KookyCulinary

It was supposed to be a week of celebration with mother’s day and my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunately all plans were canceled when I ended up having a major toothache which resulted in a very expensive emergency root canal. Ouch!! Anyway, I finally got a little belated celebration the following weekend. DH started off that weekend by bringing me to my favorite bakery in town, Bakery Nouveau, to grab some breakfast.

Bakery Nouveau has a long list of awards to its name. It even received a zagat rating of 28/30 in 2009. If you go to Bakery Nouveau, you will be greeted with a long line of customers out the door! Even though we got there pretty late, the line was still very long. As I stood in line, I took some photos of the pastry case. First I passed by lots & lots of really delicious looking chocolates.

Then there were macarons!! I think there were 6 flavors. Luckily Lil’ C wasn’t waiting in line with me or she would have wanted all the different flavors. I did get a couple of them. They were good but I think they were really small compared to the macarons from the other bakeries

Then it was cakes, gorgeous cakes! My stomach was protesting as I walked past these beautiful creations.

Then I finally got to what I came here for. The croissants! They have the best croissant in town! All crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and full of layers. They are also famous for their twice-baked almond croissant. I also got the chocolate twice-baked almond croissant. I got all these to-go and we had breakfast at the beach. One of the best breakfast I ever had!!

I had this long post written about the happenings of this past week and just when I was ready to save it, it went *poof* and I lost it all!! Aaargh! Maybe the laptop is trying to tell me to write less!! Anyway, will try again on the next post.

Here’s some cupcake pops that I made a couple of weeks ago. I have been wanting to make this ever since I saw it on Bakerella’s blog. They are just the cutest thing ever. So when a friend had a birthday party recently, I decided to make some. That way, I can share the “calories”!! hehe…

The cupcake pops were relatively easy to make but it’s a little time-consuming due to different steps required and all the refrigeration/freezing time needed. For this first attempt, I used the boxed cake mix and canned frosting just to try it out.

I had a little trouble with the molding of the cake because I didn’t have the right size cutter. So it was a little hard to get it into the shape that i wanted. But I think they still turned out pretty cute for a first attempt.

Guess who was very excited to make these pops?? My little princess! I think it’s something to do with the pink frosting and sprinkles galore, you agree?? Throughout my baking process, I was bombarded with ” Mommy, can I put the sprinkles now??” “now, mommy?” ” how many more minutes??” Can you feel the enthusiasm? Next time I am making it all the prep work after her bedtime!!

Check out Bakerella’s post for detail recipe and step-by-step guide for these cupcakes. Even if you are not interested in making these, you should check out all the cool cupcake pops HERE. They are just too cute!!

It’s still Chinese New Year, so I am not too late, right? : ) Here’s the last of my CNY bake this year. The ever popular Chinese Peanut Cookie.

I had previously posted the recipe in my previous attempt but I modified a little this time. The great thing about this cookie is that the recipe is very forgiving. You can adjust it accordingly to your taste. If you want it more “peanuty”(is there such a word?? ), add more peanuts. Add more flour if you want it less “peanuty”. Go ahead, try it. You can’t go wrong with it.

Recipe:
500 gm ( 17.5 ounces)  roasted peanuts - finely ground
600 gm (21 ounces) self-rising flour
250 gm ( 8.8 ounces) icing sugar
3 cups oil (approximately) - I only used about 2 cups ‘cos I used spanish peanuts which had a little oil in them. Just add enough for the dough to bind together and you can form a ball.

Method:

1. Mix peanuts, flour and sugar together till well-mixed.
2. Drizzle in oil and mix till you can form a ball with the dough. Do not add in all the oil at one time. Just add enough for the dough to be formed.
3. Either use a mini cookie scoop or shape by hand into little balls.
4. Use a straw to poke a little hole in the middle (optional)
5. Apply eggwash before baking at 325 for 20 minutes or till golden brown.

Another one of my Chinese New Year goodies. I am calling this Mini Crispy Spring Roll since I have no idea what it is called. I actually made these last year and everyone loved it. Once you pop one in the mouth, you can’t stop. It’s also very easy to make.

No exact recipe here but this is what you do:

1. Take a piece of spring roll wrapper and roll it up tight like a cigar
2. Seal the edge with eggwash.
3. Take a sharp knife and cut it into small sections
4. Deep fry in low fire till golden brown. ( Do not fry at high heat else the outside might brown before the insides could get crispy.
5. Drain and roll in a mixture of sugar & sesame seeds.
6. When cooled, store in air-tight container.

