Dodged Valentine's Day: Carrot Cake with Thin Cream Cheese Frosting

I dodged Valentine's Day for the past 2 years. You can always tell and teach yourself to be happy with your SINGLE self for 364 days but not on Valentine's Day. Its the day that reminds you of your incomplete life no matter how jaded and bright your life is, its true that its really nice to have someone in your life other than your cute and chubby yellow labrador. Enough of the hypocrisy. Its sad being single on Valentine's Day. For a pride-driven woman like me its a brave thing to say and admit.

So its okay to sulk and get bitter today... its the human side of us. And its really okay to have a slice of uber moist and uber dense and ridiculously delicious Carrot Cake slathered thinly with creamy and rich Cream Cheese Frosting. Eat it with a small spoon and a glass of cold full cream milk... you wont have a romantic Valentine but a slightly better one.

* Good thing the Boston Celtics won today or else today will feel like "the day you had your wisdom tooth pulled out day".

There will always be next year... who knows?... and tomorrow its just another non-Valentines day. Back to my happy self.


" Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead. "
                                                              -Someone Like You

Taking the less traveled road: Ube-Coconut Cake

I often take the road less traveled even though I always get into trouble by doing that. Sometimes I drive kilometers and kilometers of empty but seem to be so promising road but end up in a road block with No Entry sign, but there are days too that I choose to take a dark and scary street but end up in my destination on time. Its just me and my passion for discovering things in my own way.

Baking is just like that too. If you stick to the old and comfortable techniques you will end up with mediocre cakes and pastries. But if you are brave enough to try and explore new things you will always come up with brilliant and authentic texture, flavor, design, etc .

For my birthday I was planning to do a Halo-Halo Cake, yep the halo-halo concoction of ube, langka(jackfruit), macapuno (sweetened young coconut),etc... but a day before I planned to bake my cake my langka turned grey in the fridge, maybe it wasn't tightly sealed. So I brainstormed on what to do.... I decided to do ube-coconut cake, thinking ube-macapuno is way overrated.

I made my Ube Cake adapted from this site but i kinda tweaked the recipe to suit my taste. The frosting is fluffy and really light pandan-flavored whipped cream and coated with aromatic toasted coconut. Piping and border is halayang ube buttercream made from scratch, topped with "halayang ube toblerone". 

This cake is light, creamy, 'ube-riffic', and smells really good. The smell is heavenly tropical. This is the kind of cake you want to eat in the beach. 

For your pandan whipped cream, whip your cream until its in soft peaks add some icing sugar, then the pandan essence (choose a good brand, the one thats not too strong, Ferna is good), add more icing sugar until stiff peaks and you have your desired sweetness.

The aromatic toasted coconut is just dessicated coconut toasted over low fire until the aroma is released then I let it cool then I mixed in a tablespoon of icing sugar.

Lastly, the ube halayang buttercream from scratch... I made my own halayang ube (its a long prcess just ask your mom or your grandma for the recipe)... so I first whipped my butter until its light and fluffy then fold in the halayang ube the added the icing sugar, add some violet food color to tint the buttercream. 

GARNISH: (Ube Toblerone)

Spoon some halayang ube with a tablespoon of melted butter and corn syrup to a cling wrap shape it into a long triangle log just like a toblerone then freeze it for thirty minutes. You can slice it into triangle shapes for garnish.

I know my cake looks pretty. HAH! But smell it and you will get hooked! So next time make sure that your cake doesn't only looks and tastes good make sure that its smells good too!


" We’ve all heard the warnings and we’ve ignored them. We push our luck. We roll the dice. It’s human nature. When we’re told not to touch something we usually do even if we know better. Maybe because deep down, we’re just asking for trouble. "

Be inspired: Bake some Dinner Roll

Bought FOOD Magazine February Issue, got inspired by their articles about bread, so I made some dinner rolls today... actually a one large dinner roll... american loaf size.

