Christmas Baking

Every year, I bake goodies for my family, friends, and neighbors. This year I had some help from my sister and a friend. Here is what we made....

1. Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

2. M&M Christmas Cookies

3. White Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies

4. Tate's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Click on the captions for recipes

Here are my notes and modifications...

1. I follow the recipe exactly. So simple and yummy!

2. I made the following modifications to the original recipe: I mixed in only 1 cup of chocolate chips and pressed Christmas colored M&Ms right when the cookies came out of the oven. 

3. I added 1 cup of Toll House's white chocolate chips instead of making the frosting to go with it. You might want to add 2 cups if you like it more chocolately. (I got the idea to make these from some cookies saw in the bakery at Ralph's Supermarket)

4. My friend had shown me this recipe that she found on Goop (Gwyneth Paltrow's Blog). She came over and helped me bake these. We used 60% cocao chocolate chips from Ghirardelli. 

Baking Jewelry

I LOVE ETSY!!!

You can find all sorts of cool things on Esty. While helping my sister find a Harry Potter necklace, I ran across some really cute baking jewelry. Here's what I found...

Cupcake Pan and Whisk Necklace

Tea/Coffee Cup Necklace

Cupcake Earrings

Pretzel Earrings

There are just some of the neat ones I found. They are all soooo cute!!! The pretzel earrings remind me of the ones I was suppose to get while I was at Oktoberfest in Germany. Having one to many steins prevented me from getting them and it would be just silly to get them here. 

Homemade Chai Tea

I LOVE TEA! One of my favs is Chai Tea.

I gathered all the ingredients, most of which I had on hand already or could find at any neighborhood supermarket. The only one that gave me trouble was cardamom. I eventually found it at Whole Foods Market but it came with only a few seeds and cost about $2.99. Luckily for me, there is an Indian Market nearby where I work. I went there and found a big bag of cardamom for $6.99, which is a much better deal. I used the English Breakfast tea I got from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is a blend of Darjeeling and Ceylon black tea.

I used this recipe I found online. It turned out nice but I prefer my tea a little more stronger and spicier. The next time I made the tea, I let the spices simmer longer to get more flavor and steeped the tea a little bit longer and it came out much better! The recipe still needs some perfecting but it'll do for now!

Halloween Cupcakes (Organic Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes)

Sorry this post is way late but here it is....

This year, I decided to get make Pumpkin Ginger Cupcakes. I got the recipe off allrecipes.com. It got 5 out of 5 stars and people could not stop saying wonderful things about this recipe in the reviews. Boy, they were not lying because these cupcakes were amazing! They were moist and perfect with cream cheese frosting.

I would describe them as a hybrid cross of cupcakes and muffins. They were hit during Halloween and Thanksgiving! I'm sorry I can't find the pictures I took of these cupcakes.

My Halloween was too much fun this year. I went up to SF with a couple of girlfriends. Three straight up crazy nights. One of them being the night the Giants won the World Series. The city went nuts, and it was awesome being part of the celebration!

Thanksgiving has traditionally been at my house every year. This year my sister made the pumpkin pies while I made the stuffing. Here is the recipe I used. The whole family came and we ate as usual. Luckily, leggings are in right now. You get to wear stretchy pants and look fashionable at the same time!

I love this time of the year because its the start of the holiday season!

Extraordinary Desserts

This past weekend has been a blast! It was Veteran's Day weekend so lots of people were off since Thursday, including my friend Sandok. We were suppose to go up to SF this weekend to see Mayer Hawthorne in concert and at a meet and greet. Unfortunately, matters beyond our control prevented us from heading up there. Luckily, we were still able to get tickets to the LA show, which was AMAZING!!! I'm officially a Mayer groupie!

We took advantage of our days off by also going shopping and to the San Diego Zoo. I've only gone to the Wild Animal Park. It was fun seeing all the animals. Sandok got lots of great pictures.

Munching Giraffes

Sleepy Koalas (Brings me back to Australia)

Hungry Hyenas (reminded me of Lion King)

Playful Otters (I wanted them to hold hands!)

