Greetings from Korea

Street Foods. You can't go wrong with this. =) Hope everyone has a very, Merry Christmas!

New York Cupcakes

This past week, my roommate and I had the amazing opportunity to visit New York City. And no vacation is complete without eating some delicious cupcakes!

In this case, we checked out the bakery Crumbs, which is so popular, that they have multiple locations, including the Newark airport, and are even expanding to DC. Joy and I happened to go to the store by the New York Public Library (which was also amazing, but I'm also a book nerd, not just a cupcake nerd!)

It was difficult to decide which cupcake to buy, because they all looked amazing (and huge!!) but we picked Gingerbread because it was festive and not minty (*somebody* doesn't like mint. Weird).

Let me tell you. That gingerbread cupcake was fabulous. It was so rich and decedent with the fluffiest icing, which was sweet but not too sweet. And the cake part? Oh. My. God. So moist. So flavorful. So spicy and gingerbread-y. The only problem was that there was no way I'd be able to eat a whole cupcake all by myself. So it's good that Joy and I split it. They're really messy and crumby too, which is kinda funny, considering the name of the bakery is Crumbs and all! :-)

And Joy's cousin Beth also bought us gingerbread cupcakes from Bella's Bakery in NJ, which were more reasonably sized and had cream cheese icing (Mmm mm!) The cool thing about Bella's, though, is that they  have nut-free cupcakes for kids with allergies and also make gluten free, vegan, and organic treats as well. I love the idea. The bakery was started because the owner's daughter is allergic to nuts and couldn't eat the cupcakes that the other kids would bring to class.

Anyway, if you're in New York or New Jersey, I would gladly recommend both Crumbs and Bella's to you if you're in a cupcake-y mood. As far as any of the other bakeries that are around, I have no doubt that they're delicious, but I just haven't tried them yet. Guess that means I have to go back!

P.S. Please don't forget to vote for me! <3

Cookies and Stuff

(Spot the pineapple!)

I'm working backstage at my school's production of Hairspray, because my talents do not extend to the acting/singing/dancing departments. I'm strictly a cakes-and-sugar kind of artist, although if somebody's gonna let me paint set designs for a musical, I'll be there.

I'll also bring cookies. So that's probably the real reason they trust me not to screw everything up. ;)

Speaking of my lack of artisticness, I thought, wouldn't it be cool if I took a picture of the cooke racks...from the bottom?!

Yeah... Not so cool. :/ So I can just cross "photographer" off of my list of things to become, right?

Oh! And I got a tattoo:

Just kidding! It's a temporary tattoo that I found at the checkout line in Wal-Mart, so obviously I bought it. There's a whole bunch of them, actually, and they're as close as I'm going to get to a real tattoo. But it's cute right?!

Hello From Florida!

Just a quick update to say that I haven't died or anything, but I DID have a broken wireless connection in my snazzy new apartment, so it felt like I had died because I couldn't get on Facebook or Blogger or even my school e-mail account.

But I'm here now and my roomie and I totally have plans to make sugar cookies and cake balls later this week to share with all our new neighbors. I gotta say, college is WAY better when you have an apartment with a fully stocked kitchen.

I have my own section for my baking supplies, so they're not all crammed into my bedroom closet like at home. And I brought my baby (the kitchenaid stand mixer) and my fondant and gumpaste supplies and extracts and flour... it's great.

Seriously, though, I'll have pictures of delicious baked goods and awesome apartment pics to share later. I got homework to do!

xoxo

100.000

It's yet another sleepless night so I decided to check out my google analytics (really cool!) and found that I have had over 100,000 (103,702 to be exact! =P) unique visitors to this site.WOW! =OWho knew that Korean food could be so popular?!So I just wanted to say THANK YOU again to each and every one of you who visits this site. I'm sorry I don't update often, but like I say all the time

Jae-sah at the KC Household

As I mentioned, it was our grandfather�s jae-sah yesterday so our family met up for dinner at my parent�s house. Although our family is Christian, I always found it interesting how they never forget to honor the deceased. The following pictures are what we ate. Spinach, Gosari, and Doraji. This picture reminds me I never posted a gosari and doraji recipe. I will have to do that in the

