operation donation baking

my friends’ interests always have a way to creeping into mine. i suppose this is something that is natural.

(once in a while i feel an emerging interest in weapon-themed merch!)

(as days pass i feel more and more inclined towards saving people from the discriminating and hateful)

(i want to be dark and cuddly at the same time !)

(…i enjoy the occasional story about britanna, and i really really wanna discover what adventure time is all about)

i’m not totally sure what amusing quirks I possess, but my friends are aware of my habit of making and eating sweets. sometimes i try to make baking THEIR OBSESSION… most of the time it doesn’t work, but my attempts result in hoot-ful fun days, regardless.

this holiday we made the decision to be charitable a tiny bit late, for all the volunteer spots seemed to be filled. however! we did discover that donations for baked goods were gladly being accepted for the many charitable events at yonge street mission. and so we baked.

pooling together some of my favourite ingredients, –albeit i have quite a few– we made some chocolate candy cane cookies (delicious! i love chocolate and peppermint :) and cookies and cream fudge (condensed milk + white chocolate + oreos = sweeet, in all of its definitions).

bellyfulla samplings from our labours of love, i hopped off with one of my baking buddies to drop off our donation.

conclusion of the day: i love love in all of its forms.

happy christmas/hanukah/kwanzaa/holidays and etc ;D

oreo-stuffed chocolate chunk cookies: it’s like paradise! spread out with a butter knife!

oreo-stuffed chocolate chunk cookies.

oh yes, i just did.

whilst making a pillsbury-inspired Google Doodle for an assignment, my sister and i also made some of the best cookies ever thought to be made. or rather, we combined two of the best cookies ever made to make an even better one.

now dreaming of oreo-stuffed brownies.

we’re going to be friends

a little while ago i forgot about my overdue books and multiplying fines

my imaginary friends

my sci-fi nightmares

my single-viewer movie sessions

my mediocre marks

my social skills,

i turned on the white stripe’s we’re going to be friends and i made cookies instead.

(recipes: cookies and cream cookies from sweet tooth/chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from allrecipes)

and when i decided that i was going to have a good day,

i had a good day.

sometimes the tv is like a lover / singing softly as you fall asleep (lemon ice box pie bars !)

i’ve got a terrible guilty pleasure with reality tv shows. sometimes i feel a little too familiar with the happenings of the kardashians. i’ve watched so many episodes of ‘say yes to the dress’ that i feel i could stick my hand into a rack of gowns and pull out my friends’ perfect silhouettes. i can identify and name all of kate gosselin’s children.

my brother makes fun of me for “spending my life watching other people’s lives”, but i don’t mind. i may not go out as much as him, but when i do, i do it big! i’m like the biggest rebel you’ve ever seen. you never met a troublemaker so mean. when you see me rollin’, don’t look for a fight. i stay out husslin’ ’til eight at night.

….okay, not really. but! when i go out with my friends, i sometimes use the opportunity to bake something. it’s a nice good-guest gesture people just cannot deny !! what’s that you say, mother,  it’s hot in the summer and i shouldn’t use the oven, you say? well go fly a kite, because i’m baking for that bbq i’m going to !

and that’s exactly what i did when i went out saturday AND sunday with my friends. on sunday, i left after my family and  i went to taste of danforth, and on saturday, i went after we visited my aunts and cousins… but still! i am pretty badass about hanging out with my homies. word.

for saturday i made those chocolate-banana-marshmallow cakey-things, and for sunday i made pip and ebby’s awesome lemon ice box pie. look at it above! it looks like it’s gravitating, but in reality my friend’s little brother was kindly helping me with my photographing endeavours.

that picture compared to the one below is kind of funny, look at that difference between artificial and natural lighting… ;D

i was short of some ingredients, so halved the lemon portion of the pie, which resulted in lemon ice box pie…bars. which was soo delicious! mind you, if you’re not a huge fan of lemon and its tartness like one of my friends who had a piece, you and the pie might not mingle all that great. but personally, i loved the balance between the sour lemon with the sweeter graham crust. my other friends seemed to like it too :)

we also misplaced out zester contraption somewhere, which meant my sister had to peel some lemon rind and cut it up herself. HAHAHA… such a faithful sister.

the taste of this wonderful creation makes me want to stay at some and watch some tori and dean. (but then afterwards i’ll watch something a little more mind stimulating, i promise.)

p.s: you can eat it all politely with a plate and knife, but my friends and i did perfectly happy with just our hands.

