Chocolate Lava Muffins

Numero two of the romantic desserts together. Whenever we go and get dinner, I almost always order something with chocolate and if I see the chocolate lava cake, I always order it. It's bad, I know, but I enjoy the nice lush center and the cake-like outside. I've always wanted to make it myself, but just never had the nerve to really.

This recipe from Alton Brown was nice and fluffy and apparently the "right amount of sweetness" in a dessert for my boyfriend. To me, I wanted to add the ice cream to make it sweeter. This recipe was really easy to put together and even easier to bake. We made 1/4 of the recipe and ended up with 2 ramekins. We had one together the first night and the next night I had mine with vanilla ice cream and cherries.

NY Style Crumb Cake [Club Baked]

So I know that this is a bit late, but I've been busy moving, travelling and having too much fun!

This cake itself was pretty easy to make and super delicious! I really enjoyed putting these together. I gave one to my friend who came by and visited me in San Francisco, kept one for myself, and gave the rest to my boyfriend who was meeting his grandparents in Vegas. Apparently it's their anniversary!

As I mentioned travelling, I ate so much great food. Here's pictures of some of them!

So much good food in Asia, I really wish that I could bring back the tastes for you guys!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

HAPPY BUNDT CAKE DAY!

Pumpkin for the season.

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I've just been so busy. Recruiting for a job, a new boyfriend, and school in general. I made this pumpkin bundt very late at night, but it's super yummy and in season. With a bit of cream cheese, it's the perfect dessert for a college student. Cake mix and some pumpkin puree and you're basically done. Perfect for a late night snack to munch on.

I hope to be baking soon enough again. Gotta feed the boyfriend somehow. ;)

Carrot Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze [sms]

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays pick, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, was chosen by Julie of A Little Bit of Everything. I knew that I needed something amazing for a murder mystery dinner that I was going to, so I decided to make this cake into a bundt cake. It would be pretty easy to get everyone a piece at the reception along with the Lemon Meringue Cupcakes that I made.

This week was definitely really stressful. First, I had two midterms, one on Tuesday, the next on Wednesday. Then, I had somehow crashed my computer and I stayed up until about 5am to get Windows 7 from a friend. In addition, the next day I went over and stayed until about 2 - which isnt bad - to get Microsoft Office and all that. It's just been a hassle with my computer lately.

Everyone had told me that it was a wonderful and very nice carrot cake. I was unable to taste it since I had 2 ice cream sandwiches already by the time I had gotten to the cake. Everyone seemed to have really enjoyed it!

I made the original recipe for the cake, with this cream cheese glaze.

Recipe:

3oz of cream cheese, room temperature

3 T of milk

3 T of powdered sugar

Just mix all the ingredients together, until smooth. Add milk or powdered sugar to get to the consistency you want.

The Murder Mystery Dinner: at the Wedding Reception has been worked on by the Kiwanis Family committee of UC Berkeley Circle K for the past couple of weeks. We put together a plotline and characters. It was super fun to act and be someone different for a night. I was the angry drunk ex-girlfriend to the groom. We had gone out during our time at business school at Columbia. He was the only guy to ever dump me so I'm very bitter towards him. It was just fun to get dressed up and play something that I'm definitely not. I love my boyfriend, but it's fun to pretend! It was hilarious though, somehow throughout the night, everyone thought that I was pregnant which definitely was not a part of the plotline. I had a fun time Friday night, even though it is not the typical college Friday night.

Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

Ice Cream in December?

Yes, ice cream in December.

As part of my Christmas present to two of my friends, I decided to make an ice cream cake for one, and ice cream cupcakes for the other. It was quite a fun journey just because it's fun to make ice cream cupcakes and cakes under a time limit and in December.

I think about it and on the East Coast they have snowy weather, yet here, in California, I can make ice cream cakes and it's still quite sunny.

So first, the base recipe was this wonderful chocolate cake and idea!