After the zoo, we needed an afternoon pick me up. I couldn't be in SD and not stop by Extraordinary Desserts! We decided to go to the one on 5th Ave. since it was the closest.

We got a couple of desserts and drinks and sat outside to enjoy them and the view. All in which were wonderful!

Apple Tart

Chocolate Banana Tart

It was quite the eventful weekend. Sadly, its over now and its back to work tomorrow morning. 

Blueberry Sauce

Wow...its been a long time since I blogged last! I just got so busy in August, then I backpacked all over Europe in September and into October, then took some time to recover, and now I'm working full time. Sorry for my absence, but I'm back now and ready to update, so watch out for post coming at you like rapid fire. Here's the first one...

Blueberries = my favorite berries

Why blueberries rock because they are...

• deliciously wonderful
• packed with antioxidants
• a great source of Vitamin C
• a great source of fiber
• a great source of maganese
• smile friendly (their seeds don't get stuck in your teeth)
• have no fat

Blueberries are a great summer fruit. I can easily eat an entire pack in one sitting, they are that addicting. Nature's candy for sure! Blueberries are wonderful all by themselves but they are also great as a sauce. It's quite simple to make... All I did was melted some rock candy sugar, throw in the blueberries and added some corn starch to thicken the sauce and tah dah! I made the sauce for a friend's BBQ. Since I was crunched for time I bought some lemon pound cake and ice cream to serve with the sauce. 

Norcal Getaway

I recently had a long weekend getaway to Norcal. The reason, or rather excuse for us to make our trip, was to visit UC Berkeley. My sister will be applying for colleges this fall and I was applying for Optometry school, so we wanted to check out the school. I used to think I wouldn't like Norcal, but the more I visit, the more I see myself living there, for a while at least. The weather was really nice while we were up there. This was probably the warmest summer I've experienced in Norcal. Anywho, here are the places I encountered during this weekend. First stop, the Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley...

Cheeseboard

This place is a lunch hot spot in Berkeley. They only make one type of pizza and one type of salad per day and its completely vegetarian. The only option you have is how many slices you want. They always give you a tiny half slice with whatever order you get. They have a variety of bottled drinks and simple sweets also. On the day we went, the pizza had roasted corn, bell peppers, garlic, and cilantro. The salad consisted of organic mixed greens and a sesame dressing (I think). We sat at a table outside and enjoyed our pizza and the beautiful weather.

 Walking back to the car from Cheeseboard, we saw a sign for a cupcakery and decided to go up the steps to the hidden shop called...

Love At First Bite

Their cupcakes and baked goods at had a really simple and homemade look and feel. I love the fact that they make mini cupcakes. We got a dozen of them with various flavors, red velvet, lemon, strawberry, and chocolate. We also go a regular sized chocolate pistachio. These cupcakes were not a top favorite of mine but they were tasty. They aren't as sweet and decadent as other cupcakes out there. They had a very light flavor and sweetness.

After our first two stops, we left the Gourmet Ghetto and headed to UC Berkeley's campus to explore and check out the school. We stopped by the local Urban Outfitters and American Apparel. From there we headed to an ice cream palor in Oakland called...

Fentons

I was most excited to go here, the original Fentons Creamery. I've always heard lots of great things about this place. I also found out that it was in a scene in Up. Sadly, I've never seen Up, but it is definitely on my to-do list. I could not wait to try their handcrafted ice creams and sauces. There were six of us and we decided to be adventurous and get the banana special substituting the regular chocolate for Swiss milk chocolate and pineapple sauce for cold caramel. Those 3 lbs. of ice cream and toppings were amazing!

Now off to San Fran for the next day, where my sister and I spent the day walking around, shopping, and of course, snacking! We started the day off by meeting up some friends in North Beach for brunch at...

Caffe DeLucchi

It was a nice cafe with outdoor seating. Since the weather was so nice, we sat outside. My sister and I shared the eggs Florentine and the granola and yogurt parfait. Our friends had the eggs Benedict and the crab cakes Benedict. All of it was quite delicious. I still prefer Mama's but this place is a close second.

