3 Eats

Baileys Chocolate Chiffon Birthday Cake!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Hello!

It has been such a busy week with all the final finishing touches to this blog. I have to say, its always an one going process but so far I am happy with what I see. Improvements to come!

It was my little cousins birthday and she has asked me to bake her a chocolate cake since chocolate is her favourite. She has always been such the energy in the family, with all her smiles and laughter. Sometimes its good to have someone to remind you of such positivity.

Back on topic now. The only thing I had to keep in mind was, it had to be "grandma" friendly. That's right, what does "grandma" friendly mean you ask? Basically, from all the cakes that I have made, she likes cakes that are soft, moist and not that sweet. The chiffon cake that I had in mind was Anna Olson's and this was inspired/adapted from her. Time to show off my moist cake baking skills! Let's get it! =)

Putting this together was simple and easy. Here we have all the dry ingredient together all in one bowl. Remember to leave the egg and coffee at room temperature. You do not want to cook your egg yolks just yet.

When the dry ingredients meet the liquids, it should come off like a chocolate mousse. I love working with chocolate, it just makes me so happy.

Heres how it goes:
Bailey's Chocolate Chiffon Cake

435 ml cake and pastry flour
250 ml icing sugar
75 ml cocoa powder
7.5 ml baking powder
1 ml salt
200 ml coffee
100 ml Bailey's Irish Cream
125 ml veg oil
5 eggs at room temp
2 ml cream of tar tar
60 ml sugar

Preheat the oven to 325F

In a large mixer bowl with the whip attachment.
Sift the flour, icing sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
Add the coffee, Bailey's Irish Cream, oil and egg yolks, and whip on high speed until the mixture is thick and glossy.
In a separate bowl, whip the egg whites and cream of tar tar until they are foamy, then slowly add the sugar. Whip until the egg whites hold a stiff peak. Then fold a third of the whites into the chocolate batter, then fold in the remaining two-thirds.
Pour the batter into an ungreased angel food cake or tube pan.
Bake for 45-50 minutes. Cool upside down. Run a palette knife around the inside and outside edge to get the cake to slide out.

Yes, yes, Christmas is just around the corner and I promise I will hunt for a better camera. I am looking for a good SLR to satisfy my photography needs. So bare with me and stop yelling at me through the computer screen. Haha, I am kidding. I hope you enjoyed it!

Birthday Cheesecake!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 05:33:00 +0000

Hello!

Like the new look? I'd figure that after a year and a bit of the old stuff, its time for a change. If you don't like it please comment and I will make sure I make this as user friendly as possible. I have been holding back on the posts for a bit ever since but today was my favourite woman or all time's birthday!

That means that I had to shake off the dust and work my butt off in the kitchen. The recipe that I came up with was inspired by Anna Olson and Jamie Oliver.

The filling was from Anna's side, her list of ingredient was just so perfect. With a little tweaking and modifications, I made a perfect adult dessert that will leave your hungry hungry hippos wanting more.

The crust was from Jamie. Every time I bake the crust, I always get punched in the face with "Oh my God, the crust is what makes me want a second piece."

Bailey's Chocolate Cheesecake

Filling:
6 oz bitter sweet chocolate
3 oz dark chocolate
3 pkg cream cheese
1 cup of sugar
125 ml sour cream
5 ml vanilla extract
4 eggs at room temperature
125 ml Bailey's Irish cream

Crust:
9 oz digestive biscuits
10 tablespoons of melted butter

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Crush the biscuits and mix the melted butter in.
Pack it in a round 9 inch spring form pan, making sure you get the side walls too. Grease the sides and bake it for 10 mins. Set a side to cool.
Melt the chocolate with the double boiler technique and set aside to cool. Beat the cream cheese until fluffy and add the sugar, scrape the sides every so often. Beat in sour cream, vanilla, Bailey's Irish Cream. Beat in the melted chocolate, then add the eggs one at a time. Remember to scrape the sides.
Pour the mixture into the cooled crust.
Bake the cheesecake for 60 minutes, until the outside is set but the centre still has a little jiggle to it. Allow the cake to cool down fully before putting it in the fridge over night.
Garnish the cake with chocolate shavings.

