PREQUEL

The Good: Ode to Jean-George’s Chocolate Molten Cake
The Bad: Domino’s Lava Crunch Crapcakes

Despite the occasional subpar specimen (Domino, I’m looking at you), my love of warm chocolate cake continues to run deep. So deep, in fact, that up until yesterday, I’d made a promise to myself that consumption of these cakes would remain an out-to-dinner treat ONLY, never to be attempted at home.

Don’t get me wrong – I love to bake, but somehow I loose all impulse control once I pass through my front door. Maybe you know how it goes: you make one batch of homemade cookies thinking, “I’ll just have one and bring the rest to work” and soon you’re on the couch, you’ve inhaled nine cookies, and you’re contemplating finishing off three more to make it an even dozen because they’re just so good when they’re warm and then you won’t have to share the leftovers with your roommates (or co-workers).

Heaven knows what might’ve happened if I’d ever tried my hand at full-on chocolate cakes.

Then I had a sad realization: how could I call myself a true aficionado if I hadn’t tried making these delectable cakes myself? It had to be done, if only for the sake of food research. (It had to be done!). So, for a recent dinner party, I decided to make an exception to my out-to-dinner-only rule and whip up a batch of Warm, Soft Chocolate Cakes.

This recipe is based on one I got from Eli Zabar, the Upper East Side gourmet food market here in NYC. I’ve tweaked it to reflect things-I-wish-I’d-done (i.e. to dust the ramekins with cocoa instead of flour to avoid the pasty pallor they have in the picture).

They may not be pretty (I’ll leave that artistry to Jean-Georges), but these cakes were still mmm mmm delicious. A perfect way to celebrate love, chocolate, or just the love of chocolate this weekend, or any time of the year.

Warm, Soft Chocolate Cakes

Yield: 4 individual cakes

1/2 cup unsalted butter, plus a bit more to butter the molds

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons flour

Cocoa powder for dusting ramekins

4 small ramekins (I used 5.5-ounce round ones – they suggest 4oz heart shaped.)

• Preheat the oven to 450F.
• Heat butter and chocolate together in a double boiler until the chocolate is almost completely melted. While that’s heating, beat together the eggs, yolks, and sugar with a whisk or electric beater until light and think.
• Beat together the melted chocolate and butter; it should be quite warm, but not so hot that you’ll scramble the egg in the next step!
• Pour in the egg mixture, then quickly beat in the flour, just until combined.
• Butter and lightly dust four 4-ounce ramekins with cocoa. Tap out the excess cocoa. Divide the batter among the molds. *At this point, you can refrigerate the desserts until you are ready to eat for up to several hours; bring them back to room temperature before baking. (This part is extremely important. Cold batter/ramekins don’t bake the same. Trust me.)
• Bake the molds on a tray for 6 to 8 minutes; the center will still be quite soft, but the sides should be set.
• Invert each mold onto a plate and let sit for about 10 seconds. Unmold by lifting up one corner of the mold; the cake will fall out onto the plate. (If it doesn’t pop out easily, they may need to go back the oven for a minute.)
• Serve immediately with the topping of your choice: whipped cream, berries, vanilla bean ice cream, or all three!

Happy Ugly Valentine’s Day!

Isn’t she darling? Fujiya is a very old bakery/sweetshop chain in Japan– my dad always tells me that as a child, it was a super special treat to ever get a cake from Fujiya. This was the very last thing I ate in Japan, in Narita airport. Au revoir, Tokyo!

Remember my post about making a Japanese cheesecake? It’s a simple recipe, but very difficult to retain the fluffiness because of all the egg whites. Although it rises high during baking, but it shrinks down like an old person once you take it out of the oven. It’s like taking Viagra before baking: it performs so well while in oven, but as soon as there’s no more “heat,” it shrinks.

Sigh.

Though I haven’t kept up with my numerous battles of perfecting this cheesecake on UM, I have tried about five times. Although it has tasted good each time I’ve made it, it just kept shrinking so much. One time it looked like a piece of fish cake.

So I’ve done a lot of research and found the right oven temp, as well as the correct egg white consistency, as they are some of the most important elements of this recipe.

