Sugar and Spice

Friday, March 19, 2010

Spring is pancake time

Every March and April in Ontario marks Maple Syrup season and the best time to make Pancakes to accompany that wonderful deep amber goodness.

And of course...here is a simple, so basic, fluffy pancake recipe:
Fluffy Pancake Recipe

With this fluffy pancake recipe we will try to make pancakes that are lighter, softer, and fluffier. The basic recipe is pretty much the same as every other pancake recipe. The only difference is we add a little bit more baking powder and a little bit less milk. This makes the batter denser and it raises more when we cook it. The result is a nice and fluffy pancake. But that's not all. In the end I have collected and added a few extra tips to make your flapjacks even softer. This recipe will serve 2 people, maybe three, but you can easily double it. But first - what do we need to get started?

Fluffy Pancake Recipe Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup shortening melted

First take a bowl big enough to hold all the ingredients and throw in the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt - all the dry stuff. Then add all the wet ingredients - egg, milk and shortening and stir them into the dry ingredients until you get a moist and even pancake batter.

The batter will probably be pretty thick and this is the way we want it. It might be a little difficult to pour on your griddle or pan, but the pancakes will be fluffier.

We need about 1/4 cup of batter for one pancake. Pour the batter onto a greased hot griddle and make a four inch pancake. You can also use a nonstick pan or a normal pan with a little oil or butter to prevent pancakes from sticking to it.

Cook the pancakes on medium heat. Since the batter is thicker don't use to much heat because your pancakes will turn brown on the outside and will still not be done in the middle. Low to medium heat gives best results. Turn the pancake around when bubbles form on top of it and then cook until the second side is golden brown.

And we are done.

Now for the extra fluffy tricks and tips:

1. Sift the flour - this one is pretty basic and lots of people recommend it. Just sift the flour before you start making your pancake batter.

2. Separate the egg whites from the yolk and beat them - this is an old trick that you can use in any recipe to get softer results. Separate the egg whites from the yolk and beat them until they turn to white creamy snow. Then follow the fluffy pancake recipe except don't add the egg whites to the batter. Only when the batter is mixed and ready slowly and gently stir in the egg whites and then make pancakes.

3. Substitute some milk (1/4 cup) with bubbly mineral water (one that has CO2 gas in it). Use plain water without any additives, don't use flavored ones (well actually you could, but then you would get flavored pancakes :) ). The CO2 bubbles in the water will be released into the batter making it lighter and making even more fluffy pancakes :). If you are bold - some people even use beer for this! Think about beer foam - lots and lots of tiny bubbles.

This recipe from: http://www.thepancakerecipe.com/recipes/fluffy-pancake-recipe/

Till next time,
Pink and Sparkles
xoxo

Friday, February 19, 2010

Writing on the wall

I want to accent a few walls in my house. Right now, I have amazing colour, but its all kinda ... well ...solid, no pizazz. Its small but every room on the first and only floor has a cathedral ceiling.

I was thinking of doing the washroom, but Im afraid that the wallpaper that high up (over 12 foot height), would peel off because of steam accumulation.

Until I can figure it out....here is a bit of a history on wallpaper taken from Wikipedia:

Wallpaper, using the printmaking technique of woodcut, gained popularity in Renaissance Europe amongst the emerging gentry. The elite of society were accustomed to hanging large tapestries on the walls of their homes, a tradition from the Middle Ages. However, tapestries were extremely expensive and so only the very rich could afford them. Less well-off members of the elite, unable to buy tapestries due either to prices or wars preventing international trade, turned to wallpaper to brighten up their rooms. Early wallpaper featured scenes similar to those depicted on tapestries, and large sheets of the paper were sometimes hung loose on the walls, in the style of tapestries, and sometimes pasted as today.

England and France were leaders in European wallpaper manufacturing. Among the earliest known samples is one found on a wall from England and is printed on the back of a London proclamation of 1509. It became very popular in England following Henry VIII's excommunication from the Catholic Church - English aristocrats had always imported tapestries from Flanders and Arras, but Henry VIII's split with the Catholic Church had resulted in a fall in trade with Europe. Without any tapestry manufacturers in England, English gentry and aristocracy alike turned to wallpaper.

By the mid-eighteenth century, Britain was the leading wallpaper manufacturer in Europe, exporting vast quantities to Europe in addition to selling on the middle-class British market. However this trade was seriously disrupted in 1755 by the Seven Years War and later the Napoleonic Wars, and by a heavy level of duty on imports to France.

In 1748 the English ambassador to Paris decorated his salon with blue flock wallpaper, which then became very fashionable there. In the 1760s the French manufacturer Jean-Baptiste Réveillon hired designers working in silk and tapestry to produce some of the most subtle and luxurious wallpaper ever made. His sky blue wallpaper with fleurs-de-lys was used in 1783 on the first balloons by the Montgolfier brothers.

During the Napoleonic Wars , trade between Europe and Britain evaporated, resulting in the gradual decline of the wallpaper industry in Britain. However, the end of the war saw a massive demand in Europe for British goods which had been inaccessible during the wars, including cheap, colourful wallpaper. The development of steam-powered printing presses in Britain in 1813 allowed manufacturers to mass-produce wallpaper, reducing its price and so making it affordable to working-class people. Wallpaper enjoyed a huge boom in popularity in the nineteenth century, seen as a cheap and very effective way of brightening up cramped and dark rooms in working-class areas. By the early twentieth century, wallpaper had established itself as one of the most popular household items across the Western world. During the late 1980s though, wallpaper began to fall out of fashion in lieu of Faux Painting which can be more easily removed by simply re-painting.

And now...pictures:

Till next time,
Pink and Sparkles
xoxo

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Geeks can be pretty too

Anyone who really knows me, knows I'm a bit of a tech geek. I just....get it...everything technological and Im acutually interested when new versions of hardware/software anything is released onto the market. Im the one who programs most of the "tech" things in our house (with the help of my brother for some networking issues).I'm defs not one of those girls who shys away from technology in the least ;)

What's even more amazing to me is the marriage of technology and pretty! For example.....

This low-down taken from Splendicity (a wonderful site who's Gadgenista section is dedicated to tech/pretty items) :
The shoes start out with white in color and it gradually changes to pink, orange or purple depending on the ingredient sprayed on the leather and the amount of UV rays the leather is absorbing.
Currently, the color changing feature can last up to 60 hours. But since that’s just the initial experiment, maybe the Taiwanese researches can make it last longer!

Amazing, right?