Cakes, cupcakes and more Cakes…

Since the beginning of the year I have been making an effort to make a cake or something like that whenever someone I love’s birthday comes. The past two months I have a couple of people in my family that had their birthday. Last month was my boyfriend, David, and my mom’s birthday.For my boyfriends birthday I made him a chocolate cake with whipped filling and covered with chocolate ganache. The cake reminded me of those hostess cupcakes. It was really delicious. I used boxed chocolate cake mix for the cake. For my mom’s birthday I made a Dulce de leche chocolate cake. Which was featured in my last blog entry.

In March for my sister Regin’s birthday I made S’more cupcakes. These cupcakes were a bit time consuming because there were so many steps that needed to be done. On the bottom of the cupcake there was a graham cracker crust and marshmallows and chocolate are spread through out the cake. I made the frosting more like a meringue.

And for my older sister Roan’s birthday I made a mocha cake based on the Goldilocks mocha cake. It was really good. The icing was not sweet. The only thing I should have probably done is used cake flour instead of regular all-purpose flour. Here is the link to the recipe: http://gourmeted.com/2010/10/13/mocha-cake-ala-goldilocks/

Dulce de Leche

For the past two weeks it was full of birthdays and occasions. There was Valentines Day, my babe's birthday, my mom's birthday and my best friend's birthday. All four occasions were filled with cakes and other kinds of desserts. For my mom's birthday i decided to make her a chocolate cake with dulce de leche filling. I have always liked caramel in my desserts, from chocolates with caramel filling, to Haagen Daz dulce de leche ice cream. So I thought I would try to make dulce de leche from scratch. The recipe I got was by Alton Brown. I never knew that dulce de leche was a long process to make. The entire process took me about 3 hours to do. Most of the 3 hours was spent standing by the pot and stirring it occasionally. The end result was good, but the caramel could have had a thicker consistency. I think next time though I should stick with a less time consuming and easier recipe.

Dulce de Leche

By Alton Brown

Time: 3 hours

Yield: 1 cup

* 1 quart whole milk

* 12 ounces sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups

* 1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

* 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

Combine the milk, sugar, vanilla bean and seeds in a large, 4-quart saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the baking soda and stir to combine. Reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered at a bare simmer. Stir occasionally, but do not re-incorporate the foam that appears on the top of the mixture. Continue to cook for 1 hour. Remove the vanilla bean after 1 hour and continue to cook until the mixture is a dark caramel color and has reduced to about 1 cup, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh strainer. Store in the refrigerator in a sealed container for up to a month.

Source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/dulce-de-leche-recipe/index.html

Easy Dulce de Leche

Ingredients:

1 (14 ounce/396 gram) can sweetened condensed milk

Instructions:

Put the can of sweetened condensed milk in a stock put and add cold water to cover. Bring the water to a boil and let boil for 1 hour and 45 minutes. Check the water level frequently to make sure it is always covering the can. Do not boil for more then 2 hours, or you will overcook the dulce de leche and run the risk of exploding the can.

Using tongs, occasionally turn the can to stir the milk.

Remove the can from the water and let cool to room temperature. Transfer the caramelized milk to an airtight container, cover, and store in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Makes 1 3/4 cups.

STORING DULCE DE LECHE:

If not using the dulce de leche immediately, you may store it, tightly covered, in the refrigerator for at least a month.

Source: http://www.dianasdesserts.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/recipes.recipeListing/filter/dianas/recipeID/2826/Recipe.cfm

Pavlova

For the past few years during Christmas time, my uncle would always reserve the egg whites whenever he makes his special Leche flan. He would often ask me if I want to do something with the egg whites instead of throwing them away. In the last couple of years I have always made meringues with them. But this year I thought I would make something different. I was looking through the joyofbaking.com and I came across Pavlova, which is a merengue-based dessert with whipped cream and fruit topping. It was a very light dessert to contrast with the other filling dishes that were being served.

When I brought this dish to my uncle’s house for Christmas Eve dinner it caused a discussion between my sister and my cousin about the origin of Pavlova. They said that Pavlova sounded like a Russian ice skater’s last name. I did some research about it and I found out that the Pavlova was actually named after a 1930s Russian ballet dancer named Anna Pavlova. So they were really close with their guesses. The Pavlova was a hit with my family and was requested again for New Years.

