Cupcakes and cakes

I haven't been doing much with my life besides baking. Here's some of what I've been baking.

Emily and I made cupcakes to celebrate San Jose's hockey team, The Sharks. My dad had bought a tube of different sea creature sprinkles and the shark sprinkles happened to be in The Sharks colors. This wasn't so much a coincidence as it was a sign. We made some with just sprinkles and then I decided to try making fins out melted chocolate. That turned out to be a fantastic decision.



They looked fantastic all set up on Emily's cupcake tree.


For Easter (or the day after Easter) I made this cake. When I saw it on a baking blog I thought "Oh my goodness! I'm going to try making a 4 layer cake!" When I finished it, I took a look at the giant tower of cake on my counter and thought "Holy crap... I just made a 4 layer cake..." I named it The Beast. Even after giving a quarter of it to the neighbors, it still left us with a LOT of cake.


It's alternating layers of white and red velvet, with strawberries, and more whipped cream than anyone should have to deal with. It turned out to be delicious.

No Rhyme, No Reason, No Sweat.

I've been crafty this week.

First I made this lego necklace:


Then I made this cake:


It was delicious.

More cupcakes

I made these cupcakes for the 4th of July linger longer at church. They were a big hit, and quite delicious.

St. Patrick's Day

My family is like most families when it comes to St. Patrick's Day dinner. Every year my dad makes corned beef and cabbage. This is great, except that my sister and my mother do not like corned beef. I decided to be nice to them this year and I made the St. Patrick's Day meal.
I don't feel like getting into the process, because I spent 6 FREAKING HOURS in the kitchen. I guess I have to be grateful St. Patrick's Day is only once a year.

The menu:


Cottage Pie (which tasted way better than it looks here)


Irish Soda Bread


Cabbage


Jello Shamrocks



Rainbow Cupcakes

Churros

People have been asking for my churro recipe (I mean "my" as in the one I used, not made up). Here it is:

Ingredients:
For the churros
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
3 eggs
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tbs sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter
canola oil

For the coating:
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Also need:
pastry bag
large star tip

Directions:
In a small saucepan, heat the milk, butter, and salt over low heat. Add the two tablespoons of sugar to the mixture once the butter has melted and stir. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a boil. Next, add the cup of flour to the saucepan while stirring continuously. When the mixture has reached dough-like consistency, it should after about 30seconds, remove it from the heat and let it cool for about five minutes. It is really important that you do not heat the dough for more than the 30 seconds because otherwise the dough will not puff properly.

Separately beat each egg and add them one at a time to the mix. Make sure you mix the entire egg into the dough before you add the next egg. Fill a pastry bag with a large star tip up with the dough.

Before you begin frying the dough, combind the 3/4 cup sugar with the 1 tsp ground cinnamon.

Fill a deep frying pan with about 4 inches of canola oil and heat till it reaches a temperature of about 315-325 degrees. Carefully pipe out about 4 inch long strips into the oil. Cook until they are a light brown color, it should not take more than five minutes. Do not overcrowd the pan with churros, otherwise they will not be crispy.

Spoon out the churros and place them on a paer towel lined plate t drain off the excess oil. Don't let the oil drain off completely. Roll the churros in the sugar and cinnamon, making sure each is evenly covered.

Enjoy!

Success!

Churros Status:

CONQUERED

(Except for the part where the thermometer broke spraying hot oil, mercury, and glass everywhere,and I had to restart. Anyways...)

And if it fails, I'm swearing off the kitchen

Planned culinary adventure for the week: Churros.

Cupcake Tour 08

Check out my brother's blog for the cupcake tour we took last week while everyone was here for Christmas. It was great.

I pulled my first sick lesson. I've been having issues with my jaw these past 2 weeks, especially within the last couple days. I can't talk for a long time without my jaw being in indescribable pain. So instead of talking for an hour, I played the talk I was supposed to be teaching. 2 months in, and I'm already taking short cuts.
I also made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting. It was good but too sugary for my taste, I felt the need to eat salt after, but the rest of the family liked it.
I'm trying to get rid of this bad headache, because when I fall asleep with a headache, I feel like absolute crap the next day.

Look. I did something today.

I made french fries today. I also documented it, because I have a new-used camera(thanks Brian) and it actually works as apposed to my old one that died.

First I cut the potatoes. I left the skin on one potato and peeled the other to see if there was a difference. Ends up there isn't.

It's very important that you rock out during your cooking adventures.

Here goes numero uno.

I added more, and it looked like a face. I took a picture and then quickly moved the fries around so they weren't looking at me.

Burst fry = EPIC FAIL.

While working with dangerous hot oil and food that can easily burn the house down, you should always be completely engaged in an AIM conversation in the other room.
Finished fries on the dripping station.
Finished product. Fries and fry sauce. That's how this girl does it.

Also, Jon Stewart called Mitt Romeny MormonTron 3000 and I thought it was funny.

Eggs

Why I don't like them

• Think about what they are. Just do it. I dare you.
• They smell horrible.
• When you can't find them at Easter, they smell even worse.
• They taste kind of weird.
• There is the fear of breaking one open to find a red spot, or even a half developed fetus.
• The membrane. *shudder*
• Getting out the tiny shells that have fallen in.
• They kind of look like snot on the inside.
• Under cook them and they can kill you.
• They break too easily, and storing them is a pain.
• Separating the white from the yolk is also a pain.
  

When I do enjoy them

• Cakes, cookies, baking.
• Meatloaf.
• French Toast
• Icing and such.
• Throwing them against walls.
• Egg yolk paint (Tempura)
• Crushing them in my hands
• Sometimes (main word: sometimes) I enjoy an egg salad sandwich