All posts tagged: dessert

brigadeiro.

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Chocolate dessert craft time! I purchased an Easter Egg decorating kit from Tiny B Chocolates in South San Francisco. The kit came with everything I needed to fill an Easter egg chocolate shell with brigadeiros! Popular in Brazil, brigadeiros are like fudge bonbons. They are bite-sized pieces of decadent, rich chocolate covered in various toppings like sprinkles or nuts. The Easter Egg kit came with the brigadeiro filling, three ‘filler’ chocolates already in piping bags, assorted sprinkles and candies, and a handpainted Easter egg chocolate shell, plus instructions. Look at these eggs! First, I filled the shells with chocolate, then used the different pastry bag tips to add texture with the yellow and red chocolates. I rolled the brigadeiros into small balls and covered them with sprinkles. This got a little messy, but it was definitely the most fun step. You can make about a dozen brigadeiros with this kit. I decided to decorate the eggs with just a few brigadeiros, so I had plenty left over for snacking. To finish off I dotted with …

macaron night.

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Macarons by Natalie and Yelp East Bay hosted a macaron decorating night. OMG so fun! Natalie created macaron kits for Yelp Elites and we spent the evening together apart decorating our macarons to look like dumplings and boba. Our kits came with everything we needed to fill and decorate a dozen macarons. Plus, a bonus Yelp macaron that you could have eaten right away if you just couldn’t wait! But in true Yelp Elite form, I resisted so it could be part of the photoshoot. 🙂 Before we got started, Natalie shared her dessert biz story and goals for the future. She’s already a published cookbook author, and has dreams to open her own dessert shop! Then, Natalie demoed how to fill macarons and decorate them in the cutest ways. She provided us with buttercream fillings in Cookies n Cream and Fruity Pebbles flavors, a trio of icing colors, and a food coloring pen, and encouraged us to get creative with our designs. My favorite techniques were the kawaii eyes (with the ‘sparkles’) and creating …

sweet treat.

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Taste test time! We gathered many treats from Japan and we brought them home for sharing and taste testing. We finally tried them all. First up: Tokyo Banana. These things were everywhere. I had to try one for myself. Opening this box was a delight. It was beautifully packaged. Branding: on point! There are eight Tokyo bananas individually wrapped. They look like Twinkies. They have a Twinkie texture, too, but there’s a legit fresh banana inside! I was surprised – how do they keep that fresh for so long? Sorcery! The banana was covered with a thin layer of sugar glaze, and then somehow placed in a fluffy yellow cake which was subtly shaped like banana. Green tea brownie. The Nagano treat box gift sets are insanely beautiful. Look at this box! The green tea brownies came in a pack of four, and each came with it’s own mini fancy box and mini spoon. The brownie was decadent and I actually enjoyed the green tea flavor on this one. Not too bitter, not too sweet. …

nectar bath treats.

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The whimsical and colorful body products at Nectar Bath Treats make it feel like Spring year round! My friend and I stumbled upon this shop while strolling around the Las Vegas Strip. Body products shaped like fun desserts! Soap that looks like ice cream and macarons, pies and popsicles, and loofas shaped like ice cream in cones. So deliciously cute! They have at least two large shops on the strip (in the LINQ promenade and Venetian shops) and they ship all over. And guess what! This is a local, Las Vegas-grown business. All of the products are made in Las Vegas so obvi this was going to be the shop where I purchased all my souvenirs. I picked up some macaron soaps and a bath bomb. The scents are so good. Have you spotted any fun Las Vegas-grown shops? Share below! And Happy Spring!

galaxy cupcakes.

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My friend (Laura!) and I made cupcakes and they turned out not bad! 🙂 Which was good because we were sharing these at the Galaxy Grandma shower we threw. We made a batch of chocolate and a batch of vanilla. To make the cupcakes galaxy themed we made purply-blue buttercream and topped them off with a sprinkle assortment. We painted our makeshift piping bags with food gel, filled with buttercream, and piped on. It was our first time using food gels, but we followed tips from Sweet and Savory Meals which made it super easy and less stressful. The gels were relatively simple to use, just a bit messy. It helped to cover our work area with parchment before opening any of the food gels. Our test cupcake above. 🙂 We got sprinkles from Fancy Sprinkles. OMG they are so fancy. I’m obsessed and excited to make more sparkly treats after the way these cupcakes turned out! After our taste test, we decided on adding less buttercream for the ‘real’ cupcakes. We ended up smoothing …

mississippi mud pie.