Food From Korea 2010 � Part Four

While in Korea, we had the opportunity to visit Jejudo for two nights. The last time I was there was exactly 10 years ago and I must say the little island has changed. The streets are all paved and it�s so easy to get around! We were fully able to get around ourselves with just a navi and rental car. We were in a mart and I saw this! So cool. Spam in a pack! I�m told they now have

Food From Korea 2010 � Part Three

THIS! OMG. THIS was perhaps the best jjambong I ate in my life. It was a little hole in the wall with no more than 10 tables, but there was a line out the door. The MR actually went back the next day to eat it again. Street food in Insadong. Boong-uh Bbang! Totally brought me back to my childhood. Octopus Leg. I love octopus leg. My uncle used to

Food From Korea 2010 - Part Two

I don�t remember the names of all these restaurants, though I�m sure I have pictures of the sign post somewhere. I will just upload these pictures and if anyone is really interested in visiting a particular restaurant, leave a comment and I�ll go and dig up the name. I loved how most of the restaurants were so kid friendly! Lunch at Xin Restaurant. I asked the family to

My Camera

I know some people have been asking here and there.99.9% of the food pictures on this blog are taken with my Canon 50D with this Tamron lens. I am probably one of the few food bloggers that use *gasp* flash in ALL my food pictures. The reason I use flash is because we live in a condo that faces the opposite side of the sun. I have minimal natural lighting. =P I do have another lens that I

Food from Korea 2010 � Part One

My closet is emptied and I�m finding it really hard to put everything back in. I�m supposed to gather up the winter clothes and take them to my mom�s house for storage, but instead I thought I would torture my readers with some food pictures taken in Korea. =P It�s lunch time now, right? Enjoy! Family dinner at home! Lunch with the MR and Munchkin at Shinsaegae. I only

Are you a FAN yet?

You're not? Well then, what's stopping you?!Hurry up and get to it please! =)CLICK ON THIS and hit "LIKE" next to Korean Cuisine.THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!P.S. I'm BAAACKKKK! ;)P.P.S. And NO the insurance fu**tards have still not approved my next set of MRI's. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping they get off their lazy butts and do so in the next week or so. I'm *very* curious to see

It feels good to be home.

We're back from Korea! It feels SO good to be home. I ate and tasted so many new foods. There are many things I want to try and copy! =P Stay tuned for some new recipes. I'm going to attempt to replicate some of the great dishes we ate while in the motherland. I think I'll start by trying to make THIS. Momeel gooksoo + dongchimi gookmool = heaven on a chopstick!

Cupcake Curiosities

If you noticed, there was recently a poll on the blog about your favorite cupcake flavors.

According to TLC Cooking, these are the 10 most popular cupcake flavors:

1. Chocolate & Vanilla-- It's classic, simple, and has something for everyone.
2. Red Velvet-- 'Nuff said
3. Carrot Cake-- Vegetables in cupcake form? Oh yeah.
4. Peanut Butter-- Why didn't I think of this combo??
5. Lemon-- If life gives you lemons, make lemon cupcakes
6. Chocolate-- a personal favorite
7. Coffee-- One of the few times I love coffee
8. Banana-- I love banana bread but never tried a banana cupcake
9. Pumpkin-- one of my favorites
10. Vanilla-- Booooring ;)

And according to my blog readers, these are the favorites:

1. Chocolate/vanilla combo-- Surprise! But what do you like better: chocolate icing with vanilla cake, or vanilla icing with chocolate cake?
2. Chocolate with chocolate frosting
3. Vanilla with vanilla frosting-- apparently y'all aren't very adventurous with your favorite cupcakes. Chocolate...vanilla...chocolate...vanilla... But the people have spoken!
4. Strawberry and Red Velvet tied for fourth
5. German Chocolate, Lemon, and Banana are fifth
6. Carrot Cake, Coffee, Coconut, and Peanut Butter all got one vote each for 6th place

Mostly I was just curious about what other people think of cupcakes. In my family it's pretty biased: the majority wants a chocolate cupcake, but there are strong contenders for lemon and vanilla.

