Hello Kitty Cake

Look what I found! The first themed cake I have ever made. It was a couple years ago, and it was for my cousin Allison's 4th birthday. She loves Hello Kitty, so my sister and I decided to make her a Hello Kitty cake.
I wasn't as familiar with cake decorating back then, so I googled how to make one. I used this site for general directions and templates. I used this site for examples/models of what I wanted my cake to look like.

Here is what I did differently...

• I made strawberry cake b/c its pink and its 2 layers
• Instead of a fruit roll up bow, we cut a bow out of the scraps of cake left after cutting out the main face
• We made our own decorating icing for the facial features. (We made it from 1 tbsp. of butter, 1/4 cup milk, and then we added powdered sugar until it was the consistency we wanted. It was still a little runny. I got this recipe from my mom's friend, but I would probably go with a different recipe next time.)
• We also had extra cake mix for some reason I can't remember now, so we made cupcakes to go on the side. We made 4 cupcakes b/c Allison was turning 4. 

My sister and I were impressed in how well it came out. We were just kinda winging it. I had work that day so I didn't get to my cousin's her reaction to the cake, but everyone told me that SHE LOVED it! (There's a picture of her and the cake. Isn't she adorable!) She wanted us to make another one for her past birthday, but unfortunately, we didn't get to see her around that time. Maybe this year, and this time I will experiment with using fondant to decorate instead of icing.

Brownie Competition

It was my cousin's birthday yesterday and we were going to our grandma's for dinner with him. My sister and I decided to make brownies for our cousin. This is where the brownie competition begins....but let's go back in time a bit so I can tell you why it started. We once had this recipe for some amazing brownies but we lost it. My sister tried to remember and recreate it a while back....total fail, they were not good. Now we are back to yesterday, when she decided was going to try again. I decided that I would find a easy and quick recipe just in case hers turned out "not so great."
We had everyone at dinner try both brownies to see which they liked better. Each brownie was different. Mine were chewy and soft and more dark chocolate-y and had walnuts. My sister's was more cake-y and milk chocolate-y with chocolate chips. Most people liked my sister's brownie taste but they liked my brownie texture. My sister made the mistake of baking the brownies in too small of a pan and baking it twice, so they are rock hard today.
The compettition was all in good fun and hopefully someday we will stumble upon that great brownie recipe once again!

Here is the recipe to the brownies I made.

(I followed the recipe exactly but baked it in 9x9 inch pan instead of a 9x11 pan. I also sprinkled chopped walnuts on top of the brownies instead of mixing them in.)

I liked the recipe and it was definitely really easy but I would reduce the 1 cup of cocoa powder to 1/2-3/4 cup. It was really chocolate-y. The brownies were also very dense. I like my brownies to be an intermediate between cake-y and chewy.

I gotta keep on searching for the perfect brownie recipe!

A Random Saturday Night

Tonight I went to Garlic Jo's for a friend's birthday dinner. I had been there once before and at that time I ordered the garlic ice cream at the end of my meal. I remember that I couldn't taste the garlic-ness of the ice cream, so I ordered it first before my meal this time. Life's short right?! Dessert first! The garlic ice cream had really disappointed me because it still wasn't really garlic-y. However, the food is pretty good there, except somethings could have been more garlic-y, like the ice cream and their pastas. The garlic bread had lots of garlic topped on it and was really good. A friend had the seared Ahi and that was delicious. I had the garlic chicken, which was pretty good too. (garlic picture)

(Kogi truck picture)

THE KOGI TRUCK was in my little city tonight!!! I had heard a lot about it for a while now. Most people have told me that the tacos are overrated and overpriced for what they were and all the hype about it. Since it was coming to my area, I had to try it for myself. It was almost a 2 hour wait but I thought it was worth it. They had ran out of burritos, so my siblings and I ordered tacos (short ribs, spicy pork, and tofu) and the blackjack quesodilla and the kimchi quesodilla. Seriously, they were BOMB!!! It was all so good, but we couldn't finish it all. Luckily the guys in line before us told us that they make great leftovers. The kogi tacos really are the perfect blend of Mexican and Korean cuisine. I don't want to describe exactly what the tacos and quesodilla were like so that you can try it for yourself and see what the hype is all about. You can find their menu and planned stops for the week on their website but their Twitter has the most up to date whereabouts.


