Black and White Cupcakes

I know, another cupcake post. I can't help it. I've been obsessing over cupcake recipes. And of course, I wanted to try another recipe from Buttercup - Black and White Cupcakes.

So to note, I had a few variations from the original recipe:

1. I didn't use miniature chocolate chips. So the chips were very visible in the cupcake.

2. I didn't use unsweetened cocoa powder. I couldn't find any at the market!

3. The warm water I used may have been hot.

4. The cream cheese was possibly warmer than room temperature.

Aside from all this, the cupcakes weren't bad. They were moist, but too much of a cream cheese flavor for my taste. And they also didn't look nice. But I think that's pretty much my fault. It was 1am, I was tired, I wanted to get it done quick.

I brought the cupcakes to a party, and received a lukewarm reception. No mmm's like the previous batch of red velvet cupcakes I made.

It was an easy recipe to follow, but I'm not sure I'll try it again. I just kept thinking of the red velvet cupcakes as I ate these...

GoLean makes me go ugh

I'm a big fan of instant oatmeal. It's quick, easy, and good. For awhile I've been eating the Quaker Weight Control line, which is made with Splenda and has around 6g of fiber. It's also really good, but everyone else around you will think so too. I usually have oatmeal in the office, and with Quaker, everyone knows when I'm eating it. The smell of maple and brown sugar reaches the other end of the office. So I've stopped eating it at the office for awhile.

Instead, I've been trying Kashi's GoLean instant hot cereal. It too has a lot of fiber, along with protein and omega-3. I was a little wary of things by Kashi, because it seems so hit-and-miss with them. But I like the philosophy of their products and I do feel healthier when I eat their stuff. This hot cereal though, did not go down easy. I could barely taste the vanilla, and it wasn't so creamy. I've eaten it twice, but I dread the next time. I still have the rest of the box to finish, so I'll try experimenting with different amounts of water and microwave time. But I'm not sure I'll be enjoying it so much.

Next time I'm in the market, I'm looking for the Quaker guy.

Spicy Spicy Spam Musubi

Since this blog is all about trying new things I thought I would go out of my little realm of knowledge I have about Hawaiian food and try making Spam Musubi. But of course I was only motivated to do this because I was lucky enough to acquire this:









If you hate Spam I feel sorry for you. Yes, it's a mystery meat but it's so tasty! Especially Hot & Spicy Spam. I found mine in a Japanese grocery and if you do happen to find it buy the whole box! Hey Spam lasts forever, yummy...

Making Spam Musubi turned out to be a great idea because I found a sushi mold that I bought at a 99 cents store awhile ago but never used it. It actually worked really well and my musubi came out nice and cute.

1) I cooked short grain Japanese rice (or sushi rice) but I didn't add anything to the rice. I found some recipes that added Mirin or Rice vinegar, but since the Spam has such a strong flavoring I thought it would blend well with plain rice.

2) While the rice is cooking I sliced up the Spam and pan fried until slightly brown.

2) After letting the rice cool a little I started putting rice in the bottom of the mold. I pressed very hard to make sure the rice was sticking together. After I made a bottom layer of rice I placed the slices of Spam. I then covered the Spam with rice and got the cover of the sushi mold and pressed very firmly. If I did not press firmly enough the musubi would fall apart so it took me a few tries.















4) I then took store bought nori which I cut up into strips that matched the length of my rice rolls and proceeded to wrap the rice rolls with nori









5) And then I ate, I ate a lot of those little musubis.

Century tickets now at Costco

Took a trip to Costco yesterday, and thought I'd buy some AMC tickets since I was there. When I checked out, the cashier told me now Costco sells tickets to Century theaters. Yeeee! She said she thinks they're $15.99 for 2 ($1 more than AMC tickets). I don't know how much general tickets are at Century, but Costco always gives good deals. I passed this time around, but probably for the next must-see epic I'll swing by Costco to pick some Century tickets up.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I had heard of Khaled Husseini before, as the author of The Kite Runner, which was a big best seller. Then the girls at Splendora praised his second book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. I hadn't really planned on reading The Kite Runner, since the back cover summary didn't sound that interesting. But this book, a story about two women in Afghanistan, really piqued my interest.

I read it in four days, and I enjoyed all of it. And I cry at almost everything, but this book made me seriously bawl. I should've had a box of Kleenex next to me, but I would get up and grab one from the bathroom, all while I was still trying to read. I couldn't put this book down.

