This cake was made on the day when my friends and I had gatherings. It was also the day when my friend Rick and his girlfriend announced that they are going to get married this coming November 8 of this year.

This is also the first time that they taste my newly found way of making icing and the filling I put in the cake. I was so happy with the comments I received from my friends.

LOL... I named this cake as a friendship cake... even though, this was done in a hurry but I baked and decorated it with all my heart.

Mango Cheese Cake for Baptism

July 5, 2014 was the baptism of my baby Angelo. This cake I baked for him as the second baptism cake. My friend Gerasil bake and decorated a Dolphin baptism cake. 

The theme of the party was dolphin so I asked my friend to make me a cake that has a dolphin cake topper.

In my part, I made the cheese cake with mango on top in a cross form with royal icing white rose and rosette on the side. Cheese cake is my son's favorite so I baked it for him.

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The best feelings, wehhh!!! Got an order...

I know this was a late post, what? no... I had posted this last year in my previous blog but sad to say that all my blog were accidentally deleted. 

So much for that, I refresh everything with my new sets of blog.

This was Erna's order last year December. I was really happy for the opportunity she was giving to me. Cooking something I like and make people happy is the best feeling!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1.5 kg pork belly slab, skin on
• 3 whole garlic bulbs, peeled and roughly chopped
• ½ cup oregano leaves, washed then chopped
• 3 red onions, peeled and chopped around 4 – 5 lemongrass stalks, sliced the zest from 1 lemon
• juice from 1 lemon
• a little over 1/8 cup salt, plus more for an even rub around the pork
• 4 tablespoons crushed black pepper

HOW TO COOK:

1. Combine all the aromatics in a bowl and mix well.
2. Lightly mash everything together with the back of a spoon.
3. Roll the slab, carefully invert the meat and secure it with butcher’s twine.
4. Rub coarse salt all over the meat, including the skin.
5. With a paring knife or fork, poke the skin of the meat. This will ensure a nice crackling.
6. Transfer it to a roasting fitted with a rack and the bottom lined with foil.
7. Place it in the refrigerator to chill overnight. This will dry the skin, which helps the crackling form. 
8. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Just to be sure, pat the skin of the pork dry with a paper towel. Roast the pork for 5 hours.
9. Afterwards, increase the temperature to 220 C, and allow the pork’s crackling to form. This will take another 30 minutes to an hour.
10. When done, remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit before slicing. Enjoy!

Source: http://www.mykusinamasterrecipes.com/roasted-lechon-pork-belly-recipe/

This cake was our Halloween cake. 

My first ever made cake for Halloween. The cake itself has three colored chocolate, cream cheese with green color and butter cream icing in orange color. I made an experiment of the taste for this one. 

LOL... The outcome was great.

Well, I am using the regular vanilla recipe but I add Nescafe espresso in it and Baileys plus the cream cheese I put at the top and swirl it with the knife. My family loves it, so moist and tasty. It taste like mocha cake.

When, we cut the cake, I was stunned with the colors and how it turned out. So cool! Sorry, I forgot to take picture maybe next time.

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This Finding Nemo theme birthday cake was baked and decorated by myself. I never thought I could make this amazingly beautiful cake. The theme was suggested by my eldest son who knew he had this theme when he celebrated his first birthday too. When you look at the design it looks like very detailed and complicated, yes it is! For the me as a new cake decorator I felt difficult at first, I had so many attempts when I did every details.

The arch was made of rice crispy. This was made ahead of time because it takes time to get hard. I made the arch about 1 week in advance. Some details on the arch I made two days before the party like mushroom or something. Several attempt were made before I satisfied with the result. Although, it was not really perfect yet I was really satisfied, it made me so proud.

Fishes Dorry and Marlin were made by my friend (Gerasil) who is also good in baking and decorating cake. All other fishes, Nemo, the turtle, etc were created by myself.

The cake on the left side is Vanilla cake and on the right is Strawberry cake, frosted with buttercream icing.

Happy Birthday to My dearest Friend Sarah

Sarah is one of my friend here in Montreal, I know her when I went back to high school at PACC. She is a very nice, kind and caring woman who sometimes taking care of my children when they stayed home. To make my story short, when we moved to our new apartment, we hardly talked to each other because of the works she have and I am also busy with my studies.

Three days before her birthday, I decided to make a surprise birthday party for her. It was not really big celebration but I prepared some foods aside from the cake I bake and decorated. 

