for donna and leny

1 batch for leny, 1 batch for donna and caloy

every cupcake batch has a story :)

this is a late present.  i have all the time in the world now!  i can bake, i can blog, i can walk again! 

belated happy birthday to donna & caloy and leny.

scribbles made of purple, orange, red colored cream cheese frosting.

originally, i wanted to make paisley designs.  pero dahil hindi ko alam ang tawag sa paisley kanina, i didn't know what to google.  in my head, i know it's the design we find in scarves, but i don't remember what they're called.  i thought it sounds like prairie, so i googled prairie.  kaso lang aso pala yun.  hahaha.  it's a good thing i didn't remember "paisley" kasi ang hirap palang gawin.  hahaha so sige scribbles na lang ulit.

next time, i'll try pastel colors... and paisleys! :)

for ahngel

for _____ ahngel

every cupcake batch has a story :)

i ran out of chocolate chips.  so colored frosting na lang.  

designs:

• checked
• swirly flowers
• time-space-warp-looking substance.  if design attempts go wrong, ang tanging remedyo na lang ay gulu-guluhin na lang ang design :)))

happy birthday, ahngel.  this batch is memorable.  there was a barter of cupcakes and good news. :)

for maria and ate a

1 batch for ate a, 1 batch for maria
happy birthday, girls!

every cupcake batch has a story :)

i told maria that i have a birthday gift for her, and that i wanted to give it to her.  we met during lunch break and i handed it to her.  she seemed happy :) i told her that because i am poor, all that i could afford to give is my effort.  sniff sniff.  pang famas.  hehehe.

red velvet, cream cheese frosting, pink and white sprinkles, melted chocolates for the scribbles.  i don't know what i was trying to do with the things at the top and bottom of "happy".  ginulo-gulo ko na lang tuloy.  hehehe.

for aldwin

kuya's midnight birthday cupcakes (for last july 13)

every cupcake batch has a story :)

kuya loves chocolates.

this is the 2nd time i baked this recipe.  first time was practice - a week before this occasion hehe.

chocolate cupcake, chocolate filling, chocolate ganache.  oa naman siguro kung white chocolate pa ang pang lettering?  so i made a tiny bit of buttercream.  i am aiming at light purple, but it turned out to be an awkward shade of white.

i also can't explain why i made a flower design for the piece that holds the candle.  witty ba?  pang boy?  hehehe

finally! chocolate cupcakes!

oh wow!  finally!  here's something that's not red velvet :)  kuya said that he will only eat chocolate cupcakes if they have chocolate filling.  wow, demanding!

i have tried one chocolate cupcake recipe before, but it tasted plain and milo-ish.  tipong sapilitan na kainin at lunukin.  aguy!  

i've searched and searched for a recipe that doesn't use butter.  i don't know.  there's something repulsive about butter.  maybe i'm thinking it's not healthy?  pero grabe nga naman ang sarap ng butter! i opt to use recipes that call for oil (canola or vegetable).  but who am i kidding?  is there ever a healthy cupcake recipe?  i think oil isn't healthy too.  neither are sugar and eggs.

i also prefer to use cake flour.  no special reason.  it's just the available flour at home :p

this recipe is supposed to have a cream marshmallow-like filling.  i used chocolate ganache instead.  and instead of heavy cream, i used evap.  hehe ang daming instead.  ako na kaya ang sumulat ng recipe??!?!?  hahaha. 

ok naman :) i think it tasted like swiss rolls.  there's chocolate ganache filling and topping na rin.  sayang naman ang ganache na natira.  ayus!  

julie's

and again, red velvet with cream cheese frosting and melted chocolates on top.  this set is supposed to be a welcome present for julie and jana, but julie had to extend her leave.  not a problem.  inubos na lang namin sa office.  hehe. 

these are soufflé cups.  the design is cute.  pink with white polka dots.  it's a great cupcake holder, but not so much if you don't have spoon.  unlike cupcake paper liners, it's very difficult to peel these off.  maybe because it's not meant to be peeled off. 

father's day cupcakes

red velvet cupcakes for the nth time.  patawad.  it's the only edible cupcake i know.  

we don't like vanilla.  i haven't found a good chocolate cupcake recipe yet.  so it's red velvet all the way.  white frosting is cream cheese.  since kuya loves chocolates, i used melted chocolate chips for the decors.  next time, i'll try the colored chocolate chips :) para mas colorful :)

mamon with keso

this is the 3rd time i tried this mamon recipe.  i read that you can use this as the base for krema de fruta. the recipe is crazy with egg whites.  i learned that the fluff is made of egg whites in general hehe.  so that's why it's so ampaw, it's just egg white bubbles :p and sugar.