However, depending on how things go, I might put this information to use when (if) I participate as a vendor in my town's annual arts & crafts fair. I want to sell cupcakes, cookies, and cake balls, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to, due to time constraints and the like. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted though!

I still exist!

Dear Blog Readers,
I know that I've been MIA for quite a few weeks now, which is an unfortunate result of college classes and no oven, but I promise to flood your RSS readers and inboxes with plenty of posts in the coming days.

Today alone I made so many desserts, I think I'll go into a diabetic coma just sitting in this kitchen. But the aforementioned kitchen should be cleaned, so I'll have to go into all those yummy, sugary details later (hopefully, tomorrow).

And I want to thank Hillary, Sarah, Chris, and of course, my little Adam for assisting with everything today. I had so much fun. But you'll hear about it soon enough! ;)

I AM THE CHAMPION!!!

I win things every day.

Does that mean I'm awesome?

Probably.

But it also means that I am really good at coming up with totally arbitrary challenges for myself to win.   That's right:  I make up contests in my head just so that I can win them and feel good about myself.

For example:

If I guess what time it is and I am even reasonably close to the actual time - I win.

If I am pumping gas and I get the price to equal X amount of dollars and zero cents - I win.  Even if I have to pump some gas on the ground to do it.

If I can hold my breath for a whole minute - I win.

If I meet someone and I try to guess their name before they tell me what it is and it turns out that their name starts with the same letter as the name I guessed - I win.  Then, if I space out because I am thinking about how much I won and I suddenly realize that I have no idea what the other person is talking about and that they just finished a sentence and their voice kind of went up at the end which means that they asked me a question and now they expect me to answer and I say "yes" because I figure that is a pretty common answer and the person doesn't notice that I wasn't listening because "yes" was the answer they were looking for - I win.

If I can find a matching pair of socks - I win.  I win double if I can do it in under a minute.

If I am on a date with Boyfriend and I finish my hamburger before he finishes his - I win.  

If I am reading a Pottery Barn catalog and I find the most expensive item - I win.

Along those same lines:  If I am in the grocery store and I happen upon the wine aisle and I find the most expensive wine - I win.   I win again if I can find the cheapest wine.  If I can find a wine for under $3, I get drunk and then I win again.

If I am eating potato chips and I find a chip that is folded over on itself - I win.  If I find two folded chips in a row, I win and I also get good luck for nine whole years.

If I look at a clock and it happens to be exactly something o'clock and zero seconds- I win.

If I type twenty words in a row without hitting backspace - I win.

If I pick up a deck of cards and yell "clubs!" and then draw a card and it isn't a club - I don't win, but I will yell "clubs!" again and keep picking cards until I pick the right suit and then I win.

If I am walking on a sidewalk and I manage not to step on even a single crack - I win.  And my mother's back remains unbroken, so she wins too.  And when my mom wins, I win, so that means I win double!   Heyyyo!

If I buy something and it costs an even dollar-amount - I win... even if I don't actually have that dollar amount.  You should definitely get store credit for checking out with an even dollar-amount...

If I close my eyes and throw a wadded up piece of paper at Boyfriend and I hit him - I win.  If I hit him in the face, I win double.  If he gets all pissed off and says "stop it,"  I win because I guessed he was going to say that ahead of time and I was right.

If I wake up in the morning and I really have to pee and when I pee, I pee for longer than I have ever peed before (at least on record) - I win.  I may be the only person in the world who keeps records of how long they can pee, but look at it this way:  you don't get to win as much as me, do you?  I bet that puts it in perspective...

If I spell Fahrenheit correctly without needing to use Spellcheck - I win.