The balance between chocolate and cream cheese was just perfect. Everyone loves chocolate and I wanted the cake to be more chocolate dominant. The hint of Bailey's was sensational and having seconds was mandatory.

I still feel that there could be some more improvements because as cheesey as it made sound, design is always a process. So give me a shout. =)

Under Construction

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Currently, things are a mess here as you can see. Please be patient with me and I will get things in working order once again. =)

Hello November!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 16:44:00 +0000

Ever experience a time period in your life where you just don't know what to do? Well, I think I got the right answer for you. Don't let it get to you and just start spending time in the kitchen. It's magical and it works. =)

For the past few weeks, I fell in love with macarons. Why? Because, A: it tastes way too good and you can get so creative with it. B: When you take it out of the oven and see that it is not cracked but in a perfect shell. You just feel this crazy warm and fuzzy sensation in your stomache that makes you want to jump for joy.

So here it is, another addition of macarons. Try to bare with me and not get bored of me just yet. I promise that I will bake something more innovative over the week. =)

Here are the flawless shells I have been talking about. Later in this post I will share with you on how to bake these flawless shells. You can never go wrong with blue and white. =)

Gah, I need a new piping bag or better piping skills. You see the top of the shell? It has a little "dip" and it's not suppose to be like that, I think it's because I kinda fling it out after I pipe it down. I will make sure I fix this. =)

All packed up and ready to go. Hope you like it! =)

Heres what you need to make this:
Shell:
75 g ground almonds
115 g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
50g sugar
food colouring of your choice

Filling:
55g unsalted butter
115g icing sugar sifted
2 tablespoons of coffee

Place the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and process for 15 seconds. (Very important part and this will determine the smoothness of the shell)
Sift the mixture into a bowl.
Line baking two baking sheets.

Place the egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until holding soft peaks.
Gradually whisk in the sugar to make a glossy meringue.
Whisk in food colouring of your choice.

Using a spatual, fold the almond mixture into the meringue one third at a time.
Fold until it forms a shiny batter with a ribbon-like consistency.

Pipe the mixture onto the baking sheets. It should make 32 small rounds.
Leave at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F ( I usually do 310F)
Bake for 8-9 minutes. Watch closely and make sure they don't crack.

To make the filling, beat the butter, add sugar and coffee until smooth and creamy.
Now make a sandwich with the macarons and dust it off with icing sugar.

All I Need

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sun, 28 Oct 2012 16:19:00 +0000

I have been meaning to update my blog for a long while but personal business came up and I had to deal with that first. So unprofessional, I know but here I am! And welcome to my utopia. Thankfully, I have the time to finish off the weekend with a nice post.

Sadly, I have been as active as I should but I did mange to spend some time in the kitchen. I baked a Bailey's chocolate cheesecake. I swear one day I am going to invest in a awesome camera but till then you will have to bare with me.

In order to make this cake a little bit more fun and personal. I mixed two recipes together, Jamie Oliver and Anna Olson. The reason being is that, I really love the way Jamie makes his base all you need is:

Base:
9 oz digestive biscuits crushed
11 tablespoons of butter

Bake for 10 minutes at 350F

Every time I use this base, I get smiles and tears of joy all the time. Its packed with the aroma of butter mixed with freshly baked biscuits (drool).

For the filling:
6 oz semisweet chocolate
3 oz dark chocolate
3 pkg cream cheese
2 cups of sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
60 ml baileys

Olson always taught me that if I wanted to make a recipe more personal, add a little spice. ;) The baileys was seriously a nice kick and added the 18+ to the whole cheesecake experience. The texture was very smooth, the sugar didn't over power the filling at all but instead the chocolate was very dominant which I loved. I got nothing but good remarks on this cake. Honestly, I was quite scared when it came out because the center was still very "jiggly" and the filling almost topped over the rim of the pan!

