Sweet Chat with Book Authour and Amazing Artist, Jessie Oleson Moore

I lose count of how many times I have told people how much I love Jessie Oleson Moore.  We first met at her former art gallery and shop in Seattle few years ago; and I could say that, she is ONE OF THE KINDEST PERSONS on earth!  I have been a devoted fans of her blog, CakeSpy ever since then.

Couple years ago, Jessie Oleson Moore wrote this most amazing and creative recipe book:  CakeSpy Presents: Sweet Treats for a Sugar-Filled Life.  I bought it and have been loving the book; the recipes in the book is so easy to follow and extremely innovative. The ultimate success of her first book was leading her to prepare the second book, the Secret Lives of Baked Goods.  I have not bought this new book yet, but definitely put it on my TO-DO list.  Here is a sweet chat between Jessie and I about her new book and some of her future new projects:

1)  Your first book was such a great hit. Did it give you any pressure of preparing your second book?
Interestingly, my first book didn't figure much into the experience of the second. I think this is probably because they are SO different. I did feel more insecure at points about my writing, though, because the first book had just headnotes and the second actually required paragraph structure and storytelling rather than just telling about the recipes. It was almost like writing another first book!

2)  Tell me and our readers a little bits about your new book and how did you come up with the idea of the theme?
I've always thought that foods taste better with a backstory. You know, grandma saying that she won grandpa over with her apple pie, or something like that. I thought that by choosing the stories behind well-known baked goods that are accessible to everyone would be a fun and engaging theme--especially for those who, like me, can read cookbooks as if they are novels!

3)  Do you have any book tour/book signing in California?  If yes, when and where?
I was in San Francisco last month, at Omnivore Books and Book Passage, respectively. Though it's not specifically a book event, I will be at the Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles this summer and will be selling books at the event.

4)  It looks like you travel quite a lot for your passion and work, is there one place in the world you desperately want to check out?  And why?
If I could make myself a traveling machine that transported me free of cost to anyplace, I'd choose Vienna--I think of it as a pastry Mecca.

5)  Do you think the doughnut trend will overtake the cupcake craze?
These things come in cycles. Yes, more doughnut shops are opening and it makes for good press and a new "it" baked good (fried good?) but really it amounts to the same thing: sugar is tasty and we want it. Same thing, different delivery method. But am I eating more doughnuts as of late? Heck yes.

6)  Do you have new projects coming up?
I am working on a pitch for my third book right now!

7)  Do you have any artists (could be a chef, pastry chef, writer, illustionist, fashion designer, etc) you want to pair up with to create something amazing?
If I could conjure up a dream team of people to work with RIGHT THIS INSTANT, it would be: Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, They Might Be Giants, Stanley Tucci, and  Dorie Greenspan. Why Stanley Tucci? Why not?

8)  Any new sweet artworks you would like to share with us?
Did you know that I did all of the illustrations in my new book? It's rather a different style for me and I'm quite proud! Here are some examples in my book:

Cereal Milk Recipe by Momofuku Milk Bar

I remember when I first started my real full time job, the only thing could make me get up early was a bowl of cereals.  I am not kidding, I even craved it when I was sleeping at night and so looking forward to get up in the morning to have that bowl of cereals (sounds totally unbelivlable, but 100% true!).  What made me so addicted to the bowl of cereals were the crushiness from the cereals and the silky smoothness from the milk, but what I love the most was that cereal milk left in the bowl. 

Admit it, you love that cereal milk too!  Momofuku Milk Bar in New York knew how much people love that cereal milk, so they "created" it and sell it at their store (very smart idea!).  Owner and Pastry Chef, Christina Tosi was nice enough to write a book and share some of the Momofuku's favorite recipes with everyone.  The first recipe in the book OF COURSE was their famous Cereal Milk.  If you want to try your hands to make their famous Cereal Milk, Serious Eats shared this recipe on their website and more important, they even converted the English measurement (the book uses English measurements) to American commonly use measurement.  Sweet=)

This cereal milk is very versatile.  You could use it to bake cookies, cupcakes and cakes and even ICE CREAM!  Tea and Letter is sharing the step by step process of making your potentially new favorite ice cream on their website, click here.

Enjoy=)

(All pictures were found from Google Images)

When baking, follow direction...

Baking is a fun hobby; however, sometimes it could get very discouraging.  Especially when you spent half day in the kitchen, and the final product turned out were not what you expected.  From beginners to experienced bakers, I am sure we all experienced the feeling of failing.  No matter how many times we failed, just keep trying and experimenting because you will get the result you want eventually.  Here are some pictures I found from the Fail Blog.

