Rincon, Tostones and a Little Infatuation

They say Travel is like falling in love. Strangers at first. A glance turns into a stare, and then you're entranced. The stare becomes a longing gaze. You realize that you, the tourist, become the one conquered by a once-unfamiliar location. And that's how I fell in love with the sunset at Rincon. Specifically at "El Faro," or the lighthouse in Rincon. The rays of the setting sun shimmering over the waters were a mesmerizing sight. It was God's postcard meant to be enjoyed by our naked eyes. Sounds cliche, yo se (I know).

It's my second time in "La Isla del Encanto," and it has enchanted me a second time. We celebrated my niece's birthday with her abuelos there as well as Labor Day Weekend.

Up in the western boondocks of Aguada, we ate at a neighborhood restaurant which served chicken, "tostones" (smashed plantains then fried--Puerto Rican fries), burgers using Puerto Rican beef, and ribs. 

Puerto Rico feels like going to a province in the Philippines, because the houses are painted in the same bright colors, and the heat is similar. Except people spoke Spanish. Although a U.S. territory, people especially in the rural areas mostly spoke Spanish. In the more touristy locations such as San Juan, Puerto Ricans are bilingual. This trip meant that I could practice my still struggling Español. But I loved being able to do it even just to order or pay for things. I even delighted in asking a Walgreens clerk to look up my rewards card with my phone number. (Puede buscar con mi telefono?)

At that little food shack up in the boondocks, I watched a man inside prepare our order. He must have been chopping the pollos to perfection. But I couldn't stop staring at his face through the small order window, so much so that I zoomed in my camera to take one photo.

At least the sight of him made my pollos con tostones much more sabroso.

Cake Pops!

On Valentine's Eve, I stayed up until 3am to make cake pops for the first time. I originally wanted to make cupcakes, but someone else at work already planned on baking red velvet cupcakes so I decided to do something else.

I didn't have everything I needed, but I worked with what I did have, such as only one bag of Wilton candy melts instead of two. I also didn't have styrofoam to dry the coated cake pops on, so I used a banana instead. No candy pop sticks which would have been sturdier, so I had used our colored coffee stirrers instead.

They're not as smooth and evenly coated as I had hoped, but they were gone by the end of the day! I brought about 20 pieces to work. They loved it!

 

I guess the treat for me was when three people asked me how I made them, including someone I was secretly hoping would sample them. He did, and he came bursting through our office to inquire about the cake pops' creation. I calmly explained the method employed while this unexpected attention was secretly enjoyed.

Some weeks back, I had imagined bringing something to work on Valentine's Day and offering him to try it, but that day I didn't even have to do it and it still happened on his own initiative. 

Oh, and the funny thing was, he had called them "Cake Balls," which I promptly corrected. 

Gift Guru-ness

Some say Valentine’s Day is a holiday spawned by Hallmark and chocolate-makers. It’s a day when singles feel most singled out, but I enjoy the card-giving tradition that goes with it. It’s also an excuse to eat more chocolate, especially ones that come in some heart-associated, usually red packaging.

There is bliss in sending Valentine cheer, amplified when it is received from thoughtful friends from across the miles. These mailed goodies from Ody and Pavinee are just a few heartwarming examples. Love can come with a postage stamp!

For my cousins, there were the ubiquitous chocolates which I paired with movie certificates I had purchased at a wonderful discount. In gift-giving, a good rule of thumb to follow is that when in doubt, get them gift cards/ gift certificates. It helps to know where they love to shop/dine! Pick a store they adore and let them do the picking of what they really want. You will never go wrong! Gift cards are also a time and sanity-saving shopping device especially for those who do not want to linger at the mall mulling over what to get someone. Plus, you don’t have to wrap it.

So are you a Gift Guru?

Cupid's Candy Heart Cupcakes

Cinderella couldn't go to the ball, so she made cupcakes instead.

Happy Valentine's Day, Y'all! Or as I call it, a day to indulge in chocolate packaged in many different ways heart-shaped or -hued.

