Tag: foodie

Just a Lot of Cupcakes. Enjoy!

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Oh December, the month filled with lots of Christmas parties to go to~ AND the one time of the year where I find myself doing the most baking and dessert-making only to give it away because I don’t really like eating sweets (except candy haha).  :p

So, the other week I was talking to my friend Clinton about how I’d love to get the chance to only decorate desserts– no mess and no fuss in all the baking time and hand mixing and being tired by the time you get to decorating– just. pure fun. decorating.

And I really have such amazing friends because… bless Clinton. He made 24 cupcakes and called us over to decorate!!!

It’s my first time getting to use piping materials and FONDANT (thank you Alex for getting us beautiful fondant) to decorate. You’ll… kind of see how we started to get a bit tired throughout the night. But I think we kind of redeemed ourselves near the end (???).

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Clinton made dinner for us! Some nice pad thai, it was his first time making it, not bad!

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I brought some things for us to decorate the cupcakes with! It’s honestly a lot of Halloween candy. But this one in particular was from Japan! Do you remember those small star candy in spirited away?!

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Can you guess what there is?! There’s actually some crushed cinnamon bark and sugar cane sugar. You guys need to check Clinton’s place out, he’s super prepared and fancy :p.

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I got to try my Daiso piping tools for the first time! I also spent the longest time on this cupcake and probably most of my energy for that day too XD.

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Orange zest with Clinton’s first time piping his nicely made buttercream on top.

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I actually can’t remember if this is nutmeg on top mixed with some ground almond and cinnamon.

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Clinton spent a beautiful amount of time on this super adorable snowman. Totally worth it, can you guess what candy is on top of his head?!

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I got lazy in cutting it out prettily… Be prepared I got lazier as the night got older.

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Alex made this cute little… animal? 😀

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I wanted to try out the other tips for piping, and it was just meh, so I tried to save it by marshmallow petals… yeah..

 

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OKAY. I CAN EXPLAIN. It’s not a cigarette okay?! It was supposed to be a cookie monster but I couldn’t find a cookie, so that’s a lollipop. LOLLIPOP.

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This reminds me of Majora’s mask for some odd reason. Basically the story behind this cupcake is that I messed up pretty badly because of this ugly colour I made for the buttercream, but I think i covered it up pretty nicely eh?

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It looked a lot pretty in real life. Loved the smashed watermelon lollipop mmmMmmm.

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Clinton made an owl!! He’s mighty cute haha.

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Just a simple wreath. (Clinton couldn’t tell what it was D:)

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Yes I didn’t post up all of them, but let’s end it off with this super cute mini cupcake on a cupcake! :D. I wish it had a tiny cherry on the top instead.

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Rolling my way into the New Year….

New Year’s Resolution: I need more posts!!

Love,

Mish

 

With Late Nights, You can always count on Tomo!

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I forgot to bring my camera guys!!! Nuuu, I should just always bring it (knowing how spontaneous I can get sometimes :p)

Justin came up from Calgary and as tradition we do our last-minute meet-up. This happened on a Sunday late at night, like 10 pm. It always starts with “What should we do?” and then follows up with “Where should we go?” So we end up going to IZAKAYA TOMO, because you can always count on them opening till late!!

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Justin pouring Tomo’s “pure” water (they sell this). When I asked them what would make their water better than Edmonton’s tap water (which is one of the cleanest and safest waters to drink by the way), they said it’s filtered more. With more probing they said it’s drinking soft water, so it has less calcium…

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Oh my goodness, they had toro in the house!!! TOMO IS ALWAYS OUT OF TORO EVERYTIME I COME HERE. Well, except for this other time… But I was so excited they had it, MELTS IN YOUR MOUTH.

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If I had my camera, you would see the glisten even clearer. All that fatty goodness bursting with flavour~

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Justin ordered some seaweed salad (so healthy). Not my cup of tea in terms of taste, BUT it is good for you so I would recommend it if you want to be healthy~

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Justin got some sashimi~ That IKA, SO FRESH. It reminded me of the ones from Tsukiji market. So creamy and sweet.