"When baking, follow directions.  When cooking, follow you own taste." 

- Laiko Bahrs


Exciting News: C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop is now open!

Everyone, I am beyond happy to announce that our C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop is offically open.  You might have a question in your mind what the difference between C for Cupcake Cupcakery and the C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop.  Here is the answer: 

C for Cupcake Cupcakery allows me to make cupcakes for everyone within LA County, Orange Coounty, and part of Inland Empire area.  It's good and I am so happy to serve people, who love our products.  However, it's limited me to serve people, who also love my products outside of these areas. In order to serve people outside of these areas, I created C for Cupcake Cupcakery Etsy Shop; it allows me to serve everyone within the States.  Unfortunately, my Etsy Shop won't sell any CUPCAKES!  But we do sell  our 100% hand crafted fondant cupcake toppers, cupcake picks and cupcake holders to dress up your home made cupcakes and appentizers.  In addition, we will also sell wrapping supplies for your party (such as gift tags, baked twines, favor boxes, cupcake party package, etc) for your home made baked goodies and party favors. 

For my Etsy Shop's policy, payment and shipping inofmoration, click here.  I am going to add more items soon, stay tuned!  Please check out our Etsy Shop and spread the words out for us to your family and friends.

Sharing is Caring

I received a bag of starter of the Amish Friendship Bread and the recipe of how to make the bread last October.  That was my first time of making Amish Friendship Bread and that's the first time I share the starters with others.  This is a very clever idea to encourage your family and friends to bake.  The bread is easy to make, and the ingredients they ask for could also be found easily from your local stores or even your very own kitchen.  In addition, you could put anything inside the batter (nuts, walnuts, cranberries, raisins, etc) to customize your own flavor.

If you want to be the first one to start passing out the bread and recipe, you need to start the starter first.  Click here---> starters and see how you could make the starters to pass them out to your family and friends.

• Important Note: Don't use metal spoons or equipment.
• Do not refrigerate.
• Use only glazed ceramic or plastic bowls or containers.

Required Main Ingredient


1 cup live yeast starter (see starters)

day 1:

Do nothing with the starter.

days 2-5:

Stir with a wooden spoon.

day 6:

Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar, and 1 cup milk. Stir with a wooden spoon.

days 7-9:

Stir with a wooden spoon.  

Day 10 BAKING DAY:

Add 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Stir. Take out 3 cups and place 1 cup each into three separate plastic containers.

1 cup oil
1/2 cup milk
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:

2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1-1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nuts


Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

 After you are done with your bread, you should have 3 starters left. 

You could pass the one bag of starter and a copy of the recipe to your family and friends

after finished baking.

“Color * Smell * Taste”

COLOR, smell and taste are the 3 important characteristics of real Chinese cuisine.  These 3 characteristics also apply to all baked goodies.  Researchers stated that COLOR does play a very important role in food.  Let’s find out how COLOR affects our appetite!

Blue m&m’s?!

Several years ago, the makers of "m & m's," added Blue colors to its assorted colors-candy bag.  Blue? Why Blue? Although they reported that this was the result of a vote by the fans, it raises a few questions. It may very well be the last color left in the bag after the novelty wears off.  Of all the colors in the spectrum, blue is an appetite suppressant.

Research backs up the idea that certain COLORS suppress your appetite while others excite it. Gary Blumenthal from International Food Strategies reports that, “COLOR and the appeal of various foods is closely related. Just the sight of food fires neurons in the hypothalamus.  For the sighted, the eyes are the first place that must be convinced before a food is even tried.

Here are some COLOR and psychological effects on appetite, as reported by Lifemojo, Wednesday (05/11/2011):

RED    Red is the COLORof the full emotional and very energetic COLOR. This COLOR can increase the rate of respiration and raising blood pressure, and also can increase appetite.

ORANGE       Orange can help increase the supply of oxygen to the brain, producing a refreshing effect and stimulates mental activity.  The COLOR of orange makes people feel comfortable and are associated with healthy foods and can stimulate appetite.

YELLOW       Yellow is a bright cheerful colors. Yellow improves concentration, also stimulates the appetite, because this is related to happiness.

GREEN          Green is associated with natural colors, health and often used to demonstrate product safety. Because of its relationship with nature, green is considered as calming and relaxing COLOR.

TURQUOISE This COLOR can stimulate appetite. This color and orange COLOR combination could even be a combination of colors that ‘delicious’.

After a long reading and learning how all the COLORS affect our appetite, it's time to try our lemon zest vanilla cupcakes topped with orange frosting and home-made candied orange.