Again, chiffon cake is my FAVORITE cake of all. Chiffon cake doesn’t have a rich flavor of butter. However, this is such a light and moist cake that everyone can enjoy. Because the cake itself doesn’t have a strong flavor, you can add your favorite flavor to icing (usually Chantilly cream is used) and fruit as topping. In addition, once you’ve got a good recipe that you like, you can make a variety of chiffon cakes by substituting some ingredients. If you are like me, who doesn’t like cakes that are too sweet, this is your kind of cake.

Chiffon cake is not as hard as you’ve heard. You know, all those scary stories about how chiffon cake didn’t raise, chiffon cake sank, etc. Don’t worry about them and just follow steps and tips, you will have a full raised chiffon cake! And, even if you didn’t get it on the first time, don’t be disappointed. You will get it when you try again!

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS

Equipment

1 Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
1 baking/cooking scale
1 10-inch Tube pan (Also known as a Chiffon or Angel food cake pan)
1 Baking pan

Ingredients

For cake
120g egg yolks (6 medium size egg yolks)
90g sugar A.
120g water
120g olive oil
15g coffee extract (espresso)
2g vanilla extract
180g cake flour
7g baking powder
320g egg whites (about 10 medium size egg whites)
120g sugar B.

For chantilly cream
300g heavy cream
30g sugar
5g orange liqueur

For topping
fresh strawberries

HOW TO MAKE

Before You Start

Sift the cake flour and baking powder three times.
Preheat the oven to 300F.

Making Egg Yolk Base

1. Separate egg yolks and whites. The way that I used to separate egg yolks and whites (photo 1) is a very useful method when you have to separate many eggs. See Alexa’s Tip #1. on the bottom for details.
2-3. Put 6 egg yolks in a stand mixer bowl and start beating for about 15 seconds. Then, slowly add sugar A. while beating egg yolks at a medium speed.

4-6. Raise the speed to high and continue beat egg yolks and sugar until the color lightens (about 3-4 minutes). Add water and beat. Then, add olive oil and beat well.

7-8. Add coffee extract and vanilla extract and beat until well mixed.
9. Sift cake flour and baking powder. Add the flour mixture and beat at low speed until you no longer see any powder. Do not over mix. Set the mixture aside in a separate bowl.

Making meringue

10-12. Add 10 egg whites in a bowl and beat at medium speed. When it starts foamy, slowly add sugar B. while it is beating. Then, increase to high speed and continue beat. You want to have medium peak meringue for chiffon cake. If it’s your first time, beat a little bit longer until you have medium and high peak meringue, but make sure not to overbeat.

Folding & Pouring

13-15. Add half of the meringue to the batter and GENTLY fold in using a whisk or rubber spatula. Then, add the rest of the meringue and GENTLY fold in. I like using a whisk because it has less chances to kill air bubbles in meringue.

16. Prepare a tube pan by simply spraying water all around the inside and placing it on the baking pan. This must done before you pour the batter.
17-18. Pour the batter into the tube pan up to 3/4 of the pan. Then, dip a chopstick (or any clean stick) in the batter and go around the pan once or twice to get the air out.

Baking & Cooling

19. Put the ENTIRE pan assemblage in the oven and bake for about 55 minutes. DO NOT OPEN the oven while it is baking.
20. Take the pan out and test with a toothpick after 55 minutes. (You can open the oven now.) If it doesn’t come out clean, bake a few more minutes and check again. Repeat as necessary. When it is done, IMMEDIATELY turn the tube pan upside down and place it on a cooling rack.

Taking Out & Layering

21. Cool the cake completely before take it out of the pan.
22. Run a metal spatula to around the inside of the pan to separate it from the cake. Remove the cake from the side of the tube pan.
23. Run a metal spatula to separate the bottom of the tube pan from the cake.

24. Put the cake board on top of the cake and flip it over.
25. Remove the bottom of the tube pan.
26. Slice the cake in three layers.

