The Sweeter Side

Oooh Oooh Oooh~! Savory Monkey Bread

2011-10-29T15:48:00.000-07:00

I owed my co-worker $5 because of a bet we made. So I opted to make monkey bread for him instead. The pictures are kind of blurry, but overall this is a solid crowd pleaser. It wasn't complicated to make. I need to remember to put it in a shallower pan next time though! I was lucky this time to get a picture. This usually is gone before I could get one.

Happy Birthday: Pumpkin Mocha Mousse Cake!

2011-10-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Last year for my birthday, I wanted to make a sponge cake of some sort. I ended up making a monstrous spongy blob of creme and berries. Basically it failed. This year I decided to make a pumpkin mousse cake after being inspired by eating a mousse cake my friend got for her birthday a week before.

It says "Happy Birth!" My friends came over to decorate it with me. The "H" in "Happy" was melting so it kind of folding into itself by the time they could put it on the cake. I think it looks beautiful though! :D This cake seemed to be a success. There were some people who asked for seconds. (:

I need to definitely work on taking better pictures. My parents recently bought a new camera, but I haven't quite figured out how to use it yet.

Overall my 22nd birthday was great. :D

The 3 Little ENEPIGS

2011-09-29T19:13:00.000-07:00

I am currently working at a printed circuit board company as an Administrative Assistant to the Director of Marketing and Sales. I was given an opportunity the last two weeks to work on a presentation for a class my boss is giving at a local industry convention. Ron, the Sales Manager, came up with this quirky little story analogy for the different surface finish options. The presentation we put together was a huge hit! Everyone really enjoyed the pictures and the humor we put into it.

I also learned how to do some 3D modeling with Google Sketchup in a week and a half. The learning curve was steep but I am pretty proud of what I ended up producing. I also worked on 2D images with labeling as well. I think I will be learning how to do 3D modeling and animate in Maya next to help create a series of webinars!

"Adventure is Out There!" Shoes

2011-05-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

I love Pixar's Up. I also love cheap shoes from Payless. (:

I actually drew on these before painting over them with acrylic. I used fabric markers the first time and while they looked good, I was slightly disappointed by the lack of pop! and color! So a few weeks later I sat down and redid them. I have actually been stopped while I'm out by people who think they are awesome. I am proud of how they turned out.

The Final Product

The Process:

You can see what I had before on my right shoe. (Above)

Completely covered over the previous drawing. (Above)

I am a sucker for painting clouds and trees. >: (Above)

Last picture before the final picture. (Above.)

I don't have pictures on the sides as I got too lazy after completing the front. :P

Old Artwork!

2011-05-11T16:14:00.000-07:00

Monkey Bread!

2011-05-09T13:25:00.001-07:00

MONKEY BREAD IS AMAZING. It's so fantastic to eat and easy to make! A winning combo HANDS DOWN. This bad boy of butter and sugar only lasted a half an hour at work before everyone finished it off. People have been asking for more already. (:

Dumbledore's Lemondrop Swirl Pastries

2011-04-02T08:16:00.000-07:00

I made these for Marylou for her birthday. She recently got the Unofficial Harry Potter Recipe Book and wanted me to choose something in there to make for her. She had chosen the Cinnamon Swirl recipe (I forget the Harry Potter-ish name it was given). I had found a Cinnamon bun recipe that used a lemon flavoring instead that I wanted to try out for a while. I figured I could make that for her and name it something awesome!

We ate nearly half before I remembered to take a (bad) picture of it. Haha. The lemon flavor was AMAZING. I definitely think I prefer that flavoring more than regular Cinnamon buns. I made the dough and sauce from scratch. It was intimidating because I am not experienced with bread making. It turned out a lot better than I thought it would. It was well worth the anxiety and early morning.

