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Vancouver Sun

Cook This: 3 dessert recipes from Crave, including vanilla sheet cake with strawberry buttercream frosting

Our cookbook of the week is Crave by Calgary-based sisters Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby, who co-founded the Prairie bakery of the same name. Article content Article content Jump to the recipes: raspberry crumb loaf, oatmeal milk chocolate toffee cookies and vanilla sheet cake with strawberry buttercream frosting. Article content Carolyne McIntyre Jackson and Jodi Willoughby have worked together for 20 years, but they've been sisters and friends for 50. 'Everybody always says, 'I can't believe you can work with your sister.' And we always say, 'We grew up on a farm. If we weren't getting along, we had no one to play with,'' says Willoughby. 'We just have such a high respect and regard for one another that we make it work.' Article content Article content After graduating with degrees in food business management and community rehabilitation, respectively, McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby founded the first Crave bakery in Calgary in 2004. They now have four locations in Calgary, one each in Edmonton and Saskatoon, and a seventh opening in Kelowna in June — their first new store in 12 years. Article content Article content 'We like to say we had a purposeful pause while we raised three kids,' says McIntyre Jackson. (She has one and Willoughby has two.) Now that their children are grown, the sisters are moving into their 'non-active' parenting phase. 'We can let it fly a little bit.' Article content McIntyre Jackson and Willoughby started Crave with a cache of family recipes, including their grandmother's chocolate cake and their mother's buttercream icing and vanilla cake. In their cookbook debut of the same name, they share more than 70 recipes they've developed over Crave's 20 years, including the never-before-published buttercream frosting that's won them many devoted fans. Article content Article content There's been much speculation about a secret ingredient in their buttercream, also known as their 'superpower.' McIntyre Jackson stresses that there's nothing covert about their recipe. The foundational vanilla version calls for just four ingredients: icing sugar, whipping cream, butter and vanilla extract. (She thinks it's the salted Calgary-made Foothills Creamery butter they've used from the start that sets their frosting apart.) Article content Article content After kicking off the book with how-tos, including icing a two-layer cake and dipping cookies, and homemade pantry items, such as ganaches and custards, they launch into 12 of Crave's celebrated buttercream frostings, which readers can make their own by adjusting the amount of sugar, adding colour or using different extracts and mix-ins. Article content Amid the flawless buttercream swirls, candy-coloured sprinkles, cupcakes, cakes and cookies, one of the book's full-page photos shows a patchwork of their family's handwritten recipes filling the frame. McIntyre Jackson says it was important for them to capture. They grew up on a farm outside of High River in southern Alberta, where the baking of their grandmothers, aunts and mom was a constant.