Tutorial: Strawberries 'n Creme Cake!

Long time no baking tutorial! 8) With the holidays just around the corner, I think this one is a good time~ I actually did this one quite a ways back, but never had the patience and time to post it. :P Well, here it is! It's just a simple 2 layered cake with strawberries and creme. Instead of strawberries, you can always opt for other fruits. I usually add in blackberries or blueberries, but because this cake was made within an hour for my cousin's birthday dinner, I was in a HUGE hurry. I was about 20-30 min late, but oh well~ the desert was good! ;)


Gather up your ingredients!

Pre-heat the oven to 330 degrees. I ended up putting mine at 350 degrees because I was running REALLY late. I had to risk drying out the cake or burning it, but it turned out fine! Lucky me :P

I know... a LOT of eggs huh?

Wisk it with an electric mixer for about 5-10 min. It has to be really bubbly! Mine wasn't quite there, but because I was in a hurry, I was out of time. It's VERY important to have the eggs really fluffy and bubbly, because there is no yeast/baking powder involved in this cake. This is what's going to make this cake rise!

Measure up the sugar!

And add it in with the eggs. Continue to mix!

Go ahead and add in your vanilla extract...
and your honey! Mix it very well.

Measure up your flour and prepare a sifter with it.

You can stop mixing after the mixture is very opaque and thick. This picture is nowhere near thick enough, but once again, I was in a hurry.

Now, TURN OFF THE ELECTRIC WISK/MIXER. DON'T USE! This part, we will be mixing it by hand. So prepare a plastic glove. Go ahead and sift some of that flour we just prepared over the top of the mixture. Just enough to cover it. I couldn't take any pictures of this part, because I needed both hands to do this, and I don't really have a third arm to take pictures. Basically, using your hand, fold in the flour, but at the same time, make sure your rub your fingers together through the flour. It has to dissolve completely (this is very important--you can't leave any flour un-dissolved, or you'll have a powdery cake!) Repeat sifting and dissolving until you're completely done with the flour.

Go ahead and melt your butter. But remember, it CAN'T be hot, or it'll cook the eggs in the mixture! Room temperature is the best. Add in a bit of milk for a smoother texture. I like to pop my butter in the microwave (since I keep mine in the fridge) for a couple of seconds, and let it cool. Now, take a handful of the mixture, and put it directly into whatever bowl/cup you melted your butter in. Mix in the butter with the mixture. It'll be really gloppy. Now, take that handful of buttered up mixture and combine by hand back into the rest. We do this, because the oils from the butter will naturally deflate the mixture. If we take a smaller bit, it creates a base, or medium for the butter to stick onto.

Butter the pan. Taking a spatula, pour the mixture into a cake pan. Don't worry, you only need one cake pan.

Now pop it in the oven!

While it's baking, clean up the big mess you've made, and do the dishes! If you wait till the end, it'll be too much to handle! :P After you've done that, wash the strawberries.

And cut off the stems~

Cut them up like this! Chop chop chop...

When your cake is finished, leave it out to cool. To check if it's done, poke it with a skewer, or toothpick (chopsticks work ;D). If it comes out clean from the center of the cake, it's done.

While the cake is cooling, let's make the cream! Just take out your carton of whipping creme. It's in the form of milk--you just have to wisk it up.

You need your electric whisk/mixer for this part. Take the bowl and place it in the sink, since there's going to be a lot of fly-away.

Add in 3-4 tbsp of sugar, and mix it for about 5-8 minutes. Yes, it's going to feel like FOREVER, and you'll start to feel it in your arm... but it'll be all worth it for a great cake! You'll know when it's done when you flip the bowl upside down, and the mixture won't even fall out. Taste it once in awhile to see if you need more sugar. But make sure you don't over mix! If it passes the peak point of firming itself, you'll just turn it back to the milk form (which you can't mix up a second time!)

Your cake should be cooled by now... so go ahead and prepare a large surface. Take a knife, and gently go around the edges of the cake--CAREFUL NOT TO SCRATCH THE PAN!

