Cake Pops 2

I decided to make more cake pops since I had some store bought icing left from last time. I thought it was suppose to last 3 months but read the label again and it said 30 days. Darn! Had to throw it out.

Luckily the cake was kinda moist that it held together as a ball so I didn't use any icing. I didn't go out to buy because the icing would be wasted since I'd use less than 1/3 of the icing.

I crumbled a cake that I froze previously and made into balls. I put them in the freezer to firm up.

Bel Cafe

Georgia Hotel finally opened up their cafe. Prior to their renovations, they had an amazing cafe with extraordinary desserts. It was called Senses. After they closed, I haven't found many comparable to that. I would describe their desserts like eating a cloud...that luxurious!!!

So when walking home, I saw Bel Cafe opened and walked in to see their desserts. I was disappointed with the selection since there were only 5 items....cheesecake, various pound cakes, lemon tart, dark chocolate hazelnut raspberry vanilla mousse and white chocolate something coconut. And macarons.

I bought a pistachio macaron. It was ok. I think I've had better. It didn't have enough pistachio taste compared to what I had from other bakeries.

I've started to develop a taste for macarons. Though a bit sweet, I love the airy texture. My favourite is pistachio. Actually it's the only one I've tasted since I find it too expensive to try all the flavours and end up always picking pistachio.

Cake Pops

I bought Cake Pop recipe book over a year ago (before my New Year's resolution). I've been wanting to try it but timing didn't work. It's got great pictures that I love looking at the pictures.

Muffin, Cake and Brownie

Tonight I felt like baking so I baked. If I had a big freezer and ingredients at home, I'd bake more things. Actually ingredients is no problem since Safeway is opened til 12am so my problem is storage. I don't like wasting food, that unless it is eaten, I can't make more.

Tonight I made three items but will only blog on two of them. I made a pound cake, spinach corn muffin and brownies.

WE Coffee

I was craving Japanese crepe on Tuesday. I've become kinda addicted to it since eating it at Harujuku in Tokyo. It was soo good!! Anyways the Japanese crepe place was closed. I found out that it closes on Tuesday.

So then I decided to have waffles at Michi Waffles but it's was closed. It is no longer operating. Wonder what happened cos it was quite busy?

So continued walking until I reached WE Coffee. WE means West End.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had a craze for cookies and making cookies. Right after university exams and before Christmas, I'd make three or four types of cookies. My dad said it's because after studying and writing exams, holidays were anti-climax and so I would bake to not be bored. I just kinda thought it was for sentimental reasons when my mom liked to bake for the Holidays so I was recreating that. Or simple I loved cookies that I wanted to eat them. Mine friends used to call me Cookie Monster cos I would be willing to be late for class just to buy a cookie (from Cookies by George).

Anyways, I stopped baking cookies so regularly because I experienced baking other things and really enjoyed making those other things eg bread and cakes.

Today I wanted to send some baking by mail as a gift to my brother for his birthday. Cookies were the easiest to send so decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookies from my favourite book.



I made their chocolate chip cookies before and thought it was good but too sweet. I decided to try again to see how it taste.

First I mixed flour, salt and baking soda.



Then in another bowl I mixed melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar. I reduced the white sugar by 1/4 cup.

The recipe said that the trick to successful chewy cookie is melted butter. The cool thing about America Test Kitchen is that they test ideas and recipes in order to give the best baking or cooking advice!!!

Again, I don't like how butter is measured by sticks in this book. I don't use sticks or tablespoon when measuring my butter!!!

Anyways, I also added vanilla extract. The vanilla extract I used was a vanilla bean infused vodka.
See the vanilla pods?



Put all the ingredients together.


Then mix until it becomes thick which takes about 1 to 2 minute.




Add 1 egg and 1 egg yolk and mix for 30 seconds.




Then add flour and mix for 30 seconds again.



Then add chocolate chip. I should have used semi-sweet but instead I used milk chocolate chips. I like milk chocolate more but was worried it might be too sweet so wanted to use semi-sweet. However had no choice because Urban Fare sold a big bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips for $5.99 and a small bag of milk chocolate for $3.99 and I only had $5 with me. So had to buy milk chocolate chips.

