My Memorial Day BBQ Cupcakes

I designed my own dot com on Illustrator back in September. The designing was a cinch. It took me two weeks to fiddle with the visuals and graphics and 10 months to get someone to bring it to life. A little patience goes a long way in getting the right person to do it. I finally found someone who thinks this will take him less than a month to put it together and says its EASY.

Hopefully, my next post will be on my new site!

These cupcakes were made for various Memorial Day weekend BBQ's. I molded the chocolate onto molding pans. It was so hot in my apt, that they were sweating out of the fridge. I filled the center of the top of the cupcake with cream cheese buttercream with a large star tip and piped around the edges with a small shell tip. It was a challenge since I had to keep refrigerating the buttercream every 5 min! But only 2 tips required to lure even Marie Antoinette!

Sees Easter Candy Cakes and Cupcakes

About a month ago, I was contacted by Sees Candies based in San Francisco, California to create an Easter project using Sees special Easter candies. Not knowing what the parameters of the project were, I conjured up this grand master plan overnight with my friend over at EATMEOUTTAHERE. We decided to create something easy for the lazy baker who wanted to bring something showstopping to Spring or Easter parties.

My friend here at EATMEOUTTAHERE and I met through this very same spot - the blogging world, just days under a year ago. We discovered what a small world it was when we found out that we had mutual friends. Not long after daily food conversations and getting each other into addictions, we became real life friends. I asked her to collaborate with me on this project because she is really just an amazing person with a warm, fuzzy heart. This was a perfect partnership. She has an excellent pastry background while I am trained to design.

So here we were, on a chilly New York Saturday morning, just a few days after the official start of the Spring season. The grass in her back yard is still a little crisp brown from the Winter season, but almost eager to turn green for the start of Spring. We unpacked the box of candies from Sees. We received Easter Puppet Canes, Chocolate Butter Eggs, Springtime Truffles, Jelly Bird Eggs, Milk_Chocolate_Eggs, Molasses Chips, See’s Toffee-ettes®, See’s Almond Royal®, and Hollow Eggs with a White Chocolate Baby Chick!

I remember when I was a little girl, my grandmother would buy me these lovely Easter hats, dresses and mary janes. After Easter Sunday service, we would get painted hardboiled eggs that lay a-top lots of stacked thin paper zigzagged to look like grass or birdsnest. Well, we didn't use paper. We dyed some coconut flakes green and toasted the other half. We also crushed Toffee-ettes and mixed it into the buttercream to fill the cake. And you see, the rest is all up to your decorating liking. We used all Sees Easter candies for decoration. They add so much life and color to any cake or cupcake that you don't know how to spruce up. The arrangement is all up to you! No matter how it is composed, the colors and taste will really make your dessert party dish a hit!

Visit http://www.sees.com to get your Easter Goodies. Even if they aren't for Easter, you can get other items to incorporate into your cakes or cupcakes as fillings and toppings!

Chinese Fortune Cake (Fatt Goh)

The other day, I called my mom to ask her if she or any of her friends knew a good fatt goh recipe. Every Chinese New Year, I get goodies from the Joy Luck Club such as pieces of Chinese New Year cake, taro cakes, steamed white sweet cakes, turnip cakes, and so on and so forth. She replied saying to me that no one ever makes fatt goh's anymore. They just buy them.

I never buy such things from the Chinese market because

1. The canary bird color really scares me or whatever funky 80's colors they come in.
2. They never taste the same as the way my dad used to make them (he misplaced the passed down recipe)
3. Chinese old ladies in New York are rude as hell. Chinese New Year mean 1000 times more of them at the grocery store.

It was really hard to find recipes for Chinese fortune cakes via Google. It was like digging for one specific word in a 500 page book. I called my dad to ask him to think REALLY hard about how he used to make them. Every Chinese New Year, while my mother made fancy dishes like pig's knuckles, whole steamed fish, whole chicken, and vermicelli with 8 treasures, my dad would be playing around in front of the steamer with his PJ's still on. In the morning, my mom would be preparing for "tuen neen fan," where our family would gather on the eve for dinner, while my dad was making fatt goh's for me and my brother for breakfast. My dad told me what the basic ingredients were and how the consistency should be. Simple! Fresh rice flour, light brown sugar, water and baking powder in a watery batter. I just had to find a base recipe close enough to adjust the proportions of each ingredient. After making them a couple of times, I finally got them to split into 3-4 corners. And boy, do they remind me of my Chinese New Year's at home in New Jersey with my family.

Chinese Fortune Cake (Fatt Goh)
makes 12 cakes

380 gr rice flour* (see note below)
230 gr dark brown sugar (light brown sugar is ok too)
1 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon baking powder

Place a wire steaming rack in a wok with water filled only to the height of the steaming rack.
Bring the water to a boil over high heat.

Heat the brown sugar with water in a medium pot over medium/low heat just until the sugar dissolves, mixing frequently. Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes and mix rice flour and baking powder into the pot. Fill the batter to the top of a glass teacup or a cupcake pan. Do not use paper baking cups or they will spread outwardly instead of pushing the batter up to split.

Set the cakes on a glass plate (if using glass teacups) and carefully put into the wok or steamer. Put the lid on and steam for 25 minutes.



*Fresh rice flour could be bought at Chinese specialty stores. It's called jeen mai fun. There is a dingy store, Fong Inn Too on the east side of Mott St between Bayard and Pell that sells fresh Tofu pudding and all sorts of other things. They sell fresh rice flour there.
If you can't find the fresh one, it is fine. You can also buy the packaged ones sold at every Chinese supermarket. It usually comes in this not so neatly package where your hands (and clothes and everything else) get all gross and floury by the time you walk out of the store. It's a clear bag that has red printing on it. It says rice flour on the package in English.

