Farewell to the blog.

This post will going to be the last graded post for the COM 407 that I am taking in Purdue University. I started this blog for the class since January. Posting two blogs each week was definitely a challenge for time managing and creative thinking aspects. I did not have any blogging experience before so presenting myself to specific targeted audience with baking topic was both overwhelming and exciting.

Looking back, I received variety of reaction from my friends and acquaintances during this 4 months. My friends were kept asking why I am baking so often and whenever I reply that it is for my class project, they thought I am taking food education class. Some friends thought I am enjoying my last senior semester that I am using my free time for baking. But the truth was, I had to organize my time more efficiently and work hard than before so I can have proper time for baking! Among the reactions from my friends, I appreciated their appreciation. I was the one who is giving and sharing but I felt by giving and sharing I was receiving. This is such a cliche you might think but to me that cliche finally spoke truthfully to me! People were confused and puzzled to receive my baking out of blue. But I think people are naturally thankful to something that they receive from nothing. Sometimes I felt guilty of having so much thanks and warm feed backs because I was only doing it for the class project at the first place! Overall, I would say that this blogging project was more than an assignment.

Before I finally go, if you want to know more about baking here are some final recommendations that I visited a lot of times for this blog.

• Rosanna Pansino – I mentioned her on my review blog that she is the big Youtuber with creative baking contents. I am her subscriber and honestly I cannot explain more with words of what she makes. She is so skillful and creative!
• HoneyKki – She is another Youtuber and she is Korean. She has English subtitles so don’t worry. She has very great visuals in video production and she is very competent baker.  I learned a lot from her, especially she have great little tips while baking so I recommend her to check out.
• Oh, Ladycakes – I love this blog’s photo quality. I also focused to have a great photo quality for my blog. But this blog has another level of photos. They also have great tips that you can use and creative baking ideas.

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Lastly, baking in West Lafayette, Indiana was also one of the factors of barrier to explore and experience more but I think this blog gave me an opportunity to have different perspective from what I had and experience West Lafayette. I did not know that there were such great events and classes related to bakings and foods before. Now I appreciate that I could explore my local here with this blog. I am genuinely glad to see the posts so far and I hope you had learn something from my blog too!

Earth day – Downtown Farmers Market

Here is the slideshow that I attended Downton Farmers Market in Lafayette, Indiana on last Saturday – Earth day. There were two merchants for baking goods so I explored their stations. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Upcoming Baking Events for Summer

Summer is coming fast! We all been waiting for the warmer temperature. Now in West Lafayette, Indiana, the nature is gaining its own color. Today I brought you the preview for the upcoming event that you can attend and enjoy the baking goods. I recently went to the Lafayette Farmer’s Market event. They sell many local organic and nature stuffs so that you can enjoy the freshness! I will going to post about the earth day event they had so stay tuned!

They will going to have three different market which will be held at Downtown, Purdue, and West Lafayette.

For the Downtown: Opening day is on MAY 6TH until October and it will be on every Saturdays at 8:00 – 12:30 PM. It is on 5TH street between Main & Columbia.

For the Purdue: Opening day is on MAY 4TH and it will be on every Thursdays at 11:00 – 2:00 PM. Until July it will open until 2:00 PM but from August to October it will open until 3:00 PM. Market will take place at Northwestern corner of Memorial Mall in Purdue campus. 

For the West Lafayette: Opening day is on MAY 3RD until October and it will be on every Wednesdays at 3:30 – 7:00 PM. It will be located in Cumberland Park.

You can click on the places to see the google map. As you can see the three markets are located in variety of places and it covers all of the people. People who are early birds can attend Downtown market. People who are active on daytime can attend Purdue market. Finally, people who wants to attend at afternoon-night can attend West Lafayette market.

They have such a great quality of goods and reasonable price point. In my own culture in South Korea, Market is something very traditional and there are always lots of people with different needs so that whenever I visit the outdoor market the vibes from each merchants are so energetic and fun to visit! I hope you can have that kind of fun experience this summer.

 

Movie recommendation: Waitress(2007)

Hello!