Here are some lemon cupcakes I recently baked with pink frosting, red sprinkles and candy hearts for a Filipino religious celebration (Ati-Atihan Fiesta) in a jolly place called Jersey City. The pink cupcake wrappers were extra ones from my baby niece's first birthday party last year.

I had fun sorting out the cute messages on the candy hearts from this big bag I bought. "Tweet Me" is so social network-modern! I could have lined up the ones that said "Call Me," "Text Me" and "Tweet Me" to show the evolution of candy-fied sweet nothings. 

My personal favorite, simply, is the one that says "Smile." ♥

Dear Lord, just realized this is my first ever blog for 2012! #Twitterkilledblogging!

Cake Contest Runners-Up

Back in June, my friend and I boldly decided to join our first cake decorating contest. It was hosted by our local Michaels store, where we had met at the Wilton Cake Decorating classes.

The theme for the contest was revealed only two days prior to the actual contest day. It was "Four Seasons." We brainstormed and agreed that we would cover our cake with fondant, then stick with a simple design that would show the four seasons in four tree branches spread out evenly around the cake.

The rules said we could have 25% of our final decorations pre-made at home, so my friend started making the cherry blossoms out of gumpaste which she dusted with pink shimmer dust. Edible, of course. We had 3 hours to work on our cake. The teams were scattered throughout the store so that nobody could spy on each other's work.

I rolled out the branches from fondant and shaped the summer and autumn leaves. The autumn leaves were cut and shaped by hand, not by a leaf-shaper. Hand-painted with icing color, as well.

I handpiped the winter snowflakes with royal icing. My friend molded a snowman with a scarf as a topper for the winter part of the cake.

There were four teams altogether, and the cake on the right won first place. The intricate icing work earned them the most points. The cake to the left won 2nd place. Ours was the smallest cake compared to the rest that it looks like it might stand perfectly on a fireplace mantel. Turns out we were supposed to make a three-tier cake, but our copy of the rules never said that.

We were First Runners-Up, which essentially meant last place, but the experience itself made us winners in our right. And hey, my friend and I each got this cool fondant-cutting tool set from Wilton as consolation prize.

My teammate who's a mother of two reportedly had her son tell her before leaving for the contest that if we win, he will hug her. And if we didn't, he will give her a BIGGER hug.

When she went home that night and told him the news, her son gave her a really big hug.

And it was the sweetest thing.

Presto, It's Kresto!

I love grocery-shopping when in a different location. I like to see what local products are available, what brands the locals love to consume. Being a chocolate person, I brought home a small can of this Puerto Rican powdered chocolate called "Kresto."

Wish I was able to prop it on some rustic star furniture for a cuter photo, though.

I love the vintage cartoons on the label. It sure looks like Puerto Rican children have been enjoying this chocolate drink since the 70's, judging from the art.

Flavor verdict? Delicioso! It's akin to my own Ovaltine childhood, minus the granule-y texture.

What edible souvenir have you brought home from a trip which became your favorite?

Litratong Pinoy #101: Wala na (Gone)

A family friend whose son plays in the prestigious Cadets Marching Band requested that I bake a cake for him for when he performed at the New Meadowlands Stadium in Secaucus, New Jersey last Sunday night (August 7th).

They have such a huge following that fans of all ages and types, even perhaps those on social security disability, were there to watch and cheer and marvel at their musical coordination and choreography on the field.

Their official colors are maroon and gold, so I set out to use those colors for the cake. The most challenging part was making the maroon color, as the burgundy icing color that I have looked fuschia at first. That meant adding more amounts of the color to the icing and the fondant. The stripes on the cake and the centerpiece marching band hat with angel and demon wings are the only fondant elements, the rest is icing. This is what burgundy did to my hands:

Like I massaged a maroon Oompa Loompa!

In their "Tour of the Champions" performance, their theme was "Between Angels and Demons," hence the angel and demon wings on the cake. Sadly, I didn't get to watch their show myself, but the cake did reach the intended Cadet. After their awesome performance, the maroon icing has melted throughout the night, but made it happily into several stomachs. It was all GONE! An apocalyptic disappearance!

