Putting a Birthday Gift to Good Use

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Okay, so I've been lazy with updating my food blog. I really don't want to be on the Internet that much because I'm being very careful not to accidentally read Harry Potter spoilers (past experience has taught me that these spoilers can show up anywhere, even non-HP sites). *nerd alert* With the book release only two weeks away (whoa!), there are bound to be some dumbasses who feel like spoiling the fun for us fans. So my visits to the Internets will probably be sparse very soon.

Anyway...it was my birthday last week, and I have been pretty much eating a lot of sweets — specifically cupcakes (although I've had some slices of cheesecake and mochi ice cream here and there). Independence day was two days ago, and I'd originally planned on baking some patriotic cupcakes with red, white and blue stars and sprinkles — but I didn't have any of those things in my pantry. ;P I ended up baking these instead.

Chocolate cupcakes with pink strawberry frosting and chocolate jimmies


I transported them in one of my new cupcake carriers from Crate & Barrel

©2007 Yuzu Eats

The cupcake carriers were a gift from my parents and my sister, who demanded, "Now bake some cupcakes!" It didn't take me long before I put one of the carriers to use. Each one holds 2 dozen cupcakes. The second carrier will come in handy for those rare occasions when I'll bake some cupcakes to bring to the office.

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Cupcake & Tea for Dessert

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For someone who doesn't drink coffee, I sure make a lot of trips to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. I like it so much better than Starbucks. I'm more of a tea drinker, so I guess that explains my preference for Coffee Bean. I had dinner with my parents this past weekend, and afterward we went to Coffee Bean for dessert.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

I tried one of their cupcakes for the first time. It was chocolate with cream cheese frosting. The cake part of it was actually moist. I was expecting it to be dry like the cupcakes at Starbucks. I was pleasantly surprised! The only thing I didn't like about the cake was that there were about 5 chocolate chips in there. But I picked them out as I ate the cupcake. I don't like chocolate chips in chocolate cake. Just like I don't like chocolate cookies with chocolate chips. Chocolate overkill. Okay, now the frosting...the frosting was like eating a cheesecake. You know how most cream cheese frostings taste? This was a bit sweeter, because it tasted like cheesecake. Not that it's a bad thing. But this cupcake was definitely a decadent little treat. I'll probably be eating more of these in the near future...

Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf
1080 E. Imperial Hwy, #E2
Brea CA, 92821

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B.T. McElrath Chocolatier

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Do you sometimes take photos of something you ate, with the intention of blogging about it, only to eventually forget to include it on your food blog? Happens to me all the time. I'd forgotten that I took these pictures last July (eeks!).

My brother-in-law brought home a few pieces of fine chocolate from B.T. McElrath chocolatier when he went to San Francisco. I'd never before tried anything made my Mr. Brian McElrath, but I was immediately in awe of his beautiful chocolate designs. Seriously, this chocolate is so pretty, it's almost a crime to destroy it by consumption. Below are the pieces I tried out.

Chile-Limón
milk chocolate truffle with chili and lemon

©2007 Yuzu Eats

Orange Blossom
dark chocolate flower-shaped truffle filled with orange ganache


Cherry Snapper
Michigan cherries surrounded by 34% cacao milk chocolate

I love that turtle! It makes me not want to eat plain, square-shaped chocolates ever again! Okay, not really. All the chocolates were quite delicious, though. The Chile-Limón truffle — you can mostly taste the limón, but the chili kicks in as you're swallowing the chocolate. The Orange Blossom — this was my favorite, with its oh-so-yummy orange ganache filling. I ♥ the combination of chocolate and citrus. The Cherry Snapper — well, I think this one needs a new name because the turtle shape is really the highlight of this piece. Not that the chocolate was bad, but c'mon...it's a turtle, and it's so cute! 'Cherry Turtles' is a better name, methinks.

B.T. McElrath Chocolates at Andronico's
1200 Irving St.
San Francisco, CA 94122
(415) 661-3220

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Finally a Christmas Update

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I hope everyone had a good holiday break. I enjoyed a nice week and a half off, relaxing with family, eating nonstop and sleeping in really late. I meant to update my journal right after Christmas so I can show you what I baked over the holidays, but I took a break from blogging last week. So I'm posting my Christmas goodies now.

©2007 Yuzu Eats

These were actually chocolate cookies, not gingerbread


Green Christmas tree sugar cookies


Butter yellow cupcakes with vanilla frosting and festive sprinkles


These cupcakes were made with Pillsbury cake mix
which came with Christmas-colored candy bits


I covered them in Pillsbury vanilla frosting topped with fun Christmas shapes

I think I've had enough sweets in the past couple of weeks to last me all through January. But that doesn't mean I won't have an ice-cream cone or a few cookies here and there. ;) Happy new year, everyone!

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Hot Chocolate & Biscuits

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I love listening to holiday music. It gets me in the mood for Christmas. There's nothing quite like the cozy feeling of sitting in the living room, listening to Christmas songs and looking at the lights on the Christmas tree. The other night, I just chilled out on the sofa with a cup of hot chocolate and some biscuits.

Burton's Jammie Dodgers:
delicious stretchy jam splodged between 2 yummy shortbread biscuits

Cute nighttime snack...and festive-looking too!

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Frosted Cupcakery

Today my family and I went to Belmont Shore to check out the cupcakes at the new Frosted Cupcakery. It's a really cute little bakery right off Second Street. I bought several cupcakes (because I couldn't decide on just one).

