Tag: sweets

One Sweet Day

Went to check out the Sweetness Bake Shop & Cafe on SW 95th and Sunset Drive and was very pleased with the cupcakes and the fun atmosphere. Sweetness is a lovely, whimsical confectionery, coffee, and tea shop that serves a range of homemade cupcakes, gourmet deserts, gelato, bonbons, and a variety of drinks. The shop is inviting and decorated with a charming melange of sweet treat inspired art.

Today was the shops’s Grand Opening and the place was bustling; fresh cupcake trays just kept coming as the treats on display quickly ran out. The bchan and I picked four of the tasty looking treats–he chose Thrilla in Vanilla and Key Lime Pie, while I chose the Borracha and the Guayabera (my Cuban is showing). These were the mini size, which was just right for a quick treat. I especially liked that they do not pile on an overwhelming mound of cream on their cupcakes; I prefer to taste my cake and this was a nice balance. The cake itself was moist and flavorful, my bchan’s first comment was on how lemony the key lime tasted. My Borracha (rum-infused pound cake with meringue) and Guayabera (guava-filled guava cake topped with cream) cupcakes were a great combination and the guava on the inside was a pleasant surprise, bringing out the guava flavor of the cake. All in all, I loved my sweet shop experience 🙂

a happy, fat weekend

Happy Mardi Gras!

I’m not Catholic, but am generally surrounded by them, so I keep up with the spirit of it all. I think I’m a sympathetic Lent-er. I had quite a full weekend, what with Valentine’s day and Chinese New Year’s coinciding on the 14th, so I’ve had my fill of delectable treats and am ready to go on another one of my self-imposed sweet treat fasts. Well, sort of. I just find that around the holidays, I tend to become a sugar-craving madwoman and I really dislike that feeling. When I suddenly start craving candy for no reason, I know I’ve had too much sugar in my system and the time is ripe for a break from the Sweetsville. So, adieu cookies and cakes.

Valentine’s cheesecake (my first perfect, no-cracks cheesecake!), you provided a wonderful farewell.
ricotta cheesecake

a sweet ending

The b-chan’s mom is returning home from her stay in the motherland… no, not Mother England. Colombia. Anywho, he bought a box of cake mix to bake a “welcome back” cake, and I offered to help him bake it after I got home from work. After all, I might as well share the sugar.

bchan_cakesHe was very pleased with himself for having bought a box of organic cake mix: Dr. Oetker’s Organic Vanilla Cake Mix. And, as I had some apple sauce from my mom’s recent bundt cake experiment, I was able to awe him with my oil-substitution know-how.

I was actually pleasantly surprised by the cakes. The flavor is light and not over sweet, which is a nice change from the usual box mix. We used half the batter to make little heart-shaped cakes (courtesy of the handy heart-shaped cupcake pan that I bought for my Valentine’s Day gift baking) and poured the rest into a round pan for a medium-sized sheet cake. Then we covered them with vanilla frosting and used decorating gel and red sugar to tart them up (yes, another Valentine leftover, but red is such a seasonal color! It works for so many occasions).

Yes, that is a cat drawn on the heart to the left. It’s my b-chan’s attempt to sweeten up his mom; we don’t know how she’ll react to Lucky Cat’s bouncy presence in her home.