Sprinkles

Am I a cupcake freak or what?

My sister-in-law took me to Sprinkles in L.A. They had quite a selection of holiday inspired flavors on top of their regular selection: Egg Nog Spice, Pumpkin, Chocolate Peppermint and Vanilla Peppermint. Janet and I waited in a line just outside the door.

The teeny cupcake boutique was packed with cupcake-philes. I had a Chocolate Peppermint.
I loved the moist cupcake and the ganache frosting. I like the fact that you could eat the cake and the frosting separately; each component stood so well by itself. I also like how they frost the cake, simply done with perhaps a palate knife. Even after four years of pastry, I still have a hard time with piping skills.

They look huge, but the serving is just right.

The to-go boxes made of recycled paper and wooden utensils here are a plus too.

Cupcakes in New York

I don't know why cupcakes were such a topic for me this year. Perhaps its because they're everywhere!

When we visited New York two weeks ago, I dragged my husband to so many pastry shops, bakeries, any place that involved sugar.

The cupcakes here were big. Much bigger than the ones in California, but not quite as big as a giant muffin.

So my sister-in-law recommended Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes, made popular by a particular women's TV show. I gave it a try. They were very cute, chocolate or vanilla cupcakes, with chocolate frosting or pastel colored vanilla frosting. So I braved the long line to buy one. Yeah, just one. I picked a chocolate cupcake with pastel green frosting. I took it with me to Rockefeller Center, my dessert after a sandwich from 'wichcraft.

Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Dry chocolate cake. I am thinking because it was so late in the day when I bought it. If the cupcakes were baked earlier that day, then it may have dried out a bit since the worker were frosting the cupcakes constantly to meet the demands of the ever-demanding line of customers. (Frosting, besides accenting cupcakes, keep some moisture in.)

I am not sure if I will give it a second try when I visit New York again. There so much to try and taste. I need to remember that if I do that I need to go earlier in the day.

The Sesame Street cupcakes are found at Ruthy's Baked Goods, Inc. in Chelsea Market.

New York: the Mandoo Bar

What is traveling experience without some sort of culinary venture?

For vacation, B and I decided to go to New York. I've never been to the East Coast. It is our third full day here and I have yet to land myself in a pastry shop of some sort and sample a croissant. Trying to see everything that we can in the few days that we have here has made it a little challenging to get to that. But, we have been to some great eateries.

We had our eye on the Mandoo Bar ever since we saw a segment on it on Food Network's "The Secret Life of..." What is mandoo? Mandoo is Korean dumplings, usually steamed or pan-fried. This little hole in the wall has a store front kitchen where you can see the women in the kitchen stuff the different mandoo. Mmm.. fresh mandoo! We ordered two orders of pork mandoo, one friend and one boiled. It was quite tasty, but it doesn't beat my mother-in-law's dumplings.

The Mondoo Bar is in Korea Way, a one block stretch on 32nd Avenue, not to far from the Empire State Building.

A tribute to the Queen

I've never tried the Queen of Sheba cake before this year. But for such a simple cake, it has an intense flavor that you don't want to be without it in your repretoire of recipes. I immediately fell in love with it.

For the first big holiday party of the season, I decided serve this cake for our guests. They had quite a selection for dinner: filet mignon, chicken confit, salmon, and a creamy parpadelle pasta. My boss wanted to have something special served for dessert, so the Queen was the way to go.

Instead of almond and brandy, I replaced it with hazelnuts and rum. Along with the cake, I plated vanilla anglaise, orange caramel, and candied hazelnuts.

To be honest, I had a hard time building this dessert. For some reason, I really wanted to add something orange. I wracked my brain for things that I could do with orange. The only thing that I was not able to get to was the caramel marinated orange segments. With the holiday parties and my vacation coming up, my production just piled on, and I had to cut things out.

But the Queen of Sheba makes a statement for itself. With or without the bells and whistles.

A comment about Thanksgiving

Halloween kicks it all off. Before you know it, you see a worker at Trader Joe's dressed up as a turkey. The Food Network starts to air Thanksgiving themed shows. Bakeries have printed out signs regarding ordering pie.

There is something about this time of year; it makes you stop and think for a moment: of the things that you have learned, in the ways that you have grown, and of the good and bad experiences that you have come across.

Sometime, you get so caught up in life, you forget to be grateful. So here are some things I am grateful for regarding my culinary experience:

* For my supportive husband, for my friends, and family who encouraged me to persevere
* For God for listenting to my many prayers of "Help me! I'm sinking!"
* For my first boss, Joey, who pushed me hard because it was good for me (even if it didn't feel good.)
* For hot showers
*For long oven mints and the Chinese burn ointment my mom gave me
*For being able to do what I love
*For coffee, good and strong and lots of it
*For family meals
*For flat sheet pans, Silpats, offset spatulas, and my santoku knife...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sweet and Spicy

Ever have a chocolate chai tea latte? Is it chai spices in my hot chocolate or is chocolate added to my chai tea?

However you want to see it, a nice warm bowl of it is perfect for a chilly day like today. First you taste the chocolate. Then the spices make their way through your taste buds: the cardamon, the cinnamon, the cloves, and ginger.


Here it is pictured with a double ginger cookie. There is nothing like a good ginger cookie. I finally found a recipe that I really enjoy in Williams-Sonoma's Essentials in Baking. But one thing that I do different is that I candy my own ginger. It is actually quite a pain to do it if you only want candied ginger. (For the time and labor, I would recommend buying it, instead.)

First, I peel and slice gingerroots. They are then placed into a sauce pan with one part water and one part sugar. Then they are boiled until it is syrupy.

The original reason why I started to candy ginger was because I needed to make syrup for the ginger lemon mimosa on the menu. But, since I didn't want to waste perfectly good slices of ginger, I decide to salvage them. I strained out as much liquid from them as I could. Then tossed the ginger with sugar, letting them dry out.

Chocolate chai and double ginger cookies for the spice junkies amongst us.

Change

It's been a bit rugged lately. The effects of the changing economy are apparent during lunch; they are just not as busy as they used to be. This time last year, there were often times where people had to wait outside for a table. Not so much now.

Along with a reach-in refrigerator and a freezer breaking down, we have been forced to be a lot more efficient with our space. But it is frustrating at times, when you find frozen shrimp sharing space with some frozen cookie dough because there is just nowhere else to put it.

As a result, I've taken two of my cakes off the menu: the chocolate stout cake and the midnight cake (chocolate cake with ganache and vanilla buttercream.) Sigh. There just is no space. But, on a good note, there have been requests for the chocolate-cardamom pot de cremes. So they are back accompanied by two petite pistachio cookies.

I've shifted my focus more on the pastry case: the breakfast pastries and cookies. This upcoming week will be a series of experiments of different cookie doughs, maybe a new brownie. Today I baked off some almond apricot chocolate cookies. (I may add oats to it. I taste too much like the regular chocolate chip cookie.) Tomorrow is nibby shortbread. I am letting it sit and chill overnight to let the nibs infuse the dough, a tip I picked up from Alice Medrich's Bittersweet.

I am also brainstorming what I can egg white. Because I am going to be making the pot de cremes again, I will be using more yolks. Perhaps a hazelnut chocolate meringue? I also have a ton of nuts that I have to figure out what to do with. Without our old chill chests, their shelf life is shortened. (I have a five pound bag of pistachios.)

The holidays are in sight as well; I keep in mind cut-out cookies, rugelachs, and flavors of peppermint.