Capturing Smiles

Forget lighting, composition, props, and editing for a moment. Look at those smiles! It makes me happy.

Broccolini

Just went through a broccolini phase. With garlic, garlic, garlic, and more garlic. Mmmm....

Mickey Mouse Cake Pops

After coming home from vacation, I had a great surge of energy to make something. I've always wanted to try out cake pops for fun. They're cute and fun to eat, so why not try to make them? Kat's birthday seemed like the best reason to try them out. And since they were meant for Kat, naturally, they had to be Mickey Mouse cake pops ( for the Mickey Mouse finatic!). First, I baked a chocolate cake from scratch.

Then, with the help of a little bit of icing, I crumbled up the cake and rolled it into balls. They were pretty yummy at this point.

Then, with three nights of practice and whole lot of studying off YouTube videos, I finally learned to perfect dipping these cake balls into melted candy melt without any lumps and bumps. First, a layer of red for the Mickey Mouse pants. Then, a layer of brown that goes only half way.

A part of my messy working station.

Here are a few Mickey ears left to dry on skewers. This was done by dipping the candy melt chips after carving a piece off to form the shape of its ears.

Then, with the help of chopsticks, I tried to draw perfect yellow buttons with yellow candy melt. Using tweezers, I glued them onto the pants.

Ta da! Final product. This was after many, many failed attempts. (Who knew there are tricks and tips to gluing the stick into the cake and making sure you cover the ball completely with chocolate or the cake will slide off the stick?).

I made a few plain yellow cake pops just to match the button yellow.

I wrapped them with little plastic covers and silver twisty ties. (All supplies purchased from Michaels).

Cake pop experiment a success! 

Pierre Herme

A macaron from Pierre Herme in Paris. Such rich and fragrant green tea flavour. So yummy. Thanks, Shummie! Love.

Travel

I spent two weeks at the end of February to beginning of March in Hong Kong and Taiwan. It's been eight years since I've been in Asia. I can't quite explain what it is but when I'm there, I do feel a bit of "home". Even though I was born and raised in Canada. 

I had an amazing two weeks of good eats, excellent shopping, and amazing soaking-up of culture. I already can't wait to go back. I debated for a long while before I traveled whether I should bring my Nikon D600 with me. Everyone gave me the same kind of advice, "What kind of trip is this for you? To relax and enjoy? Or to photograph?". 

In the end, I decided to take it with me. Because when you put the question like that, photography is relaxing and enjoyable for me. Now looking through my photos, I know if I hadn't brought it with me, I'm sure I would have regretted.

This photo was taken in a district of Taipei called Tamsui. It's a sea-side community that runs along the Tamsui River, which houses all different kinds of shops. Many people were cycling along the water while others walked the long pavement soaking in a bit of fresher air compared the hustling and bustling of city centre life. Don't get me wrong. This place was still packed with people. But the water is always a nice change of scenery. There were so many delicious snacks and knick-knacks to buy. But with the uncertainty of whether things would fit into my already-packed luggage, I held off on buying too much. 

If I ever return to Taiwan, I'd love to return to Tamsui.

(More travel posts to come).