Best and Pretty Ever Carrot Cake

I can still remember the day of my very first carrot cake, it was dry outside but still " fresh batter" inside. It was discouraging. The only good thing about that day is my baking teacher ( a brilliant one!) taught me about marzipan (marzipan is the yummier, more feasible and cheaper sister of fondant). This is one cake that is so simple to do but finding the right proportions is so hard....

After a dozen of testing recipes from books, online, magazines, product inserts... I came across this one. It was a jackpot. The carrot cake was super moist. Really its super moist and the flavors are well balanced especially the sweetness.

I used cream cheese frosting all over. Planned to put marzipan carrots on top but realized I ran out of icing sugar, so I just settled for walnuts. 

Best Carrot Cake Recipe

Shredded Carrots 1 cup
Brown Sugar 1 1/4 cup
Eggs 5 large eggs
Vanilla Essence 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon Powder 1 tsp
Baking Soda 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder 1 tsp
Plain Flour 2 cups
Corn Oil 1 cup
Raisins 1/3 cup ( I omitted) and replaced with Walnuts
Pineapple,crushed 1 small can, drained

Grease and line one 9 inch round pan. Sift all dry ingredients and set aside. Whisk oil and sugar together until smooth. Add eggs one   at a time, then add the vanilla essence. Fold in carrots, pineapples and raisins/walnuts until evenly incorporated. Add the flour mixture a little at a time until just well combined. DO NOT OVER MIX and NEVER OVER BEAT especially if you are using stand mixers. Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes. 325*F. ENJOY! Frost with your favorite cream cheese/butter cream frosting. 


When we follow our hearts, when we choose not to settle, it’s funny isn’t it? A weight lifts. The sun shines a little brighter and for a brief moment at least, we find a little peace.

Welcome 2013: The Awesome Blueberry Cheesecake

Thank you 2012. Hello 2013. My new year baking resolution is to make more beautiful, simple and elegant cakes. I promise not to go "piping-happy"... pipe here pipe there pipe everywhere. RIDICULOUS ME. I know. and please lesser floral cakes.

As you can see I changed my blog's name. Its a new year thing. Why celestial? Its my favorite brand of tea ( Celestial Seasonings ), a cup of Tension Tamer or Apple Cinnamon paired with my baked goodies is enough to send you floating across the Milky Way. 

This year will be fun and prettier. I promise.

So to welcome the 2013 right I made a classic Blueberry Cheesecake. A good Blueberry Cheesecake should have balance and smoothness. Balance wherein you can taste the nutty and buttery crust, the silky and creamy cheese cake, and sweet n' tart tinge of blueberry topping. Smoothness in the sense that the cheese cake should not be "rough sweet" and has no lumps. The only texture that you can feel should only come from the blueberry and the crust.

Thanks to Excelle Elite Non-Stick Wilton Heart Tart Pan, its really foolproof. no need to grease the sides, it comes out perfectly. It really is heart shaped.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! Wishing you all a fruitful and healthy 2013.

A Happy New Year to Everyone: This Page will be under Construction

This page will resume Saturday 6:00 AM, Philippine Time.

Simpler. Sweeter. under our New Name: Celestial Cakes. Same baker just better.  

Christmas Morning: Strawberry Shortcake

There is something magical about Christmas mornings. The cool breeze in my window is softer, the wind chime's klink and klank induces peaceful euphoria, and you can hear the church mass from your bed in hushed sounds... you know instantly the your home and its Christmas Day. Its the same feeling the I have about Christmas mornings since I was a child. 

Your mind is still abuzz from all the food and the laughters from Christmas Eve. But Christmas mornings is greeted with a silent smile in your face.

Our traditional Christmas Media Noche is the same since time in memoriam. The creamy Spaghetti loaded with ground beef and hotdog topped with thickly grated cheese... the epic Chicken Macaroni Salad with too much chicken shreds, too much boiled eggs, too much pineapple tidbits, too much of everything... the gigantic Morcon well only in our house morcons are as big as cake rolls... and the centerpiece Christmas Ham, this year its from a local mall here last year was Adelina's. For dessert ofcourse its my....STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE. 

Simple, fluffy, very buttery (I used Elle et Vire French Butter for the butter cake, pure Anchor for the Strawberry Buttercream Icing), very rich... It was tilting a little I was too tired to trim the cake flat (bulk orders hang-over kicking in)... I just frost it altogether roughly and piped spontaneous ruffle borders and its done!