April 28 2014, Sunday I know that it was her day-off so I called her at around 11:00 a.m. I asked if she has something to do that day. She said "No". I invited her to come to our apartment because I told her that my children already missed her and I want her also to meet my new born baby. What she doesn't know that I made special for her to celebrate her birthday.

When she came I told her to go straight to the kitchen, she sat down. She didn't surprise that there was foods on the table because she knows I always cook. Then, I told her that we made something special for her birthday. 

We begun to eat and chatted, we laugh and so on. Then, I said, closed your eyes while I got up to get the cake I prepared for her. When, we started to sing a birthday song, she opened her eyes and saw the cake I made for her. She was teary eyed and said "Thank you very much, but you shouldn't do this, you should not spent to buy cake for me." I told her that I did not bought the cake I bake and decorated it by myself.

Her reaction was priceless. "Weehhhh" she said. "Now this time you lied, I do not believe you because I know you for two years and I did not see you bake and decorate cake." These were the words she said. I simply smiled and told her that everything we learn if we are eager and patience to learn it. I, myself did not expect to learn in decorating cake but I did it for the sake of my daughter who believe that people can do things in life. I need to learn to let them see and believe that in the future for her life there is nothing impossible.

This cake was ordered by my friend (Greta) for her boyfriend's 40th birthday (now her husband). This design is not really complicated, very basic and everyone can do it. All the stuffs like screen, keyboard and the mouse were made of rice crispy and covered with fondant.

It is a Strawberry Chiffon Cake with fresh strawberry filling and butter cream icing. The cake is covered with fondant. I chose to make the fondant a marble look-a- like to distinguish that it is a computer desk. 

Making a keyboards is a little bit tricky, you must divide it carefully since the size is small to fir the letters and the numbers. However, you can chose not to do so to save time.

Although, this was my second time decorating and covering cake with fondant I can tell that I made a very big improvements. Yay! the fondant cover is almost perfect. I was really happy with the results and the feedback I heard from the guests of the celebrant were awesome. It made my heart melt and convinced me that I can really bake and decorate an awesome cake.

The recipe Strawberry Chiffon Cake I found online: Martha Stewart website.

Bridal Shower Naughty Cake for Greta Francisco

LOL! I really do not want to make a naughty cake however my friends requested it for our friend Greta for her surprised bridal shower.

I made this cake out from the sight of my children but they saw it when they got up in the morning and to their surprised, my eldest son asked what is that white on top? I replied, that was only a decoration like a flower. Then, my daughter told me that Greta will be mad at me why I made a penis on top of her cake. She said, that is bad mommy! lolz...

  

My friend (Jean) ordered this basket weaved design birthday cake for her mother in law. This was made in a rush hour. I felt so worried that she may not like the cake but I got a good feedback that the celebrant liked the cake very much.

The cake was Vanilla cake filled with strawberry jam. I got the recipe from cake boss website. Anyhow, This was the second time I tried the Basket-weave technique in decorating cake. Looking at the design, its looks very simple and easy to do however, its not really easy, it really need more careful because you might forget whether vertical or you are already in the horizontal line. As new to this technique I forgot several lines but I managed to hide it with some decorations like the flowers or the leaves on it or around it.

The flowers I made were a combination of butter cream icing, royal icing and gum-paste. In my experienced, it is really not good idea to decorate cake in a rush because if you make mistake there will be no time to fix it. Fortunately in my case I have made several royal icing flowers and gum-paste flowers so it turned it very handy.

By the way, thanks to my friend Jean who trusted and gave me an opportunity to explore my creativity.

Quite challenging making this cake because I am an expert in making figures but I really tried my best to make it looks good.

As a beginner, making 3D figures ofQueen Elsa and Princess Anna is not easy to do but I really tried the hardest since I promised ate Yolanda to make a sugar figure and also I want to let myself experience the beauty of making these figures. LOL'z, applying the make up is really not my crafts. Well, at least they're look like a girls.

Olaf is my favorite figure I made for this cake. He is very easy to make. Olaf should be at the top of the cake, however Queen Elsa is bigger so I have no choice to change their position.

Since it is Erica's baptism too, I add the rosary beads and cross in the middle to complete the theme and tell to the visitors and guests that she celebrated two different events in one.

Thanks to Ate Yolanda for trusting me to make this wonderful cake theme design. It is really my pleasure to do this sweets arts.

Chocolate cake filled with Pastry Cream 

covered with Swiss Buttercream Icing, Fondant 

Cake size: bottom: 10 inches round x 2.5 in

                              6 inches round x 3 in

This cake was heartily made for my friend Jovelyn's baby "Jean-Louis" who was celebrated his first birthday on September 12, 2014. I was the one who offer to make this cake as my gift to her baby. It took me a lot of time making the fondant sea creatures as my decorations. 