As a bonus, I baked a batch of macarons for the girls of the party. These are always "wow factor" desserts. Every time I bring them out, everyone would crowd around and they'd be gone in less than 60 seconds. I did spot a small error during the process of baking these. For future reference, I highly recommend you to process the icing sugar and ground almonds if you want a smooth and clean shell. Otherwise you will get a bumpy texture which is not pleasing to the eyes at all. Secondly, I tried my best to mix the colour brown but I didn't add enough food colouring and it turned out peachy. =( Which didn't go very well with the coffee cream filling. Blah oh well, now I know.

'Till the day I get a new camera, you guys will have lay your eyes on poorly designed apple cameras. =( Maybe I should have thought of that first instead of buying a new guitar. Oh well. I'll bake it till I make it if that makes any sense.

Keep on coming back for more. =)
P.S. That is my friends Husky. Her name is Holly. Say hi Holly, you are on my blog! =)

Good food, good company

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Chinese families love one thing, and that is good company. It was my uncles birthday and we had a big celebration for him, therefore my old man had to do all the cook with some of my help too of course. Now I don't remember all the names he told me but the one above is potato skin with cheese, bacon and sour cream. It was a very simple appetizer but with a big impact. Everyone loved it, especially my grandma.(Who is most important, haha!)

Now this appetizer is a mystery to me, I totally forgot the name of this but I will tell you whats in it. Its basically a spinch dip wrapped with a pastry sheet. Baked for X amount of time. Sorry, I got to stay on top of my foods and names. =(

Next we got mini pulled pork sliders. These were to die for! I love how small it was, it was just the perfect sandwich for a cold winter day or in this case, fall. The pork was pressured cooked until tender, topped with bbq sauce and pickle! So easy and so enticing. Couldn't have just one.

This was one of the newest dish that I have never seen before. Apparently, its like a seafood mixed rice? Let me explain, there were three layers. The bottom layer was rice, second layer was veggies? And the top layer was mussels with cheese. Again something that I have to double check since I only had a little and this was such a new and refreshing dish.

Next you can see the whole fam jam pigging out and if you look closely, you can see my sister in her natural habitat. Eating with and talking with her mouth full. HAHA! Don't tell on me. Enjoy the rest and come back for more! =)

Chocolate weekend!

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:39:00 +0000

What a weekend! I am so happy to finally just relax and blog about what I baked over the weekend. It was definitely filled with lots of desserts and festivities that was over top! I am happy to say that I feel I have successfully influenced my cousins to start their own baking adventure or not. They were baking macarons like crazy over the past week just to get it right.

On Saturday, Eric came over and asked if we can bake something simple. I looked at Lillie's blog again and found this peanut chocolate cup that was quite enticing. Cant resist that. You know what they means, off to No Frills! Haha

Heres what you need!
Credit: (http://buttermeupbrooklyn.com/2012/10/mini-chocolate-peanut-butter-cups/)
1 1/3 cups (155 grams) raw blanched peanuts
2 tablespoons (20 grams) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon (15 ml) maple syrup
2 teaspoons (5 ml) honey or agave nectar
1 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vegetable oil
1 teaspoon (2.5 ml) vanilla
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1-2 teaspoons water, more as needed
2 cups (about 340 grams or 12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
flaky salt for sprinkling, optional

I swear one day, I am going to get a new food processor that has more space. I hate my small food processor, it cant fit anything in it! I think those are my hands, not sure. =\

Next, double boil the chocolate chips. Easy as cake. By this time, I was already eating the chocolate by itself. For some reason, chocolate just speaks to me. Haha.

Fill it in cups and make sure the chocolate is touching the walls of the paper cup. Think of it as a well, tall walls with water in the middle. Maybe that was a bad example. Oh well. =)

At long last dig in and share the goods with your loved ones! They will be very impressed and oh yeah, its way better than Reese peanut butter cups. ;)

Baking Makes People Smile

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 02:30:00 +0000

Salut!

