The Sweeter Side

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

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 ...

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:

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 A...