Natunaw man sa kakahintay ng kakain sa kanya, naubos din daw agad yung cake na ginawa ko para sa marching band na Cadets. Yun nga lang, konti lang silang naki-share dahil maliit lang ito. Pero, pinagpuyatan ko ang paggawa nito!

Build-A-Bake

 I am proud to present to you my first fondant cake which I built and designed all by myself!

This was a Graduation Cake I made for my cousins who graduated from high school and middle school. I stayed up ALL NIGHT to finish this cake! Rolling out the fondant and imprinting it with stars were the trickiest parts, while kneading the fondant and tinting it with colors were the most time-consuming.

But the result was definitely worth the trouble and received a lot of praises from potential future cake clients!

It all started from the chocolate cake base which I leveled and cut in half to put icing in the middle. This is a 10-inch cake which serves as the bottom tier. The top tier is an 8-inch cake of the same flavor.

Next, I covered the entire cake with icing which would also serve as the "glue" for the fondant.

I used ready-made Wilton fondant which I laboriously kneaded and rolled flat with the new plastic rolling pin I got. Kneading fondant was like massaging a giant stress ball that sticks to your hands. I would rub vegetable shortening on my hands and mat to keep it from sticking to the surface.

The star imprint was magical! Like applying tattoo to your cake!

With cakes, it's all about the details. Hence, I madea little diploma with ribbon out of fondant, too.

I used corn cob skewers as wooden dowels to support the cake tier. What's fabulous about fondant is that it gives your cake a clean, polished look and it doesn't smear or smudge in case you touch it, unlike regular icing.

I had the sudden urge to talk to my friend via conference call services when I finished the cake, but it was already 7AM and I haven't slept a wink!

Patriotic Pugs (Plus a Cake!)

Wishing my fellow Americans a Safe, Spectaculiar and Special Fourth of July! These patriotic pugs were a scene-stealer in our town's Memorial Day parade last May, so I photographed them! How can one ignore these cute costumed canines?

And this is why I'm sharing this favorite photo to celebrate Photo Cache's 5th Blogoversary as well!

And in my efforts to continue the self-invented tradition of baking a cake each time my baby niece turned a month older, I humbly present my star-shaped red, white, and blue cake for her tenth month! This was hurriedly iced and decorated in about 30 minutes, and I was grateful for the Hershey's Kisses wrapped in blue foil that we had a bag of! I sprinkled blue and red over the white icing and drew random "fireworks" with the red icing (which I wished was redder).

Yup, my niece is a 10-month old Baby Firework!

Ice Cream Cupcakes!

It's the First Day of Summer! And one of the sweet treats that can beat the heat is ice cream! But wait! These are "imposter" ice cream!

Baking cupcakes directly onto ice cream cups was a first for me. But this was actually my second "commissioned" cupcake creation by the same client who happens to be a family friend. It's for her kid's End-of-School Party. I hope they enjoy eating them!

What's so cool about ice cream cupcakes is that it won't melt, you can basically have your cupcake and eat your ice cream cone, too; and there's nothing to toss afterwards, making it mess-free! What happens to your mouth and face while eating it is completely a different story, though.

The downside: placing them in trays and keeping them upright! Extra challenge: delivering them to client with zero to minimal  damage! I cut holes through a cardboard which thankfully already had round markings from its being a carton for canned goods, I believe. Then I carefully placed each ice cream cupcake, all twelve of them, in the tray.

I gotta get some new HP ink cartridges to print some of my baking achievements for posterity!

From Vienna With Love

Viva Vienna!

 Ody surprised me with this parcel containing Le Rouge Ecrin jewel lipstick compact in four shades, I Love Vienna postcard, heart-shaped Vienna fridge magnet, Manner Neapolitan Wafers, and a fish magnet from Coron. Ever heard of how you reveal part of your personality through the gifts you give? I heart the heart theme in these goodies! And the glam Parisian lipstick set! The Manner shows how sweet the gift-giver is! (See Miss Iggy with a pink Manner carriage in Vienna!)

I'm packing the wafers and lipstick in my luggage to Puerto Rico (I leave Sunday night). There won't be riding boots in there but flipflops!