My previous mistakes were:
1.) Oven temp was completely off. I don’t mean the oven itself, but my brain. For some weird reason, I always thought 350°F = 160°C. It’s actually 180°C (178 to be exact)! No wonder it rose way too quickly and the top part got so dark. Many Japanese recipes for cheesecake says 140°C = 284°F for an hour. So this time, I set the oven at 280°F to take it slow and steady.

2.) Egg whites. There are two opinions. One is to make stiff peaks, and the other is not to do that because egg whites with stiff peaks rises too much and then ends up shrinking too much.

3.) How to mix in the cheese with egg whites. Some say to go gently, which is the general rule of thumb when folding in egg whites. But others say that since egg whites are beaten to stiff peaks, you can abuse them, so use a whisk when mixing. I’ve tried both, and it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

The best recipe I’ve found so far is this:

1 stick (225g-ish) cream cheese
50 g (just a bit shorter than half a stick of) butter
100ml milk
60g cake flour
20g corn starch
1tbsp green tea powder (you can omit if you want to make a regular one)
6 egg yokes
6 egg whites
140g sugar

Some recipe calls for lemon juice, yogurt, or heavy cream, but I like the one above the best.

METHOD

Sift flour, corn starch and matcha powder together. Set aside.

Put butter, cream cheese and milk in a small pot and heat them up until it all melts together.

If the heat is too high, you have to wait a long time for it to cool off, so keep stirring and stop when it’s a creamy consistency.

This is also an important process. Butter the pan, GENEROUSLY. This will help prevent the batter from sticking to the sides (it also helps the cake rise).

Then coat the butter with powder sugar.

Once the cream cheese mixture cools, add egg yolks, the sifted flour mixture, and mix well.

I found these roasted chestnuts at the nearby grocery store. Great thing about this is, it’s only $1.49. Do you know how much a jar of chestnuts cost at Williams-Sonoma? At least $10!

Chop up the nuts and put it on the bottom of the mold.

Now, the egg whites. Unless you have muscles like a professional tennis player, don’t even bother to manually do it. Use an electric or a stand mixer, beat it until you get stiff peaks.

Below is the way some people like, not too stiff. By the way, all the sugar goes in while making the meringue.

This is how I made the meringue. As usual, be sure to use a dry bowl. Even a drop of water in it will destroy the meringue.

Once the egg whites are done, fold in a quarter of it into cheese mixture. Mix well. I used a whisk.

Repeat this, and once you have a quarter of meringue left, add the cheese mixture into the meringue, and mix well. Again, some say to be gentle, and others say to mix it like hell. I went somewhere in the middle.

Pour the batter into the mold. This will be baked in a hot water bath. Be sure to wrap the bottom of the mold with aluminum foil to avoid any seepage.

Put it in a 280°F oven for an hour and 10 minutes. Et voila!

To make it holiday-esque, I brushed some plum jam on top. Green and red, simple, yet elegant. No need to add whip cream or any other crap on this one. Simplicity is the key to this gentle, soft cheese cake.

Nice green color inside.

Umamiporn here.

As you can see, this is not a typical holiday cake. But I say, why not?! It’s very soft, and almost melts in your mouth– so the opposite of a NY-style cheesecake. One bite of that makes you feel like you ate a stick of cheese. But this one, thanks to the egg-whites, is so fluffy. You can definitely eat a quarter of it without thinking about calories.

Think about the benefits of this cake. You eat meat, fish, sides, appetizers, cheese balls, nuts, whatever else during your holiday meal, and you dread the thought of a heavy cake or pie at the end. But at the same time, you feel you are obligated because it’s your grandmother’s secret recipe, or Aunt Linda came all the way from Kentucky with her famous red velvet cake.

Gram, Aunt Linda, make this instead. It’s so light and everyone’s face will brighten up since it’s not smeared with cream.

This is not the easiest recipe because the oven temp and egg whites are pretty sensitive issues. Also every oven has its own character, so you might want to try a couple of times before the big day. If it shrinks too much on the day of the holiday gathering, just serve it as if it’s the way it’s supposed to be. No matter what, it tastes good.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

*Yamahomo is based in NYC and enjoys cooking and baking. He prefers staying in the kitchen all weekend long rather than being outside.