I’ve always wanted to make some sort of lemon bar but it could never find its way to the top of my to-bake list till last week. I was cleaning out my pantry when I noticed that the jar of lemon curd I bought from Trader Joe’s was about to expire. So I guess that’s a good excuse to push it to the top of my to-bake list, right?

I decided to add a coconut and almond topping to the lemon bar just to add a little crunch. It turned out great. Even the spouse who’s not a dessert person loved it. The only change I would make is to add more lemon curd. One bottle was not enough to make a thick enough layer. Next time I’ll use 2.

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup icing sugar, sifted
4 oz butter - cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup toasted coconuts
1/2 cup toasted & chopped almond
2 bottle of lemon curd sauce (I got mine from Trader Joe’s)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Sift flour, sugar & salt into a bowl
3. Add butter. Using a pastry blender or fingertips, mix in the butter till the mixture is pebbly in texture. Alternatively just pulse the mixture in a food processor till mixture is pebbly.
4. Press 2/3 of the mixture into a pan and bake for 18-20 mins or till golden brown.
5. Remove and cool.
6. When the crust has cooled, spread the lemon curd over the crust. 
7. Mix the  remaining 1/3 crust mixture to the almond and coconut. Sprinkle over the top of the lemon curd.
8. Bake for another 15 mins or till golden brown.

It has been a wierd week this week. We are in the middle of a snowstorm. The last week of school & activities were mostly cancelled. Actually we did not get a lot of snow but the temperature was so low that we ended up with lots of icy road. The situation is also made worse by the fact that a lot of us live on hilly places although we did take advantage of the instant sledding slopes around us. We’ve been having fun sledding in the community these past couple of days. Lil’ C is just loving it. : )

Anyway, in lieu of the snow and another storm on the way (According to the news, it is going to be a nasty night tonight), I decided to cancel all my plans for Christmas baking this year because there is no way for me to go out & deliver my Christmas cookies. In the end, I just baked some cupcakes for my neighbors.
 

A couple of my favorites:

Remember I mentioned that I only bake birthday cake for Lil’ C? Well, this year I actually made another birthday cake for Lil’ C’s best friend E who is only 1 day younger than C. When I volunteered to make her cake, I thought that their birthday parties would be 1 week apart but they ended up just 2 days apart!! So for those 3 or 4 days, it seems like everything else in life was on hold while I was getting the 2 cakes ready! Hehe.. Next year I need to make sure that their parties are at least 1 week apart!!

Anyway, E loves ponies & horses. So I thought a My Little Pony cake would be perfect for her. This is what E got for her birthday. . . . . .

A My Little Pony House with a rooftop party!! It’s a chocolate mud cake covered in marshmallow fondant. As usual, everything is edible except for the little ponies. I took the lazy way out & just bought the My Little Pony figurines. Most of the decorations were made from marshmallow fondant while the 4 roses on top were made with 50% marshmallow fondant + 50% sugar paste.

Top View of the cake

Someone asked if marshmallow fondant can be used to make figurines and I would say not a good idea. If you want to make a 3-D figurines or big decorations like the 4 roses above, it is better not to use marshmallow fondant because they do not fully dry. So if you make a figurine or big roses, it will flop over after sometime. On the other hand, sugar paste or gum paste dries very hard and can be brittle. So I prefer to use a mixture of half-fondant and half-sugar paste to make the roses. The little flowers can be made with marshmallow fondant.  

Since this cake was only 8″, both E’s mom & I were not sure if it would be enough for the party. So I made some cupcakes just in case.

I really love how the cupcakes look in the cupcake stand. We actually borrowed this stand from a friend. I am so tempted to get one for myself!!

This was probably the most stressful cake that I’ve ever made. It started off really well. I made the marshmallow fondant & sugar paste earlier in the day. So that was all ready. Then by 6 pm I started to bake the cake for the bottom layer. I made a Chocolate Mud Cake and it turned out beautiful. THEN it started to go downhill from there!! This was what happened…..