For Kevin, who I made Hummingbird cupcakes for a couple months back, had requested that I make him a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake. So I added some mint chips to the cake and made a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake!

For Jon, who is another best friend of mine, I decided to surprise him. He said that he really liked Black Cherry ice cream, so I decided a Black Forest Ice Cream Cupcake would be the best choice. I used the same recipe, but decided to cut it in half so I wont end up with too many cupcakes. So I decided to have a cupcake bottom, Black Cherry ice cream middle, with whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles and a maraschino cherry on top!

ps. picture up top isn't mine. =]

Ice Cream Cake

My first attempt at an ice cream cake.

This was quite an adventure. Funny story is that I actually did this to myself. My friend calls me up on Tuesday saying that she's so worried that she wouldn't be able to get the ice cream cake she wanted for her boyfriend. She had forgotten that the Carvel that was there had turned into a Yogurtland. She had called me wondering if Ben and Jerry's made ice cream cakes...which it probably does, but I told her that I could do it for her...even though I have two midterms next week.

First, I had to look up how to make ice cream cakes. Some suggested that I use a springform - oops no springform pans. This instead means that I create things MY way. I had first put the ice cream into a 8in cake pan and froze it with chocolate chips in it.

Then I baked the cake and cupcakes and decorated the cupcakes while I had time. I then put the cake and ice cream together. That was the hardest part I think. The ice cream melted quite quickly so I ended up with (almost) a soggy mess. I stuck it back into the freezer for more time. I had decided to frost it at night with the door open. This had cooled down the room significantly and the ice cream did not melt while I was frosting.

Sorry for the poor frosting job. 1:30am. after like 4 hours of studying. SO TIRED. Also a BIG sorry about the picture quality. I couldnt keep the cake out for very long so I didn't get very good pictures of the cake. In addition, I baked these at night so not a good idea to take pictures then. Last of all, I couldnt take the picture of the inside of the cake myself since I was not at the party where they cut it open since I was studying - boring I know.

More pictures will be added once I get the pick as it was being cut!

Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake [sms]

This week's SMS, Fallen Chocolate Souffle Cake, was chosen by Sarah of Blue Ridge Baker. She always has some beautiful pictures that make me drool all the time.

This was a great choice for this week. I had quite a bit of baking, but it was fun to take a step back and create this for my friends and I. This has been my first REAL week of school. Thank you for everyone's encouragement last time - I really feel like I can get through this year. It's going to be hectic, but it'll be nice to be in the swing of everything. The classes that I'm finally enrolled in are just so interesting.

Since the last time I've posted, I've decided to get Jason Mraz tickets. =] He's coming to the Berkeley Greek Theater again, Oct 9th. My friends and I have decided to go and see him. I'm so looking forward to it. I'll be sure to post pictures when that time comes.


Anyways, I had a great time making these. I had bought some blackberries, strawberries and kiwi to top these yummy souffles. I think that it was a great choice just to make a quarter of the recipe. I had intended to just make an eighth, but I decided to make it a quarter at the last moment because I was afraid that the souffle part wouldn't be enough in the ramekin.

I think it was a healthier choice than I normally bake is great! I really enjoyed it.

Recipe for the souffles here! Make sure to check out the rest of the SMS bakers on the blogroll.

Dobos Torte [db]

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook KaffeeTahaus: Exquisite desserts from the Classic Caffes of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

This Dobos Torte was quite easy, and hard to make. It was quite easy in its steps, but once I had gotten to getting everything together, it just didn't go as well as I hoped that it would have.

I had created mini tortes, but they just were not very well since I had forgotten to level each of the layers. Also, my buttercream was not THAT set when I had decided I needed to start putting the tortes together. My eggwhite mixture probably should have been mixed some more, but I was just too tired to care anymore. This definitely was something that I should have created on different days, just to give me time to do each part and each part well. Putting it all together in one day was just not a good idea. I had to use toothpicks to keep it all together without melting or having the tortes fall on me.

