Creme Brulaylay

Do you ever have those days when you're sitting in class at 9:30 in the morning thinking about a really yummy dish you had a while ago? I mean yeah your obviously paying attention to the lecture and studiously taking notes. But your also drooling over a big fat piece of pie or a creamy dessert...like creme brûlée.

Well that's what I was doing last week and then had the opportunity to put my dreaming into action.
Recently, my roommates and I had a girls night and I decided to whip up some creme brûlée...obviously I can use phrases like 'whip up' and 'throw together' because I'm such an expert...duhh.

It was surprisingly easy. There weren't too many ingredients and I found a really good video showing the process...and the cook was French....with a French accent. The accent proves his expertness so I went with his video. I'm sure there are many other variations and ways to do it.


Here's the link to the video. The ingredients are also listed on there.

I didn't have a flamethrower...I mean blowtorch so I set the oven to broil and carefully put the ramekins in and watched them with hawk eyes. I wish I had the blowtorch though. It would have been cooler.

They tasted really good. They were a little warm and more liquidy since I put them in the oven instead of torching them. All in all, very fattening and yummy.

MM: Mille-Feuille

My first French class was in grade 3. I still remember how excited I was to learn an exotic language...never mind that technically I was learning the second official language of the country...not very 'exotic' but OH WELL.

Sadly, I did not become as fluent in French as I hoped to. I just couldn't wrap my head around some adjectives being masculine and some feminine....among other things....*sigh*

http://www.tenderisthebite.com/2010/04/lady-ms-mille-crepes/

The French seem to be a classy group of people...food, wine, hot men with sexy accents...they seem to have it all down. They also seem to be quite experienced in desserts.

So last week as I was diligently studying stalking people on Facebook, a friend of mine put up a status that said; I have fallen in love...with Mille-feuille. Obviously I jumped to the conclusion that this was either
a) a movie...b) a woman...or c) food...

Upon conducting an extensive literary search (i.e Google) as well as trying to figure out how to pronounce the darn thing, (Meee-fee? Mil Fooill? Milly Fooly?...apparently its [mil fœj] which is not any more helpful -_-) I learned that Mille-Feuille (which translates to 'thousand sheets') is a French pastry. According to Wikipedia, it is traditionally made up of 3 layers of puff pastry alternating with layers of pastry cream or other fillings. They are usually topped with icing, or fondant, or various other sweet stuff.

Now if you've been reading MM religiously (you have right? RIGHT?!) you probably know by now that I haven't attempted these desserts in the kitchen...yet...ONE OF THESE DAYS....I might....but until then you'll just have to put up with mouthwatering pictures and a few recipes and my hysterical jokes...okay maybe not the last one : )

Alright so to attempt your own mille-feuille at home there are some recipes here, here, and one more yummy variation here .

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15848/raspberry+custard+cream+mille+feuille

Hope it works out! Come back and let me know how awesome it was and that I can't have some because I couldn't pick myself up and make it myself : (

In other news...I have a few cake projects lined up...and a few product reviews I'm excited for. So check in and if you're tired of checking every 5 minutes to see if I've posted, SUBSCRIBE either with email or through GFC and you'll be the first to know...well...okay maybe the second...

Happy Baking!

Baking Tools and The Start of a New Series

One of the most exciting parts of cake decorating and baking for me is the variety of tools and the various functions they serve. For those of you who wonder how many possible tools would you need to bake a cake....I have one thing to say to you....

Okay so I can't think of a witty response because you honestly don't need a whole lot. It really depends on your goal. If you want to make a pretty cake but aren't too concerned with things like how even the cake is or how spot on certain icing colours are or how realistic the icing/fondant flowers look, then you really don't need many tools.

When I first started baking (before I even considered it a hobby) I would make my own piping bags out of  ziploc bags and didn't have fancy boards or anything. They weren't as easy to use but worked just as well.

