TRIFLE

So here it is!  The final trifle recipe!  Now like I had mentioned, I wanted to make my own pudding and cake, so here they are!

White cake: http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/2011/03/doll-cakes.html
Vanilla pudding: http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/2011/12/vanilla-pudding.html


Now, the recipe!


TRIFLE:

1 (5 ounce) package instant vanilla pudding mix (or my recipe link)

1 (9 inch) angel food cake, cut in cubes (or my recipe link)

4 bananas, sliced

1 (16 ounce) package frozen strawberries, thawed

1 (12 ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (or real whipped cream)

1. Prepare pudding according to package directions (or use my pudding recipe).  Make whipped cream (if wanted) with at least 3-4 tbp sugar.

2. In a trifle bowl or other glass serving dish, layer half the cake pieces, half the pudding, half the bananas, half the strawberries and half the whipped topping. Repeat layers. 

3. Cover and chill in refrigerator 4 hours or overnight before serving.

Tips:

- You can add food coloring to the whipped cream, pudding, and/or cake.  I colored my cake redish.

-You can add any other fruits if desired (ex. blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc)  I added green and red grapes.

Links:

Trifle: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/strawberry-trifle/detail.aspx

VANILLA PUDDING

So this is a recipe following my last post.  I'm making trifle (will put up the recipe after this), but I wanted to try making my own white cake and pudding.  The pudding I'm going to make for the first time (still haven't bought all the ingredients yet).  And I'm making this twice: one w/out egg yolks, one with egg yolk.  Egg yolks make the pudding more rich and thick.  So I'm going to try this, here it is!

VANILLA PUDDING:

2 cups milk (at least 1% or more, no skim milk)

1/2 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter (room temperature)

Extra Ingredient Tips:

Cut the sugar (I heard it's extremely sweet, even for sugar-lovers).  

I cut a little less than half of the sugar needed.

Add 1 tsp vanilla more

1. In a bowl, combine sugar, cornstarch and salt.

2.  In medium saucepan (no heat), pour combined dry ingredients.  Add milk slowly and whisk everything until dissolved.  Then put on heat to medium.

3. Continue to stir until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon.  Do not boil.

4. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla and butter.  Pour into dishes and chill before serving.

TIPS:
- I actually rewrote all the directions because other suggested to rewrite it all.  Why?  Because the original directions caused large lumps in the pudding.  This way it prevents it all.

- Some people like to keep it on heat and stir, then take it off heat heat and cool a little.  Then they like to add 1-2 egg yolks and stir until its really thick.  I tried both ways.  The thicker one was really nice for like fillings and such.  But I'm was making trifle so my second time w/ no eggs was better.  But I'd definitely use eggs if I were making things like pie.

- I added a tsp of cinnamon in mine.  Some like to add cinnamon and/or nutmeg.  Or they sprinkle it on top of the pudding when ready to eat.  The one with cinnamon was tasty, but it overpowered the vanilla taste.  

My second time w/ no cinnamon tasted more like "vanilla pudding".

Links:
Homemade vanilla pudding: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/homemade-vanilla-pudding/detail.aspx

SPANISH FLAN

I haven't baked in more than 2 months and it's killing me.  So today I decided to make 3 dishes, but involving a lot of other dishes.  This recipe is for flan (a dish originated from Spain if you didn't notice).  Usually I make my aunt's famous flan (around all the relatives), but I lost the recipe somewhere, so I decided to use this flan recipe off the web.  Now, I'm haven't made it at the moment (I need to buy more ingredients), but I'm making 2 flans. I want to see how many eggs are good for flan (to my family's taste).  So I'm making one with 4 eggs, the other with 5.Maybe they'll taste the same, maybe they won't.  So I'm going to try it out.  So this is the recipe:

                                  *update: it turned out 4 eggs for this flan comes out with much better results than using 5 eggs.  I would recommend this to all.*

FLAN:
1 cup white sugar
3 eggs
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk
1 tbp vanilla extract

Extra Ingredient Tips:
(The more eggs added, the more dense and rich your flan gets, NOT fluffy and soft)
4-5 eggs instead of 3
add a tsp of cinnamon
add tsp of vanilla after your sugar melts

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

2. In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt sugar until liquefied and golden in color. Carefully pour hot syrup into a 9 inch round glass baking dish, turning the dish to evenly coat the bottom and sides. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Beat in condensed milk, evaporated milk and vanilla until smooth. Pour egg mixture into baking dish. Cover with aluminum foil.

