Happy Birthday to a Little Princess and a Special Guest, Plus A Birthday Cake Decorating Idea

It was my Little Princess’ Birthday and we celebrated early this year.  Since Hello Kitty is (still) the Birthday Girl’s favorite character, I have to make sure the Kitty banner was in place before the party started.  Do kids ever out grown Hello Kitty?  If you know the answer, please share!  I was never a fan myself when I was young so I couldn't tell.  And I don’t think I would miss all the pink Hello Kitty items around the house if, one day, my Princess decided she doesn't like it anymore.  Hahaha…wish me luck that it will happen one day!  Besides my Little Girl’s birthday, it was also my Hubby’s Aunt’s birthday on the day we hosted the party.  She happened to be visiting the States from Hong Kong so we celebrated her Birthday as well.  It was our honor to have her at the party. 



In the afternoon, I served up these Adzuki/Red Bean Ice Dessert (紅豆冰, see picture above) , made from the Homemade Red Bean Paste, recipe here.  It’s a very popular Chinese dessert and perfect for hot summer days.  Simply fill a tall glass with some shaved ice (I blended some crushed ice in a blender to turn them into shaved ice consistency).  Then, top with some red bean paste, more ice, more bean paste; last but not least, splash in some evaporated milk and that’s all.  It was so good, refreshing, chilled, creamy, and very satisfying!  You bet I’ll be making this very often this summer!

Next, onto the birthday cake, its a Chocolate Mousse Pocky Cake!  Can you tell I'm quite excited about this cake?  You might noticed that I haven't show you the entree and appetizers and jump right to the cake. You bet that's the way we roll here, always start with desserts first.



Little Princess requested a chocolate cake for her birthday, so I made a chocolate mouse layer cake for her. (Similar to this chocolate mousse cake but in bigger scale.)  This dark chocolate mousse cake started with a chocolate cookie crust on the bottom, two layers of chocolate sponge cake in between the dark chocolate mousse layers, and topped with cocoa powder.  As you can see from the picture below, the sides of the cake wasn't that neat, so I decorated the cake with my kids’ favorite snacks, Chocolate Pocky and Strawberry Pocky!  As you might have guessed, pink is my Little Princess’ favorite color, that’s why I used the Strawberry Pocky as part of the decoration.  If you’re not familiar with Pocky, they are chocolate covered (or strawberry covered) pretzel sticks.  They are really tasty and fun snacks on their own.



I simply line and pressed the Pocky sticks onto the side of the cake.



Then tide it all up with some pretty ribbons.  But if I would do it again, I probably would apply a thin layer of cream on the side of the cake before adding the Pocky so that the Pocky sticks would stay-put when we cut into the cake. 



To go with the Strawberry Pocky theme, I simply decorated the top of the cake with a few strawberries right before serving.  The Pocky sticks are great for cake decorating if the sides of your cake doesn't look perfect.  As you all know by now that I'm not a crafty person, so, this is probably the easiest way to make the birthday cake looks great.  Hope you like this simple cake decorating idea.



Besides the cake, we had plenty of food.  Such as Chicken Cold Noodles with Sesame Dressing as shown in the picture below.  My Parents also prepared tuna sashimi and a self-serve sushi hand roll plates.  And somehow I didn't have a picture of those dishes alone.  They were surrounded by people constantly!  That’s how good they were.  The self-serve sushi hand roll plates was definitely a perfect dish to prepare for summer parties.  I’ll try to post a recipe in the future when I make it again.   I also made fried shrimp balls as appetizers and they were all gone before I had a chance to even take a picture.



I also prepared some Meyer Lemonade for the party.  It was Little Princess’ latest favorite drink.  So refreshing and perfect for any guest.  It was a nice party and we all had a great time.  It was filled with food, laughs, gifts, fun and love.  I hope you enjoy these pictures from the party and the cake decorating idea.  Stay tuned for my next post on more summer treats and recipes.

Raspberry Roulé Cake—Baby Girl’s Birthday Cake

We have 2 birthday celebrations last month, my Baby Girl’s and my Hubby’s.  This girly Raspberry Roulé Cake was for my Baby Girl’s, of course.  I apologize for the poor lighting and settings of these pictures because it was already dark when we were ready to cut the cake.  I decorated it right before we serve so I didn’t have time to do my photo shoot setup.  But nonetheless, this Raspberry Roulé Cake was the bomb!



