Chocolate Cake with a Raspberry Buttercream Frosting

Yesterday, Wayne and I celebrated my friend, Josephine's birthday out on a boat. It was actually pretty chilly yesterday (in the mid 60's with the possibility of rain), but it turned out to be a great day. There weren't a lot of boats out on Lake Union so we could navigate around the lake pretty well. Plus it was a ton of fun meeting new people, blasting music and enjoying the day!

Me and the b-day girl.

Gorgeous boat

Cute house boats - reminded me of Sleepless in Seattle!

Pretty South Lake Union

 

Ms. ducky watching us as we dock to get some Ivars.

Poor Wayne kept losing at the game we were playing. He was pretty torched by the end of the day.

Some of the boys jumped into the water too! I'm glad Wayne didn't jump in! It would have given me a heart-attack.

As you may be able to tell, it was a fun day. I'm really glad I got to meet some cool people. Anyways, today I decided to make Josephine a chocolate cake for her birthday. She was one of the first friends I made out here and one of the reasons I was drawn to her is because of her genuine nature. I've come to realize that my good friends all share this trait. They're good listeners, really funny or sarcastic, they can be blunt but are also very genuine about their emotions. Growing up, I often fell into the slot of being the listener. So, I've come to cherish the friends who can return the favor. They just listen and I value that.

So besides the fact that I am glad to have this friend out in the pacific northwest, the other part of me just really wanted to bake a cake for fun. A birthday is a pretty good excuse to go to town and bake a cake! Cakes are finicky - not as bad as pies though! I feel like you really need to watch the recipe and exactly measure the ingredients with a cake. (The boxed cake does not count!) The only time I extensively baked a cake was for Wayne's 25th birthday. It was hard not going to lie. But it did help at the time I had my roommates Kitchen-Aid Stand Mixer. 

It's hard to justify spending close to $300.00 on an appliance I won't use every day. Plus they take up a HUGE amount of counter space. Which to be honest, when you're living in a tiny apartment complex, you need all the storage and space possible. But they're so pretty! I love how they come in multiple colors. I like how it gives the option for people match the kitchenmaid mixer with their color scheme.

I LOVE red kitchen stuff. I have red dish towels, pot holders, red utensils and red dish drying pads...Red is known to be an invigorating, powerful, empowering and emotional color. Many food companies incorporate red (like McDonald's or KFC) to encourage eating and making quick decisions. Red has always been my favorite color growing up. I want red accents in my kitchen because it invokes energy, warmth, excitement and determination. All of those emotions pop up when I cook. I have the energy to cook because I enjoy it. There's excitement behind it because I try new recipes and learn new things. There's also determination because I want to create a yummy dish to actually eat. Then there is warmth because I enjoy sharing my food with people that enjoy it. So, my dream kitchen would have: light grey, red & white subway tile as the backslash with grey cabinets, a white farmhouse kitchen sink and either white quartz, light grey honed granite or a recycled counter top. 

 

I like the layout of the kitchen. How the table extends out of the kitchen island. I definitely would want a kitchen island in my dream kitchen. I like how I could use it for rolling out dough or using it as a table for other things like magazines or bills from the mail.

 

This is also a pretty light grey color for cabinets.

 

I like the grey cabinets and farm house sink in this photo... Okay, enough of dream kitchen porn.  I nabbed this recipe from The Vanilla Bean Blog. Sometimes people ask me where I find my recipes. I just poke around and make note of what inspires me. I think I stumbled upon The Vanilla Bean Blog from another person's post. Either way, I like her photography and the complexity yet simplicity of her recipes. Like she has recipes for mini-coconut cupcakes with a cardamom goat cheese frosting or a plum blueberry upside-down cake with cardamom. Both of those recipes are stemmed from traditional cooking but add a twist of ingredients. It kind of reminds me of life. Life is so complex yet so simple all at once and that is what makes it so beautiful. Let's get started! I first preheated the oven and lined the cake pan. Then I washed the raspberries.

Then I mixed the dry ingredients together.