Salut means hi in French, I think. Haha I kid, of course it does! Yesterday was my cousins birthday and I wanted to show him how much I appreciate him so much by baking him a pumpkin cake, since it's pumpkin season. I got this recipe from buttermeupbrooklyn.com, Lillie was nice enough to share the goods so I'd figure why not give it a try. So let's recap on what this cake is made of:

One-bowl Pumpkin Cake with Bourbon Sour Cream GlazeMakes one 9-inch tube cake

For the cake:
one 15-ounce can (about 1 3/4 cups or 425 grams) pure pumpkin purée
2/3 cup (150 grams) Greek yogurt (I used 0%)
2 teaspoons (10 ml) vanilla
2 eggs
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
1/4 cup (50 grams) brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil
2 cups (250 grams) flour
1 tablespoon (12 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon (4 grams) baking soda
1 teaspoon (2 grams) cinnamon
1 teaspoon (2 grams) ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon (1 gram) ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

For the glaze:
2 tablespoons (28 grams) butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup (55 grams) sour cream (or Greek yogurt works well too!)
1 cup (115 grams) powdered sugar
1 tablespoon (15 ml) bourbon (or 1 teaspoon vanilla if you are serving this cake to the 21-and-under set)
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter and flour a 9-inch springform tube pan (whaaaat is a springform tube pan, you ask? It’s this but if you are without one then a bundt pan works just as well) and set aside.

Combine pumpkin, yogurt, vanilla, eggs, both sugars and oil in a large bowl and whisk for several minutes until smooth. Set a fine mesh strainer over the top of the bowl. Make sure your bowl is high enough so the liquid doesn’t touch the bottom of the strainer. Trust me, I know from experience.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in the strainer and sift the dry ingredients directly over the pumpkin mixture. Use a spatula to fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Be careful to not over-mix. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a spatula.

Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 20 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Meanwhile make the glaze. In a small bowl combine the cooled butter and sour cream until smooth. Stir in powdered sugar, bourbon, and a pinch of salt. The glaze will be thin (and will spread) so pop it in the fridge to help it to firm up a bit while you wait for the cake to cool.

When your cake is completely cool, transfer to a fancy (and rimmed!) serving platter and spread generously with glaze. Serve immediately.

At a glance, I was pretty impressed with all the ingredients and spices. The only thing that caught me a little off guard was the Greek yogurt. I have never heard of it before but Lillie informed me that it is the secret to this cake. The glaze was really easy to make and was such a nice addition to the cake but too bad I couldn't add the bourbon, I had to keep it alcohol friendly since there were kids.

At the end of it all, you are still my best friend.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 15:40:00 +0000

Hello all!

Question: What happens when you can't afford a store front just yet for your own bake shop?
Answer: You set up shop at home!

Sometimes, just sometimes I wish that I was rich so that I can make my money work for me but then again, money doesn't alwasy mean happiness right? Haha. Right! Anyways, a friend of mine ordered a batch of macarons from me a while back and literally chased me down to get some. So finally, I set a side some time to make these bad boys.

Today's flavour of the week is vanilla, pure and in yet tastey. I enjoyed making them and I hope he enjoyed eating them. Didn't get his honest feedback yet but I will in a bit. Off the heart, let me try to remember how I made them.

Shell:
2 egg whites
125 ml caster sugar
75g ground almonds
185ml icing sugar

Filling:
50g butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
185 icing sugar

Baked at 310F for 9 minutes. =)

I always liked seeing them in a tall glass.

We have feet!!! =)

Packed and ready to go!

Story behind this is, after hearing countless radio commericals about Wednesday night's at Milestone. I finally caved in and went for the special. Best place to get yam fries!

When everything fails, just keep calm and spend some time in the kitchen. It works everytime! Next, I am going to make a pumpkin birthday cake for my good cousin Eric.Cook your way to the good life because good good is important! =)

Putting first things first.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 01:06:00 +0000

Happy thanksgiving!!!

