Posted in baking, dessert, shopping
A fantasy turned into reality for cupcake lovers out there…now you can make your very own supersized cupcakes with the Wilton Giant Cupcake Cake Pan now available at Sur La Table. I can’t wait to get one of these! And to top off your creation you can get the jumbo sized sprinkles at Sur La Table too!
Jumbo sprinkles (on left)! They thought of everything!
Posted in life
Don’t worry there are no spoilers in this entry! I just finished the final book of the Harry Potter series the other night and as much as liked reading how everything happens in the end, I couldn’t help but feel a little sad that there wouldn’t be anymore books. I’ve been reading Harry Potter since highschool and now it feels like a chapter has ended in my life as well. Funny, how it makes you feel like its the end of an era. But, anyway if you haven’t read any of the books, I suggest you do! At least for now, I can still look forward to the rest of the Harry potter movies. Yay!
One of my favorite shows on the Food Network is Ace of Cakes. I love this show mainly because you get to see the inner workings of the Charm City Cakes bakery and see the crazy fun people who work and create these fantastic cakes. I was browsing the Charm City Cakes site, and found a few cakes that I really liked. My only wish is that one day I can be as artistic and creative enough to make my own awesome cakes.
I love how they were so detailed with the newspaper and the mallets!
Nice Taj Mahal replica
I love this one! Qudditch for the Harry Potter fans!
Sushi cake!
Ok, so a couple months ago I was at Trader Joe’s and I thought that it would be great idea to make a website where people could review the different products that they sell at there. The light bulb in my head lit up when I thought about the countless number of times I found myself standing in the aisle and staring at a product trying to decided whether or not I should try it. And it doesn’t help that this Joe guy keeps labeling everything as “great” or “tasty”. Don’t get me wrong, I love Trader Joe’s and most of their products are great, but every once in awhile I stumble upon something so far from great that I get disappointed. Yesterday, to my astonishment I found my idea already up and running! Someone thought of the same idea and beat me to it…which is great because its less work for me, but I still would’ve liked to be the sole person to create this ingenious website. The website is called Trader Joes Fan, and it does a good job of categorizing reviewed products, the only cons are the site could look a lot better and there aren’t that many reviewed products. But for now it shall suffice and hopefully it’ll help me with my future purchasing decisions.
Posted in dessert
My aunt just came back from Rome and brought me some Italian milk chocolate as a souvenir. I normally don’t like milk chocolate (I’m a dark chocolate fan myself), but much to my surprise this was probably some of the best tasting milk chocolate I’ve ever had. I had to check the box description twice because these milk chocolates tasted far from milk…they had more of a semi sweet taste which I loved and it was so smooth and creamy. The next best thing was the little match boxes where the chocolates were tucked neatly inside and each box showcased a beautiful picture of Rome’s famous historical sites.
I made cupcakes this weekend…my very first attempt at making red velvet cupcakes. The end result was a surprisingly great. They were moist, had the right amount of sweetness, and the cream cheese frosting paired well with it. I got rave reviews from my friends and especially my boyfriend who said that I could make a million dollars baking them. Haha, we’ll see…
Posted in dessert
Yes, I too have followed the masses in this yogurt craze…first it started with golden spoon, then yogurtland and pinkberry. I never thought that plain tart frozen yogurt could taste so good, and then add some fruit toppings and its heaven. A brand new Yogurtland just opened in my area and I went to check it out this weekend. I was really impress…it was a total copycat version of pinkberry down to their modern interior design, but the big difference was the selection of 16 frozen yogurt flavors and its self-serve. I went inside and I was really excited, actually a little too excited…variety has its good and bad points for me (that being the amount of time it takes to finally come up with a decision, but then again I’m picky so having only a couple choices isn’t good either). So here’s my take on Pinkberry vs. Yogurtland:
Yogurtland
Pros: 16 flavors, large variety of toppings, and cheaper
Cons: Machines breakdown frequently, poor quality control
Pinkberry
Pros: plain tart yogurt taste better, granola topping is better, good quality control
Cons: 2 flavors, no orange county locations
Posted in food
This weekend I went to an Asian supermarket and low and behold outside the front doors was a roasted chestnuts cart! I was really excited when I saw this vendor handing out samples of pipping hot chestnuts…it made me feel warm and Christmasy. I’ve never seen roasted chestnut carts, especially in California. I always associate chestnut street vendors with movies set in old England, I can’t think of any titles at the moment, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it. The chestnut cart was a franchise of what seems to be a Chinese company “Jin Bao”. Anyway, I went home with a bag of these yummy nuts and proceeded to crack these nuts with a special plastic device that was ingenuously invented for the sole purpose of assisting with the cracking of the nuts. This plastic piece has little teeth that you press firmly into the shell and it makes a nice incision to help you peel the shell away. I went to the company website and found many interesting facts about chestnuts. Some of my favorites are:
“Chestnuts promote urination”
“By putting smashed chestnuts on the body wound, the pain will relieve.”
“The chestnuts are a lusty and masculine food for men, and able to make women well complexioned.”
Gotta love that Engrish!
Posted in dessert
A couple weeks ago, I was walking through the frozen food aisle at the market and it just dawned on me that I haven’t eaten Viennetta for years. For those of you who have never heard of Vienetta, its a unique frozen dessert comprised of multiple layers of vanilla ice cream with ribbons of chocolate layers in between forming an “ice cream cake”, but without the cake. Anyway, I found a link that shows a mesmerizing video on the production of this delectable treat.
It’s that time of the year again…the malls have put out their xmas decorations and radio stations have started playing those good old xmas songs. Christmastime always makes me feel happy and now I’m really excited to get my christmas shopping done and start baking! I always associate this season with baking…there’s just something about baked goods fresh from the oven with a cup of hot chocolate or soothing tea. I’ve been doing some research and I think I’m going to try and make some homemade chocolate truffles and gingerbread men/women. If all goes well they will end up in wrapped in cute little packages as gifts to all the good girls and boys this year. Maybe I’ll still make a few for the naughty ones too haha.