…off to watch some tv.

(recipe: pip and ebby’s lemon ice box pie)

(c-c-changes) (& chocolate cupcakes + swiss meringue buttercream)

i’ve been gone a while.

but, all the same… the upcoming fall means big things changes for this child-lady.

this sugar-loving, fart-joke telling, reluctant shower-taking, official “adult” is going to go off to university soon. and an art one, no less.

going there, not to mention, in order to learn how to manipulate the general public into using the money they earn from the jobs they hate to buy the shizz they don’t need ! or something like that. either way, i’m slowly preparing for my anticipated education.

i’m recently equipped with my fancy shmancy (aka ridiculously expensive) computer. and as you might be able to guess, for the time being instead of for photoshop and after effects, i use it for looking at nice cats.

since i’m a little intimidated by the idea of fat cat artists, i’m also lazily trying to polish my artistic skills :D! i say ‘lazily’ because, to be honest, i’ve only tried polishing those skills up two or three times, the last time being a few weeks ago…

but of course, one thing that hasn’t made a little change is my inclination towards sweets. another truth be told, however, it’s been a while since i’ve baked (my parents shun it during these curséd hot summer days). i did still want to share with you, though, however late it is, my success with a swiss meringue buttercream. paired with chocolate cupcakes :) and they were delicious!

i suppose cake is always a good accompaniment in any situation–which means i forsee a lot of cake-eating this september.

(recipes: sour cream (i used plain yogurt) chocolate cake from smitten kitchen and “1:2:3 swiss meringue buttercream” from a dyannbakes video.)

rice bowl sponge cake

a suspicion: i have a serious case of peter pan syndrome.

a lie: my seriousness in suspecting my supposed syndrome.

a fact: my tendency to self-diagnose, probably with the desire to feel more interesting with some type of ‘condition’ (i do, however have an iron deficiency and slightly high cholesterol ! *triumphant*)

childhood holds promise of laziness and hyper play. for me, it means finishing off a bottle of milk in three minutes flat and staying up late (which, then, was about ten pm) to shape elephants out of mantou dough. it means measuring flour for cake with rice bowls.

i have not even lived two decades yet and i feel terrified with the realization that my magical, childish years are behind me! although, i feel my family and friends would laugh off this claim of mine, reassuring with no intentions of comforting me that i still act like a seven year old.

one day, one or two years ago, my mother became concerned with my sitting around all mopey in our home when she suggested we make a sponge cake. we measured out the flour, sugar, and even the eggs with a single rice bowl, adding vanilla and a bit of butter for what my mother said was for extra special-ness. my favouritest, fabulousest, deliciousest cake ever!

my sister and i went out with my cousin yesterday to celebrate her birthday after i finished three hours of exam essay writing. my sister and mom made, with me in spirit, this sponge cake. remembering that i made this cake at least three days in a row last year, my sister gave me a few of her photos from making this cake (the second, third, and fourth images) and suggested i blog about it.

and with baking, memories of childishness drift in lovingly in more than just fleeting moments.

recipe: rice bowl sponge cake

(made four shallow pie tins of cake)

ingredients
1 rice bowl of eggs
1 rice bowl of sugar
1 rice bowl of flour, sifted
1 tsp of vanilla
2 tbsp of melted and cooled butter
optional: a couple teaspoons of lemon juice

procedures
preheat oven to 325 degrees fahrenheit, prepare four pie tins, cake pans, bundt pan, etc.

cream eggs and butter with sugar in a large bowl. mix in the flour, vanilla, and lemon, if using. pour into prepared tins/pans/blahblahblah and bake in preheated oven for 25-35 minutes, until springs back when lightly touched in the centre. (when my mom and sister made this, they filled four pie tins and baked them all together)

cool and enjoy :-)

photo in the first image, farming, and second photo in the last image, butterfly, are gorgeous cameos created by my photographer buddy, vivek :D

we get up early just to start cranking the generator (a ramble about coffee and cool-bake-sale-cupcakes. but mostly coffee.)

does anyone like the song on the latest starbucks coffee? the one where a soft-voiced boy sings something about generators?

now, i’m not a coffee drinker. i tried ordering a coffee from starbucks once for a project and it was really embarrassing (uh… what’s the ..most… ‘normal’ coffee you have? yeah? okay, i’d like that, in the–umm–in the largest size. yeahhhh, that’s it: a venti. thank you…… wait, you forgot my cap… it’s over there? oh! okay. thank you. thanks.)