Now I'm going to read his first book, and from the praise I've heard for it, sounds like I'm in for another enjoyable ride.

No wonder I rarely go to the movies...

I haven't been to the movies in awhile (thanks, Netflix), but my friend wanted to see the new Die Hard movie and so off we went. Luckily I had some AMC tickets that I purchased previously from Costco. I bought a pair (that's 2) for $14.99 (that comes to $7.50 each).

Once I arrived at the theater, I first staggered back at the couple ahead of me slobbering all over each other, and then I staggered back even more at the $10.25 adult ticket price! I thought it was $8 or $9. But $10?!

I was pretty happy then that I had my Costco-purchased tickets. And the even cooler thing is, these tickets have zero restrictions. So you can use them for those super new releases also. Ratatouille, here I come! Oh, but lemme stop by Costco first. They close at 8:30, let's step on it.

Red Velvet Cupcakes, Part 2

I set out to try another recipe of Red Velvet cupcakes but what I kept thinking about looking through numerous recipes is why so many people love the taste of Red Velvet so much. I know I’ve loved it for a long time, eating the moist cake with sugary frosting, mmm. The flavor has so little cocoa you wouldn’t say it’s chocolate and I definitely hope the large amount of red dye that’s required doesn’t add flavor. But since I was curious I thought maybe Red Velvet tastes so wonderfully is because of how beautifully red and moist it looks to the human eye. Therefore, I split half my recipe in two and one I included the red dye, but the other half I did not add the red dye, chemical free.

I also did a very simple scientific study to see if there was a difference in taste between my two set of cupcakes. I had a willing volunteer taste 2 of the cupcakes and looking at them choose which one tasted better. Then did the same with a blindfold on. I thought by looks, the volunteer would think the Red Velvet (with red dye) tasted better, but blindfolded, taste the same cupcake.
Maybe my experiment wasn’t planned very well, but the volunteer thought the sans red dye cupcake tasted better in both rounds. Well I think that proves Red Velvet cupcakes are great even without the red dye, I thought it still looks a little dull but came out with a nice mocha color. So if you cringe at the thought of adding that much dye, at least the alternative is still tasty, I guess you just can’t call it Red Velvet anymore. Maybe, Light Brown Suede?

I found my recipe on epicurious.com and followed all the commenters suggested substitutes, using shortening in place of butter and sour cream in the place of buttermilk. I think this helped contribute to the overall moistness of the cake.

Red Velvet Cupcakes
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (I used shortening here)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces water
2 ounces red food coloring
1 cup buttermilk (I used sour cream instead)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon baking soda preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare cupcake tins as directed as directed in the recipe you are following.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add eggs and blend well.
4. Make a paste of cocoa and food coloring and add to the butter mixture.
5. Sift flour and salt together into this mixture.
6. One at a time, add the following ingredients: buttermilk, vanilla, and water.
7. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda. Fold it into the cake batter. Make sure it's incorporated, but don't beat it.
8. Pour the batter into the cupcake tins. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched.
9. Remove from oven and let cool for about 10 minutes, then turn the cupcakes out of the tins and onto a rack to finish cooling completely.

Red Velvet Cupcakes, part 1

After walking in New York for what seemed like 10 hours, we finally hit up Buttercup Bakeshop. I ate a red devil cupcake immediately after purchase, and then I went to Heaven.

When I came back, I searched for the recipe. I was unable to find the exact one, but I did find one here and here. They're both pretty much the same, but I mainly focused on the Cupcake Bakeshop recipe and just looked to the other for double checking.

What came out was a pretty moist cupcake, but the frosting was still way too sweet, even though I cut it down by almost half. Also, I'd cut the cocoa a little bit (I added more than the recipe asked for), because to me the cocoa taste was slightly overpowering. Oh and I would cut the recipe for the frosting by at least half. I didn't put that much frosting on my cupcakes (because it was too sweet) so I had a LOT leftover. Now I need to make more cupcakes for the leftover frosting.

