Hazelnut Jam Thumbprint cookies

If you’re having a tea party like my blog crush Lola, then these cookies are perfect for the tea party, they are nice, sweet and a fancy companion to a cup of tea. Not to mention that they are also pretty. Maybe various jams would make them even prettier, like apricot or blueberry. I used plain old strawberry.

I liked the texture of the cookies, they are really crunchy and nutty on the outside and soft in the inside. Although, frankly I like them better after few days in my cookie tin, certainly crunchier. And one thing, the better the quality of the jam the nicer it’d taste. I used my regular grocery strawberry jam and it was too sweet, well, next time I’ll use apricot!



click here for the recipe and more from me for Dujour Mag

salted butter caramel ice cream

David Lebovitz wrote that this ice cream is better than Berthilon’s Glace Caramel, I don’t know, I’ve never been to Berthilon.
But I surely know that this ice cream tasted exactly like caramel candies.
Buttery with strong sugar burnt taste and slight hint of salt.
Also I went all fancy with this ice cream, I used French butter and Fleur De Sel from Bali ocean.

Now lets talk how I made it without ice cream machine, here’s the article from David Lebovitz about how to make ice cream without ice cream machine. Go read it and I bet you’d think, “Man, this is easy!” because I thought of that too. But then, after total 3 days of making, freezing and waiting, I thought, “this is not easy.” It’s a long time of mixing the ice cream batter and break the crystal water to make the smooth silky ice cream.



And the result? It is a smooth ice cream , tastes so good like I mentioned above and worth those 3 days of making, mixing and freezing. But this ice cream melts too quick under the sunny summer sun. so make sure to finish the ice cream soon after you take it out of the freezer, though it wont be a big problem for an ice cream this good.

click here for the adapted recipes from David Lebovitz and more from me for Dujour Magazine

cocoa shortbread stars

whew! its been a quite long time since i last baked cookies.
and now i miss it! baking cookies is so easy and relaxing.
i baked this for my friend, she asked me to bake her chocolate cookies and i can have her used movie tickets as the payment.
why used movie tickets?
that's another story in another post.

my mind went straight to this recipe.
i've been meaning to bake this cocoa shortbread since i first got the book.
but i kept making recipes other than this one.
and now i regret it.
because this one is dead easy cookies.
SERIOUSLY!
and they taste dead good as well.

and what is the best pair for this cookies?
a nice fancy tea.
my lord i love this cookies!
wonder how good it'd be if i drizzled the white chocolate.



COCOA SHORTBREAD STARS from Martha Stewart

Ingredients
* 1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
* 1/2 cup confectioners sugar
* 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
* 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 2 ounces best-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped (i omit this)

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pulse flour, sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter and vanilla, and process until mixture comes together. Shape the dough into a ball.
2. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thick; cut out shapes with a 3 1/2-by-2 1/2-inch star-shape cookie cutter. Space 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake cookies until firm to the touch, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cookies cool completely on wire racks.
3. Melt white chocolate, stirring, in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Drizzle chocolate over tops of cookies. Let set before serving, about 30 minutes. Cookies can be stored in a single layer in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

i will just let the pictures do the babbling

but then i thought of you, i thought...maybe, well, just maybe..
living the average life with you would be just as fine.

XOXO

HEY ALL LETS JOIN SWAP-BOT! its super FUN!

yes! hey all!
do you know that im now addicted to swap?
i do private swap on flickr, i join international public swap on swap-bot.com
oh you know, the joy of receiving something other than bills in your mail box.
and now after i've completed 9 swaps on swap-bot.com.
i can host my own swap and guess what?!
what swap i hosted? its a CUPCAKE swap!
yes, its I LOVE CUPCAKE related stuffs swap.
and it goes like this...
you prepare a package of cupcake related stuffs (cupcake baking supplies, stuffs with cupcake in/on it).
stuffed it in a business size envelope, although you can always go with bigger envelope.
and mail it to your cupcake loving partner, and have fun!

to join this swap, the newbie must sign up to swap-bot.com first (FREE!) and well fill your profile.
than go to I LOVE CUPCAKE related stuffs swap, click to join the swap.
that's all!
and if you already a swap-bot member, you can just click this link to go to I LOVE CUPCAKE related stuffs swap.
and have a joyous snail mail fun!

hazelnut and chocolate cupcakes

recipes and babbling, click here.
yes, every weekend i'll be posting recipes for dujourmag.com
and you can just head up to dujourmag.com for the stories and recipe.
dont worry, i'll still posting and giving and spoiling you with food porn, babbling and recipe here too.
its just you'll get a bonus recipe every weekend at dujourmag.com.

