Bakery Review: Crixa Cakes Bakery & Cafe

Crixa Cakes - summer 2013

I've never been to Crixa Cakes personally but my niece has brought me baked goods from there a couple of times and everything has been pretty good so they're well worth a write up, sight unseen. Their website is a little bit odd and somewhat hard to navigate if you're trying to find out more about the origins of the company or what their storefront looks like.  It appears their site is catered more to letting people know about their offerings and how to order them rather than much about the bakery itself.  But that's okay; what I've tried of their products is worth showcasing.

Their offerings appear to change on any given day or season.  The two cakes pictured here are what my niece brought me on one of her visits over the summer but neither appear to be on offer on their current website.  This is a chocolate layer cake with a raspberry filling.  The cake itself was pretty good, a light chocolate sponge with a light-textured, not-too-sweet chocolate frosting.  I don't care for raspberries with my cake so I ate around them.  It looks like they either used a raspberry soaking syrup or that was just from the raspberries themselves and their juice soaked into the cake.  I would've preferred something more purely chocolate but any raspberry-chocolate lover would enjoy this cake.

The coconut cake, the next one I tried, was absolutely delicious. The vanilla cake was perfectly baked, the filling appeared to be a coconut pastry cream and the coconut frosting married to it very well.

I still scraped off some of the frosting because I'm not a frosting person but it helped that it had coconut flakes in it as well. This is something I'd get again if I could.

The two other things I've tried from Crixa Cakes were their flourless chocolate cake and some kind of apple cake.  Both appear on their website so if they have it available when you go there, I recommend them.  From what I can remember, the flourless chocolate cake was silky yet also had a light, airy texture, presumably from beaten eggs or egg whites but it was more like a mousse than a chiffon because of its moistness. The apple cake was pure deliciousness, not too sweet, not too tart but just good.

Someday I will have to visit Crixa Cakes in person and peruse their offerings myself.  I'll probably walk out with more than 2 cake slices but it would be worth it to try more of what they have.

Spinach Quiche (paleo, Whole30)

Spinach Quiche - made October 30, 2013 from Paleo Diet Lifestyle

Ooh, look, something healthy on my blog - can you believe it?  AND, I actually ate it too. This is a spinach quiche that is paleo friendly and Whole 30 compliant.  I heard about Whole 30 from online fitness friends and, in seeking to shed some poundage before the holiday eating begins, I thought I'd give it a try. I want the wiggle room in my waistband for the serious holiday eating, you know.  And that was even after I found out eating the Whole 30 way means no sugar, no dairy, no grains, no legumes and, for any drinkers out there (I'm not one), no alcohol.  In other words, all the food that makes life worth living are probably not on this eating plan.  The lengths I go to in order to keep my clothes fitting, preferably loosely.

I will confess up front that I did not make it the whole 30 days.  I lasted 11 days and lost 3 pounds which so far have remained off.  It was too restrictive for me with my baking tendencies and social life of eating out.  But hey, while I was on the program, this quiche met all the Whole 30 guidelines.  As long as you use canned coconut milk instead of the one in cartons (try an Asian grocery store or the Asian aisle at Target or regular grocery stores for canned coconut milk).  And preferably organic spinach if you can get it.  Cage-free eggs help too.  You get where I'm going with this: all natural, healthy ingredients grown and harvested in the most humane way possible with very little to no additives and preservatives. I like eggs and I don't mind spinach if it's cooked enough and I can eat it with something else.  This quiche was easy to make but I forgot to salt and pepper it before I baked it so it came out a little bland.  But it was decent and filling. If I sound lukewarm about it, well, yeah, it's because it doesn't have cheese, milk or a crust underneath it.  But it'll do.

5 large eggs
1 ½ cups fresh spinach, chopped
½ medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
½ cup coconut milk (canned)
½ tsp baking powder
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs and coconut milk together. Continue whisking while adding the rest of the ingredients.
3. Grease a 9” pie dish and pouring in the mixture. Bake the quiche for about 30 minutes, or until cooked through in the center.