Then I mixed in the wet ingredients - eggs, buttermilk, oil, vanilla extract and coffee. The batter was pretty goopy so I was kind of worried at first. You can see how wet the batter is from the photo below.

While the cake was baking, I made the raspberry puree and removed all the seeds through a fine strainer. Then I mixed up butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, the raspberry puree and a pinch of salt for the frosting.

The cake turned out great. Thanks to Wayne for helping me perfectly flip it!

Then I frosted this puppy! The frosting was a bit softer than I expected it. So I felt my frosting job was kind of sloppy. But Wayne says I'm too hard on myself. 

But after some cute candles, bento box panda decorations and sprinkles, I'd say it turned out pretty cute! Then again, I don't have a stand mixer or a handheld mixer. So I guess, the fact I did this all by hand is pretty impressive. I've always done stuff by hand though. The only time I used a mixer was when someone else had it around. 

Ta-da! Here is the finished product!

Close up. Aren't the panda decorations cute?!?

I then invited Josephine and her bf over. I was really happy. She was really surprised and liked the cake! Overall, this weekend was great and I can't wait for Wednesday when I start my new job!

The Vanilla Bean Blog's Chocolate Cake with a Raspberry Buttercream can be found here.

Stay tuned for more adventures in the pacific northwest and in the kitchen!

Emma

Homemade Blueberry Pie

Today is my last day of work. It's nice because I'll get a few days off to relax before starting my new job. I'm looking forward to making some "Emma" time. My first goal is to make a blueberry pie from scratch. I also want to go paddle-boarding again, try anti-gravity yoga, and regulate my sleep schedule some-what. Work today was bittersweet. I'm SUPER excited for my new job. But I know I'm going to miss my boss and co-workers. They were a really nice bunch and I got to know them a lot better. But at the same time, I'm ready to move on in my career and establish myself here in Seattle.

A little off topic, but I've been thinking about the relationships I have with my friends and family. I think we as humans, try to interject and impose expectations onto a person about they should feel as a way of comfort. And as humans, putting other peoples feelings above our own is valued in society. Which, to be honest, it is a valuable trait. I mean, you put your spouse's feeling before yours or you put your child's feelings before yours. You don't want to go to a big family event but your spouse wants you to go. Or you don't like your child's friends parents but you go because your child is friends with their kid. But over the past few years, I've realized that sometimes it is okay to go with how you feel.

I think that has been one of the biggest struggles of my life is being okay with how I feel and knowing other people may not be okay with it. I think sometimes I get worried about how other people will react or disregard my feelings as insignificant. So I've built an internal system where I worry more about the expectations placed (either intentionally or unintentionally) on top of me. And typically in the end, it does more harm than good because I don't let myself regard my own feelings. I let my loved ones influence how I should feel and if I don't feel that way then I blame myself thinking something is wrong with me. Which isn't okay.

But I know and it's still a struggle. But I also know that my gut is my gut. When I have a gut feeling then that is what I need to go with undoubtedly. Not my family, not my friends nor my boyfriend can go against that gut feeling. And I think I still need to learn that and accept that. Accepting the fact my gut is more important than what the ones in my life I love dearly, say or think. Because, at the end of the day everyone has an image of how to help me or an expectation of what I should do. When really what matters is how I how I help myself. That being said, I admit, it is crucial to give and take in some circumstances. Not always will you win or lose. But I think, when those red alarms go off in the gut, then that's when you need to push all aside and go with that instinct.

Anyways, I digress. Ever since we moved out here, I wanted to go blueberry picking and also apple picking (something I'll need to do in the fall.) Growing up, I really didn't make pies with my mom. We generally made cookies or cakes. I've wanted to learn make to do a pie but always felt intimidated. I'd see these awesome Instagram photos during the holidays of other people's decorative crusts. I'd think, "Wow, that's awesome! I wish I could do that." I've always felt the crust is a make or break. If you mess up the crust, then the whole pie is ruined. Some people say making a pie is easy - which it might be for some. But I think it's because you either use pre-made pie dough when you make them or grew up making pies a lot for Thanksgiving. 

