Easy Valentine’s Day Recipe

Valentine's day can be a little cliché - a box of chocolates being one of the biggest. I don't know about you, but I've always appreciated romance a lot more when effort was put behind a gesture. This Valentine's day treat your loved one with a sweet surprise that will not only please both your palates, bellies and chocolate loving souls, it will make it more personal and memorable (besides, we all know the fastest way to win a person's heart is through their stomachs). Sweet Surprise #1 Ingredients: 1 Read more [...]

Condensed Milk-Free Coconut Macaroons

I'm not a fan of condensed milk. There, I said it. I feel a lot better now! Why add all that extra fat and sweetness to a coconut macaroon??? After researching alternatives, this is the recipe I concocted to create gluten-free macaroons! Ingredients: 1 whole egg 4 egg whites 1/4 cup honey 2 tbsp coconut flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 package sweetened shredded coconut Pre-heat oven to 350°F In a small bowl whisk the whole egg until smooth. Add honey, coconut flour, Read more [...]

The “Brake” Recipe

What's brake, you ask? It's a combination of a brownie and a cake- that's apparently what you create when you forget to add baking powder and baking soda to your recipe! It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! Ingredients: 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 1 cup white, granulated sugar 1 cup cold milk 1/4 cup Nestle chocolate powder 1/4 cup Ghiradelli unsweetened dark chocolate powder 3 large eggs 1 and 1/4 sticks softened butter Steps: *pre-heat oven to 350°F 1. Cream butter and sugar with your Read more [...]

Eggless Dark Chocolate Pudding

Today I remembered I had left over heavy cream and decided to make dark chocolate pudding! Feel free to substitute the dark chocolate with milk chocolate, but make sure you reduce the sugar by half to compensate sweetness! Here's an original Shakar Bakery recipe! Makes 4 servings. Ingredients 1 cup milk 2 cups heavy cream 1 cup coconut sugar 1/2cup unsweetened Ghiradelli dark chocolate 2 tbsp Corn Starch 1/2 stick organic butter Pour milk and heavy cream into a sauce pan and Read more [...]

Ginger Vanilla Pudding

Today was a very atypical day: I had a sweet tooth. Ironically, this is very rare in my life. However, if there's one thing everyone should know, I am a HUGE pudding fanatic. So there I was, craving something sweet, when I decided I wanted pudding. I opened my fridge and I saw that I had all the essential ingredients: milk, eggs, and butter. I didn't feel like using corn starch (I was having a lazy night), so I decided to use flour instead as my emulsifier.Why? Only because I was feeling too lazy Read more [...]

Rose Water Macaroons & Pistachio Custard

I recently came across a delicious frozen pistachio custard recipe, and I decided that rose water macaroons would be a perfect combination for this! Naturally, I headed over to my kitchen and started to experiment with ingredients. A lot of times, I bake without using measurements ( in Armenian, we say this is measuring by eye, or "achkee chapov"), but this time I paid attention so that I could share the recipe! I also don't have a huge sweet tooth, so I tend to go light on any added sugar. I made Read more [...]

Diabetic Friendly Chocolate Cupcake Recipe

This week I have a cake order for an anniversary in the form of a pool table. The husband is diabetic, but the wife is not, so she asked me to bake a regular cake for the pool table, and to make the pool table balls (cue balls) diabetic friendly. I decided to make mini-cupcakes for the cake. Always curious to find new recipes, I searched online until I found the one I'm about to paste. I also went to Whole Foods market in search of a sugar substitute. I found the usual xylitol and stevia, but I have Read more [...]

Covering A Cake With Fondant

When I started my business, my biggest challenge was learning to properly cover a cake with fondant. I either rolled the fondant to thick, or I pulled the fondant too quickly and tore it and had to start all over, or (every decorator's nightmare) I overworked the fondant and it refused to behave! True story, this happened to me at around 1am when I was working on a baptism cake. The fondant refused to spread properly, and I was unable to purchase more fondant until 8 am the following morning. The Read more [...]

Fried Rice Cupcakes

Do you and your significant other like to stay home and order Chinese food? Then this is the perfect gift to your loved one on Valentine's Day (or any day you want to make them feel special)! At Shakar Bakery, we take pride in renovating ideas, and creating something different. Who wants to receive the typical chocolates and stuffed toys? I know I don't. Get creative, think outside the box... These mini-cupcakes look like fried rice, but taste like a mouth-watering rice krispie's treat! The Read more [...]