My life in the last 1 1/2 months

It seems to me that nowadays,  I always have to start my blog post by apologizing for being away for a long time.  I don't want to do that all the time but guess what?  I just did again!  I wish I had exerted more effort in telling you about the interesting things I have done in the last couple of months...not when I've nearly forgotten about them but when they were still very fresh in my memory.

The school holidays ended just over a week ago and two of my kids are back in school and the two older ones still waiting for theirs to start.  Now that I think about it, no matter how really long it was in reality, the holidays still felt like they just came and went.  My only brother with me here in Australia left for the US in early December with his family while a lot of our friends also spent Christmas elsewhere.  Poor us!  We felt so alone in what's supposed to be the most joyous time of the year.  We invited a Filipino family over for dinner shortly after the 25th to have some company.  It gave me the chance to make some cathedral windows, something I haven't made in such a long, long while.  Now I remember why I love this dessert so much.

It's so beautiful, isn't it?

Not to be entirely left behind, my family did have a short getaway at Phillip Island after New Year.  For those who do not know, Phillip Island is a famous destination here in Victoria.  It is south of Melbourne, about 2 hours drive from our home. 

This is where I was on my birthday!

We spent 3 days and nights there.  The best part of the trip for me was witnessing the penguin parade.  What amazing creatures those penguins are! Too bad, photography wasn't allowed.  Apart from watching the penguins, seeing a kangaroo actually crossing the road was an experience in itself!

Also in January, my eldest son Francis turned 20.  Yes, 20! I could hardly believe it myself.  Last year, at about that time, we had just arrived in the Philippines from Singapore.  We celebrated his 19th birthday with a cake from Estrel's, remember?.  This year, I thought of replicating that cake in a smaller size.

The lengthy holidays also gave me the opportunity to sew.  Yes, you read that right.  I sewed.  With the summer weather becoming extremely hot (especially during the Australian Open), I quickly whipped up three pairs of shorts for me.  I also drafted a pattern for Envirosax-inspired bags and made two.  I used an actual Envirosax bag to make my pattern so they are exactly the same size, shape and make as the original one.  Yey for more shopping bags!

The blue one is made of ripstop nylon while the printed one is actually from an unused shower curtain!

I've been contemplating on making instructions for this but since the pattern is huge, I still have think about how I am going to cut it up to make it printable.  Stay tuned for that (no promises though!).

Let me see...hmmm, what else?  Oh, I also tried baking something new.  I made coffee buns for one. They're delicious but I think I would rather buy them than go through all the hassle of making them myself.  Too many steps!

Another thing I learned to make in recent times was the San Nicolas cookie,  a popular and traditional cookie from the province of Pampanga (where my father is from) in the Philippines.  A friend had sent me a wooden mould and just a day after I received it, I gave it a go.

The cookies looked stunning, with the imprint of the Virgin Mary carrying the baby Jesus, very evident.   However, they didn't appeal to my children that much, with my youngest commenting that it was too plain-tasting.  Couldn't contend with that because it was actually true.

My experience in making the San Nicolas cookie led to me to search for cookie moulds on the internet. This brought me to a most beautiful discovery - the springerle cookie.  The cookie moulds are just to die for!  I wasted no time and ordered a couple (and was sent a free tiny mould too!). Took me a while to try making the cookies but finally found time last week.  I will make the chocolate variation next!

Here are the uncooked cookies being air-dried before baking.  Just look at those details.

Aren't those just the most amazing looking cookies?

How about cronuts (or zonuts, as Adriano Zumbo calls them here)?  Taste Magazine featured Mr. Zumbo's recipe for his zonuts in its maiden issue in September. A little daunting but it wasn't something I was afraid to try.  Sadly, my attempt on making them proved to be a disaster. 

