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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Doll: JBF

After a year of on and off (mainly off) work, I've finally finished it: my tribute to Luka's signature song.

Yes, I think I started this back when I just finished my Korean Hello Kitty bride one last year. Yeah, that's long, but in my defense, maybe if stupid Windows Update didn't restart my computer on me I would've finished earlier. Sure, I could've just saved the WIP before hand, but how many of you remember to safety save, anyways?

Well, what do you think about the resemblance?
 My god are his pants bad. And his shirt. And pretty much everything about the boy because he's rushed. Luka was completed about a year back, or at least her hair was anyways. I think she looks way way better, but maybe it's because she's more colourful than her monochrome counterpart.
But you know what really steals the show? The balloon. Like man, you don't know how proud of it I am. It came out looking so good. Sure, it looks pretty bad in a dark background, but in a lighter one it's not so bad. I should've animated it because it looks so awesome, but that would also mean I need to add in blinking animations, which isn't cool, especially since there's two people.

And the JBF sign looks like poopie. Don't look at it. I just didn't have the heart to remove it because it took me so long to do.

Made in Paint.
Base by wish04.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Recipe: Whhite Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake (&& BONUS Parfait)

Ugly angle.
LOOKS DELICIOUS.
There's like huge fissures on the top of the cake. It kind of looks like the raspberry jam evaporated out, leaving just an imprint, which facilitated further cracking. At least when covered in the top layer of jam, it evens it out pretty well. Being a translucent topping, you can still see the shadow of the crevice, but that's what additional toppings are for.

But, aesthetics matter not because this thing tastes awesome. Okay, maybe I'm jumping the gun a little, the cake still residing happily in the fridge, but the residue left from the sides of the pan tasted awesome anyways.

I feel kind of bad for putting these recipes up, because it's suggesting as if I came up with it. No, I just modified one I found via Google (through the help of helpful commenter, of course!)

White Chocolate Raspberry Swirl CheesecakeFor a 9" pan. (Since I only had a 6", I halved the recipe when I made it.)
  • 2 cups Oreos
  • 1/4 cup melted butter
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 6 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
  • 2 cups white chocolate chips
  • 1/2 cup half and half
  • 3 pkgs room temp cream cheese
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line the bottom of the cake pan with wax paper.
  2. To make the crust, crush the Oreos, along with the filling, until they're crumbs. Add in the butter and sugar, and press it into the bottom of the pan. 
  3. Put chocolate chips and half and half in a metal bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (or use a double boiler, if you have one), and mix until smooth. Let it cool until it's lukewarm.
  4. Mix the cream cheese until smooth. Combine with sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Finish with vanilla extract and chocolate chip mixture.
  5. Microwave the raspberry jam until runny, and let it cool for a while before using. Pour in half of the cake batter in the pan, and drizzle 3 tbsp on top. Repeat with the rest of batter and jam. Run a knife through the cheese cake to create marble effect.
  6. Wrap the bottom of the pan in tin foil (if using a pan with removable bottom) and place on jelly roll pan and place in oven. Fill the jelly roll pan with hot water. Bake for 55 - 60 minutes, or until filling has set. If water evaporates, add more. Once finished baking, turn off the oven, and leave it in there for another hour.
  7. Cool, then cover the top with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 8 hours. Top the cake with the rest of the jam.
Finally, some tips to help prevent cracking which I wished I had read prior to baking:
Tips for Cheesecakes
Perfect Cheesecakes

And walla! You're done! It's a long, long, tedious process, but all cheesecakes usually are.
Can't wait to cut into this baby.


And I mentioned a bonus parfait in the title, right? Well, a day or two prior to Canada day, my mom was fussing over what dessert to bring to our uncle's barbeque. While she was stifling through old recipes, I was hungry. So I made a parfait. And before you know it, it turned from this:
I actually have the perfect parfait spoon at home. Can you believe it? 

To being mass produced into this:
Reusing plastic cups that I used for my trifles ftw.
Thank you, McD, for the idea. It's pretty much chopped strawberries and bananas, layered, with vanilla yogurt, and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. In my mass produced ones, my mom bought some whipping cream, so we topped every one of them with a serving of that. I think I might be improving with the pastry bag.

brb EATING DERICIOUS CAKE.

    Tuesday, July 5, 2011

    Study study study study

    Lets start off with something completely from my head, something I haven't done in a while: an outfit post.

     
    Granted, I wasn't really wearing that today. Because I didn't go out, I was just in my plain ol' oversized t-shirt bearing the symbol of a Guide camp I went to (yeah, it's one of those t-shirts). I figured that was boring, so here's something I wore a while back. Enjoy the picture because it's the only decent looking thing to follow.
    Used Photoshop instead of my usual SAI/openCanvas. I do enjoy doing these kind of quick doodles on PS a lot more because the lines are bit thicker and sharper.

    While I was already on the program, thought I'd do my enviro on it too. Unlike oC and SAI, PS has textured brushes. I really wanted to be good at using 'em. It didn't save how horrible the enviro came out though, but that should've been expected by now.

    Note to self: colour in the background first instead of doing the foreground and then doing the background around it.
    I hate shrubbery. Takes forever to do and it looks like crap.

    Some 30 second figure drawings using photos and not 3D skinless models.

    And finally, more figure drawing, but without the time limit. Yay, I get to analyze pictures of naked/scantily-clothed people longer!

    I also started a painting in the morning. All I'll say about that is masking fluid is a pain in the butt to remove.


    Made in Photoshop or with paper and pencil.