Decorating

27. Make Chantilly Cream (Whipped Cream) and apply two layers of Chantilly Cream.
28. Put a thick layer of cream on the top and put enough in the center to cover the cake. Then, put the cream around the side. Make it pretty as you want! I sliced fresh strawberries about 1/4-inch thick and put around the cake. Also, sliced whole strawberries with the stem on and decorate them on top of the cake.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. It is pretty important to separate yolks from whites clearly when you make meringue or a cake like chiffon. When you have to separate quite a few eggs yolks and whites, try this method. There is a chance that you might break one yolk and not be able to use whites, but this is efficient if you are successive. Break egg shells carefully and put them all in a big bowl. Wash your hand really clean. Use your four fingers of both hands and separate yolks from egg whites by tossing egg yolks left and right. Wash your hands really well after this process!
2. The key point of making a good meringue is a. using a clean dry bowl and b. having egg whites without any part of yolks.
3. It is really important to put the chiffon cake batter in the oven as soon as you pour it in the pan. If you forgot to preheat the oven and have to let the batter sit for 5 or 10 minutes, the cake might sink instead raise because the air bubbles in meringue died. So, make sure you preheat the oven before you start!
4. If you are using a nonstick tube pan like I did, you don’t want to run a metal spatula and scratch the pan. Here is a little trick for that problem. I wrapped my metal spatula with plastic wrap a couple of times and it didn’t scratch a line! If you have a rubber bowl scraper, that can be a good tool.

Taste Review

I loved it! This cake is so light and moist. Plus, I love fresh strawberry and whipped cream.
My limit is usually a half piece for a butter cake or pound cake. However, oh boy, I can eat a giant slice of chiffon cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! Although you are a big fan of a butter cake, you will enjoy this soft and moist chiffon cake. =]

A side of the mocha chiffon cake! Isn’t it beautiful?

No time to decorate? Just slice a piece and enjoy with whipped cream and your favorite fruit on top! Or, drizzle a hot fudge sauce and sprinkle powdered sugar!

Next time, I will share with you how to make green tea, banana, chocolate, and strawberry chiffon cake.

The good news is that I am getting close to start baking again! Last week, we applied an apartment that we want to move and we are waiting for the approval. If everything goes smoothly, we will have a new place at the end of this month.

Since I haven’t been able to bake freely these days, I would like to show some pictures of my sweets from the past. The other day (now, a few months ago), I was organizing my photos and found old pictures of cakes and cookies that I made from 2004 to 2007. This was the time that I just started getting interests in baking, so the sweets that I’m introducing today are not 100% made from scratch except few cookies, but they were good as they were made from scratch!

My First Cake – June, 2004

This is my first cake ever. Before this one, cake was something that I only buy at a bakery. I made this cake for my husband’s birthday. I used a cake mix and a store-bought icing. It’s not bad for the first cake, is it?

Strawberry Shortcake – April, 2005

This is such a quick and easy dessert. My husband introduced me to the great world of strawberry shortcake. Ever since than, I’m in love with the combination of strawberry and whipped cream!

Dark Chocolate Cake with Fresh Strawberry Filling – June, 2005

This is a second cake that I made for my hubby’s birthday. Can you tell that I really tried hard to make it little bit fancier than the first one? I used Betty Crocker Super Moist – Dark Chocolate cake mix (It was my favorite, but I don’t see this anymore in a grocery store.) and I LOVED it. The combination of “Dark chocolate cake + Whipped cream icing + Fresh strawberry filling” is my ultimate favorite!

Strawberry Flavor Icing Cake – June, 2005

This is a cake with yellow cake mix and strawberry flavored icing. I wasn’t sure where I was going with the decorating part, but my friend who got this cake loved it…=]

Chocolate Whipped Cream Cake – August, 2005

Whipped cream icing is my favorite, not so much for my husband though. I like it because it is sweet, but not too sweet. I’ve always whipped my own heavy cream as I have a control in consistency for decorating. How did I make this chocolate flavored whipped cream? It’s simple, just add chocolate syrup while you are whipping heavy cream!

Dark Chocolate Cake With Raspberry Filling – September, 2005

I love to watch Foodnetwork channel! I have learned most of cooking and baking knowledge and skills by watching TV shows on Foodnetwork. One day, I saw a very fancy chocolate cake on TV – something like the one that I made, and I decided to try for my friend’s birthday cake. At that time, I had absolutely no idea about ‘tempering chocolate,’ so I just melted regular chocolate candy bars, piped and shaped, and waited until they get hard. However, shaped chocolate decors were still soft, so I decided to chill them in a refrigerator. They got hard, but it only lasted for a couple of minutes. Result – my finger prints appeared everywhere on chocolate decors and as soon as it reached room temperature, they were falling apart. Years later, I now know what to do! =]

Dark Chocolate Cake With Berries – January, 2006

After I had a great holidays (Christmas and New Year’s Day) at my parents-in-law’s house, I wanted make something sweet for them before I go home. Again, I made my ultimate favorite – A dark chocolate cake with fresh berries and whipped cream icing. I forgot to buy mint leaves, so I went out to their backyard and got some sage leaves! It worked for that time. Haha…=]

Strawberry & Blueberry Shortcake – February, 2006

Strawberry short cake is my emergency dessert – when I really want some sweet stuff, which is very rare. Any kind of cake (pound cake, angel’s food cake, sponge cake, or chiffon cake) and strawberries are all I need, then, I can simply make this dessert. Don’t have whipped cream? Don’t worry, It is still good without whipped cream!

