Hello, Holiday's...

So, I've been busy this past week. Not only baking but getting ready for the holiday's period. My boyfriends and I just finished our shopping today and tomorrow will be our anniversary that we won't be able to celebrate outside of our home because we are broke. I said we BROKE! I hope the smiles on Christmas morning are worth it! haha

Even if we do celebrate at all tomorrow, I still have to stay up and bake a couple of cakes for some friends. They all want the Rosie cake! I wish they would ask for something else. I don't know what but something different and one of kind. Like this cake...

A friend of mine specifically asked for a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling and frosted with mocha whipped cream frosting. Then she gave free range in decorating it. I came up with this all on my own. I made the chocolate leaves all by myself with rose leaves that I picked from our garden and cleaned. 

This Rosie cake they all want all looks the same. A lot of people I know don't want to broaden their cake or cupcake horizon. They don't like to try something new and it is a bit annoying, really. Oh well, it's what they want... I wish they would ask for some cupcakes already! ANY cupcake, I don't care even bacon ones (which is still a little bizarre to me. It must be some kind of fad at the moment). I make really yummy ones, too!

So anyway, enough of that. I stopped by one of the few bakeries here in Stockton while I was shopping to stock up on baking supplies. It's a Dutch bakery and my best friend used to be employed there a couple years back and she used to rave about their pastries a lot. She also told me how the owner was baking day in and day out without a break all the time. I felt sorry for the guy because he didn't have anybody there to help him. He really SLAVED over his baking creations. 

Last time I was at that establishment my mom had dragged me there (without me knowing I was going there) because her best friend from someplace was visiting her sister who was married to the baker, and she was in town so my mom wanted to see her. I guess the baker is married to a Filipina. We walk in and it is really small with a good selection of baked goods. We went home with free goodies by the way. 

So, here I am again and I guess they expanded. It looked like the tore down a wall and just made the place bigger. This time there were about 10 people working and they looked like they were all related... to the baker's wife. I guess they made it in to a family business instead of hiring people like my best friend like they used to. 

And here is what I walked out with...

From the left, German chocolate cake, and two French chocolate macarons. They sell macarons in Stockton??? haha

The taste test? Man, I really hate giving bad reviews because I know people do try but these lacked something. Taste. I was really disappointed with both of these. I love German chocolate cake and this almost made me give it up completely. Let's see, it could have done with less topping because there was a lot of it and I didn't taste any cake. The French macarons were also disappointing, no taste! And the person who sold it to me didn't know what I meant by Parisian macaron when I asked for two. He had to have asked 4 other people what I was talking about even though I was pointing right at it. It was like he didn't believe what I was calling it. It's okay. Wasn't his fault. 

Carrot cake, red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting and mocha cake. Bland, bland and bland. Ugh. The rest of my family didn't even want to finish it and my family loves their sweets. The only thing that I appreciated was the carrot cake but then again it had waaay too much frosting. The red velvet just tasted like cream cheese frosting which was too sweet and the mocha cake didn't have anything mocha-ey about it. It was sweet and that was it. No taste, no taste, no taste! 

You know, I've have had a chocolate mousse cake from them a year ago and it was soooo good. If you wanted a reason to like chocolate mousse, there's was it because it was so moist and the mousse was incredible. I still remember putting it in my mouth and falling in love but this experience was anything but. I have also had their danishes and they were just as yummy and melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I don't know what happened. Now I'm wondering if it's the same owners...

Copy cats...

Aw man... this isn't going to be a very long post. I just need to vent a little...

They say when someone copies you, it is the best compliment but please, if you're going to steal my ideas, please give me some credit? Not going to point fingers here all right?

Let's just get back to baking new kreations =)

Happy baking!

24 Karat Cupcakes

I made carrot cupcakes/cake for the first time ever and I'm pretty dang proud of myself. Why did I decide to make them? Well, let me tell you...

I was at a grocery store a couple of miles away from my home and there is this bakery/cafe in the same shopping center. I remember when I first got my

 license, the first thing I did was look for a job because my parents never gave me any allowance, not because they couldn't but because they loved me enough not to give me money so easily. So, anyway, this bakery was the only place that I really wanted to work at because it was a bakery and it was a cool, chill place to hang out at but I was 16 and they didn't hire me because I had no work experience and such. Oh well, fast forward...