Tap the botton of the pan a bit, and it should slide right out.

Taking some sort of bread knife, cut the cake into to layers. This is a great trick so that you don't bake two separate cakes to make a two story cake. Plus, you can never finish one! This way, it's more.. realistic? :p

Take another rounded edge knife to cream the cake. (the tools I'm using were specially made for this) Spread some of the cream onto the bottom layer of the cake. A good amount--but not too much! You need to save it for the rest of the cake.

Throw some of the strawberries onto the cream! yum... Put the majority of your fruit in the center, because that's where it tastes the best.

Take a little bit more of the cream, and spread it over the fruit. With whatever is leftover, spread it onto the inside of the top layer. Now, flip the top layer over back onto the cake (so that it looks like the way it did when it first came out of the pan--bottom up!). Completely cover the top and sides with the cream--finish it! Decorate the cake whatever way you'd like. Throw the rest of the fruits on top, or line them up anyway you'd like. Whole strawberries... or get a ziplock, cut a corner, fit your icing stencil, and cream out a cool pattern on it.

I decided to just cut the rest of my strawberries up, and throw 'em into a heart shape. I tried to make a floating trail.. but failed miserably.

Because this was for a party, and I needed to move the cake, I had prepared a cake box from Tous Les Jours (Korean bakery). But because the cake was too big, I had to cut it into a square shape!

I was sort of upset I had to cut off the cake, but... then I looked again--you can see the fruit from the inside layer! It looks absolutely stunning!

The cake was a huge success, from such a small amount of time. It's a great desert, and makes a terrific bday cake! ;) Hope you enjoyed it!

This cake is a secret my mother passed onto me--the cake recipe is actually a recipe for a custard. Normal cake mixture was just too bland for this extraordinary cake. Having the bread a custard adds tons more flavor, and makes it a bit more sweet. But don't worry, it's not the type of cake with frosting on it; it's cream. It won't be overly sweet for adults.

EDIT: Holy Moses, I didn't even write up the ingredients or anything! Jesus Christ. I'll do that asap.
This is my absolute favorite cake. I hope it will become yours too!
Best,
Jinna <3

EOTD + Santee Haul~

Hi all! :)) I meant to post this last night, but after I uploaded my pictures onto Photobucket, I passed out. ahahah ;D Here's a quick EOTD/FOTD! I used my Miss Rose Palette and followed one of RiceBunny's tutorials :) Sunset Eyes. Sorry I couldn't take a close-up of my eye! My camera would just not focus. :( hope you like!



Also! 2 weekends ago, I went over to downtown LA with the oh so lovely Mirie and Leesen C: We went shopping at Santee, ate hotdogs--which were AMAZING, got yelled at by a Persian shop owner, and had tons of fun :)

I picked up a quite a few nail polishes; a lot of the stores carried L.A. Girl stuff--those are the polishes with the ultra fine brushes for deco-ing your nails! You can always opt to buy a nail art brush for about. $3-5, but I'm too lazy to clean them! ;D go laziness! I also ran into a shop which sold most of Burt Bees Products. I'm always looking for their clay mask, but it's only sold out of the country for some reason... They didn't carry it, but I did manage to spot their Garden Tomato Toner! So of course, I bought it. :) I also got some lashes by Red Cherry, and a NYX Round Lipstick in Sierra. It's a really pretty natural, everyday color. But since my lips are VERY pigmented, the color looks really reddish on me :P I still like it!






Hoped you enjoyed the post! :3
Best,
Jinna<3

EOTD + Mini Haul :)

Hey homefries :)

After an early session of a cello lesson, it was fairly early--6PM~ish. The Amore store across the street was still open; oh what the hell, I ran out of masks recently anyway ;)) Just in case those who are wondering, Amore is a huge Korean cosmetics company. Amore is the company that owns the branches Hera, VOV, CLIO, Laneige, etc. Sort of like how Shiseido is the main branch for Cle De Peau.


Here's the cute bag :P

Only got three, but thought I'd share!

