almond irish coffee bites and job training

this past week i've been training for work, and it's just been busy busy busy lately. it's hard to imagine how busy and rushed we'll all be once the restaurant actually opens! there are quite a few things i learned from training, though. for one thing, a lot of times prep cook = slave. okay, maybe that was a slight over exaggeration. but you know how slaves do the same menial tasks over and over again? that's kinda what i was hinting at. okay, maybe it's not really AS BAD as slavery, because we get two days off a week, we don't get physically harmed or anything, and at some point we'll start getting paid for doing this! so i take that last statement back, because i like money! and i also enjoy not wasting away at home all day hahaha.

so let's move on. another thing i learned from training: always, ALWAYS wash the vegetables! ESPECIALLY if it's organic! no joke, dude. because some of the things i saw in there are just NOT pretty.

one more thing i learned: quality over quantity (or at least while it's still training time)! i learned this after making tray after tray of shitty-looking ravioli. i don't know why the HELL i thought i had to rush, it's not like they told me to make a certain amount or anything. once i finally slowed down and put more care into each ravioli, they actually started to look pretty decent :)

anyway, onto this week's dessert! it was actually a result of two ruined sheet pans of biscuit jaconde (siiighhh). basically they just decided that they did not want to separate from the paper, so after scraping piece after piece of the cake off and deciding i didn't want to waste any of it, i crumbled it all and combined it with some irish coffee buttercream that i whipped up, compressed them into a large square, and cut them into cubes. it's basically the same principal behind cake balls, but i just got tired of making them round.

i know i know, they look like rice krispy squares. well they're not, so cut it out!!

my original plan was to dip them in white chocolate ganache so that you couldn't see the sides and then just decorate the top. well, as you can see here, that didn't work, as my ganache turned out to be too runny. well, EFF YOU, white chocolate. why do you always have to eff things up for me?!! pfft. what i ended up doing was just brushing the tops with some thick, glossy dark chocolate sauce that i had left over, which was also thick enough to pipe a little design on top too. see that, white chocolate? dark chocolate will ALWAYS be better than you. don't even think you're better, you supremacist jerk!


things i learned from this experiment:
1. i officially HATE white chocolate. YOU'RE NOT EVEN REAL CHOCOLATE! what percentage of cacao do you have? that's right, zero! get out of here, FAKER!!
2. apparently coffee and chocolate are a winning combination for my dad, who seemed to enjoy these more than some of my other experiments...
3. i found an egg with 2 yolks in it! okay, maybe i didn't learn anything from that, but it's still cool in my book! they're like twins!!! :D

drunken peach cake

another summer day, another day of sweltering in the heat. so what to do when stuck in a hot home with barely functioning internet, nothing on TV, and clearly irritable family members? make a cake, of course!

drunken peach cake. i could tell that even the peaches were suffocating in this heatwave, and i just HAD to take them out of their misery. i had half a sheet of genoise mousseline left over from the mango charlottes, so i decided this would be the best way to go. it has layers of genoise mousseline soaked in brandy syrup, a layer of peach puree gelee, peach and honey mousse, and torched meringue on top.

standing tall and proud :) i'm surprised (and happy) that it didn't totally fall apart once i took it out of the fridge. the brandy syrup kept it very moist, and the whole thing had a nice subtle sweetness. the only thing i would change about it if i decide to make it again is to use a little more brandy for a more pronounced flavor.

some things i learned from making this cake:

1. torching things is fun when your torch actually works! i can recall a totally burnt and not bruleed creme brulee from the past due to a dysfunctional torch, which still haunts me to this day...

2. if you don't have an aluminum square to mold the cake/mousse/gelee in, a square cake tin plus foil and wax paper makes a (somewhat) suitable replacement. innovation in the face of obstacles!