Brownie With Vanilla Bean Icecream – May, 2006

One of my favorite desserts is good quality vanilla ice cream on top of freshly baked hot brownie. Of course, I can’t forget to drizzle some chocolate syrup and dust powdered sugar for extra sweetness! Oh, I recently got an ice cream machine as a gift from my mother-in-law. I can’t wait to make all different kinds of frozen desserts!

Dark Chocolate Cake With Strawberry Whipped Cream – May, 2006

I made this cake for my birthday. Yeah, it sounds a little weird, but it was my first time making my own cake. I think everyone deserves to have a special cake on their birthday. =] For this cake, I tried some new techniques. First, I added fresh strawberry puree while I was whipping heavy cream. You can see strawberry seeds on the cake! I personally don’t like using artificial flavor, so this is how I usually flavor my sweets. Second, I tired sugar art for the first time. I didn’t know how to do it, but I just did it after I saw a quick process of ‘how to make sugar art’ on TV. It was very beautiful, but my hands were burning!

Caramel Covered Walnut Shortbread Cookies – February, 2007

Although I had not attempted to bake cakes from scratch during my first four years of baking, I made some cookies from scratch time to time. One cold night, I had to have some sweets and made pecan shortbread cookies. I shaped dough in start, square, and triangle before I freeze them. They were good. =]

White Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing Cake – November, 2007

My first homemade icing (other than whipped cream icing). Instead of adding sugar to cream cheese icing, I added melted white chocolate. Yammmm…it was good! No special decoration needed! Just decorate two layers of baked cake with white chocolate cream cheese icing and sprinkle cocoa powder on top!

Gingerbread Cookies – November, 2007

Winter was coming. I had to smell freshly backed gingerbread cookies in the kitchen before Christmas arrived. I think I over-baked cookies little bit, but it was ok. Royal icing is so fun and pretty to decorate.

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Designed Cake – November, 2007

At the end of 2007, my mother-in-law and I decided to take a cake decorating class for fun. We registered at Joann for Wilton cake decorating beginner’s class and decorated three cakes through the classes. This was my first cake – the theme that I picked was ‘Thanksgiving.’ I decorated cute mother and baby pumpkin using a star tip decoration method.

Clown Designed Cupcakes – November, 2007

My second week of class, I learned how to make clowns on top of cupcakes. My clowns were about to fall.

Flower Designed Cupcakes – November, 2007

We also learned how to make drop flowers on the same week we made clowns.

Mini Wedding Cake – December, 2007

This was the final project – decorating with flowers and ribbons. I baked a regular cake mix in a one cake pan (the height was higher than a regular pan) and sliced them in three layers. Then, carve them into three different sizes using plates. It was my first mini wedding cake. =]

Dark Chocolate Ganache Individual Mini Cake – December, 2007

I’ve always dreamed about making individual cakes. I didn’t have individual cake rings, but I attempted to make them anyway. I baked cake in a sheet pan, cut it with a circle cookie cutter, and arranged layers with whipped ganache by hands. It was messy and not easy, but I did it! By making this sweet, I’ve learned why it is important to have right tools and pans to make certain sweets. It saves lots of time and helps me to get a perfect result. I still don’t have individual cake rings – they are quite pricey. I’m just waiting for the right time to buy all kinds of different size cake rings!

This is the end of my sweets from semi-scratch collection. Although I started baking and making sweets from scratch only a year ago and I love that way more than anything else, I have to tell you that I don’t mind to use cake, brownie, or cookie mix once in a while. They can be convenient when I have to make massive amount of sweets for events or when I am lazy to bake anything. Most of all, it is really a good way to start for beginners who just entered the joy of baking world.

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!
Before I start talking about all the excuses why I haven’t updated for a long long time, I wish everyone the sweetest day of 2009! Every year, I’ve tried to make my own sweet for my husband rather than buying something, but it seems like it won’t be happening in this year.

Well, my excuse for the past lazy & quiet couple of months was moving. Yes! my husband and I finally moved to other city! It is not San Diego as we wanted & planned, but it is San Francisco, yay! We do not mind at all as we can explore San Francisco and live in the city before we move out of California.

