carebears… stare!!! (at elaine)

Happy Birthday to Elaine!!! – One of 3 beautiful sisters, the talented blogger of hellolovelythings, and a close friend.  This past weekend was her birthday and celebrated at the SLS Hotel with a tasting menu at the Bazaar.  (David Beckham was there –  if no one said anything, never would’ve known it was him… pretty generic looking in a crowd!)

I thought about making rainbow cupcakes for long while, and so finally got my chance!  I know, I know…  still haven’t learned my lesson and still attempted something new right before an event!  Grr!  While making this rainbow mess, all I could think about was Care Bears (remember CheerBear with the rainbow on her belly?  his?)

Purchased 3 primary (food) colors:  Red, Yellow, Blue

These lil’ suckers were time consuming layering each colored batter into the muffin tins!

Absolutely adorable – worth every second spent making these… melted my heart looking at them :)

To: Elaine <3  Happy Birthday!

happy birthday lil’ brother!

Eric’s burfday!  We went to Dal Rae’s in Pico Rivera earlier this week with the extended family to celebrate my little brother’s birthday… Old school institute.  Yummy juicy melt in your mouth prime rib.  OOooooh tasty.  (This lucky boy, we had another celebration at Akasaka Restaurant last night!  Seriously can feel the pounds packing on yikes!!!  Never ate so well when I was his age dang.)  I made him a chocolate, with light mocha buttercream, Domokun cake (and didn’t realize how childish it may be!).  Even though he’s just turned 20, I still see him as my little baby brother.  I don’t think it will ever change, even if hes… 60.  I think its because we’re 10 years apart.   I love you ERIC!  Happy 20th!!!

homemade granola

I do love granola.  It’s super easy to make too – just mix and bake!

The other night we wanted yogurt and berries for dinner (too hot to eat anything!)… so baked some last minute granola… yahmmy.

Blueberry Almond Granola

4-1/2 cups rolled oats fashioned rolled oats
2 cups sliced (or 2 1/4 cups whole) almonds
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp instant coffee granules, mixed with 1 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1 1/2 cups dried blueberries (or any dried fruit)

Toss oats, almonds, cinnamon in large bowl.  Pour oil first into measuring cup and put into oats mixture, then pour honey into the same “oiled” measuring cup and put into oats mixture (this way, the honey slides RIGHT OUT). Mix instant coffee granules with  1 tsp water – place this and the vanilla extract into oat mixture.  NOW, stir oat mixture thoroughly.  Bake @ 350F in a half sheet pan, 30 min.  Stir occasionally so granola doesn’t get too clumpy.  Take granola out of oven and mix in the dried blueberries (I didn’t use dried fruit this time.  Husband don’t prefer to eat fruit, much less dried fruit).   LET MIXTURE COOL COMPLETELY.  Eat or store in an airtight container!

simplicity…

I caught sight of rainbow sprinkles at the store last week.  Surprised by my giddiness at the colorful dots on the shelf,  imagining the endless possibilities these colorful cuties could produce, I purchased a vile.  (In my younger years, I was never a sprinkles kind of girl.  Especially rainbow.) 

Forgot how cute simple could be in this world of unsimpleness.

oh bacon… how sweet you are.

Sweet and savory.  Nothing could be better than bacon infused confections.  Yum.  Bacon. Chocolate.  SUCH A FOOD YOU MUST CRAVE.  (Strange, my husband loves chocolate and LOVES BACON, yet he does not love the two in the same bite).  First saw them being sold on vosgeschocolate.com but… been so lazy – and never ordered from them!

The first time I had a chocolate covered bacon was at the LA County Fair.  We had eaten all day… and finally as we were finishing our last bites of deep fried oreos, I saw a lonely man standing at his stainless steel cart, a hand scribbled sign torn off a piece of cardboard box read  ”chocolate covered bacon”.  OMG.  I threw the half eaten oreo back at my husband, then fiance, to finish it off and ran to the cart.  ”I WOULD LIKE SOME PLEASE”  He handed me a chinese takeout box wrapped in a plastic bag, from the freezer-cart.  Hm.  I found 5 thick slices sitting nakedly inside… slightly weary, took out the smallest piece and took a bite.  CRUNCH.  I let it sit on my tongue… the chocolate began to melt, and then the smoky, salty bacon started to infuse through… WOAH.  Well that was quite a shock (for the tastebuds and brain).  It was what I imagined… but MORE.   Too much delicious to handle.  Whew.

Fast foward to last week, babe’s close friends visited from San Francisco for the weekend and being huge foodies, they brought over 2-2×2″ squares of toffee bacon.  I nearly DIED when I saw it sitting on the table.