3. make sure the area is cleared of clutter or weird things in the background before taking pictures. if you couldn't tell before, the first picture includes my sister's legs, and the last picture includes her purple shorts and butt -__- she decided it would be fun to take a hot (and sweaty) nap on the couch :/

mango charlotte royale and the HOTTEST DAY EVARRR

today was a fun (although HOT) summer day and night; the friends and i had a picnic at the Fullerton Arboretum (free!), we went around Brea mall where i bought some white tshirts for work and some black sandals which i was in DIRE need of because my last pair broke, then we explored and took pictures around IKEA, and ended the day by playing in the park in the dark and cooling off in the grass. all in all, one of the funnest days i've had this summer :) it was a good end to my so-called "break" because next monday i start job training! WOOT!! i'm excited and nervous and just anxious all over about this. hopefully it won't be too bad!

lately the weather has not been kind, staying among the 100's (my car said it was 108 degrees today -___-) and i heard that tomorrow won't be any cooler. and AND lately there has been flash flood warnings around the LA county area...? so i really don't know wtf is UP with alla that nonsense. SOO, because it was so hot, i decided it would be nice to have a fruity chilled dessert to have on hand. i present to you: the Mango Charlotte Royale. yes yes yes, i know the last post i promised a layered jaconde cake, but that dream was swiftly taken away when i realized that i was ONE OUNCE short of the amount of almonds i needed :/

it's mango bavarois lined with genoise mousseline, garnished with mango slices, strawberries, and chocolate. originally i was going to make a little chocolate fence around it just to cover up the sides, but apparently it was so hot that after the chocolate set up in the fridge, it would immediately melt once i took it out. siighhh. anyway, it was the perfect little pick-me-up for this afternoon: cool, smooth, creamy, and deliciously fruity, with just the right amount of subtle sweetness :p

soooo... things that i learned from making this dessert:

1. i need aluminum cake rings! i didn't have any on hand, and so instead i used ramekins lined with saran wrap (which explains all the ridges along the top). "well why didn't you just cut up some cans and use those instead like Alton Brown did?" you ask. well i already tried that, and to tell you the truth, i'm just scared of cutting my hand. so i mean, which would you rather have, a ridged-y sided dessert, or no dessert at all because it was covered in blood? i rest my case.

2. sometimes it's just too hot for chocolate :( unless you want it super melty-like. then it's alright.

3. according to my baking book, the name "Charlotte Russe" is actually the name of a dessert! who knew? it's just another version of the charlotte, just like the Charlotte Royale. it makes me feel slightly better knowing this, so that i won't always have to associate it with just a cheap clothing store :)

4. fruit Bavarian Cream (or Bavarois) is RIDICULOUSLY easy to make :)

strawberry and white chocolate cake and a breezy summer week

i've decided to take full advantage of summer and this week was basically all about sleeping in, hanging out with friends, and pretty much doing whatever i want :) i also came up with what kind of design i wanted for this cake that's been sitting in my freezer (although that didn't really turn out the way i planned... still pretty, though!)

vanilla cake filled with strawberry whipped cream, topped with strawberry slices and surrounded by white chocolate shards. this was basically my attempt to utilize whatever i had in the pantry and the fridge (i just saw an episode of Chopped last night, and i was thinking i should be a little more inspired by what i already have on hand!)

things i learned from decorating this cake: white chocolate doesn't melt the same way regular chocolate does... actually, i already knew this, but THIS time it was being a total bitch. WHATEVER, white chocolate. i OWN you. nomnomnom.

also, making the chocolate shards requires a lot of measuring with a ruler, so make sure when you measure that you can actually SEE the marks you made! sighh. grey pencil mark + grey sheet pan = invisible marks! who knew?

since i'm getting a little bored with circle cakes, next time i plan on making a layered jaconde. wish me luck! :)

4th of july feats and flops!

happy (late) Independence Day! my independence night was spent at a party at my uncle's house, and i had my first go at making american bbq beef (feat!) and i attempted to make mini chocolate pound cakes (flop). the beef was SOOOO goood and i actually got to cut a good amount of hours cooking it by just using the pressure cooker instead of the slow cooker or oven. the chocolate pound cake on the other hand, well, just keep reading.

looks pretty, right? yeah NO. i thought they looked good when they came out of the oven too.

a cross section... it turned out to be really dense, but REALLY dry. also, the recipe i used was SO deceiving! the picture they provided made it look like it was really dark and moist and chocolatey, but i KNEW that it could never get that way without any actual chocolate!! (the recipe only uses cocoa powder).

