Hot Polka Dot
1Feb/128

The Last Cookie.


When you bake cookies it's like some kind of earth-shattering domestic phenomenon. The house fills with the intoxicating scent of fresh baked love all gooey with melted chocolate chips, chewy with oats and sweetly studded with dried cranberries.

Suddenly people from all corners of the home come out of hiding and follow their noses to the source of their mutual adoration. Like hounds who've caught the trail of prey, noses to the ground, tails wagging.

In the course of the next few days, hours, or in some cases minutes, the cookies are greedily devoured. No crumb is safe, no chocolate chip left behind. Gradually the batch is thinned out, the plumpest cookies picked off one by one like lambs to the slaughter. What was once twelve becomes eight, then six, then four and finally one. One lonely cookie sits in what now seems like an immense jar. Once stuffed with its brothers and sisters, the jar is now empty save one survivor.

Days pass and there it remains. The relief of being spared the all too recent massacre wears off and he's left wondering why he wasn't chosen. Was he too small? Was he over-baked? Was he lacking in chocolate or cranberries? No, this isn't fourth grade kickball.

No one wants the last cookie because no one can bear to put an end to the deliciousness. No one wants to be the one responsible for depriving the others of all that sugar and love. Once the last cookie is reduced to crumbs you know it will never fill that void inside when you crave another and realize that's it.

4Jul/1136

Sunsets and Suntans.

It's officially Summertime. There's always time when we're on Summertime. It's like a magical time zone where days are long and nights are cool. Where sunsets are made of cotton candy clouds and violet watercolour skies. Where the grass is green and the flowers greet you with a smile. Where the popsicles are always cold and the the sun is always hot.

The sun wakes up at 5am and doesn't go to sleep until 11pm. You can stay in bed til noon and still have enough time in the day to get everything done. People mow their lawns at 11pm and go grocery shopping at 7:30am.

Nap in the comfort of the warm sun. Let your ice cream melt. Roll down the windows and let the warm breeze get tangled in your hair. Get a sunglasses tan. Have dinner at 9pm. Track sand into the car. Get dirt under your nails. Who cares? We're on Summertime!

In the spirit of lazy Summer days I've made Cherry Almond White Chocolate Ice Cream. Pink and sweet just like a sunset.

10Feb/11Off

Oh Happy Day!

Today is a two fold celebration. Hot Polka Dot turns one and yours truly turns twenty five!

A year ago today I decided it was time to explore this new passion of mine. I opened my recipe box as well as my heart and was met by a flood of wonderful people. A few of you have been around since the humble beginnings of my little pink food blog. You watched me struggle with custard, yell at bread and divulge some tried and true family recipes. Most of you are relatively new to my corner of the internet. Old friends and new friends, I appreciate you all more than I can express. I am so thankful for your lovely comments, sweet emails, and helpful suggestions. Starting this blog was one of the best decisions I have ever made and I am so excited to begin year two!

I thought long and hard about what type of cake to make for this happy occasion. Something that was indicative of my personality and also at home on Hot Polka Dot. As you well know I am in love with lemon. That much is obvious. You may not know that white chocolate is my favourite type of chocolate even though it doesn't have cocoa and isn't technically chocolate. Even stranger still is that I actually kind of hate buttercream and instead prefer cream cheese icing. So here we have it. Lemon White Chocolate Whisper Cake. A delightfully light white butter cake with a hint of white chocolate, filled with lemon curd and topped off with sinfully smooth vanilla cream cheese icing. And of course I couldn't forget the polka dots! That would be silly.

I decided not to be selfish and extend the celebration to all of you! You may not get a slice of this cake, but you do get a chance to win this lovely polka dot apron. It's got ruffles. It's got a pocket. It's got a bow. It's even got adjustable straps. What more could you ask for? A Hot Polka Dot Mom original made just for you! Many of you were admiring the pink and black one I was wearing in my video and now you can have one of your own! Just think, you could make this adorable polka dot cake while sporting your pretty polka dot apron!

Aaaand...

As if that wasn't enough, I'll also throw in a $25 Bake It Pretty gift certificate. You could buy lots of cool goodies like Black Polka Dot Paper Straws, Orange Creamsicle Baker's Twine and a Cakewich Silicone Baking Mold. And these Dashing Dot Baking Cups even match the apron! The cuteness is almost too much handle!

