Fondue for Two

I'm in the process of tidying up the blog after months of being away (pardon the dust). While I was going through old flickr photos, I stumbled on this gem:

See the date?

This episode aired May 3, 2011 according to the wiki. Shoulda copyrighted that gem of a phrase! (You can watch the episode on FOX, which is where I got the image clips)

Further similarities:
Mr. Bunnington

Lord Tubbington

Hmm... curious...

I Catered a Wedding Part 2: Wedding Cupcakes

Tahitian Vanilla Cake with Raspberry Coulis and Matcha Green Tea Frosting

Most of the wedding food was tested repeatedly but none as extensively as the wedding cakes. Even if the food was mediocre, I wanted E.’s cakes to be perfect. In between studying and midterms, I tweaked and adjusted the cake recipes all quarter long. I stopped baking everything else and focused solely on the cake for 2 months. I’ve never spent this long developing and testing a recipe. All that work was worth it because the cupcakes are some of the best things I’ve ever baked.

The Planning
When E. and I first started planning many months ago, we quickly settled on cupcakes instead of a traditional tiered wedding cake. Cupcakes are very trendy right now but we chose them for more practical purposes. A tiered cake would take days to put together and with me doing all of the food, it just wasn’t a feasible option. Cupcakes are also great for quality control. I can taste the cupcakes after baking to make sure it turned out okay and no one will be any the wiser. It would be painfully obvious if a chunk was missing from a large wedding cake.

For variety, we would have both yellow and chocolate flavors. E. loves green tea so that had to be worked in somehow. In addition to frosting the cupcakes would also have a filling, just like a layer cake, because I wanted them to have a little extra something. After all, they're for a wedding!

At first, we planned to make 2 dozen of each flavor but then we upped the number to 3 dozen each in case guests wanted to try both flavors.

Flavor Development & Recipe Testing
I originally planned to make a green tea buttercream but buttercream can be very temperamental. The last thing I wanted was buttercream breaking the night before the wedding, the frosting melting the day of, or hard and dense frosting if the cake was served too chilled. For simplicity sake I went with a cream cheese frosting because it’s easier to make and very stable.

I paired the green tea frosting with the yellow cake and first tried lemon curd as the filling, but in the end, raspberry coulis complemented the tea even better. The yellow, red, and green colors made it the perfect Springtime cupcake. Originally, I planned to make an almond buttermilk cake, but the almond and buttermilk flavors were lost under the raspberry and green tea flavors. I nixed that idea and decided to go with the classic vanilla. Instead of using extract, I used a Tahitian vanilla beans for a rich floral flavor to complement the fruit filling and grassy notes of the matcha.


I won't be writing about E.'s chocolate cupcake because I'd like to keep that recipe just for her. Out of all the wedding food, I spent the longest time working on this one.

Baking the Cakes
It was Friday morning, the day before the wedding, and I was still working on the yellow cake. My last attempt making a yellow cake led to my desperate cry for help on this blog. I want to give a really a big thank you for everyone who left suggestions. I told E. about my problems and she told me to just follow a recipe in a cookbook. If I was a sensible person I would have taken her advice and stuck to a recipe. But I've confessed before about how I can never follow a recipe. Less than 24 hours before the wedding, it still holds true, I still can’t follow a recipe. I’m pretty sure I have a problem and I need professional help.

But in my defense, after looking at nearly 2 dozen recipes, none of them fit my specifications. Either they called for too many eggs or cake flour or looked too similar to the recipe I tried already. Call me stubborn or just plain stupid, but I went with my gut and decided to give my crazy experimentation another go.

Instead of creaming the butter and beating in eggs, I decided to go with a sponge cake technique, beating egg whites to soft peaks and beating the egg yolks and whole egg separately to ribbon stage. I also added in some baking powder because I wanted as much leavening as possible for the fluffiest cake using all purpose flour instead of cake flour. As the cakes baked in the oven, I crossed my fingers hoping that this recipe worked, because I was running seriously low on time. When the cakes came out, they looked fine, no gross deformities and no cave-ins. I broke one in half to inspect the crumb and was completely blown away at how they turned out. The cake was airy and fluffy and looked like a cake made with cake flour. It was moist and flavorful, and substantial enough to be a cupcake. I simply couldn't believe I could make a cake like that without cake flour. Not to be tooting my own horn or anything but this cake was perfect.

I baked the chocolate cupcakes in the afternoon and was so worried something disastrous would happen. Nothing had happened yet but something bad was bound to happen right? I'm always very pessimistic when it comes to baking for an important event.

