I’m absolutely loving the Ocarina app for the iPhone. They’ve done a superb job of creating an instrument that is a true joy to play, and that has the expressiveness of actually holding a wind instrument in your hand.

What I also love is that they’ve built a community of people creating music scores and sharing notes on how to play the app.

At $1, this is one of the top apps I would recommend. Grab it soon as I hear they will be raising the price.

Enjoy some Zelda from me:

Zelda Ocarina (iPhone) from James Yu on Vimeo.

Gmail selected me in the bucket testing for themes. Some of them are cool, and some are horrendous. Screenshots follow:

The New Default

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Bubblegum

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Tea House

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Desk

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Terminal

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Theme Selection

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Made some potato and leek soup tonight for a nice autumn meal.

Ingredients

• 5 pounds white potatoes, peeled and quartered
• 6 cups chicken broth
• 2 leeks, bulb only
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 tablespoons white wine
• salt to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper

Directions

1. Cook potatoes in chicken stock until soft. Set aside, do not drain.
2. Put potatoes in the work bowl of a food processor in batches. Add 5 cups of chicken stock from the potato cooking pot. Puree until smooth.
3. Half the leeks lengthwise, and soak in water to clean. Finely slice. Saute in butter until transparent. Add white wine, and cook for 3 minutes.
4. In a soup pot, combine remaining cup of chicken stock from the potato cooking pot and sauteed leeks. Stir in pureed potatoes, and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and white pepper. Cook to desired consistency, adding more stock if necessary. Garnish with parsley.

For Joey’s birthday on Halloween, we decided to make two cupcakes. Two giant cupcakes — enough to feed 30 people.

We bought the Wilton Giant Cupcake Pan from Amazon. Basically, you bake the “muffin top” part separately from the bottom, thus creating the illusion of a muffin shaped cupcake.

The ironic thing is that cupcakes are meant to be easy to make — by creating a large box cake version of the cupcake, we’ve essentially made a more complicated bakery item in the shape of an easy to make bakery item.

There are a few tricks if you want these to come out right. The muffin top part of the cake is smaller and cooks faster. Place the pan off center so that the bottom part of the cake is in the center of the oven. This will allow both halves to cook evenly.

Also, each half will rise and balloon out of the pan. You’ll need to cut off the excess with a bread knife so that both halves will fit together.

I suggest getting a revolving cake stand so that you can easily decorate the top evenly. We opted not to decorate the sides.

We used two cupcake recipes from Billy’s Bakery, which turned out fantastic, even though we were essentially making a box cake. Just ignore the parts about putting them into cupcake tins, and it’ll be fine. They are as follows:

Billy’s Cupcakes

Ingredients

Makes about 30 cupcakes

• 1 3/4 cups cake flour, not self-rising
• 1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• Billy’s Vanilla Buttercream
• Colored Sprinkles, for decorating, optional

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line cupcake pans with paper liners; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt; mix on low speed until combined. Add butter, mixing until just coated with flour.
2. In a large glass measuring cup, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With mixer on medium speed, add wet ingredients in 3 parts, scraping down sides of bowl before each addition; beat until ingredients are incorporated but do not overbeat.
3. Divide batter evenly among liners, filling about 2/3 full. Bake, rotating pan halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 17 to 20 minutes.
4. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat process with remaining batter. Once cupcakes have cooled, use a small offset spatula to frost tops of each cupcake. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired. Serve at room temperature.

NOTE: For the giant cupcake version, it’ll take about 1 hour to bake.

Billy’s Butter Cream

Ingredients

Makes enough for 30 cupcakes

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 6 to 8 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter until smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. With mixer on low speed, add 6 cups sugar, milk, and vanilla; mix until light and fluffy. If necessary, gradually add remaining 2 cups sugar to reach desired consistency.

Chocolate Cupcakes by Billy Reece

Yields 24 to 27 cupcakes

Ingredients

• 2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)
• 1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
• 1 cup light brown sugar (7-3/4 ounces)
• 4 large eggs (one at a time)
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2 cups cake flour (9-1/4 ounces)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Cream:
2 sticks unsalted butter (8 ounces)
1 cup granulated sugar (7 ounces)
1 cup light brown sugar (7-3/4 ounces)
Add:
4 large eggs (one at a time)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate (chocolate should be melted, then cooled for approximately 15 minutes before being added).
Add and alternate:
2 cups cake flour (9-1/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking soda
With:
1 cup buttermilk (room temperature)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Bake at 350 degree for about one hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Simple Chocolate Buttercream by Billy Reece

Ingredients

• 4 sticks butter
• 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
• 2-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

Cream (with hand or stand mixer):
4 sticks butter (16 ounces) until light and fluffy, approximately 5 minutes

Melt (in microwave or double boiler):
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

Set aside and allow to cool for approximately 20 minutes. After chocolate has cooled, add it to the creamed butter and mix on low speed until just combined. Scrape sides of bowl then …

Add:
2-3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

On low speed of a hand or stand mixer, mix until fully incorporated; no confectioners’ sugar should be visible. Mixture should be smooth and medium brown in color.

Do not refrigerate; use immediately or store in airtight container for up to 2 days.