I first took a pie making class when I was back in Chicago. But even then I sucked at it. I don't know why but my rolling skills (pie dough rolling) stink. When I rolled my dough out it looked like the state of Wisconsin instead of a nice oval to go over the pie pan. The pie still tasted great because it was a class. And I still never ventured out and made my own pie.

It's my goal this summer because I want to improve and also accomplish something I've never done on my own. Apparently, my grandma (on my dad's side) used to make awesome pies from scratch. My dad would rave about how she made the best lemon meringue pie. She passed away when I was in middle school and she never wrote any of her recipes down. She had them all in her head. Which was fascinating and disappointing. I would have loved to try some of her recipes. Another goal of mine down the road is to someday make a lemon meringue pie...but we'll have to save that one for another day because I'll need to buy a hand torch to do the topping. :)

Anyway, yesterday morning, Wayne and I went blueberry picking in North Bend, WA. Wayne made a friend in our apartment complex. So, we invited them along with us. They're a nice couple from Minnesota. Plus they have a car and offered to drive instead of us renting a zip car. I thought that was very nice of them to do so.

I was pleasantly surprised by the blueberry farm. Beautiful Mount Si was overlooking the blueberry patches and the blueberry patches were quite dense and full of blueberries!

Rows and rows of blueberries!

We got there around 9amish and it only took us an hour to pick 4.5 pounds of blueberries! It honestly did not feel that long. It felt like we were only out in the blueberry bushes for 20 minutes! Afterwards we went and got brunch at a lovely cafe. It was fun getting to know the couple and I hope we'll see them around. I'm really glad we chose this apartment complex. The rent is pricey but it is nice we've been able to meet other transplants from the Midwest.

So, a little fun fact about me: I LOVE blueberries. I always enjoyed going blueberry picking when I was younger. I would run around the blueberry patch and eat all the berries I could find. Looking back, I don't think I was much help in actually picking blueberries. Plus, whenever my mom bought blueberries at the grocery store, she would need to buy extra pint. I would eat a whole pint in one sitting by myself. That's how much I love blueberries. Wayne likes them too. But I feel like I need to fend him off to eat a pint. So I generally buy more blueberries than needed just like my mom.

 I did a bit of research on how to make this blueberry pie. So, I don't have one straightforward recipe. I combined a bunch of directions and tricks to make this pie. But hopefully my tips will help you! I used Bon Appetit's recipe and then adapted it with other tips I found online. You can find the "How to Make a Pie" article here. Now, let's get started! First, I got all my ingredients out. I made sure my butter was cold. Then I made sure to chop it up into big chunks. I threw it back in the fridge to make sure it was very solid before I started making the dough.

Then, I added the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl with the butter and blended it with my hands to work the butter chunks into smaller pieces. 

 Then, I quickly added 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar and 3 Tbsp. of ice cold water to the dough. I've heard numerous things you could add like crisco or just plain water. I decided to go with the pros and do apple cider vinegar. I don't use crisco a lot and didn't want to jump and go get some. Plus I heard mixed reviews about only using water.

When I was able to knead a ball of dough, I cut it in half and threw it in the fridge for 1 hour. This way the butter chunks could re-solidify as fats. The fat creates that buttery and flaky crust. 

Next, I washed the freshly picked blueberries. I gave them a quick diluted vinegar bath (1 cup white vinegar and 3 cups water.) This helps remove any bacteria from the farm. To make sure they were good to use, I gave them a whirl in my salad spinner. Blueberries and mold do not mix. That's why I wanted to be sure I got rid of all the moisture (well, as much of it anyway.)

After the berries were prepped and the dough finished chilling, I rolled out the dough.  A few weeks ago, I had gone out and bought a nice Pyrex pie dish. It was kind of frustrating at first trying to knead the dough. The dough was very dry and crumbly. I was worried of over kneading it. Overworking the dough releases more gluten and causes the dough to shrink when baked. 

I rolled out the bottom crust. While Wayne got home from work and helped me do the top crust. 

Wayne working away.