4. Bake in preheated oven 60 minutes. Let cool completely.

5. To serve, carefully invert on serving plate with edges when completely cool.

TIPS:


-When melting the sugar, keep the round dish warm in the oven so when you pour the sugar in, it won't start to harden so quickly


- When melting the sugar, make sure the sugar is spread out evenly around the saucepan and the heat is on low.  Never raise it past medium, or else it will burn.  Occasionally swirl, but not mix, the sugar.  Be patient, it will melt.  Make sure to melt it until it's completely liquefied.  Do not keep it over the heat longer than that, or it will burn.


- When you pour the flan into the dish, pour it through a strainer to prevent lumps later on

- When you bake this, put it into a water bath.  This means add hot water into another pan/dish (such as a rectangle pan 9X13").  Add the hot water until it reaches around 1-2 inches in the pan when the pan is on an oven rack (that way no one gets burned when trying to transport the hot water bath to the oven).  Then carefully lay the flan-filled dish into the hot water.  Push it into the oven then let it bake.

- I added cinnamon to both, and you'll find when you bake it the cinnamon will rise to the top.

- For my first flan I forgot to pour it through a strainer so I'm worried about its texture. But coming out of the oven it looked nice.  My second flan I used a strainer, but when it came out of the oven it was blown up.  So I let it sit on the oven rack while cooling and the bubble went down.

-so it turned out that my flan with 4 eggs was nice and smooth, and came out of the pan like butter.  The flan with 5 eggs, crumbled out of the pan and was so extremely lumpy it overtook the actual taste.  So now what?  I recommend to all that using a max of 4 eggs for this flan is best.


Links:
Spanish flan: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/spanish-flan/

JAPANESE OMURICE (OMELETTE RICE)

A few weeks ago I tried making omelette rice for the first time because my family really had nothing to eat. Others told me it was simple, but I was so afraid mine would just come out badly. BUT it did NOT come out badly, but was actually pretty good for my first try (as told by the "others"). I actually found this recipe from a Japanese manga based on cooking. Who knew it'd come out so well?



OMURICE:
1-3 onions (white/red)
60g chicken
1 bell pepper
1-2 tbp ketchup
salt & pepper (to taste)
1C cooked white rice/sticky rice
1 egg
1/2 tsp potato starch powder
1 slice ham
ketchup (for finishing touches)
2 tsp vegetable oil

Extra Ingredients:
3 carrots, diced
2-3 potatoes, diced

1. Dice the carrots and potatoes. Dice the onions and bell pepper into small pieces. cut the chicken up into 1cm-sized cubes.
2. Add oil to a frying pan, and once it has reached a high enough temperature, add the carrots and potatoes first. When almost cooked, add the onions, bell pepper and chicken; fry. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Once the vegetables are almost cooked, add the rice. Stir it quickly with a wooden spatula and fry until fully cooked.
4. Once mixed, add the ketchup; add more if preferred.
5. In a bowl whip up the egg and add one tsp of water with the potato starch dissolved in it.
6. On a medium heat in another frying pan (small), add a small amount of vegetable oil (enough to cover whole pan). Carefully pour the egg mixture in.
7. It should spread out fully into the pan, and once the edges are dry, carefully turn it over. Let if cook and when done, take it out.
8. On a wooden chopping board lay some clingflim/plastic wrap on top. Put the omelette on top of it, then add the rice to the top of the omelette.
9. Squeeze and twist the clingfilm on both sides, turn it over and put it onto the plate. Carefully remove the wrap.
10. Squeeze ketchup for finishing touches; serve warm.


Tips:

-I forgot to add the chicken, but this recipe is fine vegetarian.

-You can add any other ingredients to your taste. I added potatoes and carrots, but vegetables such a tomatoes, zucchini, beef, etc.

-I have a bad habit of ending up with more than 2 times the normal proportion sizes of normal cooking recipes, so I simply double the ingredients. Comes out fine.

Asian Bakery We Visited 11/11/11 at 11:11pm

The waffles were really good, but they were also EXTREMELY expensive. Most Korean bakeries are though. After we visited this bakery, we just went straight to the Korean grocery store Galleria and got snacks there instead that were cheaper all together than the waffles.