Whaaaaaa- Toffee? Bacon? I didn’t know it was for us – couldn’t stop staring at the mouthwatering bacon-studded toffees, wondering how it would taste and make me feel (bacon-sugar rush).  I didn’t know what to do or ask if I could take a 2×2″ bite, so I started with…  ”do you also like bacon covered sweets?”.  Julie says, Why yes, we actually bought them on foodzie.com for you guys…   I snatched it off the table before she could finish her sentence.

Seriously… Thank you so very much John and Julie.  They were INSANELY delicious.

time to celebrate our dads…

Interesting pastries and cakes honoring Father’s Day :)

decorated sugar cookies

starwars crew!


Heine-cap cake!

Mmmmm…. hamburger (is it gross your mind is thinking its salty and a chunk of sweet stuff goes in your mouth?   Can’t tell.  I’m going to have to order a hamburger cake one day. Um. I mean make one.)

shirt and tie!


The Green (think that is what it’s called… made this one earlier this year for my bro-in-law)
T

My papa means the world to me.  He sometimes tells me he didn’t raise us well enough or teach us well enough (He’s at work 13 hrs a day.  No meals with him.  And we are in bed before he says goodnight) or give us enough (money’s always extremely tight), and yea, it really stomps on my heart when he always gets surprised when I tell him I really look up to him and am so proud of him.  But he works so hard for us, and that is more than I can imagine him giving to us.  That is more than we could ever ask for.  He could have just as easily left mom during some super hard times she created out of nothing…  A few months ago, I went to him to complain about mom (I don’t know what my selfish self was thinking, that I’d get sympathy because he understands?  Geesus, I barely even get the tip of that storm.  He’s stuck in that gloomy hurricane everyday.)  Anyhow, I call to complain and he says, don’t let it bother you.  Why do you?  You don’t live at home anymore.  I’m the one who will deal with this.  I told him, Dad, if you don’t want to, do what you need to do – it’s okay.   He was quiet for a moment and says, you think I don’t want to come home sometimes?  Sometimes I stand outside at night before walking in that door wondering if I should go in…  But MY FAMILY IS IN THERE.  This is MY family, my responsibility.  Who will take care of her if I leave? ……

Like I said, he could have easily left – but he didn’t and doesn’t.  Because he owns up to his choices, mistakes, responsibilities that he has taken on and in doing so, sacrificing his life and much of his happiness in staying.  That is more than what a true dad means to me, much more.  Hell no, I don’t agree with him on his decisions to stay and be miserable with my mother, but would that have really screwed with how my brother and I grew up – them being divorced?  Yea, most likely.  He stayed for us.  And even as we are grown, I realize he still stays to take care of her.  I absolutely do not understand, yet… I understand.  Anyhow, he is an adult and this is the life he chose and continues to live, so what can I say or do?

I think Father’s Day should be celebrated just as hugely as Mother’s Day (not just on that ‘day’ but everyday).  We take for granted what our papa’s and our men bring home to our families.  I’ve come to realize it is a HUGE responsibility for them to take on.  Yea, it’s their job and expected, but women and children should truly appreciate the men in their lives.  Our dad’s go out there everyday to protect and fend for our families – they make sure our lives are as comfortable as possible… that we are sheltered and fed and taken care of.

Appreciate and Respect.

not your ordinary fruit cake

Adorable.

Aunt Helen took me out to lunch yesterday and we stopped by the Chinese bakery next door, JJ Bakery.  Asian bakeries smells FANTASTICALLY buttery and warm, but it’s too bad it all tastes like cardboard.   They tend to prefer their sweets… bland (‘not too sweet’, ‘not too much fat’, ‘not too rich…’  - slightly boring).  I guess its just their palette, but… most of their baked stuff is just FLUFF.  A yeasted bread bun will deflate in seconds if you touch it, truth… maybe even if you glance at it.   As cute as this “Watermelon” cake was, it was spongy and bland as heck.  The pink fruit was strawberry cake, the rind was green tea, and the black dots were chocolate piping.  With all those flavors, you’d think a tingle of … MMMMM YUM.  Nope.  Nothing.  Although, B and I did have some fun biting into it ;)  lol.

**The watermelon cake is sitting on my grandma’s book of memoirs released 2 weeks ago – 2-year anniversary since she passed away.  She was a fabulous and famed Chinese opera singer and opera teacher.   What a woman.♥

happy day to all the hard workin’ mommas ~ xoxoxo

Happy Mother’s Day!  Saturday and Sunday was soooo hectic.  I really do love baking, but when holidays roll around, it runs me kinda thin, no time to just sit and enjoy the fam-fam until we are actually eating!  So all calendar ‘holidays’ are celebrated at least a day (or 3) ahead of schedule with my family, and usually are celebrated approximately 3 times.  Woof.

