Monthly Archives: February 2017

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La Dolce Vita

My Mother in Law made the best chocolate cake, just ask my better half and my daughter, they’ll say Abue made the yummiest chocolate cake in the whole wide world. She taught me how to make it many moons ago and I’ve been baking it on special occasions ever since. It never failed to amaze the audience, there’s something about the creamy caramel and rich dark chocolate that made the cake so irresistible. I’m sharing a few hints here, all you need is 3 round of vanilla cake, a generous amount of Dulce de leche filling and dark chocolate ganache for icing. There you go, not a rocket science but trust me, this cake is absolutely to die for!

On that note, we had another lovely evening spent with family and friends over home cooked dinner and endless laughter,  priceless ❤

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Matcha

These days, my daughter has requested more Japanese food when we eat out, 2 things that she suggested frequently were Ramen noodles and anything with Matcha (Green Tea). This week since we’re out and about during the day a lot we’ve been to 3 Ramen establishments and she’s been enjoying endless Matcha dessert, to name a few of her favourites; Matcha Bingsu (Korean dessert of shaved ice and condensed milk),  Matcha Ice Cream and Matcha Bubble Tea.

Anyway, I’ve been planning to bake Matcha cupcakes for her for quite sometimes now and finally, today was THE day. I’m using my new Aqua coloured cupcakes tin with matching utensils and oven glove (found them all during our shopping trip couple days back), aren’t they marvellous? I love them!

And the cupcake result? I was blown away, my version of  Matcha cupcakes turns out absolutely delicious! I’m kicking myself for not giving it a go sooner. Its very fragrant and moist, I added cream cheese frosting on top and voila! These Matcha cupcakes ready to party.

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Little Miss Active

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Midweek of Little Miss school midterm break and I’m loving every second of our time together. We went shopping, getting pedicures, my daughter had a few survival basic cooking on her own (she’s a pro at sunny side up egg and instant ramen noodle, yaayy! ), gave her closets spring cleaning (told her a few KonMari tips) and we both read several good books in between. Not forgetting the highlight of the week, she finally made her own slime ( the goop DIY craze!), she was beaming with pride when she get the perfect slime consistency with colours and glitters   (a few hiccups in the beginning of the project but she was able to fix it after a few tries).

Due to her swimming competition coming up this weekend she she still has to do body conditioning and swimming training almost daily. Must admit that I’m amazed at her ability to stay chill while keeping her training routines at school break, Miss happy-go-lucky.

Today I baked Chocolate Madeleine’s for her after training snacks, packed her extra large water cooler and a headset for me. The weather is still very nice to be outdoors in Manila, I’ve been really enjoying my quiet time by the poolside watching my daughter swimming. On that note, time for this mama to get going,  ta ta for now ❤

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Little Miss Baker

 

First day of school term break, my daughter is on a mission. She told me over the weekend that my chocolate chips cookies were lacking substantial amount of chocolate chips, it should be triple the amount (haha!). I told her that it was my normal recipe perhaps she doesn’t remember since I haven’t baked it for a while. My smarty pants then challenged me, she said can I please bake it myself?

So there she was on a Monday morning in my baking studio, pouring loads of semi-sweet chocolate chips on her cookie dough and baking away. She was so proud of her creations she brought it to her swimming training for her after training session snacks.

Well, let me put it this way, if I swam as many laps as her in couple hours per day I will want triple amount of chocolate chips on my cookie as well 🙂

 

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Market Findings

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Once a week I made a trip to Farmers Market nearby our neck of the wood here in Manila, it’s my way of knowing what fresh items are in season. This week I discovered that avocados and mangoes were crowding the shelves on fresh fruits sections, hoooraayy!

My daughter will have her favourite sliced mangoes and freshly baked alfajores for her after school activities snacks today and Saba banana fritter for me, yum!

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About last night …

On Valentine’s Day, my better half walked in with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a huge chunk of lush rose soap into our home, very sweet of him. This year instead of going out for romantic dinner and braving the traffic we’ve invited our neighbors and another close friends of ours to join us for dinner at home. We had a blast!

I cooked Bania (my mother in law recipe of Okra and Lamb stew), Pulled pork ribs, oxtail soup (Indonesian style) and chopped fresh veggies to go with it. Baked upside down banana cake, leche flan, gluten free brownies and alfajores, my kitchen was overflowing with goodies!

My favourite part of the evening was the wonderful time we spent with our friends, Valentine’s dinner at its best ♥

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LGC

It stands for Lions Gymnastics Club, my daughter’s school gymnastics team. We had social gathering after training session to celebrate the team members on their FOBISIA 2017 achievement yesterday.  I’ve made banana chocolate bundt cake, sugar cookies and chocolate cookies, ordered 100 pcs pork BBQ (my daughter favourite skewers food!) and we’ve got parents sending all kinds of food which the hungry gymnasts enjoyed immensely. So nice to see parents, kiddos and coaches were engaging in lovely chat in between munching yummy treats. Congratulations Team ❤

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Winner

We’re back!

Had marvellous time chaperoning my daughter and her gymnastics team to compete in FOBISIA Gymnastics 2017 in Bangkok, stressful in the beginning (probably a few parents like yours truly, but for sure not all hehe) but overall we had a blast. On the day that we arrived in Bangkok we’ve got to ushered the whole gymnastics team and their supporters to Harrow International School for Podium Training prior checking in to our hotel. The next day was the first competition day for MAG (Man Age Group) level 1-4 and WAG (Woman Age Group) level 2-4. My daughter is in level 5 and due to compete the day after so we were taking it easy in the hotel and try to stay chill.

Day 2 of competition went by so fast, my daughter was the only girl in level 5 representing her school and she did very well in each apparatus, she won first place on Floor and 3rd place overall, absolutely fantastic achievement, very proud of her.

Now that FOBISIA gymnastics is done and dusted, as promised, she’s allowed to have a few treats before going back to her healthy meal routine. The first thing she had was a large sliced of Hawaiian pizza at Dean & Deluca in Suvarnabhumi International airport, she was enjoying every bite of it!

Got back home in Manila a few days ago and she asked me to bake one of our family favourite baked goodies, Gluten Free Chocolate Brownies. So today I made it for her, my preferred ingredients for this moist brownies were freshly ground almond and organic dark chocolate, the key is to bake it in a very low temperature. Also to  make it extra special I sprinkled a generous amount of Callebaut semi sweet chocolate chips on top, trust me, the whole house smells so divine when the brownies were ready!

Of course Little Miss Gymnast got an ice cream with her brownies, a very well deserved treat.  Ariel, you never cease to amaze us, congratulations mi amor ❤