Family and food

You know how it is said that "food brings people together"? So true.

When we went home to the Philippines, family members from both my husband's and my side went to great lengths to bring us food they knew we missed.  Everyday they would ask what else we wanted to eat (aside from what places we wanted to go to or what things we wanted to do).

Going back to Australia, I realized that we didn't really have to wait for many years till we can get to eat the same food again. I do know how to cook and we certainly have the resources here.

First thing I made was taho (warm silken tofu with brown sugar syrup and tapioca pearls).  We only had this once in my Dad's house as the street vendor didn't pass by regularly.  But growing up, this was a constant accompaniment to our breakfast. 

We've already made taho three times. My eldest son loves it.  If someone left even a bit on their cup, he would finish it off.  Even if it was cold. 

Next we thought of making hurricane popcorn.  This isn't Filipino food but my brother from Hawaii who was visiting the same time as us, gave us a box of this.  Definitely something different!  It's basically popcorn mixed with seasoned seaweed and rice crackers and flavoured with lots of butter.  

After we had finished all our hurricane popcorn packs, my daughter searched where we could buy them online.  Unfortunately, the only way was to order it from Hawaii. Next best thing of course was to just make it ourselves.  Easy and quite addicting!

Then there was ice buko with monggo (coconut ice pops with red mung beans).  We had this after my son's 19th birthday party.  On the way back to my Dad's house, we stopped by a small side street store to buy this. Making ice buko here at home was super great, especially since we had a terribly hot summer.

And then there was another refreshing dessert - buko pandan salad (creamy coconut pandan).  My youngest brother had this ready for us on our first night home!  Normally, this dessert isn't frozen (just chilled) but ever since a small Filipino family bakeshop (Nathaniel's) came out with a frozen version, that sort of became the standard to live up to.  Thus, I went the extra mile to make ours special as well.  I made my own vanilla ice cream to which I folded in the pandan jelly and young coconut cubes. Just as great, maybe even better!

I also experimented on making suman sa lihiya (sticky rice flavoured with lye water).  My mom used to order lots of these to give away every Christmas.  We would help arrange them in baskets then we would wrap the baskets in red or green cellophane all around.  

On our way to Tagaytay (south of Manila), we stopped by the eating places along the expressway to have breakfast and one of my brothers bought suman from one of the stalls outside McDonald's.  It was so yummy especially with the warm coconut jam sauce. My version wasn't as tasty though.  I think it's mainly because I used canned coconut cream instead of freshly squeezed and vacuum-packed banana leaves instead of newly-picked.  But hey, given my limited resources, it was certainly good enough.

Chocolate crinkles....we had these from the night we arrived till we left.  My husband's cousin even gave us hundreds of these to take back to Australia.  We just had to give away some or get sick of eating it.

All I can say, homemade is much better.

Last but certainly not the least, the ensaimada (Filipino version of a pastry/bread originally from Mallorca, Spain).  This is one food that my aunts never fail to bake for us.  Since I was a child, breakfast was always more special with this on the table.  They make the best ensaimada ever. Commercial ensaimadas definitely pale in comparison.  

With their recipe on hand, I finally tried to make ensaimada at home (after years of avoiding to).  Success on the first attempt!  I will be making these again for Easter Sunday.

So, do you agree that food brings people together?  To me, it is much, much more than that.  Making all this food didn't just satisfy my stomach but more importantly, they reminded me of the people I ate them with, the people I love the most.  And being reminded makes me happy each time.  It also makes me look forward to the next time I will get to be with them.  The food is just a sweet bonus.

As I am writing this, I'm thinking of what's the next thing to recreate....hmmmm.

Ice cream, anyone?

Do you make your own ice cream?  I never would have considered making ice cream myself had I not read about a cheese ice cream recipe a few days ago. You see, cheese ice cream is very popular in the Philippines and on our recent visit, it was on my son's checklist of "must food to eat" while there.  Unfortunately, he did not get the opportunity to do so.  While reading the recipe, I realized that ice cream was a great way to use leftover egg yolks (which I always have from making lot of Swiss meringue buttercream). So last Sunday, without any delay, off I went to get an ice cream maker.