Sometimes store-bought trumps homemade. Mozzarella is definitely one. Peking duck is another. XLB, totally. You can make it all at home from scratch, which I’ve done, but it’s all readily available (especially in NYC), so why do I bother spending an entire day creating it? XLB at decent Chinese restaurants are not that expensive.

The process, in some ways is interesting and eye-opening to see what goes into it, but that’s about it. But sometimes it’s fun to recreate something that’s hard to get, such as aloe yogurt, and it’s cost effective to create your own Pinkberry.

This time though, I completely failed and trust me, there will be no second time. Though it’s not widely available in this country, there is no need for me to try making this cake at home ever again.

By the way, sorry for not being an active blogger. This fall has been pretty busy, and I haven’t created much blog-worthy food recently, or simply, I forget to take pictures.

According to Wiki, the Baumkuchen is:
Known as the “King of Cakes,” the Baumkuchen is a kind of layered cake, known in many countries throughout Europe. When cut, the cake reveals the characteristic golden rings that give it its German name, Baumkuchen, which literally translates to “tree cake”. To get the ring effect, a thin layer of batter is brushed evenly onto a spit and allowed to bake until golden, after which the process is repeated.

It’s similar to layered crepe cake, which I make all the time (and trust me, it doesn’t cost anywhere near the $75 that Lady M charges to make it), but doing it at home had many obstacles. “A thin layer of batter is brushed evenly onto a spit and allowed to bake until golden,” WTF! I have a spit in my oven, but that’ll require heavy heat proof gloves to “brush” batter, and a complete mess.

To solve this, someone came up with a nifty idea of using a “tamago-yaki” pan. These are special pans to make tamago (egg) that can be found at sushi restaurants, and the layering method is just like making tamago-yaki, or so the recipe said. “Easy but authentic baumkuchen.” Bullshit.

First, you make a spit by rolling aluminum foil. Be sure to make a perfect width with the pan. Oil it up so that batter won’t stick to the spit.

This is a tamago-yaki pan. There are two types you can get, one is rectangular, and the other is square. Almost every household has at least one of those.

Mix together:
- 1 stick of butter
- 30g sugar
- 4 egg yolks
- 1 tbsp honey
- Vanilla

Sift together:
- 50g cake flour
- 50g corn starch

Make merienge with 4 egg whites and 60g sugar to soft peak.

Mix all of them together. As is the case with egg whites, be gentle when folding meringue.

Now the stressful part starts. Just like making tamago-yaki, recipe said to spread a thin layer of batter into the pan. What I didn’t know was the batter is way too thick to spread evenly/easily. By the time you somewhat spread the batter, the center starts burning, yet the sides are not cooked through. To avoid complete burning, I started rolling. Next layer, the same thing happens. Just like many of my failed attempts, this cake was totally cursed out.

After 6 layers or so, I gave up. This was a joke. As you can see, it’s basically raw on the edge, and completely burned in the center. Not edible.

Center cuts look ok, but tasted like burned flour. I don’t know if there’s a German bakery in the city where one can buy them, but there’s a store at the Narita airport, or throughout Japan at any department store where you can get about a pound of a beautiful round cake for about $20. Yeah, I will buy them from now on.

I am thinking about perfecting the choux next.

*Yamahomo enjoys cooking and baking. He prefers staying in kitchen all weekend long rather than being outside.

PREQUEL
The Good: Ode to JG’s Molten Chocolate Cake, Pt. I

I should’ve known that the whole thing was a bad idea, but curiosity got the better of me yet again. I had been mesmerized by the omnipresent Domino’s commercial touting its Chocolate Lava Crunch Cakes. Try as I might, I was losing the ability to ignore the siren call.

Possessing very little food-related willpower to begin with, I gave in and decided I had to try them. (Am I the only one that saw these ads everywhere? Or just the only one who contemplated an actual purchase? I fast forward through every show on my DVR and still managed to see that commercial at least 11 times. After that I lost count.)

I mean really, what kind of lover of warm chocolate cake would I BE!?! How could I call myself a true fan without tasting the one that was being sold in strip malls across the country!?!