CINNAMON CRUMBLE COFFEE CAKE

My family visited Panera Bread a few days ago and we bought a delicious cinnamon crumble coffee cake. Unfortunately, it was devoured too soon and my younger sibling was insisting for more. So I decided to make the same cake for her. I have not tried this recipe out yet, but reviews show it comes out great. :)


CINNAMON CRUMBLE COFFEE CAKE:

Coffeecake Ingredients:
3/4 cup sugar
¼ cup softened butter
1 egg
½ cup milk
1½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Cinnamon Crumble Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons melted butter



1. Heat oven to 350.

2. Cream butter and sugar, and mix in egg and milk.

3. Combine dry ingredients in a small bowl.

4. Gently mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients just until moistened, and spread into a greased 8×8-inch baking pan.

5. Combine cinnamon crumble ingredients and sprinkle atop coffeecake dough. Using a fork, swirl cinnamon mixture through dough.

6. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.


Links:

Cinnamon crumble coffee cake: http://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2010/01/wednesday-baking-cinnamon-crumble-coffee-cake/

FRENCH TOAST

I'm going to have a series of breakfast foods now. I'll be putting up at least 4 by the end of this week. I absolutely ADORE "traditional" food. Like when you prepare something and it HAS to look like how's it's arranged on TV. :P



FRENCH TOAST:

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1 pinch salt
3 eggs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon white sugar
12 thick slices bread



1. Measure flour into a large mixing bowl. Slowly whisk in the milk. Whisk in the salt, eggs, cinnamon, vanilla extract and sugar until smooth.

2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium heat.

3. Soak bread slices in mixture until saturated. Cook bread on each side until golden brown. Serve hot.



TIPS:

-You have to constantly stir the mixture because ingredients such as flour tend to drop to the bottom frequently.

-Some people like to sprinkle cinnamon on top of a soaked pieced of bread, and then fry it.



Links:

French toast: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fluffy-french-toast/detail.aspx

CARROT CAKE

Last week my family and friends went camping. I HAD planned on making my "ultimate cake design", but things got in the way so I was only left with a simple cake. Carrot cake is one of those "simple" recipes. I found this new one before and I hadn't make carrot cake for at least 3 years. This one had added ingredients such as pineapple and apple sauce. I don't usually put these "extras" but I was like, "well, hell with it." :P

CARROT CAKE:

4 eggs 1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups grated carrots
1 cup chopped pecans

Extra Ingredient Tips:
1C white sugar and 1C brown sugar (substitute)
Extra tsp of vanilla
Add one 8oz. can of pineapples (squeezed and blended)
1/4 nutmeg
Extra 1tsp of cinnamon
3/4 C canola oil and 1/2 C apple sauce (substitute)
Any nuts (ex: walnuts, almonds, etc)



1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, apple sauce, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots and pineapples. Fold in nuts. Pour into prepared pan.

3.Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped nuts. Frost the cooled cake.



Tips:

-I didn't have Canola oil so I simply used normal vegetable oil. Worked out fine.

-Don't over-beat the mixture or it'll become hard.

-I used tinfoil bread pans so they took a little longer to bake. Most people just use round cake pans.

-Of course, the cake goes better with a cream cheese frosting. :)


Links:

Carrot cake: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/carrot-cake-iii/detail.aspx

Scones/Biscuits

This recipe I found online is when buying scones from Tim Hortons was a little too pricy. When I made this, it was SUPER EASY. And its fairly quick. I like to but raisins in my scones, but u can add dried fruits, nuts and cheese.


SCONES

2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening (reviews say that using half butter and half shortening tastes much better)
1 egg
2/3 cup milk


1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Cut in shortening until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Beat egg with milk; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.

2. Turn onto a well-floured surface; knead 20 times. Roll to 3/4-in. thickness; cut with a floured 2-1/2-in. biscuit cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.


TIPS:

-If you don't have the tools to create coarse crumbs, using two butter knives work well too.

-For a golden touch, spread milk on top of the biscuit dough right before putting it in the oven, OR beat an egg with a little bit of water and spread that on the dough instead.



LINKS:

Biscuits: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Fluffy-Biscuits/Detail.aspx

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Here is the recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I have found my recipes for this but this one comes out nice and soft and chewy. It simply is better than other ones I have tried. Enjoy. :)


CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips


1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.

2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.

4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.


TIPS:

-make sure to completely cool the cookies to keep them chewy (unless you eat them right away)

-MELT the butter, DON'T FORGET THE EGG YOLK, and DON'T OVER BEAT YOUR EGGS

-if you find the cookies too sticky before putting into the oven, you can refrigerate for an hour.

-I find the cookies a little sweet so I cut back on the sugar by half a cup.