(Sorry I don't have any pictures from this place)

Our last night in Union City, my aunt took just my sister and I out to dinner to catch up with us. We went to a restaurant in Milpitas called...

Banana Leaf

This place was cracking! There were just three of us and the wait was about 40 mintues. I had never had Maylasian food before this, and the best way I can describe it is that is a hybrid cross of Thai and Indian food. Every dish had lots of flavor. It was a good dinner and good time with my aunt.

(Sorry no pictures from here either!)

We spent the last day of our trip in San Jose. We went to the Great Mall, where I saw the funniest store, 5.7.9.! Immediately, when my sister and I saw it, I turned to her and said, "1. 3. 5." The reference is the movie, Mean Girls. I wish I had gone into the store to see if they really only sold sizes 5, 7, and 9. That would be have hilarious! Later that night a friend took me to a speakeasyesque bar called...

singlebarrel (nope, that's not a typo)

This place has a roaring 20's feel to it. After the bouncer checks your idea, you take a stairway downstairs to a dimly lit bar. All the bartenders are dressed in vests and ties. My friend happen to know everyone that worked there. The staff was super friendly and so where the people at the bar. The first drink I got was an English Cosmo. The bartender recommended it. All I know about it is that is had gin and crushed cucumers in it and it was really good and really refreshing. It was a little on the sweet side for me that night. I wasn't in the mood for sweet for some reason. The other drink I got that night was an Old Fashion, and I definitely liked this one. It's probably one of my favorite drinks. It pretty much bourbon with a little bit of sugar and bitters garnished with a lemon peel. A cool thing they did was put a big ball of ice instead of large ice cubes. I forgot the first drink my friend got but I remember it didn't quite match my taste in drinks. I do remember his second drink was a Pisco Sour, which was nice. The raw egg whites in the drink scare me a bit though. It was a fun night, I can't wait for my friend to come to visit, so we can get craft cocktails in Socal!

(Again, sorry no pictures from this place!)


My trip could not have been any better! I got to go to all these yummy places, see my aunt and cousins, meet up with friends, spend time with my sister away from home, get away from the stresses of my everyday life, and clear my mind. I can't wait to make another trip back up to Norcal soon!

Magnolia Bakery: LA (updated on 8/16)

The article I read to find out about the new location opening had said that Magnolia Bakery was going to be opening on 3rd St. in Santa Monica but it actually opened at the Beverly Center. I have changed this post on 8/16/2010 to reflect the truth. Sorry for the intial mistake!)

I just found out from a friend that a Magnolia Bakery has opened up at the Beverly Center in LA. How exciting! If you didn't already know, the original is in NYC. (There are several locations throughout NYC now also) Magnolia cupcakes are pretty much the starters of the cupcake craze. They are also known for their old fashion desserts. I haven't been to the NYC location, but you betcha I will next time I'm there. I can't wait to check out the new location in Los Angeles!

Banana Foster

I suppose banana fosters are considered to be a fancy dessert. Maybe because of the fact that you can flambé it. I'm not too sure if the procedure of flambéing does anything to the flavor of dish. It might be just purely for visual effects. 

Anywho, it is one of the simpliest desserts to make. I used Alton Brown's recipe (Bourbon Banana Foster) when I made it.


I made the following changes...
bourbon --> rum (that's what I had on hand)
under-ripe bananas --> really ripe bananas (that's what inspired me to make this dessert. I didn't want to be wasteful and throw them away.)


It came out great! The bananas and sauce were nice and caramely. My plating and presentation is not anything spectacular since it was just a normal weekday night and I just wanted to do a quick dessert for my family.  However, you can really dress it up by putting it into a martini glass and sprinkling some cinnamon or nutmeg on top and adding a garnish.

