Year: 2011

My first #BakeFestDXB

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Friday 11am with cupcake caddies on hand we headed to Wild Peeta at World Trade Center for  #BakeFestDXB organized by @theregos.  Our kitchen was able to produce three kinds of cup cake: Lemon Meringue, Ube Haleya (Purple Yam), and Coconut Pandan.  I was calm two weeks before the event after a few sleep it was the #BakeFestDXB week! Sleep was not my friend, I was overly excited and scared. It’s my first time to bake something to be displayed.  Half of Wild Peeta was filled with sweet goodies from a community of bakers who blogs and tweets as well.  Our day was filled with sweet goodness from talented bakers – cakes, cookies, truffles, cup cakes, and pies. It was not only us adults who enjoyed the day the kids too. Little V found a new friend in Wee Scotch (Ginger’s little one). He was so proud of himself telling his dad and I that he took good care of the baby and that wee scotch was his new friend.  I think selling our sweets was …

Baked Lechon

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When C got his job offer to Qatar one of the question was is pork sold there? Nope it’s not. And when we all move to Dubai that question pop up once again. Yes it is available in selected stores here.  I think one food/dish that’s included on the list of things we miss back home is Lechon (Suckling Pig). Did you know that the Philippines is #1 on Anthony Bourdain’s Hierarchy of Pork List? Imagine our hunger after watching the shows feature of our home country at 11pm. That led me to prepare our very own version of lechon away from home. Pork belly is boiled with different spices and then baked for 3 hours to achieve that crunch that sends us back home. Little V easily proclaims this crunchy as his favorite! I can put him on the table with a cup of steamed rice, Mang Tomas Lechon sauce and the crunchy pork skin happily praising me “this is yummy mommy. V’s favorite.” To prepare bake lechon: boil pork belly with 2 laurel …

Bye-bye Bottle Nanan

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In four months little V will start kindergarten. We have been slowly preparing him for the big day since he turned two years old. He was potty trained and completely weaned off breastfeeding before we celebrated his 2nd birthday. It was a full dreadful drama month with V (and me) crying whenever he pleaded to breastfeed and me about to lose my patience cleaning after every pee accident. All of those is a thing of the past and V would refer to those memories as “when I was a baby.”He’s a little boy now and it’s once again time to let go of something – toddler cup.  I would know that he’s tired and sleepy when he asks for a “bottle-nanan” this is also what he asks for upon waking up. “Nanan” by the way is breastmilk or bottle milk, it’s not a Filipino word but something we just came up with. V would wake me up at 3am and ask for a bottle nanan and some nights he would sleep without having one. C calls …

Delivered: Bag & Shoe Cake

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I accepted a cake challenge for a friends birthday with a red and black color theme. G had a particular cake design in mind-a red shoe and red bag with some black outline on top of a carrot cake. With two weeks to prepare I searched net and found lots of help watching youtube and blog tutorials on how to carve a bag cake and shape a shoe. PinkCakeBox tutorial on high-heel shoe and ChefGRFX bag tutorial helped me to complete the cake as well as the lovely cakers over at CakeCentral.  A week before my deadline I made some practice cake and shoe using a homemade fondant . First I had a hard time with my usual fondant recipe it just won’t hold it’s shape, after I cover the cake I see holes on the side of the bag it seem that the fondant was melting. As the deadline came closer and my warm hands and fondant wont just work together I decided to buy a ready rolled fondant and gumpaste mix at Tavola.  Another challenge was to keep …

Searching for Pandan

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0513 updateI found Pandan! well I didn’t buy it but a friend gave me her stash 🙂 She bought the leaves at Karama Fish Market.***This is my final work week to finish a Girly Cake for my friend. And in between finishing the cake I have strong craving for Buko (Coconut) Pandan dessert and Ube Cake. Pandan is one leaf that’s hard to get by here in Dubai. Oh so please help me find one 🙂 or a whole plant! and I promise to share my produce.

Empty Ref led to Pinakbet

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An empty refrigerator always make me smile. why? It means I have not wasted what we bought and I have actually managed to cook for three. Cooking for us three has always been a struggle, I always somehow have a whole lot of leftover which tends to be forgotten and disposed at the end of the week. Also for last week we do grocery shopping every two days cause I need the space for my cakes.Before C left for his basketball game I told him to buy takeOut for lunch, by 11am he still no call so I decided to make use of what’s available and darn yesterday’s dough is in the freezer bread was out of the menu. The only available ingredients: Tomato, onion, garlic, ginger, ampalaya (bitter melon), talong (eggplant), kalabasa (squash), okra and crispy chicken skin (chicharon). V asks what are you cooking mama? I want soup miso weed.    As a kid I hated eating vegetables I remember being bullied by my cousins. They would put a whole chunk of veggies …

A Girly Cake Challenge

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My friend G requested that I make a girly cake for her birthday, a shoe and bag cake. *gulp I got excited and scared I haven’t done anything like that and I have always refused friends request to make them some cute fondant cake. Sad to say i’m not artistic not like my mom and sister, I can’t for the life of me draw a straight line without a ruler. G insisted that she wants me and no one else to make the cake for her because she knows I can do it. A little voice inside me whispered “ofcourse we can do it” and so I told her to give me a day or two to decide but to not worry in case I wont be able to do the cake I have a friend who has been making fondant cakes. Searched the web for inspiration, tutorials, and read forums that would help and encourage me to make the cake. I told hubby C about it and he too was convincing me that I can …