My bottom crust wasn't big enough.  It was hard getting enough dough around the edges of the pie. So I took any leftover scraps of dough and did some patch work. It is kind of nice because no one cares about the bottom and how it looks! Then I got started on making the filling. I added 2 pounds of fresh blueberries, some sugar, corn starch, fresh lime juice, and freshly grated ginger and lime zest. 

 
Did I get enough limes? Jamie Oliver would be proud...aka he uses limes in EVERYTHING. Seriously, go skim one of his cookbooks. He always adds a lime.

Then, I mixed everything in a bowl and gently stirred it all together.

 Me working away in the kitchen...oh and Wayne's thumb. LOL!

 I transferred the filling into the bottom crust then worked on making the upper crust. We rolled it out and then made strips to make the lattice topping.

Action shot!

So many blueberries! I then threw on a few teaspoons of chopped butter onto of the blueberry mixture. The butter would melt into any cracks and add a bit of flavor. 

We then carefully created the lattice by weaving the strips. I then created a quick fork crimp around the edges and Wayne finished with a light milk wash on top and a sprinkle of sugar. Then it was ready to go in the oven!  If you'd like to learn how to make a lattice crust, I thought Chef John's directions were pretty helpful! You can see his YouTube video here.  

Cheesy photo with the pie.

I then pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees, lined our pizza baking pan with foil and popped it in the oven for an hour and 1/2. 

Ta-da! MY BEAUTIFUL PIE! omfg - this tasted amazing! I was skeptical at first. The dough was pretty annoying to roll out, the lattice strips kept falling apart on me and the inside of the pie was very goopy after we baked it. But at the end of the day it was a darn good pie! Which honestly, is all that matters! Despite all the tiny mishaps, I loved how I could taste the actual blueberry taste while the ginger and lime helped soften the sweetness. The crust sucked rolling out but it nice and buttery with a good crunch. The best part was we shared it with friends too! I invited my friend over and the Minnesota couple we went blueberry picking with. I will say, it definitely was more enjoyable sharing this pie with others!!  Stay tuned for more adventures!

Emma

Gimgaru Jumeokbap Bento Box & Adventures in Vancouver BC

It's been a rough couple of weeks. Wayne and I have both been sick lately. Oyy I've been a hot mess.  But one highlight is that we went to Vancouver, BC the weekend after our anniversary. We decided to celebrate by checking out Vancouver. Since we are still saving up for a car, we took the Amtrak train! The train cars were obviously outdated, but it was actually quite comfy. The ride there took about 4 hours. We pretty much passed out and slept after these photos lols.

The view as we're rolling along on the railroad tracks.

I honestly can't believe it's been four years already. Time flies when you're having fun with someone you love. It's kind of crazy how well he knows me. I mean, my family and friends know me but with Wayne it's like a different level. He can just take one look at me and know when something is wrong. Wayne makes me laugh whenever I don't want to.  He is also someone I can enjoy just being myself - no judgements. Whenever you date someone there is that awkward stage where you are nervous to let someone in. But with Wayne, there was never any awkwardness. Since day one we've been completely at ease and honest with each other. It is kind of refreshing to have someone like that. Not including that he's receptive to trying new things. We've both never done serious hiking before. But we both like being around nature and now enjoy it together.  The great thing about being with Wayne is that I can see myself growing old with him and enjoying every day with each other. Yes, he can annoy me like effing CRAZY (and I'm sure vise versa) but at the end of the day, we both have a love and companionship that's strong. Is it perfect? Hell no. But we love each other and we're both in it for the long run together  - and that's all that matters.

So, we were STARVING after being on the train. Once we took a taxi cab downtown, we got JAPADOGS! OMFG so good! Pretty much they are Japanese inspired hot dogs.  I got the Terimayo - the signature hot dog with teriyaki sauce, mayo and seaweed make on a pork hot dog. Wayne got the Tonkatsu - Deep fried pork cutlet marinated in tonkatsu sauce with fresh cabbage. 

We got to the airbnb and relaxed a bit. The airbnb was kind of crappy. There were ants in the bathroom. The tub didn't look cleaned and the light fixtures didn't work. Plus there was heavy construction nonstop all day.  But we made do since the apartment was so cheap.  But omg, we found this generic yellow ranch in the fridge. I don't know why but we found it absolutely hilarious. 

