Cooking Adventure: Team Fortress 2 Sandvich

Hey everyone! I did a guest post over at Kitchen Overlord for my video game food re-creation of Team Fortress 2's sandvich! If you've never checked out Kitchen Overlord's blog before, it's filled with creative, geeky foods. Some of my favorite recipes are her Transformers Bread Loaves and her 1-UP Mushroom Pizza Rolls. Definitely go take a look!

Source: Team Fortress 2 Sandvich

Here's my version of the sandvich from Team Fortress 2:

Baking Adventure: Harvest Moon Festival Mooncakes 2013

Happy Harvest Moon Festival!

This year, I made my own mooncakes! I actually tried making mooncakes a few years ago, but they didn't turn out so well. Fortunately, they came out great this year and I was really pleased. These little babies are a lot of work and are very time-consuming (No wonder they cost $30-40 for a box of 4!), but the end result was totally worth it.

Here's how mine turned out. They almost look like legit bakery or store-bought ones!

Mooncake

Here's a side view:

Mooncake (Side View)

I even made mini mooncakes with some of my favorite cartoon characters!

Winnie the Pooh and Hello Kitty Mini Mooncakes

Doraemon and Mickey Mouse Mini Mooncakes

I made several different fillings too. One of my favorites was my Mixed Nut (五仁) Mooncake made with almonds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pine nuts, and sesame seeds.

Mixed Nut (五仁) Mooncake

The Lotus Seed with Egg Yolk Mooncake was made with store-bought lotus seed paste and egg yolks. (I tried making homemade lotus seed paste last time and it didn't turn out to my liking so I opted for store-bought paste this year. :S )

Lotus Seed Paste and Egg Yolk Mooncake

And here's a cross-section of my mini mooncake with homemade red bean paste. The flavor of the red bean paste was really good, but it was a little too dry and needed more oil.

Red Bean Paste Hello Kitty Mooncake

In addition to the mooncakes above, I also made Mixed Nut with Candied Ginger Mooncakes, Lotus Seed Paste with Pine Nut Mooncakes, and Red Bean Paste with Egg Yolk Mooncakes, but don't have cross-section pictures just yet.

In total, I made 31 regular-sized mooncakes and 22 mini mooncakes! (Yikes! That's a lot!) For now, I'm not ready to post any recipes since there's still some kinks I need to work out and I don't want to give you recipes that aren't 100%.

However, below are recipes from other blogs that gave me inspiration and what I based my mooncakes on. I didn't follow these recipes completely because my mooncake molds were a different size and I couldn't find all the ingredients, but you can check them out and see if they work for you.
Aunty Yochana's Mixed Nut Mooncakes
Lynara Cakes' Traditional Lotus Mooncakes

(Sorta) Anime Food Re-creation: Lucky Star's Chocolate Cornet

Ever since my cousin showed me Lucky Star, I've been on a quest for chocolate cornets. Today's Anime Food Re-creation is a *sorta* re-creation because I didn't make it, unfortunately. Chocolate cornets are still on my list of anime foods to make, but I won't be able to make them until I find metal cornet horn molds.

Lucky Star - Chocolate Cornet

For now, here is a chocolate cornet from Paris Baguette, an Asian bakery near where I live.

Snack Attack: Hello Kitty Snacks

If you guys couldn't tell from some of my previous posts, I'm a HUGE fan of Hello Kitty. (My all-time favorite character is still Pochacco though. I miss seeing a section for him at Sanrio. :S ) Every so often, I come across Hello Kitty's face in the form of snacks. Seriously, if you slap her face on almost anything, I'm tempted to get it. No joke!

Hello Kitty Rice Crackers

Hello Kitty Rice Crackers

I came across these at my local Asian supermarket and thought they were too cute to pass up. They were only $1.99.

Hello Kitty Rice Cracker Packets

I loved how each little packet had a picture of Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty Rice Cracker

The rice crackers were light and crunchy with a hint of sweetness and the slightly salty taste of soy sauce - much like regular rice crackers. My brother claimed they tasted "just like [his] childhood." (We used to eat rice crackers a lot growing up.)

Hello Kitty Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Treats

Hello Kitty Cookie Dough Candy

I am across these at Big Lots and wanted to try them simply because Hello Kitty was on the package. (If she weren't on the box, I wouldn't have even given these treats a second glance. My Hello Kitty addiction strikes again!)

Hello Kitty Cookie Dough Candy Pieces

These were chocolate-covered cookie dough pieces. I was surprised these were actually soft like actual cookie dough. For some reason, I imagined they were going to be harder like baked cookies. The package said they're egg-free so there's no risk of salmonella poisoning and no need to refrigerate this candy. There's actually tiny chocolate chips mixed in with the cookie dough even though you can't see any in the cross section. I thought the first few candies I ate were good, but quickly got tired of them because they're pretty sweet. They seem like they'd make a good Yogurtland topping though.

Hello Kitty Pez

Hello Kitty Pez

Growing up, I wasn't a big fan of Pez. I knew it existed but actually didn't get to try it until middle school. Interestingly, that was the first and last time I ate Pez. The candy itself vaguely reminded me of Smarties and the dispenser freaked me out a little because you have to bend the character's head backwards for the candy to come out. Despite all this, I couldn't resist these Hello Kitty Pez dispensers at Big Lots. There were a few other designs in the set, but there were some paint imperfections so I didn't get them.

I know Hello Kitty snacks are everywhere. There's a Hello Kitty version of Yan Yan and even Hello Kitty Choco Pie. What interesting Hello Kitty snacks have you come across?

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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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