I made napoleon mousse as the filling of this cake.  The top layer is a raspberry mousse, the middle one was Meyer Lemon mousse, and the bottom layer was dark chocolate mousse.  Below is a pictorial to show you how to form this cake.

1) First, line a small mixing bowl with 2 layers of plastic wraps. Make sure the wraps are long enough to hand over the sides.
2) Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl with slices of Raspberry Swiss Roll
3) Frost a thin layer of stabilized whipped cream all over the cake and pour the raspberry mousse into it. Smooth the surface, cover with the over hanging plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mousse is set, about 1 to 2 hours.
4) Place the Meyer Lemon Mousse over the raspberry mousse
5) Gently smooth the surface, and refrigerate until the Meyer lemon mousse is set, about 1 to 2 hours.
6) Then, top with the dark chocolate mousse Layer
7) Cover with another layer of sliced Raspberry Swiss Roll
8)  Cover the whole thing with the over hanging plastic wrap and refrigerate for another hour or two.  In my case, over night until ready to serve.

 

There are quite a few steps and some wait time in between each layer, but those are pretty simple steps.  It sure was a fun cake to make and cut into.  After turning out the cake, I decorated it with more fresh raspberries and fresh whipped cream.



I'll try to post the Raspberry Swiss Roll cake recipe in a separate post when I make them again.  For now, Happy Birthday to my sweet Baby Girl and Hubby.  Wish you lots of love, good health and happiness.



*Note:  This cake was inspired by the book Sprinkle Bakes.  It was originally an ice cream roulé cake. However, I used my own cake and mousse recipes.

Ohshima—Restaurant Review

[Warning: If you're not comfortable seeing live or whole seafood ingredients: including heads and tails, you might want to click away now.  Otherwise, keep on reading for some good eats.]




I used to live just 15 minutes away from a Japanese community in Los Angeles and pretty much surrounded by authentic Japanese restaurants.  After moving to the Orange county, I haven’t really had Japanese food until my visit to Ohshima.  Ohshima offers a wide variety of Japanese cuisine, both cooked and raw, a full menu from appetizers to desserts.  But if you plan to dine at this place, “Omakase” at the sushi bar is highly recommended.




Omakase (お任せ) is a Japanese phrase that means "I'll leave it to you". The expression is used at sushi restaurants to leave the selection to the chef.  The chef will generally present a series of plates, beginning with the lightest fare and proceeding to heaviest, richest dishes.

As noted on the menu, the nigiri sushi of the Omakase already came seasoned.  You don’t need to dip them in the soy sauce, really!  You can truly taste the natural sweetness of the fish/seafood and all of them were awesome and super fresh.  My husband and I both ordered the 12 pieces Omakase…and we ended up having more than 12!   

We’ve been to Ohshima in two separate occasions.  On our first visit, we enjoyed the Omakase at the sushi bar.   The second time we sat at the table and ordered from their regular a la carte menu and both were excellent.  First, I’ll post the pictures of the Omakase.

Please excuse the quality of these photos.  As they were taken from a cell phone, not my regular camera.

First, we started with a small plate of complimentary pickled veggies. 



A glass of cold sake for each of us.



The chefs working behind the sushi bar, busy preparing our food!  They were very friendly and attentive.



We started off with Diver’s Scallop.  Super fresh and sweet.  The tangy Yuzu is a perfect match for it.



Up next was Sea Bass. Refreshing and sweet.



Spanish Mackerel.  You can really taste the ocean from this Mackerel.



Toro (fatty tuna) charred with blow torch.  Any food involved a blow torch is just delicious.   Charring really added a nice smoky flavor to the fish.  I love the contrast of texture from the charred and raw flash.



Baby Yellowtail. Another "melt in your mouth" goodness.



Cherry Salmon.  Not your usual Salmon.  It's flown in from Japan.



Amberjack.  Sweet, fresh and great texture.  The flash is a bit firmer from the rest.



Sweet Shrimp Inari.  Yes, it was still swimming a minute before it was served.  The flash was still “moving” when it was on our plate.  The Chef was behind the counter holding the tail of the shrimp so we could take a picture.



Sweet Shrimp Inari.  It's about the freshest as it can get.



Deep Fried Sweet Shrimp heads. So crispy and light.  I love it because it’s not greasy at all and you can eat the whole thing including the tentacle.



Bonito Nigiri.  Great flavor.



Albacore with Secret Garlic Sauce and Chips.  So pungent, rich and flavorful.  The crispy garlic chips on top made a nice contrast in the texture and add another level of garlic-ey deliciousness.