After freezing it, it did taste really good. I really enjoyed the taste of the torte and I had enjoyed making it. Next time, if I decide ever to make it again, I would make the parts separately and also have some way of keeping the torte's level and together. I think that was my major probably with this torte. The chocolate buttercream was amazing! I had to leave the hazelnuts out because I was going to have my roommates eat them and since three of the five other girls that I live with just moved in, I don't know their likes and dislikes. I would rather not feed them something they may be allergic to.

Triple Threat: The Cookie Cake Pie...sorta

I had all the intentions of making the Cookie Cake Pie for the district board meeting this weekend, but what had happened was that:
1) no good pie pans at home [Brea] and I was being lazy and didn't want to go out and get some more
so instead of a pie looking pie, it's going to be in a 8 by 8 pan and a mock-pie. They're more like cookie cake pie bars.

The cake would just not set, but eventually...it did! But it

Apple Dapple Cake

Finally making something that is not for db or sms. This Apple Dapple Cake is from Lovin' From the Oven. I actually really enjoy reading her blog. She seems like a really nice person and loves to bake!

I noticed that I've been baking a lot. Summer service meetings, going away parties, now today's cake was for Campbell's Relay for Life. Being a part of Circle K does not mean that I just volunteer for just the Berkeley area, but as an organization, there are clubs worldwide. This event was put on by one of our fellow clubs, Mission College.

I decided to go for two reasons. One, I havent been to a service project since May and therefore have very little hours and feel like that I should be doing service and not just going to the fun stuff. Two, I'm on district board. I'm supposed to be at events that other clubs put on to show unity in the district.

I knew that I wanted to make something special and something that I havent made before since my goal was to dash off 10 things on my want to bake list on my computer and why not start now.

The only difference in the cake that I had made a bit more diced apples and I also added a bit more cinnamon. I don't think it took anything away from the cake. I actually liked the very pronounced cinnamon taste.

I baked the cake yesterday since I was going to Relay for Life through the night until about 10am. Relay for life was pretty awe inspiring and amazing. I stayed up the whole night and just hung out with some of my friends. It was just really nice to talk with people and sit by the heater.

Some pictures were taken at 4am when we decided to finally start eating the cake, so the quality of the pictures may be a bit off.

Pineapple Upside Down...Cake

What was supposed to be cupcakes, turned into a cake.

First, my roommate has let someone borrow all of our cupcake pans so we didnt have any, and I couldnt really make pineapple upside down cupcakes without at least one. So I decided to do it the regular way and make a cake.

I followed this recipe, but made a few changes.

Recipe:
Ingredients:
1 20-ounce can pineapple circles
1/3 cup butter, melted
2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
18-19 ounce yellow cake mix (prepare batter as directed on box OR use these ingredients)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
a little bit of water
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease two circular pans (I used an 8 and a 9 in pans)
Drain canned pineapple, reserving liquid in a glass measuring cup.
Place the butter and brown sugar evenly on two each pan.
Decorate the pans with the circles. (I cut them into fourths and decorated appropriately)
Place cake mix and eggs in large bowl.
To reserved pineapple juice, add enough water to make a total of 1-1/3 cups of liquid.
Pour liquid in bowl.
Mix until well blended.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Allow to rest in pan for 2 minutes and then invert onto serving platter.

I decided to get a little funky and use some of the batter and make it green using green food coloring. It was just a little fun side of things for a party I went to.

Picture time!

This is what happens when a college student gets lazy.
Pretty decorating
All baked.
yay with the green!
FAIL CAKE!

Cupcakes would have been much more fun, but a lot more work than needed for this kickback my friend was throwing. After one of my cakes would not completely invert onto the other one, I just used the extra pineapple and decorated the other completed one. I also ate the horrible fail cake. When I got there, half the cake was gone and I'm glad that everyone there loved it. =)
<3 Nina