And then I laid eyes on my first piping bag. I'm not going to describe the moment in detail but I'll leave you with this: the clouds parted and harp music was heard. Nuff said

But there is huge problem stopping me from rushing out and buying every cake decorating tool I can get my hands on. I refer to this problem as "I ain't got no money" My wonderful student budget doesn't allow for frivolities like baking supplies...butter....sugar....running water...you get the idea.

But obviously this is a minor technicality in the grand scheme of things which is why I clenched my fist, squinted my eyes, and threw a tantrum.

When that failed much to my surprise, I sat on my computer and searched through Amazon, eBay, cake supplies warehouses, and Michael's Craft Store. I compared prices, searched for coupons, and cringed at shipping rates. Surprisingly, (or maybe not so much) there are many more business that cater to bakers and cake decorators in the good ol' US of A. Canadians do have some good resources, especially in the Greater Toronto Area, but at a higher price and with less variety.

Over the past few months, I have visited many stores and websites as well as investing in some products and figuring out what works and what doesn't. I thought it would be a good idea to do a few posts on these products and stores and talk about the greats and not so greats.

Hopefully it will help those of you who, like me, have an "I ain't got no money" problem narrow down what you should invest in and what you could probably live without.

And just because its Friday, (or is it Monday? What comes after Thursday? Where is Rebecca Black when you need her?!) find some awesome Michael's coupons here and here. Don't forget to use them before they expire!

Have a yummy weekend!

Featured Blogs List!!!

I am super thrilled because I am on my way to going public...well...more public.

I recently entered my blog to be put up on the blogs directory over at the Cake Decorating Classes Directoy and I have recently been listed!! Yayy

No I am not teaching classes...I am not even close to being that good.

I am listed in the Cake Decorating Enthusiasts section.

This directory is a really good resource if your looking for blogs that teach techniques, post recipes, have tutorials, or just blog about experience (like me!)

I used this directory many many times when I was in the research phase of my baking. Some of my favourite blogs which I have bookmarked and visit on a regular basis come from this directory.

I am also super excited to have made it into the featured blogs section. I also teared up a little reading Lindsay's description of my blog. I hardly ever get any feedback on here and I appreciate every bit I get : )

Here is my listing. Do check out all the other blogs too. Tonnes of pretty pictures and tasty recipes.

Hope everyone is having an awesome Thanksgiving weekend. Eat lots of turkey covered in gravy and appreciate it because some of us are vegetarian this month and don't get no turkey (more on that later).

Check back on Monday for MM!!

The Best Iced Coffee Ever

It's currently very late in the night. And yet I feel as energetic as a certain pink bunny playing drums. The secret to my vaults of stored energy? Every student's best friend and worst enemy; coffee.

However, I have this weird quirk in which I don't like hot drinks. I prefer cold, even in the dead of winter.  If I do happen to have a hot drink, I usually wait until it cools considerably. This is a weird because both my parents like to chug down their tea while its scalding hot and I'm exact opposite.

Anyway, I am currently addicted to iced coffee. The fact that McDonald's included iced coffee in their $1 drinks special for the summer didn't help one bit. $1.13 gets me a large and that sucker would be good all afternoon.

Now that the dollar drink specials are coming to an end, my frugal (read cheap) self decided to explore other avenues in which I could get my usual hit.

I came across a recipe on The Pioneer Woman which seemed pretty simple and had a lot of good reviews.  I did alter the proportions a bit though because I didn't have a pound of coffee.

I also didn't have all the tools for the job so I improvised.

I used:

227 g of ground coffee. I don't remember the brand but just go with a nice rich roast.
16 cups of cold water
a very big pot (or 2 big pots)
a strainer
cheesecloth or paper towels

Method:

Dump the coffee into the cold water. I had two large pots so I filled each pot with 8 cups of water and divided the ground coffee into 2 batches.

Let the coffee soak for at least 8 hours. I soaked for about 14 hours because I wasn't getting up at 5 am to strain it.

Using the strainer and cheesecloth or paper towel, strain the coffee mixture to get rid of the grounds. You can just not use cheesecloth or PT but then you would be drinking AND eating coffee...which is gross.