If I spill cereal on the floor and I guess a number that is even somewhat close to the actual number of cereal pieces on my floor - I win.  And I don't have to pick up the cereal because I won.  Duh.   You'd think that this would be a simple concept to grasp, but Boyfriend struggles with it.  He asks "wait...you won what?"  And I say "I guessed the right number of cereals on the floor!"  And he says "and that means that you don't have to pick them up...?"  And I say "exactly!"  And then he starts lecturing me about the "real world" and blah, blah, blah...

Even today, I went for a run with Boyfriend, and I ended up winning.  We ran on a long, straight stretch of road before turning off onto a different road.  Just before we turned off on the other road, I heard a car coming up behind us and I realized that it was the first car we'd seen on that particular stretch of road.  I immediately thought "I can't let it pass me because if I make it to the end of this road without getting passed by a single car, I win!"

I started sprinting so that I could beat the car to the end of the road.

Boyfriend looked at me weird and then the driver of the car looked at me strangely too, but none of that mattered because I won!

This all may seem silly until you consider that I get to be a champion on a daily - sometime hourly - basis.  In fact, I probably won more stuff than anyone else today, so I win again!

Winning is easy when you put your mind to it!  Sometimes I think I should become an inspirational speaker and try to enrich the lives of others with my winning ways.

And then I realize that if everyone else was winning as much as me, I may be in jeopardy of losing at winning the most.  Then I give up on helping people and simply devote the rest of my life to winning as many pointless contests as possible... until I realize that I can actually win at losing the most, at which point I will cease to be even the least bit productive because I will finally have an excuse for being lazy.

Banana.

Guess what that was?

If you guessed a contest in which I challenged myself to integrate the word "banana" into the end of a blog post, you are right!  You win!  And I win because I said banana.

P.S.  I also win because I wrote two posts in a row with titles written in caps and I didn't even know it.

P.P.S.  It is 12:00 exactly so I win again.

P.P.P.S.  I win for writing a post-post-post-script.

Edit:  I was just informed that my behavior may actually be a sign of uncontrolled OCD.  Does that mean I lose?

Old School

I am now officially a college student.  I'm all moved into my dorm and my classes start tomorrow. I believe I've mentioned this before, but I don't have a kitchen, and I left all of my baking supplies at home (except Confetti Cakes for Kids. That's on my bookshelf right now).  So no baking for a while. =/

But I figured out a way to keep blogging about cake, at least until I get a job baking/decorating somewhere (the cafeteria, preferably).

Along with all of my many new dorm/school supplies, my parents bought me a new printer which conveniently has a scanner feature.  So, that means I'll be able to conveniently scan all of the pictures that I took before I turned 16 and got a digital camera, and put them on the computer.

I've got pictures from 2000, so when I say "old school," I mean old school.

Hopefully, my antics as a very beginner cake decorator will keep you entertained while I'm on my baking hiatus.  At the very least, I'll be able to reminisce about all the crazy mishaps I had before I learned how to make buttercream and pipe a straight line. =)

Baking with Boys

 

Ah, it's always an adventure when I invite my little brothers (aged 10 and 5) to bake with me.

The occasion? Our cousin Art's birthday is on Monday.  I can't remember how old he'll be, mid-twenties I'm guessing considering he's a recent college graduate.  Anyway, my brothers absolutely love it when he comes to visit (he lives in Florida) because they love to talk about alien movies and army men toys and computer games and all that other cool guy stuff that their older sisters care nothing about.

I'm not sure who suggested that I make him a cake for his birthday (Mom? Grandpa? I don't know), but I was happy to comply and thought that my brothers would enjoy helping too...

And they did love to help.  Adam decided to make a mission of it, and they brought in the Army Men toys (even this one) to serve as guards for our base, and Adam was Master Chief (which I think is a Halo reference) and/or the Cake Helping Ninja, depending on who asked.  James joined in on the fun, and since he's older, I gave him a few more tasks.  For example, I knew Adam could pour the sugar into the mixer, but James would be able to handle cracking four eggs.

