Well Said March 30, 2008
Posted by Dorothy in reading.add a comment
“Everything I want is either illegal, immoral, or fattening.”
- Alexander Woollcott
I’ve added a subscription link on the right side; click on the little graphic under “subscribe by email” to subscribe to this blog! You know you don’t want to miss any of my fascinating posts.
San Francisco Sweets March 30, 2008
Posted by Dorothy in sweet eats.Tags: cake, cookies, croissant, san francisco
3 comments
It’s Spring Break, and I’ve been doing a lot of baking (of course), but I haven’t come up with anything extremely original or blogworthy. Well, actually, I’ve just devoured everything I’ve made within 20 minutes of leaving the oven, and I don’t have any pretty pictures to show for them. So far this week I’ve made my second favorite chocolate chip cookies, a banana chocolate cake, and my favorite cake, the better-than-anything-else-cake. And not even one picture to show for all that yumminess!
But I did go to San Francisco! And I ate sweets and took pictures in San Francisco galore! So I’ve decided the best part of San Francisco is all the free cookies they have everywhere! FREE!!! I was at some shopping plaza and one of the stores had free cookies, Mrs. Fields gave out cookie samples, and my hotel had a bottomless cookie jar in the lobby! It was absolutely wonderful.
Of course, I visited all the standard dessert places I had time for (i.e., Ghiradelli Square, Kara’s Cupcakes, Sauce, etc.) but my favorite was Cocola Bakery. This place is a chain, but I’d never been there before. Its absolutely charming, with a very French ambience, fresh made loafs of aromatic bread in baskets and gorgeous tarts and pastries behind glass. The place smelled like dessert heaven. And my table had a nice view of croissant-making in the kitchen. My kind of bakery! I had an almond croissant, since it was bigger than the chocolate and cheese croissants (and bigger is better) and it promised to be full of hidden custard, as you could see bits of custard bursting out of the flaky layers.
I was overexcited for my croissant. It was super delicious, but not as exciting as I thought it would be. First of all, the croissant was too crispy – I had been looking forward to a softer croissant. Also, I wish there had been more custard in the croissant. The custard was extremely almondy, just the way I like it, but the custard to flaky layers ratio wasn’t as high as I had hoped. Sadly, there was only custard in the middle of the croissant. The almonds on top didn’t disappoint though! There were a ton of slivered almonds piled on top and they were perfect.
Reading March 27, 2008
Posted by Dorothy in reading.Tags: book, nigella
add a comment
I don’t really read books much, unless they’re cookbooks. And even then, I prefer the cookbooks with lots and lots of glossy pictures.I never touch my textbooks, and the only books I remember reading (for fun) in the entire past year were Harry Potter and Twilight. I enjoy reading blogs, though, but I think that’s only because most blogs are loaded with pictures. And I’ve noticed, I only read the blogs with clean, fancy, pretty pictures. I guess I’m just not much of a reader.
My favorite book to read right now is Nigella Express. Not only is it full of gorgeous mouth-watering pictures, but I love the prose too. I adore the way she writes; its so charming. Its as if she writes with a British accent 
I’m not the only person who enjoys Lawson’s writing; she beat out J.K. Rowling for the author of the year award at the British Book Awards in 2001 for her book How to be a Domestic Goddess (another one of my favorites). Sometimes I think I like her better as an author than as a chef…
I’ve had the book for quite awhile now, but I still haven’t tried any of the recipes. The last two Nigella recipes I tried were all disappointments. Or maybe she just enjoys extremely dry muffins and I don’t.
Dark Chocolate Truffle Gateau March 19, 2008
Posted by Dorothy in cake, video.Tags: bruin, cake, chocolate, dark, gateau, truffle, ucla, video
2 comments
I’m a student at UCLA, and I’m a TV Reporter for the Daily Bruin. Starting next quarter, I am going to start my own baking show! YAY!!! The purpose of the show is to show students how to bake simple desserts and snacks.
For the first episode, I wanted to make my Chocolate Truffle Gateau, which is a cake-esque dessert that only involves 5 ingredients and no time at all! And its super delicious! Here’s the recipe:
Dark Chocolate Truffle Gateau
1/2 c whipping cream
10 ounces chopped dark chocolate
1/4 c flour
1/4 c granulated sugar
4 eggs
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9″ cake pan and set aside.
First, melt the chocolate and cream in the microwave on HIGH, for about 2 minutes. Stir chocolate and cream together until chocolate is completely melted.
Combine eggs, sugar, and flour in separate bowl with wire whisk. Blend in chocolate. Pour into pan and bake for 35 minutes.
Sprinkle with some powdered sugar for prettiness.
You can watch the episode here. I’ll figure out how to embed it onto this page later…
Delicious White Wine Cake March 19, 2008
Posted by Dorothy in cake.Tags: cake, cupcake, dessert, white wine
1 comment so far
I found CUPCAKE wine the other day!
There’s a whole line of wines from the “Cupcake Vineyard” at Cost Plus World Market (that place is so fun!). I purchased the Chardonnay, which said something about Vanilla Buttercream Cupcakes on the label, and the Cabernet Sauvignon, which hinted at Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes. I don’t know why, but for some reason I thought wine could taste like cupcakes. I was sadly disappointed when I opened the Chardonnay, which definitely did not taste like any cupcake at all. It didn’t even taste good as far as Chardonnay goes! It was, for lack of better words, GROSS. I was too depressed to even open the Cabernet Sauvignon. The worst part is, there are other wines that are much cheaper and much tastier.
So I had to find some way to use up the rest of my cupcake wine.
I saw this recipe for a White Wine Cake online, and it was a wonderful way to use up my bottle of wine! The wine tasted fabulous in the cake. If only it tasted like that out of the bottle.
The recipe does start with a box mix (which I hate using), but I could barely taste the box taste at all. The combination of the mix and the wine made the cake aromatically fragrant and fruity. And its so easy to make! I might even buy the wine again, if only to make this cake!
White Wine Cake
1 box Pillsbury yellow cake mix (or any other mix with pudding)
3/4 c canola oil
4 eggs
3/4 c Chardonnay
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two loaf pans. Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and beat with a electric mixer until smooth. Batter will be somewhat thick. Pour into loaf pans. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Enjoy!
