Mango Cupcake from Bon Gateau

I’ve been waiting for over a month to attend Vancouver’s 1st Cupcake Challenge since I first heard about it from @followmefoodie. I was excited to see what kind of cupcakes would be at the competition so last Sunday (June 20), I made my way down to Roundhouse Community Center with Al to see what’s in store for us.

When we arrived I was quite surprised to see a room full of people trying to sample cupcakes from the competitors. I heard there was over 1,100 attended the event and I spotted quite a few males there sampling cupcakes so I guess guys do have a sweet tooth after all. After assessing the situation and where we should start our sampling adventure, we dove right in to the crowd and follow the line to each competitor’s table for yummy cupcakes.

There were probably over 15-20 varieties of cupcakes and some I have already forgotten or has a flavor that I didn’t find too special. I do remember what I liked best which were the Neapolitan cupcakes by Frosting Cupcakery and the Mango Cupcake by Bon Gateau. The Neapolitan cupcake tasted just like the ice cream! I was so surprised that I almost dropped the other half of the cupcake that I was going to share with Al (wish I didn’t thought, would’ve loved to eat it all by myself). The fact that they’ve made the frosting look like a scoop of ice cream just makes it so much more enjoyable to eat. My only complaint is that Frosting Cupcakery is located in Langley! A little far to drive to from East Van but if I ever crave for ice cream and cupcake I’d make my way there and buy a couple dozen just to make the trip worth it.

Here’s a picture of the winning cupcake. You can find more photos on my Flickr account.

Naopolitan Cupcake from Frosting Cupcakery

PS: Frosting Cupcakery is giving out a free cupcake to all attendees of the Cupcake Challenge! I’m planning to get a couple of Neapolitan cupcakes with Allan :]

The dessert trip we went to is for cakes and teas at Berry Good Cake Cafe in Richmond. This little gem located in the Excel Center on McKim Way, Richmond, serves what I call Asian cakes and pastries with a variety of teas and blended drinks. Asian cakes and pastries are generally lighter and less sweet than their original, “Western” form.

The cakes at Berry Good changes daily. You can check our their daily selections of cakes from their display (fridge) by the counter. Here’s what we got that night:

Petite Formage (kind of like a cheese cake, very soft and creaming inside)

Berry Pie - the bottom is actually a cake layer

Strawberry Tea - with real strawberries

The strawberry tea was very good. I looked inside once we were done and found real strawberry bits.

Our second dessert stop (not in the same day of course, thought if would a bit of sugar over dose if it was) is La Casa Gelato on Venables Street, Vancouver. They have over 200 flavors now. The best thing about having ice cream at La Casa is that you can try before you buy. Out of curiosity, I asked about the Spicy Mango flavor and whether or not it’s really spicy. The guy behind the counter said “ya”, but I didn’t quite believe him since I figured, ice cream are cold, that’d take some spiciness away. Plus it just looked orange, no sign of any spices to add the heat. I guess my skeptical look gave me away as he then proceed to hand me a little spoonful of the Spicy Mango ice cream. The first few seconds after I had the spoonful in my mouth, I can only taste the mango. Then the spicy kicks in and it’s REALLY spicy. The worse part (well worse is because I’m not a spicy food person) is that the spiciness lingers in your mouth for a VERY LONG time. I tried a couple different ice cream after hoping it’d wash away the spiciness. I didn’t work.

After like 20 minutes trying to decide on what flavors to have, we’ve finally come to a decision on our ice cream. I wasn’t able to take photos because I was too busy trying to dig my little shovel (or spoon) into Daniel and Al’s ice cream to have a taste, but I did managed to get a picture of the Akbar Mashty ice cream in Al’s cup. It’s made with a Persian spice and I think mango? It has a very flowery taste.

Akbar Mashty (yellow one on the bottom) - taste like flowers

Rows of ice cream from La Casa Gelato - check out the colours

We also bought 1L of durian ice cream home, which is one of their top 5 best sellers! Next time I’ll try the Death by Mango to see just how “mango-y” it is.

In the summer I can get my craving fix at the night marketing. There’s a vendor there which sells a variety of sweet soups but I have no idea where their store is located. Last summer, being the foodie that we are (more like “wai sik guai”), Nel and I asked for their address. We didn’t take it down but remembered roughly that it’s behind the Richmond Public Market. Last weekend we decide to search for this mysterious dessert place and found it! Well more like we all recognized the banner it used at the night market with the name 桂花林 and a list of their desserts.

It was pretty busy on a Saturday night. We ordered tofu pudding with ginger syrup (豆腐花), sweet almond soup (杏仁糊) and two mango dessert with tapioca and grapefruit (楊支金露). They were all very very yummy. They also have some light snacks such as pork sandwiches, noodles and bubble tea.

Mango dessert (楊支金露)

Tofu pudding with ginger syrup. (豆腐花)

I also had a pork sandwich.

Info: Bubble Fruity 桂花林 (180-8188 Saba Road) Tel: 604-233-1130

Anyways, here’s the recipe I’ve modified from the original which was found in the a Canadian Living cookbook for cookies and bars (sorry I forgot the name).

• 3oz semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate, chopped (I use Baker’s semi-sweet chocolate, which can be found in all the grocery stores in Vancouver)
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter, cubed (can use margarin)
• 1 cup of sugar (doesn’t need to be exact, I usually use about 2-4 tbsp less sugar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, beatened
• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder* (I add it in for the cake-like effect so it’s optional)
• 1/2 tsp salt* (not in the original, I just like adding salt for flavoring)
• ~1 tsp espresso or other insta coffee* (optional, adjust amount to personal liking)

1. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a sauce pan and melt under low heat stirring occasionally. Add in the espresso or coffee if using.
2. Remove from heat after everything is melted. Mix in the sugar, vanilla extract and beatened eggs.
3. Add in the flour (and salt & baking powder if using). Mix well until batter is smooth with no lumps. Batter should be silky looking.
4. Pour batter into an 8″ square baking pan (I usually line it with parchment for easy cleaning and lifting the brownies out of the pan). Bake at a 350°F for 30-35 minutes. Stick a toothpick in the brownie to test. If it comes out clean (might have tiny tiny pieces stick to it) and dry, it’s done!

Let me know how your’s turned out!

Alright so for Valentine’s Day I made lasagna (see Lasagna Battle) which I’ve practiced before. It turned out pretty nicely with ground turkey instead of ground beef. For dessert, I attempted to make vanilla poached pears (picture above).

I goggled the recipe and found one from Chow.com. The recipe called for a lot of sugar which I think would be too sweet so I tweaked it slightly and the end results surprised me. It tasted just like the vanilla poached pear preserves from Mission Hill Winery. The lemon peels added into the poaching liquid turned out like candied lemons. It was so simple to make that I think this will become one of my favourite dessert to serve at parties. The only down side is that it uses vanilla beans which can be a bit expensive (costed me about $3.50 for one).

Recipes will be posted soon! Oh and Ken did the slicing to make the pear into a fan shape *clap clap clap*