even though it seems like all of my posts are about candy, i do enjoy all sorts of other unhealthy foodstuffs. coupled with the fact that i really like to bake, you can imagine to what extent i've shortened my lifespan through the anti-restorative powers of butter.

i manage this in two ways:
(1) rationalizing that my baked goods are wholesome and all natural, containing no HFCS, no artificial flavors, colors, preservatives, etc.
(2) i generally try to foist the bulk of my baked goods on coworkers anyway

my next project will be Tres Leches (three milks) Cake. as i'm typically not a huge fan of cake to begin with, i'd never even tried this until i was attending a business convention earlier this year. it's like if you left a yellow cake out in the rain (if the rain were made of delicious, sweet creamery dairy products...)

anyway, in celebration of cinco de mayo, here's the recipe i'm gonna attempt:
INGREDIENTS
CAKE
5 eggs
1 tsp baking powder
1 c white sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c unsalted butter

MILK
2 c milk
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) can evaporated milk

FROSTING
1 1/2 c heavy whipping cream
1 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour one 9x13 inch baking pan.
Sift flour and baking powder together and set aside.
Cream butter and 1 cup of the sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs and 1/2 teaspoon of the vanilla extract, beat well.
Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture 2 tablespoons at a time, mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake for 30 minutes. Pierce cake all over with a fork.
Allow cake to cool. Combine the whole milk, evaporated milk, and condensed milk together. Pour over the top of the cooled cake.
Whip whipping cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 cup of the sugar together until thick. Spread over the top of cake. Keep cake refrigerated until serving.

wish me luck!

while i was in chicago, i swung by my dear friend Mitsuwa, the Japanese grocery store. of course the first thing i do is check out the candy. for whatever reason, i just find Japanese candy to be much more novel than US stuff, even though it's like 4x as expensive. here's what i picked up:

meiji gummies, as recommended on various other candy blogs. i got the strawberry kind (they also had peach and apple), and i found them to be really tasty. they're pretty much like a chocolate covered gummy bear, except that the chocolate and the gummy are both of exceptional quality.

LOOK, a filled chocolate that comes in a bunch of flavors. i spotted a new one (well, new to me at least) that combines a creamy fruit-flavored goo with a dollop of real honey. these were also pretty tasty, although i'd say that honey was by far the dominant flavor; i could barely tell the difference between flavors.

and also a couple Kit Kats, of course: Strawberry, Vanilla Bean, and Apple Cream. all of which i liked. :)

forgive the lack of posts, i've been away for a few days visiting family... but i tried to keep up with the unending flow of new candy products while i was on vacation.

first up, Cookies and Creme Hershey's Kisses. alas, dear reader, don't be fooled! there are in fact no cookies in Cookies and Creme Hershey's Kisses. apparently their idea of a suitable cookie substitute comes in the form of crunchy little nonpareils. UNACCEPTABLE. the chocolate part of these Kisses is actually quite tasty, a nice buttery white confection with a good vanilla flavor and a little hit of salt. if only they bothered to add some real cookie bits, i would totally fall in love with these. i also noticed Vanilla Yogurt Creme Hershey's Kisses, but i didn't bother with those because yogurt and chocolate sounds completely repulsive to me.

i also had occasion to try the Wildly Cherry M&Ms. even though these have been getting pretty decent reviews elsewhere, i found the artificial flavoring to be unpleasantly reminiscent of cough syrup. i ate exactly three of these before giving the rest of the bag to my little brother (he liked them.)

so, there you have it. gluttonous candy consumption never takes vacation.

let's take a moment to talk about 100 Calorie Snacks. now, maybe this isn't specifically candy-related, but for those of us who could use some help in the fattiness department (hmmm...) this seems like it might be a convenient way to exercise a little portion control.

this weekend i tried the Oreo Candy Bites. first off, let me just say that these things really are delicious. it's almost like an inside-out oreo, with a crunchy cookie center surrounded by a thin layer of creme and then candy-coated (like an m&m.) i wouldn't go so far as to say that they taste like oreos, but they are yummy.

unfortunately, a 100-calorie portion of these comes out to .78 ounces of candy. that's right, LESS THAN ONE OUNCE. seriously, i understand that the whole "100 calorie" thing is gonna be hard to accomplish, but who is going to be satisfied with .78 ounces? furthermore, these things are surprisingly pricey for what amounts to less than 5 total ounces of food.

maybe these really do work for a certain demographic, but i wouldn't buy them again. it just doesn't seem worth it. if i need something that tastes maybe sort of a little bit like oreos, but without so much fat, i'd just eat a handful of Oreo O's.

NEW PRODUCT ALERT! to coincide with this summer's release of the latest Indiana Jones movie, M&Ms has released a handful of new products. while a couple of them are apparently a lame-o alternate color mix (with Indy-themed logos replacing the traditional M's), they also released a tasty Mint Crispy version that is a nice variation from their standard line.

don't ask me what mintiness or crispiness has to do with Indiana Jones. the assortment contains a mixture of green and white M&Ms and are a lot less uniform than your standard plain or peanut. some are small and relatively smooth, others are quite large and bumpy. maybe they're supposed to be like the boulder from Raiders, but in delicious candy form?

nevertheless, i polished off an entire bag of these last night and found them to be exceptionally addictive. of course, i also ADORED last year's Pirates of the Carribbean white chocolate M&Ms, so make of that what you will...

i am a total consumer whore: if it comes in a shiny new package, with new ingredients, in slightly altered flavors or colors, i'm there! but i must admit, i also have a soft spot for the 'classics' including the mighty Junior Mint.

besides being featured in a sitcom plot, Junior Mints are a simple panned confection, waxy dark-ish chocolate on the outside and a flowing mint goo on the inside. simple, but oddly addictive. to me, the Junior Mint is the ideal movie theatre snack (upsetting, since most movie theatres have replaced them with trendy crap like Nestle Bunch-a-Crunch. meh!) the only flaw in this otherwise perfect candy is that they're not exactly stable in sub-optimal conditions, with a dangerous tendency to rupture and form gross clumps of Junior Mint in the bottom of a box.

once upon a time, i purchased a box of Junior Mints from a dusty old drugstore that was apparently not in a very high-traffic area. the mints had crystallized into a strange, grainy, solid-but-not-too-solid version of themselves. I LOVED THEM (and have luckily suffered no ill effects from eating expired candy) but have never come across this phenomenon again.

for those of you who wish to recreate this delightful experience, i've found another candy mint with a similar flavor profile, but with a much less gooey center. ladies and gentlemen, i present you with the glorious Dutch Mint, also known by the rather generic moniker "Chocolate Dinner Mint"

best of all, you can apparently find these with some regularity at the $.99 Store. gourmet mints, on a budget! huzzah!

sometimes i get annoyed at how boring the US candy industry can be. i want more exotic flavors, like soy sauce flavored kit kats, or chocolate with a passion fruit filling. personally, i'm tired of everything being chocolate, caramel or peanut butter (not that there's anything wrong with any of those things!)

but i'm guessing that most candy connoisseurs feel the same way about the offerings in their home country-- there's a tendency to become bored with the same ol same ol. i always think the UK has tons of great candy, but members of Chocolate Review seem to look to Japan or even New Zealand for inspiration.

so i guess the point is, spend more time (and way more money) at artisan chocolatiers. locally, two of my favorites are Chuao and Eclipse. the flavors tend towards the exotic, and many of the combinations are not for everyone; i'm not a fan of balsamic vinegar or rose petals in my chocolate. but some of the others are really wonderful, and it certainly satisfies the need to try something new.

plus i'm all in favor of supporting the little guy!