I have to remember today.

Updates will follow after class tonight.

You are probably going to kill me for using that as a title but I asked and you said you don't care. See you Thursday. Haha =p

Okay! Wrapping up the weekend, I had a nice relaxing Sunday and decided to take a break from my regular routine. Sometimes you just have to kick back and spend some time with your love ones.

Can you believe it? Andrew paid for dim sum! He is now one of my favourite cousins. =) Congrats to him. Haha

drew and grandma

thats me

kitchen in progress

so bright!

At night time, I decided to bake some cupcakes! I bought the ingredients a while back but never got the chance to do the baking because of the kitchen. This recipe was from Jenny Harrison and Mariel Williams, Cupcake Wars, 2010. I have never tried this so called "red velvet" cupcake before so I decided to give it a shot.

Here's what you need for the cake:

3 cups plus 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (recommended: Valrhona)
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 7/8 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 fluid ounce red food coloring
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce
1 1/4 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

The almond cream cheese frosting:

11 1/2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
24 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
4 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Of course, I used my kitchen aid stand mixer for this one. I am started to feel like it is an essential kitchen tool that everyone should have. Haha.

The frosting was the hardest part, make sure that you leave the cream cheese out at room temperature before you make this frosting or else its going to bulk up during the mixing process. AND you need a pipping bag and pipping tips for the frosting. But if you don't have a set, you can always just spoon it on top. I just got a little fancy that is all.

red velvet

so nice =)

take two

late night pipping

final!

The taste? Well, my mom and sister loved it and I am going to give some to friends tomorrow. So I will let you guys know how it is. I personally love it, the frosting was so unique and the red velvet cupcake tastes / looks like something from starbucks! Haha, now I am just getting cocky. Okay I will stop.

BONUS!!
Enjoy Episode One of my show! =) Have a good laugh.

Friday I made Fruit Flans! Not my favourite but it was a good experience overall. We pre-made the dough for the tart last week and all we had to do was roll it with a rolling pin and blind bake it. Pretty straight forward.

The vanilla pudding was interesting, I never realized that it was that easy to make. Here's what you need:

875 ml Milk
100 g sugar
100 g corn starch
125 ml milk
150 g (3) eggs
vanilla
salt

The ingredients listed above is listed for two portions, so it was for FOUR fruit flans. Oh and you need a sponge cake recipe too which I believe I have some where in this blog. Look at the black forest section. =)

The fruit flan tasted like fruit tarts but in a pie / cake format. The tart base was kinda of hard maybe it was because I didn't roll it thin enough, the pudding and sponge cake was just perfect. It was a dream combo, soft creamy and not overly sweet. A must try. 

beef noodle house =)

Michael Smith's Grilled Cheese

After a nice workout day on Thursday, I got around to make Michael Smith's grilled cheese. This recipe was from his "Chef at home" cook book. It was easy but tasteful.

What you need:

4 slices of aged cheese
4 slices of bread
butter on all slices

Grill on a sauce pan in medium heat so that you don't burn the bread before the cheese melts.

Results, heavenly! The cheese just melts in your mouth and the taste was so rewarding. I can you tell that I will be revisiting this recipe again/

45th anniversary at work =)

New designs?!

kitchen

vanilla pudding

mixing

dough

rolled and ready

sugar syrup for the sponge cake and fresh fruits

blind baked for 20 minutes

mimi & mia dream team

Introducing MIMI & MIA, my two favourite chefs. I never introduced them to you guys did I? Haha. They are so easy going and one of them keeps talking chinese to me but that's okay, I am chinese and I will never neglect my mother tongue. Next week is our last class together but I have a feeling that our friendship will not stop there. =)

sugar syrup

add vanilla pudding

top it off with fruits =)

flan 1

flan 2

eric and i

he told me to do that haha

I injured myself last night during basketball and now I am limping a bit so that is why I did not make my cupcakes yet! ><

I read a story about a guy whose girlfriend got into an accident, she is practically disabled and cannot live on her own. The boyfriend stays with her and wrote this song.

Very inspirational and touching.
Updates tonight.

So after a mis-calculation of missing the end date for skating we decided to go watch a movie, dinner and drinks. We watched limitless and after watching this movie, I felt impelled to do even better. Without the pill of course. Haha. The movie talks about a low life guy that turns into everything he wanted to be after he takes this pill, now of course I won't spoil the movie for you but you get the jits of it.

Here we go. =)

sick

Everything just looks better in red. =)

What a tough but fun weekend. Friday was just long, Saturday was packed with outings and Sunday was just being Sunday.

Friday:
I brought the Quinoa cookies to work and they loved it. The quinoa was a little bit weird but the semi-sweet chocolate chips made up for it. It was nice and chewy with a generous amount of melted chocolate chips in it. Pure goodness. =)

The second half of Friday we made swiss rolls in class. The rolls itself was easy to make but the bad part about it was the cream. I don't like desserts that have too much cream! Blah. I brought home two different flavours, strawberry and aprocot.(sp?)

cookies and chocolate chip bread

haha jen and julie =)

this is what we call the ribbon stage

cake batter

dough for next week!

topped off with toasted almonds

dim sum in the morning

dim sum in the afternoon....same day -_-

i failed for the first time, explain later...

Oh my, these brownies didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. I think it was because I added too much butter and that resulted in a oily base. Next time, I will know not to add as much and have more patience when baking brownies. I can't beleive I failed but life time of learning. =)

happy bday my friend!