if you make mamon, surely you can make leche flan with all the egg yolks you'll have. 

i remember my second attempt was a disaster.  i didn't know how to fold then.  so i just dumped all the flour in the egg white bubbles, mixy mixy nang onti, ayun.  marami pa palang flour lumps.  when we sliced the mamon (cake form sya noon) surprise, surprise!  raw flour lumps, pampagana!  hahaha.

the third trial was edible :) complete with cheese.  just don't expect it to make you full because it's just air, sugar, egg whites, and flour. 

mother's day cupcakes

again, red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for mother's day. 

this batch is for 4 great mothers i know.  my mom, my MIL, my SIL, my SIL's mom.

i find cream cheese frosting so endearing because i love the sour and sweet combination.  unlike buttercream that's just sweet (or i'm probably doing it the wrong way).  the problem i have with cream cheese is, i can't swirl it.  i don't know if it can be used for swirls, or maybe my consistency is just not right.  

i saw this design somewhere in the internet and i found it really cute.  just like coffee :)  the wonders a small toothpick can do!

wawi's birthday

when wawi visited us last april, we decided to give him a surprise-mini-belated birthday lunch.

i remember my first batch of red velvet cupcakes last year - it was a disaster.  it tasted like puto, had a very awkward shade of red/purple/pink, and is simply just a yucky substance.  such a waste. 

these are wawi's red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  we are not big fans of gabundok na frosting, so i just put a small amount on top and went wild with the decors. haha.  wild kung wild!  red velvet cupcakes are my first edible cupcakes from scratch.  i don't know if it tastes like red velvet because i haven't tasted any store-bought red velvet cupcakes yet.  they just look so fancy in internet pictures.  i had the biggest urge to try and do it myself.

well, wawi was surprised.  the set was complete - a good lunch, birthday cupcakes with a birthday candle, a birthday song, and lots of love.

sweet treats

some 15 years ago, mami and i marvelled at watching heny sison bake on tv. she did it all in a breeze - mixing, folding, decorating, ikaw na ang magaling! :)) i just wanted to watch her then. i never thought that i would try baking!



last year, april convinced kuya that we need an oven and an electric mixer. april and i have had an on and off relationship with baking. sometimes tsamba, sometimes it's just a plain disaster. there was a meringue that looked like slime, there was a sponge cake that had lumps of uncooked flour even after baking, there was mamon that tasted like egg whites. so weird! :))



i learned that baked goodies are so bad for you - with all that eggs, flour, butter, sugar. sugar is crazy! sugar is bad, all those ingredients are bad. it would be good if there were healthier substitutes/options simply because i feel good doing it :)



i learned that it's very difficult to substitute ingredients because using the wrong ones will affect the outcome big time, and that's in a bad way. unlike with cooking, you could always use any handy ingredient in your cupboard in the absence of hard-to-find (read: expensive) ingredients.



i learned that it's hard to estimate when you are a newbie. when it calls for 1 cup, it can't be 1.20! and when it calls for sifting, it means YOU HAVE TO SIFT. hindi pwede ang pwede na! :)) hindi pwede ang tamad!



and i still stand by my belief that as long as you can read, you can cook, and you can even bake! it's fun! here are some of my attempts:







upper left: banana chocolate cupcakes, recipe taken from home cooking rocks. please excuse the holes on the cupcakes. i used, ehem, chopsticks instead of toothpicks. we don't keep toothpicks in the house :p



upper right: revel bars (but in cupcake form), recipe taken from somewhere in the internet (can't remember where). it was a wish from mike. he said his, ehem, ex made the best revel bars during HS. revel bars are made of oatmeal-soft-batch-cookie-like stuff. there's a chocolate coating on the top. i like that it's like an energy bar (with all that sugar, who won't be energized?)



lower right: basic vanilla cupcakes, recipe taken from "bake, sell, give" magazine. it tastes a bit like mamon :) kulang na lang ay frosting, which leads me to...



lower left: an imbento recipe for icing that looked like neon pink paint. so annoying! :)) it was sent staight to the bin. sayang!



looking forward to more sweetness in life. ang sweeeeeet namaaaaan!