LINKS:

Chocolate chip cookies: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Best-Big-Fat-Chewy-Chocolate-Chip-Cookie/Detail.aspx

CORN MUFFINS

Today my friend is sleeping over so we're going to make corn muffins, raisin scones, and chocolate chip cookies. I will put up the other recipes along with this one. I've tried other corn muffin recipes before but none of them were great. They always turned out stiff or rough. So I now always depend on the corn recipe I got when I took a cooking/baking class in middle school.


CORN MUFFINS:

- 1 1/2 C flour
- 3/4 C cornmeal
- 1C sugar
- 1 tbp & 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- dash of lemon zest (1/2 tsp)
- 1 C milk
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- 1/4 C oil
- 2 tbp sugar (for garnish)
- 1 C fresh or frozen berries (optional)


1. Sift dry ingredients into large mixer bowl.

2. Whisk together milk, vanilla and lemon zest.

3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. Fold wet ingredients (including egg) into dry ingredients. (OPTIONAL)Gently fold in berries until all dry ingredients look moistened.

5. Line muffin pan with paper cups until 3/4 full. Pour batter into cups and sprinkle with a dash of sugar.

6. Place in oven for 18-20 minutes.


TIPS:

-DO NOT MIX THE INGREDIENTS TOGETHER FOR TOO LONG. Doing so may thicken the batter too much and the muffins will become hard.

RAINBOW JELLY

Yesterday I made Rainbow Jelly with my cousins and my family friends. Well, actually the real recipe for Rainbow Jelly is with 8 different layers of jelly in one cup. Since doing that would take hours to do, I stuck with 2 different layers. I don't like jelly, but when I make it with JUICE, it comes out so good. :)


Rainbow Jelly:

• Packets of flavored jelly or non-flavored jelly (assorted to match the taste of the juice)
• 1C water (for each packet of jelly)
• 1C juice (for each packet of jelly), and as many different juices as you want with each layer. (thicker and/or deeper juices like orange or grape are best)
• Clear cups (to show off the colors)
• 
  

(These instructions may also be written on the jello box.)

1. Pour 1C of water into a pot and wait until boiling.
2. Take your first jello packet and pour it all into the water; mix until fully dissolved.
3. Turn off the heat then pour the 1C of juice in (the one that matches the jelly flavor).
4. Cool it until lukewarm then begin to divide the mix into cups (if you want to use the flavor again for another layer, make sure to save at least half).
5. Refrigerate at least 1hr or until the jelly layer if firm enough (poke it with your finger).
6. After firm, take it out and repeat steps 1-5 again. Do these steps for every layer you put until satisfied.
7. Serve fresh after every layer is firm, or leave overnight. Garnish and serve.

TIPS

• You can add different fresh fruits into the jelly layers. Cut into small pieces and add to the jelly mixture. I used raspberries, but other common ones are blueberries, strawberries, grapes, canned peaches, etc.
• Garnishing includes whipped cream, mint leaves, flavored syrup, etc.
• Make sure each layer if FIRM ENOUGH before putting another layer. If it isn't, it can mix with the bottom layer (that has happened to me and it tasted bad).

COMING SOON

THIS IS A COMING SOON DESIGN. My friend's birthday is coming up in August in 2 weeks and my little cousins birthday is also in the same 2 weeks. And also my friend is moving to a new house half hr away from her old house (which is 5 min by car from my house). To celebrate all this, I decided I wanted to bake a cake.

It's been a LONG time since I've baked something other than pie. And the design is a bit complicated so it's a new challenge for me too. This will probably be a little costly and I hope my mom can put up with the payments. I'll finally be buying permanent icing bags and more tips and, obviously, along with more food coloring.

I'll be making the cake in about 2 weeks. Since I started baking in the past few years, the taste of my delicacies are now always delicious. Now I want to focus on making my treats look PRETTY. Of course that means more Youtube baking tutorials and more baking tools. For the cake I've learned how to make different types of icing flowers off of Youtube. You all should check them out too, there are TONS of videos to help you. :)

IMPROVED CURRY

So I was reading this manga (Japanese comic book) called Addicted to Curry. It has A LOT of curry recipes that I want to try out in the future. We had curry for dinner and I used the book's list of "improving" ingredients.


IMPROVED CURRY:

-Curry block or powder (you can find at like ANY Asian supermarket, and if you get the block, make sure to chop finely)
-A pot
-Meat (pork, beef, or chicken is preferred, cut into chunks. If you don't eat meat, leave this out)
-Carrots (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-Potatoes (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-Onions (roughly chopped into big pieces)
-3-4 C of water (depending on how thick you like your curry)
-salt and pepper for seasoning

"Improving" ingredients:
A bit of each depending on your own taste. They DO sound weird, and I thought so too. But trust me, the ending result is DELICIOUS.

