Tag: Create

Quarantine Birthday Cake

This past five weeks in quarantine has been a weird time, to say the least.

Now that I’m spending more time at home, I have created the following routine: eat, sleep, social media, movies, repeat. My usual routine of hitting the gym after a workday and making dinner with friends is out the window and has now been replaced by the routine above. I hate it, I love it, I’m adapting with what I have. Happily for my dog, he gets the most walks now compared to my previous normalcy.

I can confidently say, that I’m coming out of quarantine with a couple more pounds on. I find myself more in the kitchen if I’m not in front of my computer. Unfortunately for my sister-in-law, my baking and cooking adventures have increased the temptations to divert her from her diet. She was complaining to her mom over the phone that my baking/cooking fest made the house smell too good.

My latest baking adventure was to create a birthday cake for my friend. I followed A Spicy Perspective’s recipe for the perfect lemon buttermilk cake batter. The key to this perfection (in my opinion) was spending the time to cream the butter and sugar. Don’t rush the process. Let it cream in that stand mixer.

I then threw the batter into two round 6 x 3 inch baking pans that have been lined with parchment paper. The leftover batter was then used to make some cupcakes.

After baking the cakes, I layered it with some raspberry preserves and used Five Heart Home’s recipe for cream cheese frosting. I did throw in some lemon zest to bring in more of that lemony flavor to the lemon cake.

In the end, the cake was fluffy and light. It was a perfect match with the cream cheese frosting and raspberry frosting.

(I apologize for my lack of food styling here. I ran out of time to do so…).

All in all, I felt super accomplished making this for my friend. To clarify: I didn’t get to celebrate my friend’s birthday with him. His sister (who commissioned me to make this cake as a surprise) came by to pick up the goodies and drop off some of the cupcakes with another friend of ours. We then joined everyone in celebration via Zoom. What a time we live in.

For more food adventures, follow me on my IG foodie account: convivial.corner.

Hope you all are staying safe and being creative during this time!

With love,

Arve

2020 Goals

I’ve been too silent this past couple of years. 2018 and 2019 have come and gone. Each year filled with a ton of stories I’m yet deciding to share with you or not. If I never do, just know they were years of growth, and self-reflection.

During those two years, I continued working as an accountant for a small, non-profit college preparatory school, enrolled and graduated with my Master’s in Business Administration at the University of Redlands, traveled to the Pacific a couple of times, generated a ton internal self doubt and ate a ton of food.

Now as we’ve ended a decade and entering into a new one, I can’t help but reflect on what has happened and set goals for what is yet to come.

One thing for certain: 2020 is going to be a busy one for me.

Other than the upcoming trips to fulfill my need to travel, I’m hoping it would also be a financially fulfilling one as I save money for a couple of sinking funds I’ve set up and eradicate a couple of debts I’ve dug myself into (*cough* student loans and credit card *cough*).

So the 2020 goals are simple: take care of my finances, take care of my health, create and share more, and be content.

Moving forward with this space, I want to focus on three themes: Explore, Create, Transform (as illustrated by the images above).

As mentioned earlier, I’ve generated self doubt these past couple years. The diminishing of my creativity plummeted me deeper into it thus my silence in this space, on YouTube, and my producing of somewhat mediocre Instagram posts.

As I delve back into these three themes, I’m hoping that it would inspire me as I re-educate and remind myself on why those three themes are so important to me. And why I’ve had them tattooed them onto myself that one night in South Korea.

As simple as it is, I know it encourages me towards self growth and I hope (*fingers crossed*) that it inspires me to REGULARLY share my journey of self discovery and improvement in 2020 and onwards.

For now, I wish you all a wonderful and prosperous New Year!