Dear YUMMY

Just last month, my Sinful Chocolate Chip recipe was featured in YUMMY MAGAZINE APRIL 2008. When I grabbed the MAY issue, I was quite surprised when my letter to them was chosen in the Dear Yummy column where all the readers letters are there.  The first thing I saw was a screenshot of a blog that looked like mine :)  Funny thing is didn't think that it was mine until I read the accompanying letter :D

I haven't got the chance to get my prized because YUMMY Magazine's publisher SUMMIT MEDIA is currently moving to a new office so the prizes are stashed away in boxes.  Hopefully I'll get it next week.

I'm in YUMMY!

I'm so back-logged in my blogging ever since my camera got busted.  After almost a month of being camera-less. I'm BACK!!! 

I'm happy to share to you my fellow bloggers that my recipe was featured in YUMMY MAGAZINE APRIL 2008.  This recipe was inspired by Jacques Torres, my favourite pastry chef! This version of chocolate chip cookies is brimming full of chocolate! Hmmmmmm.......yummy!

After such a busy work week, I was finally able to do some light baking. I used my favorite Martha book the Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook.
In my house a busy week usually means an empty ref and pantry in this case, we had a semi-empty ref. Didn’t have any butter, though we have tons of eggs, after much deliberation I finally decided to make a Chocolate Mousse Roll. It’s basic a chocolate chiffon cake recipe baked in a sheet pan. It seems like such a simple recipe that I give it a go.

Weeeeeellllllllll..... I spoke too soon.

In most recipes of mousse that I have seen and tested before, it usually calls mixing the melted chocolate with the whipping cream and its done. This was the first time that I made mousse with eggs in them. It started out innocently easy until I got to the part where I made the hot sugar and syrup mixture that use to ‘cook’ the beaten eggs. Didn’t have any clue what happen, I know that its suppose to stay transparent, silky, and more importantly pourable, mine didn’t! It came out amber in color and very thick not pourable at all! So when I mix it with the beaten egg yolks, the sugar mixture quickly clump up and stuck to my Kitchenaid’s beater! I kept thinking Oh Gosh! How am I gonna remove that later??? How??? But then this being a Martha Stewart recipe I persevered! I made do by straining out the huge lumps of sugars that has formed from the mixture and gently folded it into the whipped cream mixture, or so I thought. I didn’t realise it that I was over folding it until in was too late, so as you can see in the picture, the mousse is slightly over folded. Gee whizz, it’s chocolate, my family wouldn’t notice anything wrong with it unless of course that I’d tell them hehehehe....

I made the mouse quite ahead of time three days in advance to be exact, I was pressed for time so I stored the ready mouse in the fridge. I was planning to serve the mousse as is, however, when I tasted the mousse itself, I found it too sweet for my taste. So I went ahead with the previous plan and make a chocolate chiffon cake for it.

When I finally got time to get started on making the chocolate chiffon, I kept thinking hmmmmm, this seems like a messy cake, indeed it is messy, very messy with all the chocolate powder laying around. The cake is so light ang soft, that when I was training the cake to roll on a dish towel first I was so scared that I might break it. Thankfully, I didn't. :) This is my second time to make a 'roll', my first one was the Buche Noel, the I did for the Daring Bakers Challenge last December, basically I'm new at this roll making which I find quite challenging in terms of its quite messy, but definitely it's a lot of fun. What I particularly love about this is the fact that when I filled and re-rolled the roll, the dusting of chocolate powder acts as a decoration made the cake look simple but chic. It has a thick filling of mouse that taste just right, it nicely complemented the cake because the generous dusting of chocolate powder made it not too sweet just right. Can't wait to try this cake again:)

p.s. I finally got my camera fix and what do I find out? my photos are gone! Oh! Crap!

Dead Camera

I haven't been able to post in my blog for quite sometime now.

Reason??? My digital camera died...

OHH Crap! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO......................

After 2 weeks its still in the repair shop :(

Daring to be like Dorie

It seems that time passes by quite fast recently, or I'm just really feeling my age LOL! It seems like only yesterday when I made Dorie Greenspan's Party Cake. I've made this cake A LOT last year, first for my mom's birthday, then for my sister's sister-in-law potluck party, then it was for my brother-in-law's grandfather's birthday. So this cake with it's name really is a party cake in my family.

