stuffed cookies

This post was inspired by a link shared by my friend, Thu. After reading the article on Serious Eats, I knew I had to try it out myself. At first I had a really hard time with the cookie dough and the oreos since it was so stacked, so I looked through my pantry and found some nilla wafers. They were much easier to work with. Honestly, I preferred the ones stuffed with nilla wafers myself. All in all, it was a successful cookie making venture. For the chocolate chip, I used the recipe on the nestle toll house chocolate chip bag and replaced half the semi-sweet chips with white chocolate chips.

plain & simple biscuits

These are fool-proof biscuits. They are so easy to make and absolutely delicious.

three's a charm

Three years ago, I started this blog. To celebrate my lil' online journal of creations, I've baked it some cupcakes. How else would you celebrate a birthday? This is a chocolate beet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. I know it sounds a bit odd but not that odd. Back in the day, instead of using food coloring, people used beet juice to recreate the red color of red velvet cakes. If I hadn't made this myself, I would never have known there are beets in here. Seriously. The cake was moist and fluffy. 

maple pecan banana muffins

So sorry I've been m.i.a. lately. It's been busy getting ready for my month-long trip to Asia, wrapping up work, and preparing for grad school. There's a lot on my plate but regardless, I've still cooking and baking in the kitchen.  I actually made these muffins a couple of weeks ago and just getting around to posting this now.

I've actually never baked with maple syrup before. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever bought maple syrup. I may have received it as a gift and probably ate it with pancakes. There are a few reasons why I never buy maple syrup, one, it's expensive and two, I didn't know what else to do with it than eat pancakes with.So it's been years since I've had maple syrup. So what made me go to the grocery store and get some now? I recently went to McDonald's and had their fruit & maple oatmeal, which re-introduced me to deep, woodsy flavor of maple syrup. And I loved it!

coconut cupcakes

 

I can't believe its March already. It'll be summer before you know it. To celebrate the coming of spring and my co-worker/friend, Natalie's birthday, I decided to bake some coconut cupcakes. It's been a while since I made cupcakes, so this was a real treat. They turned out absolutely delicious, light and fluffy. I stuffed them with some custard (naisu) to get an extra layer of texture and flavor. Gary's cousin had brought some canned naisu back from Taiwan but you can also make your own from scratch and steam/bake the filling (since there are eggs in the recipe).