Black Cod charred by a blow torch.



Uni (Sea Urchin) was super fresh and melt in your mouth.



Blue Crab Handroll, a nice way to conclude the savory part of our dinner.



Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Smoothie.  The chocolate cake was moist and delicious.  Perfect pairing with these Vanilla Smoothie.



All the seafood were made with quality ingredients and super fresh.  However, it’s a bit on the pricey side.  But you really paid for what you get.  Our bill for two including sake and dessert came a bit under $160 total, including tax. 

Up next, our second visit with a la carte items.

We started off with Home Made Marinated Uni.  Fresh, sweet, rich and delicious.  The seaweed salad on the bottom made a nice contrast on the texture.  The fresh wasabi on top compliment the Uni nicely.




Seaweed Salad.  A very refreshing salad.  I love the crunchy and bouncy texture from different type of seaweeds in this salad.  The amount of dressing was just perfect.



Baked Scallop Crabmeat Wrapped in Salmon.  It’s wonderful and unique.  The Crabmeat and scallop “stuffing” is chopped and wrapped with a piece of salmon fillet and baked to perfection. You can really taste the crabmeat and scallops inside.



Miso Duck and Forbidden Rice.  The duck was beautifully done.  The blackberry sauce was divine and compliment the duck nicely.  The duck was succulent and juicy. The Forbidden Black Rice has a great texture similar to brown rice and a mild nutty flavor, the perfect bed for the duck.



Last but not least, the Amberjack Collar.  I had yellowtail collar many times before so I opted to try the Amberjack Collar this time.  This fatty fish collar was perfectly done.  The collar was boiled to perfection with a minimal of seasoning.  It’s served with grated daikon, along with some light soy sauce and a wedge of lemon.  The portion was generous.  Basically, it was half of the fish head along with the collar instead of just the collar.



We also ordered Udon noodle soup and a Toro cut roll (nothing special on these two).   The total bill was low $70s after tax.  We didn’t order sake nor desserts this time because the kids were rushing us to go home after they were done.

Conclusion: Ohshima is an authentic Japanese restaurant that serves fresh and quality seafood and many unique a la carte dishes.  The dining area is rather small though.  There are only about 12 sushi bar seats and less than 10 tables all together.  You might want to make a reservation before you go or be there early to avoid the line.  Also, there’s no high chair nor booster seat available at the restaurant.  Despite these drawbacks, My husband and I DO plan to go back there again in the future. There were quite a few more other items on the menu we would love to try on our next visit.    

Ohshima

1956 N Tustin St
Orange, CA 92865

(714) 998-0098

*Disclaimer*

Winner Announcement of the uTry.it Birthday Giveaway

Thank you everyone who participated in the uTry.it Birthday Giveaway.  I’m thankful and appreciate for all your supports, suggestions and comments as always.  The winner selected by Random.Org for this giveaway is….Lisa from Sweet As Sugar Cookies who said:

“I always love seeing desserts. Of course, I also have a place in my heart for yummy Asian food.” 

Lisa will receive a Silpat Baking Mat and a bottle of Pure Vanilla Powder. 


Thanks again for your participation.  Stay tuned for another giveaway coming up real soon.  Have a wonderful week, my friends.

uTry.it Turns One! More Macarons…Oh yeah…and a Giveaway

uTry.it turns one today!  Woohoo!  It’s amazing looking back to the past 365 days.  365 days of happy memories because of you, every single one of you, my dear readers and food blog friends. 


When I wrote my very first blog post a year ago, I’ve never expected I would gain so much from writing a food blog (besides gaining the weights from testing out recipes, hahaha…). I’ve made so many news friends and fellow bloggers. I truly cherish all of your friendship, comments, supports, feedbacks and kindness. It’s overwhelming, but in a very positive way.





Did you know, the post that received the most comments and feedbacks in the past year was The Culinary Smackdown Battle-Cookies.  It was such a fun event/contest.  I really love to see all those scrumptious cookie recipes that you shared on my blog.  Maybe I’ll host another similar event again in the near future.  What do you think?


Speaking of cookies, the French Macaron was the type of cookie that got the most recipe posts in the past year from the cookie category.  Probably because it’s a plain canvas that I can create so many different flavor combinations in these little cuties.  What can I say, they are absolutely addictive.  If you haven’t make these cuties before, here’s the post for some basic Macaron making tips. 




