Can’t believe Justice is starting his first year at kindergarten! It’s been nothing short of amazing spending the past 4 years at home with him (I do admit though, it was challenging at times) and I’ll definitely need to get used to this. I made this cute breakfast food art for him to celebrate this milestone. I love getting creative with his breakfast. Nothing beats waking up and starting the day with a breakfast that excites you. This breakfast might seem complicated but could be easily done with basic pantry items. 

To make this first day of school breakfast:

Owl 🦉

• stuff a bit of brioche bun into the bagel hole
• spread cream cheese and cover the entire bagel
• cut banana slices and add blueberries for the eyes
• cut strawberries in halves for the beak and wings

Pencil ✏️

• cut the remaining brioche bun into a strip
• add cheese on top
• cut cheese into a triangle shape
• trim a raisin and add it to the tip of the triangle
• flatten the raspberry and add it to the end of the strip

Words 🍎

• Cut alphabets onto slices of ham/cheese using cookie cutters

Smoothie🥤

• Add remaining banana, strawberries, blueberries and milk into a blender and blend until smooth

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Happy day 1 of school everyone! How was your kiddos’ first day of school?

Follow #TingsFunFood for more cute food ideas

Tis' the season to get festive and have fun with your food presentations! Whether you're hosting a party this holiday or just enjoying a cozy night in with your loved ones, a platter that's loaded with all sorts of creamy cheeses, fruits and crackers is bound to impress everyone. I love putting cheese platters and charcuterie boards together for holidays and parties. Not only the colours are inviting, they are also easy to assemble and variations are endless. 

Here's a guide on what you'll need to make this holiday charcuterie/cheese board:

A Guide to Create a Holiday Charcuterie/Cheese Board

For this Cheese-mas tree platter, I used cheeses from Cheeseworld.ca's ultimate gift box that came with a good mix of both hard and soft cheese such as, Président Compté, Petit Saint-Paulin, Societé Roquefort, Président Camembert and Président goat cheese. To make the snowflakes, I cut the shape using my cookie cutter onto Compté cheese. Compté is a hard cheese that makes cutting intricate designs easy without loosing the shape. For the big star, I used Le Petit St Paulin as it has a large area to cut out the shape. With this type of semi-soft cheese, I needed to be gentle and careful when releasing the cheese from the cutter.

When assembling the tree, I started from the bottom and worked my way up to the top. I followed in the order of meat, cheese, fruits to separate different colours for visual interest. For meats, I used prosciutto as the bottom layer and crunched them up like a long piece of garland. I like to fold my salamis twice and placed them side by side of each other for dimension. Fruits like strawberries, blueberries and green grapes are great choices for adding bright and festive colours to the platter. 

And finally, for the tree stump, I used prezet-like biscuit sticks from Twigz. I love that these biscuit sticks give the platter a different texture. 

And that's it! This is how you assemble a cheese-mas tree platter this holiday season. If you give this a try, be sure to share your pictures with me on IG @tingandthings_ or use hashtag #diywithting. I'd love to see your version!

Have a happy holiday!

 

Baking can be a therapy for some people to destress. But it's not always easy to decide what to bake up next when inspirations are running dry. Great thing about baking is that you could experiment combinations of flavours that will help break out of the baker's rut.

Finding something unique to bake often isn't too tricky. You could experiment with the different flavourings at home, and don't be afraid to use some quirky pairings. If you lead a busy life, like most bakers, and don't have time to come up with new inspiration day after day, here are some simple baking ideas for you when you don't know what to bake.

Rainbow Cupcakes

Rainbow cupcakes have become popular over the past few years. Who doesn't love the winning combination of delicious cake with bright, playful colours? To make your rainbow cupcakes a success, you'll need to use your whitest cake recipe to allow the colours to show up well.

You'll also need quality gel food colouring to get the most vibrant colours. You could get gel in all the colours of the rainbow or save some money by getting primary colours and mixing them to create orange, green and purple. The frosting you use for your rainbow cupcakes can be anything your desire. But often a simple buttercream is perfect to complement the bright colours of the cake. Try vanilla or honey mascarpone buttercream.

Biscotti

Bakers often shy away from bakes like biscotti because they think they're complicated to bake, but this is actually not true. There are some excellent, simple biscotti recipes out there that will give you the perfect accompaniment to your morning cup of coffee.

