Sweetest obsession

For anyone who knows me, knows that I have a huge obsession for all things sweet, thus my love for baking. I have the sweetest palette and my weight definitely shows that! LOL Sorry but I always leave room for dessert no matter how full I am. I have the biggest sweet tooth and I guess you can say that's why I have the biggest passion for baking and designing dessert bars. I would love to share my absolute favorite desserts with you so you can see what my obsession is all about. Enjoy!

1. Sprinkles Cupcake - My ALL time favorite cupcakes. I can live off these babies, it's worth the hype and then some. You gotta try the banana, red velvet and mocha! Beyond scrumptious!
2. Molly Moon's of Seattle, WA - Coffee and maple walnut had us coming back for more! Literally... twice in one day!
3. Paulette's Macarons in Beverly Hills, CA - I'm so sad that the one in SF is no longer Paulette. They had the best chocolate, pistachio & raspberry just to name a few. $20 for a dozen sounds pricey but every bite is worth it.
4. Peter's Bakery in San Jose, CA - My favorite cake hands down. Light and not too sweet.
5. Anthony's Cookies in SF, CA - I haven't tried a cookie that wasn't good. LOVE this place!
6. Waoila Shave Ice in Oahu, HI - I can't get over how refreshing their azuki bowl is. I searched far and wide in Ca for something similar but nothing comes close.
7. Tapioca Express in Union City, CA - My absolute favorite of them all. No matter how cold or how hot the weather is, I'm always down for a milk tea boba. It doesn't hurt that it's only a couple of minutes away. =)

Ice cream, you scream!

Hands down, the cutest thing I made! Thanks to Bakerella, I decided to try her ice cream cake pops and with little practice, I must admit, they turned out quite adorable. It turns out that they are much easier to make than regular cake lollipops. All you need is little patience! LOL I made these for my dearest friend's daughter. I had no time to take pictures so I stole these from her guests. Enjoy!

Iphone pic

Need vs Want

In my previous post, I mentioned that I have been going on a baking extravaganza... with that said, there are soooo many appliances or supplies that I soooo need. (In my husband's opinion all items are considered want.) Whatever! LOL

I'm so tired of hand mixing my batters or better yet I'm even more tired of using the electric mixer and have everything all over my clothes. I want all of these...I mean need these NOW! =)

I've always wanted a food electronic scale. This way everything I make is the same size.

I need a Silpat so bad, I waste way too much parchment paper.

Expensive Vanilla extract always makes everything taste good!

My hand is officially tired of sifting everything manually. =(

Worldwide baking

For the past months, my oven has been on full blast. We've been on a baking marathon. Speaking of, just today I just made a batch of red velvets for my lovely aunt's birthday (another post). But lately, my sister and I have been getting more and more clients to do parties and to create desserts. I wanted to expand my horizons and venture out from the typical cupcakes or cake lollipops. I decided to look into Filipino desserts. I found this amazing Bibingka recipe online and added my own touches which turned out light and airy and so delicious especially fresh out of the oven. I decided to glam it up by cutting it in squares and add a touch of coconut. Along with cupcakes, cake bites, cheesecakes, etc. these are officially on our catering menu.

5 Months

It's been quite a while since the last time I posted. This is all due to the typical life of a busy wife/mommy. Recently I changed my blog name due to conflict of our new business name. Yes, I said "new business." My sister and I finally pursued our true passion. Our business consist of sweet desserts, designing dessert tables, invitations, favors, and all things parties. Stay tuned for our upcoming website. It's currently in the works.

In the meantime, my little baby turned 5 months old yesterday and can't believe how time literally flies. He is now flipping all over the bed, knows if mommy or daddy is not in the room and loves to laugh. I love waking up in the morning looking forward to that smile on Maxi's face. Yes, it's true, every morning when he sees his mommy or daddy, he has a huge smile on his face. Last night, I made pigs in a blanket and baked delicious chocolate cupcakes. Yumm! I provided recipes at the bottom of the post in case you love what you see.

Pigs in a blanket Recipe

Ingredients

• 8 frankfurters
• 8 slices American processed cheese
• 1 (10 ounce) package refrigerated biscuit dough
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Wrap cheese around each frankfurter then the biscuit around that. Put on cookie sheet with the overlap of biscuit faced down, so you don't have to use tooth picks.
3. Bake in preheated oven until biscuits are brown, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Chocolate cake with ganache buttercream

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a muffin pan with paper or foil liners. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition, then stir in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk; beat well. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.
3. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Frost with your favorite frosting when cool.

Frosting Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup shortening
• 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 cup hot fudge topping
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Cream together the butter or margarine with the shortening.
2. Sift the cocoa with the confectioners' sugar and add to the creamed mixture. Mix together adding 1 tablespoon at a time of milk to keep mixture smooth. Don't add more than 1/4 cup of milk.
3. Add the hot fudge topping and the vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and creamy.

Sweet tooth madness...

Three weekends ago, I had an agenda. I was determined to make cupcake pops. I did NOT realize how difficult it would be. Not the baking part but more like the multi-tasking. Baking and taking care of an infant can be quite exhausting! Thank goodness I have my husband to do the babysitting while I was doing the baking. It was my very first time experimenting with these sugar concoctions other than the usual cupcakes that we make. I made two different batches which consisted of yellow cake and devils food cake.

Out of the two flavors, I prefer the chocolate cake. It was fudgy goodness! So moist and not too sweet. Although I love yellow cake, I didn't like the cream cheese frosting. Maybe next time I will try mixing the chocolate frosting rather than the cream cheese.