I saddled up to a local Domino’s. After assuring the man behind the counter that yes, I wanted just the cake (no pizza, no breadbowl pasta, no oven-baked sandwich, thank you) I watched as two* small tins of chocolate went into the mouth of the conveyor-belt oven. *There was no option to buy just one; but it’s just $3.99 for two! It’s no wonder America has an obesity problem!

I knew that what came out on the other side wasn’t going to be the culinary achievement of the century, but somehow, I had convinced myself that if anything, it would at the very least be cracktastic; you know, like french fries from McDonald’s or nachos from Taco Bell.

I was wrong. Very, very, wrong.

The menu describes them as, “Oven baked chocolate cakes, crunchy on the outside with molten chocolate on the inside.” Oh, Domino’s. How you have a way with words. “Molten chocolate” does sound much better than “grainy-and-chalky-warm-brownie-batter” and “crunch” more appetizing than “tough-burnt-cardboard-crust.”

But was it really SO hard to make the cracktastic version? Even with an arsenal of chemicals and focus groups on your side?

Yup, I should’ve known it was a bad idea…

*Veronica lives and works in New York City where she enjoys thinking about food, reading about food, eating food and bike riding.

Part I: THE GOOD
@Nougatine, NYC

There are only a couple of desserts in the world that I could devote a series of posts to- molten chocolate cake (aka Lava, Warm, Flourless) is one of the chosen few.

When it comes to dinner, I could easily spend a half an hour deliberating my entree choices; everything always sounds so delectable! As I read through the menu questions immediately start running through my head: “What was it that Frank Bruni liked here again?” “Would they substitute the mashed potatoes in that for the salad?” “Mmm. Macaroni and cheese.” The thoughts flow until I have to make polite conversation or the server stares at me expectantly, whichever comes first.

When it comes to choosing dessert, one might imagine that it would be a similar situation; in fact, I turn into a bizarrely predictable diner.

Is there a warm molten chocolate cake? Let’s do it.
Does it come with ice cream? Bring. It. On.

Apparently, I’m not alone in my love of the warm chocolate confection: a number of chefs have it on their menu. Whether it’s because they love it themselves, or because they’re hoping to oblige the masses and sell some dessert, I’ll never be quite sure. The idealist in me would like to think it’s because they appreciate the comforting simplicity of the dish. The cynic tells me it appears so frequently because there are suckers like me that can’t resist its chocolatey pull. (Domino’s sells it now for crying out loud!)

Many have crossed my plate and almost all the versions I’ve tried have been delicious (the exceptions being those versions that were literally just a piece of chocolate cake that had been warmed up — talk about your false advertising!) But much like Dorothy didn’t realize Kansas was gray until she stepped into the technicolor world of Oz, I only thought I knew what warm chocolate cake was until I had the version created by Jean-George Vongerichten.

How could I consider myself a true molten chocolate cake enthusiast without having tried the one by the chef who popularized the dessert!? I know. It’s embarrassing; I get a little more ashamed even as I type this.

So I arrived for dinner at Nougatine in NYC one night with a clear mission: try the damn cake. I opened my menu and the words, “Warm chocolate cake,” shone back at me like a beacon of light. I quickly made my decisions (when there’s you’re on a mission it’s much easier to decide on an entree), closed the menu and looked just in time to watch Jean-George (the man! the myth! the legend!) walk by and pause to greet an artsy looking woman at a nearby table.

I was in the house of Vongerichten and JG was presiding. I tried not to stare. Is there such thing as a food omen? Surely this meant something magical was to come. I silently mouthed, “OMG! Jean-George!” to my boyfriend. He took a stealthy glance toward the direction of my head-nod and gave me an excited grin. We ordered and continued to geek out as we watched JG walk back and forth between the kitchen and the Jean George side of the dining room to check on patrons.

As each dish arrived we enjoyed interesting combinations of fresh ingredients and truly mesmerizing flavors.

Then the cake came.
It smelled marvelous.
It looked divine.
I quickly divvied it up in equal halves lest one of us (i.e. me) hog more than my fair share.
I dove in, took a bite, and am pretty sure I gave an audible sigh.

The exterior crackled as it broke open.
The interior cake was light and flavorful.
The warm chocolate that oozed from the center was rich but not cloying or heavy.
The vanilla bean ice cream was creamy and dense.

