Candy Adventure: Chocolate-covered Domo-kun Marshmallows

Happy Valentine's Day, Adventurers!

In America, guys usually give candy, flowers, and/or other gifts to the leading ladies in their lives on Valentine's Day. However, in Japan, girls give chocolates to guys instead. Honmei-choco are chocolates given to guys that girls have romantic feelings for. This would typically include crushes, boyfriends, and husbands. Giri-choco, on the other hand, are "obligation chocolates" given to guys that girls have no romantic interest in. Think of your guy friends, male co-workers, and male bosses. Honmei-choco are usually higher quality than giri-choco and often homemade.

If you're interested in making your own easy chocolate gift this year, try making these Chocolate-covered Domo-kun Marshmallows!

Chocolate-covered Domo-kun Marshmallows

Baking Misadventure: Pokeball Cake Pops

Alas, Adventurers! Not every quest ends in victory. We can't rescue the princess every time. We can't defeat every boss monster. We can't beat every gym leader. And we most certainly can't catch ALL the pokemon. At least not on our first try. (Especially when Pokemon's creators keep making new, ridiculous pokemon. *ahem* Garbodor, I'm look at you!)

Pokeball Cake Pops

Sometimes, things just don't work out the way you want them to and these Pokeball Cake Pops are Exhibit #1. It was my first time ever making cake balls and they ended up lumpy and uneven and just sad. A total fail in my book. BUT I wanted to share them with you anyway.

Snack Attack: Special Koala no March Cookie Flavors

Japanese snacks fascinate me. Not only are they delicious, but they also come in rare, limited edition flavors. If you guys have been following my blog, you know I'm quite obsessed with Pocky. (You can read my posts about special Pocky flavors here and here.) I'm also totally obsessed with Koala no March cookies, which are crunchy koala-shaped cookies commonly filled with chocolate or strawberry filling. Occasionally, I'll find limited edition flavors at Japanese markets like Mitsuwa or Marukai and it takes every. ounce. of. my. willpower. not to buy them all! I did cave and try two of the specialty flavors though.

CREAMY CAFFELLATTE

Koala no March - Creamy Caffellatte

The first flavor was "Creamy Caffellatte." When I first opened the package, I noticed a strong coffee smell.

Koala no March - Creamy Caffellatte Cookies

If you've ever seen these cookies, you know how adorable each koala is! They each have different outfits, facial expressions, and poses. I love the ones that are dressed in traditional Asian clothes. The ones with a baby koala are also very kawaii~

Koala no March - Creamy Caffellatte Cookie (Inside)

Creamy Caffellatte had a strong coffee flavor. They were sweet with a slightly bitter coffee taste and an artificial vanilla creaminess.

COCOA & VANILLA ICE

Koala no March - Cocoa & Vanilla Ice

The other flavor I tried was "Cocoa & Vanilla Ice." It said "Cocoa & Vanilla Ice" on the English nutrition label on the back, but you can see ice cream on the package.

Koala no March - Cocoa & Vanilla Ice Cookies

These cookies had a chocolate outer shell that didn't taste chocolatey.

Koala no March - Cocoa & Vanilla Ice Cookies (Inside)

They smelled like vanilla and had a very sweet vanilla cream center. The cookies were sort of like ice cream with little crunchy "chocolate" bits - a clever execution of the ice cream concept, for sure, but I wish it had more chocolate flavor.

Koala no March - Barcode

These cookies were still super cute though! Just look at the barcode! Alas, I wish I could try more flavors!  

:: BONUS:: KOALA NO MARCH ORNAMENTS

Koala no March Cookie Ornaments

As a bonus, check out these Koala no March ornaments I ordered online! They're the exact size of actual cookies and are now my favorite Christmas ornaments! I like the ninja the best.

What special flavors of Koala no March have you tried? Feel free to let me know what snacks you're addicted to in the comments below!

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Disclaimer: All products were purchased by me with my own money. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this blog post are my own.

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Baking Adventure: Bánh Bò Nướng (Vietnamese Pandan Tapioca Honeycomb Cake)

Ahoy, Adventurers! Here's something a little different that I baked for a class potluck. This super fragrant, green-tinted, chewy cake is called "Bánh Bò Nướng" in Vietnamese and is one of my favorite Vietnamese treats. It's a popular dessert flavored with pandan extract and coconut milk. The English name might be a little misleading because the "honeycomb" does not refer to any honey used in the recipe but rather the unique bubbled honeycomb shape of the finished product.

Bánh Bò Nướng - Vietnamese Pandan Tapioca Honeycomb Cake

Bánh Bò Nướng is notorious for being really fickle. There are many tips and tricks suggested by various bloggers, but often in the comment sections, you'll read about the multiple failures others experienced - mainly getting a dense brick cake with no bubbles. After successfully making this cake twice (just to rule out beginner's luck with my first attempt), I am pretty confident that my method works.

Before we jump into the recipe, I wanted to include a section for tips and tricks I've gathered that appear to increase your chances of having a successful Bánh Bò Nướng. I'm not entirely sure if all the tips are crucial but I incorporated them into how I make Bánh Bò Nướng just in case. Honestly, I suspect only the final tip is SUPER important but I'd rather be enjoying cake than sorry I wasted my ingredients. If I ever find the time and money, I'll test out all the tricks to see if they're all necessary, but for now here's what I've gathered:

Tips and Tricks

• You have to use single-acting baking powder. Double-acting baking power supposedly won't give you the proper honeycomb shape, but Andrea Nguyen from Viet World Kitchen found that you will still get bubbles just maybe not the ideal honeycomb formation.
• Preheat your baking pan so that your batter sizzles when it hits the pan. (I don't think this tip is necessary because my batter didn't sizzle but the final product still came out okay.)
• Do not incorporate any air into the eggs or else you will get a flat cake. (This is one of the tips I'm not entirely sure about but I followed anyway.)
• Do not overmix your eggs or else you will get a flat cake.
• When measuring out the coconut milk, do not shake the can or carton. Instead, open the container as is and measure out the cream part floating on the top. (I think this is more for flavor.)
• Let the cake rest in the hot oven before removing it.
• Add your single-acting baking powder to you mixture as your LAST INGREDIENT (after you've mixed and strained your other ingredients). (Now this tip, I think is really important. Single-acting baking powder starts reacting and making bubbles once it hits liquid. If you added the single-acting baking powder at the beginning and took too long to mix your ingredients, all the baking powder would have reacted and you would not get any bubble formation when you're baking in the cake the oven, which would result in a dense cake. Therefore, I think this step is crucial!)

Now, onto the recipe...

Breaking Bad - Blue Sky "Meth" Rock Candy

My friends are HUGE fans of Breaking Bad. Although the show ended not too long ago, I wanted to cook  a special treat for my friends for Christmas - Blue Sky! No, not that Blue Sky! The rock candy version of Walter White's ultra pure meth!

Breaking Bad - Blue Sky Meth

Baking Adventure: Portal Cake (and Happy Birthday to My Little Bro)

Hey, Adventurers! Happy 2014!

Apologies for the extended hiatus! It was much longer than I had originally anticipated, but I hope you all had a fun, safe, warm holiday season. My holidays were busy with family and friends, but I've also been making things that I'll blog about later. :) Be sure to stick around in the upcoming weeks!

You see, the end of November and early December always correspond with end-of-the-quarter craziness - finals, papers, projects, presentations, and all that fun stuff. In addition, there's Thanksgiving and... my brother's birthday!

Portal Cake

My brother's a big fan of Portal so this year, I made him a Portal Cake. That's right, the cake is NOT a lie!