another problem i came along while i was mixing it: I RAN OUT OF SUGAR. WTF. so not only was it dry, it was barely sweet. siighh. i thought i could make up for the lack of granulated sugar in the batter by just mixing in some powdered sugar and then topping it with powdered sugar later, but that just made it only somewhat bearable. oh well. i brought it to the party anyway, and the kids seemed to like it! so at least i didn't have to bring a full pan of that back home :)

so, just to recap: no sugar in the house. this means, no baking until i go grocery shopping on wednesday :( hopefully the next thing i bake won't make me so miserable!

mini cake and trying to make progress

another day, another addition to the portfolio. it turns out, i REALLY need practice, especially with beadwork. looking back on the pictures of the cake i made for the debut, it looks like i haven't improved at all! i'm hoping that maybe that photographer just took the pictures from reeeally good angles.

thank GOD for good lighting. this way it's harder to see some of the less obvious problems. and at least now i know how to make proper buttercream instead of that lame "7-minute" buttercream that i had to make TONS of for the debut cake.

i know that this picture makes the cake look big, but in reality it's only 6 inches in diameter hahaha. that's why those beads look so honkin' huge here. it's half almond, half vanilla cake with a strawberry whipped cream filling. it tastes like the cream from those strawberry Yan Yans haha :p

my sister said it looks like a hat (-___-). sighh... i made one more 9-inch cake but haven't decorated it yet because i ran out of buttercream, but i'll probably get that done soon. tomorrow there are open interviews for a restaurant in Newport, and hopefully i'll have some luck there...

cupcakes and building a portfolio

looking for a job is stressful, people! i should know, because i've been on this job hunt for what feels like FOREVER now. sooo, since many websites suggest making a portfolio and several bakeries have asked for pictures of my work, i've decided it's time to make a portfolio to show them what i can do. BUUUT then i realized i haven't really been taking pictures of some of the more professional-looking things i've made, and the only thing that i think is really worth showing there is the cake i made 2 YEARS AGO for my cousin's debut (back when i really knew NOTHING about making tiered cakes). so to make up for that, i'll be busy the next couple of days baking and decorating as much as i can to take pictures of. here are a few things i made this morning:


almond cupcakes...


orange creme cupcakes...


vanilla cupcakes with crushed almond praline.

i know that these are super plain but for now they'll have to do. right now i have a 6-inch cake in the freezer just waiting to be filled and decorated :)

black and white cake balls, a.k.a. what to do with leftovers

since the bombes i made only used a little cake for the bases, i was left with a whole sheet pan of leftover chocolate cake with no clue as to what to do with it. sure, i could have just eaten it plain, but what kind of aspiring pastry chef would i be if i did that? no, they must be dressed, and they MUST be gorgeous.

so i remembered what we did for Honors Night when we had excess devil's food cake: Bakerella's cake pops, except i didn't really have the time (or money) to go out and buy lollipop sticks to make pops so i opted for the cheaper version and just made cake balls... besides, this way they look prettier, and a lot like chocolate truffles :)

i used just plain semisweet and white chocolate to coat the cake, and i took the leftover almond praline i had, crushed it, and topped half of the cake balls with it.

i remember one time when i was in middle school, i went out with my friend and her family to a chocolate shop that they frequented and they had something that was exactly like this, except their version was freakin' gigantic, almost the size of my fist! it's good to know that i can replicate a bite-sized version of such chocolatey goodness :p

mint ice cream bombe with almond praline and a gluttonous (but good) father's day

today was father's day, and my sister and i had to wake up early (and by early i mean 7:30 hahaha) and help my dad start building the storage shed in the backyard. when it got too hot to continue, we all went out to Grand Buffet for a late lunch and endless amounts of crab legs and sushi :p

after a GLORIOUS food coma and then after church, we decided that we were all still too full to eat dinner after that buffet, but we still wanted to eat the dessert i prepared last night:

mint ice cream bombe with almond praline and a chocolate cake base :)

just making the ice cream was almost a full-day procedure on it's own, because for SOME reason, every time i want to make ice cream the freezer seems to poop out :( BUT once all that nonsense was over with, it wasn't too bad. i used up a lot of the mint leaves growing in ze garden because that's the only herb i have there that seems to be growing out of control...