It was by far, the best damn warm chocolate cake I’ve ever tasted.
Go there.
Eat it.
Reveal in its deliciousness.

And if the trip is too far: try your hand at making it!
Here’s the recipe I’m going to try next time I have people over.

Stay tuned for The Bad and The Ugly!

*Veronica lives and works in New York City where she enjoys thinking about food, reading about food, eating food and bike riding.

Newest omiyage (gift) in the Akabori household from Japan: green tea Baumkuchen from a patisserie in Dojima, Osaka called Mon Chouchou. From the website, it looks like it is a relatively new shop (2003), that takes its inspiration from the old world of Osaka, calling Dojima the “New York of Japan.”

Of course the most immediately noteworthy trait to any Japanese omiyage is the packaging- this bright orange box actually had this brown ribbon tied around it. Take a look- the perfectly color-coordinated ribbon also has the company namesake printed on it. This is what I live for! PACKAGING WHORE!

Open up the box and the lovefest continues. The green from the cake’s matcha is just so strikingly gorgeous. The color combination here: the bright UMAMIMART orange, brown and green- GENIUS!

There is a Mon Chouchou message inscribed into the lid of the box in gold. Something about enjoying the sweets, blah blah. Nothing earth-shattering, but nice touch. Plus the gold sticker in the middle of the Baumkuchen hole!

FRIGGIN’ BEAUTIFUL! I wrote about Baumkuchen back in November when I was in Japan- there seems to be a revival going on over there right now for this European sweet, originally from Eastern Europe. It’s made on a spit!

I don’t really know how to serve this properly so have just been cutting them up into diagonals. The cake is dense and slightly sweet. The matcha overpowers everything, but in a good way. It breaks apart in your mouth in layers, just like the cake intends- it really is quite an textural experience above all else.

Hideko’s gonna kill me- she only got one piece! Sorry mama!!! I’ll move out soon, and leave your omiyage alone, I promise!!

MON CHOUCHOU
Tanaka Bldg. 1-4-17 Dojimahama
Kitaku, Osaka City
T: +81 6-6343-1616

Sweet and salty is something we do enjoy. Chocolate-covered salty rice crackers have been available in Japan, and they are pretty tasty. Sea salt with ice cream is available at some restaurants and it’s kind of refreshing.

I always get grossed out when I see many people at brunch eating pancakes or french toast with a side of bacon, all drizzled in maple syrup. I always ask for bacon on a separate plate. But I recently saw a recipe called “French toast bacon cupcake with maple buttercream frosting”. My curiosity was pretty high, and I decided to make this unthinkable combo of bacon in a cupcake.

I found two recipes, and somewhat combined them into one. Here is the recipe I ended up using. Both recipes were pretty peculiar, but I couldn’t be bothered to go to a store to buy vanilla pudding mix, or milk, so I just used what I had in the house.

1 cup of flour
1 cup of cake flour
1 table spoon cinnamon
1 table spoon nutmeg
1 table spoon baking powder
1 tea spoon salt
1 table spoon corn starch
1 stick of unsalted butter
3 eggs
3/4 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of regular sugar
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup of maple syrup
1/4 cup of heavy cream
1/4 cup of water
12 strips of bacon

Cook bacon. I cooked bacon in the oven. I find it a lot easier and less messier, but be sure not to cook them too crispy. Cool them and cut them into pieces, set aside.

Mix dry ingredients except for sugars together in a bowl, set aside.

Cream butter, then add sugar, eggs and vanilla. Mix in dry mixture little by little, alternating with maple syrup/heavy cream/water. Don’t overmix, and finally stir in bacon.

Original recipe called for 1/2 cup of milk, but all I had was heavy cream, so I put 1/4 cup cream and 1/4 cup water. This might be completely wrong, but hey, it worked pretty well. Also I basically cut sugar amount by half. It is still sweet enough.

I had silicon muffin cups, and was going to use them. When I opened the container, it smelled like VERY stinky cheese. To my horror, they had bits of mold EVERYWHERE. You know these motherfuckas are very hard to clean, and I did wash them in dish washer, but I guess some particles remained there. Very grossed out and I threw out the whole thing. I can still smell it and makes me want to barf.