Today, I had such a relaxing day. It's good to take a break from life once in a while and just catch up with family. I think succeeding at home first out of everything else is always the best mentality. Speaking of which, I do feel guilty for ditching. I was out and I couldn't do anything, I told that person I'd come afterwards but too late. People get mad so easily lol. =( Anyways, just a little rant that I wanted to get out. Other than that, you live and you learn. =)

Today I got the chance to make macarons with bailey's coffee cream flavour. This was the first ever that I wanted to be more bold about the filling. I didn't even think about it, I just added it in and it actually tasted really good. And of course, the orange was because its October! Hehe. The orange was a combination of red and yellow food colouring. I had to add a lot of yellow before it looked anything near orange. Oh well. The cookie itself was pretty straight forward, I blogged it before so you can refer to that.

The filling I have to keep track of it, so here it is:
50 g butter
50 gcream cheese
115g icing sugar
1/2 tsp cinninmon
1 tsp baileys
1 tsp coffee

And wa la. Eye candies! Enjoy! =D

Listen twice as much as you speak.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 23:37:00 +0000

Hello All!

Thanksgiving long weekend! Starting off the week, I had to bake for 80 people. It was a bit different from what I'm used to and it was seriously a big challenge. I wanted to just avoid it but instead I embraced it to the point where I went and got the ingredients myself. I was so scared and unsure about but I thought about all the people I would let down if I gave up. But anyways, I went out and shopped for Tofu cheesecake ingredients! =)

Here's how it goes:
Filling
16 ounces silken tofu
16 ounces tofu cream cheese
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
4 T. grated lemon zest
2 T. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 T. cornstarch

The crust, I used Jamie Oliver's crust which is my favourite! =) It never ever failed on me once. All in all, the seniors loved it but of course, we had left overs. Boo. =(

Sharing the goods.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 03:29:00 +0000

Yesterday I was inspired.

When I am inspired, I am alive. My cousin was the one who is the wise one here, I went to visit him last night for a trim and we had such a deep and meaning conversation about life in general. It may sound cheesey and non-sense but it inspired me to bake some boozy cookies. I really wanted to try this recipe and finally got a chance to just pick my lazy butt up and do it. Word from the wise: if you're going through hell, keep going. =)

Heres how it went down.
BAILEY'S IRISH CREAM CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. Bailey's original Irish cream
2 1/4 c. cake flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 (6 oz.) pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Mix all the wet ingredients together and then add the dry ones. Bake it at 375 for 10 minutes and wala. Boozy cookies! One thing I hate about making cookies is the sticky dough. I hate handling dough but it's essential that you get a good shape for it.

Overall it was chewy, sweet and actaully tastes like Baileys. It was so good. I should really open a bake shop or have a bake sale or something haha.

Enjoy it. =)

Baking Makes Friends! =D

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 00:37:00 +0000

This was it!

On Saturday I went to the Baking and Sweet show! I was in the top 3 finalist for the pumpkin cheesecake catagory. Sadly, I lost but it was a good overall experience. I loved it, the atmosphere, the pressure and of course the crowd. My sister and grandma came to support me and I got lots of love from friends too! Some even showed up, which was very nice of them. I felt so bad that I didn't go home with good news for my mom but I will try again next year and for sure, I will come back stronger and better. =)

The next day, we had a book lunch down at type books in downtown Toronto. The book is called What's for Lunch by Andrea Curtis. She is such an inspirational person that is full of passion. I am still a bit surprised that she rememebers me haha. She is pretty nice and cheerful, I had to take a picture with her and the design too of course. =)

Next up, chocolate chip cookies with Baileys. =D

Andrea Curtis and I. What's for Lunch?

Focusing on my goals

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 05:25:00 +0000

Hello!!

Finally got a chance to just set everything aside and blog about this pumpkin cheesecake. I made this the night before my competition hoping that I would get a better feel of the whole pumpkin cheesecake thing. Prepping this actually took a pretty long time, it took me almost an hour before it went into the oven.

Anyways heres what I did:

Filling

140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (can also use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup (240 ml) pure pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)

Preheat oven to 300F

Use the double boiler technique add the milk and melt the cream cheese, butter and pumpkin puree. Stir until it is completely dissolved. Add the eggs.