Again, Danke, Ody, from the bottom of my corazon!

Litratong Pinoy #100: Freestyle (Frosting-style!)

I took my budding cake obsession to the next level by enrolling in cake decorating  classes last month! I was so happy to have done it (this was what my final class cake looked like) that I'm taking the next course this month: flower-making out of royal icing and fondant!

I am crazy about my baby niece that I celebrate every month she becomes older by baking and decorating a cake! This is what I made recently for her 7th month. I used a heart-shaped cake pan and a strawberry-flavored cake batter. I just went wild with the icing decorations, applying the techniques I learned with borders and leaves.

 

You might notice the LifeSaver candies I used as the flower base. I had sprinkled the number 7 with butterfly candy confetti. 

I am anxious about her upcoming first birthday. I want it to be a gorgeous cake! How fast time really flies especially when babies are involved...pretty soon she'll be graduating from the play pen to actual playground equipment!

Maligayang Ikatlong Anibersaryo sa Litratong Pinoy! Siyempre, dapat may cake!

Fanciful Fondant Flowers!

I wet my pansies....with gum glue adhesive water, that is.

Tonight was the first of our Wilton Flowers & Cake Design classes and I learned how to knead fondant for the first time! It's actually not pure fondant, since we mixed it with gum paste to make the fondant dry faster. Our instructor told us that if we used pure fondant, it would take an entire day for it to dry. And we only have 2 hours per session to learn things.

Our course kit came with flower shapers, which was the easy part. The tricky part was keeping the fondant soft as we flattened it with a rolling pin into the proper thickness. Fondant can't be exposed to open air too long as it will develop cracks from dryness, thus one should have the skill to work quickly and store unused fondant immediately in plastic wrap and in an air-tight container. Having a dehumidifier around won't really make a difference.

It's just as I thought it looked like: playing with modeling clay! It's like being a kid again, only you get to eat the shapes you make. But with flowers like these, you'd be too guilty to actually consume them!

And more on being a kid, this study claims that learning new things for as little as two hours with "child-like" awe stimulates brain growth for adults!

My flowers aren't that perfect yet, (you can see the rough edges) but practice makes perfect petals! I love the pansies...I just need to figure out how to paint it with edible coloring to add darker colors in the petals for a more realistic look.

It Takes Tea To Tango

A cup of tea is literally my cup of tea! I prefer tea over coffee, actually. I consider it my beverage for rejuvination. My cousin who's a Business student at NYU recently came back from a university-sponsored educational week-long trip to Buenos Aires and brought me these: Argentine tea with a souvenir tea cup made out of hollowed gourd and a tea infuser spoon!

I love the tango couple engraved on the cup! Buenos Regalos de Buenos Aires!

These are Guaymallen chocolate cookie sandwiches that are individually wrapped but come in a big bag. You will have a sweet tooth explosion because the chocolate sandwiches do have fillings!

Delicioso!

A Tote Bag of OMG-itis!

I received this tote bag filled with two years' worth of birthday gifts from Ging recently. It was a happy coincidence that my mom flew to the Philippines so she had an opportunity to get these sent to me. I had only expected to receive a spare Miss Igorota doll to send to our newest recruit in Maryland, but I got all these!

• 4 Miss Igorota dolls (One was already sent to Maryland)
• One vintage Holland America canvas tote bag (I have a good feeling about this, it may be a travel omen of sorts!)
• Balloon-decorated padded envelope which reminded of me the Balloon Cake I made!
• Curly Tops & Chocnut chocolates!
• Papemelroti notebook, Desiderata 2011 Calendar, ink stamps & blue earrings!
• Brown fish plush!
• Bell + Howell BF 35 camera! OMG!!! Totally unexpected! And the ironic thing about this camera is that the box says it's made by Jazz Photo Corp. which is based in New Jersey!

My heart overfloweth with gratitude as much as this tote bag overfloweth with generous goodies! I was so happy I thought I needed to be strapped to an EKG machine from hyper glee. I thank thee, Ging!

A Rose By Any Other Name Would Taste Just As Sweet!

