Sweet Potato Corn Bread

Mini corn bread to share

The Farm of Beverly Hills serve the best table bread. Their corn bread melts in your mouth. It goes so well with this sweetened butter that comes with the bread. I am always tempted to run away with a basket of corn bread and order nothing from the restaurant.

I found a savior recipe that would save me from a trip to The Farm--no more over spending on corn bread, ha! Unlike The Farm, this recipe makes a slightly drier corn bread and not as buttery, but it a deeper corn flavor. Maybe the corn flavor comes with the quality of your cornmeal.

I made my own cornmeal by blending pre-popped corns in my Vitamix. Boy was it loud when I turned the Vitamix on. I was wondering if the blade will cut through those stubborn little thing. After five minutes of on and off blending, I got a bag of cream colored cornmeal!

Now on to baking: get all the ingredients measured and melt the butter in your microwave. Next peel, cut, and boil one sweet potatoes for 5 minutes. Cool them in a bath water after you take them out from their hot bath, and don't forget to drain the potato again before you incorporate them into your batter.

Instead of baking them in a square pan, I baked them in cupcake liners. It's just easier to share with friends. I did have some leftovers which I baked in a mini loaf pan. The cornbread from the loaf pan is more moist than the cupcakes. If you want muffin corn breads, only bake for 15 minutes to retain the same level of moisture.

Another note is, sweet potato is optional. I had one on my hand and didn't know what to do with it.

Corn bread anytime!

Ugly Chocolate Bread

Soft and spongy chocolate layer bread

I saw these gorgeous chocolate breads on a Taiwanese blog. They remind me of a squared bread I loooooved as a child. In between the bread are layers of chocolate. Thinking back...the bread didn't have a chocolate taste. I guess anything brown and found in a bakery would be mistaken as 'chocolate'. Or chocolate was too expensive an ingredient so they skimmed on the chocolate and used less cocoa powder and replaced the rest with powdered milk. Too bad I couldn't find a picture to  tried to find the recipe on Yahoo Taiwan, but it seems like chocolate layer cake and crepes are more popular than my childhood favorite.

Another unfortunate thing is I failed at replicating my childhood memory. It turned out to be...really ugly. I couldn't get the bread to contain its shape when I put them in the oven. So on my second batch, I cut the dough into nine pieces and baked them in a brownie pan. They retained their shape! And they have a softer texture than the ones baked individually.

Was intended on making 'squared' bread

For the recipe, I used the tang zhong dough I shared previously on my blog. Follow the link and follow the recipe until after the first rise. Then follow the recipe below to make the chocolate block.

To make chocolate layers, you will be folding the dough and chocolate block together like you would be doing to make croissants. So what you do first is roll out the bread dough into a rectangle, place the chocolate block in the middle, then take 1/3 of the dough and fold over the chocolate. Take the left side of the dough and fold over to the right. Now it looks like a book--one where you would flip the page from right to left. Rotate the dough 90 degree South, so the book opening is facing you.

Use the rolling pin to flatten the dough, and repeat the folding process.

After giving the dough two folds, you can either cut them up into squares and place them in a brownie pan OR follow this blog for more twistful ideas.

Last bake the bread in the oven for 15-20 minute, and enjoy!

Yellow Butter Cake

I don't make a lot of cupcakes at home. In fact, that little cake in a cup intimates me. A good cupcake must have a good base, then the frosting must complements the base with just enough sweetness. Also the cake needs to be moist, so timing is everything when you bake the cake in shallow cupcake tins compare to a wider cake pan.

I've tried several cupcake specialty stores in Los Angeles. Dots Cupcake at Pasadena has the most balanced flavor. I think the cake is barely sweetened, but that makes the frosting stand out so much. The sea salt caramel cupcake even has a condensed milk filling that ups the sweetness of the cake. But besides the frosting and filling, Dots Cupcake have bland cake base. To a point where you get a acidic or perhaps a metallic taste from tasting too much baking powder.

Lemonade and The Oinkster both serve really cute petite cupcakes. I love how appetizing the size is without overwhelming your sweet tooth, but they are both super greasy. If you hold either cupcake in a paper bag, the bottom of the bag can soak up so much oil. The excess oil keeps their cupcakes moist at all times. Maybe that's just the way restaurants do to extend shelf life.

I haven't found a better tasting cupcake than Sprinkles. Yes, they are way too sweet for me, but the cinnamon sugar cupcake has no frosting just a layer of cinnamon sugar. That is the best combination in my opinion. I still get a sweet kick on the top, but I really don't need all that frosting because the cake is flavorful and crumbly and moist. It's amazing how it can be both crumbly and moist at the same time! But Candace Nelson makes perfect cupcakes.

So back to my own cupcakes, I'm not so much of a frosting person as you can tell by now. I believe in flavor not so much plain sweetness from excess sugar. Instead of frosting my cupcakes, I had a spoonful of whip cream on top. The simple butter cake with a tiny amount of jam filling topped with whip cream is just a simple dessert but so amazingly refreshing!