a cross section so you can see the chocolate cake base. i guess the ice cream was a little too runny when i put in the cake in so it kind of soaked in, but it didn't have an effect on the taste so at this point i don't mind it hahaha.

i like the fact that it didn't turn into a freakishly green color, but instead had a creamy yellow-green hue (even though in these pics it kinda looks like a block of butter but ANYWAYS) i think it looks slightly more elegant this way :)

raiding the library and an update on moving

on saturday my sister and i went to the Walnut library for the first time in FOREVER, and they had a bunch of books out in the front for their april book sale. guess what my new source for cookbooks is? $1 a book? hell yes. as i didn't have any cash on me at the time, my sis agreed to get me one book and after looking through every single page and picture, i finally decided today on what i wanted to make first.

flourless chocolate cake :p

a close-up of the magnificently rich and chocolatey goodness, dusted with cocoa powder and topped with caramelized sugar. when we ate it, the inside was still warm and gooey, just as god intended chocolate cakes to be :p

all six cakes, with random sugar designs. i baked them in little ramekins this time instead of the regular 8" pan the recipe asked for, not only because i thought they would look cuter, but also because i can't seem to find my cake pan... this seems to be one of the disadvantages of moving and packing things: i can never find what i need when i need it :/

oh well. smaller things look cuter anyway :)

i'm so glad we just happened to have all the ingredients for this. plus, it totally made up for my partial disaster when i tried to make Lengua yesterday (must find grandma's recipe!)

as for how things are going with the moving: we found a place! yay! it's further from my school! WHAT? dammit. yeah, that's kinda how things have been going lately. i wasn't really fussing with my parents about the whole moving thing in the first place, and all i really asked for was a place that was somewhat closer to my school. so of course, the opposite ended up happening, and now i have 10 miles added on to my 28 mile commute -___- at least my parents seem to be confident in the new house, and they said it was better than the one we live in now (it's in north west covina).

so far i haven't actually seen the place (i've only seen pictures), but i've been trying to look on the brighter side of the whole situation (like how i'll finally have my own room again teehehee). plus, i guess i shouldn't be complaining too much about the distance. i know a girl who goes to my school once a week and lives in Riverside, and last semester i met a guy who goes there and lives in Chino. so i mean, it could be worse.

for now, i just want this all to be over with. we'll start actually moving our stuff in the new place on the 23rd, and my school semester is over at the end of may. it was raining this morning, and now i just want it to be summer already :)

movin' on up + spring break

saturday was my cousin's going away party, and we pretty much spent the whole day just cooking and preparing for it. she's going to teach english in japan for a whole year! i'm just thinking about how weird it will be to go and do all that and then return back to cali; whether things will be the same as before and you'll feel at home again, or whether in the span of one year things end up changing dramatically. we all seem to be at a point in our lives right now where it's hard to maintain a level of comfort because of the lack of stability with all these things. but that's life i guess; change is inevitable, and in the long run all we can hope for is that it will be for the better.

but ANYWAY, i spent thursday and friday making a cake for her goodbye party, even though they ended up eating it the next morning (i would rather they eat it sober than drunk anyway haha).

an aerial view of the cake. it says "sayonara stacey" in japanese. it's layers of vanilla sponge cake and a raspberry/strawberry mousse, all covered in chocolate ganache and then dusted with powdered sugar :) i wish i had a better picture of it, but oh wells. pictures never do my work justice!

i made a little diagram of the cross section of the cake to show the layers, just so you can see all my hard work haha. yay for free imitation photoshop!

anyway, i didn't actually get to eat the cake, but i was snacking on the scraps while i was making it haha. it didn't disappoint! (or that's what i thought at least).