"Don't Chai To Resist" and Milk Chocolate Cupcakes

2011-01-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

I tried to start off the new year by adjusting my sleeping schedule so that I would wake up at 6. My hopes is that I would end up being more productive waking up so early, and so far I have been right! School didn't start yet so I had to fill my time with something...(:

The Chai cupcakes came out really great. The flavor wasn't as weak as I thought it might've been cause I didn't have a lot of Chai tea to use. I am really proud of these because of the chocolate designs I did. They were really last minute touches so I'm relieved they came out well. Hopefully they go over well with the staff at the Multicultural Center, where I am now accepted back into as an intern! :D I'm so incredibly excited.

Happy New Year Everyone! (: Don't hesitate to ask for recipes. I got these from my cupcake book.

"Don't Chai to Resist" Cupcakes

Organic chai flavoured cupcakes with honey, topped with vanilla whipped cream and milk chocolate.

Milk Chocolate Cupcakes

Chocolate cupcakes with a milk chocolate ganache, coconut, vanilla whipped cream.

Sweet Potato Tempura Sushi

2010-12-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

I had a sushi making night with my roommate and my friend the other night. I wanted to try making a Shrimp Tempura Roll and a Sweet Potato Tempura Roll. Sadly I was really hungry so I didn't think to take a picture of the Shrimp Tempura Roll! Anyway, the Sweet Potato Tempura Roll turned out amazing. I definitely want to enhance it further by making a special sauce and pairing it with asparagus or another vegetable the next time I make sushi.

Sweet Potato Tempura Roll

Tempura fried Sweet Potato, avocado, cucumbers and topped with sesame seeds.

Nutella Buttercream Cupcakes

2010-11-21T13:58:00.000-08:00

I bought a HUGE jar of Nutella, which is more than I definitely know what to do with so I tried to use it in a cupcake recipe. The cake itself is a box cake, but I spaced out for a bit and mixed it for longer than it said by 1-2 miinutes and the batter turned out a-mayyy-zing~! It tasted like I made it from scratch, fluffy and moist. I have tried making a buttercream frosting but it has never turned out this good before. I added a lot more cream than the recipe called for and it made the texture a lot lighter. I ended up putting way too much nutella because I made the Boyface taste it instead. All in all, definitely an easy and solid cupcake. Everyone enjoyed it a lot.

Nutella Cupcakes

Yellow cupcake topped with a Nutella buttercream.

Nutella Truffles

2010-11-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

I didn't end up taking a picture of my cake as I was very disappointed with the whole thing.

But! I did make these yesterday. I found the recipe in my roommate's cookbook and just decided to substitute the melted chocolate you use with Nutella. This was actually very simple to make and there are a lot of recipes just on line if anyone is interested in finding out how to make them. I think it worked out pretty good, but it really doesn't taste any different than if you just took a spoonful of Nutella and ate that. Haha, but that's fine, the presentation still awed people.

Nutella Truffles

Topped with Roasted Coconut and Hazelnuts.

The Prepartion: My 21st Birthday Cake!

2010-10-13T11:47:00.000-07:00

I'm anxious, insecure, and lost in my life lately. So to make sure that I appreciate and love myself too, I decided to make myself an amazing 21st birthday cake!

I've always always LOVE sponge cake over everything else, just because the texture is light, airy, and sweet-enough. I also wanted to move away from just using strawberries and chocolate just because I've done that many, many times already. I have to find a more creative and challenging way to try those flavors before I do them again.

I know I definitely will be using a sponge cake just because I love it so much. It's also something I've been wanting to successfully make for a while. My family also loves sponge cake because it fits their asian palette better. I gotta make this cake edible and appealing to others too, because there's no way I can finish by myself!