I followed their ingredients but didn't follow their procedure... I made it in my own "artisan" way. It means I didn't use any machines... I kneaded the dough with utmost care and passion. And let it rise to its heart's content. As a baker I find a high by doing this.  

Bread making is kinda complex than baking cakes, you have to know your ingredients well and how does it react with other ingredients and if you plan to knead it by your hands and not by mixer you should have the right rhythm and pulse.  

If you can perfect making a dinner roll then you can do anything in the world of breads, from cheese rolls to pan de sal to ensaymada to cinnamon rolls to anything. 

Let me share to you how to do this Dinner Roll:

Basic Soft Dough Recipe

1 cup milk, room temperature
1 1/2 eggs (if you ask me how to have a 1/2 egg, weigh your eggs, 1 egg with shell is 57 grams so 1 1/2 egg is 85.5 grams)
2 3/4 teaspoon yeast
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter, softened

3 cups bread floorMix in a bowl the flour, yeast, sugar, and salt. Set Aside.  Whisk together your eggs and milk, do not beat. Add this to the flour mixture. mix thoroughly using your floured hands, add more flour gradually  when your mixture is too wet. When your dough forms add the butter. Knead dough in a lightly greased surface until its smooth and elastic, your dough is ready after 10 minutes of kneading that's around 150- 200 strokes.

Gather your dough and place it in a large greased bowl, cover with cheese cloth. Let it rise until the dough reaches its edge. You will know and see that it  reached its peak size, sometimes it takes 4 hours. Take your time do not rush the dough. 

Punch down and form it to the shape you want it to be. Place it in your desired greased baking pan. And let it rise for the second time, an hour will do. Brush the top with egg wash (milk+egg yolk). Bake for 20 minutes at 177 degrees Celsius. 

You can use this recipe to make your cinnamon rolls, raisin bread, ensaymada...etc

So if you plan to bake a really good bread... take your sweet time.

" There don’t have to be harps playing or birds singing or pose petals falling from the sky… And there are definitely days when the romance is dead. But if you look around, things are pretty amazing. So stop for a second. Enjoy the beauty. Feel the magic. Drink it in. ‘Cause it won’t last forever. The romance will fade. Things will happen. People will change. Love will die. But… maybe not today. "

Tart and Easy: The Best Lemon Pie

Sunday Family Lunch is usually made up of rich foods, its good to have something sweet in a non cloyingly way, something that cleanse and refreshes the palate to end the meal. I'm a fan of citron based desserts  I can make a Lemon Meringue Pie in my sleep, actually I can make a mean one by just using an oven toaster. Today. I decided to make a Lemon Cream Pie. Its fast and really easy. Did I mention its to-die-for good? :P

You will need a pre-baked pie crust (I made mine from scratch), 2 juicy lemons( squeeze and strain the seeds), 400ml of condensed milk, a teaspoon of vanilla essence (filling), 2 large eggs, a cup of whipped cream, vanilla beans/essence, and half a cup of icing sugar. Optional: Lemon Zest.

Stir in the eggs (one at a time) to your condensed milk, do not beat just stir until the egg is incorporated and the mixture is smooth and creamy-looking. Add the vanilla essence and the lemon juice to the milk mixture, whisk until well combined then pour to the pre-baked crust. Brush the edges of the crust with egg wash. Bake at 175 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes or until the filling is firm near the crust but the center still jiggles. When its done let it cool.

Prepare the whipped cream. Whip the cream until soft peaks add the icing sugar a little at a time then add the vanilla beans/essence. Use this as pie's topping. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving. You can sprinkle Lemon Zest if you like it to be more tart.

TIP: Refrigerate the Lemon Cream Pie with your "discarded lemons used in this recipe". They still retained their smell, the whipped cream topping absorbs the lemon scent, making your pie more "sweet lemon smelling". 

" They say the bigger your investment the bigger your return. But you have to be willing to take a chance. You have to understand you might lose it all. But if you take that chance, if you invest wisely, the payoff just might surprise you. "