Sweet & Charming

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 22:36:48 -0400

I received this charm for my 25th birthday last month and wanted to pay tribute to them.

Simple white cake topped with strawberry mousse and silver metallic dragées.

Yummy!

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

1. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch.

The mousse topping was instant powder that was dolloped on with a spoon.
I used Dr. Otekar Shirriff Mousse Mix in strawberry.
Sprinkle with small silver metallic dragées.

Sushi Push Pops

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 00:51:02 -0400

Remember Push Pops? The little plastic tubes of hard candy that you pushed up, licked a bit, then capped to have later? And when later came around and you tried to push more back up, it was all sticky and tacky and you got your hands all messy but it was still delicious?

Or on a hot summer day, sitting around and hearing chimes and bells in the distance, dashing indoors for a dollar and then meeting the disgruntled teenager peddling an ice cream cart. He’d usually have some frozen sorbet push popsicles in that little freezer. Those were always good; to gobble up a little bit and then push more up. There was no drips to worry about with those babies!

Okay, now apply all that nostalgia to sushi.

I really don’t know how I feel about this. I’m a huge fan of sushi served as fresh as possible. If I could eat out of a sushi chef’s hand, I would.

Each roll is individually wrapped and a pack of 6 sells for just under $30.

Available at Sushi Popper.

S’more please!

Fri, 4 Jun 2010 23:24:00 -0400

These definitely remind me of spending summer nights around a camp fire and carefully toasting marshmallows. And then getting impatient and just burning them!

I totally fell in love with Bakerella’s s’mores cupcakes when I saw them! They were a must-make!

I made a few minor changes to it though.

I chose not to add the chocolate ganache at the end; thought it’d be too sweet and way too messy. I was also way too lazy to bother. ^^;;;

When my cupcakes came out, the marshmallow inside had melted, caramelized and sunk into the cupcakes! Didn’t look too great.

So I covered a baking pan with wax paper, lined it with marshmallows, turned up my toaster oven to high and let ‘em get nice and golden toasty. Afterwards, I carefully used chopsticks to pick up and place on top of each cupcakes. It gave them a nice golden gooey crispy top! And covered up the ugly crater.

Another thing I changed was the layer of graham cracker crumbs. I found they weren’t very crispy so I used a trick I learned for my infamous Ferrero Rocher mousse cake (which I’ll post one day... maybe...). After mixing up the cookie crumbs, butter and brown sugar, spread onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes. It’ll all melt down but after taking the baking sheet out and letting it cool, it’ll harden. When crumbled and baked, it should stay crispy!

These are definitely going to be made again! Perhaps to be served with hot cocoa around a camp fire...

Click here to check out Bakerella’s blog for the complete recipe.

Tea Cakes

Mon, 1 Mar 2010 23:03:58 -0500

I’ve always loved black tea with milk and sugar. The folks at Tim Horton’s always think I’m a bit odd for ordering it (except for the Asian ones).
A few months ago, a friend brought back these spectacular cakes which tasted just like milk tea!

When supplies diminished, I knew I must have more. So I tried out a little experiment and attempted to produce my own!
I modified a standard white cake recipe.

Ingredients
¾ cup white sugar
½ cup butter
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
½ cup milk
4 packages of instant milk tea powder (sweetened)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease and flour a 9x9 inch pan or line a muffin pan with paper liners.

1. Bring milk to a simmer in a sauce pan on medium heat and add the instant milk tea powder. Stir until milk resembles chocolate milk.

1. In a medium bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Combine flour and baking powder, add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Finally stir in the milk until batter is smooth. Pour or spoon batter into the prepared pan.

1. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes in the preheated oven. For cupcakes, bake 20 to 25 minutes. Cake is done when it springs back to the touch or when a toothpick comes out clean when inserted.

Makes 12.

Mmm warm & toasty

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:16:38 -0500

I love breakfast for every meal!

This crochet scarf is going to get nibbled a little bit while keeping me warm.

Available from kellyzkreations via Etsy.