Tagaytay 2013 Weekend

Our department's leadership team went to Tagaytay last weekend for our Q1 team building. Although I didn't stay up to play cards and drink with them, I sure had a lot of fun.

The stop at People's Park to fly kites reminded me of the days my uncle made kites out of crepe papers and how we tagged along when he flew them at a vacant lot near our house. And I saw a heart shaped cloud! :)

I didn't enjoy our lunch at Leslie's though. I think that restaurant is now overrated. The grilled liempo was my consolation. I hope we ate at Antonio's instead (I think they are more expensive and is more known for their breakfast meals?).

The Pink Sisters Church is nice and very peaceful. It reminded me of the retreat house we went to when I was in fourth year high school.

The place we stayed at was amazing! Check out Lilyboy's Bed and Breakfast.

I loved our early trip at Bag of Beans the next day, loved the freshly brewed black coffee on a cold morning in Tagaytay. I wished we stayed longer.

I brought cupcakes! It's nice to have an excuse to bake fancy cupcakes once in a while. This was one of those times. I was worried days before that weekend though because I still don't know what kind of cupcake I'll do. Then while I was at Shakey's having my lonesome pre-valentine dinner, I saw the paper place mat with their featured dessert, banana peach surprise. That's where I got the idea to try this banana split cupcake recipe.

Although it tasted good, I still have to practice whipping a more stable whipped cream frosting. My ganache didn't set at all, I was sad to waste a lot of chocolates and I have yet to google what is the corn syrup for.

I wish I have more weekends like this! :)

P.S. My S3 was on a taking-picture-rest-mode so I didn't have a lot of pics to share. Special thanks to Edi and Ronee for lending me their shots. :)

Ube Macapuno Cupcakes

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White Chocolate Cupcakes with Truffle Filling

I want to mark the new year as a year for my new found hobby - baking. I decided to make some for media noche and forced my family to eat it.

I got new cupcake liners from one of my best friends. It's so sweet of her to still remember how I love butterflies. She also gave me candies for decoration. Many say, circles/round shapes are lucky during the new year so I chose to use the pink dragees to simply garnish the cupcakes.

This is basically a classic vanilla cupcake with melted white chocolates. Another least favorite cupcake. But then I found this recipe with chocolate filling and I am a sucker for yummy cake fillings especially if it's melted chocolate! I won't mind vanilla cupcakes this time. I, however, never liked white chocolates so I opted to buy assorted truffles. They are really really good so don't be surprised with the price. I wanted to put extra dark chocolates but they're really pricey.

Trisha's recipe calls for 30 cupcakes but I only did the recipe for 18. I used her cream cheese frosting recipe cut it in half and made adjustments by adding a quarter of cup of cream cheese and made it not too sweet. I'm determined to not burn my cakes like the last time. I read some tips online like the need to adjust the position of the racks and lower the oven's temperature. It somehow worked.

Although the top was still browned/toasted than it's supposed to be, over-all, it's better than the first. And they're not dry! I'm happy and proud of these. :)

Red Velvet Cupcakes

12/17/12. It's my big day! I finally baked on my own for the first time using my new oven.

Experiment #1: I love chocolates. But being my first time, I'd rather not waste any chocolate if in case my experiment won't turn out well. So to help me decide what recipe to do first, I asked my twitter/FB friends. Unfortunately, only one answered (maybe they don't trust me since it's my first time! Haha!) and so red velvet cupcake it is!

I was hesitant to do it though. In spite of its popularity, it's my least favorite. Just because it's red. I know Mary Grace's black velvet cake is adapted from the same recipe but I love it. Just because it's not red. For me, anything that is supposed to be chocolaty should have a shade of brown or black.

What changed my mind is the recipe I found from a blogger - Bake Happy. There are 3-4 bloggers I follow for cupcake recipes but she's the only one who is not a foreigner. I liked her because she has many Pinoy flavored cupcake recipes that are interesting to try. And I got intrigued about her red velvet cupcake recipe because she used Yakult instead of sour milk.

My finished products were dry. I think I did well with preparing the batter but I had problems with the oven. My cupcakes almost burned! :'(

I tasted one and it still tasted fine but dry. So as not to waste them, I made the cream cheese frosting runny to cover the ugly top. And because I wasn't able to find some red sprinkles, I decided to use pink chocolate shavings.