8 pm - Bake the cake #1 for the top layer. It was a SIMPLE butter cake which I’ve baked before. After 15 mins, I looked at my oven & realized that my cake was overflowing & almost spilling onto the bottom of my oven. So I slided in a cake tray to catch the dripping. My first thought was maybe I overfilled the batter, so that’s why it overflowed. Since it overflowed, the cake ended up with a sinkhole. OK, no problem. I’ll just bake another one.

10 pm - Trial #2. I filled the cake pan with only half the batter before baking it. I checked it a few times through the oven glass door. It was looking fine at first.. THEN the center of the cake started to sink & became a sinkhole!!! I was really feeling stressed out at that moment but the cake still had to be baked, so no time to panic yet.

12 am - Trial #3. I was trying to figure out the problem and I thought it might be the eggs that was the problem. I was using the extra large eggs and that might be a little too much egg, thus causing it to rise too much. So I made another cake with large eggs instead. As usual, it started off well and then it happened AGAIN!!! Another sinkhole in the middle of the cake!! Then I started to panic. I was supposed to be using the time to make all my sugar paste decorations, instead I am wasting time trying to get the cake right. I decided to call it quits and try again the next day.

Next day 7 am - Trial #4. Another cake went into the oven and guess what, tragedy struck again!!! Till now I still have no idea why the cake did not turn out. Previous attempt was successful, so I did not know what was causing the problem. I was not going to try the same recipe again and I was running out of time. The party was at 2 pm and there were still a lot of other things to be done. So I either had to just totally leave out the top layer or go to plan B which was to use a box mix. Luckily I had one in the pantry. 

9 am - Trial #5. That cake did finally turned out nice but since it was from a box mix, the cake was also soft. Soft cake does not work very well with fondant but I didn’t have any choice. It was either that cake or a one layer castle. 

This was what I ended up with  . . . . . . . a pink & purple princess castle cake. Besides the Princess figurines which were inedible figurines and candles, everything else was edible. The towers were made from rice crispies covered in marshmallow fondant, topped with ice-cream cones covered with purple marshmallow fondant then sprinkled with purple sugar.

There were a lot of decorations that I had planned but didn’t materialize due to the time spent on the cake. I also had to cover the top layer with lots of flowers because as predicted, the top layer started sinking under the weight of the fondant. See how Snow White is a litte lopsided!!! :(   So if you ever want to cover a cake with fondant, make sure that it is a sturdier cake like a butter cake or pound cake.

In spite of all the disasters, the important thing was that the birthday girl and her friends loved the cake and that was what matters in the end. They even ate the towers!! : )

Every year I only bake and decorate one big cake and that is Lil’ C’s birthday cake. Her first birthday cake was the first cake I had ever frosted. I think I have come a long way since then but I still have a lot to learn. Hopefully someday I will find the time to take a proper class and learn the proper techniques because whatever I am doing now are all through trial and errors!! : P

1st birthday - Pooh cake: sponge cake with buttercream

2nd birthday - Elmo cake: sponge cake with buttercream and marshmallow fondant

3rd birthday - Princess Doll Cake: Vanilla Chiffon Cake with white chocolate strawberry mousse, buttercream and sugar craft.

4th birthday - Her 4th birthday cake almost did not materialize because I had a major cake disaster. I may have also have been a little too ambitious with the cake. It involved two cakes, rice crispies, sugar cones, marshmallow fondant and sugar craft. Easy guess. eh? : ) Will post my disastrous cake as soon as I can.

Lil’ C turns 4 yesterday!!! Wow, I really can’t believe it! My little girl is growing up too fast although I must say that I really love this age the best. Sure we have our tantrum and fussy days but I really love the thoughts, imagination & words of a 3/4 year old. Growing up the youngest in my family & leaving home at a young age to go off to school, I never really grew up with younger kids, so this is a whole new experience for me. I have learned that it is very interesting to see the world through a 4 year old’s point of view. : )

Oops, got sidetracked a little. Back to food for now. I have actually been stuck in the kitchen for the last few days “experimenting”. What have I been doing? Playing with cakes, buttercream, fondant & sugar paste. I really feel like a mad scientist now. This week I have to make 2 cakes, one for Lil’ C’s party this weekend & one of Lil’ C’s best friend who is one day younger than her. More on the birthday cakes next post.  Besides that, I also made some cupcakes for Lil’ C to bring to her preschool. 

These are butter cupcakes covered with marshmallow fondant. I decided to go with fondant instead of buttercream because it is less messy to eat and to transport.

All packed up & ready to go!