Cupcake Wars - Christy's Wedding!

Cupcakes, who can say no to them. So pretty, so tasty and so so cute. Inspired by Food Channel's TV show, Cupcake Wars (Ok, we have taken the name literally), we as a food-loving group of people at work, decided to accept a cupcake-making challenge for our beloved co-worker Christy's wedding, who is by the way, getting married this weekend!!!!

The theme is wedding, and it's going to be beautiful and followed by a romantic honeymoon in Hawaii. So jealous but so happy for her at the same time. While we were excited for her big day, we were also busy preparing our best sweet goodness. 
So, here are the results:

Professional Award is granted to John Sydow, our awesome chef at work:

A glamorous, golden cupcake with a white cream cheese icing, sitting on a tasty, spiced up carrot cake. perfect cupcake with a grown-up taste.
 
1st Place Winner!! Faye Smith!!

Pumpkin Ginger cupcake made with finely chopped crystallized ginger which gives a nice spicy bite and butterscotch pudding mix for added moistness and flavor. Cupcakes are topped with browned butter, cinnamon cream cheese frosting. Browning the butter adds just a hint of caramel flavor.

2nd Place Winner!! Frances Wun!!

Fajita Nacho Cupcake made with a cinnamon, cream cheese butter cream (nacho cheese) and rich coffee chocolate cake. It is complimented very well I must say with the tangy strawberry (salsa). The tortilla chips were cut to tiny triangles with a pizza cutter, toasted with cinnamon sugar and sprayed cooking oil! One word, CUTE!! I got the recipe here: http://sweetsimplestuff.com/2012/02/03/nacho-cupcakes/ with slight alterations which I will describe in a separate post at a later date to provide more details.

3rd Place Winner!! Stacie Eftink!!

Pumpkin Spice Cupcake with Cheesecake Frosting and Candy Seashells!! A colorful, welcoming display of fun, delicious cupcakes for Christy's honeymoon at the beach in Hawaii.
  
Colorful contestant!! Renee Biss!

A Pink Champagne Cupcake filled with Fresh Strawberry and Champagne Filling topped with a duo of Champagne and Fresh Strawberry Buttercream Frosting.

Creative contestant!! Ant Schwallbert and Liz Destajo!

I guess great minds think alike. Amy and Liz picked the same yummy goodness for our awesome competition! Oreo cheesecake cupcakes.  The recipe was found here: http://housewifeglamour.com/baking/oreo-cheesecake-cupcakes/.

The only thing Amy altered was baking time which was about an extra 10 minutes since she had two cupcake trays. She used reduced fat neufchate cheese instead of cream cheese.  She recommended breaking up the cookies by hand, as a blender makes the pieces really small and turns the batter a darker color. She thought it looked more presentable with bigger cookie chunks.

 Congratulations everyone. What a fun event! Wishing you all the happiness there is!

IRON CHEF BATTLE LEMON!!

It's time for my workplace's IRON CHEF BATTLE again. This time, the secret ingredient was LEMON! What a tasty, refreshing challenge!

1st Place Winner!! Mun!! 

Lemon Panna Cotta with Lemon Marmalade

YES!! Me for the first time! Somehow, I always came second. Now that I had a taste of winning, not sure if I could go back ;) I must say, it turned out well and quite addictive.

This is a popular dessert in Italy called Panna cotta. It is usually served with sweet fruits like strawberries and cherries, but since today is all about the lemon, I made the creamy Panna cotta with fresh lemons.  It is
served with a homemade lemon marmalade from the lemon juice and peel. The sweet and creamy flavors balance out each other. Yummy!

I got the recipe from http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2011/05/lemon-panna-cotta-with-lemon-marmalade with a few little twists on my own. The step-by-step guide (recipe and pictures) will be followed shortly after this post.

2nd Place Winner!! Faye Smith!! 

Lemon Cream Pie with Raspberry Sauce

Really really tasty. Tangy lemon cream pie. The candied lemon peel was delicious.You simply just couldn't resist it.

.

Here's her recipe (combination of several different ones):
Yield: Makes one 9-inch pie, or 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 cup heavy cream, chilled
1 prepared crumb crust

1. Combine the eggs, sugar, and lemon zest in a heavy medium-size saucepan and whisk the mixture until it is smooth. Add the lemon juice and butter and cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly, until it is thickened, 7 to 9 minutes. Do not allow the mixture to come to a boil.

2. Pour the lemon curd through a fine mesh strainer into a glass bowl. Cover the surface with plastic wrap. Refrigerate the lemon curd until it is cold and thick, at least 3 hours and up to 3 days.

3. In a medium-size mixing bowl using an electric mixer, whip the heavy cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold the whipped cream into the lemon curd and scrape the filling into the prepared pie shell. Cover the pie with plastic wrap and refrigerate it until the filling is completely set, at least 6 ho urs and up to 1 day.

Crust
The crust is a traditional vanilla wafer crust with the addition of almond extract.

Dressing it up
Make candied peel:
Remove zest (peel) from 2 lemons in wide strips with a vegetable peeler, then cut lengthwise with a sharp knife into 1/8-inch-wide julienne strips. Reserve lemons for juicing. Fill a 2-quart heavy saucepan halfway with water, then add julienned peel. Bring to a boil and simmer 15 minutes. Drain peel in a sieve and rinse. Bring water (1 cup) and 1 cup granulated sugar to a boil in saucepan, stirring until sugar has dissolved. Add peel and gently simmer until translucent, about 15 minutes.