-ketchup
-hot sauce (especially those ones from the Chinese markets w/ the rooster on it)
-soy sauce
-milk
-sugar
-red wine
-coffee
-chocolate
-butter
-tomatoes
-ginger
-fresh garlic
-PLAIN yogurt
-PARMESAN cheese
-Coconut milk
-cream
-cashews (if you are allergic to nuts, do NOT use this)
-crush soft apple (soak in salt water to make is soft before crushing it into mush)
-mango (crush it into mush. Riper ones are softer)
-banana (crush it into mush. Riper ones are softer)
-mango jam


1. Finish preparing the basic ingredients. Put the chopped potatoes, carrots and onions in oil in your pot first. After they have gotten ALMOST soft, add the meat and add salt and pepper to the pot. You may use other spices too.

2. Add the water to the pot and wait for it to become hot (but not boiling). Add the curry block or powder. As it dissolves add some milk, ketchup, soy sauce, ANYTHING of liquid. Do not add too much, but also not too little that it wouldn't make a difference.

3. As the liquid ingredients get mixed in, start adding the sold ingredients. Make sure you prepare them the way told above. Mix thoroughly.

4. You may add more of any ingredients to match to your taste, and serve fresh.



TIPS

-I only had these extra ingredients in my house to use in the curry: milk, ketchup, soy sauce, flour, hot sauce, butter, tomatoes, and red wine. The curry came out fine.

-Since I have younger kids in my house (my cousins), the curry was too spicy for them. To make it a little better, I added more milk. If you add in soy sauce or anything salty, it can make your curry too salty. I didn't have cream or yogurt, but they would have helped better than milk.

-If you prefer thicker curry and it is already salty enough (so don't add anymore curry blocks or powder), then use flour. A lot of people use flour to thicken their curry, so don't worry.

-If you prefer thinner curry, either add more water, or any liquid ingredients (if your curry is salty enough, don't add salty liquids). I like using milk or red wine.

-Make sure all the vegetables are soft enough before serving. Usually people do not enjoy hard carrots and potatoes in their curry.

NOT JUST BAKING

Hey, just a heads up, I wanted to say this blog is not ONLY on baking. It may have cooking as well. It's just I don't usually look up on cooking recipes. But sometimes I will. I know I'm going to be making guacamole, so I'll definitely put that up. :)

SUGAR COOKIES

Hello there! This time, I'm going to be making sugar cookies for the adorable kids at the elementary school I volunteer for. This recipe comes out with soft cookies rather than hard. Again, this recipe is from www.allrecipes.com.

*View photo gallery here>>>http://sweet-patissiere.blogspot.com/p/photo-gallery.html*

SUGAR COOKIES:

1 1/2 cups butter, softened
2 cups white sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt

Extra ingredients tips:

Use 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla instead of 1.


1. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).

2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Cut into shapes with any cookie cutter. Place cookies 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

3. Bake 6 to 8 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.



Tips:

-If the dough is still sticky when you begin to roll it out, spread LOTS of flour on the table, your hands, and the rolling pin.

-Another tip for sticky dough is to roll it on parchment paper and peel away extra dough from cookies cutters. That way, the cookies wont stick to the table.

-For lots of fun, you can split the dough and add food colouring. For example, for Christmas I dyed the dough green, blue, and pink for fun.

-You can use different shaped cookie cutters for additional fun. Small-sized cutters are nice for quick snacks.



Links:

Sugar Cookies: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/The-Best-Rolled-Sugar-Cookies/Detail.aspx

BANANA CAKE

So I haven't posted anything up recently since I haven't been baking. But last Sunday my mom held a dinner feast for my family friend's birthday. We had him and his whole family come over, but since they forgot THEIR birthday cheesecake, I decided to make a birthday banana cake (also since my banana's were getting really ripe). I got the recipe out of a book from Lez's house (the lady I usually volunteer for).

see " photo gallery " for more photos

BANANA CAKE:

-2 cups flour
-1 3/4 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
-1 cup mashed banana (usually 2 large)
-1/2 cup softened butter
-1/2 cup buttermilk
-2 eggs
-1 tsp vanilla

*NOTE* (buttermilk can be substituted w/ 1 1/2 tsp lemon juice w/ milk until 1/2 cup is reaches. Leave still for 5 min then stir.



