Shadow Stories

Baking: Cake Towers
Hey friends!
Recently, I've started baking cakes. I see them on Instagram and just can't wait to replicate then at home. I have pics of the three I've made, and, for the last one, I made one of those speed-up recipe videos, which was very work-intensive and also super, super fun. 

This one was, if I remember correctly, a cake mix from a box and can of frosting. An easy start allowed me to spend more time on decorating it!


Below is a pre-frosting pic. So cute & funny-looking! I used a six-inch pan for all of these, but they're so tall that I think it makes sense to call them cake towers.


This next cake was a recipe from a Columbian blogger named Julian Angel who makes amazing cakes. I found him on Instagram, and I want to make every cake he has on his blog. I've tried two of his recipes (see the next cake too!) and they're unique and delicious. I refrigerated the frosting, which messed it up and made it not spread smoothly, but otherwise, the cake was perfecttt. It's a vanilla buttermilk cake with swiss meringue buttercream frosting (recipe here! FYI, his recipes are in grams, so I use a scale to measure ingredients when I make them.). Absolutely decadent.


This final cake is also from Julian Angel—it's his chocolate cake. Besides that it made a way tinier cake than I expected, it was perfect.


Watch me make this whole cake in just two minutes! Here's a video I made that shows the whole process:
Travel: Beautiful Things in China
I was in China for about a week earlier this summer. Here's a few of my favorite things I saw. 

Shanghai 


Market in Xiamen



Xiamen University Dorm Rooms



Hong Kong from the Peak, a lookout that's reached by riding a trolley



Kitchen Shop in Hong Kong. 
I could've spent forever there. 



Picnic and Hong Kong Laser Show
We had tea in our hotel, and this is my leftovers.



Hong Kong Flower Market, another place I could stay forever.



There ya have it, folks! What a magical country!