About


 

Annie. I'm a 20-something living in the big city. And I love to bake. 


CONNECT WITH ME: 

Q&A

QUESTIONS ABOUT ME

Q. What's your sign? 
A. Capricorn.

Q. What's your nationality? 
A. 75% Vietnamese, 25% Chinese. But.. really just Canadian.

Q. What are your hobbies? 
A. Things I do now - personal fitness/working out, running, graphic and web design, but I'm probably most passionate about dance. I have somewhat good skill level in social latin partner dances - salsa and bachata, including taking formal lessons and choreographed performances.

QUESTIONS ABOUT FOOD

Q. Why did you start baking? 
A. I was actually inspired by my cousin Lynne who is a big baker and is always baking elaborate recipes. I sometimes help her with her baking and thats what got me started. I love how creative baking can be, when I'm making my cakes it feels I'm working with a blank canvas. I also love the challenge and science of baking, as there are so many variables (heat, overwhipping, underwhipping, accurate measurement of ingredients) that can affect the taste, consistency, colour etc of your dessert (anyone who has tried making macaroons can attest to how challenging this actually is).

Q. Where do you bake? 
A. I bake at home, in my own kitchen. It took a few months to be able to accumulate all of the tools/ingredients - don't own a candy thermometer yet. All recipes are from scratch.

Q. Where did you learn to bake? 
A. No formal training. Just recipes I've found online perusing my usual favourite sites - CanadianLiving, Martha Stewart, Annie Eats and mainly via Pinterest. I like to follow accounts on instagram that do food styling (nectar and stone, sweet event styling, the pink diary), which focuses on the aesthetic presentation of foods and I find that inspires me.  Although I love the idea of trying a few pastry chef classes through college, or even a cake decorating class here or there.

Q. Where do you get your ideas to bake? 
A. Well now-a-days its usually via request. I'll bake a cake in lieu of a gift for someone's birthday, or sometimes I do special requests, if someone wants help baking for a gift or just wants to bake for fun.

Q. Why a food blog? 
A. I've been writing diaries since I was really young, and I really really enjoy food and food experiences where I get to explore different cuisines. I love to take pictures and share them with friends and family. So this was a great way to share my interest without spamming my facebook/instagram wall with tons of food photos. That and I have my 19 year old brother's seal of approval, "A food blog? That's pretty legit."

Q. Favourite  Dessert?
A. In terms of icecream, Neopolitan (with strawberry, chocolate and vanilla you really can't go wrong). In terms of dessert - Creme Brulee and Cheese Cakes. I'm also Lactose Intolerant so I usually take a small nibble, or I take a lactase and I'm good to go.

Q. Your favourite meal? 
A. Brunch. Although I'm always perusing "top 10" cuisine categories in blogto.com for the "best brunch", "best vietnamese food", "best dim sum", 'best italian", etc. Although any meal that I'm sharing with friends is a good meal :)


ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHY


Q. What camera and lens do you use? 
A. I use a Canon EOS SL1, which I purchased on Black Friday in Canada from Henry's in 2013. I choose this camera because its extremely light camera body in comparison to other models. As the sales associate said, "Its a small camera for small fingers". I use the lens that came with it, an 18-55 mm kit lens. I hope to invest in a 50 mm lens next.

Q. Where did you learn to take pictures? 
A. I regularly read articles from the Digital Photography School, and other photography interest sites and facebook groups - about how well to take pictures and some photo basics (e.g. rule of thirds, lighting lines/patterns), and will occasionally watch youtube videos on how to post-process photos.

Q. What programs do you use for post-processing your food photos? 
A. I shoot all my photos in RAW, not .jpeg as I find that the quality of the picture degrades when you save, transfer files. I use Adobe Lightroom to adjust brightness, shadows, and crop my photos. If there's a crumb or two of place I'll make some modifications in Photoshop.



WEB & GRAPHIC DESIGN


Q. Where did you learn to code? 
A. I'm self-taught. Started learning HTML at age 12 by going through basic HTML tutorials I could go online. It was just something I did for fun as I created webpages/blogs based on different interests that evolved over time as I got older.


Q. What blogging platform do you use?
A. I currently use Blogger, but have hosted with Livejournal, Xanga, Weebly, and Wordpress in the past.

Q. Do you freelance?
A. I have done some pro-bono web/graphic design, and social media marketing for non-profit community and student organizations, and have been approached by some colleagues within my network to help them build websites for their businesses. I can design pages from scratch using HTML/CSS, I'm also comfortable with Wordpress, Blogger, and Weebly.
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