as for my family moving, we still haven't found a place yet! what?! yeah. we've visited quite a few homes, and all the ones that seem like a good deal always have some sort of catch. we have even less time now that someone bought our house last week. they have a couple days left to back out of the offer, but that still doesn't give us much time. sighhh. i wish all this stuff wasn't such a big hassle! all i can say is, thank god for spring break. the first thing i did today was sleep in. it wasn't as delicious a sleep as i was hoping (my sis ended up waking me up early because she had school and she was getting ready) but at this point, just being able to stay in bed beyond 8 is still pretty awesome. i've already made a couple of plans for the coming days, and so far spring break seems fairly promising :)

one to be trifled with

today my dad took us to see the house they were considering getting in pomona, and geebuz that place was GHE-TTO. and not even ghettofabulous. just straight-up pitbulls in every yard, with an old tire place right behind it. people also seemed to get the impression that they could dump their stuff there, so in the back of the house there were piles of junk, including some old lumber and a baby carriage! really? the place wasn't even done being built. how can we expect to move there soon if they're not even done building it?! sighhhh.... here's hoping we move somewhere that i actually feel safe.

on a slightly less frustrating note, my baking midterm is this wednesday, and we'll have to make buttercream icing, dark chocolate mousse, lemon bouches, and write "happy birthday" in chocolate (and hopefully that's it). so in preparation for that, i practiced writing with chocolate today (even though for some reason it seemed that the more i practiced the worse it got) and then later used that chocolate to make the mousse.

since i had all this chocolate mousse, plus a vanilla cake from class that i kept in the freezer, plus a bunch of berries that i had to use for fear of them getting bad before i could, i made a faux-berry trifle (did you like my little pun in the title of this post? haha).

raspberries on top, a.k.a. the fruit that never fails to make my desserts look elegant (even though they really aren't haha)
really need to work on my layers, especially since i've never made a trifle before (who knew it would be so hard?). layers, from bottom to top: chocolate mousse, vanilla cake, mousse, strawberries, cake, mousse, raspberries.
note to self: don't put mousse in the fridge if you plan on working with it later! it stiffened up in the fridge because of the chocolate and was too hard to spread a smooth layer of it, hence the oddness of the layering here. also, apparently i forgot to soak the cake in syrup/coffee/whatever, so that part was a little dry. at this point, i don't care! it tasted bomb, and i wish i could eat more of it without feeling ashamed of myself.

on another note, this whole thing with me trying to lose weight is not really working out :( since we basically had to clear everything out of our house, that also meant that we had to take out all the exercise equipment, AND the weighing scale. and even with that gone, i can LITERALLY FEEL MYSELF GAINING WEIGHT. definitely not a good sign. dammit. why is food so tempting? why am i so weak?!! i need to work about a million times harder now at the rate i'm going.

i'm workin' on it!

so for the past 3 weeks or so i've been "working out" 2-3 times a week, mostly just running/walking on the treadmill and doing squats and stuff. this is my awkward attempt to take better care of myself haha. i didn't really work to lose the weight that i previously lost, and after all the stress of winter taking it's toll, i hit a "plateau" of sorts and actually started gaining a little weight again (oh nooes!!!).

so here's my goal: to lose at least 1 pound a week. i know this doesn't really seem like a lot, but with all the food i make both at home and at school (1 whole cake every week?! are you kidding me?!!) it's still going to be a challenge for me. besides, i'm not too sure about how much results i should expect after only working out 2 or 3 times a week. plus, my mom keeps buying ice cream! what the hell, mom?! i'm not going to be "dieting" exactly, mostly just reducing my portion sizes and trying to eat more fruits and vegetables. everything in moderation.

i'm really hoping that all that running will help me lose weight instead of just helping me gain muscle, which is what it looks like it's doing right now (my calf muscles are HUGE).