1. Combine flour, baking powder & baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Add sugar, banana, butter and buttermilk (or substitute). Beat. Add eggs & vanilla. Beat until smooth. Pour into pans.

2. Bake for 35-40 min at 350 degrees.


TIPS:

-when I made my cake, it took well over 40 min to bake thoroughly and for a toothpick to come out clean when poked into the cake. It may vary depending on how ripe your banana is. Mine were COMPLETELY black and I had to bake for around 1 hour.

MERINGUE

I also made meringue today since I had some egg whites left over from the creme brulee. :)

see "photo gallery" for more photos


MERINGUE:

4 egg whites
2 1/4 cups confectioners' sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees F (95 degrees C). Butter and flour a baking sheet.

2. In a glass or metal bowl, whip egg whites until foamy using an electric mixer. Sprinkle in sugar a little at a time, while continuing to whip at medium speed. When the mixture becomes stiff and shiny like satin, stop mixing, and transfer the mixture to a large pastry bag. Pipe the meringue out onto the prepared baking sheet using a large round tip or star tip.

3. Place the meringues in the oven and place a wooden spoon handle in the door to keep it from closing all the way. Bake for 3 hours, or until the meringues are dry, and can easily be removed from the pan. Allow cookies to cool completely before storing in an airtight container at room temperature.


Tips:

-when beating the egg whites, make sure to beat it long enough till peaks form, which make take up to 15 min

-after adding the sugar, the final mixture should not be too soft. it should not be too stiff, but it should drop from the beater quite slowly, like a thick mixture

-yes, the meringues have to be in the oven for 3 hours. i tried breaking off a little in the oven after 1 hr and the middle was not hardened yet, only the outer layer was


Links:

Meringue: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Authentic-French-Meringues/Detail.aspx

CREME BRULEE

Like I said in my last post, I've been motivated to bake more these days. Today's dessert was creme brulee. Weirdly enough, I've never had any in my life, so what I made toady was my first taste. :)

see "photo gallery" for more photos


CREME BRULEE:

6 egg yolks
6 tablespoons white sugar, divided
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).

2. Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.

3. Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined. pour into a shallow heat-proof dishes and lay the dishes into a pan filled with hot water that reaches a little more than half way of the dishes.

4. Bake in oven for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.

5. Preheat oven to broil.

6. In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons white sugar and brown sugar. Sift this mixture evenly over custard. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes.

7. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Tips:

-before pouring mixture into a dish, get rid of any bubbles or lumps with a strainer


Links:

Creme Brulee: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Creme-Brulee/Detail.aspx

Cream Puffs & Swan Cream Puffs

I've really been into baking these days since I've been baking more than usual. And buying my new pastry bags gave me new motivation to set up my own private baking business for school and church. So I decided I wanted to try out lots of French pastries including cream puffs, creme brulee, meringue, and custard. For now I'm starting out with cream puffs since I LOVE them. Originally they should be filled with custard or pudding mixture, but I don't have the time to make that so for this time I'll be filling the puffs with whipped cream. I also found a cool video on youtube on how to make swan cream puffs and they're REALLY EASY.


Cream Puffs:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs

Extra ingredients as suggested:

• 2 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbp sugar

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large pot, bring water and butter to a rolling boil. Stir in flour and salt until the mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a large mixing bowl. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Using a wooden spoon or stand mixer, beat egg mixture little by little, mixing well after each time. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto an ungreased baking sheet or fill a pastry bag and pipe out 1-1 1/2 in. of dough.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. Centers should be dry. Poke a hole with a toothpick on the sides of the puffs to release the steam the last couple of minutes of baking. Then turn off the heat and open the oven to let the puffs cool.
4. When the shells are completely cooled, either split and fill them with the pudding mixture, or use a pastry bag to pipe the pudding into the shells.

Tips:

• It is ESSENTIAL to poke the puffs with a toothpick so it prevents the puff from sagging and deflation later.
• When making the dough and adding eggs, if the dough does not come out sticky and smooth enough (it should NOT still be in a "ball" form), add another egg.
• If making swans, do not pipe too much dough for the head & neck. after baking, the cream puffs will "blow up" a lot so the necks do not need that much.

For Swan cream puffs:
Visit link for visual instructions

• Pipe 1-2 in. oval doughs (this will be the body).
• Then pipe an "S" shape for the neck and head of the swan.
• Pipe more dough on the beginning of the "S" to create a head.