during an event at school, there was complimentary coffee, which led to a bit of an event in itself. a friend and i, totally inexperienced with the stuff, not to mention making it, scrambled over the coffee station mixing up our concoctions of the brewed hot drink, sugar, and cream without any knowledge of what we were doing. we were probably wired off childish excitement in addition to the coffee kick. and i say that to explain why we kind of ended up laughing hysterically whenever someone said something to us and making ‘dust angels’ on the school library’s carpet (behind a bunch of bookcases of course, so no one could misunderstand our fun). a couple of friends declared our ban from coffee that night.

coffee! it doesn’t taste that great to me, but its strangely alluring personality is still intriguing. maybe next year while i am patrolling downtown for school i shall meet starbucks more often and we’ll become best of friends. but that might only be for their white hot chocolate with nutmeg. coffee can court me another time.

i’ve totally ran off the track! i’m doing that a lot these days. i was talking about the music on that starbucks commercial! it’s by this band called freelance whales, the song called generator ^ first floor. it warms my heart and makes me crave some starbucks! not that i’d know how to order anything.

and a tiny fact: one of the band members, chuck criss, has a brother who is named darren criss. sound familiar? that dude from glee? hmm?

you may be wondering why i’m showing you a bunch of images of cupcakes. i could explain to you… but honestly, all i know is that i wanted to talk about starbucks music AND about the cupcakes my sister and i made for a bake sale… so i combined the two missions. i suppose that’s a bit confusing and inappropriate, especially if i say nothing about these cupcakes.

well!! um. i tried out these new method of ‘frosting’ where you melt the frosting in the microwave until it resembles lightly whipped cream (in 5 sec intervals), and then dip the cupcake tops into it! cool! and i also discovered a way to intrigue high school students into buying your cupcakes. you don’t frost the little cakes all professionally, pretty, and mouth-watering-ly; you don’t use unique and fancy flavours. it’s called using pop culture, baby. just takes some ordinary vanilla or chocolate cupcakes and pipe some lady gaga lyrics, entice the occasional belieber, and service the egotistic (who doesn’t want a cupcake that declares HELLO: MY NAME IS AWESOME?); the cash just flows in. practically dances onto your palm.

/end of unfocused rambles/

an excuse to bake: better-for-you white chocolate chunk cookies

how do you make a cookie healthier?

i say keep the sugar, and the chocolate chips, and the butter/margarine; just throw in handfuls of oats, wheat bran, and whole grain flour (…flax seeds, some shredded carrots, granola…), and—behold—healthy cookie!

…usually, looking at such images of whole grain flour and oats and wheat bran knowing that they were going to be baked with cookies would make my mouth scrunch up disapprovingly and immediately make me think of my sister squeaking at me to Stop making sugar!

but not this time, because once i measure out these healthy fluff stuff and dump them into my white chocolate chunk cookie batter, i realize–i’m making ‘healthy’ cookies, which means i’m baking some sweet stuff my sister can’t yell at me about (for she’s taken the initiative of trying to make our family eat better, which automatically means less sugar—whattheheck?)! or at least, she won’t yell at me too much, because at least i’m putting an effort into baking with a health-conscious mind [*insert sly wink here*].

these cookies are really, really good. mind you, they’re quite sweet, but when they’re loaded with mouth-watering chunks of white chocolate AND enough healthy fluff for you to be able to shrug off any guilt, who can say no? not to mention those added oats and wheat bran add a nice, almost chewy texture. yumyumyum/nomnomnom.

and when you have these cookies with a glass of milk? well look at that, your daily intake of calcium! it’s only up from here, serrriously.

recipe: better-for-you white chocolate chunk cookies
makes 12 cookies

ingredients
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole grain flour
1/3 cup wheat bran
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
7 tbsp butter/margarine
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
30g (essentially half of 1/4 cup) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup white chocolate chunks
1/2 cup oats

procedures
preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit; line a baking sheet with parchment paper (or lightly grease)

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flours, bran, salt, and baking soda. set aside.

in a large bowl, beat the butter/margarine and sugars until light and fluffy. add the vanilla and egg and beat until incorporated. add the flour mixture and beat until just smooth. using a rubber spatula, stir in the chocolate chunks and oats.