I found a sponge cake recipe that I thought would work. The video for this wasn't very good, but the recipe was though! I added the video at the end as well, just in case you would like to see what the process looks like any way. It'll help you see what the batter should look like at certain stages. (:

Sponge Cake
1 cup All-purpose flour; sifted
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 eggs; room temperature
6 tablespoons melted better
2 tsp. of vanilla
350 degrees; 20-25 minutes

Preheat and prepare the two 9 inch rounds. Grease the bottom of the pans only or line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.
Sift together the flour and the salt in a separate bowl.
Mix together the sugar and the eggs in a metal/heat-proof bowl until incorporated. Place over a water bath until the sugar dissolves. Do not keep on the heat for so long that the eggs start to cook.
Use electric mixer and beat the eggs until pale yellow and fluffy. The batter should look light and run down in slow ribbons. Add in vanilla and slowly add in the butter. This step should take about 10-15 minutes. Do not over beat!
Gently fold in the flour. Do not over beat!
Pour into the prepared cake pans and bake.

Tips!

Make sure that equipment is spotless! Any residue will affect the volume of the eggs and therefore the texture of the cake when you bake it. It will make it flat. ):
Don't over beat! Over beating the batter will make it clumpy and not smooth at all, which will again give you an undesirable cake texture.
I would suggest letting the cakes cool in the pan. I flipped them over on top of a cookie rack, just so that there would be less of a chance that the cake would deflate as it is cooling.

The Execution: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

2010-10-08T16:12:00.000-07:00

I made them and they took foreverrrrr. They turned out pretty nicely and they tasted great. I didn't do the sugar designs like I wanted to, choosing instead to put coconut because I figured it would look better. I also added a 1/3 cup of coconut to the batter. The lemon filling I think is a must just because that's where the kick of lemon comes in. Definitely a good cupcake, but time consuming. D:

Banana Nut Muffins

2010-10-08T15:51:00.000-07:00

I made banana nut muffins the other day in between waiting for the cupcakes to finish up. I was super de-stress baking yesterday after my microbiology midterm.

I used my favorite recipe for this and it's worked every single time. This is my favorite recipe It doesn't take a very long time to prep and make either. So it's definitely great for students (like me!) who try to keep bananas around for health but ends up being too busy to eat them. The obvious solution is to just turn it into muffins. It last longer and it's a lot more convenient to bring to school.

The recipe is also really versatile too. I added a lot of nuts to the muffin and took away the crumb topping It turned out wonderful.

I hope these pictures are a lot better. I tried out two different ways of editting them.I'm trying to put more effort and time into them. :D

The Preparation!: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

2010-10-07T13:41:00.000-07:00

So the Boyface's birthday is tomorrow and I wanted to make something he would enjoy and share with people in celebration of it. I had three flavors he liked in mind for cupcakes (1) oreo (2) peanut butter cup and (3) lemon. I decided on the lemon because I rarely if ever make anything that is citrusy. The desserts I make always end up with an element of chocolate. :P

So I am using the book Cupcakes by Shelly Kaldunski for the different components of this cupcake and a website recipe.

Lemon Cupcakes

Bake for 18-20 minutes @ 350 degrees F

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon room temp. unsalted better

2 room temp. large eggs

1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

1/2 tsp lemon extract

1/4 cup sour cream

Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt
In separate bowl: beat sugar and butter together with electric mixer (2-3 minutes)
Add eggs, lemon zest, and lemon extract, and beat until combined
Add flour mixture (1 minute)
Add sour cream and beat until combined

Lemon Custard Filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 egg yolks

3/4 cup water

1/3 cup lemon juice

2 tablespoon butter

In a large saucepan or double boiler combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix well, then add the water
Do NOT mix the water with the egg yolks. Beat the yolks separately.
Heat on med stirring constantly until thick and bubbly. Mixture will be VERY thick.
Temper water mixture into the yolks slowly until you have incorporated half of the mixture into the yolks.
Pour the yolk mixture back into the pan and cook for exactly one more minute. Remove from heat and blend in the lemon juice. Then blend in the butter and beat for 30 seconds.
Cover with plastic wrap until completely cooled.