Today I brought you a movie that I watched when I was in high school. The movie is called Waitress and it was released in 2007. Keri Russell stars as the main character Jenna who has great talent for baking pies. Whenever I try to bake tart pies I get the flashback memories of the scene in the movie. Jenna’s life in the movie is miserable that it seems like there are any option but running away. Special thing about the pies in the movie is that it is all made whatever how Jenna feels at that moment. For example when she does not want to listen to her husband’s boring chat she closes her eyes and imagine the ‘I hate my husband pie’. First there are chopped dark chocolates for bitterness but top it with the chocolate pudding and caramel. This pie represents that inside her heart she hates her terrible husband but she covers her feelings as it is all okay. I believe that the baking goods are the product of how the baker wanted it to be so that the movie well depicted the baker’s emotion connected to the pies. I hoped that the movie also showed how Jenna made the pie batter and crusts when there is only fillings scene. Other than that it is great baking movie and has pretty fun scenes to enjoy for the dreamers. After all you could witness what decision she makes for her life and you could also get courage from her! If you wish to bake pies that Jenna baked in the movie click here for all recipes. I hope you enjoy.

Spring in Starbucks!

Finally, here in West Lafayette, Indiana, Spring has come! From my experience, Indiana state has fickle weather and Spring comes later than other area. So everyone here are genuinely happy to meet the Spring!

As I was casually scrolling down Instagram feed, I saw this picture that official Starbucks  posted from @joanna_fisher‘s photo. This butterfly cookie is one of the Spring seasonal offerings in Starbucks bakery. Their cookie with pretty icing is very buttery and not too sweet that it is one of my favorites. Starbucks is worldwide large chain store that is mainly demanded for coffee and drinks. But they are keep creating new looks of sweet desserts for past several years that their baking goods are in good quality. Especially, their cake pops are steady sellers. The baking goods are located right next to cashier which is manipulating customers subtly to pass by the bakery display. This strategy successfully gravitates the customers to buy their baking goods.

In West Lafayette Purdue campus there are 3 Starbucks and in Lafayette there are 4 Starbucks located. I was doing my works in Starbucks and I saw this guy buying the butterfly cookie. I interviewed him.

His name was Zion Chang who is Junior studying Mechanical Engineering. He said he comes Starbucks almost everyday and Starbucks’ baking goods were mainly his breakfast. The snowman cookie he mentioned is the Winter seasonal offerings just like the butterfly cookie. Like I said before I could see that he was also happy for the warm weather. I think we always celebrate something with food that in this case it was celebrating warm weather with the butterfly cookie. Can’t wait for the Summer seasonal offerings cookie from Starbucks!

Chocolate Crepe Cake

As you can see, my blog site has mesmerizing main photo of chocolate crepe cake with strawberry on top. I chose that photo to remind myself that I must make it for this blog. It is no oven baking and does not require any hard baking skills but what you need is “patience”. You should have at least 20 crepes to have decent height of the crepe cake so it was such a physical labor. The process is mainly stacking the crepe with the whipped cream over and over which was worth it! Let’s dive into it.

Ingredients:

*Chocolate Crepe*

• 210g Flour
• 100g Butter
• 675mL Milk
• 6 eggs
• 80g Cocoa Powder
• 105g Sugar

*Whipped Cream*

• 400mL Heavy Cream
• 20g Sugar
• 40g Condensed Milk

*Ganache*

• 225mL Heavy Cream
• 200g Sugar
• 170g Chocolate
• 15g Butter

 

 

Recipe:

1. Combine the sugar, flour and cocoa powder and whisk. 2. Use the had mixer while mixing the 6 eggs, melted butter and warmed milk. The melted butter and warmed milk should be add gradually.
   

   

   3. Put the crepe batter into the fridge at least 2 hours so that the dry ingredients can be well-mixed with the liquid ingredients.

   4. Make a crepe with the non-sticking pan in medium heat. Pour the batter with 1/4 cup and as soon as you pour it into the pan, swirl the pan so that the crepe batter can fill the pan evenly. Make at least 20 crepes. Let it cool for about 30 minutes.

   

   

   5. Make the whipped cream with the hand mixer. Put it in the fridge.

   

   

   6. Make the ganache by first boiling the sugar and heavy cream at the pot and pour it into the chocolate and butter. Let it chill.