I made the frostings later that night and finally finished filling and frosting the cakes at 12pm. Then I successfully managed to fit 6 dozen cupcakes in 2 very large hotel pans in our tiny fridge and hope the fridge didn't decide to give out overnight. If I had more time and more piping experience I would have decorated the cakes more elaborately but I did the best I could after 10 hours of food prep. I’m really glad I bought this cupcake decorating set because the 1M tip is essential for making the large frosting swirl.

The cakes were the pièce de résistance and I was immensely proud of them. The texture of the cakes were perfectly moist and fluffy and the flavors were well balanced and harmonious. I wished I snapped more pics of the process but I was totally pooped.

Thank you Veronica for showing me the gorgeous paper cupcake wrappers. The moment I saw those wrappers on your site I immediately forwarded the link to E. and we both fell in love with them. They completed the cupcakes and were the perfect finishing touch!

Yellow Cake
makes 14 – 16 cupcakes or 2 8 inch cakes

3.5 oz. sifted, all purpose flour
1 oz. cornstarch, sifted
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C melted butter
1/4 C vegetable or canola oil
3 large eggs
1/2 vanilla bean, sliced lengthwise and scraped or 1 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
2 tbsp whole milk

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Add the sifted flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt into a bowl. Whisk it together to evenly mix the ingredients. In a separate bowl, mix the oil and melted butter.

Separate the eggs and put 2 egg whites into a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Make sure the bowl is very clean and dry because any fat or water in the bowl will interfere with the egg whites whipping properly. With a whisk attachment, whip the whites on medium high until they are foamy. Add the cream of tartar and continue whisking. When the mixture starts gaining volume, slowing add 1/4 C of granulated sugar. Whisk until soft peaks form. If you lift up the whisk attachment and the mixture is still shiny and runny and looks like, keep whipping, you’re almost at the soft peaks stage. Scrape the whites into another clean bowl and set aside.

Add the 3 egg yolks, remaining egg white, 1/2 C of granulated sugar, and scraped vanilla bean seeds to the mixing bowl or stand mixer bowl. Whisk this mixture on medium high until the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Lift up the whisk and the mixture should fall back into the bowl like sheets of ribbon. The trail should be visible on the surface for 3 seconds before disappearing.

Sift in half of the flour mixture and carefully fold the flour into the egg mixture. When the flour is nearly almost all folded in, add the milk and half of the oil and butter mix, and continue folding. Make sure to bring up any oil that sinks to the bottom of the batter. Sift the remaining flour mixture into the batter, and continue folding, add the remaining oil and butter mixture and fold a few more times. Before the batter is completely mixed, scrape in 1/3 of the egg whites and continue folding. Then scrape in all of the egg whites and fold until no streaks remain.

Fill the cupcake tin 3/4 of the way full or divide the batter equally between 2 cake pans.

Bake at 350 for 20 – 22 minutes (may need a longer time for cake pans), or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the top springs back when lightly pressed on.

Cool to room temperature before frosting.

I know others were also looking for a good yellow cake recipe. If you try this recipe let me know what you think!

I Catered a Wedding

It’s Wednesday now right? A week of studying, 2 finals, 3 days of food prep, a wedding, and 3 days of downtime including much needed sleep brings me to where I am now. I think I’ve finally recovered enough to form coherent thoughts again. A week ago today, I finished my last exam of the quarter and with that, officially finished my first year of medical school! That thought hasn't completely sunk in yet because right after the exam, I started on the wedding food.

Wednesday:
I tried to make a schedule for the next two days and time points for when food should be chopped, cooked, or baked. I knew it wouldn’t be followed but I had to at least try to delude myself into thinking there was going to be some sort of organization.

Thursday:
E. and I hit up Costco, the local veggie stand, Trader Joes, and 2 local grocery stores for all the food. That night, I made seedless blackberry puree for the salad dressing, 6 dozen gougeres, and the Marsala cream sauce.

Friday:
The majority of Friday was devoted to wedding cupcakes, which deserve their own post.

S. came over to help me with the lasagnas. She also had the very important job of helping me keep it together in case I had a complete meltdown. Luckily, no meltdown. And even better, we successfully put together 2 enormous spinach and artichoke lasagnas.


quadruple the ingredients of a 9 x 13 lasagna

Saturday:
AM: Steven and I packed every appliance, gadget, and cooking tool I could possibly need in the trunk. We had to turn around a few times because I nearly forgot a cookie sheet and my camera. The majority of the prep had to be done before the ceremony but luckily I had 3 awesome helpers, S., D., and Steven. In the 2 hours before the ceremony we had to make the orzo salad, blackberry vinaigrette, balsamic vinaigrette, cucumber sandwiches, and prep 5 pounds of vegetables.

