Spoiled Spongecake

Macarons Make for a Lovely Holiday

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone! This month has been a whirlwind for me; I drove across the country once again {that's the 4th time this year} and am finally home {for the time being}. The entire family is here now and I cannot keep track of the days anymore. They are flying by. I was stunned to see I hadn't done a blog entry since December 4th. Sheesh! Though I didn't really mind keeping Nagi Noda up there as the top post for a while, I get sad every time I see her name...so much talent...I just want everyone to know about her.

In exciting news, for me, it seems I was a good girl this year because one of Santa's elves brought me this from London:Oh, Laduree, you are the best. Period. The delicious, light, flavorful macarons you provide the world with...sigh...thank you. And thanks to Santa's elf {that would be my sister} who braved the Christmas crowds at Harrod's just for me to get to Laduree. She also bought me my favorite caramel sucre spread, which is so expensive, and the evil Heathrow airport confiscated it! They said it could be considered a "liquid", though it is thicker than peanut butter. They took it and promptly dumped it in the garbage! For shame! I weep for my lost caramel sucre spread...sniff...sniff... I won't whine too much though, these macarons are seriously to die for. Sorry for the sucktastic photo's. I was too eager to start eating and couldn't frame the shot or focus.

{sugar Sweet sunshine} Heaven With Frosting

So, as I said yesterday I went to two cupcakeries that fateful day in NYC. The other bakery I went to was sugar Sweet sunshine {and yes, that's how they capitalize and don't capitalize their name}.

Holy. crap. I think these may be my most favorite cupcake of all time. But I'm not sure! Violet's in Pasadena is still waaaaaay up there as well as Amy's Babycakes {now known as Vanilla Bakeshop in Santa Monica and I have not tried her cupcakes since she moved and changed her name}.

These. Cupcakes. Were. Amazing. Now, because I had just stuffed my face at Little Giant and Babycakes NYC I was seriously so full I was really close to upchucking. Really. Plus it was hot outside and sugar Sweet sunshine is in that part of the Lower East Side that really smells like rotting garbage. There are certain parts of NYC that just smell foul. I think that's just the way it is. Even if they lined the streets with potpourri baskets everyday it would just be rank. It would smell like festering potpourri in about an hour, you know what I mean? Some area's just have an embedded smell of rot. So, that is where the bakery is. It's smelly. So that combined with the heat and my previous face-stuffing I almost didn't go. But I was like, I'm here, I should just go in {for those wondering why I just didn't get a cupcake to go it's because I had a full schedule for the day and didn't want to carry a bag around plus it was hot and the frosting would melt...god forbid!}.So I go in and first was pleasantly surprised that my cupcake was only $1.50. A steal. I don't think I've paid that little for a cupcake since I made my own! And they were fully stocked on all the flavors for the day {it was around 2pm} which is awesome because I hate when bakeries run out of a certain flavor because of course that's the one I've been craving. I decide to sit and eat my cupcake there because I'm afraid if I eat while I walk the smell of garbage will push my stomach over-the-edge and there will be Little Giant all over the sidewalk {gross}. And, for the first time ever, I think, I decide to eat my cupcake with a fork because my hands felt sticky. I mention this because I think this made the cupcake even tastier for some reason.
This cupcake was sooooooo good. OMG. It was a taste of food that I imagine they serve in heaven. Not only was the frosting delicious, but the cake. The cake. People {myself included} tend to forget the importance of the cake if the frosting is good enough. But the cake on this cupcake was insanely good. Soft and moist and like real cake. Not too airy but not too thick. So frakkin' good.

sugar Sweet sunshine. Take me back to heaven. I still weep because I was so full and couldn't eat more than one {barely one}. I wanted to try every flavor and I will. I will.

I'm coming back soon sugar Sweet sunshine. Be prepared.

Cupcake Baking!

Today we made cupcakes! This is the first time I've baked cupcakes in the new kitchen. They came out ultra-light and my baking partner is convinced the butter was too soft and that is where the airiness came from. Either way they were delicious, especially with the little raspberries added. Yum!

Enjoy our journey of cake:

{ya, that's me...chowin'}

It's Trainspotting for Food Addicts

Why was I not told about this sooner?  WHY?! This lovely, decadent website I came across called Tastespotting.  People upload pictures of food...that's it!  I love it!  Not only do you get beautiful delicious pictures of food, most of them have the recipe for said dish if you click on them, and some even take you to the site where you can perhaps BUY the food.  Divine!  There is not a lot of rhyme or reason to Tastespotting.  It is kind of unorganized though I did notice a search function so I'm sure that helps if you're looking for something particular.  This is my new porn site people.