Mississippi Mud Brownie Pie

Mississippi Mud Brownie Pie - made November 9, 2013 from Key Ingredient

I'm renaming this pie to make it a little more descriptive.  The pictures don't look as good as if I had taken them when the frosting wasn't set and still glossy.  But when it sets, the chocolate appears dull.  Fortunately, that didn't affect the taste.  With its original elements of chocolate, marshmallows and more chocolate, this defines Mississippi Mud the way it should be.  As is my new habit, I swapped out the marshmallows called for in the original recipe with Midnight Milky Ways from my Halloween candy stash. I was dealing with a bunch of coughing and sneezing on Halloween so I ended up NOT passing any candy out that night (parents can thank me for not sneezing on their little costumed darlings).  Which meant I was left with the bags I had bought beforehand, unopened and with absolutely no interest on my part in consuming them.  Except in baked books. 

This was called a "pie" so I baked it in a 9-inch round springform as it called for but I think it would've been better either in an actual pie pan for that pie authenticity or even in an 8-inch square baking pan to easier cutting and portioning to give away.  Because you know I only bake to give away. Whichever pan you bake it in, you're probably going to want to cut this into small pieces.  I thought the brownie part was really good, moist and fudgy.  I'm less enamoured of the Midnight Milky Ways; while they're a better substitute for me than pure marshmallows because I don't like marshmallows, I didn't like them in this as much as I did in the Mississippi Mud Brownies I made previously.  And I think that's because I didn't like the frosting on this one - it was too sweet for me and somewhat gritty.  I think it would've been better with a cooked frosting or at least something hot enough to melt the powdered sugar and make a smoother frosting.  As it was, the topping made this a little too rich for my blood.  If I did it over again, I would keep the brownie base, top it with chunks of Milky Way Caramels and drizzle it with a little chocolate frosting but not blanket it completely. Sometimes less is more.

3/4 cup flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 ounces butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional (I left them out)
1 cup chopped Midnight Milky Ways

Frosting
2 ounces butter, melted
1 ounce (1/4 cup) cocoa powder, sifted 
2 ounces (1/4 cup) evaporated milk
8 ounces (1 cup) powdered sugar, sifted

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 inch spring form pan set aside. 
2. Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt in a bowl. 
3. Beat together the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir in the toasted nuts. 
4. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake on a middle shelf of the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. 
5. Immediately sprinkle the marshmallows on top and return to the oven for a few minutes to melt the marshmallows. Remove from the oven and carefully spread the chocolate frosting over top. 
6. To make the chocolate frosting mix all ingredients together in a bowl, beating with an electric whisk until smooth and thick. Spread on the hot marshmallows. Let cool completely. Cut into wedges to serve.

Bakery Review: Sheng Kee

Sheng Kee Bakery - visited several times

 

Sheng Kee Bakery was started by a mother in Taipei, Taiwan and her children have continued with their baking tradition in the Bay Area.  They have 12 locations and I've been to three of them without even realizing they were a chain.  I just knew I liked their products.

Like many Asian bakeries,they have a plethora of filled breads and rolls, individually wrapped and displayed along with cakes.  The packaged breads and pastries fill trays lined on the shelves and, like Paris Baguette, it's a self-serve model where you take a tray and a pair of tongs and help yourself.

Whole cakes are displayed in a refrigerated glass cakes and are also typical of the cakes offered at most Asian bakeries: lots of fruit adornments inside and atop the cakes, leaning towards chiffons and whipped cream frostings and nothing too sweet. As a stereotype, many Asians don't like things that are all that sweet.  So it goes without saying that I'm not your stereotypical Asian since my sweet tooth works just fine and is happy to put in overtime.  Not surprisingly, cakes are something I don't get at Asian bakeries, not because of the sweetness level but because I don't like fruit in my cakes.  And I'm not a huge fan of chiffon cakes either. 

What I do get at Asian bakeries, however, are their bread products.  My top 3 go-to favorites are the cocktail bun, the baked pork bun and the coconut roll.  The cocktail bun is similar to what's served at dim sum but they're sold in bigger sizes at the bakeries and dwarf their more petite dim sum brethren.  The filling for a cocktail bun is coconut, butter and sugar so don't confuse it with a custard bun which is filled with, you guessed it, custard.

I like to get the baked version of the pork bun rather than the steamed one because the bread is better.  Asian bakeries sometimes sell the steamed version as well but they serve it hot or at least from the warmer near the cash register.  I can't remember if Sheng Kee does but I think I've been in one that does.