My husband has started his new job and I am looking for a job in the city. We’ve decided to get a temporary place for a couple of months, so we can get to know the city and find a permanent place for us. I would love to start baking right away, but all of my baking pans and equipments are in a storage and the place where we are staying doesn’t have an oven. So, unfortunately I have to wait until we get our permanent place. But, I have a few posts including new recipes, which I am planning to upload time to time, so I don’t disappoint my visitors. Plus, I will post some good pictures of the city while I’m waiting for my kitchen. =]

Oh, I’m also planning to redesign Sugar Coated Kitchen. I’ve been drawing so many different outline for the past few months and I think I finally decided what I want. So, that is another exciting news. I will work hard on it!

I’m busy with a job hunting right now, but I am so excited and ready for delicious restaurants, beautiful natures, cool places, and everything that I will experience! I am totally new to this city, so if you know or live in San Francisco & Bay area, please let me know everything about the city!

Have a sweet day!

In Korea I used to see fresh chestnuts in the market whenever it started to get cold outside. However, for some reason, it’s been very hard to find chestnuts in my local grocery stores in California. I’ve looked every year since I moved to the States but I couldn’t find any chestnuts. I guess 2008 was finally my lucky year because I finally found chestnuts when I was in Trader Joe’s and then again at Albertson’s (a grocery store chain).

I’ve been enjoying the chestnuts that I found by roasting them over an open fire as well as in the oven. I also decided to make some chestnut cupcakes with my favorite chiffon cake and a little chestnut spread icing from scratch! I could have used canned chestnut spread or puree, but 1. it was a little pricey and 2. I wanted to try to make it from scratch. So, let’s get started making some chestnut spread icing and vanilla chiffon cupcakes!

INGREDIENTS & EQUIPMENTS

Equipments

Mixer (Hand or Stand)
Food processor or Blender
Your favorite holiday cupcake baking cups

Ingredients – Makes 18 cupcakes

For the Vanilla Chiffon Cupcakes

3 egg yolks
1/4 cup and 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar A (see above picture)
1/4 cup and 2 teaspoons water
1/4 cup and 2 teaspoons olive oil
1 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
3/4 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup chopped, cooked chestnuts (optional)
5 egg whites
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons sugar B (see above picture)

For the Chestnut Spread

1 pound whole chestnuts
1 cup sugar

For the Chestnut Spread Icing

1 cup chestnut spread
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon brandy or rum

HOW TO MAKE

Making the Chestnut Spread

1. Soak whole chestnuts in hot water for 30 minutes.
2. Peel the outer skin with a knife.
3. Soak them in hot water again for 15 minutes.
4. Use a scraping motion to peel the inner skin with a knife. Don’t worry about getting every little piece of the inner skin right now; we’ll do that later.

5. Soak the 90% peeled chestnuts in cold water for 15 minutes. Drain the water and then fill again until the water covers all of the chestnuts.
6. Bring the water to a boil and continue to boil the chestnuts for 5 minutes before draining again.
7. Peel the leftover skin from the chestnuts by hand or however you see fit – the skin should come off very easily.
8. Once again, fill the water up to where it covers all of the chestnuts and boil them on medium heat.

9. As you boil the chestnuts, the water level will go down as the water begins to evaporate. When the water level reaches the halfway mark on any of the chestnuts, add the cup of sugar to the chestnuts and reduce the heat to medium low. When the water only covers a third of any chestnut, they should all be ready for the next step.
10-12. Pour everything (the liquid and chestnuts) into a food processor or blender. Blend it all until you get a mushy consistency, you can strain the puree afterwards for a smoother spread. (Photo 11: Before puree & Photo 12: After puree) Store in a container and cool completely before use.

Making Vanilla Chiffon Cupcakes

Before you start

1. Preheat the oven to 300 F
2. Separate egg yolks and whites.
3. Sift cake flour and baking powder together.

Making egg yolk base

1-2. Whip the egg yolks for 30 seconds.
3. Add sugar A and mix well until everything reaches a pale yellow color.
4. Add water and continue mixing.

5. Add olive oil and continue mixing.
6. Add vanilla extract and continue mixing.
7. Add flour and baking powder mixture while mixing at a low speed just until you no longer see the flour.
8. Fold the optional chopped chestnuts into the cake batter with a spatula.

Making meringue

9-10. Whip egg whites for 1 minute at a high speed in separate container and then add half of sugar B while continuing to whip.
11-12. Add the rest of sugar B and continue to whip until you reach a medium peak.