This is seaweed mask! Because the cover has a blue mask on it, I was expecting a blue mask XD but... turns out it just looks like goo. :p Like greenish Aloe (even aloe is green...). It's one of those masks you rinse off after letting it air dry for a couple of minutes. It doesn't feel like a mask! It actually feels like a heavy night cream. I didn't want to wash it off! Seaweed helps blood circulation, so I wanted to keep it on for long as possible :) I LOVE this!

This one's with Royal Jelly in it. I've always heard good things about Royal Jelly for your skin, but I've always been familiar with it because a lot of Asian vitamin supplements/health enhancers tend to contain Royal Jelly. I haven't used this one yet, but i'm guessing it'll serve close to a collagen mask, with anti-aging properites.

I also got a brightening/whitening mask! These things always work, and leave me face smelling wonderful :)) I've used this company before, but never the Whitening one. I hope it'll give me some great results... Amore makes excellent whitening masks as well! But they are a bit on the pricier side :P

The weather is starting to get cold, and the sun is hardly visible when i'm out. I hate the feeling of oily/greasy sunscreen, but wear it everyday anyway. Because I'm using more hydrating moisturizers due to the drier weather, (even I have oily skin) my skin just feels nasty with the SPF smothered on top. I have found a solution!

This is a popular product during the summer in Korea. It's by a branch called IOPE, also owned by Amore. It's basically sunscreen, but in a powder form! It's a loose powder, and it's transparent. Because it's so humid during the summer in Korea, this is a great option for women to turn to. It gives a matte finish, and it doesn't get oily at all. It serves like a blot powder! The picture is blurry, and I'm too lazy to get up and check... I believe it's SPF 45 PA+++, or something on those lines. ;)

It's finely milled, and there's a part where you can twist it, and it grinds out more powder. It also comes with a built-in powder puff for touch-ups throughout the day. It comes with extra replacements, of course. You can purchase this product at any Korean cosmetics counter that sells IOPE products. It won't be hard to find, since most counters carry IOPE.
EDIT: I don't know why, but I wasn't too happy with the powder today... It settled into my pores alot! I was rather oilier today, and I think that's what it was. I don't recommend this if you have extremely oily skin.

Till next time! :)
Best,
-Jinna

Cooking Tutorial: Creamy Penne Pasta!

So! I've been experimenting alot lately with food. Pasta is my absolute favorite thing to eat in this whole wide world (not to mention caramel apples!). This is a very quick and easy recipe for a fancy dinner without that fancy time wasted. C; Let's jump right into the tutorial!

Ingredients:
-2 slices of bacon
-2 tsp of minced garlic
-2 tbsp of butter
-1 onion
-1 green onion/spring onion
-1/3 cup of fresh basil (I used dry because I forgot to pick some up!)
-250g (8oz) of Ricotta
-325g (11oz) of Penne Pasta (or any other pasta)
-1 Cup of cherry tomatoes--halved
-half & half cream (the kind for your coffee!)
-Any grated cheese of your choice

Optional:
-Pico de Galo/Salsa
-Garlic Bread

*Sorry if you feel like i'm constantly going back and forth between the sauce, pasta, and chopping--I've put up the steps in the order which they happened to me.


Gather up your ingredients!


First, boil some water for the pasta!


Also prepare a pan with a semi-deep, wideset body for the sauce we're going to make.


Take those cherry/grape tomatoes, wash em, and half em!




By this point, your water should be at a nice rolling boil.


Well?! What're you waiting for! Put in how much you and your partner want to eat!


Now, since it's not boiling anymore, lets go back to the chopping!


Chop up them onions!


By now, the water should have come back to the boil--but this time, with foam that threatens to overflow C;


This is a secret I learned from my mom from boiling noodles--just throw over some cold water on top of the foam! It'll settle down, and come down to the slightest little boil.


Throw the lid on, and let it sit! This will speed up the process of cooking your pasta by a long run.


This is optional, but if you want to have some garlic bread with your pasta, this is the time to toast it! I'm lazy, so I went ahead and bought premade garlic bread.


It has butter, roasted galic, herbs.. oh man. i'm getting hungry.