 

We then wandered around Gastown and saw the iconic steam clock.

I also found a MOOSE!

Later that night, we went to see the Lion King on Broadway at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I remember when the show first came out, I really really really wanted to see it. My brother and I loved The Lion King (which is by far the best Disney movie EVER). I remember, I used to pretend I was Simba running in the dessert to get back to Pride Rock. Also, whenever we went on road trips, my parents would play the cassette tape of all the Lion King songs. Omg... did I just date myself? Cassette tapes were awesome back then okay? But back then we never got the chance to go to Toronto and go see the Lion King or Phantom of the Opera. So, I was pretty psyched to fulfill this childhood dream. 

The Queen Elizabeth Theatre was actually pretty nice. 

The show was AWESOME. We had a fun time kind of reliving our childhood. Not to brag, but I know all the words to "Oh I just can't wait to be King." I was amazed by the props and costumes. No wonder they won awards for that. It was kind of amazing as the stage and costumes create the atmosphere like you were back in the Lion King movie. And duh, of course, I teared up when Mufasa died. By far, I think this was my favorite show out of Wicked & The Phantom of the Opera. I still want to see ballets/shows - Chicago, Les Miserables, The Book of Mormon, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker ballet. 

On Saturday, we went walking around Wreck Beach. It was a bit far off from all the touristy parts but it was pretty beautiful. It's kind of fun finding places that the locals like rather than the tourist traps.  I wasn't feeling too good after walking around the beach so we cut our excursion short and headed back. The other problem we faced was no service. We relied on wifi heavily. Thank goodness the apartment had it. Otherwise whenever we were out, we had to resort to Starbucks! 

Mr. Handsome

We also saw a little Banana Slug!

On Sunday we were going to do Richmond's Night Market, Stanley Park and some other stuff but I just felt so crappy. So we didn't get to some of those things. But we made the most out of our trip. Instead we walked around downtown and saw the Science Museum and Vancouver Stadium. I was actually quite impressed by the stadium. The Women's World Cup 2015 was in Canada.  I was kind of surprised how empty the streets were on Saturday. Then again, women's soccer is not as popular as men's soccer. But there was a match on Sunday of Canada vs. Switzerland. The streets were a bit more crowded by the time we were ready to head back home. 

We'll just have to come back to Vancouver again some day soon. 

Fastforward! Yesterday, I decided to make Gimgaru jumeokbap (김가루 주먹밥) Bento Box for dinner.  We had gone to Uwajimaya Market in Seattle this past weekend to meet up with Wayne's cousin. I got some groceries and felt inspired to try a bento box.  Let's get started! 

I pretty much got inspiration from Maangchi and Ochikeron. Both are on YouTube and have yummy recipes. Maangchi does Korean traditional dishes while Ochikeron does Japanese dishes. I decided to do a mash up and make my own type of Bento. 

First, I took mini sausage links, cut them in half and then and cut slits into them. Then I cooked them on a hot pan with a little oil till they opened up. 

Then I made an omelet from Ochikeron's video. I'm surprised it actually rolled out nicely! I then cut the roll into 1" slices and made them into egg hearts. Totally cute and edible. 

Then, I made some rice, added touch of sesame oil when done. Formed them into hamburger patties and then seared them in a hot pan.  Here's where I struggled a bit. I don't think my pan was quite hot enough. It took a long time to get a tiny sear on the rice patties. I think next time I'll also need to use a different oil. I only had olive oil and the rice patties turned out a bit oily. Oh well, you experiment and learn!

Then I assembled the bento boxes. I pretty much used a lunch container. I put some lettuce on the bottom, then the rice patty, a sesame seed/seaweed topping, gochujang sauce, the sausage flowers, cherry tomatoes, egg hearts and pickled radish. I also added some cute panda toothpicks in the rice patty.

Ta-da! Finished product! Isn't it so pretty! It was almost too pretty to eat. But I still ate it and it was delicious! You can find Maangchi's recipe here & Ochikeron's recipe here.

Till next time!

Emma