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This looks kind of strange but it’s… -drum roll-… BRUSSEL SPROUTS! Yes I know, it is kind of strange to order brussel sprouts at a Japanese restaurant. But believe me when I say they make some gooood brussel sprouts. It has a nice grilled outer layer, and the vinegary sauce with that parmesan cheese (I think it’s that, it’s a pretty sharp tasting cheese) makes a perfect combination. For anyone who doesn’t like brussel sprouts, they should definitely try this. (let me know if it changed your mind)

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I decided to be more adventurous and go try a new dessert~ The crispy honey bread served with vanilla ice cream and a coffee bean powder dusted on top. THIS IS HELLA GOOD. But very fried and not the healthiest haha (but oh well). It has a nice crispy crunch with a perfect amount of sweetness in the bread. I’m also a sucker for warm and cold contrasting desserts, so the warm bread and cold ice cream made it so yummy. Plus the coffee in there helped your taste buds take a break from an overload of just sweet honey.

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Let’s end this post by another look at this beautiful toro. Look at the cut!

 

Love. Mish.

Is it bad I’m already ready for the next long weekend?… XD

Trying to make Uncle Tetsu’s Cheesecake

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While I still have room for improvement, I think I’m off to a good start! I had a plan but then I made a mistake in the plan… which led to an okay recipe! 😛 But hey that’s how amazing food gets discovered right?! Through random chain of events! Chef Michelle~ Just kidding, I’m just an average hooman that trying to have some fun in life :3

I’m sure you have seen the videos on the jiggly, fluffy, Japanese cheesecakes in Japan! One of the viral videos was of Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecakes! Surprisingly, with the amount of time I was in Japan for, I never tried it.

BUT, when we arrived in Toronto, we decided, heck, let’s do it!!

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I think we lined up for an hour and a half? All I remember was that it was raining and BFF was super prepared with an umbrella and I loved her for that.

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If you’ve never been here, the aromas that were coming out of this place that spilled outside was enough to bring in curious customers. And they got a system going here, very efficient.

I think the most satisfying part was watching them brand the cheesecake.

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I would definitely recommend eating this within the hour that you get it. We spent most of our time trying to find a place to eat it (it was like 11 pm when we went to line up), and eventually went back to our tiny room in our Airbnb to eat it (I think we got back around 1 am).

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Okay, so I want you to know that this picture doesn’t do it justice at all. This was like 3 hours after getting it, it has been through quite a ride (as you can tell) before it got back to our place.

We were actually super tired and too stuffed to eat it, but managed to force ourselves to take the first bite… OH MY GOSH… It is creamy, and soft… it’s like eating cheesecake foam because it just melts in your mouth. I’m just flabbergasted how it can even hold a solid structure!

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So the one big mistake I made was forgetting to lined my pan with some foil to avoid some water leaking into the cake pan. (to make this cheesecake you need to put it into a water bath). Luckily, there wasn’t too much water damage and you couldn’t really tell at all!

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Personally I felt like I got the texture pretty close, It’s soft and creamy. The biggest difference is still the taste. AND, I don’t think I would ever come close to Uncle Tetsu’s quality for taste if I keep using… Philadephia cheese. There’s NOTHING wrong with that cheese, it just isn’t the best for this recipe as it came out on a heavier, sharper cheese taste than a light one. Uncle Tetsu uses a Austrialian specialty cheese… so…unless someone wants to gift me one sometime? -wink wink, nudge nudge-

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It’s definitely really important to get soft peaks and when that you GENTLY fold the meringue with the batter. You want to keep as much of the air bubbles in there to create that light and airy texture and the JIGGLINESS.

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The one thing I did differently was adding in honey as I wanted a thinner batter as I’ve seen in Uncle Tetsu’s shops. I’ll keep experimenting though. I want to try a different rack level in the oven too! And learn how to get that gorgeous, even browning on the top! AND I NEED MORE JIGGLE.

I’m just super glad my sister liked it and the kids! Haha.

TOO much effort to make this… probably be a good couple of months before I can find the time again.

Peace out.

Mish~