Saturday, Dad had a dinner @ our lil’ restaurant in La Habra, Golden Star.  We had a huge, juicy slab of prime rib (the best yet dad has ever made – it was SUPER RARE, so rare my aunt refused to touch it.  I, on the other hand had 5 thick slices and chomped on a rib. OMG.  It sounds way worse than it was going down.) , mixed vegs, bbq pork and shrimp chow mein, flautas (pretty eclectic when it comes to Mar dinners), sticky fried rice, garlic mashed potatoes…  Thank goodness, cause we were starvin’ @ 930pm.

I made some roasted garlic (roasted in olive oil and sea salt) baguettes and banana cupcakes to bring to the family dinner -

had to make it simple ’cause earlier all day was prepping for Sunday’s food (since 6am!) including dessert – sugar free sour cream cheesecake with fresh strawberry topping for  mom, and an apple pie for B’s momma – I really wanted to make *and eat*  a real one after that ‘healthy’ crisp.

Happy Mother’s Day!!!    ~xoxoxo~

healthy food = bikini bod. *cries*

Its a warm Thursday afternoon today.  Warmer (actually, quite hot) because the oven’s blasting in our cozy condo, at 400F, baking a sugar free apple crisp:

You say, EW! SUGAR FREE? WHY?  (I do too.)  Because.  It’s almost summer and I can’t wait to get myself into the ocean with Shamoo and friends.  Plus, B craves a bite of sweet after dinner and has been asking for apple pie for nearly a month, so, we need an um… healthy alternative.  Wheat makes my face bloat like no other, my jaws tingle if I eat too much… (BOO!)… although it sure doesn’t stop me from eating it.   I could never not go again without having a croissant in this lifetime.  THUS, I’m testing out this simple apple crisp I threw together which is now baking in the oven.  ;)

I don’t know if it’s any good yet.  I’ll get back on this, however, here is the recipe.

CINNAMON APPLE OAT CRISP (sugar-free)
Apple Filling
4-5 super huge, gimongous large red delicious apples (peeled, cored, sliced 1/4″ thick)
1 Cup Splenda
2 Tsp cinnamon
1.5 Tblsp sweet potato starch mixed with 1/6-1/4 cup water (or 1/2 and 1/2, or milk)

Crisp Topping
2 cups Oat flour (I just blended a whole bunch of rolled oats in my blender and chunkily pulverized it to equal 2 cups of the finalized product)
1 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup Splenda
1/2 cup butter, melted

For Filling: prep apples into a large mixing bowl.  Mix cinnamon with Spelnda.  Pour over apples.  Pour sweet potato starch/water mixture over.  Mix well.

For Crisp: Mix chunky oat flour, oats, cinnamon, Splenda.  Pour in melted butter.  Use a fork to mix well.

Butter up a 12″ pie pan (or smaller if you like) generously, dump in your apples, then top with your oat crisp.  There is a lot of crisp for this recipe, however, I use it ALL.  I completely cover the apple mixture.  (The pictures on here shows only with 1/2 the oat crisp on).  IF YOU WANT, DOT THE TOP OF THE APPLE CRISP WITH SOFTENED BUTTER BEFORE PUTTING IN OVEN (i did :).  Butter doesn’t hurt ;)

Bake at 400F for 1 hour.

K!  Don’t make it yet.  I’ll report back how it turns out – it might be totally yucky, despite how ‘real’ it looks.   Although… it certainly doesn’t look healthy to me.

______________________________________________________________

Update:  Ate it warm… I could KIND OF taste the Splenda-not-so-real-sugar chemical taste.  But after chilling it completely in the fridge –  oh my gosh. I cant tell this thing is sugar free.  It’s so delicious, I keep thinking okay, I gotta substitute this lil’ bowl of apple crisp for the mac n’ cheese I was going to have for dinner.  NAH.  Although, there is still the butter in the crisp part (that is damn delicious too, so buttery crisp and nutty from all that oatmeal!), the carbs are purely from the apples and oatmeal.   YES.  Total keeper.

This is how it looked after baking.  Note how much the apples shrunk down (and how much oatmeal crisp I layered on top :)  yum yum yum.  I know, the most caloric part… YUM YUM. )

sunday morning…

What better than fresh baked breakfast right out of the oven, paired with a hot mug of coffee on a weekend morning?  One of my all time faves of faves…

B and I are huge dinner eaters…  Don’t get me wrong, we love breakfast (in fact, we often have breakfast food for dinner)…  It’s just, we are not that hungry in the morning.   Sunday morning, basketball was on (boo.  Any sport but basketball.) and got EXTREMELY bored… browsed through some recipes, wanting something simple yet slightly rich to indulge in…  topped with loads of butter and strawberry jam.   OMG!  YES!  Buttermilk biscuits. And the boy eagerly agreed.