My last favorite is the coconut roll.  It's similar to the cocktail bun and I'm sure the ingredients are the same but might be proportioned differently. Think of the coconut roll as akin to a cinnamon roll but shaped like palmiers without the palmier flakiness.  Instead it has the bread-y consistency of the cocktail bun and instead of the cinnamon filling that a cinnamon roll has, it has a coconut filling. It's hard to describe if you haven't had it before; all I know is I love it because I love bread and coconut.

Lastly, you'll notice the prices for each of the products I've mentioned and yes, another plus to Asian bakeries is you can get cheap, tasty baked goods.  My normal trifecta of filled breads comes to less than $4. While other Asian bakeries have similar pricing, I prefer going to Sheng Kee because their particular versions of what I get are better (to me).  The ratio of filling to bread is just right in both the cocktail bun and coconut roll.  The baked pork bun could use a little more filling but the bread is pretty good. I like to pop each one into the microwave for 10-12 seconds before consuming.  The bread will warm up just slightly and be the perfect consistency with the filling.

Caramel Chew Coconut Bars

Caramel Chew Coconut Bars - made October 26, 2013 from Land O Lakes Cookies

A more somber note: as you may have seen in the news recently, Haiyan, the worst typhoon in history, has just hit the Philippines with winds up to 200 mph.  Thankfully, all of my relatives are safe but the death toll is climbing into the thousands from the devastation and many are cut off without power, supplies or aid.  Save the Children, along with other organizations, is launching disaster relief efforts.  I don't do this often on my blog but in case you're inclined to help, here's a link to just one of many organizations sending aid for rescue and relief efforts to countries in Haiyan's path, including the Philippines, Laos and Vietnam.  Thanks.

Back to the original blog posting: If you ever wonder why I sometimes have the oddest combination of recipes, it can be easily explained by my recipe ADD.  I have a ton of baking books and, in my pre-pinterest days, I would often flip through them, type up whatever strikes my fancy at the time, and file in my "baking recipes I need to make someday" folder. Recipes languish in that folder in my computer until the fancy strikes me again and I move it from the folder to a "draft" post on blogger. It might then hang in limbo in that status for some time until I get sick of having it "nag" me to make it. So I do.

I'll make it regardless of the time of year, any theme I'm working on or whatever seems logical. I'll make it because I have the ingredients for it.  I'll make it because I just want to bake something.  And honestly, I'll make it because I'm tired of a recipe mocking me in the draft form of a blog post, asking me, "are you ever going to make me and get me out of draft status?"

Hence this random bar cookie thrown in.  It must've appealed to me at the time I wrote it up but when I looked at it recently, I thought "hmm, I don't know if I would like orange glaze on a coconut pecan bar cookie". But I had extra glaze from the Orange Bundt Cake that I made earlier so I thought I might as well (finally) make this bar cookie too.

As bar cookies go, this was very easy to make.  Can't say I really loved it though and it turns out I didn't like it with the orange glaze and would've preferred a vanilla glaze instead.  I like the shortbread layer, I like coconut, I like pecans.  But adding the orange glaze added another flavor I didn't think was necessary because the coconut and the pecans already had it going on. If you like this combination of flavors, this is a good bar cookie.  If you don't, substitute milk for the orange juice to have a simple vanilla glaze instead.  If I make this again, that's what I would do.

Crumb Mixture

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup sugar

¾ cup butter, softened

Filling

¾ cup firmly packed brown sugar

2 eggs

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 ½ cups flaked coconut

1 cup chopped pecans

Glaze

1 ½ cups powdered sugar

¼ cup orange juice

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

1.     Heat oven to 350˚F.  In small mixer bowl combine all crumb mixture ingredients.  Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed and particles are fine (2 to 3 minutes).  Press on bottom of 13 x 9-inch baking pan.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until edges are very lightly browned.

2.     Meanwhile, in same small mixer bowl combine all filling ingredients except coconut and pecans.  Beat at medium speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed (1 to 2 minutes).  By hand, stir in coconut and pecans.  Pour filling over hot partially baked crust.  Continue baking for 17 to 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

3.     In small bowl stir together all glaze ingredients.  Drizzle glaze over warm bars.  Cool completely; cut into bars.

