NYC Desserts Roundup

Back from another Tour de Europe, haven't had a chance to properly rave about all of the food we ate in Greece or the Greek meal I had in Philly before I departed for the islands, but in the meantime, some new (and old) dessert finds in NYC. Spent the past 2 weekends apartment hunting and eating every chance I could get (more eating than hunting) and here are the discoveries.

Puddin' - Some of the flavors are sweeter than others (which I don't like) but the rice pudding option was amazziing and it sure beats paying the twice the price from Rice to Riches.
Big Gay Ice Cream - Have wanted to try this place since February. I think i love the concept and serious flair more than the ice cream itself
Forty Carrots - Always a good option after shopping in soho.
PopBar - Went for the sorbeto flavor instead of a gelato flavor so wasn't crazy about it.

YAY finally got to try Wafels & Dinges. Ordered the wafle that beat the great Bobby Flay.
Spekuloos: Gingerbread spread that might be better than Nutella (which I think they now sell at Trader Joe's)

Been to Magnolia Bakery before for the cupcakes but apparently its the Banana Pudding that it's really famous for. I don't even like bananas or pudding all thaat much but this might have been the favorite dessert out of everything.

Tous de Jours - I am obsessed with shaved ice and shaved ice that's the size of your face and comes with green tea is an added bonus.
Pie Face - Cute little pie shop originally from Australia. Peach Ricotta pie was quite tasty.

Back to blogging on some real food now...although who's to say desserts aren't real food.

Carrot Cake & Birthday Weekend

First blog post in weeks and weeks and weeks. Naturally, it was a celebration (and a new camera!) that finally prompted me to start blogging again! My parents and I have always been a fan of carrot cake - a big deal considering my parents don't even really like cake. The problem I have with most carrot cakes is there's either too much stuff in the cake or its wayyy to sweet. So instead of driving all the way to the store to buy a cake no one really wants to eat, I decided to bake one instead. Recipe is a combination of what is provided by Smitten Kitchen's maple cream cheese frosting carrot cup cakes, a can of canned pineapple and various googling of carrot cake recipes online (recipe shown below).

Carrot grating, nut meg grating & grounding of spices.

One of the reasons why I love carrot cake is the richness and depth of flavor you get from all of the different layers of ingredients. There's also a reason why carrot cake is a pain in the butt to make - grating cups and cups of carrots. At first, I tried to find a way to use the electric mixer...which failed miserably, and opted for the old-fashion method of hand grating instead. Since this was a birthday cake after all, I also went for some freshly grounded nutmeg, all spice, and cloves.

Mixing in the carrots to the cake batter & making cream cheese frosting (with a generous portion of maple syrup)

Feeling particularly ambitious, I also decided to pipet the frosting onto the two layer cake...which didn't go all that well. Apparently, its really not as easy as it looks! And homemade piping bags made from ziplog bags also don't work all that well. Nevertheless, after a few hours of chilling in the fridge, the cake came out respectable enough for me to take some pictures :) Only thing that matters is that it taste good right?

Some guesswork in the baking time but still managed to  produce a rather tasty cake :)

And that's not all! I can't skip the celebratory dinner can I?

1/2 a bushel of crabs, growler of beer and some Irish car bombs.

Happy Birthday dad :)

Berlin (and a little bit of Dresden)

1) Eating like a Berliner: Doner Kebabs, Currywurst & Mushrooms, Pfannkuchen

Doner Kebabs from the Turkish district (after an intensive 4 hour walking tour - too hungry to take a proper picture..oops)
Currywurst in Dresden
Pfannkuchen aka the "Berliner" - yeast dough donuts covered in sugar

2) Movenpick Ice Cream

Technically Movenpick is Swiss but 1 scoop of Mrvenpick for 1 euro??? We each got 3...it was our dinner for the day.
+ chocolate chip & coconut, cappicino and straticella flavors in a waffle cone

 3) Haggen Daaz

Not really that big of deal except that we got German ice cream in Germany. Woot.
+ Hazelnut hot chocolate
+ Chocolate chip/chocolate ice cream cake with brownie filling.

4) Brunch Buffet

Almost missed our bus for this meal but it was so worth it. 12 euros for unlimited brunch buffet? Finally a city that has heard of brunch! I went for the smoked salmon, roasted veggies and caprese salad.

Cappuccino with a plate of desserts including chocolate covered strawberries, nutella crepes, fruit sticks and yogurt parfait.

A little bit of nature

Scenes from the countryside of Germany!

After the hustle and bustle of some rather metropolitan European cities, I managed to escape to some peace and quiet in the Black Forrest of Germany (erm plus a detour in Zurich). Specifically, I got to see the quaint town of Titisee along with the "mini" city of Freiburg. 

But first, a few quick eats in Zurich: 

Macarons!!! I was so excited to see a Laduree in Zurich. I had no idea these places existed outside of Paris. Granted this one was much tinier and only sold the mini versions of macarons but still...I told my friend to get the caramel (best flavor!) while I opted for two more adventurous ones: chestnut pear and plum. 

We had lunch in Zurich at HITL, apparently a very popular lunch destination. There is option of a buffet downstairs or a sit down upstairs. I kind of hate buffets so it was a good thing we had made a reservation. I had the brown rice with wild mushrooms which was pretty fantastic.  After lunch, we were in a food coma for the rest of the day and could barely muster the energy to explore the rest of the city...but I did manage to accomplish my main mission: buy chocolate.

With my remaining 20 something Swiss francs, I went and bought about 10 bars of chocolate. Needless to say, it is some AMAZING chocolate. Don't worry dad, I'm saving you like 6 bars.