30Jan/1139

Oh My Darlin’ Clementine.

  I present to you the magnificent clementine. So sweet and adorable it fits in the palm of your hand. They appear tiny, innocent and unassuming but the scent and taste that explodes out of this fruit is a welcome surprise.

Everyone has a particular way of eating one. A routine. A ritual.

The glossy orange skin gives way when you pierce your fingernail through to the golden fruit hidden beneath. A fine mist of juice laces the air and fills your senses with the delicate orange fragrance. The skin is pulled back and discarded in one continuous spiral to reveal tiny sleeping segments huddled tightly together. Tenderly peel off the bits of pith clinging stubbornly to the fruit and separate the segments one by one to devour them in sequence.

I look forward to clementines every Winter. Our local grocery store has been unlucky enough to be devoid of any edible batch of mandarins or clementines all season. They've all been either unripe or overripe. Except now of course. Sweet relief indeed!

To celebrate I thought I'd make some cookies. White Chocolate Clementine Cookies.

Now please excuse me while I continue my love affair with this cute little orange.

24Aug/1036

Crash.

I'm sick of being sick.

I've been flat on my back eating nothing but handfuls of chicken noodle soup and crackers. Before you start to wonder how exactly you go about clutching a fistful of soup let me distract you with these cookies.


Feel better?

Me too. For now. Otherwise I'd still be asleep and not sharing this recipe with you.

Funny how sometimes you feel worse after starting a course of antibiotics than before. I'd almost rather take my chances with my ear infection than take another one of those giant pills. Almost.

It's the ten day antibiotic crash diet. Emphasis on the word crash.

All the cool kids are doing it. Lose ten pounds in ten days. You'll be half conscious while shuffling around the house like a zombie in wrinkled pjs and sporting unwashed bed head, but hey you'll look fabulous.

Ok so this is getting a little random, a smidgen bitter and my head is starting to feel a bit fuzzy so I'll just shut the heck up and let the cookies speak for themselves.

12Jul/1017

Blondies, Who Knew?


So there I was in my kitchen, my mouth hanging open in a frozen gasp and my eyes popping out of my head. It was one of those eureka moments. You know the one. Brownies not made of dark or milk chocolate but white chocolate. I'm clearly a genius.

Not.

Then I was left with the difficult task of naming my brain child. Whities was a bad choice for obvious reasons. Plus they wouldn't really be white. It's kind of difficult to bake white food. So beigies? No, that's just lame and rather hard to pronounce.

Naturally I couldn't get it out of my head. So I googled it like a good obsessive compulsive person and, to my great disappointment, I not only found a name for them but also found they already existed. Blondies. There's not much left in the world that someone hasn't already thought of. Silly me. I never would have thought of that.

Blueberries were on sale. I like blueberries. Blueberries and white chocolate go together nicely. So there you have it. Sometimes it's best you don't over think dessert.

25Jun/1011

Good For What Ails You.

I get the hiccups. Quite frequently. It's an annoyance. It's a curse.

Now let me be clear. We're not talking those aw-isn't-that-cute-she-squeeks-like-a-mouse kind of hiccups. We're talking feels-like-I've-been-kicked-in-the-throat-by-a-workhorse-gasping-for-breath-like-I'm-drowning kind of hiccups. These are grown up hiccups people.

The man to hold the world record for the longest case of hiccups is named Charles Osborne who had the hiccups for a full 69 years. That's right. I googled it. Experts estimate he hiccuped 430 million times in that time period. By my calculations that's approximately 17,300 hiccups per day and 12 hiccups per minute. I don't think I've ever had hiccups for longer than 69 minutes and a mere 10 minutes into it I was already about ready to rip my hair out.

I know all the remedies. Oh, you think you're so smart. You think you have one I've never heard of. You don't. I've swallowed spoonfuls of sugar with no results other than a mild sugar rush. I've rather awkwardly attempted a headstand which only ended in falling in a heap on the floor and bruising my knee. I've drank glass after glass of water upside down and backwards which only seemed to make it worse. I've had people scare the crap out of me repeatedly and the hiccups always return. And so on and so forth...

My problem is I have hiccup days. I hate those days. Most people get hiccups once, they cure them and they don't have to worry about it for the rest of the day. That would be nice. With me I seem to go days without getting the hiccups and then one day I get them several times. The hiccup fairy comes and goes as she pleases all the while driving me batty. It's like a cruel joke. I rejoice in curing one case of hiccups only to have to deal with yet another half and hour later. Even worse, the cure I used on the last case of hiccups doesn't ever seem to work on the next bout.