Everything went well in the beginning but I soon found out that making a butter-rich dough was a big no-no in very hot weather!  As the cut cronuts were sitting to rise before frying, the butter within the layers of dough started melting.  I wonder if I should have just let them rise slowly in the fridge?  Because the butter melted, the layers of dough separated upon frying.  I only got a few pieces done that actually resembled cronuts.  Seeing the amount of butter oozing out of each cronut actually turned me off from ever trying this again.

Speaking of Taste Magazine, I entered their Cook the Cover competition in November.  It was for ice cream sandwiches.

Unfortunately, I didn't win :(.  However, when I bought the January issue not long after, I found a really pleasant surprise!

The magazine printed my photo!  There were just 8 entries chosen, 2 of which were the winners.  I was quite elated and felt that I had somehow won too :).  Now I'm inspired to join again!  Maybe I'll even be luckier the second time around.

Last but not the least, let us not forget more cakes!  There were so many but my latest favourite are these two, quite identical, baptismal cakes, one for a baby girl and the other for a baby boy.

The gumpaste babies were made using a First Impressions mould.  I loved using it.  The babies were just so life-like!

Well, this is quite a long post now and hopefully, more than makes up for my away time. I hope that even if I didn't share a recipe or a tutorial here, the many things I shared will be enough to interest you in learning a new skill or in exploring something unfamiliar to you. 

That's about how my life has been in the last 1 1/2 months in a nutshell.  That, plus watching every single episode of The Big Bang Theory!  Till next.  Enjoy the rest of your week.

Merry Christmas!

From my family to yours, 

Have a Blessed Christmas!

Thank you so much for a great (blogging) year!

Arrowroot (Uraro) Cookies

Uraro or arrowroot cookies are common giveaway treats in the Philippines.  As the name suggests, these cookies are made from arrowroot flour which gives them their distinct delicate and powdery texture.  This year, as part of my homemade presents, I baked a batch of these cookies and packaged them in pretty Christmas cookie tins I found at ALDI.

A cookie press is ideal to use for the arrowroot cookie dough.  I pressed mine into Christmas tree shapes!

While these cookies are simple and easy to make and are very inexpensive, I know that the labour that goes with baking from scratch and packaging them beautifully, with the recipient in mind, is incomparable to any store-bought present. Don't you think so?

Perhaps you still have time to make them for someone this Christmas or if you don't, anytime is perfect anyway!  Try it sometime.

ARROWROOT (Uraro) COOKIES (makes 100+ pieces)

Ingredients:

3 1/3 cups arrowroot flour**

1 cup plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup butter, softened

1 cup granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon maple flavouring

2 large eggs, room temperature

**if you cannot find arrowroot flour, cornstarch is an excellent substitute.

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).

In a large bowl, whisk together the arrowroot flour, plain flour, and baking powder.

In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then add in the maple flavouring.

Beat in the eggs one at a time.

Gradually beat in the flour mixture.  Stop mixing as soon as everything has come together cohesively.

Press cookie dough onto ungreased baking sheets. (If you don't have a cookie press, just roll the dough into one inch balls then press with a fork.)

Bake the cookies for about 15 minutes.  Let them cool on the sheet for about  5 minutes, then carefully move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Made without the use of a cookie press.

Keep in cookie tins or airtight containers. Yummy!

Perfecting the Red Velvet Cupcake (Part 2)

When I first started making cream cheese frosting, it was always on the soft side. I would either have to work fast before the frosting completely melted or I would ditch piping swirls and instead just make simple round blobs.

A lot of people recommend adding more powdered (icing) sugar to frosting until you get a consistency stiff enough for piping.  As if powdered sugar didn't have any taste!  Adding more sugar = more sweetness.  Not good.

More powdered sugar is NOT the answer.  While most recipes will tell you to use softened cream cheese, I've discovered that if you use it straight from the fridge, you will end up with stiff frosting that's perfect for piping.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
(Will frost about 20 cupcakes)

Ingredients:
1 bar (250g) cream cheese, cold, cut up into small cubes
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered/icing sugar, sifted

Procedure:

In a medium bowl, beat the butter for a few seconds.  Add in the cubed cream cheese and vanilla extract.

