Cake Pops Step-By-Step

Today I want to share with you a cake pop step-by-step. A lot of people have asked how to do cake pops and I thought I could contribute with a tutorial based on my experience.
So between bracelets and everyday cooking I made some cake pops a while ago. Here is the complete method. True & tried!

Get all your ingredients and let's start!

Ingredients:

A box of cake mix (prepare it as you normally would) or your favorite cake recipe.
A can of frosting (your preferred flavor).
Color candy coating.

The how-to:

1. Once you have your cake cooled, crumble it. With your hands preferably.
2. Add half a can of frosting to all your crumbled cake.
3. Mix well. If you use your hands, the end result will be better (well, maybe not, but it makes it fun).
4. You know it's ready when you can make a ball that holds its shape.
5. Take it to the freezer for like an hour and then make small balls. Take those to the freezer too.
6. Dip the sticks in some melted candy coating and insert them in the cake balls.
7. Plunge your cake balls in melted candy coating. Don't let them touch the bottom of your container. If you need to cover them with a spoon.
8. Tap your hand (the one with the cake pop) to remove excess of coating.
9. Put them in some styrofoam and let them sit. You can return the to the freezer if you're not going to use the right away.
10. Decorate as you wish.
Finally, ENJOY!!

I hope you've found this step by step helpful!

Cake hugs & frosting kisses, 

Friendship bracelets

I don't know if these bracelets are making a comeback in fashion, but lately I've been eager to try new patterns and color combinations.

Recently I made this bracelet for a friend of mine, since it was her birthday and she loves bracelets as much as I do. But something happened, somewhere between my apartment in mexico city and my house in hidalgo, I lost the bracelet. Luckily I took a picture when it was finished and it looked awesome. Well, I loved the colors and all.

tell me, what do you think?

I'll upload the pattern for this bracelet later on!

Lots o' Love 

Choux pastry as final exam!

Hey there!

Guess what? I'm a little too happy today! Why? Because today was my final exam of Culinary Technics. First it was my oral exam, where I had to take a paper from a bag and start talking about that topic. That paper also included the recipe I had to make the next day, and as you can see in the title, the topic was CHOUX.

Do you know choux? (Say it out loud, who?) I hope you have eaten at least once some custard filled choux pastry. It’s a very tasty treat, sweet but not so much.

The story for today goes like this:

When I first arrived I realized I didn't have partner to cook with. I asked my supervisor and no one told me anything, until I was about to enter the lab, chef Cris told me -I don't know if you have noticed, but you are going to cook by yourself today-

I was in shock, I wanted to cry, laugh, scream or do everything at the same time. I wanted to know what I was going to do after working with someone during all this term. Everyone had partner but me. This was a real challenge, but I told myself I could do it. I had to.

Really determined I started cleaning my unit, preparing my mise-en-place and talking to myself.

I started preparing choux pastry and everything was awesome until the time to add the last eggs arrived, as some of you may or may not know, you have to be careful to get the right amount of egg in your pastry so you can reach the appropriate point. After 3, almost 4 eggs I couldn't get to the point and my time to get them to the oven had arrived. Geez!

Some more mixing, some more beaten eggs and it was done. As fast as I could I managed to get my pastry in a piping bag, made choux and went for the oven.

While my choux were in the oven I had to do the custard filling, so I started that task. I thought I was good with time, but uh-oh it was like… chasing me, real fast! So I couldn't wait until the consistency was filling-like, it was time to put it in the blast chiller and get choux out of the oven.

I couldn't take a picture of my plated dessert, but here's what went home with me

I went for them, opened some, filled them with custard and added some strawberries inside and a fan shaped strawberry, everything in a rectangular white plate. I was happy. I had completed my recipe and my unit was just a tad dirty.

Lucky me, some friends came to help me with the cleaning stuff. I’m still very grateful with them for their support!

Finally, the time of hearing our feedback and grades came. I was super-duper nervous! As we all heard each other's grades we became more and more tense. Soon Amanda got to me and she started the feedback by saying: -Congratulations, you worked alone and did an amazing job, finished on time with everything clean. The only thing is: I would’ve liked more consistency in your custard, but overall, congratulations, you scored 98/100-

I wanted to cry when she told me that, I was like – I can’t believe it, I did it! I really did it!