The first flavour I tried was green tea.  My daughter and I love green tea but I knew it wasn't going to be well received by everyone in the family. I chose that flavour because I had matcha powder that was nearing it's expiration date. Might as well use it.

It was great but as expected, my three sons didn't quite like it.  I promised I would make something else the next day. (Actually, it was just an excuse for me.  I was too excited about using my new toy again!)

Who wouldn't like Cookies and Cream?  Surely, not my kids!  This ice cream was eggless and so very easy to make.  The Oreo cookies were from an opened box that no one wanted to finish off for sometime now.

It was gone in a flash!  My husband said it tasted just like commercial ice cream but I quickly dismissed him. saying that I didn't want it to taste that way. It's supposed to taste homemade!

You wouldn't think I'd just stop at two, would you?  Today, it was classic chocolate's turn.

This one was a little grainy as I didn't quite melt the chocolate properly. I think I was over excited to get it done.  Nobody seemed to care though.

Ok, ok, I'll stop at three for now.  I don't want my family to get sick of ice cream.  Besides, we've had some reprieve from the scorching weather that has been plaguing Melbourne for the last two weeks or so.  Cooler weather means we don't need to find ways to cool down as much too.

I am just so glad I tried ice cream making. I never would have thought I would ever do so.  It's so fun, it's like magic happening before your very eyes.  And the possibilities are endless. I'm sure I will get to make that cheese ice cream one day soon.

Cloning Mernel's chocolate cake

Recently, my online friend Mimi (whom I had a chance to finally meet in Singapore last January!) told me about a certain popular chocolate cake in the Philippines.  The cake is from a family-owned bakeshop located in a small town about two hours drive from Manila.  The shop seems to be so well-known nowadays that not only locals buy from them but even people from the metro.

The shop's name is Mer-nel's Cake House and their signature heart-shaped chocolate cake looks like this...

Image credit: Mernel's place FB page

Very simple and traditional, isn't it? Some people might not even be enticed just by looking at it.  From what I gather, the cake is chiffon, the icing is the soft and creamy type, the borders are made of boiled icing and the flowers from royal icing. That is basically all I know. I am not even sure if the cake indeed is chiffon.  Mimi doesn't know any better as she herself has not tasted the cake (although her family back home has).

The past couple of weeks have been spent experimenting on the chocolate icing as it appears to be the heart and soul of this cake. Every blog post, review or feature I found on the net is raving about it!  Mimi and I have been exchanging text messages, pictures of what we've made, our guesses, and observations.  Since Mernel's cakes are very cheaply priced, two of our assumptions were: 1) the ingredients used are not expensive; and 2) the process that goes into making this cake isn't complicated.  We musn't overthink it! Very little information can actually be found on the net about the icing as though it's really a guarded secret.  I did, however, find an article mentioning a specific condensed milk brand the cakeshop has been using and that was quite revealing (IF they're telling the truth).

This is like the caramel cake experience all over again.  I am again trying to recreate something I have not even tasted! It can be a frustrating exercise at times but persistence is the key, don't you think?

Anyway, about 3 tries and 3 recipes later, I am happy to share a cake that appears to have the look of Mernel's and possibly, the taste too...

I wanted to be true to the original so I made it heart-shaped as well.

See, the icing is combed at the top too!

The chocolate icing is really dark and shiny as it should be...

And the chiffon cake is a deep chocolate colour as well!

For now, this is as close as I can get.  Some of you might be asking, "Where's the recipe then?"  Well, hold on,  I am not sharing that just yet.  Here's the deal: I need people who have actually tasted this cake to tell me what the real thing is like. I need you to help me out here!  If you have something to share, please, please, leave a comment here.  Be as descriptive as you can. Any useful information will be appreciated.  Afterall, you my cake-loving readers, will benefit from this!  It will be another Filipino favourite we can conquer (after the ube, mocha, caramel cakes, among others).