Apple and Pear Dumplings

I used to work at a restaurant that had an wonderful dessert. It was an apple dumpling served with vanilla ice cream and a caramel sauce. Yesterday, I went over to my friend Sharon's house and we decided to make a recreation of this dessert. I used a recipe for pear dumplings in a recipe book onewishfulgeek gave me. We used apples in addition to pears also. There was plenty of pastry shell left over so we made leaves to decorate the apples and pears. Initially we forgot to brush on the egg wash (to make the pretty shine on the pastry) but we took them out and added it half way through.

They turned out really nice! We served it with some Haagen Dazs Five Vanilla ice cream. (If you haven't tried this, you must! One of the best packaged ice cream out there! I love the coffee one!) The apple and pear dumplings were a lightly sweet and comforting dessert. Sharon still has my recipe book, so I will post the recipe once I get it back from her.

(30) Days of Music Complete

(finish line) 

I've finally finished my mini music blog. Wow, was it hard to keep up! It's done now though, and I'm glad. It was lots of fun, but lots of work. It was cool to go down memory lane with some of the songs. I didn't like a lot of the themes, so I just changed them. Hey, it's my blog, I can do whatever I want.


Now that the music is over....back to baking! I have a free day tomorrow, it will be filled with studying and baking a new dessert! I'll keep you posted, as always!

Crown Cake

Recently past was my friend, Kinh's, birthday. My friends and I went up to LA, where he lives, to go out and celebrate with him and I thought I would make a cake for the occasion. I decided that I wanted to make him a crown cake. The reason why I wanted to is because we  always pronounced his name as "king." And what do kings wear? Crowns, of course! To get ideas on how to make the cake, I Googled crown cakes and came across a blog that had a recipe and directions for this cake. Here is the direct link to that page.











The cake was quite simple to make. I decided to make a one layer red velvet cake (it just seems more royal to me) with cream cheese frosting. The crown part is made of sugar cookies. You can use any recipe for rolled sugar cookies. I used a template from the recipe to get that shape. You can decorate with any candies and frosting you like. I used the tips of the ears of green bunny peeps to decorate this cake, because that was all Kinh had at his apartment. He liked the cake and it was a great late night snack!

The Start of (30) Days of Music

(music to my ears)
Today, I am starting (30) Days of Music. I will post a song for each day in May. (Yes, I know there are 31 days in May, but there is a bonus song so that will be posted on the 31st.) I got the idea from Sandok who go it from dhuynh. This should be fun and it'll make me update my blog more often so yay! From now on the link to the (30) Days of Music page will be at the bottom of my blog page also. Please do enjoy!

Cookie Dough Galore

A while back, my aunt needed me to make her a LARGE amount of chocolate chip cookie dough because it was back ordered from supplier she normally orders from. I made over 100 pounds of cookie dough for her. The dough was huge and I had to put it in 2 garbage bags. Pictured above is 1/2 the batch in 1 bag. I put an egg next to it so you can see how much dough there was. Thank goodness for places like Smart & Final, where I bought industrial size bags of flour, brown sugar, white sugar, and chocolate chips. RIP the wooden spoon that broke in the process. I had to resort to using my hands. It was a lot of hard work, but it was fun. I was glad to help my aunt out.

The Twin's Birthday

Yesterday was the birthdays of my friends, Debbie and Donzumoto, and yes they are twins. Since we were going roller skating, I decided to make them cakes in the shape of roller skates. I recruited our friend Sharon to help with the cake.I went with Trader Joe's Vanilla Cake Mix and I wanted to prep the cake by baking it in the morning. However, I was disappointed with the cake. It was much to buttery and it was stuck in the pan, even though I buttered and floured the pan. The only thing that worked out were the cupcakes I made with the mix since they were inside paper cupcake cups. Anywho, this has happened every time I use this cake mix. Future note to self, don't buy this cake mix anymore! I ended using a Duncan Hines Vanilla Cake mix, which came out perfect.
While the cake was cooling, we made the filling and frosting for the cake. Since strawberries are in season and such a good price right now, I decided to go with strawberry fillings. For one of the cakes, I used Martha Stewart's recipe for Strawberry-Cream Cheese Filling and added it some sweetened whipped cream. I did that to make the filling more fluffy. For the other cake, I used the recipe for the filling/frosting from this recipe for Strawberry and Cream Cake.
Once the cake was cool, I cut it into 2 layers and Sharon cut the body of the roller skates. We also cut off the edges of the cupcake tops to make them perfect cylinders so they could become the wheels of the roller skates. Then we frosted and filled each cake. Next, we used fondant that I had prepared a couple nights ago. The body of the skate was covered with purple fondant and the green fondant was used for the wheels and decorations and laces. The cakes turned out to be so cute! The cake was light and sweet.

