In the chaotic kitchen of a recipe developer, you get a food blog called FoodMayhem.
I'm Jessica, an Asian-American, born and raised in NYC, and that's Lon, my Jewish, white husband. While professionally trained as a French culinary- and pastry chef, many of FoodMayhem recipes are my attempt to preserve and share authentic Chinese and Taiwanese recipes learned from my mom. We don't eat Chinese food every day, so you'll get a little bit of anything we find delicious enough to share: from our Eastern European side; recipes and techniques learned from my restaurant days; restaurant reviews, food travel tips; and a few other juicy bits along the way. Welcome to FoodMayhem!
This weekend, we headed off to visit family in New Jersey. One of my aunts makes some Taiwanese specialties that you seldom see here and she was going to show me some stuff. (More about that in future posts.) We could not arrive without some delicious offerings of our own so we decided on a seasonal cheesecake. It was a fun collaborative dessert. Lon made the cheesecake (because he is the cheesecake master) and I made the topping.
For Tim’s birthday, I asked Sarah, what flavor(s) should his cake be? When she responded with chocolate and Earl Grey, I was ecstatic. I would be happy to make that (and eat that)! They turned out great if I do say so myself, and Lon backs me up.
* I made these cupcakes again for Liza’s birthday so I updated the finished product photos. 12/09/10
I selfishly developed this recipe just for me. I love cream cheese doughs and I love nuts. I love desserts, but not too sweet, and cuteness is a definite plus. This recipe has it all and would be pure heaven with a good cup of coffee.
We had to make a cake super fast yesterday. Luckily, we had left-over frosting from the Red Velvet Cake. I also wanted to use up the buttermilk (bought for the Red Velvet Cake), so a plan was born. I found a Nick Malgieri Recipe for Buttermilk Cake Layers. I would use the left-over frosting, and I’d throw in a strawberry and blueberry filling/topping of my own, to dress it up. It seamed like an easy plan in my head. Ok, so it turns out, it’s not THAT easy, but it’s not really hard either, just a few more steps… We were just in a real rush and had to throw it all together so fast that the frosting job wasn’t gorgeous but it tastes REALLY good. It’s now one of our favorites and will probably be frequently made as a birthday cake.
I got all excited when I saw beet powder at Kalustyan’s. My mind was buzzing, I was doing cartwheels (in my imagination)… I was going to make a red velvet cake I could eat (I’m allergic to artificial food coloring). Yipee!
Uh no, with some quick research, I found this article, here’s an exert:
“Food purists seeking to replicate the color, flavor and cooking method of a traditional red velvet cake by merely substituting natural food coloring for artificial colors will run into a series of obstacles. These occur because natural food dyes and pigments, like the pigment in beet powder, are sensitive to both heat and pH and change color when combined with baking soda or baking powder.”
Bummer…Mega Bummer!
I saw a Chocolate Stout Cake on 1Family Friendly Food, who had adapted their recipe from Closet Cooking, so I decided to have a little version of our own. We don’t have stout around but still have plenty of that Blackened Voodoo Lager from when we made Crawfish Gumbo and I just had to make them into cupcakes. (I tried really hard not to, but I did end up making two sizes again, regular and minis.)
It’s my friend Monica’s birthday and of course I made a cake. I went through the massive list of recipes I have bookmarked and decided on a banana cake. I made a few changes: I omitted the nuts (Monica doesn’t like nuts), opted for a cream cheese frosting, and threw in some chocolate shavings for decoration.
Since we’ve been watching House lately, I was thinking about the phrase “delivery mechanism”. It is used in reference to methods used to deliver drugs into the needy recipient. Around these parts the drug is homemade lox, the needy recipients are our mouths, and the delivery mechanisms vary.
We just came back from Maryland and our fridge is pretty empty. What could we make for lunch for Lon’s family? Lon picked up some chicken but I wanted some simple sides, and using just what we had at home, we got this great Spinach Artichoke Spread. This variation feels much lighter than the standard because there’s more vegetable than usual, but I’m not saying it’s healthy. There’s still tons of cream cheese and mayo.
If you’re still fumbling around for some last minute additions to your New Year’s party menu, this would be a great addition.
