Healthy Giveaway – POM Winners! March 30, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in information.Tags: free, giveaway, POM, pomegranate juice, wonderful
5 comments
I am such a slacker blogger! So sorry guys; I’ve been out of town and I’m just finally getting around to picking the winners for my last post… free POM Wonderful pomegranate juice! Each winner will receive a manufacturer’s coupon for a free 16 oz. bottle of POM, in any flavor of their choice!
I was just over at random.org generating the winners from the submissions I got in my last post… and the first winner is:
is comment NUMBER 8! Which is Katrina, from the adorable blog (she has really cute sons!) Baking and Boys! Katrina eats healthy and exercises regularly to stay healthy!
Our second winner is…
comment NUMBER 13! Comment #13 was by Michelle, who bakes with applesauce instead of oil to be healthier!
Congratulations to our lucky and healthy winners! And winners - please e-mail me your addresses so I can mail you your juice!
Healthy Giveaway – POM Wonderful! March 19, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in chocolate, information.24 comments
Hey DessertObsessees! Its giveaway time!
Everyone wants to be healthier, and hardcore sugar junkies like moi are always looking for healthier dessert options.
Enter superjuice POM Wonderful! This stuff tastes so good, I could drink it alone for dessert! And not only does it taste good, its good for you, too! Pomegranate is a crazy superfruit, with abundant antioxidants – research has shown that pomegranate juice has more antioxidants ounce for ounce than red wine, blueberry juice, orange juice, and green tea. Studies have shown that pomegranates have been beneficial to heart health and prostate health. Good stuff!
Pomegranates are delicious in baking, too! One of my favorite supereasy simple desserts uses pomegranate juice: take a box of your favorite brownie mix, and replace the water with pomegranate juice! (genius!) The fruity notes in the juice really enhance the chocolate. Throw in a couple handfuls of white chocolate chips or dried cranberries (or both!) for an even sweeter treat. Check out more pomegranate desserts here.
On to the giveaway!
Ok, two winners will each receive a (manufacturer’s coupon) for a free 16 0z. bottle of POM Wonderful! This stuff is healthy and expensive, so enter the giveaway! To enter, just leave me a comment telling me what you do to make your life healthier!
And please leave me a way to contact you if you win – either a e-mail address or website! I will randomly choose two winners next Friday, so you have one week to enter…say until Friday morning, bc I probably won’t get around to it until later 
Good luck!
New York City Dessert Tour – Part 5 March 17, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in bread, cake, chocolate, cupcakes, information, sweet eats.10 comments
the desserts: pumpkin scone, buttermilk scone, blueberry scone, mocha chocolate chip cake, assorted cookies
tea party goodies
the assessment: Tea parties are so fun! Especially at Alice’s Tea Cup! We had a typical tea party composed of skirts, headbands, raised pinkies, exotic teas, tiny sandwiches and wonderful desserts.
Inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, this shop is absolutely darling. The walls feature fabulous quotes from the book (one of my all-time favorite books, but the way), and depictions of Alice herself! My favorite part of the decor were the swinging doors that led to the kitchen with keyhole shaped windows, reminiscent of the door Alice goes through in the story!
And the desserts! Everything was supercute, and they had the most amazing scones I’ve ever had! They have all sorts of creative scones, like blackberry coconut, and the regular flavors, like buttermilk. I don’t usually like scones, because I feel like I’m eating bread and not dessert, but these scones did not taste like any other scone I’ve ever had before! They were perfectly moist and soft, and the texture was more like cake than a biscuit (like scones I’m used to). They still weren’t very sweet, but I didn’t miss the sugar! The mocha chocolate chip cake was also delicious, and had the perfect blend of chocolate and mocha. Deeeelicious!
Our supercute tea party outfits (I'm dressed as Alice!)
New York City Dessert Tour – Part 4 March 12, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, chocolate, cookies, cupcakes, information, sweet eats.Tags: 5th ave, candy, chocolate, desserts, dylan's candy bar, eloise, forbidden broadway sundae, frozen hot chocolate, ice cream, lady m confections, new york city, nyc, serendipity, serendipity3, the plaza
11 comments
Fourth and final part in my dessert tour! Wow, I’m a slow blogger – I’ve been back from NYC for 3 weeks and I’m just finishing up my blog posts! This section features fabulous, gorgeous, over the top DESSERTS!