Folding & Scooping

13-14. Add half of the meringue to the egg yolk mixture and gently fold with a whisk.
15. Scoop the mixture into your baking cups. An ice cream scoop usually provides the perfect amount for each baking cup!
16. Stir each cupcake once with some type of stick to let air escape from the mixture and then bake the cupcakes for approximately 25 minutes.

17. Leave the cupcakes in the baking pan for 5 minutes before taking them out to cool.
18. I placed half of my cupcakes upside down as soon as I took them out of the oven. This is something that you would need to do if you were baking a full sized chiffon cake to keep it from sinking. The half that weren’t upside down did not sink so you can cool your chiffon cupcakes right-side-up.

Making Chestnut Spread Icing

1. Whip the heavy cream at a medium speed for 1 minute. Then, add chestnut spread.
2. Beat until they are well blended.
3. Add your favorite brandy or rum and continue beating until it forms stiff peaks or it reaches a thickness to pipe.
4. Here is the chestnut spread icing.

Enjoy the vanilla chiffon cupcake with the chestnut spread icing!

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. Make sure that you cool the chestnut spread completely before you whip it with the heavy cream. If the chestnut spread is warm, the icing will be runny. I recommend that you put the spread in a refrigerator until it gets cold.
2. When you beat the chestnut spread with the heavy cream, make sure that you DO NOT over whip! If you whip the icing for too long, the fat will become chunky and the fluids from the heavy cream will start to separate.
3. While folding the meringue (in steps 13 & 14) into the egg yolk base, remember to scoop the very bottom of the bowl to ensure that the heavy ingredients (flour, sugar, yolk, etc.) mix properly with the meringue.

This is for Santa!

I wish you Merry Christmas…

TASTE REVIEW

I always love chiffon cakes because they’re surprisingly so moist and fluffy. Making cupcakes with this vanilla chiffon recipe was great, they were just like mini-chiffon cakes. Since I love chestnuts, I especially enjoyed adding the chestnut bits into the actual cupcakes.

I don’t really like making things super sweet, which is why I enjoy baking everything from scratch. This way I have more control over how sweet my desserts taste. Even though the chestnut spread might be sweeter than what I like and cost a little more than making it from scratch – I probably wouldn’t mind buying it in the future because it was very time consuming to make.

Homemade chestnut spread on top of the moist chiffon cupcakes.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

THINGS YOU NEED

Paper ribbon, Small treat bags, and some of your favorite Stickers

LET’S GET IT STARTED!

Step 1.

Place one or two cookies into a treat bag. You can buy treat bags or goodie bags at a craft store or Wal-Mart. They are usually in the cake decorating section.

Step 2.

If you have a note or message that you would like to share, write it or print it on some colorful paper and include it in the bag. ‘I Love You,’ ‘Thank You,’ ‘Congratulations,’ ‘Made with Love’ … anything you would like to say! I printed my website address. =]

Step 3.

Fold the opening over twice and seal the bag with a sticker.

Step 4.

Finish it all off by tying each bag with some paper ribbon; now they are made and wrapped with love!

ALEXA’S TIP

One way to get ribbon at a cheap price is to shop when they are on sale, like after the holidays. You can find a good (sometimes super good) deal after Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas. Also, many craft stores put stickers, designer papers, and wrapping items on sale from time to time. Check your local craft stores regularly and buy these items when they’re on sale. Gift wrapping items won’t go bad, so you can keep them as long as you want.
Here are my individually wrapped Sugar Coated Almond and Chocolate Marble Cookies

These marble cookies are going to be crispy and will be great with a cup of coffee or tea. I personally like crispy cookies but you could make them moist by adding extra butter. (Experiment at your own risk.) =]

Although you will have to make two separate batches of dough, (one with almond and one with chocolate), it’s basically the same process for each. Everything will be the same except that the almond dough gets sliced almond added to it and the chocolate dough will have cocoa powder.

It might be easier if you make one batch of dough and divide it in half before adding the sliced almonds and cocoa powder to each individual half. I decided just to start with two separate batches of dough because I wanted to mix each half in the mixer separately. You can choose whatever method you like, you’ll just want to make sure that everything is thoroughly mixed. If the cookie dough and cocoa powder aren’t mixed really well, you might not get a good contrast in your swirls.