When the assessment was over, I went with chef Cris and Amanda, they both congratulated me, and I started crying. (You knew I was gonna cry sooner or later). All the other girls in the lab also said nice things to me and I was just… astonished with everything that had happened.

After all I shared choux with my friends and I’m still happy about today.

One word for today: SURREAL.

I hope you didn’t find this story boring, as this is on my top 5 of best & proudest moments. Don’t know which are the other 4, but…meeeh.

Lots o’ love ♥

ps. i won´t leave you just with the story, i'll share both, the custard and choux pastry recipes with you.

First Steps to Clean Eating - Broccoli and White Bean Mac 'n' Cheese

Who says clean eating is about starving, eating things without flavor or just veggies? I'm sure many people do, so as the little voice in my head (:

Well, I've got news- IT ISN'T!!!!! All week I've been trying (successfully..) to eat clean, you may be asking, what is clean eating? For me is a new lifestyle. I have eliminated from my diet all things processed, with trans fats, everything that has "hydrogenated" in its label, processed sugars, etc. I drink more water, more lean protein, less carbs and as always, I exercise, why? Because its better for my body and it  makes me feel good. 

Alright, this is no easy task, I have to admit that I've cheated a bit. I had a big package of chocolate chip cookies, so I've been eating them, no  more than 2 a day, I don't know if it's a good number, but I do it anyway. Also the last time I went to fill my refrigerator I found Cinnamon Pop.Tarts at half its prize, so I bought them, but really... I've been sharing them. 

Let me tell you it has been a long way to get here. At my 19 years I'm starting with this, you know? I was vegan as a kid, but something happened that I turned into a complete carnivore & sugar freak. Yes, I'm still eating meat, and as a future pastry chef, I'm still eating sugar, but not the processed kind, I try to be as natural as possible.

So... let's get to what we want: recipe!!! Today I did my first clean meal, from scratch. Cutting pieces of pineapple and making oats in the morning are not considered fancy cooking, right? Not even with sliced strawberries? Okay, this recipe isn't fancy cooking either. Actually it's very simple, quick and tasty.

my styling is not as good, I know, but isn't mine cute?

I have to say some things first: I made a lot of changes to the original recipe, didn't follow quantities or times. I used coliflower and broccoli, yellow bell peppers instead of red, refried beans, Oaxaca cheese, etc. Sorry, I'm in college student's budget = really limited. Feel free to make the recipe and follow instructions to a T, so I may know if it is as good as I thought in the first place (;
Here is what inspired me to do it Clean Eating Magazine, this mag is great, even with the clean eating stuff the pics will keep you drooling page after page.

Broccoli and White Bean Mac 'n' Cheese. The recipe is as .jpg so you just click it and save it (: [It has nutrition facts, awesome, right?]

New year & my first amigurumi friends

I'm starting this New Year with lots of projects in mind, after a very hard end of year I'm here with a renewed energy, excited about all the things that are to come. Since I've been absent for a long time now I wanted to start with something cute.

I don't know if you've ever heard the word amigurumi [Japanese], it is the name given to the art of crocheting little "friends" (may be dogs, monsters, cakes, birds, whatever). It may seem hard but it's really fun and quite easy once you know the basics about crochet.
Today I want to show you the first little friend I did with this technique. It’s a pastel color birdie; he/she is really cute. If you're interested in learning about this I’ll post the pattern later so you can have a friend like mine.

Since these birds are really easy, they are a fun beginner project. They take no time to make so easy + fun + the cute factor equals a great gift for children and even for some grown-ups. Another amigurumi was an also pastel colored piggy.

Lately I've discovered that from the things that seem really simple you can learn a lot. For me crocheting and amigurumi are ways to take stress out of my mind. They fill me with energy about trying something new, not being afraid of making mistakes, because later, as you go on, as you work, you learn from previous mistakes and make everything a lot better next time.

I'm sure 2012 means changes and learning. I'm eager to learn a lot more about everything; you name it, amigurumi, cooking, food science, energy, or anything that comes my way. I'm determined to take all the opportunities I can, I’ll smile every day, there's no reason for me not to. So, I encourage you to smile too. Seize the day, the opportunities. Live to the fullest & don't ever regret being yourself.



Much light & love♥