Strawberry Mousse Cake FAIL and the Garburtor

Hello, hello my dear fellow foodies!

Its been a while hasn't it? Almost a month! I have been so very busy with the end of the school year and exams, and thus have had no time to update, and do you guys know what the worst thing about it is? I havent baked since early March! Oh my god. It hurts. the PAIN! *dramatic faint*

But now that I was done exams and ready to get into the full swing of things, I pondered...what can I make? It can't be just any old thing! It has to be special. Special enough to make up for all that missed time. And then it dawned on me. Last year, right after my exams I had the SAME exact dilemma. Last year, on April 22nd, I posted about my invention, my baby, my strawberry mousse cake.

However, I wanted to do a little something different this time around, to change things up a bit. I decided to make it sort of like my adapted peach mousse cake, and have a strawberry jele on top, instead of that crackling chocolate I wasn't too fond of. So, excited and happy, I set off to the kitchen like a happy little chipmunk sets off to hide her acorns. So I changed and tweaked the recipe a little, and everything was going great, and I was making excellent time and would definitely be left with plenty of daylight time to take my pictures. I was free. I was happy.

And then the garburator happened.

Whenever the garburator happens, a chef must use his/her skills to undermine this little monster and protect their prized foodie possessions. Now dont get me wrong, I dont mean an actual garburator you would find in a kitchen sink. no, no,no,no,no. If only. The garburator, my dear friends, comes out and eats half your cookie dough mix if you leave it unattended. The garburator eats the packet of chocolate chips you bought to MAKE said chocolate chip cookies. It will cause frosting you froze in the freezer and are depending on to be half gone, for your cakes to have finger print smudges on. It will eat all the muffins you spend hours of love laboring over - ok maybe not ALL of them, but about 10 out of 12, so it might as well have eaten all of them. This garburator is every cook's worst nightmare. This garburator is my little brother.

see that thin layer of gele? it should be a thick layer of gele

My little brother, who is coincidentally not so little anymore (he's now taller than me!), has been a challenge to deal with over my years of cooking and baking. It seems as if for every time I achieved a new baking skill, I also learned a new 'anti-garburator' skill, such as hiding the brownies in the microwave, or telling him they are all done in the hopes that he will only eat 5 brownies as opposed to all 12!

Now, back to my mousse cake. You see, I had prepared this perfect gele to pour on top of my mousse cake. Since I had already spread the mousse and was waiting for it to set in the fridge, I went out shopping with my mother and left the gele mixture in the blender. I came home to find that out of the 1/2 cup I made, there was maybe 2-3 tablespoons left! Of course I knew who the culprit was, and after some big drama, I was left with nothing. I decided to freeze the cake over night until I could get strawberries the next day to remake a batch of gele. This was a mistake. Learn from me, DON'T freeze this cake! The next day proved impossible for getting strawberries, so I ended up pouring that 2-3 tablespoons of gele on top.

This is why it looks so fugly.

But don't worry, it tasted amazing as usual! I plan on making this again very soon, and when I do (and when I manage to keep the garburator away) I'll be sure to post up the updated recipe and take some pretty pictures! :) ( as opposed to these fugly ones)

Read more...

Exploring Spices

I don’t know about you guys, but I really need to get more spice-savy. As a foodie it seems almost essential, yet its surprising how many foodies don’t know much, if anything about spices! When Penderys contacted me about doing a review on their spices I jumped at the opportunity to learn more. As I was browsing their site and all that they had to offer, I was quite surprised at the vast variety that they had! I had no idea there were SO many different types of spices! From good old fashion allspice to spices I had never even heard of (like CALENDULA).

I’m quickly realizing I need to acquaint myself more with new spices, and find out more about the varieties of the ones I already know about (Vanilla powder sounds amazing- can somebody say fluffy vanilla frosting?) Unfortunately, it seems that they only ship to the US, and I would like to see them expand internationally.

Pendery’s seems to be a lovely ‘family owned’ company. Though their website layout may not be as pretty as some of the others, it sure is user friendly. Their site also goes beyond just selling their product to their customers; they go into detail about how to care for their products, which I really appreciate. Apparently Seeds with high oil content, e.g. Poppy or Sesame, should be refrigerated or frozen, and Colorful spices, eg Paprika, should be refrigerated. Who would have known!

Speaking of Paprika, you guys should really check out their page on paprika – I had never thought that there could be SO many different types – from spanish paprika to Hungarian to Spanish Smoked. Also, if you are running low, be sure to get some now because my next recipe will actually be using some paprika.

Overall, its clear that they have excellent quality products, and a fan base since they are currently celebrating their 139^th anniversary!

So tell me fellow bloggers, whats your favorite spice? Mine would definitely have to be garlic powder, I use it in EVERYTHING!

Also, a Question to my readers, are you guys interested in me doing product reviews? What product would you guys like me to review next? :)

Read more...