Whipped Cream:
Adapted from AllRecipes

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon confectioners' sugar

1. In a large bowl, whip cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Beat in vanilla and sugar until peaks form. Make sure not to over-beat, cream will then become lumpy and butter-like.


Tips:

• You can experiment with whipped cream flavoring by adding small amounts of different extracts such as almond, rum, orange, lemon, etc.
• Add food coloring if you want your cream to be colorful.

Assembly:

1. For the regular cream puffs, simply use a pastry bag to pipe in your whipped cream (or custard if you prefer to use that) by poking a small hole in the puff. If you do not have a pastry bag, simply cut the puffs in half then put in some filling and make a "sandwich".
2. For the swans, take the body and cut it in half. Cut the upper half vertically in half again to make the wings.
3. Fill the lower half of the body with cream until it is "round". Take a neck/head and stick it to the edge of the body into the cream. It should stay upright. Take the wings and stick it to the sides of the body of whip cream. Add more cream if needed.

Optional:
-sprinkle a little confectioner's sugar over the swan and/or chocolate syrup for decoration

Apple Pie

For the last 3 weeks, I've been helping my friend out from school to do a bake sale to help with fundraising for Japan with our Red Cross club. This is the last week, and it's "pie week". We made the crusts at my house and she made the filling with her other friend at another house since I'm too busy. But I needed to make an apple pie for my own family anyways so I did that.

I used both the filling and crust recipes from allrecipes.com. I used Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust and Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. I get lots of compliments from this pie from both family and friends, especially from the crust. My own family is actually not very fond of pies, but the only pie they will eat are my apple pies. :)









Pie Crust:
Adapted from Ruth's Grandma's Pie Crust
Yields about 2 crusts

• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 3/4 cups shortening
• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup water

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all-purpose flour, shortening, sugar, and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.
2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. Blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Tips:

• Chill for at least 1 hour in the fridge (makes it easier to roll out later).
• When rolling out the dough to make the crust, sprinkle flour on and around the dough.

Apple Pie:
Adapted from MOSHASMAMA

• 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced (you don't have to use smith apples, I simply use what I have on hand)

Additions:
Based off of the reviews on this pie, here are the adjustments I got to make this even better tasting. :)
ADD EXTRA:

• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbp vanilla (take out 1 tbps of water)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar (and extra ingredients), and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. Mix sliced apples with syrup (save some to brush on top of crust).
2. Place the bottom crust in your pan and brush with egg white (to prevent sogginess). Fill with apples mixed in syrup, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently brush leftover syrup over the crust.
3. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until apples are soft.

Tips:

• Place flat pan with foil underneath pie for drips in oven later.
• Place shelf in the middle of the oven,
• The thicker your crust is, the longer it will have to be in the oven.

Doll Cakes

So I was paid to make 2 birthday cakes for these two girls from my church. They love girly stuff, so after lots of surfing the web, I decided on making doll cakes for them, and by using google and youtube, I learned how to make one. It looks complicated, but it's actually pretty simple and I believe beginners may even try it out if they wanted to. The only thing though is that this type of cake takes patience since there's lots of waiting time involved.

The two cakes I made into two different flavors: chocolate and vanilla. Vanilla for the youngest girl (I think is turning 8), chocolate for the older girl (I think is turning 10). The vanilla recipe I got from my friend when we baked a cake together for school, and the chocolate is a simple one I took off of the back of a Hershey cocoa powder container. :P
For the vanilla cake I also used vanilla frosting (cuz the girl wanted pink frosting) for topping and filling. For the chocolate cake I used chocolate frosting filling, but vanilla topping so I could add bright colours.


Chocolate Cake:

• 2 C sugar
• 1 3/4 C all-purpose flour
• 3/4 C HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 C milk
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 C boiling water

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely.

Vanilla Cake:
Adapted from SCOTTOSMAN

• 1 1/2 C all purpose flour
• 1/2 C butter or margarine (softened)
• 1 tbp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 C and extra 1/8 C milk (as suggested from others)
• 1 C sugar
• food colouring (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease the pans with butter or oil and coat with flour
2. Sift together the flour and baking powder in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Make sure your butter or margarine is room temperature or softened. Cream the butter than add the sugar and cream some more. In small bowl, whisk/beat each egg one at a time and add each egg into the cream and sugar mix separately. Then add in the vanilla extract.
4. Add the dry ingredients mixture into the wet ingredients until all the ingredients are wet, add milk and stir.
5. OPTIONAL: Next in separate bowls colour the batter with your colour of preference. Separate batter into different bowls, one bowl for every colour you choose (I made one layer pink).
6. Next pour the batter into a pan (if you chose to use more than one colour, bake in separate pans for each). Bake for about 20 min to 30 min, or when a toothpick comes out clean after being inserted into the cake. Let it cool.