We tackled the orzo salad first. A pound of orzo is deceptively small so I mistakenly thought I could cook 3 pounds of it in only 5 quarts of water. Big mistake. After a few minutes, the orzo sucked up all of the water and the contents of the pot turned into a starchy, bubbly, molten pot of deadly pasta lava. There was definitely a struggle in the great Orzo Battle of 2009, but our heroic Steven successfully managed to get all of the orzo strained, rinsed, and drained, without sustaining any 2nd degree burns. And he did it all using only this tiny sieve.

Meanwhile, I worked on the blackberry vinaigrette. I was following my own recipe but it just didn’t taste right. The blackberry puree I made on Thursday was too tart and I didn’t pack any sugar because none of my recipes called for it. Then I had the brilliant idea of...

wait for it...

diluting it with 7-Up!

First, the debacle with the orzo, then, who would have expected that high fructose corn syrup would be the secret ingredient.

Thank goodness there were no other major problems, otherwise my mental health would have been highly questionable. I won't bore you guys with the details of chopping 6 cucumbers, salt, pepper, and flouring 6 pounds of chicken breast, or how we expertly reheated the gougeres to piping hot perfection.

After the prep, I was able to sneak upstairs and take a few pictures. E. was hands down the most ethereal and angelic bride ever. If anyone disagrees with me I will first politely show you picture proof, and then if there is still disagreement, I will take you down. ;) Everything about the ceremony, the decorations, the music, the vows, flawlessly captured the beauty and essence of the couple, as individuals and together as husband and wife. All I can say is it’s hard to hold a camera still while crying. I’m just glad I wore waterproof mascara.


E.'s mom grew all of the flowers, made all of the arrangements, and decorated the venue

With timing being my main concern, my biggest accomplishment of the day was getting all of the food done at the same time so everything was hot and served at peak deliciousness. I had been bracing myself for something catastrophic for the last 2 days, but thankfully there were no disasters in the kitchen. Long story short, no burns, cuts, lost digits, food poisoning, and not a single stain on wedding clothes.

Oh and I seared 6 pounds of chicken in a satin dress and heels. Hell yeah!

Everything came out the way I was hoping it would and exceeded all of my expectations. I can now say that I’ve catered for 50 people. I’ve thought about starting a catering business on the side in the future, keyword being future. Now I know it’s definitely not something I would want to tackle again without enough counterspace, a second fridge, and a dishwasher in our kitchen. Washing everything by hand in a tiny sink is not an experience I would like to repeat. But in the end, it was a great feeling seeing everyone happy, wellfed, and having a good time. Whew!

appetizers included:
Cucumber and Arugula Sandwiches
Parmesan and Chive Gougeres

the menu:
Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette or Blackberry Vinaigrette
Spinach and Artichoke Lasagna
Spring Vegetables (asparagus, snow peas, fava beans) Sautéed with Mint
Chicken Scallopini with Mushrooms in Marsala Cream Sauce
Orzo Salad with Lemon, Cucumbers, and Dill

I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you to:

D. for being my prep bitch on Saturday and doing all of the grunt work--peeling fava beans, chopping snow peas, bell peppers. etc. I am so grateful. And you did the dishes afterwards. I don’t know how to properly say that you are really kickass.

S. for helping me with lasagnas on Friday and letting those lasagnas hijack your fridge space.

Steven for being the glue that held everything together on Saturday. You know how I work in the kitchen and I couldn’t have done this without you.

Tim Tam Slam

A while back, I was asked if I’d be willing to review Pepperidge Farm’s newly released Tim Tam cookies. A Tim Tam is a sandwich cookie with 2 light and crisp chocolate wafers, chocolate cream filling, and completely covered in chocolate. They're Australia's favorite cookie and haven't been available in the States, until now! I agreed to review them because I've always wanted to try these cookies and do the famous Tim Tam Slam. (And turning down triple chocolatey cookies? I do no such things.) However, I never got the logistics of how to do a Tim Tam Slam - I knew it was something about biting the ends off a cookie and using it as a straw for a hot beverage. Sounds cool. So I looked it up on Youtube, and whadoyaknow, I found a video of Natalie Imbruglia teaching a talk show host how to do a Tim Tam Slam. Perfect! Gotta love the internet.


The next morning I made a cup of strong Vietnamese coffee (I looove Trung Nguyen) and black tea and Steven and I did some Tim Tam Slams for breakfast.