I go in, looking for cupcakes, and they only sold one kind. Carrot. I haven't had carrot cake in so long but I remember liking it. I bought one of those and a cup of tiramisu which was deeeeelicioius. I can't wait to make a cupcake version. My mascarpone in the fridge is dying to be made in to one. I didn't get to take a picture of the cupcake because it had sprinkles, orange ones, and I really really hate sprinkles. I already thought the cupcake was going to taste bad because of those stupid sprinkles but no people, it didn't. It was the best carrot cake that I've ever had and I was determined to create my own one day. It was perfectly matched with this tangy cream cheese frosting and along with the horrid orange sprinkles, it was also sprinkled with walnuts. The only problem I had with the cupcake was that it had raisins in it and NO I am not a big fan those either but that was okay because I didn't even taste them.

Last night I was craving for a piece of cake, which by the way, worried my boyfriend because the last time I craved something we had our son nine months later, haha. It was my fathers birthday yesterday, too and normally we would always have leftover cake but not this time. I made the cake version of Rosie's Cupcakes and everyone killed it. There wasn't even a teeny slice left which is a great compliment but I WANTED CAKE!

So, today I wanted to make sure there is a little something sweet a hand when someone in the house wanted it. My mother made a comment saying her doctor told her and my dad to lose weight and my boyfriend leans in to tell me that I'm killing my parents. hahaha. Hey! It's not like I'm forcing those cupcakes down their throats! But... I should find a healthier way of giving them sweets... I just don't want to look to Splenda to do that.

Here they are...

I named them 24 Karat Cupcakes because the recipe I used to make them made exactly 24 cupcakes. Normally there would be about 15 or thirty. Always a couple extra where I would have to bake the extra batter after the first batch but not these! Okay, People, I'm giving you the recipe. 

I try not to use other peoples recipes but I just had to try the one by Alton Brown. Now, I didn't follow his recipe exactly, I never follow any recipe exactly because I try to make it my own and I'm glad I didn't this specific time because it came out better then that bakery's cupcake.

 

I believe what makes a cupcake is all in the frosting. If you don't have a great frosting then you have a crappy cupcake, just chuck it out the window because it is not worth eating. The problem I had with this one? The frosting was all wrong. I used this recipe... Bobby Flay's Frosting for Red Velvet cake. It was gross. That is all I have to say. And I read the reviews! Most of them loved it so I tried it and I added some cream cheese to it. Nope. Nasty stuff. Well, next time I'm just going to use my mascarpone cream cheese recipe for it and then it will be perfect =)

Another Friday... Another Lesson...

So, I'm just sitting here, surfing the web, waiting for my son to get up so I can get him ready so we can go to my boyfriend's sisters house for a little soirée they're throwing for their nice and my son. I don't want to wake him up because... well... if any of you have kids and you woke up your little ones from their slumber, oh...my... God... forget about having any peace for the rest of the day.

Anyway, I just got done with my sister's cupcakes that she wants to bring to her Christmas party. I decided to use AP flour instead of cake flour this time to see if there was any kind of difference between them. I knew there was going to be some but it was a BIG one. I like my cakes a little on the light and airy side but these came out more dense then I would have liked them, more dry also. Dense is perfect for chocolate cakes, which I made for the cupcakes so it was all right but the lesson here is that the flour makes the difference. I'm sure all of you groovy bakers knew that already but I'm the kind of person that needs to see it to believe it. In this case, eat it to believe it. 

Anyway, I had left over white chocolate buttercream so I used on the cupcakes. White on black. Nice.

Iron Cupcake SF # 1 Aftermath

Man, did I have a good time at Iron Cupcake SF. I met some pretty cool cupcake lovers like myself and I got to eat their yummy ummy cupcakes. I also got to meet Chelsea who put together the whole thing together and she is so awesome. I don't know if she reads this but just in case she does, "Thanks, Chelsea! We'll see you next month!" 

I didn't quite leave Stockton early enough so my buddies and I could check out the other cupcakeries in Frisco. We traveled down Union Street looking for this certain bakery but couldn't spot it because it was so tiny but I caught a glimpse of it as we decided to just head to Leland Tea Company's for Iron Cupcake because we were running late. Dang it. Next time. 

So, we get there and Leland's is so cute. I wish we got there earlier so I could have tried their tea sandwiches. I had their Tiffany's blend which was so delicious. It's an English tea with milk and honey and I'm so ordering that again. I wish I could have taken a picture of the bathroom because it was adorable. It had like a French countryside feel to it. I love cute bathrooms. 

Judging starts and everyone was invited to eat and judge cupcakes. Even the customers who didn't know what was going on were invited. The more the merrier! I love watching people enjoy cupcakes.

I hope to get to know everyone more next time. It was my first time so I didn't know how to approach people but the ones that I actually talked to were really nice. I hope I don't forget their names... that would be so embarrassing.

Oh, and one last thing...