Tips:

• If your butter is straight from the fridge and is hard, try microwaving it for at least 20 sec.
• You can mix ingredients together using an electric mixer, but I prefer using a hand whisk (using an electric mixer will make the batter more smooth if you're not used to whisking by hand).
• If you use colouring, the colour of the cake will come out of the oven slightly lighter than it looked before as a batter.

Chocolate Frosting:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
• 2/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa
• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Melt butter. Stir in cocoa. Alternately add powdered sugar and milk, beating to spreading consistency. Add small amount additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. About 2 cups frosting.

Vanilla Frosting:
Adapted from xoshadyxo

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used margarine)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 4 drops food coloring, or as needed (optional)

1. Cream room temperature butter with a hand mixer, the paddle attachment of a stand mixer, or a wooden spoon until smooth and fluffy. Gradually beat in confectioners' sugar until fully incorporated. Beat in vanilla extract.
2. Pour in milk and beat for an additional 3-4 minutes. Add food coloring, if using, and beat for thirty seconds until smooth or until desired color is reached.

Tips:

• If you prefer to use just frosting to cover the cake instead of whip cream, add more milk so the frosting is more smooth and easier to spread.
• If you make the frosting more firm (less milk), decorations will also be more firm after it's chilled and less prone to being ruined by touch.

ASSEMBLY:

1. Take the bottom layer and cut (using a knife with "teeth") the top until flat and smooth (make sure all layers are completely cooled or else frosting will melt). optional: take the top layer and cut around edges until smooth and looks round (if you want to make a more dress effect).
2. Stack the top and bottom layer, make sure they're aligned. Take a circular cookie cutter or a knife, and cut a hole in the middle of the cake larger enough for the doll to fit, but not too large.
3. Lay the bottom layer on whichever plate you want the cake to be on (try to find the flattest plate/bottom to put the cake on, it makes decoration easier). Take your frosting and put a generous helping onto the bottom layer and spread around the top.
4. Take the top layer and put it on top of the frosted bottom layer. Put more frosting on the top layer and spread. Spread frosting on the sides of the cake as well, but only a thin layer (this will be the base layer of frosting). Chill for at least 1 hour.
5. Take the frosted cake out of the fridge, make sure frosting is cooled and firm. Put a generous helping of frosting on top of the cake and spread all around (this is final layer so put on as much frosting as you want). Put the cake into the fridge to cool another hour until frosting is cooled.
6. If you choose to only use frosting, then you can skip this step and move onto step 7. If not, take your cake out of the fridge and add whip cream. If you want the dress to have a specific design using the cream, you can look up doll cakes on google. I just spread the whip cream all over the cake to create one whole dress piece. Put into the fridge to cool another hour until cooled.
7. Take out the cake from the fridge. Make sure it is firm and cooled before decorating. Prepare your icing bags if you have one. If you don't have one, there are many makeshift icing bags you can hand-make if you look it up on google. Using paper or a ziplock bag are some examples.
8. Take your doll. Make sure you wash it thoroughly with soap (take off all clothing). Tie the hair up if not done already so it doesn't get frosting on it. After drying, you can choose to put the clothes back on or leave it off. Wrap the doll tightly with plastic wrap from the chest and down (if you leave the clothes on, push the shirt down so the doll is "topless" for decoration). Do not wrap the arms.
9. Place the wrapped doll into the hole in the cake (its okay if frosting gets on the wrap, that's what it's there for). The cake should reach around the doll's hips/waist (you may need more layers if the cake is too short or a smaller doll). Fill the hole with leftover frosting or whip cream so it looks like the dress is attached to the doll.
10. Now start decorating! Using your prepared icing bag, decorate the dress any way you want it to. Make sure to ice the doll's top to match the dress. With the icing, you can use stars, dots, lines, etc.
11. Either put the cake back in the fridge until the cake is needed, or serve right away!

Tips:
-try to chill everything completely for at least 1-2 hours before decorating; it makes decorating a lot easier if the surface of the cake is firmer and colder.

Hello!

This is my first time doing a blog on baking, so bear with me here! I have been baking a lot recently and have decided to start a blog on my creations! I will be putting up recipe information along with photos and step-by-step instructions. Hope you enjoy!