This recipe instructs that you roll 2 tablespoon of dough into a ball. Their rationale is that the edge of the cookie will be smooth and even. I personally prefer dropped cookies rather than rolled so next time, I'll just drop the dough onto the baking sheet.



After baking, let it sit on the pan for 10minutes.



Then enjoy eating or let it cool on a wire rack.



Final Thoughts:
The cookies were crispy outside and moist/chewy inside. The chocolate chips were slightly melted. Yum-mee!!!

They were really good cookies. I would still reduce sugar a little more because it's still a little too sweet for me but would make it again!!

This is a recipe you have to share because it uses a lot of butter. I guess butter is necessary to make the cookie crispy.

The book stated is if you want to freshen your cookies to make it crisp, put it in the oven for about 3 minutes.

Well, gonna enjoy my cookies!! Mmmmmmm...

Baked Brownie

Last night, I was suddenly in the mood for something chocolatey. I decided to make brownie from a recipe book called Baked the New Frontier of Baking (side note: I didn't buy any new recipe book because I'm trying to keep up with my 2011 new year resolution BUT I didn't say that I wouldn't borrow books from the library and photocopy them hehe).

It's been mentioned in O magazine as a favourite and America's Test Kitchen as one of the best brownie.

Cupcake Relay

I took a cupcake class. Not that I needed it but the recipes sounded interesting. I guess I could have gone to recipe books but I also thought I'd see some cupcake decorating.


The class was taught by Chef Clarence Ma.

It was a two day class. On the first day we made:
Limoncello with Limoncello icing, chai latte with chai frosting and tangerine cranberry.

Day 2 we made Banana Rum Foster and Chocolate Guanduia Pyramids with Chocolate Ganche. We also made lemon curd and vanilla buttercream frosting.

The recipes were easy to make though quite rich as it required butter and shortening. One thing that I discovered was the shortening is more stable than butter. As well it's cheaper. However the shortening we usually buy (Crisco) has hydrogenated fat which is bad for your health. Instead he used shortening that's for vegan so no problem with hydrogenated fat. Good to know. Wonder if will work for pie and puff pastries (that's my next plan of attack).

Saltine Cracker Toffee

I've had this couple of times as part of a cookie platter during Christmas. I've always love it. It's rather sweet but if you have a sweet tooth like mine, it's very yummy!!

It's very very easy and quick to make and most of the ingredients might be already at your house so if you're suddenly in the mood for something sweet, you can whip this up in 15 minutes or less. Definitely need to share or freeze because it so good, it'll be hazardous to your health. (yes, you can freeze it!)

Method:
Grease a big sheet. I used a jelly roll sheet. Then lay 40 Saltine crackers in the pan, right side up. I used Premium Plus.


Mix 1cup of butter and 1cup brown sugar in a saucepan.


Let it boil for 3 minutes.


Pour on sugar mixture on the crackers. I found it quite hard to pour evenly but I guess it doesn't matter since it'll be completely covered in chocolate very soon.


Bake in a pre-heated oven at 375F for 5 minutes.

Remove from oven and sprinkle semi-sweet chocolate chip immediately.



Let it sit a few minutes then spread chips evenly. It will spread like peanut butter on toast. Because the chocolate is spread evenly, it doesn't really matter if the sugar mixture is so even (at least that's my opinion).


I sprinkled ground pistachio nuts on half of it and left half without nuts. Let it cool and voila! Enjoy!

Store in an air tight container. You can freeze it and enjoy it when you get the sweet muchies!!

Warning:
It's so addictive that you might eat it all or since it's so easy to make, you might it too often.

Coming Soon Red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting!

Update: OMG! It was even better today. I ate so many pieces, I think I may have to go for a walk! I noticed that the crackers that had the sugar/butter mixture had a soft texture. It almost tasted like graham crackers. The crackers without but still had chocolate was crunchy but still very good.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Crafts

Wow.....I've blog 3 topics tonite! I made a thank you card and some chocolates to someone who helped me with my career and get me where I am now.








Here is some pics of my work! The pistachio white chocolate turned out really were and is very popular!





Man, this blog is ugly. dunno how to make it attractive.