Preparing the butter-studded buttermilk biscuit dough…

… rolled, cut and ready for baking!

16 min later…

Golden buttermilk biscuits… was so delicious warm, slathered with butter and strawberry jam.  So happy I couldn’t even talk.

thank goodness for homemade breads…

Congratulations on your new addition, Anne & Peter!

A baby shower – goin’ old school!  The theme colors were apple green, yellow, and black.  HOW CUTE.  Along with old school black strollers as decor.  Very nice.

Lovely Grace placed an order a couple weeks ago for the 4.27.10 co-ed baby shower.  When I was told about the theme colors and decor, I thought YAY – what a refreshing break from the usual baby pink or blue :)

24 Strawberry Buttercream filled Vanilla Cupcakes, in the making…

in a Martha Stewart green  :)

24 Sugar Cookies with fresh tangy lemon glaze, customized old school stroller

12 Chocolate Chip Cookies

baby shower sweets waitin’ to be boxed and ready to go!

personalize sign for sweets

Congratulations Anne and Peter!
Thank you Grace!

xoxoxo

Goin’ Bananas!

Banana bread that is! A friend called the week before Easter to ask if I could make anything for her aunt. Her aunt was throwing an Easter Sunday brunch at her house and wanted to have a variety of cute displays. Request: make it light and lay low on the sugar… Well, what better than banana bread? I thought I could cut about 1/2 the sugar out of my traditional banana bread, and add in a couple more bananas to make up for the sweetness. It turned out wonderfully, with the addition of 2 extra bananas than what the recipe called for, it was almost like a warm banana bread pudding. So delicious warm.

~6 packaged banana breads with butcher’s twine and a fresh cut thyme twig from the garden~

~40 buttery sugar cookies with fresh tangy lemon glaze~

Classic Anniversary

A small classy cake for a sweet couple celebrating their 30th anniversary on the 31st of April…  She wanted the cake simple and clean to surprise her husband with.

Inside the chocolate fondant was moist vanilla cake layered with fruity strawberry buttercream…

HAPPY 30th ANNIVERSARY!!!!

Audrey’s Supersweet 1st Birthday

Super sweet and super pink.  Audrey’s 1st birthday was like a Disney princess wedding!  Her birthday was held at the Garden Suite Hotel ballroom on 3.27.10.

A Korean baby’s 100th day and 1st birthday are very important and grandly celebrated.  I’m assuming in the old old old days babies didn’t have the best of chances to live past  the 100th day nor the first birthday due to malnutrition and disease… thus, both times marked very happy occasions if they were healthy.

Faux layered cakes provided by the decorating team!

Traditional sticky rice cakes Doek

Mom and Audrey’s older sister, Sophia

traditional Korean garb Hanbok

Audrey’s Mom and Dad opted for a Red Velvet cake – they didn’t know the design coming in, I hoped they enjoyed it!  The 6-inch cake was enrobed in chocolate fondant (I’m not an advocate of eating fondant because it reminds me of Play-Doh.  I ordered a huge pail of this stuff for this event, took a nibble, as it is a rule a chef must try everything before serving it to guests.  Honestly, the moist soft dark chocolate fondant was just begging for a taste.  It was DELICIOUS.  It tasted exactly like a soft Tootsie Roll, and for those of you who have eaten white fondant BLECH.  This was a world of difference.).  It was topped with  pink fondant flowers and vintage white sugar pearls.  The cupcakes had pale pink sprinkles (I’m such a SUCKER for those light pink sprinkles, yet at the same time hate eating sprinkles!) with a pink fondant blossom or chocolate fondant ball sitting atop.

Happy 1st Birthday Audrey!

Valerie’s Alice in Wonderland Qinceañera!

Couldn’t have been luckier when a client found me through wordpress and requested an Alice in Wonderland cake for her daughter’s 15th birthday party on March 20th!!!  Alice in Wonderland – crazy.  This was absolutely all my pleasure to make.  The venue was at Memories in Whittier and the location was perfect.  Brick walls, retro feel inside… Perfect decor!  They had brightly colored rainbow tablecloths, cute topiaries in different colored teapots!!!!  LOVE! Valerie the birthday girl, and her mom are the sweetest  :)  So happy to work with them!

Valerie opted for the black, red, and white theme for the Queen of Hearts (I would have chose the same ;) and this is what we came up with:

Happy Birthday Valerie and thank you Mom!