Cake testing pt 1

I've been testing so many different cake recipes lately which means I've been eating cupcakes for lunch for the past week. I'm not complaining. I have certain requirements with the cake that I need to meet (mainly ingredient wise so I don't waste a lot of egg yolks from my macarons) and it's been proving difficult to make the perfect vanilla cake that meets what I need, but I feel like I'm getting close. No recipes yet, sorry! Just going to tease you with cupcake pictures. Yellow cake with fudge frosting is probably my favorite cupcake of all time. I'm normally not a chocolate person but I can't resist a good fudge frosting. One that's not too sweet and not too bitter. I've been testing frosting recipe after recipe to find the perfect and I currently have a pile of tupperware filled with different recipes to taste test. It's really rough having to do all of these taste testing, you guys. Just horrible.

Homemade sushi

I love sushi. A lot. But I'm vegetarian (no fish!) so sometimes it's hard finding sushi that I can eat. I also hate cucumber, so basically this limits me to getting avocado and some rice if I go to a sushi place. There are a few places in San Diego that do vegan sushi but it's expensive. Making sushi at home is actually really easy and really cheap. I think everything combined cost 10 bucks and that includes all the leftover inarizushi (pocket rice sushi) that provided two extra lunches the next day. I did a bunch of googling to get ideas on what to put inside the sushi but honestly nothing anyone suggested sounded very good. I like the unhealthy kind of sushi with fried stuff and sauces, so here's a quick list of ideas:

Cucumber, carrot, avocado
Jalapeno, cream cheese
Fried tofu sticks, carrot, cucumber, lettuce (or bean sprouts)
Soy ham, pineapple, French's fried onions, teriyaki sauce, spicy mayo (our favorite from Sipz in San Diego)
Sweet potato tempura, teriyaki sauce (one of my favorites)

Basically just throw whatever you think would taste good together and give it a whirl.  Other veggies include: bell peppers, raw zucchini, sauteed/marinated mushrooms, raw butternut squash, green onions/chives, daikon   radish, asparagus, alfalfa sprouts, sun dried tomatoes, lettuce, steamed green beans. Also try fried egg strips, fake meat strips, goat cheese, or cream cheese. Top with panko, sesame seeds, teriyaki sauce, avocado, or spicy mayo. Making spicy mayo is as easy as combining mayo and siracha. Here's a YouTube playlist I put together to see how sushi is put together. It's pretty easy! It's easier to make sushi with the rice on the inside but I don't think it looks as pretty. I don't have a bamboo mat so I put these together with a clean kitchen towel and some cling wrap, no fancy equipment necessary!



You'll notice I haven't mentioned how to make rice. That's because it's kind of a lengthy and difficult process to make it correctly and I'm just too lazy for that. Realistically, you only need to worry about making sure you're using Japanese short grain rice so it's sticky. I just cook it how I normally cook rice and add some rice vinegar to it and break it up with a paddle. It's not the correct way but it works for me. It's actually really fun to make sushi at home so I hope you give it a shot!