Here's a journey of my cupcake pop extravaganza. Trial and error which resulted to decadent bite size yummy goodness. If you like what you see, don't hesitate to contact me...♥

Diet Motivation

I recently started my diet and I'm on Day 3. My diet consists of no carbohydrates which means no bread, no rice, no cereal, and no sugar. While I write this, I'm already craving the following things Sprinkles cupcakes, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, Thai Tea boba, Korean BBQ with rice, and Sushi Maki rolls. This can't be good...only on the third day and I'm already longing to have carbs in my mouth. Hopefully it will get better in the next few days (Sigh). In addition to my dieting, I decided to add some exercise such as Pilates and walking around my neighborhood while strolling my Max around. Trying to lose the last 15-20lbs of this baby weight has been the most difficult especially coming home from a vacay consist of eating, which did not help my diet in anyway or form. Sure it took 9 months to gain all this weight but geez, I wish it would take 1 month to lose it all. It's hard to compare yourself to celebs like Kourtney Kardashian who was able to lose all her weight in just 4 months and back to her beach body.

It's quite motivating when you see yourself and the self confidence isn't there. If anyone has seen that show Kendra from E! I can totally relate to her. It's hard when you can't fit into any of your old clothes and you just see flab everywhere. LOL I just tell myself one day at a time and hopefully by Natalie's 1st birthday I can be at my ultimate goal of 115-120lbs.

Below is a photo of a "Before Me." In the upcoming posts, I will blog about my diet results and along the way post some pictures of my transformation (hoping to achieve some results). You can obviously tell which one is me... LOL Below is a picture at my biggest (in my opinion), after all the eating and binging.
I am wearing Marc By Marc Jacobs tunic, H&M leggings, Banana Republic Sandals, and RayBan Shades.

Food Obsession

We're baaaack! For the past week, we've been in Los Angeles for my sister's birthday celebration. It was indeed a much needed vacation. While we enjoyed every eatery spots out there, I'm in a way relieved to be back home. Home sweet home. During our time in Southern Ca we ventured high and low to find some of the most comforting food, yummiest food trucks, Asian fusion at it's best and the sweetest desserts any food lover can ask for. I've compiled reviews of some of my favorite joints we visited for your viewing pleasure.

Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles: Everyone who's been to Los Angeles has been or heard about their famous chicken & waffles. Once you take that very first bite of the piping hot fried chicken together along with the sweet, vanilla infused waffle, your tongue honestly will feel like they're in heaven. It's always a must stop for us despite the aftermath has you feeling of food coma. I highly recommend the Carol C. Special with gravy on the side. My hubby also loves their sweet candied yams!
Kogi BBQ: We followed the trucks 4 times and out of the 4, 3 we we're successful. Need I say more? It was one of the best and most unique food I ever had. We had it 3 days straight and one of the days, we decided to have it late night but with 120 people ahead of us and the crisp night, we decided to forgo and try again the next day. I tried the short rib tacos and the short rib burrito. The tacos we're good but the short rib burrito was out of this world. The burrito was filled with short rib BBQ, eggs, noodles, hash brown and pickled veggies. My tongue was dancing! The only thing I recommend is if you're not an onion lover, ask for no onions!
Diddy Riese: I've been here before and the very first time I was very disappointed. I decided to give it another try. This time, my cookie was much softer and it definitely satisfied my sweet tooth. $1.50 for a cookie sandwich is quite a deal but parking price was insane. It kinda defeats the purpose of the $1.50 ice cream sandwiches and the $0.39 cookies.
Griddle Cafe: I've never been to a more loud & live diner like Griddle Cafe. While the savory food was good, the sweet pancakes, waffles & french toast we're even better. I highly recommend the strawberries and cream waffles (light & airy waffles accommodated with the fresh strawberries and whip cream hit the right spots) and the Nutella french toast (to die for esp if you're a Nutella lover). My only thought was Griddle Cafe is not recommended for the kiddies. Not much room for high chairs and the music is too loud for their small eardrums.
Piccomolo Italian Ice Cream: Everyone who knows me, knows how much I love gelato. It's one of my favorite desserts and this spot did not disappoint. Located in Old Town Pasadena. Although, it was very small (not stroller friendly) and pretty much a hole in the wall (almost walked pass by it) the home-made flavors surely made up for it. My favorites we're the Pistachio and Hazelnut flavor. Absolutely yummy!
Soowon Galbi Korean BBQ: Hands down one of the best Korean BBQ restaurants I've been too. The servers we're super polite and attentive. The restaurant was clean (a must), baby friendly and best of all the food was amaaazing. The little sides you get we're all you can eat and I loved their Korean pancakes and potatoes. We ordered the Combo B which consisted of Brisket, Pork, Steak, marinated meat. My favorite was the brisket and we'll definitely be back here the next time we're in Southern Ca.
Porto's Bakery & Cafe: I can always rely on Porto's for the best pastries. Not only the prices are reasonable but the variety is abundance. This time instead of the traditional Cheese Rolls, I opted for the Spinach & Feta danish which was savory but a fresh taste on the palate. I also recommend their potato balls (don't forget the Tapatio hot sauce), chocolate croissant, horchata shake and their ham and cheese croissant sandwich. A must stop if you're in the Burbank or Glendale area!
Milk Cafe: After finding this cafe on yelp which was highly reviewed, I couldn't wait to try it. On our last night, we decided to give it a try. We ordered the Toffee macaron ice cream cookie sandwich, the Strawberry shortbread ice cream bar, Ice Cream Sundae, the Blue Velvet cake, and the bite size red velvet cupcakes. All was good but on the pricey side. Each ice cream concoction was $4.50-$6.00 and the slice of blue velvet was $5.00 and each bite size was $0.75 and literally bite size. Although it quite hit the sweet spot, I doubt I'll be back. I definitely ♥ my Sprinkles cupcakes a lot more. =)