You can bake biscotti using some of the most common ingredients in the kitchen: flour, eggs, sugar and oil. You can also spice up your biscotti recipe with additional flavours like cinnamon, espresso, chocolate or fruit. Try this classic biscotti recipe in 4 ways.

Banana Bread

Banana bread is another crowd-pleasing bake that can be easily customized. This bake is simple to make, and you might already have all the ingredients you need at home. You could spice up your banana bread by adding some chocolate chips, nuts or peanut butter. If you really want to step outside the box, consider adding a little cayenne pepper for a spicy kick. Try this banana bread recipe.

Paleo Baked Goodies

A paleo diet is often considered a healthy option and can help weight loss or manage some chronic conditions. The paleo diet involves eating foods that early humans would have eaten before the advent of farming. This means plenty of fruit, veggies, nuts, seeds, meat and fish. Dairy products, processed foods, grains and legumes are usually avoided.

You might think that incorporating a paleo diet could make baking a challenge, but there is actually a massive range of delicious and unique baked goods for those following a paleo diet. You can find some of the tastiest options from Nora over at A Clean Bake or check out these paleo baked goods recipes.

Breakfast Muffins

Breakfast muffins can be an excellent baking choice for you and your family to enjoy in the morning. All you need is a muffin tray and some of your favourite breakfast foods. Eggs are essential, as they will bind together the rest of the ingredients, but aside from that, the opportunities are endless.

You could start with some chopped-up bacon, cheese and eggs. Whisk the eggs up, add the cheese and bacon, spoon the mix into the muffin trays and pop them into the oven until crispy and cooked through. You could try the same with some onions and tomatoes for a healthier omelet-style muffin. Try this breakfast egg muffin receipe - 3 ways.

Extra Puffy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn't love the classic chocolate chip cookie? If you want to make your cookies a bit more exciting, you could try baking an extra puffy batch to delight your kids and loved ones. All you need is your go-to cookie recipe and a package of instant pudding mix. Add the pudding mix to the cookie batter and bake as usual. The result will be chunky, puffy bites of goodness. You can experiment with different flavours of pudding to make tasty, unique cookie combinations.

Microwave Cake In A Mug

A microwave mug cake can be a great solution for anyone who are really strapped for time. You don't need to use self-raising flour to ensure the cake rises properly, all-purpose flour would suffice. Mix the batter in the mug to minimize cleaning and just pop it into your microwave. In less than 2 minutes, you'll have a cup of decadent cake! Serve with some ice cream or whip up a quick batch of frosting to go with the cake. This type of cake is a quick and easy option for when you just want something sweet without spending a lot of time in the kitchen. Try this microwave cake in a mug recipe.

It's been a while since I last shared a recipe! I've partnered with What's Cooking (website available soon) to create this delicious burger recipe you can try at home! If you're stuck at home (like me), this may be a great time to explore something new and excite those tastebuds. This burger is juicy and flavourful all thanks to the homemade glaze. And the kimchi coleslaw adds a little extra kick!

This recipe will be available on their website once it's launched. If you try this out, be sure to tag me and #whatscooking on Instagram for a chance to be featured on their channel!

 

Fiery Bulgogi Kimchi Burger Recipe

Ingredients for glaze:

• 1 tbsp Gochujang
• ½ cup Premium light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1-inch slice of ginger
• ½ of medium-sized Asian pear
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

Ingredients for burger (makes 4 burgers):

• 1 lb of fatty ground beef
• Kosher salt
• Fresh ground pepper
• Montreal steak spice
• Coleslaw mix
• Kimchi
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise
• Sesame seeds (toasted)
• 4 eggs
• 4 Brioche buns (toasted)

Directions for glaze:


Mix soy sauce and brown sugar in a pot with low heat. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a blender. Set aside.

Directions for the burger:

1. Divide ground beef into 4 equal portions and shape each into a patty about 4 inches wide.
2. Season with salt, pepper and steak spices.
3. Lay patties on hot grill and cook patties with lid opened.
4. Baste patties with glaze halfway of grilling.
5. Flip patties once and glaze the other side.
6. Grill patties until browned on both sides or until desired doneness.

While patties are almost done grilling, lay buns, cut side down on grill and lightly toast for 30 seconds to 1 minute. In a frying pan, fry eggs in a sunny side up. Set aside.

In a Bowl, mix together mayonnaise, coleslaw mix and kimchi. Spread mixture onto burger. Lay fried egg onto kimchi mixture and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.


Enjoy and stay safe!

