How I spent my Memorial Day weekend...

Okay, well not all of my weekend. But at least Saturday morning.
I baked a cake!
I decided to bake a cake for no other reason than I wanted to.
Just for fun.

You may ask, "Why a bathtub cake?"

The truth was, I really wanted to bake a cake in my breadpan, so once I saw the shape, I thought it resembled a bathtub. The flavor of the cake was chocolate, the frosting was vanilla buttercream and the little duck was made out of fondant.

Sushi Time!

I absolutely love sushi. I could eat it everyday and not think twice about it. But I don't.

However, I do enjoy a good sushi dinner now and then and my recent experience was amazing. A local place serves wonderful sushi at a very good price, and is quickly climbing its way to being one of my top five restaurant choices. (not an easy thing to do)
This plate contains a rainbow roll, a shrimp tempura roll and a baked hamachi roll and all of them were delicious! Just looking at the picture makes me excited and I'm already thinking of going out for sushi again instead of cooking tonight... :)

A+ for Presentation

My husband and I recently had the pleasure of dining at the Hali'imaile General Store which is a beautiful restaurant here on the island.

I almost always take pictures of my food, but I was so impressed with their presentation that I made the poor hubby wait several minutes until I was done.

This was their popcorn shrimp. It was served in a to-go container with popcorn coming out of it! Adorable!
And this was their calamari platter:
Look at the large squid shaped decoration! I believe it was made out of some type phyllo dough but I can't be sure. Ab-fab!

A+ Hali'imaile. Well done.

When you don't have PF Changs...

I love the food at PF Changes but unfortunately we don't have one here on the island.

While looking at the Food Network website for an eggplant recipe, I came across a Szechwan eggplant dish. It sounded delicious and a few of the comments mentioned it tasted like the Spicy Eggplant dish at PF Changs. Well that definitely piqued my interest so I decided to give it a try.It was fantastic! It's been about a year, maybe a year and a half since I have eaten at PF Changs, but it tasted exactly how I remember! In the past few weeks, I've made it several times because it is so good! I substituted a few items to accommodate the ingredients I had in the house and now I also add chicken, red bell peppers and green beans to it.

I've pasted the recipe below along with some of my notes. Enjoy!

Recipe on the Food Network website

Szechwan Eggplant Stir-Fry
Recipe courtesy Tyler Florence and JoAnn Cianciulli

4 Servings
Cook 5 min
Total: 25 min

Ingredients
* 5 Asian eggplants, about 2 pounds (I halved the amount of eggplant, but kept the same size of sauce)
* 3 tablespoons peanut oil ( I didn’t have peanut oil so I used olive oil)
* 1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
* Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 2 green onions, white and green parts, sliced on a diagonal (I didn't have green onions, so I chopped up some regular onions)
* 1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced (I didn’t have fresh, so I chopped up the pink shredded ginger that I have in a jar)
* 3 garlic cloves, minced
* 1 fresh red chile, sliced (I didn’t have a chile so I used some chili pepper flakes instead)
* 1/2 cup chicken broth
* 3 tablespoons soy sauce
* 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
* 1 tablespoon light brown sugar
* 1 tablespoon cornstarch
* 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
* Thai holy basil and fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish
*Half a red bell pepper, thinly sliced
*A cup of cooked chicken
*A handful of green beans

Directions

Cut the eggplants in 1/2 lengthwise and then slice crosswise into wedges, no more than 1-inch wide.

Heat a wok or large skillet over medium-high flame and add the oils; tilt the pan to coat all sides. When you see a slight smoke, add a layer of eggplant, stir-fry until seared and sticky, about 3 minutes. (This took a lot longer than 3 minutes, more like about 8 and I felt the eggplant started to burn. Now I turn down the heat to medium and put a lid on the pan which helps to soften the eggplant, and cook it for about 10 minutes, stirring it occasionally. Make sure all the eggplant is very soft as this is the only cooking it will get)

Season with salt and pepper. Remove the eggplant to a side platter and cook the remaining eggplant in same manner, adding more oil, if needed. Once cooked, remove the eggplant from the pan and set on the side.

At this time, saute the green beans and bell peppers to soften them up, and heat the cooked chicken if it is cold. Set on the side.

After all the vegetables have been removed from the pan, add the green onions, ginger, garlic, and chile; stir-fry for a minute until fragrant. Add the broth.

In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cornstarch until the sugar and cornstarch are dissolved. Pour the soy sauce mixture into the wok and cook another minute, until the sauce has thickened.

Put the eggplant back in the pan (and green beans, bell pepper and chicken), tossing quickly, until the sauce is absorbed. Garnish with sesame seeds, Thai basil, and cilantro and serve.

Wedding Cakes

Our good friends were getting married and I offered to make their wedding cakes for them. I thought it would be a fun adventure, but as soon as I said I would, I started to panic. There was a lot on the line here. These were wedding cakes! After convincing myself that I could do it and a couple of practice rounds, and I started making the cakes - a guitar hero cake for the groom and a white wedding cake for the bride.

The bride's cake was a three layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in the middle and covered with vanilla buttercream. Everything made from scratch.
Two out of the three layers ready to go.
After all three levels were together, I applied what is called a crumb layer. This is a thin layer of frosting that basically glues all the crumbs to the cake. This is done so when you do the outside layer of frosting, crumbs won't show. And it was important as it was a chocolate cake with white frosting, and the crumbs would really stand out.
I then frosted the rest of the cake with vanilla butter cream and decorated using a star tip.
For the center, I made some small flowers out of fondant. I have to say, I was quite impressed. I didn't think I could do that!
The cakes were a huge hit at the party and everyone loved them. You can see the grooms cake below which was a lot easier as I happen to have a guitar shaped cake pan and the cake was only one level.
Anyone need any cakes made? I think this could be a new path for me!

Introducing the Maui Cake

I'm calling this the Maui cake and you'll soon find out why.

It all started when our neighbor brought over some bananas from his yard and the hubby said he would like me to make a banana cake. I'd never made a cake with bananas before so I immediately turned to the Food Network. After reading all the reviews, I chose one of the recipes and baked the cake which turned out great!
As the cake was cooling, we decided it would be fun to put pineapple in the middle. I cut the cake in two pieces,
And then covered one side with frosting and slices of pineapple.
I carefully placed the two pieces of cake back together and created a coconut buttercream frosting for the top.

And to top it off, I sprinkled it with shredded coconut.

It was a completely tropical cake - Bananas, coconut, and pineapple - and tasted great! In a way, it was like a pina colada cake!
This experimental baking is fun! I'm going to try some new combinations in the future. And the Maui Cake will definitely be made again in this household!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake (Aluminum Free)

Before I get to the pineapple cake, I'll comment on the aluminum part. I was unaware that baking powder contained aluminum until my good friend Amy pointed it out to me. I immediately looked at my baking powder, and there it was on the ingredient list, aluminum sulfate. I have not heard good things about ingesting aluminum, including a study that it may cause Alzheimer's. That is why I was so relieved to find this:
Bob's Red Mill Non-Aluminum Baking powder. Yay! This was my first time using it so I was anxious to see how the cake would turn out.

And now onto the cake. I'm currently writing a book that happens to mention food (not a surprise) and of course while writing, I started to crave baked goods. I thought about driving to the local bakery - a thirty minute round trip - but thought again and got out ingredients to make something of my own. I had a pineapple and decided pineapple upside down cake would fit the bill.Right after the cake came out of the oven:
And after the "flip."I didn't notice any difference with the new baking powder compared to my old (aluminum filled) baking powder I used in the past. And I have to say, it tastes just as good without the aluminum!