Really Special: Not just another Apple Pie

I love a warm slice of apple pie. It comforts the soul. So on a cold morning of January I decided to bake an Apple Pie. I thought of baking one pretty apple pie, so i thought of the Honey Comb crust design of Martha Stewart. Indeed the Honey Comb holes made my pie oh so pretty. 

In order to achieve that shiny caramelized golden brown crust, make an egg wash :one egg yolk, a teaspoon of full cream milk, and a pinch of cinnamon. Before baking, brush the crust with the egg wash then sprinkle brown sugar, after 30 minutes in oven repeat the process. After baking still hot from the oven brush and sprinkle again! TADA! Golden crust!

I used Gala Apples for this. If you like baking apple pie/apple crumble/apple turnover/anything apple you should know your apples. Here in the Philippines, we have few available.. We have Fuji (yes its the big ones striped yellow and red), Red Delicious (the deep red,medium in size,best looking ones, its the apple that Sleeping Beauty ate), Gala (smaller and rounder in shape than red delicious, looks like Fuji but way smaller, red and yellow in color), Granny Smith ( they are your green apples), Honey Crisp (looks like your gala apples but bigger and with hues of greeen), Mcintosh apples (it red and green and small), Jonagold (medium sized, red and green but more of green)... sometimes in big supermarkets we come acros golden delicious and some pink lady. I know apples because I read their names in groceries and read about them. I use Gala for my apple pie because they are crisp even after baking plus the tartness and the sweetness are just balanced. Fuji apple is too crispy even after baking, granny smith is too tart for me, red delicious tends to be mushy after baking. I recommend Gala or Granny Smith for baking but if you can find Jonagold then better!

I wish I can share to you the exact recipe for this Apple Pie but this is a product of guess and check. The recipe was adapted from Blue Ribbon Apple Pie  but tweaked most part of it. Will finalize it soon and share with everyone. 

So we may not always be winners but we’re not lazy. We take chances. We go for broke, swing for the fences and sometimes, yeah, we strike out. But sometimes you get a home run. LIKE THIS APPLE PIE.

Sunday Lunch: Grilled Scallops with Butter and Garlic

If you are on the healthy diet this is not one healthy lunch. One its soaking in butter. Two the garlic is deep fried and drenched in oil. Three you cant help it but finish the whole bunch with heaping amount of piping hot white rice (yes the bad kind of rice). So forget it this is not healthy seafood. 

Filipinos are lucky especially the ones living in island provinces, fresh seafood is everywhere. This one was fresh from our town Sunday wet market. At 160Pesos per kilo its a steal compared to the ones in manila.

Let me teach you how to prepare this the RIGHT way, if done hastily scallops can cause you a nasty stomach ache.

Remove the upper shell, clean the scallops thoroughly, remove sand and other foreign objects (things that shouldn't be there, like small fishes,crabs). Set aside. In a kilo of scallop you will need 1 garlic head chopped finely, 1/2 cup of butter (unsalted) softened, 1/2 cup oil and 1/4 cup annatto seeds/atchuete.

Heat oil in medium fire then add the atchuete when the oil turns bright orange strain off the atchuete leaving behind the orange oil... now add the garlic into the oil... fry until golden brown. Put off the fire let it cool. Then add it to softened butter, mix together thoroughly. (orange oil with garlic + butter)

Grilling part. Put the scallops in the grill face up. Let it "sweat" its will cook on its own juices, scallop stores salt water, most shellfishes do. When all the water from the scallop has evaporated add a dollop of your butter mixture, the more the better, just ask the French people. Wait for the sizzle of the butter. Remove from grill. Its done. Enjoy your not so healthy seafood dish.  

Book Review: Goldilocks Bakebook

This book is a cross between a coffee table book and a cookbook. Visually this book is a perfect 10 but technically I mean recipe-wise just below 5. If you are hoping that Goldilocks gave out their recipes for your favorite polvoron, mocha roll or brazos de mercedes then this book will disappoint you. They didn't.

I remembered I have too many egg whites in the freezer so I decided to try the meringue recipe well it turned out to be a complete inedible disaster. HOW CAN A MERINGUE RECIPE GO WRONG? Weird... So  I tried another recipe  "Crema the Fruta", well in turned out--- not so Goldilocks. 

If you are in search for a good baking recipe book this is not for you, but if you are for reading and shopping for a good coffeetable book on baking well I will suggest this book. Its inspiring to read how Goldilocks started and it will somehow remind you of your favorite Goldilocks Cake (mine was the good 'ol Ube Roll) and this book will remind you how good Goldilocks was before it expanded and became available nationwide.

Price-wise, its a steal for Pesos795, considering it  has glossy,thick and colorful pages, if this was a foreign  authored book the price could have been tripled.

 If you are a baking buff  like me buy it! Decades from now this will turn into a good memorabilia of our most loved, proudly Pinoy bakeshop. 

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."