very berry new york cheesecake

Ahhh Costco, the place where more is more and samples be served. Hot dog in hand, we'd run past aisles searching for rectangular carts stacked with free food and scan aisles for highlighter-marked labels, sneak-peaks at what we could find in our lunch pails the following week. While I can proudly say that I pack my own lunches now, the excitement still wells within me. Perhaps Costco has some sinister motive to this all. Even till this day, I can't have berry compote for breakfast without thinking about those halcyon days emerging from successful trips at Costco with frozen-yogurt in hand. 

And that's where this post begins. "Very Berry" is not only an homage to the Very Berry Sundaes my mom bought me after our triumphant Costco runs, it's a word that carries all the memories and nostalgia I've built throughout my youth. Luckily for those of you still reading, if you know the slightest of what I'm trying to articulate, I can guarantee you'll like this cheesecake. Regardless, you're not human if you can resist thick, dense New York Cheesecake packed into a crunchy Oreo crust and slathered with Very Berry topping. I mean, this cheesecake is so good my family doesn't even know I made two of them (one of them I scarfed down so quickly an asteroid could have hit and I wouldn't have reacted). More the reason to buy in bulk. (ugh...I'm on fire today!)

the BEST strawberry streusel coffee cake

I'm not sure whether its because spring break is almost over (at least for me) or if its because I've been listening to "A Little Fall of Rain" by Les Miserables for the past six hours on repeat, but I'm in a somber mood. Granted I've also spent the past week enduring rejection letter after rejection letter from companies for summer internships, so I guess its one of those "confluence of issues" situations. Nevertheless, one bright spot of my week was nestling in the corner of my kitchen like an antisocial vampire cat fisting handfuls of warm coffee cake into my face. In true honesty, I may not be giving this week's recipe the credit it deserves. This Strawberry Streusel Coffee Cake is perhaps one of the BEST desserts/breakfast hybrids I've ever had in my life. I mean Bon Apetit agrees with me (depending on who you believe said it first). A moist and strawberry-packed cake with a delectably-thick layer of crunchy streusel leaves little to desire except for a looser jaw (I'll point to YouTube for that tutorial). As for this blog, I try to stick to the food and not the potential dangerous and psychotic, although my prose often resembles psychopathy. Anyways, Strawberry Streusel Coffee Cake. Keep reading for the recipe and how to prepare it!

maple-roasted nectarine pancakes

The photography in this post is going to be a bit erratic because 1) I shot it at different times of the day, 2) I'm not very good at photography, and 3) I'm kind of an idiot. As the days pass I'm slowly but surely degrading into a mushy pile of peanut butter and pancakes. 

But enough about me, let's turn our focus to the important matter, the thing which is captured within the execrable photography - the humble pancake stack. It all started with a question. A question of whether it was possible to incorporate maple syrup, a topping that dowses and sogs pancake stacks all across America, within the batter itself. Finally the answer would come to me a whole 2 hours later - simply substitute sugar with maple syrup. Any simpleton could have come up with that. That's why I had to push the envelope; cue the maple-roasted nectarines.

vanilla cupcakes + sour cream chocolate ganache frosting

As said to me by my filipino gardener, "These cupcakes are good. Better than sex." For those imposter bloggers who throw around the term #foodporn willy nilly, don't listen to them anymore. This recipe is literally food porn. (it gave this man a foodgasm!)

In today's world, where the temptations of pretentious cronuts and yuza matcha pavlova ice cream sandwiches bombard us from twitter and instagram, sometimes it's nice to take a step back and reminisce about good ol' times. Those days when we happily nibbled on vanilla cupcakes and overly sweet chocolate frosting, not because they were even that good, but because that's all we knew. The only difference is this time it's going to taste good. I mean so good, you're going to find yourself having to make another batch cause you somehow ate a dozen cupcakes in the span of writing a short paragraph. 

chocolate chip cookie cake - Cookie Week!

Shout out to Sarah @ The Sugar Hit who's having Cookie Week! this week, which inspired me to partake in the theme and make this epic, awesome, indulgent Chocolate Chip Cookie Cake. Chocolate chip cookies are too good to be giving to your loved ones in boring cookie form. Try this awesome chocolate chip cookie cake, which despite the overload of alliteration in the title, is an awesome vehicle for serving chocolate chip cookies, and a fantastic crowd pleaser at your next holiday party!

This recipe makes two chocolate chip cookie cakes, which if you were smarter than me, would have stacked them on top of each other like a sane person. Darn I hate myself sometimes. You know what to do. Click the orange button to unleash chocolate chip cookie cake havoc. 

white chocolate oreo cheesecake bars

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner, and as your coworkers and church group have reminded you, so is the annual dread of what you're going to make for the holiday potluck. (Hanukkah is approaching too. I didn't forget  about  you my Jewish viewers.)

