Beijing Rocks S.F. at Sing for China fundraiser

Last night was the Sing for China charity event, benefitting the China AIDS Orphan Fund. The event itself turned out to be super awesome, with great rock music exceeding my expectations!

Beijing's famous band, Queen Sea Big Shark, is opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tonight in Oakland.

All the bands are huge in China, so it was quite a special show, with great music and performances. Opening was Drunken Hu from San Francisco, followed by Hedgehog, Casino Demon, and ending with Queen Sea Big Shark, who is opening for the Yeah Yeah Yeahs tonight in Oakland. Our favorite band was Hedgehog... the drummer chick, Atom, was about 4 feet tall, and just destroyed on the drums. Hedgehog had great stage presence, and riveting sounds.

I baked 200 cupcakes (minis and standard sizes) with all proceeds going to the organization. There were a range of flavors, including my new favorite, Peanut Butternana, as well as a new creation, Cinnamon Spice and Everything Nice!

Click below for more photos!.

In addition to Cupcakes for Charity, there was a raffle for a bunch of video games donated by SEGA and Koei. Games included Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires, Ironman, Bleach: Dark Souls, Sonic the Hedgehog (how appropriate!), Sonic Chronicles, Daisy Fuentes Pilates, Let's Tap and Stormrise. Thank you SEGA and Koei!

My new cupcake sign :) ...made from scratch with love

Local San Francisco band, Drunken Hu opened the event with hard-hitting metal sounds. Sing for China event organizer, Melvin Wong was the lead singer.

Hedgehog was hot, and definitely one of the night's favorites.

Atom breakin' it down on the drums... look how tiny she is, you can barely see her over the drum kit.

Hedgehog's bassist, Bassist Box.

Look how cute Atom is (center), and what an amazing drummer. I'm 5 feet tall so she must be about 4 feet 6 inches...we're all standing up in this photo!

Curtis Chin helped organize and promote the Sing for China event.

Check out what Atom is holding in her other hand...

My cupcake is famous!

Mmm...cupcakes!

Tin Fan leading an encore rally... Queen Sea! Big Shark!

Queen Sea Big Shark with surf pop sounds.

Me, chillin' at the cupcake and raffle ticket table.

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Iron Cupcake: San Francisco - Ingredient: Pepper!

I participated in my first Iron Cupcake challenge on Monday night, and the special ingredient this month was PEPPER! Black or red, it didn't matter. There were over 100 people who came out to taste, not all were cupcake engineers, but they were all definitely fans of the baby cakes. The monthly Iron Cupcake: San Francisco Challenge, is held at the Leland Tea Co., and is open to the public for free (although beginning next month, there will be a $5 door charge, but totally worth it).

Seriously, pepper. Who puts pepper in their cupcakes? Now that was a challenge. Was I stressed? ...I mean, um, a little bit...posting on Twitter and Facebook, asking people for pepper cupcake advice and suggestions the weeks before. I finally took a little from each person, and created the following:

Cayenne Chocolate Zinger Cake: Chocolate, cayenne pepper, serrano pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg. Frosting:Cayenne pepper and pumpkin spice buttercream with a sprinkle of paprika.

Description: A taste of the seasons changing from Summer to Autumn. The cayenne pepper gives a sharp kick when you first bite in, while the scent of pumpkin spice buttercream frosting sweetens the aroma. Then the sharp cayenne bite is cut by dark chocolate and fragrant cinnamon. Once the cake is gone, the serrano pepper brightens up, then lingers slightly to close out the cake.

No discrimination here... Black pepper, red pepper, chile pepper, and even the Doctor...

I almost felt sorry for those who walked in randomly, without knowing the theme. But only a little bit, because once the tastings started, it was obvious how much thought and planning went into engineering each of these baby cakes.

With 30 cupcake entries and varieties, it was quite the colorful feast of miniature indulgences blanketing every inch of the cafe's counter and back tables. Chelsea, founder of Kingdom Cakes and Iron Cupcake progenitor said there were "over 30 entries cramming as much pepper possible into a cupcake." And that was unmistakably the theme for the evening.

Can you imagine eating every single one of these? I didn't think so. This was one of each of every cupcake baked. Yes, best to bring a partner, or maybe two or three.

If you're a foodie, if you love cupcakes, or have a massive sweet tooth, this is the event for you. I mean, who can resist a ton of free cupcakes?! There were so many mini cupcakes to taste, it was nearly impossible to finish them all.

More photos below for your enjoyment, and please come out to support next month's Iron Cupcake challenge... SQUASH!

Cupcakes were tasted by everyone attending (even the non-bakers), and judged on Taste and Presentation.

Cupcake engineers came early to set up their creations. Beautiful cupcake tiers and displays covered the counter at Leland Tea Co.