1 lb a week means that by the end of june i should lose at least 16 lbs. not too bad, right?

today for dinner i made breaded baked tilapia fillets and a spinach and romaine salad with radishes, bell peppers, tomatoes, green onions, and a spicy avocado dressing. mmm :p

EDIT: le sigh...

it turns out, that fabric i bought from fashion district on sunday was really, REALLY crappy. and i mean, like, unbelievably crappy, to the point where i'm almost certain i can't make anything wearable with it. so much for sewing as much as possible before school starts!! :l

on a happier note, yesterday i went to the good ol' thrift store and stocked up on some awesome sweaters for fall. sigh... i can't wait for signs of fall to show so i can start wearing them! most likely though, that won't be anytime soon: this weekend the temperatures are supposedly surpassing 100 degrees, and even though i start school next week, we all know that for some reason the first few weeks are always the hottest!!

as for food, i think the next few days i should be reviewing some basic terms i've forgotten over the summer (beurre blanc?! noisette?! MONT AU BEURRE?!!) and start cooking in more of the french style that we learned in school rather than cooking in what i call the "lazy asian" style, or basically, just stir frying everything in one pan (which is what i've been doing for most of the summer). today for lunch i made ravioli with sauteed mushrooms, julienne carrots, and pecans in a basil butter sauce. diagnosis? AWESOME (or is it prognosis? i have no idea...). anywho, there will be more deliciousness to come, as saturday is my cousin's birthday party and i shall make a cake. i'll probably post pics of that once it's done :)

yay food!

also, i just wanted to mention that i applied for a job at the Orange Julius/ Dairy Queen stand at Puente Hills mall cuz they said they were hiring. hopefully at least i will get a call from them, as this would be the EIGHTH time i've applied for a job this summer.

Get a Job (not you, silly, me)

i realize that it has been over a month since i last updated here, and now that the weather is a lot colder and i'm stuck inside the house, why not update now? school is still trudging along, as usual, same old same old. i find myself going to the library more often to borrow books to read in my spare time, which i seem to have a lot of nowadays.

something different, you ask? well, today i applied for a couple jobs at brea mall. i just feel this is worth mentioning because i've never had a "real" job before (you know, the kind that requires a resume). my first intention for going to the mall today was to go to the supposed "job fair" that the woman at puente hills' See's Candy told me about a week earlier. so i go to the mall, and lo and behold, no job fair. damn you, lying old wench!!! *ahem* anyway, it turns out that this "fair" is just a couple days that See's decided they wanted to take applications, and by the time i got there, they had already hired all the people they needed.

by this time, i figure, screw See's Candy, imma find a job somewhere better. which i did. hahahahaa. Godiva Chocolates. i filled out my application as quickly as humanly possible, stuck in my resume (because i figure that an entire empty page for "previous emplyoyment" looked bad but if i showed off all the stuff i did in school then maybe it'll leverage things out) and introduced myself to the manager, who turns out to be one of the nicest ladies i've ever met (take that, See's!!).

i also applied at Charlotte Russe, which i think is pretty sensible, mainly because i love clothes and i shop there all the time (well, i look around mostly, but you get the point). anywho, both of these places don't start interviewing until november, but i'm still totally looking forward to having a job. extra money for the holidays doesn't hurt either. :)

also, since i like to consider this a "food" blog (teehee) i wanted to talk about this cake. the ginormous cake that Orange Coast College had for their 60th anniversary, which was actually last month. it was 1000 lbs-- i heard someone say 3000, but who knows how they weigh this thing-- and you probably can't grasp the size of it through the crappy cellphone pics, but that was all i had at the time, and i HAD to take a picture of it to show someone.

look at that monster. you should make sure to note the really gigantic bottom layer, which was too big to capture in it's entirety with my cellphone. also, a pic of those random girls to compare for size. haha
a picture of the gigantic slices they were handing out. this was after i took a few bites of course, and then realized i should take a picture of it. you can't really tell the size from this picture, but lemme just tell you-- it was so big that i could only eat half (that's half a slice) and eventually had to get rid of the rest somehow because my stomach was starting to hurt... one of the most shameful moments of my life.

