I've Moved!

Hello to all my faithful readers (btw, you're really faithful if you're still visiting my blog). Sad news - this blog will no longer be updated.

GOOD NEWS - I've moved to: http://teatrosweets.blogspot.com

You can find the same things you've been seeing on this blog... and more! Hope to see you there :)

I love bread.

I know. I'ts been awhile. But I want to say thank you to everyone who keeps asking me when my next blog post is coming. I'm amazed, every single time, somebody tells me they read my blog. It's people like you that keep this blog alive! Muchos gracias.

I'm currently going through a "loaf phase". I love making bread cake in a loaf pan. I swear it tastes better when you bake it in a loaf pan vs. a cake pan or muffin tin. Maybe because there's less crust? I wrap each individually and freeze them so I can take it with me to work for breakfast. Beacuse cake for breakfast... is the best.

What do you eat almond butter with? The only thing I know to eat it with is celery and there has been no celery in my fridge for quite some time. That means a tub of freshly ground almond butter from the farmer's market was sitting there going to waste. So, as with most ingredients that I don't know what to do with, I looked for a way to  incorporate into something baked.

I came across several almond butter cake recipes online, but the one that stood out the most was David Lebovitz's. Simple, straightforward, and elegant.

My only complaint would be that it was a little too greasy and it fell slightly in the middle. The recipe called for 1 cup of butter and I used 3/4 cup. Next time I'm going to cut it down to 1/2 cup. Aside from that it was moist and delicious. Especially scrumptuous paired with fruit.

I felt a little cheated when I spied Whitney looking off a recipe during an episode of Master Chef. I know they're amateurs and the dishes they have to cook aren't easy... but still. I will give her kudos though for winning since she is only 22 years old and her desserts were absolutely, hands-down amazing.

One September afternoon I was feeling particularly ambitious, having made dozens of chocolate cakes in the past, and decided to experiment instead of following a recipe.

Success:
1. Just the right balance of leavener to make the cake rise.
2. The right ratio of fat to flour to make it moist.
3. Just enough cocoa and chocolate for a rich chocolate taste.

Failure:
1. Trying to make it healthier by cutting back on the amount of sugar (motivated by my recent visit to the dentist). Failure, with a capital "F". Chocolate cake that is not sweet does that have the right to be called chocolate cake. I will call this "chocolate bread". It was still good enough that, between DY and I, we finished the whole loaf. This recipe needs some tweaking before posting. Coming soon!

There is a chocolate chip pumpkin loaf baking in my oven as we speak. It is making my kitchen smell wonderful - like Fall! Stay tuned...

Best Blueberry Lemon Muffins

You know what type of recipes I love? The ones that:

1. You can make using one bowl (because anyone that knows me knows I absolutely loathe doing the dishes).

2. All the ingredients you need are already in your pantry/fridge.

3. Turn out delicioso!

I went on a blueberry buying splurge a few weeks ago when they were piled high at the market and stashed them away in the freezer. Completely forgot about them until I was clearing out my freezer to make room for the bags (and bags) of food I brought back from Korea for my mom.

DY and I are hopelessly jetlagged and found ourselves famished at 2am yesterday. I was craving some carbs so I crossed my fingers and went hunting around my pantry and fridge in hopes of gathering enough ingredients to whip up some blueberry muffins. I didn't have milk so replaced it with vanilla yogurt and thus reduced the amount of sugar. I had to up the amount of blueberries to even make a dent in my blueberry stash so the standard blueberry to batter ratio was a bit skewed -  but the batter was nice and thick so it did a good job of preventing the blueberries from sinking to the bottom while baking.



The result: super-moist, not-too-sweet, bursting with blueberries, a hint of lemon, a thin delicate crust, and a perfectly shaped dome of a muffin. Mmm mm.



They were so good that only 3 out of the 10 survived for their photo shoot.

Blueberry Lemon Muffins

INGREDIENTS
* 1/3 cup sugar
* 5 tbsp of butter
* 1 egg
* 3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt
* 1 tsp lemon zest
* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
* 1/4 tsp baking soda
* 1/4 tsp salt
* 1 - 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degree. Spray muffin pan with non-stick spray.
2. Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
3. Add egg and beat on high speed until well blended, then mix in yogurt and lemon zest.
4. Sift half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.
5. Sift in the rest of the dry ingredients and mix only until flour disappears.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden and a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 10 muffins.

I'm Baaaaack!

Where has the summer gone? I can't believe I haven't posted anything in over 2 months! It has been a busy summer filled with good food, good people, and good travels. Instead of trying to catch up on posts, let's summarize. Get ready for a long one folks.

I love baking for other people. Not only does it prevent me from feeling a little too doughy around the midsection, I love being able to be a part of or contribute to a celebration. These cupcakes were for a rather important celebration - friend requested cupcakes for his proposal!



Those are chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with the most decadent chocolate fudge frosting that I promise to share with you in the near future. Topped with pearl dragees and some caramelized sugar.

Congrats S+M!

One of my very first posts were cupcakes made for Miss. Ellie when she was just born. Our dear

Ellie is now 1, which also means this blog is more than a year old! How time flies.

I made these mini cupcakes for Ellie's Hawaiian-themed birthday celebration. Happy 1st, Ellie!