I brought the goodies at the office. My colleagues said it was good (but dry) and they liked the frosting so I guess it wasn't a complete failure.

As for me, I found the cake lacking in sweetness while the frosting was too sweet just like what the last to taste told me. I will definitely make this again and make some adjustments with the sweetness. :)

Cupcake World

I am officially entering the world of cupcakery. Funny, I am nervous. I hope that I easily do this just like how I easily experiment on pasta dishes.

As mentioned in my first post, the last time I baked was when I was in HS and first year college. I know I need a refresher. My mom is a good cook but do not bake. So when I saw a deal in Cash Cash Pinoy, I purchased a voucher for a 4-hour cupcake baking workshop at Cake Terrific. We will be taught how to bake four recipes: (1) Black Bottom, (2) Classic Chocolate, (3) Red Velvet, and (4) Banana cupcakes.

After almost 2 months after buying the voucher, I attended the class last week. I was very excited!

I was told we can bring home our finished products so I had to stop by Chocolate Lover to buy a box. They sell the boxes in 10's which is okay since I really plan to pursue this hobby (It makes me happy!) and maybe bring some in the office or school.

The class was from 10am-2pm. Our teacher was Chef Sabrina. Also assisting us and taking pictures was Chef Aicel.

We were first taught how to properly measure the wet and dry ingredients. I thought we will bake individually but we were grouped by three. It was disappointing but also a relief because I don't want to waste the ingredients if I didn't do well.

Two recipes (black bottom and red velvet) were demonstrated to us. After showing how it's done, Chef Sabrina let two participants continue while she is explaining and telling when to go on to the next step. The other two recipes (classic chocolate and banana), we did as a group. Once everything is mixed and poured on the pans, we gave it to Chef Aicel for baking.

While the goodies are in the oven, Chef Sabrina discussed the different ingredients and what they are for as well as tips in baking. She also answered our questions.

While the cakes are cooling, Chef showed us how to make the frosting. I was disappointed on this part because she used a ready-to-whip cream. I was hoping she will show us how to make cream cheese or buttercream frosting. But the fun part is we get to try piping frosting on our cupcakes! That to me will always be the best part.

I think it was pretty easy. I can't wait to try it on my own! *insert Whitney Houston song here* I am already researching on what recipe I should do first. I am not doing anything chocolate for my first try. I do not want to waste chocolates! :) I hope I won't turn my kitchen into a disaster area.

P.S. I was able to bring home a dozen of cupcakes. I gave it to my best friend and her mom as a gift. The banana cupcake was tasty but wasn't soft and moist. The classic chocolate was good for a first time (again) baker but still needs improvement. But most importantly, it was edible! Haha. :D

A Cake Dream

I am still up, reviewing for my business law midterm exam scheduled at ten in the morning later. For some ice breaker, I looked at the pictures posted in Instagram and saw a 'cupcake cake' by @doughnsugar. I want to have one on my birthday which is only a week from today.

While retweeting the post, it reminded me of one of my dreams - to learn how to bake. There were times when I was still in elementary (or maybe high school?), I would stay up late at night just to watch Heny Sison's TV show. Her cake decorating show sparked my interest in baking. If there are professionals I really look up to, they are chefs. Especially, pastry chefs.

As a high schooler, my favorite class was baking aside from drafting (I have even considered taking up architecture!) and algebra (I somehow hate it now which is a different story).

With no budget for an oven, materials/tools/utensils, and ingredients back then, there were just five instances when I tried to bake. Actually, two of those tries were no-bake.

My first two tries were during our baking class. With my group mates, we made a marble cake and peanut kisses cookies. The marble cake was okay but the icing/frosting was a failure. The cookies were a little toasted but still edible. However, we end up eating the kisses separately instead of it melting on top of the cookie.

At home, Mom usually buys me a box of no-bake brownies. It's just something you have to mix and chill. I used to use the ice trays so I don't have to cut them in cubes when they are set.

I also tried making a no-bake cheesecake when I was in college but Dad and I ended up just eating the crust and pour over it the cheesecake. Unfortunately, it didn't set because I bought the wrong all purpose cream.

The last try was when I baked a birthday cake using a microwave oven with two of my friends since college. The icing wasn't perfect but I was able to try writing the 'happy birthday' greetings on it.

I can't help but smile while reminiscing and writing this. I may not have the talent but I'm building up the passion. Learning to bake is still in my to-do list. Hopefully, soon.