closed for compilation purposes.

Important:

Contest closes 11 PM EST, March 28th, 2012. An online random selection tool (@ random.org) will be used to select the winner. Name of winner will be announced on Lemon Drop at 12:00 PM EST, March 29th, 2012 and a request will be issued to the winner to contact me privately. The winner has 24 hours after winner announcement to contact me and claim their prize.

Good luck to all !

Apple Cinnamon Baked Oatmeal

I love oatmeal.  I eat it nearly every single day.  It is a great source of fiber, low on the Glycemic Index, helps lower cholesterol (though thankfully I don't have any concerns in that area of my health) and is a wonderful way to give you the energy you need to kickstart the day.  Pair it with a food high in protein, such as scrambled egg whites on the side,  and you are good to go.

This dish is not just your everyday morning oatmeal but rather a baked version that is so sweet and delicious you will want to eat oatmeal every day too.  It is excellent topped with some agave nectar and a splash of milk.

The combo of apples and cinnamon are always a warm welcome at our breakfast table.  Who doesn't love that flavor? When added to oatmeal it makes for an extremely heart-healthy and comforting meal.

Irish Barm Brack

As a tribute to upcoming St. Patrick's Day, I wanted to make an authentic Irish baked treat. After some research and contemplation I decided upon Barm Brack.

What is Barm Brack?  It is a dense yeast-bread filled with raisins and currants, spiced with mixed spice and cinnamon and then baked up either as a traditional loaf or in a round cake pan.

The history of Barm Brack  (meaning speckled loaf) actually revolves around Halloween.  As per Wiki and other sites, the Halloween version of Barm Brack traditionally contained various objects baked into the bread and was used as a sort of fortune telling game.  There would be a pea, a stick, a piece of cloth, a small coin (originally a silver sixpence) and a ring all wrapped up individually in bits of greaseproof paper. Each object, when received in the slice, was supposed to carry a meaning to the person concerned: the pea, the person would not marry that year; the stick, would have an unhappy marriage or continually be in disputes; the cloth or rag, would have bad luck or be poor; the coin, would enjoy good fortune or be rich; and the ring, would be wed within the year. Other articles added to the brack include a medallion, usually of the Virgin Mary to symbolize going into the priesthood or joining a convent.

For me, it is just a lovely way to enjoy a sweet yeast bread with a cuppa tea ! I will pass on the convent option. But coins are most welcome.

Double Chocolate Buns

Are these muffins?  Nope.  Cupcakes?  Nope.  These are in fact what the British refer to as a chocolate "buns".  They are a cross between a cupcake and a muffin. They have a somewhat cake-like consistency, though not nearly as sweet yet are definitely richer than a muffin.  They are also frosting-free.  These are wonderful eaten plain and without any fuss needed at all.

They are named Double Chocolate Buns because of 2 types of chocolate in the batter:  Dark Cocoa Powder and White Chocolate Chips (the latter not really being a chocolate at all).

You can make these all in one bowl and you don't even need your mixer as long as you have some decent upper body strength to blend the butter and sugar.  Everything else gets folded in and blended just until combined then baked up for 20 minutes.

These rise up beautifully and your house will be infused with the smell of chocolate. They are tender, moist and hard to resist.  My daughter inhaled 2 while they were still warm.

Chocolate Shortbread

I love shortbread - plain, lemon, cut into bars or triangles.  I love the crumbly dry texture and the heavy scent and taste of butter.
I get a great thrill out of dipping mine into a cup of hot tea.

I cannot recall the last time I made shortbread.  I am like a lot of you and buy the cookies all packaged up in those sweet, red boxes at the local grocery store.  You know the brand - Walkers. Boxes of Walkers shortbread fill this house at Christmas. Yum, Yum, Yum.

But here we are slowly moving into spring and not a Walkers box to be found in my pantry.  What's a girl to do?  This type of situation is one of the main reasons why I love to bake.  When I really want something, when the craving takes over so bad I can taste it, I know that any sweet treat I truly desire is one I can whip up myself in my own kitchen if I choose to do so. How great is that? What a liberating feeling!

And a few days ago I did just that and created a darn good, if I do say so myself, chocolate shortbread.  Yes, these are exactly the kind that melt in your mouth.

The Perfect White Rustic Loaf

Ok let me begin by being honest - I am not a bread person. To clarify, I could eat loads of it but unless I can make a loaf in my bread machine, I rarely dabble in bread making. Main reason? Kneading. Blech. I get no joy out of manual labor. Sure, I could use the knead cycle of my bread maker but I rarely do.  Then I became the owner of a KitchenAid mixer with a dough hook. I haven't looked back since. It is the best thing next to sliced bread, no pun intended.

Which brings me to the recipe I am sharing with you today for a sinfully good White Rustic Loaf. The crust is golden brown, crispy and somewhat chewy. The inside is like biting into a cloud. Serve warm with a pad of butter and some top-notch jam and you will grin from ear to ear. And trust me, you will come back to this recipe time and time again. Seriously, it is that good.

Ultimate Chocolate Chip Muffins

What better way to start off the week than with a fresh batch of chocolate chip muffins. Buttery, cakey, and sprinkled with dark chocolate chips. I absolutely adore these !

Not all muffins are created equal. Some are too dense, don't rise, filled with air pockets or as dry as dry can be. I can assure you these are none of those things. They are perfectly moist, rise high and are a thing of beauty.

I like to sprinkle muffins with coarse sanding sugar right before baking - makes for a lovely shine and delectable crunch. I also recommend topping the muffins with a scattering of chocolate chips too so they stand out really well when baked versus getting hidden in the batter.  A golden top, studded with chocolate chips and shimmering with sugar. You won't be able to resist these when they come out of the oven!

Homemade Almond Milk

Low carb, sugar, gluten and dairy free - how perfect is that?  Sure you can buy store bought almond milk but if you are like me and use it to make protein shakes or smoothies at least once a day the cost can add up quickly.

Why not make your own at home?

Cinnamon Streusel Muffins

I was surfing fellow foodie blogs recently and stumbled across this amazing recipe for Cinnamon Streusel Muffins. They looked simply too good to resist so I filed the recipe away with the intention of making it at a later date.  That "later date" came sooner than I thought when I couldn't get the idea of cinnamon streusel outta my head so without further delay I set about making a dozen of these incredible muffins.

I am so glad I didn't wait longer to enjoy these ones.  OMG, so soft and sweet, spiced just right, and crunchy too thanks to the buttery streusel and the addition of chopped walnuts

Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake

Chocolate heaven in the form of a gluten-free single layer cake. YUMMO!  That is my fancy-dancy description of this sweet treat.  In fact, the family titled it "The Chocolate Monster".  When you take your first bite you are hit with the smooth creamy fudge frosting then your teeth sink into the moist, chocolatey cake.  A double dose of chocolate and who doesn't love that?

The original source recipe comes from my most trusted gluten-free baking cookbook The Allergen-Free Baker's Handbook by Cybele Pascal.

As many of you know,  I LOVE this cookbook!