Since I don’t have muffin tin, I decided to make a cake instead. Muffin, cake, loaf, bundt, same difference. It’s just different shapes.

It took about an hour to cook the cake in a 325˚ oven.

It looks just like regular cake, right? While baking, it smelled like spice cake, especially with cinnamon and nutmeg, it smelled like autumn. No hint of bacon whatsoever.

So I brought it to work, without frosting, since I thought it would make too much mess. I brought them separately. I piped frosting from Ziploc bag, and it looks like a giant cupcake.

I gathered many of my colleagues, and served them pieces. Everyone was kind of grossed out by the concept, including me. Bacon + Cake = WTF?

Verdict – This is awesome. As you can see above, there are enough chunks of bacon in the cake, but it didn’t taste like bacon at all. Yes, by itself it is definitely bacon, but put everything together and it tasted very nice, with the mixture of sweetness from the maple buttercream and spiced cake, plus saltiness.

Here is the recipe for maple buttercream:

2 sticks of unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar
pinch of salt
2 table spoon of maple syrup

Mix butter and maple syrup, add sugar.

I should have decorated the top with pieces of bacon.

What if I use whole package of bacon instead? Maybe I will try that next time.

Left with 10 egg whites, I thought about making macarons but was out of almond flour, so I googled around recipes asking for loads of egg whites. Though making a homemade face mask recipe was intriguing, I decided to make an angel food cake. I followed Alton Brown’s recipe, since he is so scientific and good at many things.

Alton’s recipe called for:
- 1 3/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup cake flour, sifted
- 12 egg whites (the closer to room temperature the better)
- 1/3 cup warm water
- 1 teaspoon orange extract, or extract of your choice
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar.

Since this recipe was the first result on the i n t e r n e t, I followed it. When using egg whites, I was always told to use a bowl without a drop or hint of water. Any water in the bowl will ruin meringue. However, Alton’s recipe includes 1/3 cup of warm water which was to be mixed with egg whites in the beginning. I was very skeptical, but I followed it anyways. I was supposed to whip it until medium peak, but after 10 minutes of high speed whipping, nothing happened. It became white, but very runny.

A couple of minutes later, still nothing, and I concluded 1/3 cup of water ruined it. I added dry ingredients and baked it anyways. It tasted ok, but something was different. It was more like sweet bread than an angel food cake. I think meringue still had so much liquid left in it, hence the cake was moist, but something was off.

So this past weekend was luckily rainy and crappy outside, so I decided to give it another try. This time, I followed one of the recipes on Tastespotting. This recipe was very similar to Alton’s, sans warm water, which gave me more hope.

It called for:
- 1 cup sifted cake flour
- 1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons instant espresso granules or 2 tablespoons instant coffee granules
- 2 tablespoons hot water
- 12 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract. I didn’t use cinnamon, just espresso.

Here is the process:
1. Sift flour and half of the sugar 4 times. I did it, but I don’t know the difference, other than amessier counter top. Mixing flour and sugar together makes it easy to incorporate with meringue.
2. Mix egg whites and cream of tartar, whip it until soft peak, then add sugar gradually. Whip it until stiff peak is formed.
3. Add vanilla, then flour mixture little by little. Using a spatula, mix them gently without losing air in egg whites. I added espresso around here, and added more flour mixture. Incorporate everything well, and pour them into an ungreased tube pan. I don’t have angel food pan, which comes with three tips, that keeps them from touching the surface when cooling (see below) but it’s totally not necessary.
4. Bake it in 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes.
5. When it’s done, take it out of the oven, and invert it. The easiest way is to do is to stick the pan into a wine bottle like the image below.

By inverting, it doesn’t deflate with the weight of the cake itself. Leave it for like 2 hours and it’s done.

Since it’s ungreased, it’s a bit tricky to take the cake out of the pan. Ever-so-gently loosen the cake from the pan. This looks like real angel food cake, doesn’t it?

It’s totally airy, just the way it should be.

It tasted heavenly. No wonder it is called “angel” food cake.

When I brought this to work, Ayagwa asked, “Did you add espresso to angel food cake mix?” I can’t believe her. My baking is about 96% from scratch. I use puff pastry and phyllo store bought, but that’s about it! I should tell her I used cool whip for her wedding cake.