♥ Day

I got this recipe off The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook. Magnolia Bakery is one of the popular cupcakery stores in NYC, it boast delicious old fashioned desserts. It only got more popular when Carrie Bradshaw (Sex and the City) was sceen holding/eating a cupcake. I barely remember that seen but years back I've read alot of good things about Magnolia Bakery itself and since I live so far away. The next best thing is try out their book, hopefully it would taste the same as what they sell onsite.

I've tries different versions of Red Velvet before. The first time I actually did use this Magnolia Bakery version. Though I remember not using a cream cheese frosting but the roux buttercream version. My sister didn't care for it so do I, it taste like uhm...butter! I remember the first time I made cream cheese frosting was for the yummy Red Velvet Cupcakes from a British bakery that sells American cakes called Hummingbird Bakery. Something different is the Red Velvet Whoopie pie, its like eating a cookie/cake with your bare hands, its fun!

For this V-day though I want something more special and ever since I saw this Williams-Sonoma version I want to give it a try. And after seeing this, I really have to give it a try. Don't have a heart shaped pan but I really want to give this cake a try so for the first time, I tried my hands on carving the cake. It's messy and crumbs are every where! In the end, it seems like such a special cake since I put so much effort into it. In the Magnolia book, it specifies baking the cakes in 3 round cake pans but I only got two pieces so just divided the batter between the two and it turn out good. The cumbs are soft and tender as gently as possible I carved out the heart shape cakes and split each cake layer into 2 which leaves me with 4 yummy layers. The scraps gets blitz in the food processor giving me more than a handful of fluffy crumbs which would be use for the cake later.

While waiting for the lucious cream cheese frosting, I parked my cakes in the fridge. Making the cream cheese frosting is so easy and the best part is that it taste great! One thing I noticed is that in most recipes of the cream cheese frostings that I see, the confectioner's sugar that the recipe requires is sometimes as high as 5 CUPS! OMG! that is a LOT! No way that I'm going to use that much sugar in a single cake recipe. Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy. One of the most important step to avoid lumpy frosting is SIFT the confectioner's sugar. Yes its tiresome but once you've mixed in your sugar with the cream cheese/butter frosting if it turned out lumpy there is no other way to remove those lumps. Get the cake layers from the fridge and start layering the frosting with the cake. Since this makes the cake a bit high to secure it while frosting the outside, I put three skewers in the cake so as the cake layers wouldn't move as much. While the frosting is still soft and billowy quicky get a handful of the cake crumbs and secure them all around the cake. Its messy with crumbs going in all places but in the end it would work out great. I use pastry brush to brush off excess crumbs that have fallen on the cake platter. With the skewers still in the cake put the cake in the in the fridge and let it chill for several hours until the cake and icing feels much sturdier. Gently remove the skewers and with your clean fingers cover up the hole with few more cake crumbs. Grab a knife and fork, sit down and enjoy all your hardwork.

♥ ♥ ♥ Happy Valentines Day everyone !!! ♥ ♥ ♥

Malted Chocolate Cookies

I ♥ malted milk! When I was a kid discovering that malted milk powder added to ice cream and Milo was and still is one of my favorite dessert. Malt powder in itself doesn't taste much however added to cookies, brownies or drinks, it just adds that something that makes it more special. Its unfortunate that I can hardly find malted milk powder in the grocery when I do find some I hoard them like a crazed person! lol!

I usually craved malted milk anything whenever I feel sad. I guess because I love this during my childhood, eating or drinking malted milk concoction brings me back to my childhood. No money or work problems all I think about then was playing and homework. Ahhh...those where the simplier days. Enough reminicing and back to the cookies, you say? Well..ok by me, these cookies are special because these are Malted Milk Chocolate Cookies. The way I'm feeling lately I need comfort food. I got these off Martha Strewart Holiday Cookies, a much older magazine that I got on eBay years ago, though I think this recipe can also be found in the much recently published Martha Stewart's Cookies. I lost my copy of the said book years ago during the flood but fortunately the magazine wasn't damaged in the said flood.

These turnout soft and tender. A typical drop cookie recipe with an odd additon of several tablespoons of hot water to the mixture, to make it moister I guess. I already had my first batch of cookies baking in my oven when I noticed that my measuring cup filled with the said hot water is still there sitting on the counter waiting for me to remember it. Gasp! First time I saw it my first instic was to just leave it out but my practial side of me won our and I gently folded it in with my remaining water. Didn't notice any difference in the cookie texture though, both of them turn out good. If you're feeling lazy you could actually it as is like a normal cookie but if you want to take it up a notch make the filling, it's very creamy and you will definitely feel decadent. Decadent in a cookie??? I felt like it because it's so rich and creamy that this is not your regular everyday cookie.

Piere Herme Lemon Loaf

I spend most of my free time during the week wondering around the 3 connected malls in Makati. From time to time, I use it by doing some window shopping most often though I have to drop by the bookstore, kitchen store and the supermarket. I'm always on a look out for new ingredients and recipes that I want to try out whenever I get home. As of the moment I'm obsess with lemons, yes they are simple ingredient nothing fancy but we don't use it often in cooking unlike cooks from other country. What Filipinos usually use is a kalamansi. It's a citrus fruit with a sweet sour taste to it, much smaller than ping pong ball, that's how small it is. Imagine how many kalamasi I have to juice just to make a 1/4 cup of it. Hence, I buy lemons when I'm craving something citrus.

I've seen tons of recipe for lemon pound cake, believe me there are a lot of them. Though for me one of the best that I have ever tasted is from Pierre Herme, it's lemony without being too sour. My family who prefers eating chocolate compare to any other dessert eats this with a nice cup of coffee or a glass of milk. Honestly I think one of the reason I like making lemon based dessert is that I get to use my microplane grater. I just love the refreshing scent of freshly zester lemons and rubbing them against the sugar smells heavenly. My lemon loaf cake came out short though I'm not sure if it has something to do with the fact that as I was trying to thicken the eggs with sugar mixture, my ISP called me and I had to talk to him for wuite sometimes. As I got back to my bowl of egg/sugar mixture, it isn't as fluffy as it was earlier. I tried remixing it but to no avail it didn't thicken as much. The cake came out sort of flattish but still has that moist tender crumb. Instead of using plain white sugar for the syrup, I was feeling extravagant and use my secret stash of vanilla sugar. The flecks on top of the loaf are flecks of vanilla which made them more special. As soon as they come out of the oven, poke the cake and generously drench it with the vanilla lemon syrup. Cool to room temperature. Dallop a healthy spoonfull of blueberry filling/sauce, sit back relax and enjoy!