I Heart Coconut and Pandan Agar Agar

When I was in kindergarten, I remember winning an award for having the best penmanship. Til this day, I write microscopically. My handwriting is very controlled because of the instruments I use. I like writing with regular Bic pens rather than fancy ball point pens. Bic pens have a slower grip onto paper, while ball point pens are smoother and have less control on paper.

You must be wondering what any of this has to do with the recipe on this post. Well, agar-agar is to Bic pens as jello is to ball point pens. Agar-agar is one stiff jello. I am familiar with it only by eating Vietnamese rainbow ice. It's like a crunchier version of jello and usually less sweet. I used a Nordicware mini cake pan as molds for these cute little jellos and unmolding was a cinch. Because they were so stiff, I was able to use a tiny steak knife and poke it out without any visible imperfections.

Marinating the pandan leaves with coconut cream was delightful! I couldn't keep my nose out of the pot. Once the mixture is poured into the molds they begin to harden up immedietely without refrigeration.



Coconut Cream and Pandan Agar-Agar
Recipe found here

Ingredients:

400 ml coconut milk (preferably coconut cream)
400 ml water
100 gm sugar
4 tsp agar-agar powder
Pinch of salt
Pandan

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients in a pot & bring to a slow boil.
2. Remove from heat; add a little coloring & pour into mold. Chill before serving.

Next time, I think I will add some fruit into them!

Christmas Goody Bags - Filled with cookies!

One of the most wonderful things about New York City is the holiday season. I have seen the Rockefeller Tree about 3 times this month. Despite the overload of tourists in that tiny area, seeing the gigantic tree with it's shimmering lights makes me forget that I want to run slow tourists over with a car. Right across the street from the tree are the Saks windows. They are my favorite this year! It is based on a children's story book called "A Flake Like Mike."

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty: and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind."

"Snowflake" Bentley,
Photographer, 1925


My first set of goody bags actually represented the snowflakes in the windows. Due to lack of time, I made simply decorated gingerbread cookies with a little sparkle.

Christmas Goody Bag Ingredients:

• 4" wide - by - 9" long clear bag (I bought a pack of 100 for $10)
• 1/4 sheet of tissue paper
• Happy Holidays Label (I designed and printed it out myself) 4" -by- 4" scored in the middle to help it fold easily
• One 4"-by- 6" Recipe card ( I used the same theme and colors as the label)
• One 4" -by- 4" Quote card (I used the same theme and colors as the label)
• One menu card 1 1/2" - by - 2 1/2"
  
• Walnut Cookies
• Apricot Thumbprint Cookies
• Snowflake Gingerbread Cookies

The reaction my friends and family made were completely worth the effort.

Winners!

Last Thursday, I got my "The Sweet Spot" book by signed Pichet Ong! He wrote a cute message inside saying "Please remember the key to greater happiness is to bake lots! And eat lots more!" Bon Appetit magazine hosted a pop up cafeteria in midtown Manhattan for 2 weeks. Pichet Ong did a demonstration and a book signing on that particular day. I am not the type to buy a completely new book just for him to sign. So I brought my sticky, flour crusted, tabbed in five million pages book like a nerd. Upon bringing the book to him, he said "I see you make good use of this book!"

The winners of the book contest from my last post are...
drumroll please....

1.) Aimee from Under the High Chair
2.) Honeyb from The Lifes and Loves of Grumpy's Honeybunch
3.) Jules from Domestic Goddess in Training


Congratulations on the winners. Please email me your address at JennieM59@gmail.com

A Lifetime Crush on PINK and A GIVEAWAY BOOK CONTEST!

I write about my grandmother often because I find my self a lot like her - her love of jewels, her love of make up, clothes, perfume, nail polish and everything pretty. I remember a few winters ago, she led me to her attic to bring some storage back to life. Her closet that leads to the staircase is lined with outdated mink coats. Your socks feel slippery while climbing up the shiny wooden steps that still seem new. While you duck around the shallow height of the space, you see halls of clothes in plastic garment bags still hanging there from when I was just a baby. Some of my baby dresses were handmade by friends; most of them were bought by my grandmother. She dressed me up like a little doll up until I was eight or so. I wore laced ruffle socks with mary janes, white satin dresses with pink satin bows and Easter hats with pink flowers. We laughed about how she used to spoil me with clothes. Then we went over the dresses examining the intricate details and construction. There were layers of tulle in every dress!

I think one of the things that influences my food styling are my memories of what I used to wear and the pink bubble that my grandmother placed me in. Pink was always my color. I don't know if it's because it brightens my skin tone or that it played a significant part in my childhood but my eyesite tends to gravitate towards anything in that color. This cupcake dressing, the "tutu" frosting, pink heart confetti and romantic florals styled with the Heatherette Mac eyeshadow trio sort of defines the things that I still love from past memories influenced by someone I find myself to be so much alike.



Starring Coconut Buttercream Frosted Cupcakes

Book Giveaway Contest!!

The publisher of Confetti Cakes for Kids has kindly sent me copies of Elisa Strauss' book after having been to my site. This wonderful book is filled with step by step pictures on decorating and assembling techniques for cookies, cupcakes and even cakes. It is filled with ideas you can use for your next birthday or holiday party. If you want to learn what I've created, this book will guide you on your way to impress family and friends with sweets! It allows you to understand the basic concepts in creating desserts so that you are free to be creative.

I would like to share these copies with 3 lucky people! For a chance to win, simply write a comment to this post and three of you will win with a lucky draw! Winners will be announced in my next entry.

Now on to the recipe..