This was the Christmas Morning leftover. and it didn't survive for Christmas Lunch. 


I’ll admit the Romans had a point. You gotta live life and living means that every morning when you wake up you have to choice. Between ceasing what life offers in moment and forging ahead no matter the weather or closing the curtains and shutting out the day. " Carpe Diem"

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
                                                     -claudine

The very buttery Butter Cake

Its something so simple but its something so special that you cant stop eating it. Smell it before you take a bite... it will make a lot of difference. Rich. Very Buttery. Soft. Fluffy. and Addicting.

The Angry Bird Cake

My Angry Birds Cake is imperfectly cute. This is all buttercream except for the bird. The flowers are  painstakingly piped a day before and kept frozen for easy arrangement. Im not a fan of royal icing flowers, I love the beauty of the curves of buttercream flowers. 

There is no Wilton Rose (sorry to my wilton instructor, still you are the best), there is only My Rose, you have to practice piping flowers often you have to discover your "flow", its your way, it will be your piping penmanship. I discovered mine after 3 months of wasting icing sugar and shortening. No joke, its numbing, but seeing your first perfect flower is heaven. Dont be disappointed if you cant even pipe a bud, it takes a lot of time and patience. I have a lot to learn in piping, its a never ending process of failures and discovery.

PIPE AWAY!

 "Life is like buttercream its the most fragile, 

unstable, unpredictable thing there is." 

Milk Chocolate Box Cake

A compact, very chocolatey, kinda chewy, dense chocolate cake with creamy pastry cream filling topped with one of a kind milk chocolate soft buttercream. Im proud of this creation. This is something you wont find and taste in other bakeshops or baker. 

This one will come with four pretty poinsettias in the corners. Not in picture because I ran out of icing sugar. Bugger! Boxed in a clear plastic box so convenient for this holiday rush. This will also come with red and green ribbons. Plus a gift card.

PM for orders. 

At your Christmas Table: Walnut Caramel Fudge Brownies

Christmas is fast approaching. Everytime someone announce on TV that its __ days to go before Christmas I feel a lump on my throat. This past days I feel distraught, I cant seem to make up my mind on what to sell for Christmas. So finally after months of planning and kitchen tests I finally formulated an "im not so expecting this" creation. Finding a good recipe is like finding a needle in a hay stack and then adjusting the recipe so it will be very good is like inventing a rocket for a trip to Uranus. Yes that grueling. I feel guilty everytime I think of how may chocolate bars, walnuts, premium butter I wasted so I can come up  with a recipe this good. A million thanks to my cookie monster nephew who never got tired of eating my scraps.

When I formulated my brownie.... I had the Becky's Kitchen Brownies in mind. It should be that good, I promised myself. If not that good, as close as I can get! Im just realistic Becky's Kitchen is an institution......luckily it turned to be really good, equally good as Becky's, Im not shy to say that because its true. 

And its pretty too! not girly pretty but delectably lipsmackingly pretty.

If you like walnuts and fudgy-caramelly brownies, then this should be at your dinner table this Christmas plus Im sure your friends will love this....

16 squares for 400 Pesos, boxed up and tied up with red and green ribbons, It will be a sweet Christmas. 

Watch out for my marvelous square packed moist chocolate cake soon...

* Deliveries will be reasonably charged according to distance.

The Very Pretty Rose Cake

Im an old soul. I love childhood memories, the old life and rustic stuffs. So lets call this style the classic rather than old school. If you will ask me to bake you a wedding cake, I wont be doing it with fondant and airbrushing but rather with creamy buttercream or silky marshmallow icing.

Here just like a Classic Victoria Sandwich Cake. Stawberry Jam sandwiched between two fluffy chiffon cakes. So good... just like the old times.... nowadays cake fillings are so complicated... from salted caramel to rose water flavored choo choos.....

TIP: When filling your cake make a "dam" first on the outline of your cake to prevent the filling from spilling out unto the sides and mess up your frosting... its good that your dam is the same color or almost same color  with your frosting.

UPPER LIGHT BLUE CHIFFON CAKE was colored with four drops of McCormick Bright Blue.

TIP: Always have a leveled top cake and brush away the crumbs before you frost.... Dirty Ice first then get crazy with icing, FROST Away!

Here I used WILTON 2D Tip for perfect rose swirls! and Light TEAL color from paste type Chef Masters!