Here is the yellow butter cake recipe I used. Instead of baking the batter in a cake pan, I poured them into cupcake liners, and the cake had a simple yet flavorful butter profile that is light and spongy.

1-2-3-4 Butter Cake Recipe

After baking, I let them cool on the wire rack before digging out a hole on the top and filling them up with jam. Don't hesitate to splurge on a good jam. They make a big difference when you're using such simple ingredients as butter and whip cream.

If you don't have one of those cupcake tools I used in the photo, use a core remover or just cut a tiny hole and scoop some cake out.

Cupcake cored and filled with jam

Although I used the recipe as a cupcake base, it also makes a good base for cake. I made an one layer cake with this recipe, then I sliced the cake in half to add frosting and more jam! Put the top layer back and dump frosting all over the cake. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time for the frosting to set, so when it came time to serve the cake, the frosting was dripping off, making my cake look like it's melting.

Frosting dripping off the cake

It was still a easy cake after all =]

Mocha Almond Cake

Bitter sweet almond cake

Chocolate and espresso go so well together in desserts. Bitter sweet chocolate gives the right amount of sugary flavor that lightens espresso's bitterness. There is no need to use cups and cups of sugar to flavor your treat. The two star ingredient have enough kick already.

A few weeks back I shared a recipe on Almond Honey Cake. This recipe is an adaptation of it. I added some chocolate chips and dissolved two tablespoons of honey in half a cup of espresso. The result is a unsweetened mocha cake! If you prefer a sugary dessert then double the honey amount or substitute honey with half a cup of sugar.

Here is the adapted recipe for the almond cake:

Adapt the amount of sweetness you want by adding more honey or use 1/2 cup of sugar

Chunks of almond and chocolate chip

Food Truck Tuesday at Highland Park

What do you do on a Tuesday night? If you never have anything to look forward to, mark your calendar for Highland Park's Food Truck Tuesday. 

You will find about 8 trucks lined up at the back parking lot of Figueroa Produce starting at about 5:30pm. This mobile food night started off as a venue for vegetarians. All trucks that attend the gathering must provide at least one vegetarian or vegan dish. That seems to be history now because I saw Lobsta Truck offering lobster rolls, crab rolls, clam chowder, but nothing on the veggie side.

Whether you are a vegetarian or not, check out Figueroa Produce every Tuesday. Here's what we tried at the event on April 3:

Mandoline Grill
Their banh mi is the most budget friendly at $7 for a 12" sandwich. You can choose between Hawaiian BBQ Chicken, Grilled Steak, Pork, or Tofu. The baguette that wraps all the goodness together is so thick that you must take a bite of the crispy thing with a few strings of pickled carrot and daikon. Then you get to the whole combination of meat + side + bread. The sweet and sour salad really enhances the meat. If you're not up for a whole sandwich, try their taco and salad that offer similar taste sans bread.

Extra tofu salad with a side of pickled carrot & daikon along with two secret traditional sauces (vegan dressing available)

Frysmith
Nothing beats fresh cut fries served with a spoonful of chili and a generous amount of cheddar cheese. Frysmith offers just that. You can find angus beef chili cheese fries or vegetarian chili cheese fries. There is also a sweet potato option served with chicken and tomatillo-tamarind sauce; kimchi fries with Kurobuta pork belly; grilled steak with jack cheese. If you're looking for an appetizer to munch on while you decide which truck to tackle next, go get a large plate of fries for $6.

Vegetarian Chili Cheese Fries

Franken's Gourmet Franks
Next, we moved on to a plant based hot dog stand truck. First you choose from three sausages: the greater, the witch, or the franken. They are filled with all sort of goodies like micro brewed full sail ale and sun dried tomatoes. Next you top your hot dog with sauerkraut, relish, onion, veggie bacon, jalapeño, cole slaw, mustard, ketchup, hot sauce, and/or mayo.

A spooky hot dog stand

B Sweet
This truck deserves the "best dessert truck in Los Angeles" title! We were doubtful at first because how can a cupcake stay fresh in a moving truck? Surely the texture must be dry like sandpaper. The frosting was rather flat on top too. What changed our mind was the free sample of red velvet and dutch apple bread pudding we got. Boy were we blown away by the bready custard. We were convinced to give their red velvet cup cake a try. Surprise surprise! The cake was moist and crumbly. It also had a vibrant butter taste to it that paired well with the creme cheese frosting. For $3 a cupcake and $5 per bread pudding, it's a little on the expensive side, but well deserved for its flavor.

B Sweet with delicate offers like cupcake, bread pudding, cookies, and chocolate milk

Unfortunately we weren't able to try Lobsta Truck, India Jones, Palazzolo's Gelato, Buttermilk, Grill Em All, and Lomo Arigato. The trucks change all the time, so come every Tuesday because you will discover new exotic foods that will rock your taste buds.