Sharon and I ran into some trouble while making the cake. The frosting was much to fluffy to cover the cake with and place fondant on top. This caused holes in the fondant that we had to patch up so our end product was not as smooth as I would like it to have been. I knew we should have used buttercream frosting, but I was pressed for time.
Regardless, the twins loved the cakes. My friend Megan also made 2 cakes for them. She made a Better Than Sex Cake. It was a chocolate and caramel cake topped with whipped topping and chocolate toffee bar crumbs. It was rich and decadent. The other cake she made was a White Chocolate and Raspberry Cheesecake, which was also rich and creamy.

Roller skating was lots of fun. It was a total flashback of middle school skating parties! It was also cool that I got to bring over the Jonas Brother party plates and napkins I found at Target for only 50 cents each pack. The plates were nice and big, which was great because each had to fit 3 pieces of cake and some ice cream on it. What a sugary night!

Sharon - thanks so much for helping with the cakes! Love ya! Muah!
Twins - Hope you guys had fun! Love you both!

Southern Supper

My friends, donzumoto and Debbie, hosted a souther supper where we all brought a dish. Here was the menu (click on them for the recipes)...

Garlic Shrimp with Cheesy Grits (donzumoto)
Spinach Salad with Goat Cheese, Dried Cranberries, Pecans and a Strawberry Vinaigrette Dressing (tasteedonut)
Fried Chicken and Waffles (Debbie)
Mac and Cheese (me)
Mini Cornbread Muffins (Megan)
Lemonade Cocktail, Wine (Sharon)
Blueberry Tart, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, Pineapple Gooey Butter Cake (Megan)

Everything was delicious! It is always fun to meet up with old friends and have a nice meal together. I reck'on we will have another dinner real soon!

Before I end this post, I want to talk a little bit about the desserts. The blueberry cream pie was perfect. It wasn't too sweet and the filling was light and fluffy. Megan had told me that the recipe for the Gooey Butter Cakes is from Paula Deen from the Food Network. Both desserts were fabulous! I will have to try making the Gooey Butter Cakes myself sometime!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 5, The End)

After the Bona Vista Lounge, Sandok dropped me off at a bar called Goat Hill Tavern in Costa Mesa so I could meet up with some friends. It was my first time there and it was crowded. It's a sports bar with pool and foosball tables, shuffle board, dart, and etc. They have an outdoor patio where you can throw your peanut shells on the floor and its ok! I love doing that! We all shared some pitchers and played some games. No one every believes me at first that I am good at foosball, and I totally owned that night. It was really nice to end my spectacular day hanging out at a nice, chill bar. It was also great to see so many friends throughout the day, especially the ones who are home for spring break!

That was my Fun Spring Day! The weather was beautiful that day and thanks to everyone who was a part of it!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 4, Revolving Lounge)