If you're one who checks the silverware, napkin, bread, or drink boxes be aware that you're not being discreet about your laziness. People know, and they talk behind your back. Show those gossiping b*tches you aren't lazy, and not only that, but you can cook laps around Margaret's annual slimy burnt pigs in a blanket. 

mexican chocolate pound cake - minus the mexican chocolate

Chocolate porn. Don't be alarmed. Chow Creations is not yet another food blog to resolve to indecency to increase traffic. We simply listen to our viewers and the viewers say more porn, food porn that is. This week, after being away for quite awhile, I return with a mexican chocolate pound cake. Rich and dense however at the same time somehow fluffy and definitely chocolatey. This cake can certainly be the subject of many ahhh's and ohhh's of the next family gathering or church potluck. 

Despite it's lack of "mexican" chocolate, we make up for it with a heaping dose of cinnamon and many other tasty flavors including coconut, buttermilk, and "american" chocolate. Well I'm not sure if any chocolate is american seeing that they all come from Brazil or Columbia or some place of that nature, but it's certainly a chocolate which has an american stamp of approval seeing that it's fortified with tons of sugar and milk. Plus I'm using chocolate that's in "chip" form and you know americans love their chips. 

lemon blueberry ricotta pound cake

I made this on Thursday and I s#!t you not when I woke up the next day, the plate was in the sink and all was left were crumbs. The lemon is so fresh and fragrant, being so abundant in this peak lemon picking season. The blueberries are also perfect, juicy and plump studded throughout this moist cake. And we'll talk about this more down below but the ricotta cheese gives this cake such a moistness, which also lets us cut on the butter. Moist, tasty, and low-fat, what more could you ask for. 

Ah, lemon, blueberry, and ricotta, such a classic flavor combination and it works beautifully in this cake. But you may be thinking, cheese in a dessert? Well do you like cannolis? Of course you do, and you can thank the italians for figuring out that ricotta is the secret to creamy, rich, delicious desserts. 

peanut butter cupcakes - nutty personal only

Every morning for the past month I've been eating Peanut Butter Sandwiches. Two toasted slices, spreaded with two tablespoons of peanut butter on the toasted side while it's still warm and folded in half. The bread is soft, but crispy on the inside filled with gooey, peanut buttery goodness, it's been the highlight of my day for, like I've said, the past month which is - pretty sad. But because I enjoy my preday peanut butter sandwiches so much, I decided to make a peanut butter dessert that paid a very special homage to that. 

These "Double" Peanut Butter Cupcakes are moist and dense on the inside but light, crispy and golden on top. Which aesthetically doesn't matter because we're just going to cover it with a delicious Peanut Butter Frosting. However texture wise it almost exactly replicates what I love so much about my morning Peanut Butter Sandwiches. 

strawberry mousse chiffon cake - brought to you from the mystical lands of atlanta!

Chiffon sounds interesting right? I bet it was the only reason why clicked this link. Well sorry to disappoint you but, a chiffon cake is nothing but a sponge cake in French. Disappointing right…wait, I bet you don’t even know how to make a sponge cake. Hypocritess ;) This cake is light and fluffy, layered with my Five-Second Strawberry Mousse, and covered with whipped cream. For the holidays I flew to Atlanta to see how the great bakers there bake their cakes, and to also share this delicious chow-fection to the entire world (otherwise known as the 5 people who have visted this blog and my immediate family). The recipe demonstrated in this blogpost is none other than of famous Chinese chef, Victor Hsu, also known as my uncle, and also referred to as “who is that guy?” Well you would be right, he is a nobody, but there’s one thing he is known for, Chiffon Cakes. After smuggling from Taiwan the secrets to making perfectly light, fluffy chiffon, he perfected it with his own mad scientific flair. Littered below are his many pro tips on how to make a perfect chiffon cake that will surely impress your relatives and friends this holiday season. So without two twists of a peacock’s feathers let’s get bakin’ so we can get cakin’.

Uncle Vic begins his recipe by weighing out his dry and wet ingredients. For me I don't have a digital scale, or any scale for that matter, so in the recipe below I converted all the measurements to volume, however a part of me agrees that weight measurements would be more precise. Once your mise en place is complete we can begin to mix the meringue for the cake. The thing with a chiffon cake is that it doesn't have baking soda nor baking powder in the batter. For a cake to rise you need one of the two components, a mechanical leavener, or a chemical leavener. Usually in cakes and cookies we add baking soda or powder, these are called chemical leaveners. When they are baked they cause a chemical reaction in the batter that rises the cake. In things like puff pastry, or chiffon cake there are certain components in the dessert that cause it to rise. In puff pastry it is because of all the layers of fat and flour that expand when they're stack on top of each other. In chiffon cakes the air pockets in the meringue expand with steam causing the cake to rise. These are called mechanical leaveners.