Strawberry Dreamy Cream Cake

I was looking through this book which I borrowed from the library the the other day and found this cake which seems very easy so I decided to give it a try.


The cake I made is the one which is one the cover of the book.

Actually, this cake is just putting together store-bought ingredients so no baking at all.

I just had to buy already made angel food cake from a store and frozen whipped cream, vanilla pudding mix, canned crushed pineapple and strawberries.







I bought this angel food cake from a local supermarket.

Slice strawberries.

Mix crushed pineapple and vanilla pudding mix.

Add frozen whipped cream to it.

Then, cut the angel food cake into three layers and decorate with cream and strawberries.

This is how it came out.

This is super easy and pretty good but I would definitely make my own angle food cake and whipped cream next time. After all, homemade is much better, I think.

After keeping it in the fridge for overnight, it is time to eat.

Well, I like the idea of putting crushed pineapple into whipped cream.

I found the recipe for this cake on-line so if you are interested, click here for the recipe.

My angle food cake was a bit dry but if you can find good angle food cake, you can definitely use it. This is such an easy cake and looks very pretty!

Aglio Olio Peppronchino, Miso Eggplant, Miso Ramen & Kazuo Ishiguro

 I would like to post some of the things I had this past few days. They are all easy and am not sure if I can call them cooking but those are great when you are lazy or don't have time.

First, it is pasta. Pasta is always easy thing to make. I love creamy or tomato sauce pasta but sometimes I just want to eat simple pasta such as Aglio Olio Pepperonchino. It is just garlic, olive oil and chili flakes.
If you prefer, you can add some anchovy or sautéed shrimp but this time I made it simple. I love this pasta because it is easy but very tasty. I can really enjoy the taste of pasta itself. I added some parsley on top at the end for color.

Next one is "Miso flavored eggplant sautee". This is a dish my mom makes quite often. It is super easy and quick but you can eat lots of eggplant. I love eggplant so this is one of my favorite dish my mom makes. I can just have this and rice and be satisfied. It is easy and healthy. Mine tasted little bit different from my mom's. I should ask her how she make it next time when I talk to her.

Then, Miso Ramen. This is just a store bought fresh miso ramen. It comes with fresh ramen noodle and soup. I added lots of vegetables. These vegetables are frozen stir fry mix from trader joe's. I just take it out from the freezer and sauté them a little bit and add on top of ramen noodle. I also added some corn for color. Ramen noodles are super popular in Japan. This is a great dish for a cold winter day.
Also, I love this stir fry vegetable mix from trader joe's. I sometimes just add some meat for this mix and saute them together, flavor with salt, pepper, sesame oil and oyster sauce and you have a nice stir fry dish for dinner.

By the way, I borrowed another book from the library today.

I found out about this book from a Japanese magazine which I was reading a while ago. Since the name of the author was Japanese, I assumed that it is a Japanese book and I have to get it in Japan or Japanese book store. However, little bit later, I found out that he was born in Japan but moved to England when he was little and become a British Citizen. So I thought the original of this book must be written in English and I search for it and found it. I ordered it from the library. I think it is quite popular book since it took for a few weeks to arrive at my local library. I got the notice from them so I went to pick it up.
I really don't know much about the story but I am going to start reading it today. I am so excited!!

Christmas Items from Germany

My husband had a business trip to Germany the other day and his parents gave us lots of Christmas sweets and decorations and gifts. 

First of all, I asked them to get this special Christmas cake called "Stollen". I didn't know about this cake before I met my husband and ever since then I crave this for Christmas. It has some candied fruit in it and very buttery and yummy. This is the one which my mother-in-law brought for us from this famous department store in Munich called "Dallmayer"

This is how it look opened. It is sliced already and it is a perfect size for me to have it after meal. You can actually find stollen here in the U.S. but I wanted to eat the real one from Germany :-) Thanks for buying these for me!

Also, this is another Christmas sweets which we crave. It is called "Domino". Actually, this is my husband's favorite. Inside, it has three layers of marzipan, some kind of jelly and ginger bread and coated with chocolate. Even though I am not a big fan of marzipan, I really like this domino. This is really sweet so I am fine with one one these at one time but my husband can have many at once. I asked him. "Isn't it really really sweet?" and he said "Yeah, it is perfect! I can eat them all at once if I want to." OK. but we should try to eat little by little so we can have them until Christmas :-) 

Another item is almond chocolate from Lindt. This one has cinnamon and cardamon flavor and in my opinion it is Christmas flavor. Normally, I don't care much for chocolate but this one is different. It is so good that I can not stop with just one. I have to eat three at once. It is a dangerous chocolate to have at home :-) 

And this one is marzipan sweet. I am not a big fan of marzipan so this will be all for my husband. My husband loves marzipan. These little balls of marzipan just looks like small potatoes. It looks really cute. 

Also, we got lots of Christmas decorations. My mother-in-law is great at decorating. Aren't these cute? Some cute socks with little gifts in it and also very Christmasy table runner. and heart shaped Christmas wreath. I love them! We didn't have much Christmas decoration at home so I am excited to hang these and make our house more Christmasy!

I think December 6 was Santa Clause day in Germany and Santa visit kids on Dec 6. I am not sure if he brings presents on this day or not but I think they open Christmas presents on Dec 24 normally. I feel like it is already Christmas here at my house! I found a 24 hour Christmas music channel on TV. I am so excited about this holiday season. We have lots of fun things planned and also will have many relaxing days with Christmas music and bake some cookies! I never really thought much about Christmas before but this year for some reason, thinking of Christmas season make me very happy and warm :-)