Beat until combined.

Add powdered sugar in 3 additions.  Beat only until the mixture is smooth.  Overbeating will make the frosting go soft.

Now you have stiff cream cheese frosting that's perfect for piping those high swirls!  Easy.

Top with sprinkles then it's done.  Perfect!

Ready to bake?  Red velvet cupcake recipe can be found here.

Perfecting the Red Velvet Cupcake (Part 1)

My family is absolutely sick of red velvet cupcakes.  Even the mere sight of them.  I think we got tired of the cupcakes more from seeing them so often in our kitchen rather than from actually eating them.

I baked plenty of ugly red velvet cupcakes in the beginning - sunken centers, lopsided tops, overflowing, cracked domes, etc.  Many bakers (even professionals!) say it doesn't matter what the top looks like because you are going to cover it up with frosting anyway.  I don't agree.  I needed to find out how to do it right.  The first step, of course, was to find the "best" recipe.

If you type in "best red velvet recipe" on Google, you will get countless matches. The label "best" is very relative after all.  I did a Google search a few years ago and it led me to this recipe.  It is the one I have been using ever since.  I like that it uses butter rather than oil as I find cupcakes with oil too wet, moist and heavy.  A minor change I have done was lessening the red food colouring to 40 mls (from 60 mls or 2 oz). 60 mls just seemed too much for me. One thing I'd also like to mention is that I have been strict with using only real buttermilk.  I found that when I used a substitute of milk and vinegar or lemon juice, the result wasn't as good.  But that's probably just me.

Having a good recipe is not the be all and end all.  Correct technique is as essential.  To help you make great red velvet cupcakes, I will show you a step by step plus give you some tips!  NOTE: I will not write the recipe here.  It is not mine.  Personally, I don't like it when people copy my recipes onto their own websites.  Even with a link back, if the recipe is already here, then there is no reason for you to check out the link, is there?  Having said that, I urge you to head on over to Pinch My Salt when you're ready to bake.

Here goes!

1.  Mixing the dry ingredients.

Sift the cake flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa powder together into a bowl then use a whisk to combine thoroughly and to aerate.  Note that I mix in the cocoa powder at this point instead of with the red food colouring (as stated in the original recipe).

2.  Creaming the butter and sugar.

New bakers usually get confused as to what "creaming" means.  It simply means beating the butter and sugar together until it becomes light and fluffy and the colour becomes a very pale yellow.  Start at a slow speed then gradually increase to medium high. If you use caster sugar, the process will be shorter as the sugar dissolves more quickly into the butter.

TIP: If the weather is cold and your butter and sugar is taking forever to reach that fluffy texture, try hovering a hair dryer on low setting over your bowl.  This will warm up your butter and bowl and will speed up the process.  Trust me, I do this all the time.  Just be careful not to melt it!

3.  Adding eggs, vanilla extract and red food colouring.

Add the eggs one a time.  Beat at medium-low speed only. Add the red food colouring gradually with mixer speed down to low.

4.  Adding the flour mixture and buttermilk.

With mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Do this in three additions and mix only until combined. You may find that the flour mixture has a tendency to fly all over the place so it is a good thing to probably cover the mixer bowl with a tea towel before you turn the mixer on.

5.  Mixing the baking soda and vinegar.

When you mix these two ingredients together, the mixture should fizz and foam.  If it does not, your baking soda must be old.  Discard and quickly buy new baking soda!  Better yet, if you haven't used your baking soda in a while, check it first before even thinking about baking,.

6.  Final mixing.

After you have poured the baking soda/vinegar mixture in, beat your cake batter for about 30-40 seconds only.  The longer you beat, the tougher your cupcake will become.

7.  Filling your cupcake cases.

The best way to ensure your cupcakes will be the same size, more or less, is to use a 2" ice cream scoop.

You will be able to make about 20-22 cupcakes.