XOXO

life is uncertain

the best sky high layers cake comes from Ranch Market Bakery.
no kid!
layers cakes who scream "im an american style cake!"
"im not pretty fancy!" "but im huge, tall and just plain GOOD!"
now these are the cakes that made me want to eat nothing but cakes all day long.
no kid! they are 'that' good!

im not much a pretty fancy dessert lover, i dont eat dessert only because they look so beautiful. fyi; sadly, some times i date man only because how he looks.
anywhoooo.. yeah, im not that type of dessert eater.
i dont give damn for those cute little tarts with cute little fruits on top or cute little glass filled with chocolate mousse and this and that.
gah! i get turned on by pictures of homemade pies that look ugly but somehow makes me drooling.
i HATE over decorated cupcakes with fondant and this and that.
i prefer my cupcakes to be plain pastel color buttercream with sprinkles.
i LOVE myself a sky high chocolate layers cake with no decoration, just plain chocolate.
i think the only pretty dessert that i fall in love with is japanese style strawberry shortcake. plain white cream with strawberries.
that's it!

so guess how i excited i was when i saw these layers cakes sitting nicely in ranch market bakery's display window.
and that was the first time i see them.
before, only cute little desserts in that display.
and what made my eyes went even bigger? LAYERS CARROT CAKE WITH CREAM CHEESE FROSTING!
that looked similiar with the one i had, i am crazy with in dubai.
i chose the carrot cake and Ma chose steve's brownie cake.
we couldnt wait until we get home, well, beside that it was 11 am and we had no breakfast before.
we dug through our cake, and i was literally screaming "OMG MA! THIS IS THE ONE! THIS IS THE CARROT CAKE I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR IN JAKARTA"
while Ma "OMG THIS BROWNIE CAKE IS HEAVEN!" yes, we're that obessed-dessert-obsessed mother and daughter.

we finished the cakes in just less than 5 minutes, and we went to walk around a mall for hours to burn the cake calories but who are we kidding for?!
because Ma went back to ranch market bakery the next day, without me..
but she brought home two slices of steve's brownie cake, a slice of banana caramel cake and a slice of rich chocolate cake, plus Ma got tempted by fancy raspberry mousse in a cute little glass.
and she said "no carrot cake for today" with sad face.


this is the steve's brownie cake, im tossing between having this or the carrot cake for my birthday cake.
i especially love the candied walnuts and the chocolate, oh.. im drooling!


and this is the rich chocolate cake. i cant explain what it is consisted with.
one thing for sure, THEY ARE GOOD!


caramel banana cake, banana cake with caramel frosting, still GOOD but my less favorite.


the pretty raspberry mousse, now i have to admit that this is actually good, very light and tasted very summer-ish with all the berries. a good alternative for those butter ladden very rich cakes.

and now, the secret.. while im typing this, Ma is out to ranch market to do some grocery shopping like always and of course... i asked her to bring home cakes and cakes cakes.
OMG IM SO BAD! whatever, i will eat nothing but the cakes for today..tomorrow..and the next day..
seriously!

new doll!!

its been a long time since Ma bought me a doll, maybe like 3 years ago somewhere in europe.
i placed all my dolls in a box and store them in my house's storage.
now i feel sorry for them.
gah! maybe the first thing i'll do after i kick my brother out of my bedroom is gathering my old dolls and give them a proper space in my room.
oh by the way, the doll above named Usa after United States Of America.
is it cheesy?
well, nothing too cheesy for me of course.

talking about bali!

gabi does look really pretty, right?
and now i crave bali even more.
and... a red hot swimsuit like gabi's above also.
i want....

holiday and no vacation

forget paris, forget london, forget singapore, forget hongkong.
i want bali.
oh okay, i WANT, no, i NEED paris and london and singapore and hongkong.
but lets get real, money is tight.
and ma has forbid me to go on a 'real' vacation until i finish design school.
but im craving bali now.
the an hour flight from jakarta, bali.
the sun, the atmosphere.
the fun i had last time im there.
with my girls.

they look so fine

so this is my favorite world cup 2010 ad.
Pele, Maradona, ZIdane for Louis Vuitton.

:9

days in paris despite the subtitles

im a dreamer, huge dreamer.
and my dreams are big-beyond-the-borders.
i spent loads of time dreaming, day dreaming, you name it.
and i also spent loads of time, doubting those dreams.
i easily got scared by future.
then one thing has turned my life upside down, okay, not that'upside-down' but pretty much changes how i see life and future.
im becoming a more cheery person, no more skeptical thoughts.
i do believe that dreams do come true.

im hoping that this blog could be my keepsake box.
something to open later in the future and find many things from my earlier days of life.
to see, what achievements have i made.
what recipes have i baked.
what pictures have i drooled at.
what arts have i made.
what stories have i typed.

anyway, i'll leave you with screenshots from my favorite i-love-this-movie-because-this-is-pretty-much-how-i-want-my-future-to-be-like-movie. 2 Days In Paris.