Baklava Cups Recipe

Couple months ago, I tried to make my very first Baklava (recipe here).  This is one of the most additive desserts I ever ate.  After my first successful attempt, I wanted to make this little treat again for our Easter's dinner; however, I want to make it a little bits different than the one I made the last time.  So I went online and find a pretty interesting recipe from Food Network.com.  The one appears on Food Network.com looks different than the traditional one I made the last time.  The ingridents are also a little bits different too.  I used walnuts and almonds as the recipe called for.  Also added bread crumbs and dried apricots too.  Don't under estimate the bread crumbs, they actually make a BIG different in the texture of the filling.  And the dried apricots make the baklava cups lighter than the traditional one.  

A traditional Baklava I made couple months ago.

The one I made the last time was closer to the one I had in Greece.  The one I made for Easter's dinner had a little Italian twist on it since Giada De Laurentiis is an Italian.  The one I made the last time was a little bits sweeter than the one I made for Easter.  They were different, but I loved them both!  Try both receipes and let me know what you think=)

This recipe was adopted from Giada De Laurentiis's recipe, you could also click here for her demo video:

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup almonds
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
• 1/4 cup plain bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• Pinch of salt
• 1 stick butter, melted, divided
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 12 sheets phyllo dough
• Special equipment: 2 mini-muffin tins

Time:  60 mins

Make: 6 sheets phyllo dough make a dozen, 12 sheets make 2 dozens

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Place the almonds, walnuts, apricots, bread crumbs, sugar, cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt in a food processor. Run the machine until the mixture is very finely chopped. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of the melted butter and the honey and stir to combine
3. On a dry work surface place 1 sheet of phyllo. Using a pastry brush and the remaining melted butter, lightly cover the entire sheet of phyllo with melted butter. Cover the first sheet with a second sheet of phyllo and brush with melted butter. Continue until there is a stack of 6 sheets of phyllo.
4. Cut the stacked phyllo rectangle into 12 equal pieces (Cut lengthwise into 4 pieces and widthwise into 3 pieces.)
5. Gently press each cut piece of phyllo into the mini-muffin tin cups. Press 1 tablespoon of the nut mixture into each of the phyllo cups. Gather the ends of each of the phyllo squares and twist to make a sachet shape. Continue shaping the remaining sachets in the other mini-muffin tin.
6. Bake until the edges of the phyllo are golden, about 20 to 25 minutes.
7. When cool enough to handle, remove the baklava sachets and transfer to a serving plate.

My Pet Peeves

I love cupcakes, either the ones I made or the ones made by other bakeries.  However, I do have my pet peeves about eating cupcakes though.  And I would love to share what they are here:

1)  Overly sweet frosting - Need I explain more?!
2)  Too much frosting - I know a lot of bakeries charge close to $4-5 for a piece of this sweet treat.  In order to make their customer to think they spent their money wisely, they just pipe the frosting as tall as they could to make the cupcake looks bigger.  Balance is the key, OK?!
3)  Cupcake got burn on the bottom of the "cupcake top" - and this is one of the main one among all 3.  A lot of bakeries they over pour the batter into the pan.  When the cupcakes baked in the oven, they rise and the "cupcake top" (you know what muffin top is, cupcake top is the same thing) got burnt a little on the side and the bottom.  You might not notice and question what I am talking about, check the pictures below and you will get what I mean (PS. I didn't make the cupcake in the picture=p).

Cupcake top...

...got burnt

Love always makes me puke!

I made a dozen of South Park Valentine's Day Special cupcake toppers for my Etsy customer last week.  My customer got the idea from Wendy and Stan from South Park, and he wanted me to make Stan's throwing up on the toppers.  If you are a die hard fans of South Park, you know that Stan got nervous when he falls in love.  He often vomits when Wendy trys to kiss or talk to him. 

I made some talking bubbles to go with the toppers, so it looks like the two characters are talking to each other.

The cupcake toppers were sent out by certified mail. 
They were safely arrived at my customer's house.
 Here is a picture my customer sent me.  "you bake, I make them pretty!" 

I Love Sewing Cupcake Toppers

Hi, how's your weekend?  I had a great but busy weekend this week.  Went to visit my family and my new nephew, attended my good friend's wedding and went to Mr. G's grandpa's birthday party.  But don't worry, no matter how busy I am, I have never forgot about my C for Cupcake Cupcakery's blog to remain connected with everyone.

I made these cute sewing cupcake toppers couple weeks ago.  They are a great way to dress up your cupcakes, cookies or other baked goodies.  Just want to remind everyone that I just opened our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy shop online (click here to check out our online store) to sell cupcake toppers, cupcake wrappers, gift tags and much more...I know I know, now my online store is still pretty empty.  But I promise more items will be posted soon.  

The idea and concept about my Etsy shop is serving more people! My online cupcake business is limited to serve those who live in Orange County, Los Angeles County and part of Inland Empires.  I also know that a lot of people like to bake by using their own recipes, but they may not have time to make the "accessories" to dress up their baked goodies; therefore, our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop could serve those customers, who live outside of the LA and OC area, and also serve those who love to bake, but do not have time to make the "accessories" to dress up their baked goodies.  Hopefully, I could share more sweetness through my Etsy shop with everyone. 