I shall be waiting!  Till then, no more chocolate cakes for me please.

The Verdict

There were only a few specific things I wanted to do during our short holiday in the Philippines recently.  Apart from of course spending quality time with my family, I planned to buy books (they have big bookstores there unlike here!), visit a cake decorating supplies shop that I've only read about on the web, and lastly, finally taste an Estrel's caramel cake.

I had my brother order a cake in advance for my son's 19th birthday.  Our favourite family restaurant, which we booked for the celebration, was only a few blocks away from Estrel's.  

We got a 14x20 rectangular cake which turned out to be too big!

My verdict?  The cake was beautiful as expected, the chiffon really soft as it should be and the caramel icing smooth and creamy.  However, there was nothing spectacular with it at all.  I am not a fan of anything too sweet but to me, both cake and icing were very bland.  Being called a caramel cake actually seems to be a misnomer as there is very little, if at all, a caramel taste in the icing.  As you can see in the photo, the colour is rather pale, suggesting that the sugar wasn't caramelized very much. 

Would I eat it again? Probably, although it is not something I would crave for or look forward to when I go back to the Philippines in the future. Having said that though, I would still choose this cake over a fondant covered cake (even with the most impressive decorations) anytime! Being very old-fashioned, with it's smoothly poured icing and with each buttercream rose beautifully piped out, is I think, what primarily draws people to buying it again and again.

Would I say my version of the caramel cake is close? Yes, though a tad sweeter.  Is it better? Hmmm. Don't want to claim that out loud....

Anyway, I had a chance to make a caramel cake for a birthday a few days ago.  I purposedly cut some of the sugar from the icing just to see if it would become as pale as my son's cake.  It still turned out darker!

As far as the look is concerned, am I getting close? Afterall, it's been more than 2 years since I started experimenting on this cake!

The year that was all about baking (again)

I ended 2012 with a doll cake....

And started 2013 with vanilla macarons.

Nice, yeah? If I had to name one great baking achievement for me last year, it would hands down be conquering the macaron.

I know it's a cliche to say that time went by so fast.  But it is so true.  It really did.  For me, the year didn't go from day to day.  Or week to week......  It went from cake to cake.  My calendar was filled with what cake to bake on this day, what cake to decorate the next.  I hope that didn't sound like I was complaining.

We are going on a holiday overseas in less than 2 weeks so I have been forbidden by my family to make any more cakes till we get back.  I need a break.  I guess we all do.

Actually, I have not been feeling very well since yesterday.  A virus has been going around our family since before Christmas. So yes, a good rest is in order.

2012 was a terribly busy year.  I did not blog as much.  I don't even remember if I shared any new recipes or tutorials.  I think I did make two new patterns early on and that was about it (as far as sewing is concerned).  See? Can't even recall.  Everything seems such a blur.

The new school year commences as soon as we return from our trip.  We will have two graduations in the family this year, one from Year 12 and one from Year 6.  Those are certainly something to look forward to!

Hope you all had a great start to the year.  Will be back soon!

My Christmas Wish

Wish I could share this giant cupcake....

Wish I could send these macarons your way...

But since I just can't, I hope you will just take...

My very warmest greetings on this day of Jesus' birthday!

From my family to yours, have a blessed Christmas season.  May you all have joy, peace, love and hope for the coming new year!

Garlands

Recently, it was macarons.  Then it became the giant cupcake.  You know what my new favourite thing is?

Garlands!

I know it's quite old-fashioned (as far as cake decorating is concerned)....but it's definitely the new best thing for me!

First cake was for a 4-year old who wanted to be a princess in a pink gown with a white crown...

Then it was a wedding-style mocha cake.

And lastly, just today and as requested, I decorated this two-tiered Disney Princess-themed cake for a 15-year old birthday girl!

I think the garlands make the cake sides really pretty.  Don't you think so too?

Interested? All you need to make perfect, evenly spaced garlands is an inexpensive Wilton garland marker and a piping tip such as my ruffle tip #88. Try it sometime!