Enjoy some photo's I picked at random at Tastespotting.  Go find these delish foods for yourself over there, bake them, then send me some.  And just FYI, there is a lot of non-sweets/desserts on there I just tend to of course pick those photo's...because if it was possible I would probably mainline sugar straight into my veins.

Back from Vegas

I am back from Vegas!  I got back physically a few days ago and I am finally back mentally today.  Don't you hate coming back from a holiday and your brain won't cooperate?  It sometimes just does not want to accept the fact that vacation is over and it bobs and weaves around any kind of focus you try to force it to have.  And as I'm sure you know it's easier just to let it ride it out instead of forcing it to get back in line!

Vegas was a blast, I have come back a little richer even (hey, mom is a slot machine lover, she can sniff out a good one from a long way away...I now call her Goldfinger.  If she doesn't pick the machine it usually doesn't pay well).  This is probably the first time I've come back home from Las Vegas with actual WON money in my pocket.  The only other time I won some bucks was when I hit about $300 off a slot machine and saved it to pay for the hotel room.  I did too.  I printed out the ticket and stuck it in my purse and didn't touch it till checkout when I used it to pay the bill.

I do admit I love Vegas.  Granted, it is much better this time of year than the summer.  It was cooler there than it has been in Los Angeles, nice enough to stroll around outside voluntarily and actually enjoy it.  I have gone in the summer before and it is truly a desert nightmare.  There is nothing worse than hoards of people sweating in extreme heat.  Ick.  But the weather was lovely, the gambling good, and the food AMAZING.  We ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe in the Venetian (which we all love...they have a Grand Lux at the Beverly Center in West Hollywood I go to whenever I can...it is just delicious).  The dinner was great but the most tasty food we had while in Las Vegas was at Jean-Philippe Patisserie in the Bellagio.  Oh my lord my strawberry jam crepe was to die for.  It swept me back to Paris in an instant.  This one was even better though because I wasn't stuck on a street corner trying not to drip jam all over myself while being pushed and grunted at by rude Parisians.  The little pastries at Jean-Philippe were also to die for.  Delicious and a little bit sweeter than the ones I remember buying in Paris which I prefer.  I'm much more of a cake girl than a patisserie one though I of course appreciate and eat all forms of sweets.  I don't like to be judgmental so I just eat them all.  Enjoy these photo's my friend Jennifer took of some of the pastries and of the amazing chocolate fountain encased in glass in front of the store...

The pastry on the right, the tall one, I had that.  It is a lemon "pie" tart thing and it was freakin' delicious.  Hard to eat, but beautiful and delicious.

Crumb

A while back Grace on Design*Sponge posted about going to San Francisco.  She mentioned a patisserie named Miette (French for "crumb"...flipping adorable) and ever since I have been obsessed with going.  First, I was incensed, INCENSED, that someone had the gall to open such an amazing looking bakery (and then a confiserie) in San Francisco and not tell me about it the entire time I lived there (8 years!).  Well, I was soothed when I found out it opened around 2001, naturally, because that was mere months after I had moved.  This is tragic for me as I would trample just about anyone or anything to get to a cupcake.  In fact, no one should actually be within a 20 foot radius of me if I see a charming bakery or candy store or if I god forbid catch a whiff of a cake or bread being baked.  I think the scene would be quite reminiscent of a rhino charging a gazelle like you see in those old Wild Kingdom reruns.  Yes, I just compared myself to a charging rhino but I'm fine with it.  Cake is involved.  All is forgiven.

So today, as I longed to visit this sweet looking patisserie in San Francisco, I went on Yelp! to see if anyone had reviewed it.  Of course they had.  Not because they liked it.  Because they want to torture me.  I believe this to be true.  There is about 300 reviews for the bakery and 100 for the candy store.  Most are all raves about how much they love going to Miette at lunch.  Bastards!  How dare they rub this in my face!  Here are some pictures, not mine, but from the Miette website and Yelp reviewers that literally almost made me sob with hunger and envy. 

Now I don't know if it's healthy to want to have the inside of my house look like that last picture but I can't fight it.  I want to live at Miette.  I want my life to be as charming as all their little cakes and cake stands and puddings (look at those glass jars with "miette" written on them!  Oh the packaging!).  I just want to go open a little bakery and candy store and have adorable packaging and delicious treats and a charming sign and an envy inducing storefront.  Some people have all the fun.  Sigh.