I had to use a tiny little strainer with paper towels and it was not fun. Not one bit. Get a large strainer. Have a lot of paper towels handy.

Refrigerate the coffee concentrate for a few hours. Make sure you also have ice cubes.

To make coffee, pour some into a glass, add cream or milk (I used half and half) and add sugar.

And that's it. It tastes amazing. It's flexible because you can add fancy stuff like flavour shots and also tweak the sweetness to your liking, unlike the store bought stuff. And you also know what goes in it, and how it was made which is always a bonus. It's a long process and it was time consuming for me because of the tiny strainer but it made a big batch that will last me many weeks....although living in a house with 4 other girls might make reduce that time....by a lot.

Give it a try! It's cheap, easy, and super yummy. And no I don't have pictures because I was too busy gulping it down. But The Pioneer Woman has better pictures than I ever will, so get over there and check out her site...she has tonnes of cool recipes, cool tips and other .... cool stuff.

But make sure to come back here too!

Facelift...again!

I am the most indecisive person ever. I spend hours at stores looking through literally every product. I try on a million things in the morning before finding an outfit. I organize and reorganize everything in my room. I think you get the picture. Where did that lead me?

I decided my blog's appearance wasn't really a reflection of me. It was too bland. I tweaked and fiddled around with some of the settings...and the title...and description....and purpose. Since I wasn't really describing my learning process in detail, it seemed silly to call it a 'diary' so I got rid of that aspect. My fav colour (at least one of them) is pink so I added a pink cupcake. I hope to make my own (and take proper pics) of my own pink cupcakes...one day. And some minor changes to font and colour etc were also made. Clearly I don't have enough school work to do.

So in case those of you who come by here (if there actually are any of you out there) think that you're on the wrong site...you're not. I just really love change. I'm moving furniture around as we speak. Don't judge.

In other news!!! I made homemade iced coffee! It was OMGWTFAWESOMESAUCE. Yes that's a real expression. I brought it into existence after I inhaled a large cup of aforementioned iced coffee. I will post the recipe, the process of me making it, and a link to the genius who created this recipe in a future post.

Kay. Time for sleep and cupcake filled dreams :)

Update!

Okay...so in case anyone didn't know....mixing colour into fondant is a PAIN!!! But more on that later...

I figured I should do a post to update my whereabouts. My next post will be quite exciting!!!

My sister's 18th birthday is coming up so obviously cupcakes are in order...possibly.

I'm moving on Sunday so I will have a kitchen with COMPLETE FREEDOM!

MM is coming up and I've got something exciting planned.

Usually in my free time I sit around and read baking blogs and seek inspiration for cakes and cupcakes. Lately though, I've been obsessed with beauty/make up and nail polish. I think I have way too many hobbies, but more than hobbies I feel like they're becoming collections! The more nail polish I buy, the more I want to hoard. Which is obviously not healthy!

Maybe, once I start school in a few days, these obsessions will die down...but hopefully not for baking!!

Keep checking back for more useful posts!!

Making Mondays a little more bearable...maybe

I've decided that in order to make my blogging a little more regular in my life, I'm going to start writing Multicultural Monday posts.

Being Tamil and living in Canada has taught me a few things about multiculturalism. Probably one of the most enjoyable aspects of any culture is food. Food brings people together in a way that other things can't. Perhaps it's because you don't have to convey in words how good something tastes...it will be written all over your face. Food is fun,  but desserts especially vary widely among different cultures.

Every Monday (at least....I hope every Monday) I will be doing a post on a dessert from a different culture that I made or a link to a recipe that seem deeeelish. I may also post some mouthwatering pictures or just some info on the role a certain type of dessert plays in its respective culture.

I should probably be honest and say that I was supposed to start this up this past Monday...and failed miserably. BUT I've added it onto my calendar for every Monday from now till infinity.

I'm excited to learn about and try out new recipes....I hope you are too!!

And a comic because I have no pictures of food...this weird ugly comic monster is showing up everywhere!