My friend Jovelyn made a request what sea creatures to be included on the cake and it was really an honor to make those fondant creatures of course, it helped me to practice these crafts.

Making this cake made my family and I so happy being part of this important occasion especially that my friend allowed me to create this cake. The bottom cake was Mocha cake filled with custard cream and the top was a rainbow cake filled with custard cream also. It was covered with Swiss butter cream icing while the decorations were made of fondant.

To make the cake more alive, I decided to put an aquarium with three guppies fishes on it. On top of it, was a giant octopus where one of his tail held the number 1.

Although, it took me a lot of time to complete and finish the whole cake but it was really worth it, when I saw the finished product and have a nice feedback from the people I don't even know, it was like I won a lotto. Charot!!!

Another creation of mine are the Chrysanthemum Cupcake and the dropped flower or I called it star flower hahaha, not really sure what I have to name for the other cupcake creation.

After creating the cake version of Chrysanthemum, I also tried to make the cupcake version. It was not really bad at all, I thought it would be worst since I add the red star on the side.

My kids love the looks and of course the taste!

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These cupcakes were my son's birthday traits for his classmates and teachers. He brought it to the school the day after his birthday. 

Making buttercream icing roses as a decorating for cakes or cupcakes is not that difficult. You must be creative, in my case as a beginner I made a lot of bobos, what I mean is that I made mistakes every time sometimes I forgot to turn the nail and sometimes the foundation of the rose is not high to achieve a nice looking rose.

I enjoyed every moment of doing decorating cupcakes. This hobby became one of my stress reliever.

I also tried to make flowers from Royal Icing for another batch of cupcakes I baked that day.

I made these flowers three days in advance prior for decorating in order to achieve the desired hardness of the flower.

What I like making cupcake flowers with the Royal Icing is that I can prepare it in advance like the gum-paste. It is very easy to put it on the cake, I can transport with no problem and just decorate it on the cake on site. The only thing that needs to consider is extra careful not to break during transport.

I found it is more easier to decorate cupcakes than cakes maybe because the cupcakes are smaller than the cake. However, they are both the same in terms of applying creativity and patience.

One of the best and most requested dish when we have any kind of celebrations are the egg rolls. I learned this crunchy and delicious dish from my Aunt. When I came to Canada, I always helped my Aunt but I call her Mama Eda to make eggrolls.

At first, I am really wondering why the name of this delicious and crunchy dish is eggroll wherein there's no egg in it. So funny, but anyhow I love it.

 Egg Rolls Recipe

 Ingredients:

egg roll wrappers

ground beef or pork

salt to taste

garlic (cut into small pieces)

carrot or any kind of vegetable - they are optional

Canola Oil for frying

water or egg yolk - use this as a glue to make the end of the wrapper to stick

Preparation:

1. Make sure that the egg roll wrappers are thawed enough to separate and prepare.

2. Combine the ground beef/pork, salt, garlic and vegetables together in a bowl.

3. Mix very well.

4. Take one egg roll wrapper and put one teaspoon of ground beef/pork mixed in the middle of the wrapper and roll.

5. Dip one of your finger to the water or egg yolk and rub it the very end of the wrapper.

6. Do the whole procedure to the next until you finish the ground beef/pork mixture.

7. Put oil on the pot, make sure you put enough oil, when the oil is hot. Put the egg rolls preferably 5 to 10 egg rolls together depending on the size of the pot you use or deep fryer.

8. When it floats and in golden brown it is already cook and ready to serve.

9. Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful day.

It was requested by my daughter to bake her favorite Mochacake with the chrysanthemum flower on top. This was 6 inches by 3 inches. This design was part of my practice in decorating cake. It was a little bit tricky in holding the icing bag and in applying the pressure on it. However, if we have patience and determined to pursue nothing is really impossible. Just trust in yourself that you could do it.

Decorating cake before was just a dream and I thought, it will remained as part of my fantasy. Yes! I am a dreamer. I dreamed to bake and decorate cake particularly icing flowers and this was it! This was one of my cute and simple flower design.

Thanks to my daughter who believes that I have the ability to learn new things. My daughter is one of my biggest fan who always trust and think that everything in this world is always possible.

So far, it was another best practice. My daughter was really ecstatic with the outcome. She told me that it was like a real flower. I really love how she reacted, LOL!

Thank you for visiting and have a great day!