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My 2018 goal: bake a new-to-me recipe at least once a month. January’s bake wasn’t good enough to share (I made pomelo bars, and though they looked nice and had good textures, they turned out super bitter. :P), but February’s bake was soooo good. My friend and I made Mississippi Mud Pie! Look. At. This. Our favorite pie is chocolate mousse and I’m all about a chocolate cookie crust. So my friend found a Cook’s Country recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie for us to try. The recipe came annotated with technique tips and recommendations for specific products to use. So good. This recipe was a recipe of firsts. It called for Nabisco’s Famous Chocolate Wafers which are like thinner, wider, and less sweet Oreos without the filling. I had never heard of them and now I am a fan. We used them to make the crust (left) and the cookie crumble (right). While the crust baked, we prepped the next layer – a fudgy brownie. I had never made brownies form scratch before (Ghirardelli double …

minamoto kitchoan.

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Kawaii sweets! Minamoto Kitchoan carries Japanese specialty treats with unique flavors and impressive packaging (and super realistic fake food displays!). I stumbled upon this cute shop a few years back and love stopping in whenever I’m in the area. They have lots of jellies, red bean treats, mochi, and cream-filled sweets. I enjoy the pancake treats most, but it’s fun to try different things. They always have special holiday treats. On this visit: Year of the Dog red bean jellies. Each item is ready for gifting; you can purchase individual treats or gift sets. If you’re a regular, they’ve got a rewards program, too. For every $100 spent you get $10 off your next purchase. If this is any indication of what treat shops are like in Japan, I’m in big trouble when I eventually get to visit. Everything is perfectly portioned and wrapped. Can’t wait to have another occasion/reason to return and try more delights. I particularly have my eye on these rainbow waffles. Ohh la la… Do you have a favorite super kawaii sweet treat …

anniversary cake.

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We own this fun cake topper that we used for our wedding day. Hubs and I decided we would use it every year on our anniversary which means we will always have some kind of cake. Winning! Since we were in Portland for our one year anniversary I ordered a cake from the cutest local cake shop I could find: the Cakery. The Cakery is part of the Baker & Spice family and features artisan cakes and delicate sweets. They also sell baking tools and accessories – think cake stands, cookbooks, sugars, aprons – and celebration goods like cards, candles, and matches. You can purchase cake by slice, ready-made cakes, or order ahead with special inscriptions. We ordered a six-inch Mocha cake. It had four layers of devil’s food cake brushed with an espresso syrup, covered with buttercream and topped with a decorative flower. It was moist and rich and made for some fun photos. Yes, I brought a cake stand from home. Mission celebrate with cake accomplished! Happy chocolately anniversary to my boo. 🙂

sugar rush.

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My friend and I went to a cupcake tasting with Angel Cakes and we had way too many cupcakes. Yes, there is such a thing! When we signed up we were thinking “oh yea, they will probably have five or six flavors they want us to try and we’ll rate our favorites.” The day before the tasting they announced that there would be twenty flavor combinations to try, plus an additional sixteen gluten free and vegan varieties. I’m assuming they didn’t expect everyone to try every flavor because twenty mini cupcakes apparently equals eight normal sized cupcakes, but um, food enthusiast here! My friend and I were determined to try all the flavors so we could accurately report on all of them! The flavors: Mexican Chocolate Chocolate cake with cinnamon and chili, chocolate buttercream Strawberry Vanilla Strawberry cake, vanilla strawberry buttercream Turkish Coffee Coffee and cardamom cake, mint buttercream Rose Cardamom Rose cardamom cake, vanilla buttercream White Chocolate Raspberry White chocolate cake, vanilla buttercream, raspberry Red Velvet Red velvet cake, cream cheese frosting Rainbow Sherbert Lime orange cake, raspberry …

a lesson in pie. 

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As part of wedweek festivities my sister and God sister planned a pie night at Pietisserie in Oakland complete with the cutest apron party favors! Welcome to Pietisserie! The ambiance – clean kitchen, warm & cozy, filled with inspirational baking tools. My God sister loves to get pies for all of her occasions from Pietisserie. Also, she knows everyone this side of the lake. Not only did she special request this class for me, but she special requested for some food to be delivered from Portal next door. All the ingredients were set up for us and Owner/Instructor/Pie Lady Extraordinaire Jaynelle walked us through each step in the pie making process. The evening’s pie menu: Triple Berry – blueberry, strawberry, and blackberry Blueberry & Pear, and Pecan We learned how to make all the fillings, and Jaynelle divulged all crust making secrets and demoed how to create fancy lattice work. Fresh out of the oven! They turned out so pretty! All that was left to do was to devour them. Yay for pie and pretty aprons! A huge thank …