The only similarity between all those hiccup remedies is distraction. Of course if you drink a glass of water upside down you're going to be more concerned with spilling water all over yourself than the hiccups you're curing with it. If you eat a slice of lemon you're going to be too busy making that attractive puckered sour puss face to worry about your hiccups. If a certain someone throws out their arms and screams at you suddenly in their thundering baritone voice you're going to be trying so hard not to pee yourself you're not even going to remember you had hiccups.

I've heard you get hiccups from worrying about something. That might explain it. I get hiccups once and I spend the rest of the day worrying so much about them returning that they do. It's a catch 22. Curse you hiccups! Why must you plague me?

Now onto something less crazy and more tasty. These White Chocolate Apricot Mousse Lace Cups are the polar opposite of those cursed hiccups. Well sort of. They aren't annoying. They aren't embarrassing. They aren't downright uncalled for.

They are pretty. They are adorable. They are definitely delicious.

Perhaps they are the unsung cure for hiccups. Only time will tell.

7Apr/101

Spring Shenanigans.

I'm sitting out here in the sunny backyard, my computer in my lap and my White Chocolate Strawberry Dessert in hand. Sounds dreamy doesn't it? Yes, yes it is. The birds are singing. The sky is blue. The grass is turning green. The breeze is lazy and refreshing. The temperature is perfectly mild. It makes me sleepy it's so relaxing. It also makes me consider planting my very own herb garden.

The three of us went to the park the other day. I can't tell you how good it feels to finally be able to walk around in jeans and a light sweater and not have to worry about getting frost bite. That might not sound warm enough for you, but that's my favourite weather. Spring is my favourite season by far. We just hung out on the swings and made a ruckus on the play structure then we got slushies. It was the best afternoon.

It's hard to believe that this time next week we might have snow on the ground. Mother Nature should just make up her mind already. Is it Winter or Spring?

I am so looking forward to fresh local strawberries, blueberries, cherries and peaches. That's my favourite time and those are my favourite fruits. For now it's imported strawberries for my Strawberry Curd.

30Mar/106

Know What I Mean, Jelly Bean?

I'm in an honest sort of mood so I think it's about time I confessed a few things.

I have never used unsalted butter in any recipe though most of the recipes I've posted on here call for it. I'll tell you a little secret about butter. If the recipe calls for salt then you can just leave it out and use salted butter. You might have already known that but recently it was a little personal revelation of mine.

I am frightened of yeast. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I wake up in a cold sweat after a nightmare about being chased by rising bread dough. I've just never made bread and I'm a little intimidated by it. It's like one of those things you put off for so long you feel like you'll never get around to doing it.

I've never been so organized in the morning that I actually remember to take my butter or cream cheese out of the refrigerator to allow it to reach room temperature like it always needs to be for every recipe. Microwaves are wonderful things aren't they? Although mine seems to be angry with me for whatever reason. When I push the 4 it inputs a 3. Yeah, because that's what I really meant to push, microwave. Thanks.

Also, I used leftover frosting to top off these cute cupcakes. Don't hate me if I don't make everything from scratch every single time ok? Please? I made way too much icing for those Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes the other day and I just can't bring myself to throw out something as yummy as that White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. I hate waste but I love these Vanilla Jelly Bean Cupcakes. I think you will too.

29Mar/102

Chocolate Cubed.


There's something to be said about chocolate. But triple chocolate? That leaves me speechless. We need to invent some new words or something.

Supercalafra-delicious. Expialid-ohyeah.

That works, but it's still lacking somehow. They're just stupid delicious people. Trust me.

Funny how the English language tends to fall flat like that sometimes. It just fails to describe what you actually feel. It's times like that I just stand there with my mouth hanging open. All the better to shove cookies into it my dear. Or I just gesture wildly with my hands while making tortured squealing noises.

I mean you're not going to refer to the fall colours as pretty. That just doesn't cut it. You're not going to bite into a fresh juicy peach and call it tasty. It's not even close. You're not going to inhale a lungful of summer breeze scented with heat and wildflowers then say it's good. You get the picture.

Chocolate cubed. Delicious to the power of three. So it's ok to eat them three at a time right?

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