To extend my appreciation for your supports of my blog, I’m hosting a Giveaway on uTry.it’s Birthday.  The prizes from the giveaway will help you to a step closer to making these Macarons as well.  That is, if you haven’t make them before. 


This Giveaway is now Closed. Thank you for everyone who participated.


Prize #1: Silpat Non-Stick Silicone Mat 11 1/2-by-16 1/2-inch.  It fits perfectly on my 12 by 17-inch baking sheets.  A must have for Macaron making. Of course, you can use the Silpat when you make any other cookies, breads, meringues, etc.

Product image from Amazon

Prize #2: Bourbon Vanilla Powder 2.5 oz. by Nielsen-Massey Vanillas. A key ingredient for Macaron making.  Adding lots of flavor but not moisture, which is essential for successful Macaron making. 

Product image from Amazon

Rules for the Giveaway:

This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere in the world.  1 winner will be selected using Random.org and the winner will get both prizes. Must be a uTry.it public follower/member through Google Friends Connect to participate.  (See the right hand side bar under “Follower” with the button “Join this site”).  You have until Wednesday, August 31st, 12 midnight PST to enter this giveaway.  Winner will be contact via email shortly after the giveaway is closed.

Mandatory Entry: 

Leave a comment and tell me what kind/type of recipes you would like to see more on my blog.  Is it desserts,entrée, or entertaining appetizers? Do you like Chinese, Asian, French, Italian or whatever you can think of?

Additional Entries: (you can do any or all of the following, just leave a separate comments for each)

1) “Like” uTry.it’s Facebook page.  Here’s the link. 

2) Share this giveaway with your friends on Facebook.  Please include the link to this post when you share.

3) Follow uTry.it on Twitter.  Here’s the link.

4) Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include my Twitter handle @utry_it and the link to this post in your tweet.

5) Subscribe to my blog via email.  You’ll receive an email to verify the subscription.  

6) Subscribe via RSS feed.

Valrhona Chocolate Crepe Layer Cake with Hazelnut Cream—Happy Birthday to My Hubby

It was my hubby’s birthday and I wanted to make him something special.  Since he’s a chocolate lover, it’s just very natural that I made him a chocolate cake.  This is no ordinary chocolate cake.  I make this cake with Valrhona Chocolate, Valrhona cocoa powder, and Valrhona chocolate pearls, my choice of chocolate!  (It might sounds like an advertising, but NO, Valrhona didn’t sponsor my post nor send me free chocolate to say this, although I secretly wished they did! LOL)  I just love the deep and rich chocolate flavor from Valrhona products. 



I originally saw the crepe layer cake from Martha’s site.  I know I have to make it someday.  Even though I didn't exactly use Martha’s recipe, this cake was definitely inspired by her. 



I promise not to reveal my hubby’s age. But the answer is in the picture above. If you can count, his age is exactly the number of crepes I used for this cake. Cool, huh?



Since it was a surprise cake for my hubby, I made the cake when he was at work. So, how did I get the picture above? I was pouring melted chocolate with my left hand and holding my camera and shooting with my right hand. Not an easy task because my camera is quite heavy. I almost dropped the whole pot of chocolate onto the cake, I mean, the chocolate and the pot!!! hahahaha….it was kind of fun though and I’m happy I’ve captured this image.



I just love the melted chocolate drizzle down the layers of crepes that are filled with hazelnut cream. So luscious and beautiful.



After the cake was chilled in the fridge and decorated with candied hazelnut and chocolate pearls, it’s all ready for the candle and cake cutting ceremony.



It was definitely a fun cake to make, and it’s almost too beautiful to cut into, almost. For those who do not know what to expect from the inside of the cake, it will certainly come as a surprise once the cake is sliced open.  I definitely love the gorgeous layers of this cake.



Although the candied hazelnut didn’t come out as I expected because the candy “tail” chipped a little when I pick them up from the parchment paper, they still tasted wonderful. I love the crunch and the toasted nutty flavor from the "candied" hazelnut. 



Here’s how the inside looks like, with all the layers of crepes and cream, and love. 



If you have a special birthday celebration, I strongly suggest you to make this cake.  It’s a lot easier to make than it looks.  Plus, you can (and you should) make this cake a day, or two, ahead of time, without having to worry that the cake will get 'dried out' when sitting inside the fridge.  I’m sure the person who receives this cake will be very pleased and be very surprised!



Happy Birthday, My Love!  Wish you good health, love and happiness.  May all your birthday wishes come true.  I look forward to celebrate many many more “layers” and birthdays with you.