A touch of Claire- baking, cooking& life

I do bake a lot of cookies, cakes and pastries; I found them extremely useful when I go to parties or simply want to please my foodie friends.   Indeed, I can always find myself a justified excuse to bake. (Once I started to make the first birthday cake for my friend in lab, I unconsciously have set myself into this situation. So, I felt really relieved that I don't need to bake for the next coming birthday- that is my own lol.) But I don't 'consume' many of the sweet stuffs I bake; baking makes me more aware of how good 'calories' taste, so I actually lost some pounds since I started baking XP.  What I do bake for myself all the time are sourdough artisan breads! They have even replaced rice totally to become my staple now. I just enjoy the aroma of grains so much and cannot have enough of those bread! I like to try different recipes of artisan bread, mostly changing the grains and nuts I put into the dough. It's amazing that combination of different g...

Happy Chinese New Year!!! Actually the past week was not easy at all for me; I got my first challenge for graduate school- qualify exam lol I've been working in front of my laptop all day long for days (maybe not that productive I have to say...), and it is stressful indeed. But, come on, the Lunar New Year is the most important day of the year! So even if I don't have time to make dumplings by myself, stealing dumplings from my friends' party is definitely a good idea XP  Well, not truly stealing, I also brought something- my lemon tart! The dough was made and frozen beforehand, so it didn't take me much time. Besides, I surely need some chill during the stressful time, right? Baking is just my perfect way of relax~ I like the recipe really much- the filling is made of 9 eggs (crazy!), 1 yolk, heavy cream, and lots of fresh lemon juice with zest, giving it perfect flavor and texture. I also tried to make a caramel crust, but I didn't have a torch (Santa, ple...

Here comes the 'bad' news for bakers: once you start to make a cake for a friend, you then have the responsibility to bake everyone a cake for their birthdays! So that was what I did basically... Fortunately, until now, baking is still more of joy than pain XD As I'm still a green hand in baking and haven't tried making a cream, decorated cake, I decided to go for a simple one- simple but should be good-looking~ The black forest is apparently the perfect recipe for me! A rough spreading of cream covered by shredded chocolate, it looks just like what we buy in 'real' bakeries! The cake base is a chocolate sponge cake- it is firmer than a chiffon so that it can hold the cream and filling more easily. I cut the cake into two slices, brushed rum with cherry juice ( Kirschwasser  would be the best!) on each, and put lots of cream and black cherries in the middle (never too much!!!). The cherries give the cake an extra layer of flavor- yum!!! Last but not least...

I guess I just have some 'cheesecake' mood recently- one cheesecake a day! Well, the real reason is that I happen to have so many friends who are really big fan of cheesecakes. And I'm just such a good person XP. I tried two recipes: the first is a really 'heavy' one-lots of cream cheese, some sour cream, a little bit butter.  The second contains similar amount of cream cheese, sour cream and heavy cream. They are quite different, but both are amazing! With more cheese, the heavier one is so rich and cheesy, vs. the lighter one is more moist and soft, but rich still.  (I also tried a 'light' version before, using only cream cheese and milk- it melts in your mouth!) The recipes are from some Japanese bakers. I really like Japanese cheesecakes, which seem to be more delicate. (I used to think there couldn't be bad cheesecakes, until I tried some ones literally with NO cheese flavor, and super sweet!) Be nice to yourself, from making your own cheese...

I've been feeling a little bit blue these days, I guess part of which is due to a natural cycle of mood. I can make myself feel less uneasy with this excuse, but I know there are some reasons: 1. I came to this country, stepped on the glorious island approximately 1 and 1/2 years ago; I've been enjoying the many goods Manhattan offers me, but sometimes I do feel lonely in my 8th floored small apartment, especially when here come Christmas, new year and Chinese new year. Sometimes I do want to be cuddled in some reliable arm, which could be extremely hard here! Sometimes my girlfriends and I came to the conclusion that the only way to survive the busy metropolis is to enjoy a "Sex and the city" lifestyle- sigh... OK, enough for the dreamwords, a more reasonable excuse for my blueness is a friend of mine finished his master degree here and is going back to China. It's always so hard for me to say words like goodbye. We held a small farewell party for him, as food ...

I could have one thousand reasons to open a blog- just about some random pieces of life, my crazy ideas, people I hate and love, and most importantly, my love about baking!!! But I was so hesitant to actually do so (OK, I admit that lameness is one of the reasons), coz I'm not satisfied with the pictures I take! I was looking at the hundreds of pretty pictures on several popular food blog, enjoying and complaining- since when has photographing become an essential life skill besides computer and replacing the bulbs?!! (I'm good at neither btw.)  After all, I do want to present my cakes in a more pleasant way. So here is the decision I just made: I'm going to work hard on photographing. Hopefully the blog can see my growing~~~~ The small cakes are adapted from Thomas Keller's devil food cake. Love the rich chocolateness 'enriched' by mayonnaise! I added red bean flavored cream (so popular in Asian sweets!) between two cake layers, and glazed the layer ca...