Say Goodbye to Summer...

and a sighing hello to school. again. sigh. i can honestly say this has been one of the laziest summers i've ever had. it didn't even really feel like summer. it just felt like one REALLY long weekend. oh how the days go by...

since it's august, i have to mention the very many birthdays that come with this month- including mine!! yay!! happy 18th birthday, elaine! what's your gift, you ask? college, of course! you get a school you don't know anything about, filled with thousands of students, all of them complete strangers!!! yippeeee!!! you can probably tell by now that i already started class. sigh. it's time again for new classes, new school, new people. i guess i'm just not up to it all. so far my actual classes have been fine. it's the people; everyone already seems to know each other, but i can't even seem to find out where my next class is! or even just the bathrooms for that matter...

i suppose i just need to wait for things to get in their natural order, when everything doesn't seem so new. hopefully that'll be soon :)

now, back to birthdays. in my family, august has 7 birthdays- 5 of my cousins, one aunt, and my birthday.

we celebrated my birthday with korean bbq. mmm... the reason i post this picture is so that you can see the tremendous amount of food there, and also that shirt i recon-ed out of a really old eddie bauer shirt i found at goodwill. it's from an angle that is just far enough so that you can see the jist of the shirt, but can just barely see my horrendous tanlines... because no one wants to see that.

two of my cousins, who were turning 23 and 20, had a party last saturday, and my gift to them were "make your own birthday cake kits" that i made, including a mug, chocolate cake mix, a whisk, a measuring spoon, chocolate fudge icing, and candles. originally i was going to just sew up a bunch of plushies for them, but then i realized how old they were. i wanted to make something that they can actually use rather than just toss aside after saying how cute it was. so what do you give to a couple of people who describe themselves as lazy? 5 minute chocolate cake! i swear, this is one of the LAZIEST ways to make a cake, but it actually came out kinda good. you just gather all the ingredients, mix it in the mug, and bake it by microwaving. the only problem i have with this cake is that you have to eat it almost immediately after you cook it, otherwise the texture changes a lot... and not in a good way :(

sprinkles cupcakes. i've never been to sprinkles, but i intend to taste what all the hype is about. after recently finding a recipe for their strawberry cupcakes, i knew i had to try it, because we all know that strawberries are the best fruit EVAH. and i have to say, they were delicious. drool. obviously i didn't make the ones in this picture, but when i made the cupcakes they didn't seem to last long enough for me to take a picture. that's a good sign, right? i didn't make it with the same strawberry icing, i just used some homemade whipped cream. after a VERY long search for the perfect buttercream icing, i just decided to give up. i soon realized that i never really liked icing... at parties i would always just eat the cake part, pushing the icing to the side. whipped cream always has a subtle sweetness to it, which i like more than the overly sweet buttercream.

mmm. whipped cream... :9

Summer Loving...

welcome to my new blog! because this summer has been pretty much just a whole heap of laziness, i've decided to start blogging again. yay!! new blog, new elaine. now that i'm basically stuck in the house (apparently 17 is too young to get a job in any of the places i want to work in), i'll have more time on my hands to make things. i'm definitely going to start posting more of the stuff that i make, since i missed out on posting about some of my biggest creations with my last blog, including things from sewing my first piece of clothing to making my prom dress. i will also be sure to include pictures, because who are we kidding--the pictures will probably be the most appealing part of the entire entry. so without further ado:





yesterday i made green tea pound cake using this recipe, with a few changes. since i didn't have any matcha powder (or any money to buy it for that matter), i decided i would just grind up some tea leaves myself, which was SUPER tedious. a lot of it wasn't really pure powder, but the tea leaf remnants left nice little flecks of dark green in the cake, which i think added to the look. i also didn't get the bright shade of green that the matcha would've brought, but i like the light yellow-green look of this. it makes it look more natural. instead of using the loaf pan used in the video, i just used a regular square pan and cut out the shapes after the cake cooled, then topped it with confectioner's sugar. overall, it tasted pretty good... the tea taste was subtle and it wasn't overly sweet. and i had to add strawberries, of course, cuz they're my favorite :)

hopefully the pictures look nice; i don't have my own camera right now, so i'll be relying a lot on my dad's, because anything taken with a high quality camera looks nice!

and, while i know it's a few weeks late, i wanna mention the biggest cake i have ever made. you can see the picture here. i did NOT NOT NOT take these pictures (obviously), so i have a link for you instead. my cousin asked me to make this cake for her debut, which is basically just a huge 18th birthday party. like wedding-big. it was a carrot cake, as requested by the birthday girl, with cream cheese icing for the filling and buttercream icing on top. mmm. :P