I will post more projects on my Etsy shop soon, stay tuned!

Realistic Baby Cake (Part II) - The Making Of

If you saw my post from yesterday about a realistic baby cake, you might be interested in how this clip.  Here is what the Making Of I found on youtube (the baker separated the making of in 3 parts):

Models Eat...and Bake Too - Petite Amanda Patisserie (Hong Kong)

Last month, I shared with everyone how a movie and two wonderful ladies have changed my life (click here to find out who have inspired me).  Today, I am going to share another inspiring story with you about how a model has turned to become a baker and the owner of a French patisserie in Hong Kong.

Amanda Strang, my favorite model has just opened her first patisserie in IFC, Hong Kong.  I am so excited to hear that her "baby" is finally out after all these years of her hard works.  Most American might not know who she is.  She is a successful model and a TV food show host in Hong Kong.  I fell in love with Amanda when I first saw her face.  She is always cute and classy and reminds me of a mixed (Taiwanese and French) version of Aurdry Hepburn.

Let me give you a little background about Amanda -

Amanda had lived in French, India and Taiwan most of her life when she was a kid.  She went to Boston for college.  After graduating from college, she visited Hong Kong for fun and got discovered by a modeling agency.  She immediately started her modeling career and got very successful in Asia (especially in Hong Kong).  However, her passion towards food and French pastry had stopped her to think about taking a break from her successful modeling career and enroll at Le Cordon Bleu to prusuit her dream of opening her own store.  She has interned at Caprice and Ladurée as well as with Jacques Genin for NON-PAID for couple years.  After years of preparation, her first patisserie has just opened in August 2011.  If you want to know more about what made her decided to give up her catwalk career and turned to baking and making desserts (click here for a recent interview).  She also has a blog to share her recipes and her journey in French, if you are interested, click here.

I have not had chance to check out her patisserie yet, so I could not tell you what my verdict is.  But I could share some pictures I found from various websites with you.  So you could check out her patisserie if you have chance, and let me know how it is.

*Note:  to see what other people think about her pastisserie, click here.

Petite Amanda. Open Monday - Friday 8 a.m. 8 p.m.; Saturday - Sunday 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
Shop 2096, International Finance Centre Mall 2, Central, +852 2234 7222 (just next by Starbucks)

The design and colors of her patisserie matches Amanda's classy and clean-cut style.

 Amanda's Verrine ($70.00 HKD), made of maple syrup jelly, orange compote,
whipped cream and sweet crumble topping
[Note:  you could keep the the exclusive Le Creuset ramekin it's serve in.]

The Delice Aux Abricots is a cute-as-a-button dome of white chocolate mousse with an apricot compote filling and a crushed biscuit bottom.

They also made various French breads daily - Pain au Levain

Their signature triangled cake box

One of the desserts at the store

This is Amanda's signature dessert.  A quote from her - 

"Ah! That has to be my chocolate cake. I make it with three layers of different textures so they all contrast and meld together with different flavour infusions in a really satisfying way."

Amanda is introducing her deserts to her customers.  

A lot of reviewers said that she is SUPER nice and thoughtful.  She asked about what they like and suggested them what kinds of desserts they should get.

I somehow feel a strong connection between Amanda and myself.  Of course, I am not talking about our faces or bodies (she is out of my league).  I feel that we both have the passion towards food and food industry and pursuing our dreams are not easy, but we did at least try.  

I  know her new journey has just began, and I truly wish that her new career will become as successful as her modeling career.  And please keep introducing great French pastries to everyone in the world.

Mr. G's Favorite Dessert

Mr. G LOVES LOVES LOVES cream puffs!  Did I say that he loves cream puffs?!  He even requested to have cream puffs as his birthday "cake"!  Once in a while, I make cream puffs at home just to satisfy his sweet tooth.

Cream puffs are one of the easiest desserts to make for new bakers.  I am going to share my recipe with you and hope you enjoy these cute little treats at home too.

Prep:  25 mins  Cool:  10 mins  Bake:  30 mins
Oven:  400F  Makes:  12 cream puffs or 24 mini cream puffs

Ingredients:

1 cup water
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
3 cups whipped cream (either home made or from the store)
or pudding, fresh seasonal fruits (e.g.. strawberries, blue berries) ice cream or powder sugar (optional)

1. Preheat over to 400F
2. Grease a baking sheet
3. In a medium saucepan combine water, butter and salt.  Bring to boiling, then add flour ALL AT ONCE!  Stirring vigorously.
4. Cook and stir until mixture forms a ball
5. Remove from heat
6. Cool for 10 mins (VERY IMPORTANT)
7. Add eggs one at a time, beating well with a wooden spoon after each addition
8. Drop 12 heaping tablespoons of dough onto greased baking sheet.  Bake about 30-35 mins (depends on your oven) or until golden brown and firm
9. Cool
10. Cut the puffs in half and insert whipped cream, or pudding, fresh fruits or ice cream inside
11. DONE!