Combine the cake flour and corn flour. Sift in the flour with the cream cheese mixture folding one third at a time and make sure there are no lumps.

In a separate bowl mix the egg whites together until you get a stiff peak. Mix in the cream of tar tar. Then fold in the ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground netmeg.

Fold in the egg whites in the cream cheese mixture one third at a time. Pour the mixture into a 9 inch spring form cake pan. Use the double boiler technique, pour water onto the baking tray and set your cake pan on top of a stand and bake for about 50 -60 minutes. Test with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let it cool completely and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To be honest, the taste was kinda bland but my relatives said it was jsut fine. Maybe its a chinese thing, we tend to like things that are more subtle and less aggressive. I am going to try another pumpkin cheesecake recipe and boost that one up with more flavour!

Complicated

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 23:21:00 +0000

Baking music. Updates in a bit!

The Child & Toy

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 02:23:00 +0000

Hi

I have been so tired lately, too many outings and festivities. Finally I on Tuesday, things started to slow down a bit so that I can blog about the awesome foods the old man makes. I decided not long ago to document his work because he's like an inspiration to me and in many ways we are the same.

We had a lot of entrees that included, steamed lobster with vermicilli, slow cooked beef brisket with sautee red onions, cheese, beef sauce and garlic bread, chinese duck, spring mix salad with roast chicken and curry chicken. I am slowly starting to figure out or learn how to make these dishes and don't be surprised if I started cooking chinese food. Haha.

Here is some exciting and good news. I finally got my letter for the baking and sweet show coming Saturday. Yay! I can't wait till I meet my competitors and of course the environment is going to be insane!!

Anyways, sorry but thats all for now. I am a bit tired. =(

Dreaming in colors.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 03:26:00 +0000

Hi there =)

Oh my goodness, it has been such a fun filled weekend. I wish it didn't end so soon but when you are having fun, time always some how passes by faster. On saturday I went to a Macedonian wedding and it was huge! the celebration that they had was really the next level of celebration. Never in my life time, have I witness so much line dancing and pigs! They literally haul out a roasted pig and dance with it. In the mean time, people would throw money at it. It's insane!

Welp, I had a BBQ today and I promised my friends that I would bake them something different and refreshing. Have you heard of the term "when life gives you lemons, make lemon tarts?" Haha, it's something cheesy I came up with but it works. It was from my favourite baker; Anna Olson.

Heres what you need:
tart
all purpose flour
walnut pieces
icing sugar
lemon zest
salt
cold unsalted butter

lemon layer
2 eggs at room temp
corn syrup
fresh lemon juice
cornstarch
lemon zest
baking powder
icing sugar for dusting

Again, for the instructions and amount message me and I will share with you. Other than that, the squares were a good hit. When I first took it out of the oven, I thought to myself "Gosh, this looks nothing like lemon related goods." But when you taste it, it was packed with lemon taste which I like. The tart was not too sweet nor salty, it was just right (so my friends claim). I like it, my friends like it and my mom likes it. So give it a shot. =)

Some other news, I got top three finalist in Canada's baking and sweet show. I was summoned to compete this saturday at Mississauga and I am very, very excited! I can't wait till I meet my competitors and other bakers. Should I wear my GB uniform? Maybe.

I will beat this and I will come back stronger.

The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. =)

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 05:00:00 +0000

Hello all!

So tired from last night still and so not cool getting punched in the face and stomach. Argh, lesson learned on never to play too rough on the court. I can still feel it today. Anyways, got home last night and wanted to make some healthy. So I decided to make some zucchini chips. Sounds plain but it was oh so flavourful and healthy too. Sometimes you just got to look at the simple things and make something wonderful out of it. Problems are not stop signs, they are guildeines. =)

Heres what you need:
Baked Zucchini Chips
1 zucchini, sliced in large rounds at an angle
1/4 cup milk 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons plain bread crumbs
2 generous tablespoons grated cheese (optional)
1/4 teaspoon salt + pepper sprinkling of cayenne powder or crushed red pepper flakes (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Pour the milk in one small bowl and both bread crumbs, cheese, cayenne and salt and pepper in another bowl. Dip the zucchini rounds in the milk, then the crumbs mixture, pressing down to adhere the crumbs to the zucchini. Place on a wire rack coated with cooking spray on top of a cookie sheet, and bake for 30 minutes. And wa la, zucchini chips at your finger tips. You have to try this, quick, easy and fun.