First you bite a little corner of the cookies diagonally like so. Then you dip the cookie in the beverage and suck until you can feel the drink in your mouth and quickly eat the whole cookie. Don’t try to bite the cookie in half (I made this mistake) because it will squirt and fall apart so just eat the whole thing in one big bite. And you have to do this quickly otherwise the chocolate coating will melt and the cookie will fall apart as you're holding it.

I think it’s traditional to do the slam with tea but being partial to coffee myself, I much preferred the combination of strong coffee and chocolate. I also tried it with some cold milk because I thought cookies and milk was always a delicious combo but not in this case. The cold milk made the chocolate exterior cold and waxy and the cookie just didn’t taste right filled with cold milk - pretty gross actually. A hot beverage is definitely the way to go because the chocolate shell gets gooey and the insides are warm and melty. Mmm...! I really liked the caramel center in the caramel Tim Tam but the chewiness distracted from the overall soft gooey interior when you're doing the Tim Tam Slam, whereas the chocolate cream variety resulted in a uniformly soft and gooey cookie.

My conclusion? The Tim Tam Slam is a transcendent experience that everyone needs to experience. I would definitely urge people to try both kinds and see which you prefer. The only downside? Two cookies are 25% of your daily saturated fat! Ouch! I dunno what kind of magical ingredients they put in these to make them so damn tasty but it ain’t good for you that’s for sure. Another bummer is that these cookies are only available for a limited time in Target. You can get a $1 off coupon at http://www.ilovetimtamcookies.com/index.html. You need to do a Tim Tam Slam ASAP, you'll be glad you did.



Disclaimer and other ramblings:
While I love these cookies, they're a bit pricey. My local Target carries them for $3.34 for a 7oz. box. I think I will still get a few more boxes for the occasional treat because they are tasty. Now as for the other Pepperidge Farm stuff, I only buy Pirouettes, which are my favorite holiday treat. Pepperidge Farm stuff overall is usually on the expensive side. I've heard that Milanos are noticeably smaller nowadays, which is very disappointing, but I guess what brand hasn't been cutting back on costs with the economy being like this. Pirouettes are tasty except the Cappuccino flavor, which is horrendously disgusting. Being a coffee lover, I was obviously drawn to this flavor. I made the mistake of getting two tins and I hate them. They taste overwhelmingly of cinnamon and when I looked at the ingredient list, cinnamon shows up before coffee flavoring! I have never ever put cinnamon in my coffee, and I wonder who does?! Ugh, so gross!

What will the new year bring?

First, I just can't help but share these awesome presents.

You know he's a keeper when...

He supports your blogging habits by buying new dishware!

I swear Steven and I probably only have like five different dishes for taking food photos. It gets old. It's so nice to have some new dishes to use. Yay!

He buys you a freaking Thermapen!

Okay WOW. Just wow. This totally opens up a whole new world of cooking for me. I've never ventured into roasting, candy making, or some types of baking for fear of totally screwing up because I have no way to measure the temperature. Now I'll know exactly when my custards reach 180 degrees, my caramel at the right stage, and prime rib is perfectly medium rare (this is what Steven is most interested in). So you see, he gets prime rib, I get a $90 thermometer, it's WIN WIN!

And what else? No more trying to frost cakes with a butter knife (gift from Bettina, Yay! <3 thanks Bettina!). No more bending soup spoons in the ice cream container. I'm not planning to use the butter warmers for their intended purpose, rather they will be used for individual fondues. Another cookbook to add to my growing collection, which started at a mere 3 books earlier this year. And last but not least, a silicone mat (good for candy making, bad for my teeth and bum).

I love this man. Not just because he buys me awesome stuff, but hey that doesn't hurt! :D

Anyways, on with the show!

New Years Resolutions!
for the blog that is...

1. Post more regularly to eliminate the troublesome blog clog.
2. Post more Pantry Spotlights, one reason why this blog is named what it is.
3. Keep the recipe index up-to-date.
4. Blog redesign.
5. Try to cook earlier and take more photos under natural light conditions. (Not easy in the winter, when it's not only perpetually gray but gets dark at 4pm.) I took the photo above before the new year so I haven't broken this one yet! :)
6. More of my favorite Chinese recipes! It seems I rarely blog about the type of food that I grew up with, cook and eat most often, and love the most. We need to change that!
7. ???

What other blog resolutions should I make? Which ones will you make?

Feel free to share your culinary loot and resolutions, blog or not (yes, I will exercise this year)!

Happy 2008 everyone!