I GOT SECOND PLACE!!!! WOO HOO!!! I'm proud of my cupcakes and I'm glad people liked them. I don't care if I got any place, just as long as people got their piece of cake.

Check out my Flickr site for pictures of the event!

Flickr photos! Click here!

"Let them eat cake!" - Maria Antoinette

Hint O Mint Cupcakes

Before, I was SO not a fan of the whole mint and chocolate combination but I am slowly learning to appreciate all the different flavors of food and experimenting on different combinations of them. So, I came to appreciated the whole mint thing. I just didn't like when I bit into something that was supposed to be chocolaty and nutty turned into something that was laced with toothpaste. BUT I'm over that now and I kinda like it, I APPRECIATE it, all right? My boyfriend loves the stuff and so does my mom. She keeps a stash of Andes Mint Chocolates hidden in the house somewhere at all times. So these cupcakes are for them.

I made a dark chocolate cake and right before I put them into the baking cups I put about half a cup of Andes Mint Baking Chips in the batter.

Here's the buttercream. I didn't know how to make it mint-like so I guessed. I added about a tablespoon and a half of creme de menthe to 1 pound of buttercream. It still didn't give that mint taste that I was looking for but any more and the buttercream would have been too soft and tasted like a cocktail.

While the cupcakes cooled, I practiced on my piping. I have to make some cupcakes for my cousin and she asked if I could pipe out some Christmas trees for the topping and I said sure, knowing that my piping skills are crap. Obviously, look at the above picture. Disgusting... blech! You could totally tell that I was getting frustrated towards the top.

Keep it simple, keep it clean. You can't go wrong. Aren't they cute? Lined up like that? All uniform? A couple of months ago you could tell the difference from each cupcake because I didn't know how to make the same swirl on each cupcake. One would have too much while the other one had too little. One would look like I squeezed the piping bag too hard, which I did, because the buttercream would be hanging off of the edges and there was no design. Just a glop of what is supposed to be frosting. I'm getting there, people. I'm getting there...

Oh! This Thursday is the Meetup for Iron Cupcake SF! I can't wait! I get to meet people outside of my laptop who love cupcakes as much as I do!!!

Iron Cupcake SF # 1

I'm so excited about attending this Thursday's Iron Cupcake - San Francisco. It'll be my first time attending any type of cupcake community gathering. You know, before I ever starting putting my stuff up online, I had no idea how big this cupcake world was. I never even knew there was a cupcake world. I always thought that cupcakes were a U.S. thing but I was so so so wrong. I first discovered Flickr one day as I was surfing the web and I found people from random parts of the world were obsessed with cupcakes. I have never seen cupcakes like the ones I've see just recently. Some of them are so intricately made, they're like works of art. Seriously. And some were made to be more like an appetizer or meal, for example, baking bacon and eggs in the batter and topped with mashed potatoes and corn. It's crazy! Well, after a while I have been experimenting with different flavors and really broadening my cupcake horizon but I'm starting off slow. I'm not really ready to add bacon to my cupcakes. Iron Cupcake is a great way for me to start.

For this months challenge the secret ingredient is Spice. Any spice, all spice, cinnamon spice, ginger spice, posh spice. At first I wanted to do maybe a Gingerbread spice cake with honey cinnamon buttercream but I decided not to. I decided to do a chai spice with white chocolate buttercream because I thought maybe the combination would be delicious. I thought this all up in my head. When my mind isn't on my son, I'm thinking about cupcakes and what new kind of concoction I'm going to bake up next. I baked this new cupcake idea today to test it out and I gave some to friends and they loved it. Or maybe they were just trying to be nice? haha Anyway, even if they were, their lie made me feel happy =) I don't even think anyone reads this blog. Then why do I even bother? I don't know, it's kinda like a journal where you just talk about your day and you just blah blah away because it feels nice. I haven't vented on here yet and I don't know if I plan to. I don't know, we'll see...

Back to baking!

Here are my pretties getting ready to go into the oven. I put my own blend of chai spice in this which contains ginger and cinnamon. I put about 2 teaspoons worth into my white cake batter. After tasting it, I think it could use about half a teaspoon more of the spice.

While waiting for the cakes, I melted some white chocolate and I whipped into my buttercream. I think I had about a pound of buttercream with 8 oz of white chocolate in it. I really wanted to taste that white chocolatey flavor.

Here they are all done. Yes, that is a frying pan behind it. No, I wasn't frying anything while I had this on the stove.

I am seriously working on my piping skills which are nonexistent at the moment. I piped frosting onto these but they were so ugly that I scraped it off and tried again. 

Iron cupcake SF, here we come!