The Locked Door

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 03:23:00 +0000

Hello!

Welcome to comfort foods part 2. I usually blog about my old food but this time again, I want to blog about my old man's food. He called me up after work and asked me if I was coming home, he told me that he had a surprise for me. While driving home, I was thinking about all the possible surprises he could come up with. When I showed up he made a mouth watering pull pork sandwich. It was so good that I have to blog about it!

Also, after all this talk about how to golf and how to hit the ball properly, I some how tied it to cooking and life weird eh but it just works. Anyways, food first then I'll shed some light on the golf.

Camera is not good but heres a shot of it

Pull Pork:
1 ml Paprika
30 ml brown sugar
30 ml sugar
30 ml salt
30 ml cumin
30 ml chili powder
15 ml cayenne
15 ml ground white pepper

1 pork shoulder on the bone (6 lbs trimmed)

1. Rub the ingredients all over the pork
2. Place pork in slow pressure cooker for a good 3 hours or more until tender
3. Use fork and pull meat away from the bone and set aside
4. Toast white buns and place meat on top. Top it off with BBQ sauce of choice.

When you first sink your teeth into it, its very warm and full of flavouring. I want to try this myself when I get the chance to and of course, I want to top the old man too.

The old man taught me so well and I am so happy.

For the golf part, as the old man was explaining things to me, I tend to zone out at times but every aspect of your body needs to connect in order for you to hit the ball. You need to have your "eye on the prize" and look for the direction that you are aiming for. It's almost like cooking, all the ingredients need to kick in at the right time so that the meat can taste right. If you add a little too much of something, it throws out the whole entire outcome. Practice makes perfect. Same with life, eye on the prize, look at where you are aiming towards, use your best technique and take your shot. In a way its opportunity meets preparation.

But then again, the unconscious mind does most of the work. Some things can't be explained.

Insert conversation here

Roast duck is my favourite

A Blessing in Disguise

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 02:53:00 +0000

Hello All!

Such a blessing to have good food and good company. This post is dedicated for comfort foods! Just like how there are power foods that gets you through the day, there are always comfort foods that I never really touched base on. Welp based on what was offered to me and what I bought, I found some really good ones. Let me share with you.

Menchies
If you have a menchies store near you, its a must try. I had a fruitty sherbet and it was amazing, I loved it. So comforting along with sour keys, sour gummies and lychee bubbles. Its a nice yogurt dessert that you can just sit back and enjoy and forget about everything else.

Marble Slab
I had this the same day I had menchies. To be honest, it isn't as great as menchies but ice cream is ice cream! I had apple spice with gummy bears. It was really interesting on how they served it, I enjoyed looking at them prep it rather than eating it. They basically put it on a cold marble counter top, split the ice cream and add the gummy bears in the middle. Then he mixes it up and serves it still ice cold. Maybe the gummy bears didn't add any flavouring but it did add a smile to my face. Haha.

Macarons
Every flavour you ever wanted or ever imagine, I baked it before and on top of that my sister baked some too. But to be honest, theres too much icing sugar added. Its a bit sweet but thats what comfort food really is!

Lobster Dinner
My favourite of them all, lobster! The old man made a lobster dinner, stir fried with eggplants and a bit of spice. It was good, just like the ones in the restaurants but better. I know I rarely talk or post about how to make my old man's food but he is quite talented and I want to keep a record of it some where. So here it is.

Heres what you need:
2 lobsters chopped up roughly (deep fried)
eggplants chopped up roughly (deep fried)
cornstarch
oil
ginger
green onion
garlic
chinese hoi sin sauce
cooking wine
sugar
sriracha

Message me for the steps. ;)

More to come! =)

Always believe.

