brownies for your bro

many a time i find myself home alone. finally, this does not spark a 6-hour episode of paranoid fear governed by desperate searching outside the living room window for the site of familiar faces heading toward the house. ha! i’m fearless.

so, with no one around to judge me, i whip up single-serving treats of cookies, brownies, and cakes. i’ve noticed recently that i hardly make anything venturing out of these three categories… you should notice by ‘single-serving’ i just mean they’re made to serve me alone.

but sometimes i don’t finish them in time and my family finds my half-eaten pans of baked goods. and then i have to share.

brother: can i have some of the brownie?
me: no.
brother: can i have a little?
me: …fine. *cuts a piece the size of a single rolo chocolate*

go-to recipe during times of bored hunger—hershey’s best brownies ! something about the crispy, chewy crust of an otherwise gooey brownie is hard to deny.

i think it’s still christmas–candy cane crinkle cookies

i have a friend who believes christmas would not lose any bit of ‘special’ even if it was celebrated every single day of the year. as long as the stresses and frustrations that come with the holidays don’t also stay strong, i’m fine with that idea. am i the only one who still has candy canes from last winter?

after a couple weeks full of busy days, i was suddenly confused by all the free time i have. whenever my sister suggests we watch [yet] a[nother] movie, i, out of habit, consult my mental planner to see what tasks i need to finish before i have any free time. but it’s empty now.

and what a great thing! for now i have about a month of free time before i start a very busy couple months governed by lectures, hopeful class participation, office working hours–not to mention serving deep-fried-mars-bars-hungry customers, if i can help it. this means for now i have some time to watch films, watch the magical benedict cumberbatch in and as sherlock, and rewatch episodes of modern family, all the while anticipating my new roles for the summer period. hopefully i’ll also spend a significant amount of time more actively so that i can do things worth watching, as well. in a non-creepy way.

a couple days ago i decided it was time to use a few more of those leftover candy canes i still keep in the cupboard from last christmas. sister by my side, i made candy cane crinkle cookies after reading table for two (whose recipe for oreo cheesecake bars i am always dreaming about soon making). sister took care of the fluffing up of sugar and butter, and i looked after impatiently combining the dry ingredients so i could have myself some cookies.

for whatever depressing reason our cookies didn’t spread like table for two’s. fattydumpling and i experimented with flattening the dough before baking to see if we could produce nicely flat things, nonetheless, to my delight they were still wonderfully chewy regardless, and induced a late-night gorging of cookies. i think i’ll make them again before this week ends. it’s not like time is against me.

i can’t eat peppermint sugar cookies and not think of christmas! and today while at a bakery i saw hanging christmas lights and metallic bows. perhaps it’s time to start buying gifts on behalf of nick.

yo ho.

ed sheeran/the a team 

also, my sister said to me today,

‘i have a theory that when we go out, you become ten years younger.’

(let me point out that while this may be read as an endearing sister-to-sister comment about youth and life, by ‘younger’ i’m completely sure she meant ‘more immature’. my sister’s a bully)

celebruhtory cupcake

I would like to share with you a well-deserved treat (as are all my treats!)

And perhaps when I am not so lazy and indecisive I shall again write about my sugary eating days.

Huzzah to the world.

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/