And pop it in a little conventional oven! It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know when it's done...


Before your water wants to overflow again, take off the lid, and give your pasta a stir. Make sure you try it once in awhile to estimate how much long you need to cook it!


Now, take out your bacon slices!


Cook them in the saucepan that we're going to use for the sauce!


Cut up the bacon into little bits with a scissor. We do this after it's fully cooked, because raw-anything will refuse to be cut.


Take a paper towel and blot the excess oils!


When that's done, throw in your onions, tomatoes, minced garlic, basil, salt, pepper, and green onions.


Before you do anthing else, make sure you don't over cook your pasta and drain it--SAVE THE DRAINED WATER! We will use it for the sauce!


Add in your butter, and sautee your ingredients real good.


Finally, add in your ricotta, shredded cheese, and half & half. I won't say exactly how much--you'll know how much by looking at the consistency of it. Also, ladle in your drained water from your pasta to dilute it a bit. This way, the water isn't plain water, but still has the flavors from the pasta leftover. Finally, add in your penne! The more you mix, the better the sauce will become incorporated with the pasta!


Make sure you don't burn your bread!


Now, transfer the pasta into a serving bowl.


Serve it with your garlic bread C:

Finished!
This is a very quick and easy pasta recipe that you'll absolutely love. You can control how thick/watery your sauce will be by adding in more half & half to dilute, or more ricotta to thicken. Remember, you're unlimited to what you want to put in! If you're not a fan of bacon, throw in some chicken! Or if you're a fan of seafood, go ahead and throw in some shrimp, muscles, clams, or even tuna! As you've seen, i've included pico de galo in my optional list! Sometimes, pasta can get a bit dull for me, so I like to eat it with a bit of salsa. You have endless possibilities!

Bon appetit!
-Jinna

Stay tuned for some great desert recipes!

Review/Demo: Queen Helene's Mint Julep Masque

Many of you are probably already aware of what this is, and just how amazing this is. =) This is my ALL-TIME FAVORITE mask! It's one of those very few masks where you can actually feel the difference as well as see the difference on your skin. The mask comes in either a tube or a jar.

CVS used to carry them in the tubes, but just recently, they've stopped. Just 2 weeks ago, I asked one of the stockers, and they say that they think it's either discontinued, or just not making it in the tubes anymore. HORRIFIED, I went directly to the closest Sally's Beauty Supply store. They carried it in the jar--which is larger than the tube. I bought it right away!

Mint is a natural remedy for many things. While mint oil is a good anti septic and anti pruritic, mint juice is also an excellent skin cleanser. It soothes skin, cures infections, itching etc., and is also good for pimples. Its anti pruritic properties can also be used for treating bites of insects like mosquitoes, honey-bees, hornets, wasps, gnats etc.



The texture of the mask is a clay. And guess what? It's betonite/kaolin clay! That's the stuff used in those ridiculously expensive volcanic clay masks you can get at a spa! But this stuff is only around $5!
The clay claims to dry up pimples and shrink enlarged pores. Does it actually do it? Yes! absolutely. This clay contains sulfur, which is used to treat acne. It also has Zinc Oxide in it, which is found in the Earth's deepest layers--which is used for mineral makeup. There are also no harmful chemicals, as well as artificial coloring. The mask is its natural color.

Now... after cleansing your face, apply the mask and spread it evenly. I concentrate the thickness on my t-zone. (especially my nose!)


Let it completely dry. It'll take about 10 minutes max.


When it's dry, you can see the oils and impurities that have been soaked up by the mask--even you just washed your face! (gross!) So all of your pores will be visible. I'm warning you, it doesn't look so pretty...

yeh yeh yeh, I know, it looks pretty nasty.

Wash it all off with luke-warm water. But after, I like to rinse off with icy water to re-tighten those pores. Use a washcloth if you have to! It takes a bit of effort to get it all off. Finish it off with some toner--to pick up any leftover residue, your treatments/serums, and your moisturizer! I wish beautiful skin for the both of us!
-Jinna