And..............I'm back

A lot has happened in this past month so far and attempting to find time to even get on here and type things up, is becoming difficult.  I have good news and bad news.  The good news, is that my other hobby, which is playing around with making jewelry, has apparently gotten some people to like it enough that I have items for sale at the Club Tattoo location in Las Vegas.  I did sell things in the St. Louis Curio Shoppe in downtown St. Louis, but the store in Las Vegas means that my items can be sold for more and I will get a lot more people to view my work.  I do know, that this site doesn't pay me at all, so at least the jewelry helps.

Now, as if designing and choosing 30 items, packing them up and shipping them to Las Vegas from the St. Louis area in 3 days wasn't close enough, try keeping the food writing going on while doing that.  So, I think the first thing that I have to spring back is a new energy drink flavor.  I am slightly addicted to energy drinks so when I see a new one, that isn't full of High Fructose Corn Syrup, I'll buy it and try it.  This is one such instance.  Also, since I have had a mojito in my life and have a friend from Cuba, I thought it would be fitting.

So what does it taste like?  Is it good?  No.  It tastes like the regular Monster fruity flavor with a strong fake lime flavor and it has something else.  I know what they were trying for, making a refreshing lime flavored Monster drink, but in the end, don't make new flavors if they are not good.

Now, while wandering the streets of St. Louis, particularly around the Hospital area, I saw a food truck.  It was one called Sarah's Cake Stop and the truck sold pre-made cupcakes, cakes and cookies.  You know, having a truck drive around, selling sweet sugary things from the side of it sounds like a really good idea. This company makes everything in their main location and then packs it up for moving and selling.  I felt hungry so I got a quick cupcake, of each kind they had.

So, the one in the upper right corner was a gluten free one, a flourless chocolate cake, which tasted fine to me.  What I liked about each and every one of these, is that the icing was more of a whipped cream icing.  It was light, fluffy and wasn't laden with this heavy-ness like regular powdered sugar and water can provide.  They were very moist as well.  The flavors were very spot on as there was a carrot cake one and a red devil cake and vanilla/maple flavored and so forth.   Even though I do make cupcakes at home from time to time, I wasn't filled with this feeling of "oh I can do that", which sometimes permeates my mind when looking at other people's versions of baked goods, but I can say that everything tasted really good for what it was supposed to be.  This isn't like another cupcake company in the area whose cupcakes are just not that tasty, because Sarah's Cake Stop isn't all about hype but instead about the flavor.  A lot of some of the best of St. Louis didn't make it to a television show or didn't pay to run giant ads and articles in periodicals.  A lot of the best of this city, is hidden and you have to brush aside the hype and the junk to see it.  This truck, and more importantly the people of the company, make very good cupcakes and for their price, I am happy.  I would give their cupcakes a 4 out of 5 stars, for being very good and if you see them on the street, you should take a stop and try them out.

Weird stuff of Global Foods

So, this isn't a jab at other cultures or meant to be racist or sexist or culturist or anything like that, but I find some things from some different countries to be strange or unusual to what I am used to. So, the title isn't meant to offend anyone, just state an opinion.

First up, melon cakes:

These say that they are the melon taste with a spongecake and I was expecting something, well, more .....spongy.  What was in the package, was a hard cookie, like a meringue cookie.  It had the airy-ness of a sponge cake but was hard and crunchy.  They have that taste of the Chinese melon cake and taste just as sweet.  It was the dry crunch that I was not expecting.  They are a 3 out of 5 for me.  Make sure you have a large glass of water nearby.

Found in the Asian aisle, I had these Sunflower crackers.  They taste like a slightly sweet cracker with a cheap mango creme in between.  The creme is reminiscent of the sandwich wafer cookies.  They are good but not super good where I would eat all of them: a 3 out of 5 for me.

