Our Year in Review (2014)

2014 went by so fast! We can’t believe it has been almost two years since we started UCL. Here’s a review of our eventful year:

We went to Canoe for Winterlicious.

We learned about Nigerian cuisine for a school project.

We went on a Vancouver food trip. This was Ricelessasian’s first time visiting  Vancouver.

Baked a giant cupcake for a special girl’s birthday party!  

Ricelessasian made a lot of colourful cupcakes.

Although Matchachoco stayed in Vancouver, we met again in Los Angeles a few months later. We went on a food trip…again (lol).

We made our own birthday cakes!

Ricelessasian’s birthday cake:

Matchachoco’s birthday cake: 

Virtual Thanksgiving Potluck with EatPrayBake 🙂

We had a couple of pasta posts throughout the year 😛

Ricelessasian made an edible Christmas tree.

Looking forward to more food experiments in 2015! 🙂

Happy New Year!

– Underground Culinary Lab Team

Mini Strawberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake

Happy New Year!

While special occasions like Christmas and birthdays seem to have more obvious themed-desserts, it’s difficult to decide on an appropriate dessert to make for New Year’s.  For some reason, celebrating the New Year seems to call for a bit of sparkle to cap off a year of work, gained experiences and appreciation for the people in your life.

I have been meaning to experiment with this “New” Lindt Strawberry White Chocolate bar and found this as the perfect occasion to experiment, for a sophisticated dessert for New Year’s. Though Ricelessasian has previously used this product on a few occasions, it was my first time trying it out. Normally I don’t enjoy white chocolate on its own, because it is overly sweet sometimes, but the latest product had small bits of strawberries in it which I thought would be definitely worth the try!

I decided to use the Strawberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake recipe from this amazing food blog called Dailydelicious.

The cheesecake was so creamy and luscious, with a mild, not overpowering strawberry flavour. I really enjoy using the strawberry white chocolate because it’s quite versatile – it would be perfect to use in cupcake frosting. This would be an elegant dessert to serve to family and friends on New Year’s with a glass of bubbly!

Happy 2014 everyone,

– Matchachoco

Our Year in Review (2013)

It’s only been 8 months since we’ve started blogging, we have enjoyed every minute of it. Even the editing part. As we countdown to say hello to a brand new year and bid adieu to 2013, we recall all the wonderful experiences so far in the blogosphere and developing a platform to share our baking interests with friends, family and fellow bloggers out there.

Matchachoco: I have had the great opportunity to collaborate with my baking & blogging partner throughout this year. We overcame a few challenges this year with finding more time to bake during the busy school year. I am excited to move forward to the next year of learning, baking and blogging!

Ricelessasian: 2013 was full of ups and downs for me. It was a bittersweet year; hence the constant posts about matcha (bitter) and desserts (sweet), lol. I’m looking forward for more food adventures with my baking buddy!

Here’s 2013 in review at the Underground Culinary Lab:

Our first blog post was posted in May 2013!

Ricelessasian broke one of the whisks of her electric hand mixer because the butter she used was not softened enough at room temperature. For months, she dealt with an electric hand mixer with a single whisk.

A few months after, she broke the other whisk when she was beating meringue. She eventually had to buy a new electric hand mixer. I guess we can rule out that the butter was not softened enough at room temperature.

Someone was caught red handed pureeing beets for the rainbow cake Underground Culinary Lab made this year.

The first time we went to Taste of the Danforth!

Ricelessasian’s fan girl moment in New Jersey

Baked a bunch of cupcakes for a special annual event. We have still yet to feature the recipes. 

Matchachoco rolling out dough for the pumpkin empanadas at the food lab in our school. The pumpkin empanadas were for a school event.

Matchachoco used the leftover pumpkin filling for pumpkin tarts!

What we were up this year’s Thanksgiving

The result of our impromptu baking after our volunteer shift!

The last major baking post on Underground Culinary Lab for the year of 2013