Valentine's day is fast approaching! While a memorable Valentine's day might take some effort and time to prepare, it doesn't have to be that way. For those of you who are looking for a quick and easy Valentine's day dessert, I'm sharing my favourite cake decoration idea that can make any cake looks fancy without having to do a lot of work today! And what's even better is that this decorating method doesn't involve making your own fondant. All you need is your favourite cake recipe and some Pocky sticks on hand. Sounds pretty simple, right? Let's get started.

What are Pocky sticks?

Pocky sticks are one of the top-selling products from Glico. They are crispy biscuit sticks covered with flavoured cream. The most popular flavour being the chocolate and strawberry cream. I love them as snacks as a kid. And even today, I still bring them with me when I travel.

What You'll Need

• Strawberry Pocky (the amount varies depending on the size of your cake. For my cake, I used 2 boxes)
• 1 box of fresh strawberries
• Pink ribbon

Instructions

1. Pick your favourite cake recipe and make a cake out of it. I made this easy no-bake cheesecake following the recipe here. Next time, I'd stack another cake on top so it will look better and taller. 
2. Arrange the strawberry Pocky sticks vertically and stick them around the edge of the cake.
3. Cut up the strawberries into slices. The pattern and colour of the strawberries resemble rose petals so I arranged them in layers on the top of the cake. Alternatively, you could also put strawberries in whole on the cake.
4. Tie the ribbon around the cake into a bow
5. And you're done! 

I hope you give this cake idea a try! Check out my Cake Art and Food Art for more ideas.

DIY Valentine's Day Love Coupon Book Printable

Ferrero Chocolate Flower Bouquet Tutorial

Bunny Cake Pops Bouquet Tutorial

Christmas Cupcakes Bouquet Tutorial

Pin this for later~

Have a happy Valentine's Day!

Happy New Year everyone!

I can't believe another year has gone by so quickly. I took a week off from work to just snuggle at home away from the cold for the holiday. And even though, I've been eating 'til my belly drop almost every day but that's still not enough to stop me from whipping up new recipes in my kitchen. If you're curious about what I've made in the past, you can check out my homemade holiday goodies here and here.

For some reasons, my craving for sweet stuffs gets more serious when I'm on holiday. So, I took a look at my pantry and used what I have on hand to create this holiday guilty pleasure.

Let's get started!

{Recipe} - Chocolate Chips Waffle with Caramelized Pears

Ingredients 

• 2 eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pear*
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

*  I used Asian pear because that's what I had on hand.  Asian pear is less sweet and is crispier in texture. You could use another type of pear of your choice.

Instructions 

{Waffle}

1. Preheat waffle iron
2. Beat eggs in large bowl with electric mixer until fluffy
3. Add in milk, oil, sugar, baking powder, and salt
4. Sift and add in flour
5. Beat all ingredients until smooth
6. Fold in chocolate chips
7. Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick cooking spray
8. Pour mixture onto waffle iron
9. Cook until golden brown

{Caramelized Pears}

1. Cut pear into 1/4 inch thick wedge form
2. Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat
3. Sprinkle brown sugar over top until bubbling and melted, approximately 3 minutes
4. Add in lemon juice
5. Add sliced pears 
6. Sprinkle cinnamon on top
7. Cook and stir until mixture is caramelized or until pears are soft
8. Pour over hot waffles

These are so easy to make. The batter can be made ahead and kept in the fridge as well.

Happy 2017!

I’m linking this project up at some terrific blog parties – you can find my complete list of places I party HERE.

I went all out with gingerbread this holiday and loved it! It was actually my first time tasting and baking anything gingerbread.

I followed Martha Stewart's Gingerbread cookies recipe, and they were pretty simple to make and tasted delicious.  The only thing I made different from the recipe was instead of using ground ginger, I used actual ginger and shaved into fine pieces. This added extra spiciness to the cookies.

{Candy Crush Birthday Cake}

I was planning to retire from making cakes after the hectic process and stressful experience of attempting a 3D sailboat cake for a baby shower party (post to come). Then, 4 days just before my relaxation getaway trip to Cuba, I got a request asking me to make a chocolate birthday cake for his girlfriend who is addicted to playing the popular game Candy Crush. I thought it's a very cute idea to transfer a game idea onto a cake. I get really excited to anything game inspired. It's so much fun and stimulate my creative juices (My first game inspired project was an edible Angry Bird Cake Topper). I was so tempted by the idea because Candy Crush is so popular these days. So, I convinced myself to take on this challenge.