Remove peel from syrup with a slotted spoon, letting syrup drain off into saucepan. Spread out on a sheet of wax paper and cool to room temperature. Toss peel with remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, stirring with a fork to coat and separate. Transfer sugared peel to clean dry sieve and shake off excess sugar, then spread out on a fresh sheet of wax paper to dry slightly.

Raspberry Sauce

Ingredients
2 pints raspberries
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Crush the raspberries with water in a saucepan.
2. Add sugar and cornstarch.
3. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
4. Reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes.
5. Push through a foodmill or strainer.

Tom's Chicken Picatta: Tom Gardner!

 A hearty, tasty chicken dish that you would not want to miss. I loved it so much that I ate more for lunch. Thank you Tom!

"Chicken Picatta is very easy to prepare.  I used chicken tenders as opposed to the whole chicken breast.  "I dredge the chicken in a milk/egg mixture and then roll them in Italian Seasoned Bread Crumbs.  I melt half of a stick of butter (to start) and place the breaded chicken in the hot skillet until golden brown on both sides.  Once all of the chicken as been browned and removed from the skillet and placed in a casserole dish, I add 1/4 cup of white zinfindel wine and let evaporate.  Then add a cup of chicken broth and simmer on low to medium heat.  I add about a whole stalk of diced celery, sliced mushrooms and squeeze half of a lemon ov4r the mixture.  Once the starts to become translucent, pour over the chiken and cook at 375°

for 30-35 minutes.  Enjoy!" Tom.

The Big Lemon Meringue Sundae: Alisa Benson
A colorful, welcoming dessert that no one could or wanted to refuse!

Ingredients:
4 egg whites
1 c sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 jar maraschino cherries
1 can pineapple (chunks are better than crushed)
Pistachios
1 big container of cool whip
Dark chocolate candy bar if desired for garnish.

1. Beat the egg whites until they are fluffy, then beat in the sugar and lemon juice.
2. Spoon the meringue into cookie-size mounds on a slightly greased cookie sheet.
3.Bake at 300 for 10 minutes or so until brown on top.  Allow to cool.
4. Layer meringue, cool whip, fruit and nuts.
5. Can garnish with shredded dark chocolate.


What a wonderful lemon day!

Chinese Turnip Cake II (Law Bock Gow 蘿蔔糕)

Happy Chinese New Year 2012. Time for some delicious homemade Chinese food again. Law Bock Gow, my beloved must-have favorite during this time of the year, I've decided to make you this year after hearing all the rumors that you are very hard to make. I initially started introducing this during in my blog about 2 years ago, but never found the time and gut to make this dish from scratch. But with increasing curiosity, I've decided to give it a try. The result? One word, DELISH! Not sure if I can go back to the store bought kind again...

Based on the recipe from: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Turnip-Cake-Law-Bock-Gow-100779, the following is my slightly varied version of this wonderful dish:

Ingredients:

• 10 ounces Chinese sausage or bacon (I used sausage for this recipe)
• 1 large Chinese white turnip, about 3 pounds
• 8 Chinese dried mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Chinese dried shrimp, about 1 1/4 ounces
• 2 teaspoons Shao Hsing rice cooking wine
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2.5 cups rice flour
• Spring onion (2 stalks)
• Fresh cilantro (Just a little for garnish)
• Toasted white sesame Seeds
• White Pepper and salt

Lets get cooking!!

Step 1: Peel the turnip and grate to make about 4 1/2 cups. In a 3-quart saucepan, combine grated turnip and about 1 quart cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 30 minutes, or until very tender. Drain, reserving the cooking liquid.

Step 2: Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, soak the mushrooms in 1/2 cup cold water 30 minutes, or until softened. Drain and squeeze dry, reserving the soaking liquid. Cut off and discard stems and mince the caps. In a small bowl, soak the dried shrimp in 1/2 cup cold water for 30 minutes, or until softened. Drain, reserving soaking liquid. Finely chop shrimp and set aside.

 

Step 3: Finely chop the sausage. In a 14-inch flat-bottomed wok or skillet, stir-fry the chopped bacon over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes, or until meat releases fat and just begins to brown. Add the minced mushrooms, spring onion and shrimp, and stir-fry 2 to 3 minutes. Add the rice wine, sugar, and pan juices from the bacon, and stir to combine. Remove from heat.

 

Step 4: Return the cooked, drained turnip to the saucepan, add the sausage and mushroom mixture, and stir to combine. In a large bowl, combine the rice flour and the reserved mushroom and shrimp soaking liquids, stirring until smooth. Stir in 1 cup of the hot turnip broth. Pour this batter into the saucepan, add the salt, white pepper and stir until combined. The consistency will resemble that of rice pudding. Pour mixture into a heatproof 8-inch round dish.

Step 5: Bring water to a boil over high heat in a covered steamer large enough to fit the dish without touching the sides of the steamer. Carefully place the dish into the steamer, cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and steam 1 hour, or just until cake is set and is firm to the touch. Check the water level and replenish, if necessary, with boiling water. Carefully remove the bowl from the steamer and allow to cool on a rack for about 1 hour. Sprinkle toasted sesame seeds and place cilantro for garnish. Cover and refrigerate at least 3 to 4 hours.

 

Step 6: When ready to eat, cut cake into quarters. Cut them to 2-3" wedges or slices depending on your preference. Heat a flat-bottomed skillet over medium heat until hot but not smoking. Add just enough oil to barely coat the wok. Add the turnip cake slices in batches and cook 2 to 3 minutes per side, until golden brown. Serve immediately, serve with soy sauce, oyster sauce, chilli sauce or even my personal favorite Hoisin sauce! Enjoy!