Showing posts with label Experimenting. Show all posts

Nutella Cookies

After buying a jar of Nutella to make the Nutella frosting I made for the cake, I still had a lot of the chocolate hazelnut spread leftover. I know my mom would scrutinize me forever if I devoured the jar by myself. So I took to Pinterest to find a quick recipe that involved using Nutella. In case anyone was wondering...I didn't eat these all myself, I made them for my besties when we were meeting up during the winter break.

I found a pin with some cookies and a jar of Nutella with the caption something along the lines of 1 cup Nutella, 1 cup flour, and 1 egg. However, it didn't have the instructions for what temperature to set the oven for or the time to bake the cookies for. Luckily, this is a pretty popular recipe that many food blogs try out so it wasn't hard to find the missing information.
Easy Nutella Cookies
credits to Kirbie's Cravings (I'm not sure who the original creator of this recipe is, this is just someone I found through Google search)
Ingredients:
✻ 1 cup Nutella
✻ 1 cup flour
✻ 1 egg
Directions:1. Preheat then oven for 350 degrees Fahrenheit
2. Blend the ingredients together well
3. Ball up the dough and place it on a cookie sheet
4. Press down the dough so it is flat (because the cookie doesn't spread very much while baking)
5. Bake for 6-8 minutes
6. Wait for it to cool and then ENJOY!
I was very surprised to find that these weren't very sweet at all. But that could be because I am so accustomed to eating much sweeter cookies. I dusted some powdered sugar over top to compensate for the lack of sugar. My friend who isn't into sweets told me she loved it though. The cookie also isn't as chewy on the middle as I prefer in a great cookie. However, I did find another recipe that claims she has the right ingredients and recipe that'll make for a very good crunchy outside and chewy inside Nutella cookie. She also added sea salt into her cookies, which should give an interesting sweet and salty cookie. Click HERE for the recipe. It has a few more ingredients but the process is relatively the same (sans the flattening of the dough). I think I'm definitely going to have to give that a try the next time I buy a jar of Nutella.

Do you love Nutella? What do you like to eat Nutella with?

Learning My Camera: Flashing

After I shared a photo of my everyday face routine, many people complimented on my skin and the coverage of the product I was wearing. It's been bothering me a lot. But please don't be mad at me. I'm really am ashamed of what I've done so I wanted to confess my secret. Besides just fixing the colors of the photo, I did also erase a few dots here and there in Photoshop. It's just an itch that always gets to me...However! I promise I am trying my hardest to not use that tool anymore, especially for the blog. I am slowly learning to accept my not perfect complexion and trying my best to not be over self-conscious about posting photos for everyone to see. So be ready for some blemish filled photos in the future.

I was wearing a foundation here, no external pimple erasing here.
& Excuse the messy eye makeup! I was just playing around :P

But that is not the main point of this post! Camera flash also played a big part in washing out some of the blemishes I had and added more dimension/shadows to my face before I even went in to do any photo editing.  It's really amazing the difference flash can make (sometimes). I don't have any professional flash equipment or anything (if I get serious enough about photography I'll think about investing in them later on). I just use the flash that's from my camera. I assume if you have proper lighting and flash it could enhance contours and highlights even better.

For the most part, all the photos on the blog are taken with flash. Personally, I like the end result more when there is flash involved. For one, I find that without flash the photo comes out a lot grainier or noisier than with. Secondly, my room is lit with yellow toned "daylight" bulbs. If I take photos without flash, the photos come out way too yellow to even try to fix in any photo editing program. But as always there are negatives of flash as well. Usually, for me, parts of the face can get over highlighted/exposed or there is a flash mark/washout on the packaging. However, when I take photos outside on a sunny day I find that I usually don't need to use flash at all. There isn't the same graininess because of all the natural lighting.

What do you prefer when taking photos? Are there any camera tips you'd like to share with a photography newbie/enthusiast like me?

Yellow Cake & Nutella Buttercream Frosting

I know no one really wants to see cake photos, let alone a cake and frosting recipe, at the start of the new year but just wait before you click out of this page! Maybe it'll come in handy when you're craving something sweet.
There are just three words I have to say about Pinterest: I LOVE IT! There are only so many blogs and recipes I can find by myself. But now there is a place where everyone shares their finds and makes searching for things myself so much easier. See something you like, pin it for yourself, and go back to it when you're up for a challenge! Now I literally have a gazillion recipes, tutorials, outfits, and other inspirations I'd love to try. Since jumping on the Pinterest bandwagon, the next two are the first recipes I have tried and had successful results with.

I've never tried to make frosting from scratch before. But the photo on Pinterest made it look very fluffy and delectable. The plus of homemade frosting is being able to control the sweetness. Here's a link to the actual recipe if anyone wants to explore the website some more: CLICK HERE.
Nutella Buttercream Frosting
  • 2 sticks of room temperature (soft) unsalted butter
  • 2 cups of powdered or confectioner's sugar
  • 2/3 cup of Nutella
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream
Blend the butter and sugar until combined.
Add the Nutella in and blend.
Add the salt and vanilla extract and blend.
Add heavy whipping cream and blend.
I followed the recipe for the most part because this was my first time making frosting. I'm not sure what the difference is in adding the ingredients separately makes but I did it that way anyways just to play it safe. However for the next time, I will probably experiment with the powdered sugar levels. The only thing I did differently this time around was add a smidgen more heavy whipping cream because I thought the frosting consistency I had was just a bit too thick. In the end I had more than enough to give my cake a light layer of icing, add flowery/spiky decorations, and still had frosting to spare. I don't have any special gadgets for icing or decorating. I just use a good o' butter knife, a plastic flower icing tip, and a Ziploc bag.
The actual cake recipe I followed was pretty simple. I was contemplating whether or not to make it from scratch but remembered I pinned something rather interesting a while back. The photo description had something along the lines of "box of cake mix & Greek yogurt". Need I say more? I knew I had to try it! The recipe comes from the website Hungry Girl. I'm not too familiar with her but I've heard the Hungry Girl name here and there. I think she gives tips on healthier eating options? (Don't quote me on that.) She recommended to use a Devil's Food Cake mix but my family isn't too big on chocolate or dark looking desserts so I opted for a yellow cake mix instead. The directions are pretty simple. Just ignore the ingredients the box says you'll need.
Yellow Cake Recipe
  • 1 box of cake mix (your choice on what flavor)
  • 1 cup of Greek yogurt (unflavored)
  • 1 cup water
Mix the cake mix, yogurt, and water together until all of it is combined.
Bake according to the box instructions or until a toothpick poked into the center of the cake comes out clean.
The end result was very delicious. I used Fage Total 0% for the recipe and that's the type Hungry Girl recommended as well. I'm actually not a big fan of yogurt. Surprising surprising. Please don't judge! I just haven't gotten past the tangy flavor of it . But this cake didn't taste anything like yogurt at all. Instead, the cake itself was just very moist. I don't think I'm ever going back to using oil, eggs, and water for box cake mixes...ever!

These make pretty good and sort of healthy snacks don't you think? Of course definitely not the icing part. But if you just make little cupcakes sans the frosting, it makes for an awesome treat. If anyone plans to make this cake and icing and end up putting any leftovers into the fridge, I'd recommend microwaving your slice of cake or cupcake for a bit to soften the frosting and cake. The frosting gets much sweeter when it is cold and hardened. Plus cake just tastes much better when it's soft! Hope I didn't destroy anyone's keep fit/lose weight/eat healthy New Year's resolutions already. But I personally think this is a great alternative for those sweet-tooth cravings. Would anyone be interested in seeing how other Pinterest experimentations turn out?
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