shape the dough into 12 balls, each about 2 tablespoons (i used a ice cream scoop, which my sister gave to me for christmas !) and place them about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. bake in preheated oven until the cookies are golden brown, the edges are set and the centers are still a little soft, about 16-18 minutes. cool cookies and then devour them! with a glass of milk for calcium !

cake for breakfast!

a couple of days ago when i made this banana blueberry pound cake, my sister joked about how the two of us react to discovering fruits in our home:

fattydumpling: oh, look! blueberries to eat whole for a healthy breakfast!
me: oh, look! blueberry to add to a cake to eat for breakfast!

okay, to be honest, i’m pretty sure those weren’t her exact words. but she’s getting kookier and kookier these days it’s hard to understand her! still, it’s true: i do really like cake for breakfast… it’s not like i’m going to go on a sugar high! i’m good with moderation. that’s real important. cake for breakfast sets a great mood for my day. and it also carries me on throughout my day–given i drink a glassful of milk, and maybe have some fruit. and maybe some yogurt for extra good measure.

anyhow, i made this banana blueberry pound cake a couple of days ago, and it was really good! i got the recipe from sing for your supper, replaced the vegetable shortening with margarine and an egg with banana. i like the sweet flavour added with the banana, paired with the tartness of the berry. and this cake has a killer crust–cake crust is so yummy! i do hope you can pardon me if i sound a little too squeal-ly and excited; i’ve been deprived of cake for a little while now and the reunion feels like hearts meeting stars. i shall be making this over and over.

blueberry explosion!

recipe: banana blueberry pound cake
adapted from sing for your supper’s blueberry pound cake

ingredients
3/4 cups margarine or butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 heaping cup fresh or frozen (un-thawed) blueberries
2 bananas, mashed

procedures
preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit. grease and flour a 9 x 5 loaf pan.

in a large bowl, cream the margarine/butter and sugar. add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. in another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. add the dry ingredients to the margarine mixture alternately with the milk, starting with flour and ending with flour. mix in the vanilla and bananas. fold in the blueberries.

pour batter into the loaf pan, and bake for 60-70 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

eat for breakfast!

the winter weight and coconut honey rice pudding

despite being fond of winter, these past few months seem to be weighing on me heavily. when i’m not doing school work, i’m thinking guiltily about school work. faced with these great mounds and mounds of deadlines and assignments, i tend to flicker my eyes towards any direction besides the direction that tells me THIS IS DUE IN TWO DAYS. i survive. things are fine. strangely enough, i feel as if this school year is going to be the best one yet, out of the four. and when i don’t feel as positive, i just think about cats.

hurrah for cats !

today is chinese new year, which means every baby who is born from now until some time next year is a RABBIT. but, for the vietnamese, rabbits are not so special, because it’s the year of the cat.

it’s also my birthday. isn’t that great? on this day, it’s both the cat’s and my day to bask in glorious love and attention. the cat and i are practically family now! i feel so fuzzy and warm. i knew this was my destiny.

i don’t really know if i’ve been making sense for the past few sentences… so i’ll go on to talk about what i made a couple of days ago. which was coconut honey rice pudding, made with japanese/calrose/sushi rice. a yummy sweet treat, especially appropriate for chinese new year.

i found this recipe on la fuji mama a little while ago and started drooling on my sister’s laptop keyboard. oogling every picture of the rice pudding on her blog, i could almost feel the texture of the rice in my mouth.  so imagine my delight when i was finally able to devour this dessert… :)

and guess what? for christmas my sister gave me a nice bottle of fancy schmancy vanilla extract, which i had been frequenting william sonoma to lovingly stare at. i’m pretty sure this stuff made my rice pudding taste significantly more awesome. all hail fattydumpling.

if you like soy milk, coconut, or honey, you’ll easily like this rice pudding. it had just the right amount of sweetness and had a consistency like oatmeal (which my mom compared it to). (–but wait–do all rice puddings have a consistency like oatmeal? hmm…) plus the flavours of soy milk and coconut milk joined together tasted really yummy! to be honest, i found out i’m not too fond of rice pudding in general, despite only trying it twice, including this one. but this variation still tasted really delicious. so if you’re a fan of rice pudding, or perhaps just the flavours involved in this particular recipe, you’re in for a good treat.

happy new year; i send my best wishes for your survival during the rest of this winter.

recipe: coconut honey rice pudding from la fuji mama