SHOUT OUTS:

Thanks to onewishfulgeek for being my first follower! And thanks to mimz61 for being my second follower! Love you girls!

Holidays 2009

Every Christmas, it's a baking frenzy at my house. 

This year I made cookies for the Nguyen Annual Christmas party with the help of DJ Sandok and Zakuraba. We made snickerdoodles and white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies. Zakuraba had a great idea of rolling the white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies in cinnamon sugar. They were DELICIOSO! We had lots of fun baking and listening to the GLEE soundtrack :) Everyone at the party loved our cookies!

Thanks for the pic, DJ Sandok!

I also attended the Twin's Annual Christmas party. It was great seeing all my high school friends. I made them all cute little cake pops. Thanks to Bakerella for the idea; they were a huge hit!

My versions were French vanilla cake covered in semi-sweet chocolate (I just melted regular Toll House chocolate chips with some shortening). Then I topped them off with Christmas sprinkles. They were simple to make but they do take some time. Luckily you can always remelt the chocolate.

I can't wait to make more for other occasions. They're fun to make and look soooo adorable!



I also had a request from a friend to make a pecan pumpkin cheesecake pie, so I decided to make it and give it to him as a Christmas present. It is a layered pie that I baked in a spring form pan.

This is where I got the recipe and directions but I made some modifications.

Here's how I made it....
1. Glaze the pecans (like the recipe above but I didn't dip each one seperately, because that would have taken forever! I dumped all of the nuts in and picked them out one at a time)
2. Gram cracker crust and bake (I used the crust from Paula Deen's Pumpkin Cheesecake recipe)
3. Pecan pie layer and bake (I used the recipe above)
4. Pumpkin cheesecake layer and bake (I used Paula Deen's recipe) Because I used a different recipe, I had a lot of filling left over because it was meant to be in a springform pan alone. You can either reduce the recipe to half or do what I did. I made another gram cracker crust and made an extra pumpkin cheesecake!
5. Decorate the top of the pie with glazed pecans (Instead of completely covering the top of the pie with glazed pecans, I used them to cover a crack that formed and make it into a "K" because my friend's name starts with a K.)

I got to try some of the pie with him and his girlfriend. We enjoyed our slices with caffe lattes. The pie is quite rich and decadent so you definitely need a glass of milk or cup of coffee with this pie!

BOO! Cakes

For Halloween, I made ghost cupcakes. Reynold's used to make cup cake cups called Fun Shapes but they got discontinued a while back. What a shame! Anywho, I had bought these ghost shaped ones and didn't end up using them until this past Halloween. Aren't they cute?!? I just used white cake mix and store bought frosting for this occasion. Back then, I had recently just gotten back from my cousin's wedding in Canada. So instead of using mini M&Ms for the eyes and mouth, I used Smarties (foreign candies similar to M&M's but they have a fruitier and crispier shell), which I like better.

My First Fondant

I made fondant for the first time in back in July of 2009. Well I didn't actually make real fondant, I made marshmallow fondant. It was super simple and the ingredients were easy to obtain. Regular fondant has glycerin as ingredient and I was having a hard time finding it. That's why I went with the marshmallow fondant instead.
The only hard part was kneading in the different colors. As you can see from the picture I made a polka dot Sweet 16 cake for my little sister.Not bad for my first time, huh?!

Btw, it was a red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting :) 

CLICK HERE if you want to go to the site where I got the recipe and directions

The Birth

Happy Birthday, Sweet Nothings!

I did quite a bit of baking during the past holidays, so my first few posts will probably feature some of my past creations. Get ready cuz they'll be a comin' soon!