Guess What I Want Today

I really want one of these today:

and one of these:

and one of these:

and one of these:

and I really want to mistakenly walk into this store today (but walking into a store like this unprepared would literally give me a heart attack I know it):

So yes, you guessed right.  I really frickin' want a cupcake today.

I Wish I Was Susie Homemaker

Sometimes I wish I was more like Susie Homemaker...oh you know her, that fab gal from the 1950's who celebrated the full and content life of a real woman, and by the propaganda advertising machine of the era a real woman was any woman who wanted nothing more than to breed and bake.  She was only happy if she was cleaning, raising kids, cooking delicious looking casseroles & coconut cakes, and taking care of ol' hubby's every wish and desire.  Okay, I'll be more specific...I wish I was more like Susie Homemaker in the BAKING sense.  I DO know how to cook, contrary to popular belief.  I just have a slight case of OCD and I can't stand messes in the kitchen, food wise, for even a moment.  And my kitchen is minuscule small.  It ain't no fun making anything in there.  My kitchen's lack of counter space causes something as simple as making a sandwich to be unbearable and irritating. 

When I found this recipe online I thought for a moment, "Wait!  Maybe I CAN be Susie for just this once!"  That is mainly because I really really REALLY want to eat these.  Look how deliciously fabulous:
Chocolate Spoon Madeleines!   
Eegad I think I just got a little turned on!  Mmmmmmm, would one of my friends PLEASE whip a batch of these up for me?  This recipe is from some amazing Australian magazine called Donna Hay.  I really want to find this issue of the magazine as they tell you on the website that there are recipes for MORE spoon desserts inside!  Eeeeeeeeee!  My love and excitement for finger foods is all a-twitter.  I want a whole buffet table full of spoon desserts! Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum.
Here's the recipe for anyone who wants to try it out.  But if you use this recipe you are thereby agreeing to send me at least one finished chocolate spoon madeleine.  ;)

~ chocolate spoon madeleines ~
1 egg
2 tablespoons caster (superfine) sugar
2 tablespoons plain (all-purpose) flour, sifted
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon cocoa powder, sifted
30g (1 oz) unsalted butter, melted
icing (confectioner’s) sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180°C (355°F). Place the egg and caster sugar in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Fold through the flour, baking powder, cocoa and butter. Place 30 greased teaspoons or 15 greased tablespoons around the edges of a baking tray. Spoon the mixture into the spoons until ²⁄³ full. Bake the teaspoons for 5 minutes and tablespoons for 8 minutes or until madeleines are cooked. Dust with icing sugar to serve. Makes 30 teaspoons or 15 tablespoons.

It sounds like a super simple recipe so someone get baking already!  Okay, it probably should be me but once I read the word "fold" in the recipe I get all confused.  It's too hard for my impatient brain!

My Fourth...Cupcake Please...

What I did on Fourth of July:
I watched my Mom make these cupcakes!  Ha!  Like I'm going to get off my butt and cook.  I don't mind cooking but I HATE stirring/mixing and clean-up.  That stems from my mild OCD where everything has to be very particularly cleaned and put back exactly or I can't think about anything else.  I hate messes.

Ol' Mom did quite a nice job on these cupcakes, considering she was cooking at high altitude (which DOES make a difference...every time you see those altitude directions on a box don't you wonder why?  Apparently because the air is so thin anything baked is a nightmare.)  I bought my Mom the Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcake mix a few months ago from Williams Sonoma and she waited for me to visit to make them.  They were delicious, though because of the altitude not as heavy as bought Sprinkles cupcakes.  They came out lighter, which I didn't mind so much. 

Seriously, the only reason to be tortured with this odd recipe, vicious red powder, and thick-as-hell batter is for the icing, which includes none of the stuff I just mentioned.  The icing is exactly as the Sprinkles bakery bought cupcakes and is TO DIE FOR.  The mix is made for 12 cupcakes but the icing recipe includes 3 and 3/4 cups confectioners sugar.  Uh, brilliant.  Delicious.  Salivation.  My friend Jennifer also made these cupcakes from the Sprinkles mix and with the POUNDS of frosting it makes we took the extra and dipped pretzel sticks in it.  It was toe curling divine goodness.  Try it.  You'll thank me.