Here's the final recipe (Cupcake Bakeshop's recipe, with my slight changes *):

Cupcakes
3-3/4 cups cake flour
1/2 cups cocoa*
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/8 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups buttermilk
3 teaspoons vinegar
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 ounce red food coloring dye*
2-1/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups butter
3 eggs
Yield: 36 cupcakes
-Preheat oven to 350°F
-Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl
-Whisk buttermilk, vinegar, vanilla, and food coloring in small bowl to blend
-Beat sugar and butter in large bowl until well fluffy, 3 minutes
-Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until well blended after each addition, about 30 seconds
-Beat in dry ingredients in 4 additions alternately with buttermilk mixture in 3 additions
-Scoop into cupcake tins
-Bake cupcakes until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 minutes
-Cool in pans 10 minutes
-Cool completely on racks

Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting
12 ounces or 1-1/2 packages of Philly cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
2-1/2 cups sifted powdered sugar*
seeds of 1/2 vanilla bean
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bring cheese and butter to room temperature by letting it sit out for 1 or 2 hours
Sift powdered sugar into a bowl
Beat butter and cheese at medium speed until creamy
Add sugar and beat until combined
Add vanillas and beat until combined

Estee Lauder Idealist

I admit I'm a skincare fiend. It's so easy to get me to buy something to try. I have tons of unfinished beauty products, it's kind of sad. Luckily my friend gave an Estee Lauder gift set as a bridesmaid gift, and I loved trying all the samples!One thing in there was Idealist skin refinisher. I started using it morning and night, after I washed my face, but before moisturizer. My skin before wasn't super bad or anything, but I think this product gave it a nice tweak. I've actually been complimented on how nice my skin is. I do think my face got a little softer, and I used to get redness around my face, but it now comes less often.

I've used it now for 8 months and I'll continue to do so!

Method shave cream

I read awhile ago that Method was coming out with a body wash line and since I'm a big fan of Method hand soaps and their scents I knew I wanted to TRY.

At my most recent trip to Target I noticed immediately the new line of Method by the colors and unique bottle shapes. Hey, everyone chooses things on how they look right? And these were puurty. So I really wanted to try this new line of Method which included Shave Cream, Body Wash, and Body Lotion. I think I stood there for a good 30 minutes and smelled each scent. I was very disappointed when I didn't like any of the scents. Well I thought they were too overpowering and my nose tickled. So finally after my wonderful decision skills I chose the Shave Cream in Green Mint scent. I liked the mint smell and it seemed invigorating and cool.

When I got home and tried the Shave Cream what I noticed was the scent was much more subtle than I thought it would be, so I really appreciated that and now I don't mind trying the other scents since my biggest concern was being overpowered by them. The cream did not lather like i'm used to with those 99 cent drugstore shave creams. So I found myself using a lot of cream for shaving and what's nice about foam is you can see where you've shaved already. Other than that, this was a nice product it left my legs nice and smooth. I'm definitely going back to try the Body wash and lotion, stay tuned.

Fabric covered canvas

I was first inspired to try this project from ApartmentTherapy's post on Ikea's new fabric patterns. Then later the same day I saw this post from shiso mama. Being the engineer I am, I added the two posts together, and thought I'd try covering some canvas for some new decorations for my living room.

I trekked on over to my local Ikea, and chose 2 Pernilla prints. I thought they would complement each other when placed side by side.

I didn't even know how big the canvases were going to be, so I got 2 yards of each print. I ended up getting 16x20 canvases from Michael's, so I definitely got way too much fabric.

With the fabric and canvas, I then just needed a staple gun...and also another pair of stronger hands. The extra pair of hands not only helped with the staple gun, but also with making sure the fabric is nice and taut over the canvas.

After two hours of stapling and pulling fabric and watching TV, we finished! Now let's see how long it takes for me to put it up on the wall.

Old Navy vs. Tart

L: Old Navy Tiered Knit Dress - $13.99 R: Tart Denise Dress - $126

My sister and I walked into an Old Navy to just do a quick browse. She came upon the tiered knit dress, and we both thought of the Tart dress Sarah Michelle Gellar wore in NYC. We tried the Old Navy dress and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, the rhubarb color didn't match our skin tones, but the black did the trick. The fabric doesn't feel flimsy or cheap, and it's machine washable (Tart's is dry clean only)! I wore it on a hot New York day, and it kept me cool and feeling so summery. I also have seen Marc by Marc Jacobs do a version of the dress...but for $300! Sorry Marc, but I'm going to have to go with Old Navy on this one.