Not So Creative Burger Cake

I should be ecstatic that I get to make and bake different doughs and batters everyday at work, but surprisingly that's not the case.. It gets a little bit boring when baking has to be done scientifically with exact calculations, thorough measurements, and strict procedure. Don't get me wrong, I love my project and am excited about it, but sometimes I long to bake something different, fun, and possibly creative. Arghhh, I miss baking macarons, mousse cakes, and Asian breads sooo muchhhh!! I wish I have my KitchenAid mixer, molds, pans, ingredients, and baking books here :(

Whatever, I just have to make do with what I have here. Okay, I have tons of cake mixes, canned frosting, and many other General Mills products. What can I make with these ingredients? So I google cake recipes and find a not-so-creative (because a lot of people have made it) but still interesting cake: Burger Cake. I've never made a Burger Cake before since my boyfriend and I don't like brightly colored frosting on our cake. Well, now I get the chance to make it.. My version of burger cake is very simple, you don't need any specialty pans or ingredients to make it. You can buy all the ingredients in your local grocery store and if you ever bake, you should have 8-inch round cake pan. Here it goes..

Burger Cake

Ingredients:

Instructions:
1. Bake yellow cake mix according to manufacturer's instructions in 2 8-inch round pans for burger buns.
2. Bake brownie mix in the same size pan for burger patty.
3. After the cake and brownie are cool to the touch, spread frosting (any flavor and color) on the first cake layer.
4. Stack the brownie layer on top of the first cake layer.
5. Spread yellow frosting on top of the brownie layer to mimic melting cheese.
6. Unroll and stack 3 fruit rolls together and cut rounds out of them. Cut the rounds in halves and arrange on top of the "cheese" to mimic sliced tomatoes.
7. Squeeze strings of green frosting on top of the "tomatoes" to mimic shredded lettuce.
8. Put the second layer on top of the "lettuce" and squeeze dots of white frosting on top to mimic sesame seeds.

Easy right? And the result? Jyang jyang jyang jyang....

You can make it fancier by using fondant and forming it into onion rings, bacon strips, or pickles. For the shredded lettuce, you can color some shredded coconut with green food coloring (mix a drop of green food coloring and shredded coconut in a ziploc bag). Also, you can bake the top bun in an oven-safe bowl, cover the buns with colored frosting, and sprinkle the top with real sesame seeds. Anw, enjoy making your own version of Burger Cake v(^o^)v

Thunderstorm and Bread Pudding

I hate Midwest weather. It can be really hot one day and pouring like there's no tomorrow on the next day. Take yesterday and today for example, it was super hot yesterday and we had a severe thunderstorm today. I was playing tennis with my friends when the lightning started, so we ran back to our apartment. After I got home, it began to rain like somebody just threw a bucket full of water from the sky. Chilly weather, rain, hmm... I suddenly craved for something warm, sweet, and creamy.. But what could I make? It had to be quick, simple, and easy.... Bread pudding! I got a loaf of Boudin sourdough bread that my boyfriend brought me 3 weeks ago and I had been meaning to make something with it.

Bread - check! Eggs - check! Milk - check! Sugar -check! I got all the basic ingredients for a bread pudding, but I had to make it more interesting. So I grabbed vanilla extract, chocolate chips, and bananas and mixed them with the rest of the ingredients. After 45 minutes, I was able to enjoy a bowl of warm, sweet, creamy, tangy bread pudding. The tanginess of sourdough worked very well with the sweetness of the custard and made it taste almost like cheesecake. And of course, you can never go wrong with chocolate and banana. Mission accomplished :)

First Real Baking @ Minneapolis

It's been a long time since my last post because I haven't baked for a while. I move to Minneapolis for a summer internship at General Mills and I didn't bring all my baking equipments with me. Here are some pictures of my apartment:

 The apartment is actually very nice (except for the small bedroom) and it comes fully furnished. They even provide a whisk, a baking pan, a cookie sheet, and mixing bowls, so I can actually bake some simple baked goods.

I got so many boxes of cake and brownie mixes from work and most of them will go bad by the end of this month. So, I decided to bake some brownies this weekend! Yuuummmm! Usually I don't like using boxed mixes, but I had no choice since I don't have my pantry here. I followed the direction on the box to make the brownie base, swirled in cream cheese batter in one pan, and baked the other one as is. After they were done, I frosted the plain one with peanut butter and milk chocolate frostings. Oooohhhh.... They're sooo good, if I dare to say so myself :D Anw, pictures are below as usual...