EQUIPMENT & INGREDIENTS

Equipment

Stand mixer (or hand mixer)
Rolling pin
Pastry brush

Ingredients – Makes about 2 dozens cookies

Almond Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
3/4 cup sliced almonds

Chocolate Dough

1/2 cup and 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
2 tsp milk
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn syrup
1 egg yolk
1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup almond meal (grounded almond)
1/2 cup cocoa powder

HOW TO MAKE

Making Almond Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Add egg yolk and beat well. (I added a drop of red food coloring to make it pink, but it didn’t work.)
4. Add sifted cake flour and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
5. Add sliced almonds and lightly fold in.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Making Chocolate Dough

1. Beat the unsalted butter in a stand mixer and add the milk.
2. Add sifted powdered sugar and salt along with corn syrup and beat until you no longer see any powder.

3. Sift cake flour, cocoa powder, salt and set aside.
4. Add egg yolk and beat well.
5. Add sifted dry ingredients and almond meal and fold in by using a rubber spatula.
6. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Rolling Dough

7. Lightly dust a rolling pin and surface with cake flour and roll out each slab in rectangle shape until the dough is 1/4″ thick. Place the chocolate dough on the top of almond dough and roll together.
8. Cut the rolled dough in a half and roll the dough again, pressing outward until the diameter of the roll is about 1.5 to 2 inches. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and freeze them for at least 2 hours. (Freezing dough makes it easy to cut and keep it’s shape.)

Sugar Coating & Cutting: Preheat the oven to 325F.

9. Brush the whisked egg white all over the hardened dough from the freezer.
10-11. Line the bottom of a pan with sugar and immediately roll the dough on the sugar.
12. Cut the dough in 1/2″ slices and place the cookies 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake about 15 minutes and cool down.

ALEXA’S TIPS

1. You can always substitute sliced almonds to your favorite nuts or dried fruits.
2. While you are making dough, if it is crumbling apart, add 1 teaspoon of milk at a time until it stays together.
3. When you cut the dough in 1/2″ slices, try to work fast because the dough might get sticky as it gets warm.
4. If the dough becomes too soft to work with, you can chill it for approximately 30 minutes.

They are great with coffee or tea!

Are you planning on giving these marble cookies to someone? Check out Individual Cookie Wrapping.

THINGS YOU NEED

Cookies, parchment paper, and any gift wrapping ribbon that you have

Step 1.

Cut the parchment paper and ribbon long enough to wrap around the cookies. (I used two different colors-golden & white. If you have two different colors, use them! It’ll look even prettier!)

Step 2.

On a flat surface, center and place the ribbon underneath the parchment paper. Then, place the cookies in the center of parchment paper.

Step 3.

Wrap the cookies with the parchment paper and tie the ribbon.

Remember, there are so many items that you can use for gift wrapping around your house. =]

Moving: My husband and I are planning to move down to San Diego.

Sweets: There are tons of ideas for new desserts, but I’m waiting until we move before I start making a mess.

This Website

It’s been a couple of days since I changed my content management system from ZeroBoard to WordPress. Although the old website was easy to manage and redesign, I switched to Wordpress for a couple of features that weren’t offered (yet) by Zeroboard. Now I just need to get used to WordPress because it’s quite different. When I switched over, I also decided to change up the design and format a little. My husband and I are still trying to get everything setup just right so that I can focus on baking and posting articles. Please contact me if you see any glaring mistakes or problems around the website.

My Occupation

Currently, I am working as a pastry chef at a local fine dining restaurant. There is no doubt that my heart is in pastry, but I know that I am still far from being considered a pastry chef in the aspect of experience and skill. To make a long story short, this is how it all started: I graduated college with a bachelors in Business Administration in 2007. I then started looking for a job in the various business fields. Meanwhile, I wanted to gain some experience in the baking & pastry arts so that I could decide which field I’d be happier in. In the beginning of 2008, I applied for a pastry cook position at a new local restaurant that was getting ready to open. My boss said that ‘you can teach techniques, but you can’t teach someone to be passionate about pastry’ and that is why they hired me although I didn’t have any formal training. I’m not sure what is going to happen in the future, but I know that I love what I am doing right now.

My Location

As I said in my about page, I was born and raised in South Korea. I moved to Kansas in 2003 where my husband and I lived for 3 years due to the military. The area around us was pretty boring and desolate but we liked it because it was quiet and clean. The people that we met over there were nice and there wasn’t any crazy traffic. We currently live in Palmdale, CA but are looking for a place where we can be close to all of the big city conveniences but where the beauty of nature isn’t far off. We’re both currently applying for jobs in San Diego which is where we ‘think’ we want to live- we’ll see.