You can get the recipe from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/Pavlova.html

Apple Crumble

Wow it's been a long time since I last blogged. So to make up for it I thought I would start back up with a simple recipe to get me back in the grove of posting again. A few days ago we went to my uncle's house to watch the fight between Manny Pacquio and Antonio Margarito. Pacquio fights had become a special event in in the Filipino culture especially in my family. In every fight that Pacquio has had we always have a little gathering at my uncle's house. For the fight against Margarito I decided to make apple crumble. I've made the apple crumble a lot of times this year and each time I would tweak the recipe a little so that all the flavors are balanced.


The first time I made this recipe was a trial run at home. My Dad brought home a ton of granny smith apples and he asked me what I can do with the apples. I looked online for a recipe that was easy to make and that didn't require to much ingredients. On the original recipe unsaid to use white sugar forthe crust. But on the second time I made this recipe I only had brown sugar in stock. The outcome was good. It gave the crumble a butterscotch taste to it. So when I made it again for the Pacquio fight I put a half cup of white sugar and a half cup of brown sugar to add a butterscotch flavor to the crumble. All in all the apple crumble was a success. Al though it would've been better with ice cream everyone enjoyed it.


Apple Crumble. Serves 8
11 apples
2 tablespoon water
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons cinnamon

Topping:
1 1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cups butter

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheit
2. Peel and core the apples
3. Thinly slice the apples and put them in a pan
4. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and the water
5. Cook the apples until it's a little soft
6. Put the apples in a baking dish
7. For the topping mix together the white sugar, brown sugar and the flour together
8. Then with you hands mix in the butter until it has a bread crumb consistency. You can also use a food processor, a fork or a pastry blender.
9. Put it in the oven for 40 minutes or until the topping is golden brown

Mini Red Velvet Cupcakes for your honey?

Hey guys!

Valentine's Day is coming up in less than two weeks. Do you already have something to give to your valentine this year? If you want a yummy present to give to that special person just message me and place your orders. This year I will be making MINI red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting that kinda looks like this but MINI version:

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3281/2722561177_77731d28d9.jpg)

I will be selling it for $5.00 for a dozen. So just email me or leave me a message on facebook to place your orders. The last day for orders will be on February 10 if you want your cupcakes to be delivered to you by Valentine's day. Orders can only be from San Jose area.

(http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/images/c/cupid_valentine-11814.jpg)

Chicken Parmesan Tenders With Pasta

Tonight I had to make dinner for my family that was fast and something that they havent eaten in a while. I also had limited ingredients so i really had to pick the right recipe where i had most of the ingredients. I looked inside the cupboards and saw a jar of marinara sauce. I decided to make spaghetti.



I had two choices of meat either ground beef or chicken. Lately I've been wanting to make Chicken Parmesan, so i thought tonight would be a good night to make some. I had all of the ingredients except for mozzarella. Then i remembered watching an episode of Giada De Laurentis' show, Giada at home. In that episode she made Chicken Parmesan tenders as an appetizer without using mozzarella. After breading the chicken and frying it, i cooked some pasta and heated up the marinara sauce. I mixed the pasta and marinara sauce together and placed the chicken Parmesan tenders on top. Everybody loved it.....well except for my sister who wanted cream sauce instead of marinara sauce. But its alll gooooooood!

Apple turnover

A couple of weeks ago me and my family went on a vacation to Arnold city, California. On our way back we stopped by at this little store where they sold apple cider and a few apple pastries. My mom bought these amazing apple turnovers with frosting drizzled on top and almonds. The filling was delicious. The apples were so sweet.



Unfortunatly I wasn't able to get the name of the store and Arnold city is about 3 hours drive from where I lived. So I decided to replicate these amazing apple turnovers. I used store bought puff pastry and green apples for the filling. I also drizzled frosting on top and added sliced almonds. My family loved it so much that it was gone within an hour. It tasted just like the ones from Arnold city. Yummm!!