Now the last thing I tried was one of Korean origin:

Yeah, like so many Asian things, I guess this is the traditional version of an energy drink.  This drink, tastes like bad ginseng, almost a strong root/tuber flavor.  It tastes like the stems that are on a parsley plant with an aftertaste of sugar. It was sweet but as I thought about taking a second sip, I still tastes the first in my mouth and chickened out.  I think this gets a 0 out of 5 for me.  Sure, ginseng is supposed to be a near magical herb for strength and vitality, but I'd rather take vitamins every day than to drink one of these.  

Cake time.

I thought I would do something different and decided to make some cakes.  The first is a lime cake.  I used real, freshly squeezed lime juice and lime zest, baked into the cake and for the icing.  All sugar free.

While this was both tart and sweet like the perfect limes, I wanted something a bit more.....different.

I reached into my container of bacon fat and used two tablespoons worth in a cake batter, producing a maple and bacon cake.  

Well, both of these turned out great and while both were also sugar free, both still didn't taste like reduced calorie cakes.  If you are interested in any of these recipes, let me know.

Let's make cake, cyber cake

I'm a huge fan of the cyber-punk genre.  I can't help it nor can I explain it, but I like the flashing lights, the bright colors mixed with dark colors, the Tron feel to everything and the futuristic way things look.  I remember going into the Cyberdog store in Camden, outside of London on a very cold, wintry day a few years ago.

Ever since I went there, it has been stuck in my brain of all of the awesome clothing they have.  Well, they also have house-wares.  This is something I purchased recently:

They call it a Retro Arcade cake pan, made of silicone and is green and shaped like an 8-bit video game character.  It is awesome, cute, funny and small, about 6 or 7 inches square.  So, on the back of this box, is a recipe and I thought that I should find out how it turns out.

http://www.cyberdog.net/retro-arcade-cake-mould/p257

So, I follow the recipe and instead of doing the basic vanilla flavored cake, I decide to zest a lemon, boil the zest to make it tender and then add 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice as my flavoring agent.

I mix everything together as the basic and simple to understand instructions suggest and pour it in the mold.  After 25 minutes in my 355 degree F oven, I get this, which doesn't look like much now.  I was immediately worried because I had thought that the cake would have risen more.  I didn't know that the cake was like a pound cake.

Perfect.  My review of this cake pan/mold is a 5 out of 5 stars or 5 out of 5 cyberdog logos; whichever you prefer.  It worked great and it was very easy to remove the cake from the mold.  The great thing about silicone is that heat can transcend through it to heat the contents without heating the container too much.  It also cools off so quickly that within a minute, I was able to pop the little guy from the container.

Fun for the kids and edible

Yeah, it is a fun thing for kids to do, but it doesn't taste too awesome.  While on one of my wife's trips to JoAnn's, I discovered something interesting...

If you see this right, it is a sugar fondant pressed thin enough to be like a thick paper, which can be colored and shaped and placed on a cake or whatever.  To the right of the picture is some food coloring markers.  So, I cut the paper in thirds, gave a piece to each of my two sons and gave them access to the markers.  Then I let them go.

I'm not a cake decorator and not professionally selling anything so these may look a bit childish: and they are.  What is important to see is the color and easy way in which you can draw using the food coloring markers on this sugar paper.  After wards, we ate it.  In this case, the paper had a very subtle and sweet flavor.  The markers had no flavor.  I think of this as a great way to give kids something to do.  I would also suggest maybe making some sugar cookies or regular icing cake and letting your kids draw and play on it using these.    
http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=zprd_10817740a

http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog/productdetail.jsp?pageName=search&flag=true&PRODID=xprd388486

Mae West.....is tasty

Mae West was an actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol.  She was born in 1893 and died in 1980.  She started her work in Vaudeville and moved onto Hollywood to become a successful comedian and actress.  She was a risque' performer and even wrote, directed and stared in her own play on Broadway called "Sex", in 1918.  She was known for this type of material and while the ticket sales were doing well, the show was raided by city officials for its lack of censorship.  She was also arrested and charged with "corrupting the morals of youth."  She later wrote a play dealing with homosexuality and never opened due to complaints from the Society for the Prevention of Vice.