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 02:55:00 +0000

Hello

What a weekend, it was insane. Been feeling a little blue lately but I finally got a chance to redeem myself in the macaron field, ever since I failed the last time and over baked them. Everyone had the image of my failed macarons embedded in their minds. This time, I came back fighting for the right ones. The macarons were simple, I baked them at 320F and for only 8-9 minutes until they were solid.

A good tip is to bake them one tray at a time, so even if the first tray fails, you still have a second chance for the other tray.

Blue Macarons with coffee filling:
2 large egg whites
50g ground almond
115g icing sugar
blue food colouring

Filling:
2 tsp coffee
50g cream cheese
115g icing sugar
75g butter

I will fight this thing and I will come back stronger. For sure! =) =) =)

Dreams, Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Hello hello

Weekend is almost here! Quick updates! It was or is going to be my cousins bday soon and of course, we had an awesome dinner party at my place. All the goodies was done by the old man. My favourite was the fall off the bone ribs and the potato skin app. The app was actually inspired by another blogger that we were looking at prior to the dinner party. Surprisingly, it tasted really good and I wish I had more! On the other hand, the cake that I bake(pumpkin cheesecake) was not really on par with my other cakes. I really like the flavouring but the texture was a bit weird for me. I wanted it to be more held together and soft. I guess I will try it again!

Cheers

Crew Love

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:10:00 +0000

Hello All!

It's been such a long time since I blogged about anything. It's always a challenge to get back into something once you have taken a break or a vacay for a while but here I am! Back in oe piece. Yesterday I baked a new reciepe, it was a japanese pumpkin cheesecake. Weird, I know but I wanted to spice things up and try something different. I love cheesecake and I figured that the season is coming so might as well take advantage of it. This time, the old man was helping me out and I hate it when we have different ideas but some how we get it all to work. Usually, I just cave in and learn from him but when it fails, I get the privilage to tell him that he failed. Haha, mean I know but =p.

Here is what you need;
Pumpkin cheesecake
140g fine granulated sugar
6 egg whites
6 egg yolks
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
60g cake flour (can also use plain flour)
20g corn flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup (240 ml) pure pumpkin puree (canned or homemade)

Wisk the pumpkin puree in with the melted cream cheese, butter, milk and egg yolks and same with the spices. I actually wanted to fold it into the meringue but once again the old man advised me to do it to the batter. =\ Next I am going to try potato skins or some chips! =)

Pressure is good for you?

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 05:01:00 +0000

Daddy's Home

noreply@blogger.com (Daniel Oliver) — Sun, 26 Aug 2012 06:14:00 +0000

Hello All!

It has been such a wonderful week and it just keeps getting better. I got some good news! But I can't share it with you yet, I need to start doing some work first. Anyways, getting back on topic. I cook dinner for a few friends of mine from church on Saturday. It was so last minute and was too close to my birthday, I felt very drainned and didn't want to even lift a fork up but I some how summoned up the motivation to cook up a storm. First was the Apple cheddar soup.

The soup itself consist of granny smith apples and to be honest, I was scared that it would be way too sour for my guests' liking. But after adding the half and half, flour and cheddar cheese, the balance was just perfect and very enjoyable.

The jerk chicken was just not on point for me, it lacked the spicy flavouring that I was hunting for. It was okay but just wasn't WOW kinda dish. I paired it with Jamie's mash potatoes followed by a fresh spring mixed salad. Hopefully that saved the day a bit.

The dessert was the real winner here in my opinion. Whenever my friends see this dessert set on the table, first reaction is always "Wow, whats that?! Are you sure we can finish this?" And to my experience, we always finish it. It's never really a problem with any dessert I make honestly, except for that one time when I made a cheesecake and it tasted "salty." Oh well, I will update the ingredients in a bit.

Cheers Mate!

Apple Cheddar Soup

Jerk Merinated Roast Chicken

Ultimate Fruit Meringue

My number one fan =)