PAC-MAN Cupcakes... Weee are the champions, my friend...

...and we'lll keep on fiiighting, till the end...

In honor of the huge Manny Pacquiao (PAC-MAN) and Oscar De La Hoya fight in Las Vegas, which we were able to watch via PPV, I decided to make PAC-MAN cupcakes because we are huge PAC-MAN fans. This wasn't something that I've been planning for weeks. I just woke up today, excited about the fight, and thought "Hey, I should make some cupcakes today...". 

My lil sis helped me make PAC-MEN out of gumpaste while I worked on the cake and frosting.

 

I made white cake for the cupcakes and I decided to make a Nutella frosting to top them off. One is missing because my dad swiped one when I wasn't looking. These were fresh out of the oven, too. 

Here they are just waiting to be PAC-MANed...

Ta-dah! PAC-MAN Cupcakes!!! 

He so won by the way for those who didn't know. 8th round De la Hoya called it quits. It was so awesome. Man, if only I had placed some bets... A lot of my friends were lucky enough to go... lucky for me I'm a Mommy now and I have responsibilities =) While they were in the arena cheering him on from seats that were too far away to see him or De la Hoya's swollen face, I was at home, sitting comfortably on the couch watching every blow land with sweat splattering off of their faces on my LCD HDTV. Man, lucky them... 

Petit Ube Roulade

I wanted to get fancy with the title. haha. It's just means "small ube roll" for those that don't already know. Ube is the Filipino name for the purple yam.

I love ube. You see it a lot in Filipino homes. Mostly in the forms of desserts and ube cakes are my favorite, I also love the ice cream. Whenever my Mom would come home from the bay area she would always stop by Goldilocks and pick up some mocha and ube rolls. Those things would be gone within the hour in our home. 

I was surfing the internet one day and I came across some extracts that were made my McCormick. 

Ube Extract and others by McCormick

Unfortunately, they don't sell them here. So, my parents went on vacation last month to the Philippines and the only thing that I wanted was the extracts. They didn't find the McCormick extracts but they did find oils that are much much more stronger, one drop goes a long way and those are what I used. 

Here is the batter. I didn't use just the oil, I also put real ube in there. Those ingredients alone don't create that deep purple color so I had to add a couple of drops of violet food color.

Here is the baked product which only took about 10 minutes to bake. 

All done! I couldn't make them into the thick rolls because the cake kept cracking so I just made mini ones instead.

Mocha Chiffon Cake

These are 10 egg whites ready to be whipped into a meringue so they can be folded into the chiffon batter. My poor sister won't be eating this cake because she's allergic to them. I love chiffon cakes. They're so light and airy and you don't feel too bad about eating them! My plan is to make it in many flavors as I possibly can.

I first discovered the chiffon from a neighbor that used to bake up these heavenly delights but unfortunately they don't anymore for some unknown reason. They made this mocha chiffon cake, filled with macapuno (young coconut) and covered with this to-die-for frosting and ground almonds. I begged them to make that cake for me for my baby shower but they thought up of every excuse not to. I was so sad when I realized that they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't bake that cake ever ever again, for no one. I'm guessing they baked it so many times that they just got plain sick of it. That's a really understandable reason. Like when I was pregnant, I made hot dogs every single night and now I don't even want to look at another hot dog. I asked for the recipe but they made it clear that they were taking that recipe to their graves. Lucky for me, I'm pretty good at figuring out how to make certain foods. Yes, I solved the mystery. I first solved the frosting mystery which I use on most of my "kreations" and then I tackled the cake. In respect for them, because I've known them for so long and they're close family friends, I'm not going to reveal that secret but I will reproduce it for friends and family who request it.

Here's the batter, ready to be panned and put in the oven. That utensil in the batter is my favorite spatula. It's by the Wilton line and it's made especially for the stand mixer bowls. I love it.

Finished product. This was for first try but they only thing I didn't get right was that I didn't put enough of the secret ingredient haha. I wanted it to look pretty so I through some roses on it. This was delicious...

Java Monkey Cupcakes

I love chiffon cake and so I wanted to make a cupcake version of them. The batter I made was more than enough for 12 cupcakes so I used the rest for a cake since my family has been begging me to make one.

I made a mocha chiffon and they didn't take very long to cook but the labor to made them made my arm sore.

I had a different idea for the cupcakes. I wanted to mix macapuno (young coconut) in the frosting but I didn't have any. So I wondered what else went well with mocha? Bananas? Mangos? That's all I had so I decided on the bananas.

I cooked the bananas Bananas Foster style and then I incorporated them into the frosting.

Thus... The Java Monkey