Mae West was famous for the line: ""Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?"

http://www.chachacharming.com/diary/archives/images/diana.jpg

Now, in 1932 a cake named the Mae West was created.  The cake has two layers of cake with a vanilla creme between them with a chocolate glaze.  The cake went by this name until 1980, when the name was changed.  This could have coincided with Mae West's death.  The cake's name was changed to May West, still having the same name, but spelled differently to disassociate it from the late actress.

The cakes are tasty.  The chocolate isn't too much chocolate and the cake is just a nice fluffy texture.  The creme filling is amorphous.  I mean that the company describes it as being a vanilla creme, I tasty something similar to a marshmallow  and a coworker tastes something a bit like coconut.  Either way, it is definitely worth it.  Buy one today.  4 out of 5 stars!

I think I found my calling.....(insert choir music here)

I remember going to Catholic school and being told that the all-powerful being has a calling or a vocation for each one of us.  Well, 30 something years later, I find that I have an easy time doing things that others, even professionals, have a hard time doing.

What I have here for you all to see?  Well, the first thing is when a friend of mine in Texas (Ms. Campos), wanted me to make a low-calorie tres leche cake.  Well, think of that, how do you make a tres leche cake lower calories?  It already is a basic yellow cake, then you poke holes in it and pour sweetened condensed milk, evaporated milk and whole milk all over the top.  As the cake sucks that up, you make some whipped cream using heavy whipping cream and then cinnamon on top.  But that is a lot of fat(whole milk, heavy cream, sweetened condensed milk, butter and sugar in the cake.)

So, what did I do?  I made it sugar free.  I was told that it was "impossible" and it sounds like it would be, but I did it anyway.  How, you may ask?  Simple.

1.  I first made my own sweetened condensed milk; http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/129/Sugar-Free-Sweetened-Condensed87845.shtml

2.  I then bought some evaporated skim milk, it is low fat and sugar free.

3.  I then followed this recipe, basically: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/tres-leches-milk-cake/Detail.aspx

I made my own whipped cream by just whipping the cream and adding some almond flavoring as it reached soft peaks.  I put everything together and then, BAM, it was done!

Now, the cake worked really well, because of the almond flavoring I put in the whipped cream.  That flavoring helped to hide and add sweetness to the end product while retaining the sugar free element.  Now, while it isn't considered fat free, it is very close to sugar free.  The reduced sugar or my substitutions took sugar and added calories out of the cake, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk.

I did Monster caviar.  As weird as Monster caviar sounds, like fish eggs so a monster must have eggs too, right, I did make some. 

I did the normal process, which even though they sell whole starter kids, not everyone who has tried this has been successful.  After mixing Monster, which is a 2.7PH, with the sodium alginate, I dropped the solution into a bath of the 'salt' water.  I got my Monster caviar as a result.  Because Monster already has such a sweet and concentrated flavor, the beads still had a strong Monster flavor. I also had to add some food coloring and they turned out nice.

We have the technology....we can make it better.

In the food industry and as a Mr. Mom type of guy, when any of us come up with a recipe or something we like, if it is not what we want, we change it.  It is normal and encouraged as not everything is made to our liking so it makes sense that we can change foods to our specific tastes.  Although, some changes are harder to do.

I made a cake, that has almost 2/3rds less of a cake of similar texture, taste and consistency.  It was based upon a normal thick and rich cake, but this one is different: no sugar.  So how does that work?  I turned a cake that would normally have over 4,000 calories into one that has just 2,000 calories.  What more, is that a single serving of my cake, has less than 200 calories. The cheesecake  Factory has a chocolate cake that tastes like mine and it is more than 750 calories.  So, ladies, or those watching anything about them, which would you rather have:  A chocolate cake that tastes great and has 200 calories a slice or one that has 700 calories a slice?

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my flourless and sugar free chocolate cake. 

No sugar, means that I made it better than it used to be.  So, make something better.