The Foodie's Food Trip: December 2009

I've been added to Petitchef

My blog's been added to Petitchef!

Check out their site. There are a lot of recipes to try out, and some shared by bloggers like me. :)

Lookie Here

Look what I borrowed from the library the other day...

Nigella Christmas: Food Family Friends Festivities

I have a problem and I need your help. On Christmas, there will be a small gathering in our house with some friends. They will spend Christmas lunch at home. It's pot luck, everyone will bring something and since I'm still in the hype of my baking, I volunteered to make the desserts.

I'm planning to make a few cupcakes since there will be less than 10 people coming over. Now my problem is... what to bake?

The Cupcakes

I have three choices for the cupcakes:

Red Velvet - red... perfect for the holidays
Chocolate - for the chocoholic in me
Vanilla - something simple for a change

The Frostings

If I choose red velvet cupcakes, I have two options for the frosting:

Creamy vanilla frosting - a la NY's Magnolia Bakery
Cream cheese frosting - perfect combination.... sweet and tangy

For the vanilla cupcakes, I also have two options for the frosting:

Vanilla frosting - plain and simple
Chocolate frosting - to contrast the vanilla cupcake... plus the chocolohic in me just won't let go. :D

For the chocolate cupcakes, I have three options for the frosting:

Chocolate ganache - rich, dark, thick
Whipped chocolate ganache - whippy version of the chocolate ganache
Chocolate buttercream frosting - back to basic

So all in all, there are a total of seven choices. I'm planning to make one type only. But depending on the number of people attending, I'll make the top two, for a bit of variation. Or maybe make the cupcake the same and just change the frosting.

Take your pick (cupcake and frosting)! Send me a message or comment which one you like most. I will be announing the winning cupcake/s by weekend.

Bake On Baby!

Since I got my oven a few days ago, I've been baking more than once a week!

The first thing I baked is, of course, the classic chocolate chip cookies. Actually, hubby requested it. hihi!

Second: I tried making banana muffins. First time to try it out and it looked, smelled and tasted great! Will post the recipe soon.

The latest batch of food I baked are some chocolate crinkles. You can get the recipe from my other blog Journal of Thoughts (I posted it way before I had The Foodie's Food Trip). We gave them out as Christmas gifts to friends. I already gave out seven packs of them... still have a few more to give out. hihi!

My New Toy

Finally got a new oven!

It's a Tefal OV1002. It's a small table-top convection oven, just a few inches bigger than our microwave oven.

After buying this oven, I've realized some things that I should have checked and taken into consideration before buying:

The size. My baking sheets do not fit anymore. The inside of the oven is 13 inches wide. Even the smallest baking sheet I have which is 13.5 inches long won't fit it. So I bought a smaller one... went to a lot of stores looking for a baking sheet that's small enough.
The rack. It only has one rack inside. So I have no choice but to bake one batch at a time. And given point # 1 which is the size, I'm limited to at most 4 cookies per batch for a normal-size cookie.
The time. Given points 1 and 2, the size and the number of racks, baking will take longer than expected, almost double compared to a normal convection oven. There goes the electricity bill.

Other than those mentioned above, I have nothing else to say other than I AM SO EXCITED TO BAKE! :)