In Freiburg, I also got to try the delicious looking concoction on the right called a "flame cake" or tarte flambee (not sure what its called in German). It comes from the Northern part of France, specifically the Lorraine region. Its very thin bread dough covered in creme fraiche, lardons aka bacon and thinly sliced onions. It was fantastic. And according to wikipedia, "it is one of the most famous gastronomical specialties of the region". Nice. There's a nice recipe for it here. I'm hoping to try making it when I get back to the states. 

Ok so the pictures aren't very good, blame it on the awkward lighting but doesn't that cake LOOK good?
Apple cake on the left and an original Black Forrest Cake in the Black Forrest. Whaat. So yea my mind was blown as this cake pretty much destroyed all previous conceptions of a black forest cake. I've never ever ever ever liked any desserts with cherries on it but who knew it would taste so good when it was made with fresh cherries?? And the normal icky icing was replaced by a light, creamy mousse that rounded out the darkness of the chocolate perfectly. So ok maybe I didn't eat Swiss cheese in Switzerland, but this is a lot cooler :)

+snowballs in vanilla sauce with caramel
+...erm another rendition of a snowball?
+ onion soup with homemade croutons
+ not shown because I devoured it too quickly: trout mousse on rye bread and a liver/apple dish

Apparently my step-sister's friend is a total foodie and I was super lucky enough to be in town when he was hosting one of his famous dinner parties. Four (and a half) courses of authentic German cuisine (unique to the Titisee region?) plus loads of delicious wine and I was full to the brim by the time the 3 hour affair ended. Sadly, I was too busy eating to take pictures of all of the dishes but I did remember to get a picture of the soup and the dessert.

German snowballs are a culinary treat consisting of whipped egg whites (among other ingredients) and they are quite difficult to make so I was extremely impressed  by the dish along with the homemade caramel sauce and vanilla sauce.  Have I even had homemade vanilla sauce with real vanilla beans? don't think so...

All in all, a quite satisfying foodie weekend. For those who are confused about where Titisee, Germany actually located is (like I was), you can check it out here and see that it is about 1.5 hours north of Zurich and right by a GORGEOUS man-made lake.  And because the entire place is just too pretty, I had to post a  picture or two.

So much pretty in one picture.

where's the new header picture from?

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake

While I have been kind of neglecting on my promise to be cooking up all sorts of yummy dishes this year, I have not been neglecting my relationship with food. In fact, I have attempted to make use of my Wharton education in a productive manner! (are you reading this parents?)

I know I made a blog post about the dessert food truck Sugar Philly awhile back but now I can say that I am officially endorsing them as I am now their VP of Marketing! (which basically entails eating a lot of desserts and pretending I know what I'm doing...) Actually, I have been spending a lot of time working on expanding their catering business and creating promotional items. And of course, finding excuses to take more pictures.

Pear Almond Tart

So here's my plug to all of my Penn readers out there! For those who are interested in perhaps having Sugar Philly at their next GBM, club event, speaker event, hall event etc. send an email my way at lisa@sugarphillytruck.com (you know its legit when I have an official email!). There may or may not be free samples involved. Just saying. Also, stop by the truck located at 38th and Walnut next to Koja to get your sweet fix :D

Current menu items include: french macarons, creme brulee, mexican chocolate cake, pear almond tart, creme fraiche cheesecake and pumpkin custard although a lot of these are seasonal and are a limited time treat!

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Pumpkin custard with torched marshmallows and candied pecans. 

Easy as Pie!

Or yellow cake mix...

Man, I can't believe how long its been since I last blogged! School has been absolutely insane, and I haven't had a chance to just chill and get some time to myself. Fortunately , I have no "mandatory" classes tomorrow and I'm leaving for Columbia in less than 12 hours so who needs sleep? Plus I am still hyped up from the Au bon pain coffee I had this morning at 8am...anyways..

This sour cream and chocolate chip cake recipe actually came from my aunt. For as long as I can remember, she would always bring this fantastic dessert to every family function whether it was Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, 4th of July etc. I don't what took me so long but years after I got hooked on the cake, I finally asked her for the recipe. It took her less than two minutes to explain the whole recipe. It is seriously the easiest dessert on the face of this planet.

Here's what you need:
- 1 box of butter yellow cake mix (and butter & water as instructed by package)
- 8 oz of sour cream
- 1 bag of chocolate chip cookies
- 1 to 3 tbsp of cinnamon depending on your preference (But don't skip this part!)
- tsp of vanilla
- sugar for topping the cake

Mix the cake mix, sour cream, vanilla and cinnamon. You want to use enough cinnamon so the batter actually changes color. It tastes amazing - I promise!

Add chocolate chips to the mix and place on baking sheet. Sprinkle generously with white sugar, and bake for about 25 minutes or until a toothpick (or fork) comes out clean.

Voila!!!

Suga Suga Suga Philly

I've been meaning to make a post about Sugar Philly, the dessert foodtruck by 38th and Walnut Street, for awhile but right when I was about to: the owners went on vacation, I got caught up in early move-in and before I knew it, the pictures have been sitting in my computer for weeks all ready to go. Gotta thank my friend Jess for taking me to this place although apparently the owners know practically everyone in my sorority :)

Are you ready for this? Because these are some dang good eats.


What they're most known for are their delectable macarons. Did you know that if it is spelled with one "o", it is the European version and if it is spelled with two "o", it refers to the American coconut version? Huh.

Pictured: Chocolate Ganache (Red), Milk and Honey (Gold), & Mango (Orange).

They even package it with these cute little stickers :)

This is my absolute favorite: Cheesecake with blueberry sauce and graham cracker crumble. There's no actual crust so you don't have to deal with the overly buttery and dense crust of most cheesecakes.

Also tried creme brulee for the first time and guess what? I am now a fan.

Ok yea its a lot of dessert. Totally worth it ;)

Washed it down with some tea from ABP