Where-O-Where Have I Been? Eating, naturally.

I've been gone for so long...my two readers (which includes my my mom and dad) have probably forgotten all about my sad little blog...  Where have I been?  Well, besides visiting my two readers in person for the Fourth of July holiday in the hellish state I grew up in (think religion, salt, and a famous film festival locals aren't welcome at) I visited Seattle, Washington for (in a way) my first time ever.  My mom promises me I went there before as a child but I have no memory of it.  I'll trust her only because she has a kind face...but it all looked new to me.

I was there shooting some various footage for my other company Layer Cake Films and I thought while there I would go and find the best view of the city.  Check out this beautiful view:

This picture was taken at Kerry Park in the Queen Anne neighborhood.  I asked six locals where to find it and they all pointed me in the wrong direction.  I had two maps and still couldn't locate it.  For any of you who have been to Seattle you are most likely aware that their street system was designed by crackheads so saying, "I had two maps" means you know that that was about as useful as having my tax return with me.

I like to go on Yelp before I go places to see if the locals can suggest any good places to eat.  I went to about four places I found reviewed.  The first, Honeyhole Sandwiches, was really overrated.  The way people on Yelp gave this place 5 stars, as if these sandwiches were dipped in gold, I was uberexcited as I love me some sandwich.  Alas, I've had better sandwiches in the deli section of my local Ralph's.  I also tried Red Mill Burgers which was quite tasty, I do admit, but was saddened I only had time to try one milkshake flavor out of the ton they have.  I tried Peanut Butter and it was delish...it had real peanuts in it.  Uh, yum. 

One morning I tried Top Pot Donuts, which according to the people on Yelp is some institution in Seattle that if you don't know about it then you are just a tourist fool.  After finding my way there (again, having meth addicts on your street planning team is not a good thing city of Seattle) I waited forever behind some woman who was getting about 5 dozen donuts.  Snore.  As I was now all riled up and high on the cakey smell of dough that I stood looking at for three hours but could not touch, I hurriedly ordered and got the pink iced cake donut and a chocolate bar.  I'm very boring but I didn't want that damned white powder from the filled donut all over my shirt.  That shit does NOT go away.  Okay, so the donuts were delicious.  But not in the "they have done something so unique to their donuts...they are cooking gods!" type of way.  I loved them because they tasted exactly like old school Winchell's Donuts from when I was a kid growing up in the aforementioned den of hell.  It almost made the wait worth it.  Okay, the wait was worth it if only because I had flashbacks of my youth as I stuffed the pink iced cake donut into my mouth. 

Now, of the four places from Yelp I went to my far and away favorite was Trophy Cupcakes & Party.  I am a cupcake fiend and I will brave the streets of any city to find me one.  This place is annoying to find, not shocking in Seattle but luckily I had a local with me who wanted a cupcake as much as me so she directed me effortlessly through some of the most insane twists and turns I have ever witnessed in my years of traveling...which includes Europe whose streets were created CENTURIES ago, before cars and paving and they STILL make more sense than Seattle roadways.  The shop itself sits at an odd angle inside a shopping mall but it is adorable with striped awnings and vintage party goods.  The cupcakes were delicious (as a person living in LA, cupcakery mecca, they were not the best I've ever had but still great!) with tons of frosting which for me is necessary.  I had the Red Velvet which had a thick pile of frosting and I got the Strawberry Lemon for later which was also pretty good.  I wish I had been able to go on the weekend because they have Peanut Butter & Jelly cupcakes that I was dying to cram into my mouth, but alas, I could only make it on sad non-PB&J Friday.  I also bought an adorable paper trophy (don't ask why I love things like this) and a seahorse cake decoration. 

So, this was pretty much my trip in a bloggy nutshell.  I met three very nice amazing people who I hope to see again soon, ate a lot - always a good thing, and for once actually realized that though the traffic in SoCal is horrendous, the freeway and street system is ingeniously set-up and very well planned and though I loathe all the people DRIVING the streets, I should be damn thankful the state hired some persons with intelligence to set it all up and make it followable.

Oh, and on a last side note...the Sea-Tac International Airport is the most horrible place with the most evil TSA workers in the entire country.  Actually they are the worst security worldwide, though those people aren't TSA, but something else.  No matter, they are all better than the uneducated useless ugly smelly scummy Jubba-the-Hut looking Seattle TSA security people.  I won't go into details here, but trust me, they are one-digit IQ stupid.  Pack accordingly.