Dessert Stop #1: Lady M Confection
Lady M Desserts
the dessert: Lady M Mille Crepes, strawberry fueille mille
the assessment: Gorgeous confections, Gorgeous store, Gorgeous display, Gorgeous ambience… HORRENDOUS SERVICE!! Their service was so bad, I didn’t eat there in protest! The servers are pretentiously snobby and never smile. Never Smile! How can people never smile?! I don’t get it. They had plenty of tables available while we were there, but none for a party of three, so they couldn’t seat us. I don’t know why they couldn’t add a chair to a table for two; we told them we didn’t mind squeezing. Since the wait was too long, Helen and Colleen ordered desserts to go. I didn’t order anything, bc they were so evil. Helen and Colleen thoroughly enjoyed their desserts, but they thought the cakes were a bit pricey.
Strawberry Feuille Mille
Dessert Stop #2: Dylan’s Candy Bar
the dessert: assorted candy
the assessment: OMG I LOVE THIS STORE!!! This store (the 5th ave. location) is now one of my all-time favorite stores ever! Not only do they sell candy, and chocolates, they also carry clothing, accessories, and cosmetics! I love it! And the design of the store is SO FUN – everything is in extreme colors, super bright and happy! And it smells like sugar. There’s a superbeyondcute food bar upstairs, and you can even host parties there! Wish I had known about that before my birthday passed! Oh, well, next year. I can’t wait for the Los Angeles location to open!
Non-edibles at Dylan's
I was so infatuated with their Ooey Gooey Bar, I ate everything I bought there in one day, and had to go back the next day for more! The Petit Fours are to die for! Soft, vanilla-y, white chocolate-y, fondanty, perfection! I have insane love for petit fours in general, and these are amazing! The Ooey Gooey Bar also has other creative goodies, like Chocolate Coconut Stacks, Candy Covered Pretzels, interesting chocolate barks, etc. I was also extremely smitten with the fudge at Dylan’s Candy Bar. They have every possiblity imaginable, from Cookies ‘n Cream to Rocky Road to Salty Caramel Nut. I wish I had taken pictures, but I ate all the evidence…
Even the website is fun!
Dessert Stop #3: Serendipity
Forbidden Broadway Sundae - Blackout Cake, Vanilla Ice-Cream, Hot Fudge, White Chocolate Syrup
the dessert: Forbidden Broadway Sundae and Mint Frrrrrozzzzen Hot Chocolate
the assessment: OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG!!!!!!!!!
SO WORTH THE HYPE!
Are you drooling yet?
Serendipity definitely has the craziest, most over-the-top desserts. The confections are so creative, so beautiful, so artery-clogging…so perfect! It took us SIX hours to actually get a table there. We first put our names on the 2 hour waitlist at 4pm, but then we realized that our tickets to The Lion King were actually for 6:30 pm, not 8pm, as we originally thought. So we dashed over to The Lion King, and then dashed back to Serendipity. We got our names on the waitlist again at 8:30. After an hour of waiting, and with at least another hour and half of waiting to go, we decided we had to switch tactics. So… we conned the host. And befriended the cashier. And…got a table by 10pm. YAY US!!
Notice how Helen is still taking pictures of her Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate while Dorothy has already devoured half of her sundae?
And it was so, so, SO worth it. The desserts are over the top, the ambience is whimsical, the service is fantastic… LOVE IT!
Dessert Stop #4: The Plaza Hotel
We didn’t actually get a chance to eat at the Plaza Hotel (we were way too stuffed), but we had a wonderful time looking at their gorgeous desserts and taking pictures with Eloise. Just wanted to share pictures of the desserts Eloise got to eat at the Plaza!
Serendipity and Dylan’s Candy Bar are MUSTs for any trip to NYC!
Colleen, Eloise, Dorothy, and Helen at the Plaza
Photos courtesy of Helen! Visit Helen’s blog for her take on our dessert tour.