   

   

   7. Now the physical labor part! Layer the crepe and whipped cream over and over until you are satisfied with the height.8. Pour the cool ganache over the crepe cake and let it cool. Top it with your favorite fruit. I used strawberry.

 

It was so delicious that I invited my friends to have some. Everyone was amazed by the layer of the crepes and whipped cream that all enjoyed. Here are some photos that my friends took. You really need to devote your time making this crepe cake but after all it was worth it!

I used this recipe from buzzfeed so to check out more click here!

Baking tips I wished I knew them sooner

From my baking measurement post, I mentioned the famous quote, “Baking is Science”. You have to follow the exact steps and have exact measurements for the ingredients. That means it requires a lot of concentration. Like any other skills, you gain some know-hows and become more professionals. Then you realize you wished you knew some great baking tips sooner and not end up having gloomy failure. I would like to share from my real experiences that are some baking tips I wished I knew them sooner!

1. Sifting the flour makes the big difference. If you had enough experience of baking, you will know that always the dry ingredients like flour or sugar will eventually combine with liquid ingredients like eggs or melted butter. To mix it well when you sift the flour it will evenly mixed with no little crumples of flour. You will see that the result of your baking will have smooth surface and even texture that it was all sifting.
2. Make sure if you have to use room temperature eggs or cold eggsI don’t know why but I always ignored the instructions for the egg’s temperature. I thought it does not matter. But if you use a cold egg when it supposed to be at room temperature, the batter will be so hard to mix and the dry ingredients will actually need more eggs. There are so many reasons for each recipe why it should be room temperature so just follow the instructions no matter what.
3. You can use microwave plate as a turntable to ice your cakesThis tip is the most recent that I realized that you do not need to spend another money to buy the turntable because you have the microwave plate. It has same function as the cake turntable, only it is quite unstable but hey, it works then that’s it!
4. Know the tips to line the parchment paperLining the parchment paper was the most hardest thing for me when I was a very beginner. I did not know the non-stick olive oil spray existed that will hold the parchment paper and stick on the pan. Also, for the square pan with depth, you have to cut diagonally so that there is no missing spot.
5. Vanilla extract and salt are the only ingredients that you can over use it
   

   

   For baking, measuring the exact ingredients are important but for vanilla extract, more is better. The vanilla extract scent makes the smell of baked goods better. For the salt, you cannot pour too much but 2 more tsp can make the sweetness enhanced and season will be balanced.

6. Prepare yourself that your kitchen will be a disaster after baking
   

   

   This is not necessarily a baking tip but it is one of the thing that I wish I knew before I baked. You will use so many kitchen tools, cups and bowls that you will end up having pile of them to dish wash. My know-how is doing the dishes right away. This makes the process slower but it is much better than doing all the dishes after the baking is done. During the process you are energized and keep going but after you see your result, you are no longer motivated to move. Think that washing dishes is also included in between of the steps in recipe!

 

 

Nailed it!

It is amazing how there are so many creative baking works when you search with internet. However, it does not mean we can all have successful baking. Failure teaches success. I found the horrendously awful baking results that try to make cute Disney cake but failed and will hunt the kids in the birthday party. Also some more funny failures that somehow we are more related then the perfect and detailed baking results. Personally I also had so many failures that it is the worst feeling. You not only waste money and time but also the affection and effort during the process. Watching these baking fails are funny but at the same time I think we should give them a big credit for having a courage to present it anyway and share it in the internet. To enjoy more failures click this pinterest link. 

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For my best friend’s 22nd birthday

Today I brought the video of me and my friend Joanne making the strawberry cream cake for SoHee who had 22nd birthday on April 2nd! I have known SoHee for 4 years and this semester is the last semester for us to spend time in Purdue University. My baking partner, Joanne and I had to make SoHee’s birthday special with her favorite cake. I filmed and baked at the same time! The video is not for someone who wants to bake but to give an idea how to make it, I added some instruction captions. Oh and the guy in the video is SoHee’s boyfriend who visited Purdue from Chicago. He was such a fun assistant. You will see in the video. It was such a fun day and night! SoHee was so happy with the cake that she stills talk about it. I hope you enjoy the video how I spent the weekend in Purdue. (FYI, I am Korean)