The challenge for the uber popular Daring Bakers this month is Dorie's Party Cake. This month's event is hosted by none other than Morven from Food Art and Random Thoughts. I'm quite delighted and disappointed at the same time when I found out this month's challenge, disappointed because I get to do this cake all over again sad because for this month I won't be able to challenge myself in making something new. But in the end, I can say that I had fun doing it :) Like in my previous versions of this cake. I still can't get that white-white look like in the book which is weird and frustrating, me being very u-sy, I want it to be perfect, unfortunately I haven't found the right brand of butter so it won't be yellowish in color.
Hopefully by my next try I'll get that pristine white look :)

As we get older, we try to be more health conscious. My sister is on her low sugar phase, my parents are in their prime getting healthy and exercising every morning. When people tells me to bake something healthy, Oatmeal comes to mind. Why not make an Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, right? But wait my sister hate raisins and my little brother is not a big fan either. Heck! I don't care these will be good for our health. With many versions of Oatmeal Cookies out there in cyberspace, I'm kinda at lost on which one to try. After few our of debating over which recipe to try, I set my mind on using the recipe found in the Quaker Oats label, the Oatmeal Cookies. For this endeavour I used favorite brand of oats is the Old Fashioned Oats from Quarker Oats. Quaker Oats + Quaker Recipe = Quaker Cookies! There's no going back I'll be making Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. I lugged out my huge, HEAVY Kitchenaid tabletop mixer and prepare the ingredients needed. It's a simple recipe actually just the basic creaming of butter and sugar kind of recipe. This recipe yield cookies with crisp outside and a soft interior great for dunking in a glass of cold milk.

What I love is the recipe is the fact that after I baked these the house smells like a big cinnamon bun! YUM! You can smell the cinnamon from upstairs! You can get this recipe direct from their website...Life Healthy!

Martha is at it again!

If you've been a frequent reader in my blog, I think its obvious to say that I'm a Huge Martha Stewart fan. I love anything Martha does, although some of her recipes can be faulty at times, I still love her stuff.
When I found out months ago, that she'll be releasing a new book I'm so excited! The book is called Martha Stewart Cookies, how simple is that. I know it's probably gonna something can be found in her website, however I still like to have a book that collects all those recipes, since sometimes I have no idea what the cookie is called so having an entire book about cookies will be very helpful for me :)

So I waited and waited and wait some more .....

It's here! it's here! It's finally here!

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this book among the bookshelves of one of my favorite bookstore called National Bookstore, this is one of the largest and most popular bookstore here in the Philippines. I've browse through it and it has tons and tons of recipe that I want to try! Oh man, oh man this is a bad time to not have butter and eggs available in my fridge....Darn.... Gotta go & restock my pantry....

Sugar High Friday #41: Sweet Gifts

This is the first time I would be joining Sugar High Fridays (SHF), what's more perfect about it is that I have the perfect one for this month's theme Sweet Gifts, hosted by Habeas Brulee of Is My Blog Burning?. For those of who have no idea what Sugar High Fridays is it's just like the Daring Bakers where in baker's from all over the world share their creations. The difference is in SHF every month there is a theme or a specific ingredient that should be use.

Ever since I've watch Jacques Torres on Food Network on one of his shows, I've always dream on having a chocolatier where everything being sold is made with chocolates. Ever since then I love going into chocolateries and study and oggle at all those shinny chocolate bonbons. So in my recent trip to Macau with my family, during one of our shoppong expedition, we walked passed by Godiva and See's candies. Godiva chocolates always look chic but what inspires me mo make this entry is See's Candies, they have this variety where some of their chocolate looks professional and homemade at the same time and it taste heavenly! I got to try the Angel Kiss, it has a marshmallow center and a toffee/caramel on the outside.
When I got back from my trip the first thing I made are Milk Chocolate Cookies and Cream Bark and a White Chocolate Fruit and Nut Bark. The recipe is very simple and straight forward 500 grams of chocolate of your choice, melted (I used milk chocolate and white chocolate). For the Cookies and Cream Bark I used a whole packet chopped Oreos and mix them to the melted chocolate, set aside to harden. When it hardens, I break off irregular chocolate pieces and put them in a pretty jar and eat them slowly :) For the Fruit and Nut Bark, I used dried raisins, blueberries, cranberries & walnuts (just about every dried fruit that I can find in my fridge), toss them together and pour into the melted white chocolate. Set aside to set then like before break off into irregular pieces and store in cool dry place.
Suggestion though with all the dried fruit I put in I didn't take into consideration the fruits natural sweetness, so I would suggest that use a dark chocolate instead of white or lessen the quantity on the dried fruits. Even so, this recipe is great for one of those chocolate craving, it's a perfect sweet something to nibble on :)

Coconut + Chocolate = German Chocolate Cake!

I've been invited by Kai, a fellow Filipino blogger to join the Lasang Pinoy event.  The current theme is using coconut.  Coconut are very popular here in my country, being a tropical country everywhere you go there's always a coconut tree around.  To be honest I was hesitant to join, being Lasang Pinoy theme generally focuses on Filipino dishes, while I can't cook, I can't make traditional Filipino kakanins(Filipino sweets).  I thought to myself, I've got nothing to loose, and since kai invited me, in my way of thinking western desserts with Filipino flair is enough, so here is my entry.

German Chocolate Cake, it's not Filipino, it's not even German!  This cake is actually named after Samuel German, who created the Baker's chocolate brand.  This version of the cake, I got from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle.  It's fairly easy to make however if you love a good shackle of frosting better to make 1 1/2 recipe.  Other than that it's perfect.

Enjoy!