New York City Dessert Tour – Part 3 March 8, 2009
Posted by Dorothy in cake, information, sweet eats.Tags: cake, peanut butter, coconut, strawberry, ice cream, taiwan, new york, nyc, chinatown, asian desserts, egg tarts, green tea, almond cookie, black sesame, asian, china
9 comments
And now for part 3! This part features desserts from Chinatown!
Chinatown
I feel like Chinatowns everywhere are exactly the same (even in China!). No matter what city or country I’m in, when I go to Chinatown I just feel like I’m in Chinatown! Lots of cute bakeries, fast food places, supercrowdedness, street vendors, tourists, and chinese writing everywhere. Gotta love it!
Dessert Stop #1: Egg Tart King
Original, Strawberry, and Coconut Egg Tarts
the dessert: egg tarts, of course!
the assessment: who doesn’t love egg tarts? Well, a lot of people don’t like the eggy custard if they’re not used to them, but we grew up off egg tarts, so we love them in any flavor/shape/size/anyway they come! Egg Tart King had a nice selection of egg tart flavors, from egg whites to honeydew to almond. We got there at night, so they were sold out of most flavors already. We had the original, the coconut, and the strawberry. The coconut was my favorite, but I wish the coconut flavor was stronger; the egg tart just had barely a hint of the coconut. The egg tarts were good (but when are they not?), but I wouldn’t consider them the Egg Tart KING. Well, maybe they are in NYC. But we have better ones in LA !
Dessert Stop #2: Taipan Bakery
Huuuuge selection of asian desserts at Taipan Bakery
the desserts: carrot cake, peanut butter coffee cake, green tea sweetheart
the assessment: Now, if you’ve ever had cake from an asian bakery, you know its different from our Western version of cake. Asian cake is much lighter, spongier, airier, and the frosting is very, very, light compared to Western frostings. I’m not the biggest fan of asian cakes, because I like my desserts strong, dense, buttery, heavy, and artery-clogging. The carrot cake was very light, and didn’t taste like my idea of carrot cake at all; it was more like a sponge cake with orange flecks and whipped vanilla frosting. And I couldn’t really detect the peanut butter flavor in the peanut butter coffee cake; that one was more of a coffee sponge cake to me. But Helen and Colleen thoroughly enjoyed both light cakes.
Green Tea Sweetheart (back left), Peanut Butter Coffee (center), Carrot (back right)
I was COMPLETELY smitten with theie green tea sweetheart cake! I have no idea what it actually is; it has a cookie-like shell, and when you bite into it it starts sprouting green tea goo from the center. SOOOOOO GOOD!!! Like a molten lava cake, but in green tea. And not as soft. Hahahahaha it was great.
Probably tied for my favorite dessert (I haven’t blogged about my other favorite yet) from New York! Does anyone know what kind of cake this is? I want to eat it again, and again, and bake it everyday! Maybe I should try making molten lava cakes but switching out the cocoa with matcha powder??
Dessert Stop #3: The Original Ice-Cream Factory
the dessert: almond cookie ice-cream, black sesame ice-cream, and green tea ice-cream
the assessment: This unique place definitely puts all those chain ice-cream stores to shame. Not only do they have a million regular flavors (chocolate, cookies and cream, mint, etc) they also have a multitude of supercreative flavors complementing their Chinatown location. And they have all sorts of crazy flavors, like Wasabi, Ginger, and Avocado!!! Its SO HARD to choose between everything! In the end we ended up with almond cookie, black sesame, and green tea. The black sesame was everyone’s favorite (strong black sesame flavor), then almond cookie (it really does taste like an almond cookie!), and green tea (light green tea flavor).
Our ginormous 3 scoops of ice-cream
We had 3 scoops, and it was HUGE (especially since we came directly from egg tarts and taipan bakery!). And it was probably the most freezingest day to be eating ice-cream on the street (there’s no space inside to enjoy your ice-cream), but so worth the cold and sore throats, hahaha. Wish LA’s Chinatown had an ice-cream factory!
The only downside? Only two samples per person 
Chinatown is delicious!
I always find Chinatowns everywhere to be delicious
Photographs courtesy of Helen, the best photographer I know! Check out Helen’s blog for her take on our dessert tour!
Colleen, Helen, and Dorothy at the Original Chinatown Ice-cream Factory