Well, about that.  It turns out that he has an 80% success rate as far as egg-cracking goes.  Four out of the five eggs he cracked landed in the bowl.  The other egg?  It went splat all over the table top.  Never fear, we cleaned it up between ginormous fits of giggling and squealing "ewwww."  Like I said, it's an adventure.

The cake is in the oven right now, and tomorrow I'll decorate it.  Since we have family coming into town this weekend, there will be plenty of people to party it up on Monday (which is a holiday, of course).  I'm thinking about making a crocodile theme, since there are apparently plenty of gators down in Florida (we've heard many stories about a gator named Limb who, I believe, lives in a retition pond in front of Wal-Mart.)  Hopefully, my fondant-sculpting skills have not dryed out since the last time I used them.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving

Glitter Graphics - GlitterLive.com


And there is so much to be done!

For starters, there are cupcakes, Chex Mix, and a cake for Sunday.
But there's also a turkey to bake, pies to bake, potatoes to bake (and then mash), casseroles to bake, bread to bake...  You get the idea.

I'm in charge of desserts, though, so that's why I'm making cupcakes today.  And maybe some cookies, if there's time.  (Chocolate chip cookies, except we're out of chocolate chips.  Gee, I guess I'll just have to use the dark chocolate M&M's...)  I can't remember if Dad bought a pecan pie or not at Kroger today, but I sure hope so.  I love pecan pie.

The Chex Mix, I am aware, is not a dessert, but it is a family staple, and as I wandered down the cereal aisle at Kroger for what seemed like the hundreth time, I saw the box of Rice Chex, the box of Wheat Chex, and the box of Corn Chex.  And I realized:  we have to have Chex Mix.  Normally my mom or aunt makes it, but I seem to recall that last year, either everyone forgot or they thought someone else was making it when in fact, no one was.  So I took it upon myself this year to make the Chex Mix.

And what about Sunday?  Sunday is the first day of Advent.  I know!  It snuck up on me too!  I had so much on my plate that I totally forgot that this is the last week of the liturgical calendar!  So, of course, as a tradition, I have to make a cake.  I already have a really good, tasty plan formulated, which I shall share in the near future.

As I am baking up a storm and trying not to make a mess in the kitchen, so that there's enough room to make a mess tomorrow, I shall leave you with this amazing video that I found on YouTube:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  I just want to let you know that I am very thankful for all of you for your kind comments, suggestions, and ideas.  All the comments and e-mails I recieve from my wonderful blog readers means so much to me!  It's been a year since my first post (actually, I'm 2 days late), but it's been a great year and I look forward to many more!  I could not have done it without all of you: THANK YOU!




Glitter Graphics - GlitterLive.com

I'm Back!

I realize that it's been about a month since my last post but rest assured that I have not forgotten my lovely blog or my faithful readers!  I've been uber busy the last month and it hasn't helped that I had the flu this week.

Because of my school work, homecoming, and the flu, baking hasn't been a top priority recently.  I did make my Dad and Grandpa a german chocolate birthday cake, and I'm in the process of making my brother's cake (his birthday is Monday), but that's about it.  Oh, and there were some sugar cookies...

But like I said, I've been swamped with school assignments (did I mention that my English teacher assigned us 7 essays to write about Frankenstein-- in two weeks?!).  And being student council president, I was in charge of homecoming, but thankfully, despite the rain, everything turned out OK there.  What didn't turn out OK was how sick I've been.  It's been horrible!  Even since I had that stomach virus or whatever at the beginning of the month, it's been one thing or another: sinus problems, throat problems...  And then I got the flu!  I couldn't talk for 2 days and you do not want to know how many tissues I needed to use...

All of that is behind us now and I hope that November will present me with more opportunities to bake, as well as the time to do it!  And, of course, the time to blog!  I've definitely not had enough to sit down and type like I'm doing right now (although I should be writing those essays).  I promise that in the coming days, you'll see those sugar cookies, that chocolate cake, and James' birthday cake show up on my blog.  And maybe some other treats too.  Did anyone say Halloween cupcakes?

So thanks for being patient with me and I'll see you soon around the 'blogosphere'!