8.  Baking.

Check your oven's accuracy with an oven thermometer.  Bake your cupcakes in the middle rack, one tray at a time.  You can also turn your trays around halfway through to ensure even baking.

Following the steps and tips I have outlined here, you will hopefully get beautiful-looking and wonderful tasting cupcakes like these.

PERFECT!

NEXT TIME - Part 2: The cream cheese frosting

In My Absence

I know it's been a month.  Sometimes when there's just too much going on, it's when you don't know what to write about. Ironic, isn't it?

In September, I started selling cakes again. I promised I would be taking it easy this time around but well, who does ever keep promises?  I started slowly but things quickly picked up when people heard I was back. So here I am again, making lots of ube and caramel cakes, cupcakes, macarons, and even when I said, I would say no to customized cakes, I still did a few.  Here are just some of them.

I reckon this is the best rendition of my caramel cake so far.

Nutella macarons.

Peanut butter macarons.

Baby shower banana cupcakes.

Red velvet birthday cupcakes.

Despicable Me-themed birthday cake.

Trash pack-themed cake.

I got sick too.  I had flu-like symptoms for a week.  Started with a really bad sore throat, back and headaches then later progressed to coughing and losing my voice.  But who gets to rest?  Not me.  I literally lived on Panadol, Strepsils, Vitamin C, and sore throat gargle. It was the only way I could get through the sickness without lying down to recuperate.

Fortunately, I was back to my healthy self by last week.  Last Saturday was my youngest son's 12th birthday.  We don't usually throw birthday parties but since Matthew's the youngest, he's had the privelege of inviting friends over for the last 4 years. It was kind of a bittersweet celebration for me knowing this would be the last time we would be having a children's party for our kids.

Oh yes, the birthday cake.  After contemplating on making a Pokemon-themed cake (as Matt's birthday present was the new Pokemon Y 3DS game), I decided to try something different. Matthew thought it was so cool.  So did his friends!

An ombre cake in shades of green! 

I learned this frosting technique from YouTube.  It took a lot of effort but the result was truly lovely, don't you think?

The cake is Buko Pandan.  I must say I didn't only enjoy staring at this cake, I liked eating it too!

I made black bottom cupcakes and macarons as well.

Just as I am writing this, there's an ube cake baking in the oven.  I have more to do this week.  I am not complaining. Just praying that I will always be able to do my best (and that I won't get sick again).

Well, that's about it for now.  I hope to be back real soon.  If I don't, at least you know, there's a lot going on around here that's keeping me away from the keyboard.  The list of things to do just never ends.

Have a good week!



PS.  By the way, for those interested to buy the printed Frosted Heaven book from BLURB, use the promo code OCTOBER20 at the checkout to get a 20% discount. Code valid only until the end of the month.

Look!

... at what I recently got in the mail!

Printed copies of my book!  I ordered a few to send to my family. One copy is for my aunties, to whom I dedicated the book. Only 2 out of the 5 sisters are remaining and my aunt, the baker, is already 89 years old. I am excited for her to know how she has passed on the love of baking to me.  

I wish I could have more copies printed out but the cost is just too much.  Even with the least expensive option - softcover and standard paper, it is still very pricey.  The book quality is alright but I find the photos, including the cover, rather dark.  (It is not really as bright as it appears in the photo above.)  Overall though, I am still very happy to see my hard work published and bound :).

Last Saturday, it was my youngest son's Confirmation.  I chose to make him an old-fashioned chocolate cake.  I had the book open while I was making it, just to make sure I was doing everything according to instructions!

I reckon I did a fairly accurate job!

Many people are asking me for the recipe of this particular cake.  Unfortunately, I cannot share it here as I had already indicated before that it will only be shared in the book.  Only fair to those who have already purchased it, right?

If anyone wishes to get the printed book instead of the eBook, the BLURB BOOKSTORE is offering a 20% discount till the end of September. Just enter the code SEPTEMBER20PERCENT at the checkout.  Otherwise, you can get the eBook from here, if you haven't done so already. 

Enjoy the rest of the week!