Ginger, mango, peppermint... all flavors lending support to the beloved pepper.

It's so tempting to watch the bakers display their wares. How can you not reach out and grab one?

Presentation was key. Glorious baby cakes stacked gently next to each other.

Kingdom Cake (by Chelsea) had sparkly, glittery spicy chocolate cupcakes, and set the bar for presentation.

A dragon cake was spitting red cupcake fire, placed right next to the refreshing Pepper Peach Pandemonium.

The Iron Cupcake Grand Prize winner: Pepper Peach Pandemonium!

Oooh... Pepper Bacon Maple Cupcake with Pepper Maple frosting!

The little tea cafe was packed with cupcake connoisseurs, reaching temperatures around 80 degrees, melting not only some of the cupcakes, but the participants as well.

Oh baby! Mid-action shot... guess where his hand landed right after this?

Chelsea begins the competition and announces rules and procedures.

Cupcake tasters cast their votes, placing ballots in each cup.

Chelsea and friend counting and tallying every single vote... all 1,200+ of them!

(30 cupcakes, at least 40 votes each)

The aftermath.

Waiting for the tallying and cupcake winner to be announced.

Chelsea finalizes the counts, presents the prizes, including some wonderful Wilton baking products, Leland Tea's Iron Cupcake Blend Tea, and a variety of other cupcake-related delights.

Winners of the Iron Cupcake: Pepper challenge -- Pepper Peach Pandemonium

Chelsea and me!

Cayenne Chocolate Zingers!

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Sweet Jasmine Meets Mango

I was at the New May Wah Chinese grocery store on Clement a few weeks ago, and encountered a shelf filled with bottles of aromatic essences including jasmine and durian amongst the many. Durian's a pretty tough one to swallow for most people, since the spiky creamy fruit has a very pungent scent which evokes an immediate distinct love or hate emotion (hotels across Southeast Asia have even banned the fruit from guest rooms because the scent lingers long after the visitor is gone). I like the flavor, but not everyone does. So we'll leave that for another time.

Jasmine, however, is a whole other story. I have this enormous love for all things jasmine scented, which is probably why jasmine popped in my head when I thought of baking Rannie some cupcakes (the bottle has been sitting on my shelf for a while now and I've forgotten about it until now). The scent is so vibrant and refreshing, and like sunflowers, they just make me happy. If people can put lavender into their sweets, then I'm going to use jasmine.

The main thing was figuring out what to combine it with, since I'm not sure if you can actually eat the jasmine flower? Well, either way, I was thinking of some kind of fruit or nut. I searched around the kitchen, and was thinking of pistachios. Jasmine and pistachios, not bad. But I wanted something juicier, more moist. I found the dried mangos I had stashed in the cupboard a couple weeks ago, and behold, the perfect fruit! Tart with a sweet fragrance to compliment and balance the jasmine.

Jasmine grows in various temperatures and geographical regions. We've got lovely vine jasmine in San Francisco too (although the one I planted in our garden a couple of years back still refuses to grow). To me however, jasmine reminds me of childhood family's trips to Asia -- particularly China, Taiwan, and Thailand. The scents in those areas were strong, a mixture of industrial chemicals and sulfur, but every so often, a sweet floral scent would sprout from the dirty mix.

So what better fruit to pair with than a mango, indigenous to India, native to tropical weather and proliferate in Southeast Asia. I'm sure pineapples would work as well, but I'm not as big a fan of pineapple as I am of mango.

This turned out to be really quite good I thought. Especially if you're not opposed to floral-scented foods.

A couple tips on using jasmine essence --

1) It's extremely potent. Be sure to use it in small amounts when adding to the batter and frosting, and keep tasting so as not to over-flavor.

2) Because the scent is so strong, it actually blocked my smell from other aromas (almond, coconut). Therefore, if you're dividing up a batch of batter for different flavors, be sure to do jasmine last. Otherwise, you won't be able to taste or smell the other scents.

2) Have I mentioned that its scent is fairly potent? I'd suggest washing it off your hands if it gets on you. Not because of any toxic health risk, but because, again, of the smell. It made me a little sick after it rubbed off on my finger, I kept smelling it on everything I touched over the next hour. It's just that common nausea when you smell or eat too much of something (like too much vanilla extract)..

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Diet Soda Cupcakes

I can't believe you can make cupcakes/cake using diet soda in place of eggs, water and oil for box mixes! It's a lower fat, lower cholesterol, and lower carb substitute for any standard box cake mix... And it works (I tried it a few weeks ago)... the cupcake actually gets pretty moist.

The only thing is, I'm not a fan of fake sugar -- nutrasweet, etc. -- so if you are sensitive to that taste, you can slightly taste it. But I think it might be only because I know it's there.

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