Lemon Chicken Pasta

Lemon Chicken Pasta - made October 26, 2013, recipe adapted from The Mother Huddle

My lemon tree

My lemon tree is exploding with lemons.  In hindsight, I should've probably thinned out some of the blossoms earlier but it was just so thrilling to see real, actual lemons growing on a tree I've had for almost 3 years and had hitherto only produced 2 or 3 lemons than I just let them be. You can't have too many lemons, right?  Uh, we'll see.  Some of the branches are so loaded now that they're almost touching the ground.  And I can't pick most of them yet since they're still green.  I have been giving one particular lemon the hairy eyeball though as it's been pretty yellow for the past few weeks. It still seemed rather hard though so I left it alone - not hard to do since I only go out to the backyard when I guiltily remember I haven't watered the lemon tree or the orange tree.  A green thumb, I possess not.

Overloaded branch

But I did finally snip the first large yellow lemon off my tree this past weekend and put it to good use with this lemon chicken recipe I found on pinterest.  I used chicken breast tenderloins instead of chicken thighs since that's what I bought from Costco and also subbed out green onions for the onions in the original recipe since that's what I had.  I also had some parmigiano reggiano cheese so I grated a bit of that and threw that in as well.  I'm reminded why real cooks enjoy cooking.  There's something satisfying about using up a bunch of random ingredients from the fridge and making something edible out of it.

This recipe made enough sauce that I actually paired it with some whole wheat noodles and baked it off as a casserole to make lemon chicken pasta.  I liked how easy it was to make although if you want more lemon flavor, I'd increase the amount of lemon juice to at least 1/3 to 1/2 cup.  This wasn't super lemony so it might also be good to place sliced lemons on top of the chicken before baking.

8 boneless chicken thighs, skin removed or breast tenderloins
1/2 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
4 tbsp butter
1 cup chicken broth, I use a bullion cube and a cup of water
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup grated Parmesan Reggiano cheese, optional
1/3 cup green onions (green tops), chopped plus more for garnish if desired
whole wheat noodles, boiled to al dente and drained

1. In a large Ziploc bag, combine, flour, salt, pepper, garlic powder and chicken a few pieces at a time. Shake to coat chicken with flour mixture
2. In a large somewhat deep frying pan, Brown chicken in butter until both sides are a nice brown color.
3. Add chicken broth, lemon, cream and onions or mushrooms if desired
4. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes or so, until meat is tender.
5. Place noodles in baking dish and pour lemon chicken over.  Sprinkle with grated cheese, if desired, and bake at 350 degrees F for 15-20 minutes. Garnish with more green onions if desired.

Restaurant Review: World Gourmet

World Gourmet Chinese Buffet - lunch on September 1, 2013

World Gourmet is a Chinese buffet restaurant. When they first opened, their price point was a little high but I think they realized that when business didn't take off.  Since then, they've lowered lunch to something like $10.99 for adults with a 10-15% discount for seniors.  The only reason I don't know the exact price is I only come here with my parents and my dad always pays :). They also send out coupons in the local mailers so we usually come here then.

The interior

It's not that it's a bad place to go but I can't say any particular dish is striking or something I would make a special effort to come here for. It's just simply a buffet and they offer a wide variety of dishes like most buffet places.

The cold dishes on ice

From seafood, soups, and fried foods to typical Chinese dishes and a few dim sum offerings to sushi and Mongolian BBQ, there's a little something for everyone, including fresh fruit, an ice cream machine, cookies and egg custards for dessert.

The fried stuff

Despite all the variety, I have to admit I usually stick with a few tried and true things and call it a day. If I'm low carbing, this is a viable choice since I can get chicken a couple of different ways plus some beef stir fries and the baked fish. I just skip my normal siu mai, gyoza and General Tso's Chicken.

Soups and other entrees

But the hard (First World problem) part for me at buffets is I usually can't eat that much in one sitting.  Yes, there have been exceptions to that but in general, unless I've just come for a 5-6-mile run or longer instead of an hour of sitting down at church, I don't get my (or my dad's) money's worth at a buffet.  There's some element of it being a food trough that goes against the grain for me.  I like to eat but I'd rather have a reasonable portion of really good food than a lot of mediocre food.

Rice, noodles and stir fries

What it is good for though is if you have a large group or if you want to throw a party here.  They have several sections of the restaurant that can be leveraged for large parties and you pay a per-person fee and get a room to yourselves (depending on how many people you have) and your guests can help themselves to all the food.  It's handy when you have to account for a variety of tastes and preferences plus want someone else to do the cleanup.

Crab and clams

 Otherwise, honestly, I say the food is just "okay".

The fresh fruit section

Dim Sum

Sushi

Mongolian Hot Pot

Meats for Mongolian Hot Pot