Part of my summer (and one of my excuses for not blogging in forever) was spent in Korea. That country has come a long way - so much culture, creativity, and progression. There is so much to do, see, and eat there. I shall see you again soon, Seoul. To make up for going AWOL, here are some tidbits from my trip that I'd like to share with you:









































I should probably sleep now if I'm ever going to get over my jet lag. Goodnight! Talk to you again soon.

Samoas Squares

That thing was as sweet and rich as it looks. I have to admit, making these samoas were quite the commitment. And eating them was even more of a commitment. If you're craving something sweet, then these are for you.



The best part of these samoas was that coconut/caramel topping. I dipped my finger in for a taste and then scooped out about half a cup into a seperate bowl, plopped down in front of the TV, and ate it with a spoon while waiting for the cookie part to finish baking. It was that good.



I think I could have probably stopped right here:



The cookie (which is essentially a shortbread) topped with the coconut caramel was good enough on its own. But I figured since I had come this far along, I should just finish them off.



The recipe actually calls for you to dip the bottom of the cookie into melted chocolate and then drizzle on top but since the caramel already made it so sweet, I just drizzled. Use your own discretion!





Recipe here! Thanks Baking Bites.

This One Is For You.

This blog is for Anna, Becky, and Janet (and all my other loyal readers). The ones who recently asked, in one way or another, "Where is lifefrosted?" Thanks for keeping me accountable.

Unfortunately I don't really have a good reason for being gone for so long. Work has been keeping me busy... I guess that's a good excuse, just not an interesting one. Well, I made the pictures bigger for you all. All the more to drool!



This is one of the cakes I made for DY's birthday, almost a month ago! Made 3 in total that week. This one is just a basic chocolate layer cake, but the best thing about this particular cake was the icing. Swiss Meringue Buttercream. Really good. I think it's now my go-to vanilla icing. Not too sweet and the fluffy texture was delectable. Highly recommended.

*That recipe below is based off Smitten Kitchen's, I just cut out about half the amount of butter so it had more of a whipped meringue-y texture rather than a thick buttercream (tastes a lot lighter too!).

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

INGREDIENTS
* 1 cup sugar
* 1.5 cups of butter
* 4 egg whites
* 1/2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
1. Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Whip the sugar/egg whites mixture in a stand mixer until it forms stiff peaks, then add in the vanilla
3. Add in the butter, a couple tablespoons at a time.

The icing will deflate a bit and look like it's curdling once you add the butter. Don't panic! Just keep whipping and it will come together beautifully.

Better Than Second Cup

I'm sorry Second Cup, but these raspberry white chocolate scones were better than yours. Seriously, some of the best scones I've ever had... thanks to Martha Stewart!



I had a dream the other night that I was eating a white chocolate raspberry scone from Second Cup and of course, I woke up craving one. Too bad for me, there is no Second Cup in the States. But what do you know... that morning in my mailbox was my new edition of Everyday Food magazine and this month's theme: raspberries! And on page 24 was a recipe for "Fast Raspberry Scones".



Back in the day when I was a barista at Second Cup, they used to let us have one pastry/baked good per shift. I remember I used to eye the pastry shelves to make sure there was still a raspberry white chocolate scone left by my breaktime. And then I was so exicted when breaktime came and my scone was sitting there untouched. The little things that make you happy :)



You know that feeling when you bite into something and it immediately satisfies your craving? These scones were so good. Especially when they were still warm and flaky...mmmm... Same taste as the Second Cup scones, but better texture. Also, super-easy to make. In fact, I'm going to go make another batch as soon as I post this because DY and I already scarfed down the first.



FYI: I didn't have any milk in the house but really wanted to make these so when I went hunting around in my pantry for a milk-substitute, I found... coconut milk. I'm not sure if it was the coconut milk that made these scones so good but if you have some in your house, I recommend using that in place of regular milk. This also means you need to work quickly with the dough because coconut milk is not cold so if you knead too much, you'll end up with a sticky blob that is unworkable. Or, I guess you could always just stick the coconut milk in the fridge overnight?



Alright, enough blabbing... here's the recipe!

Raspberry White Chocolate Scones
adapted from Everyday Food magazine

INGREDIENTS
* 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
* 1/4 cup sugar
* 1 tbsp baking powder
* 3/4 tsp salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter (make sure it's cold!)
* 3/4 cup of buttermilk (I used 1 tbsp vinegar mixed with 1 cup coconut milk, and just measure out 3/4 cup of that mixture)
* a handful of white chocolate chips (not in the original recipe but it's just not the same without them)

DIRECTIONS
1. Pre-heat oven to 400F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a food processor, pulse together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Add butter in chunks and pulse until pea-size pieces form.
3. Whisk together coconut milk mixture and egg yolk. Slowly pour the mixture through feed tube into processor, pulsing until dough just comes together.
4. Transfer dough to a lightly floured work surface and sprinkle raspberries and white chocolate chips on top. Knead three times to fold in raspberries. Gather and pat dough into a ball and place heaping spoonfuls about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.
5. Bake 18-20 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Let scones cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight container, after they've completely cooled and formed a nice crust,up to 1 day.

Makes 12 scones.