(elevators)
After our mac & cheese dinner, we went to the Bona Vista Lounge at the Westin Bontaventure Hotel. Its on the 35th floor (the top floor) so we had to take the red line elevator up there. The elevators are cool, because the face outward, giving us a great view of downtown during the ride. Also, you might recognize the hotel since it was in several movies, such as True Lies and Rush Hour.
Anywho, back to lounge talk. The lounge is unique because it is revolving, so you can potentially get a 360 degree view of downtown if you stay long enough and boy, is it a gorgeous view! Only the seat area of the lounge moves and at first it seems pretty slow but once you have some drinks in you, it seems to get faster. The funny part about the lounge revolving is that the bathroom seems farther or in a different spot since you last remembered.
The lounge is decorated with retro red furniture and real dim lighting. It has a nice and quiet atmosphere. It was extremely quiet the night I went but it might be because it was a Thursday night. You can order drinks and food at the lounge and they have a happy hour (but I forgot the hours). I had ordered a chocolate martini and boy, was it stiff! I had always heard they were good and indeed it was. It was like an alcoholic chocolate milk. Sandok had ordered a strawberry daiquiri in a souvinere boot cup that he got to keep. The cocktails were the typical LA pricing ($12-18) but they have a very good pour. The Bona Vista Lounge is a cool place to go once in a while or to bring someone who is from out of town.

A Fun Spring Day (Part 3, Mac & Cheese)

(Mac & Cheeza)
After both bakeries, we went to grab some real dinner at Mac & Cheeza. I had discovered this place randomly on Yelp! and since I LOVE mac & cheese and it got good reviews, I had to give this place a go. They have been compared to Pinkberry in the way their place works. You walk up  to the counter to order in these steps.

1. size (ranges from Baby Mac ($5) to Mac Daddy ($25))
2. noodles (rice noodles or elbow macaroni) - I prefer the traditional elbow macaroni

3. base sauce (cheese or soy cheese) - how nice of them to consider lactose intolerant people!

4. add-in toppings (different veggies and meats, each $1)
5. topping (melted cheese blend or spicy toasted walnuts) - they have different special toppings each day

I had gotten a baby mac with rice noodles, tomatoes, spinach, and chorizo and a cheese blend topping. It was delicious! It has the perfect ratio of gooey-ness and baked crustiness and the cheese blend on top makes its extra cheesy, yum! Mac & Cheeza also have bottled drinks, which are all only $1. I had gotten a cucumber soda, which was really nice and refreshing. You could really taste the cucumber. I had gone back with another friend and I had gotten elbow macaroni, regular cheese, chorizo, tomatoes, and cheese topping. I thought it was better than the first time I had it! I absolutely love this place!

Their concept is real simple and the food is great. Though it is more of a take out place, they do have some benches to sit and enjoy our mac & cheese. At the end they have a regular trash can and a recycling bin for the bottles. Plus they decorated with macaroni art, who could resist a place like this!

A Fun Spring Day (Part 2, Cupcakes)

After the teahouse, I met up with Sandok to head to downtown LA. We were going to pick up his sister and get dinner in downtown LA. Before dinner, we decided to hit up 2 cupcakeries.

First was Big Man Bakes. I absolutely love this bakery. They are known for having super moist cupcakes and a real simple menu with just the classics. I was lucky enough to meet the owner at a cupcake challenge I went to in February. He has a very interesting story about how he ended up in the baking world. Anywho, I love the fact that they sell mini cupcakes in addition the the regular sized ones. I had gotten 6 minis (2 lemons (they were a special that day and one of my favs), 2 old schools (yellow cake with chocolate frosting), and 2 double chocolates to share with my siblings and a couple friends at home. Of course, I couldn't not get the red velvet, which I got in a regular size because they ran out of them in the mini. They were all delicious and extremely moist. I'm a big fan of Big Man Bakes!

(Sorry! I forgot to take a picture of the bakery while I was at Big Man Bakes)

The other place we hit up was Babycakes, which is a vegan bakery that originated from NYC.Their baked goods are refined sugar, gluten, wheat, soy, casein, and egg free. They use a sweetener made from agave. I got a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. It was pretty good for being vegan but it still does not compare to a regular cupcake (texture and taste-wise). It was a little more dry and less sweet. They do something cool that I haven't seen at other bakeries. They sell day old cupcakes 2 for 1. I had gotten 2 of them (1 vanilla and 1 red velvet). I didn't get to try those out since my siblings got to them before me, which is quite alright since I had bought the cupcakes for them. Babycakes not only has cupcakes but lots of other completely vegan baked goods (such as muffins, brownies, etc.). I would love to go back and try some of their other stuff.