Meringue Frosting

3 large egg whites

1/2 cup sugar

2 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon light corn syrup

1/2 teaspoon extract

In clean heatproof bowl: Combine egg whites, sugar, water, and corn syrup.
Hold bowl over a simmering pot of water
Stir constantly until sugar is dissolved
Use electric mixer on high, beat mixture until glossy and voluminous (5 minutes)
Add vanilla!
Use right away, can torch the tops slightly.

Caramel Designs

1 cup of sugar

cook on medium-high heat until amber in color
make designs on parchment paper
let cool and peel off
Decorate!

Sushi: The Basics and the first Specialty Rolls

2010-10-04T01:00:00.000-07:00

I don't really have updated pictures of the sushi skills I have been working on for a while. The last picture I took was of the California rolls four years ago featured in the first blog post.

I had my friend L!zerd take some fancy pictures for me. I hope to print these out and try to get a job at a sushi place. I think this shows I have a little passion for the cuisine right? :P

California Roll

Imitation crab, avocado, and cucumbers.

Eel Roll

Grilled eel, avocado, and cucumbers.

The Bear

California roll with baked Salmon.

Topped with spicy mayo sauce, roe, and green onions.

The Polar Bear

California roll with baked Salmon.

Topped with mozzerella cheese, spicy mayo sauce, roe, and green onions.

The rolls were a lot easier to make than I thought they would be. The Bear and the Polar Bear are very similar. The foundations of both are simple California Rolls. I put the toppings on and then baked both for 350 degrees for about 15 minutes. Then under broil for 3 minutes (watching it closely of course!).

The only difference between the two is the cheese, which surprisingly, made it delicious! There's nothing more beautiful than getting that long and hot delicious cheese string when you pick up a sushi piece. The stringy-ness of the cheese added something new to the usually soft texture of the sushi. I will make this again. (:

My taste-testers said it was like what is served in the restaurant. This definitely indicates that I improved since I started to make sushi. (: I hope to make other familiar and popular specialty rolls next time, like the Dragon Roll or the Tempura Roll. Pictures and experience will definitely be provided!

The First Gift Painting!

2010-09-24T11:52:00.000-07:00

I bought a bunch of different sized canvases lately hoping that I would be motivated to do something with them. I decided to paint something for the boyfriend, J-Sunface. He loves cars and he drifts, so it's fitting that I would paint his 240 SX.

This is the reference picture of his beloved Silvia, the one with whom I compete with for his love. She's the same age as I am too! :P

The canvas is gridded and I started to sketch the car. I am using a reference because cars are something I don't really draw at all. It is about 3:25 am when I took the picture below!

I forgot to take the next few steps of the painting soooo let's just jump to the final stage. His mom had the painting framed. I may replace the picture with a better one in the future. I think this was not bad for my first car and oil painting. This was finished over three weeks back in July. (:

Let's Catch Up!

2010-06-20T11:50:00.000-07:00

Here are most of the things that I have done within the last four years. I'm missing quite a bit but this gives you a good enough idea, no? (: I do need to be better at taking photos of things though. :P

Crafts

Food

California Roll and Maki Roll

Imitation crab, avocado, and cucumbers.

Salmon Onigiri

Rice, salmon, furikake, and seaweed.

Honey Walnut Shrimp

Batter-fried shrimp in sweet mayo glaze with pineapple and walnuts.

Desserts

Banana Nut Crumb Muffins

Chocolate cake with Strawberries

Crispy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Vanilla Cream Puffs

Fried Wrapped Bananas with Mocha Almond Fudge Ice Cream

Southeast Asian Tropical Cupcakes

Jackfruit, banana, and peanut cupcake with a cream cheese frosting.

Topped with peanuts and shredded coconut.

Sponge Roooooll Cake

Vanilla sponge cake with coffee-flavored whipped cream and strawberries.

Vanilla sponge cake with coffee-flavored whipped cream and dark chocolate.

Version 2.0

Black Forest BING! Cherry Cupcakes