A sandwich board sign on Second Street

©2006 Yuzu Eats

Chocolate Banana Nut


Red Velvet


Royal White Chocolate


Chocolate Vanilla (still in the paper holder thingy)

All their cupcakes are priced at $2.75 each. You can buy one dozen for $28 (at a savings of $5). The frostings on these cupcakes are so yummy. Very creamy and just the right amount of sweetness. The cake can be a bit on the dry side (only slightly), but not so much that it detracts from the flavor of the cupcake. Overall, I'd recommend this cute bakery to anyone who's in the mood for a little sweet snack at a decent price. Plus, the owner is super nice 'n' friendly.

Frosted Cupcakery
195 Claremont Ave.
Long Beach, CA 90803
(562) 987-1080

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Frango Mint Chocolates

A cool thing about traveling is eating/buying foods you can't get when you're at home. One such treat is Frango Chocolates. You can buy them at Marshall Field's, a huge department store in Chicago. I bought several boxes of their famous mint chocolates when I was there this week, as well as a little box of raspberry chocolates (which are quite tasty). The texture of the chocolate is very smooth and melts nicely on the tongue. Perhaps this was just because it's been so humid lately (especially in the Midwest), and the chocolate would already be melting before I ate any, but still...it's got a good consistency.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

The Frango chocolates pictured above are special-edition pink mint chocolates. They taste the same as the regular mint chocolates, the only difference being the color of the outer chocolate layer. Part of the proceeds of this special pink edition goes to breast cancer research. I love buying things that are pink, and it's especially cool when some of the money gets donated to such a worthy cause.

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Chocolate and Vanilla Spritz

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I made chocolate and vanilla spritz cookies for a Super Bowl party I went to with my family yesterday. For those of you living outside of the U.S., Super Bowl Sunday is a huge event for Americans. We gather in front of the television and watch a football game (our crazy American 'football', not what the rest of the world calls 'football'), while eating tons of food. :)

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Chocolate Sumthin'

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Ahh...there's no joy like that which comes from experimenting in the kitchen and coming up with something doesn't taste like rubbish. I took a regular sugar cookie recipe, added some more sugar, a bit of unsweetened cocoa powder and a dash of pure vanilla extract (I really didn't measure anything), and this is what came of it: a chewy, chocolate...something. Cookie. I don't know what to call it. Chocolate cookie? Yeah, that sounds good.

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Cupcakes w/Milk Chocolate Frosting & Cherries

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My family's in the living room watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and I'm here in the kitchen...blogging about cupcakes. :) I haven't baked cupcakes in a while, so I figured I might as well make some tonight while the 'rents are here. These are butter yellow cupcakes with milk chocolate frosting.

Couldn't find anything to top the cupcakes except these huge cherries

©2006 Yuzu Eats

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Mini Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes

Nothing says "Christmas" like peppermint candy canes! I crushed a bunch of 'em and mixed some of it with vanilla frosting to top these chocolate cupcakes. Then I rolled the frosted cupcakes in the rest of the crushed candy canes to create the look of snow. There were 70 cupcakes altogether. Whew...exhausting!

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Baby Shower Goodies

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I baked a bunch of goodies for a friend's baby shower this past weekend. Cupcakes galore! I like the way the mini ones came out the best (the first photo below).

Mini chocolate cupcakes with pink vanilla buttercream frosting
©2005 Yuzu Eats

Chocolate cupcakes with blue vanilla buttercream frosting


Lemon cupcakes with white chocolate drizzles

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Cupcakes w/Buttercream Frosting

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I was going through the pantry and found some Duncan Hines® boxed cake mixes. So I used one of them to bake devil's food cupcakes. But I made the buttercream frosting from scratch. And let me tell you — the frosting was yummy and perfectly ooey-gooey.

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Cookies With Tea

For the tea party I attended yesterday, I baked cookies! I am no cookie-making expert (although I'm quite good at eating them), but I think they came out okay. There is definitely room for improvment in taste and looks.

Almond crescents


Chocolate pinwheels that look crooked


Raspberry thumprint cookies with white chocolate drizzles

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Chocolate Crinkles

Earlier tonight I attempted to make my first-ever batch of chocolate crinkles. I used Aoi's recipe, which is pretty simple. I didn't have any baking chocolate, but I did have a lot of unsweetened cocoa powder, so I substituted that for the actual bars of chocolate. I think I didn't add enough sugar because they weren't sweet enough to me. Chocolatey, yes...but not very sweet. At least they came out looking like they're supposed to!

I went a little overboard on the confectioners' sugar. =P

©2005 Yuzu Eats

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Let's Split A Brownie

During my lunch break today, I ate at Panera Bread® with a friend. I really like their soups. And, of course, their bread. I usually order the broccoli cheddar soup. It comes with a piece of freshly baked baguette. Sometimes I order it in a bread bowl...mmm! My friend and I felt like having something sweet with our meals, so we ordered a brownie and split it.

Very Chocolate Brownie

©2005 Yuzu Eats

Rich and dense, this brownie looks a bit like a slice of cake. Rather than serving brownies in the usual square shape, Panera bakes their brownies in a circular pan and slices them up in triangles. The Very Chocolate Brownie is so yummy, topped with chocolate icing and decorated with chocolate jimmies. I don't usually like chocolate-on-chocolate action, but this brownie is an exception.

Panera Bread®
8647 South Sepulveda Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90045
(310) 641-9200

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