OMG! cookie + cake + pie = <3 aka heart attack

just saw this featured over at Serious Eats and it deserves a post in its honor...i think i'll try it out sometime with a few alterations to make it not as heart attack inducing...hot damn tho, that's some serious sugar rush.

http://www.cakespy.com/2009/05/triple-threat-cookie-cake-pie.html

fast food dim sum?!?!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/get-sum-dim-sum-austin

so they just opened last monday. when i first heard of this place i was baffled...dim sum, fast food style? something about that just sounds WRONG...

i'll give this place props though. it's a pretty ingenious idea, but to be honest, the crowd they'll be getting aren't going to be hardcore, must go every weekend, dimsumers. it's located at the old panda express location off of 45th and lamar, by the starbucks and chipotle. the decor inside is nice with plenty of seating.

pros: dim sum everyday from something like 11am-9pm, quality isn't too shabby, nice variety on menu

cons: when i went in i totally felt smothered by the employee and managers there (i guess as a regular dim sum enthusiast i didn't feel the need to have anything explained to me), pricier than i would have liked to pay, fast food dim sum experience is exactly how it sounds like it would be

food overview: i got some combo thing that you could choose 2 dim sum items, a cha shao or vege bun, and a sesame ball. the dim sum items i choose were har gao (3pcs) and fried chkn spring rolls (2 piece).

• har gao skin was too thick, but not bad taste wise
• fried chkn spring roll was a no go...for some reason the insides tasted more mushy than it should...usually you can taste the separate components of a fried spring roll, but not in this one.
• cha shao bun, not bad...nice and savory with more than enough pork in it. juicier than i was used to with a lot of the chinese bbq sauce in there, but it was enjoyable
• sesame ball...this was surprisingly my favorite...the ball was bigger than usual sesame balls and their was definitely substance to the sticky rice portion as well as the filling of red bean. i liked that it didn't have much of an empty air pocket when you bit in

so basically, i'd go back, but only if i was seriously craving dim sum during the week or to tide me over until i could actually go out and get some real dimsum at t&s or shanghai. $8 for all of that was a bit pricier than i expected. i'm fairly sure i'm going to go a la carte next time for my order.

i'm back!

so, this blog had obviously been put on the back burner in my life, but now that it's summer, time to resurrect it! also, my good friend Thomas will be helping me out to ensure that it doesn't fall in the cracks once school starts up again.

newest cake venture was a success!!!

Banana Nutella Roll Cake

i used the recipe from Cafe Chocolada's blog, and it turned out amazing!

some things i did change:

• i used nutella instead of jam for the roll cake 
• added some almond extract into the roll cake and vanilla cream filling
• the vanilla cream for the inside filling came out with some lumps so i painstakingly used a strainer/sifter thing to remove them
  
• melted some chocolate chips with a tad of shortening (to harden it when it dries) and used a ziplock to pipe it decoratively on top
• for the cream on top (she didn't have a recipe for it) i just whipped heavy whipping cream with some powdered sugar and vanilla extract until it was firm enough to spoon onto the top of the cake

i really love the way the cake tastes and looks, and the recipe was relatively easy. great results from a first try. something i did notice was the substitution with nutella caused the rolls to be harder to slice...i basically had to wash the knife after every 2 slices or so...maybe a ganache would've worked out better? or spreading less nutella (but really, who wants that)? 

the picture of the cake is also posted on FB and i got some great and positive feedback from ppl who saw that as well as ppl who were lucky enough to get a slice =]. definitely a keeper recipe.