I Heart Dessert

2008 Jan 4

Happy New Year!

Posted in baking, dessert, holidays, life

2008!?! Wow, time flies by so quickly! I hope your New Year is starting off nicely, sadly my first day this year didn’t go so smoothly. So, here’s a recap of my New Years Day: I fell down the stairs, but I managed to not injure myself severely (last time I fell down the stairs, I sprained my ankle). So far my whole body has been sore, especially my neck. Later on the same day, I almost got into a car accident because some kid was on his cell phone and tried to merge into my lane without looking. I can’t wait until July 1st…(for those of your who are out of state, July 1st is the official day when California drivers cannot use their cellphones while driving). I really do feel like the roads will be safer, without idiots on their phones all the time and not paying attention.

On to baking news, or well this is news to me. I just found out that dragees (those little edible metallic balls you decorate with) are illegal in California! This completely explains why I never saw them in stores the last few years. I remember looking for them at Sur la Table and a few big name craft stores, but I never bothered to ask. I just assumed you could only get them at specialty baking stores. Apparently they’ve been illegal since 2003, because someone filed a lawsuit claiming that dragees are considered toxic since they contain trace amounts of metal. But, seriously you would have to eat millions of them before anything happens…toxic or not I still want to use them…

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2007 Dec 24

Merry Christmas!

Posted in baking, dessert, holidays

I don’t know what happened this year, but my Christmas baking didn’t go as plan, well actually it didn’t go at all. I guess I just got caught up with all the busyness the holidays bring, and before I knew it, it was almost Christmas. I was even really last minute with my Christmas shopping. My “plan” was to bake my Red Velvet Cupcakes and give them out to my friends, but I just ran out of time and energy. Haha oh well, better luck next year. At least I know what one of my New Years resolutions will be…”Stop procrastinating and do things ahead of time”. On another note, I got the best Secret Santa gift this year! Some goodies from my favorite store Williams-Sonoma. My Secret Santa bought me a lovely tin can of sugar cookie mix and also a nice variety of Christmas sprinkles. I’m a happy girl 🙂

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2007 Nov 19

Fancy Cupcake Wrappers

Posted in dessert, holidays

The holidays are coming very soon, well actually a little too soon. I was trying to think of what kind of xmas goodies to bake this year and I came across these lovely laser-cut cupcake wrappers, which would be so adorable to place my yummy cupcakes in. They’re a little on the expensive side, and I don’t know if I can bare to have people just toss them in the trash when they’re done haha.

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2007 Oct 22

Nutella Cake

Posted in baking, dessert

So after hours of research for a Nutella Cake recipe, I finally settled with this recipe from Su Good Sweets. The recipe is a lightened adaptation of Nigella Lawson’s Nutella Cake recipe in her book How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I was happy that I got to use an entire jar of Nutella…the more the better! I also used this recipe for a Nutella Buttercream Frosting from The Urban Housewife. The process was pretty long, which started with the roasting of hazelnuts to whipping egg whites, but overall it was a success. The cake turned out to be more like a brownie, which is how it is suppose to turn out, but I’m still looking for a recipe for a Nutella cake which is moist and fluffy, like a “cake” should be. If you find one, let me know! Otherwise, I may have to do some experimentation.

Roasted hazelnuts – It took awhile to peel of the skin…

Folding in the beaten egg whites

The cake comes out with a hard crust on top due to the egg whites, but all you have to do is cut it off and it’s nice and moist underneath.

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2007 Sep 24

Berry Creamy Cupcakes

Posted in baking, dessert

It’s rare when I bake something that has no chocolate in it, since I can’t imagine life without it, but I needed to branch out and try something new. I found this recipe for Raspberry Cream Cupcakes courtesy of Giada De Laurentiis from the Food Network. It was a big hit and so delicious! It’s a great light and airy cupcake, and it is definitely a different twist to your everyday cupcakes. The recipe calls for raspberries, but I also decided to make ones with strawberries instead (I noticed that a lot of my friends weren’t too fond of raspberries). I have to say that I like the strawberry version more, because it reminded me of a strawberry shortcake in a cupcake version. And the unique thing about this cupcake is that you cut the cupcake tops off and spoon the filling on top of the bottom to make it into a cupcake sandwich!

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2007 Sep 19

Birthday Surprises

Posted in cooking

For my birthday last week, my friends surprised me with a Panini Press. I’ve always wanted one, and now I can finally panini press my heart out. I was so excited when I unwrapped my present, I think I was a little too excited. Anyway, I haven’t gotten the chance to experiment with it, but I will sometime this week. So, expect a post on my panini adventures very soon!

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2007 Sep 18

Long Time No Blog

Posted in life

Sorry, for the long absence! Life, traveling, and the death of my laptop have kept me pretty busy. So, I just got a new laptop a couple days ago! Thanks to my boyfriend I am now the proud owner of an HP Pavilion Verve Special Edition dv2550se notebook. I fell in love with the design when I first saw it, and its only available at BestBuy. Some of the special perks about this laptop: nice sleek design, built in webcam, comes with a remote that fits inside the laptop, extended life battery, and it has light scribe disc labeling. Oh and of course, Windows Vista! I like the new Vista, but its definitely going to take a little while to get used to.

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2007 Aug 20

Red Wine and Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted in baking, dessert

I made red wine cupcakes this past weekend. My friend found the recipe and thought it was interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. It was the first time I’ve ever baked with wine and it was a pretty interesting experience. The cupcakes were made with red wine and the frosting had red wine in it too as well as balsamic vinegar! They turned out lovely, but I wasn’t quite fond of the taste. Maybe its because I’m not a red wine fan…but despite that they everyone else said they were good. If you do decide to make these cupcakes be forewarned that they are pretty rich so make sure you have some milk in the fridge before you eat them.