On Monday night, we "graduated" from our Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Course. Cakes were on us, of course! Our final lesson was about making icing roses and letterings. It was fun and frustrating at the same time!

Making real-looking flowers requires stiff consistency icing. My icing was too stiff it felt like my piping bag was constipated! I was silently fuming inside because I had to add drops of water to soften it and was consequently lagging behind in the lecture's pace. Our instructor told me to use piping gel instead to make the icing smoother. That did the trick!

I caught up eventually, but my first attempt at the rose was comedic. I kept dropping the blob of rose base off the flower nail!

"Oh, you got a jumper!," exclaimed our instructor.

But patience is a virtue, and I managed to squeeze out my first icing roses short of acquiring carpal tunnel syndrome. Tadaaah!

Our cakes were all abloom with roses that night! It was an edible garden of roses! And to make it official, we all received our Wilton Certificates of Completion for the course!

If I become rich someday off of cake decorating, could I possibly afford a Honda EU1000iA? One can build cake castles in the air, right?

Something important I learned from this course is that "consistency is key" when it comes to mixing your icing. It can't be too stiff, can't be too soft. It has to be just right for whatever it is you're trying to make! And as with anything else in life, consistent practice is key to perfection!

Balloon Birthday Cake

My cousin turned 18 this month and I eagerly created this birthday cake for him, applying the latest decorating techniques I learned in class using "dimensional icing."

Yes, I did say it was for a "he." I wasn't able to achieve a deeper shade of the green and purple as I had hoped when mixing the icing colors, so it ended up in these pastel hues instead. My cousin didn't mind!

Those are balloons with smiley faces, by the way. You can tell how frantic I was to finish the cake in time to bring it to the Chinese restaurant where we would gather for his birthday dinner that night.

I used three different decorating tips to put the borders. An expert cake decorator would probably sneer at the cake crumbs that are visible on the icing. We were taught that it means the frosting I applied wasn't thin enough, thereby allowing the cake's surface to stick to the spatula as I spread the icing.

I'm a beginner, cut me some slack! Or better yet, cut me some cake! Save the Sensa for later!

The lettering was done with Wilton Sparkle Gel icing tube. It adds instant sparkle to any cake! Am proud of my cake decorating improvement!

Oh, and I just signed up for next month's Wilton course: "Flowers and Cake Design!" That's one course away from the "Gum Paste and Fondant" course!

Cupcakes in Bloom

We brought cupcakes to cake decorating class and we learned how to make some icing flowers, which I thought was apropros for Spring!

It was actually tough making those leaves look leafy! And our practice mat had us making THREE types of leaves.

And I was able to make big icing swirls! It was a big deal for me personally. I've always been intrigued by icing swirls. I had used sky-blue icing color on these, which I thought ended up looking like the elegant, Tiffany shade of blue. It felt like putting whipped cream on a sundae.

Next Monday will conclude our course, and we're bringing a cake to decorate with flowers. How swiftly time does fly!

Fishy Friday

Last Monday's cake decorating class had us bringing our own baked cakes to be decorated. An amazing cake tool I discovered from this class is the "cake leveler" which lets you slice off the unsightly hump on newly baked cakes. You get a flat-surfaced cake by using this simple tool.

Our course booklet contains model cakes to copy. Another cool trick we learned was transferring traced patterns onto your cake from paper, such as this fish design I chose. Instead of using tracing paper and pencil, we used parchment paper and gel piping. We also learned how to smooth out the icing on the cake using parchment paper and a spatula for a polished look.

I only have one icing color, green, so I borrowed my classmate's orange icing bag. On this cake, we applied the "dimensional decorating" technique for icing with a Wilton #12 icing tip. It lets you do round and elongated icing shapes on your cake.

Pardon the crude look of my cake. I'm just a beginner, after all.

It's green because of St. Patrick's Day. I call it my "Lepre-Cod Cake." (Leprechaun, get it?) My fish is so Irish, it even has orange fins. Flaming orange fins.

Our cake decorating instructor encouraged us to take photos of our finished cakes not just for posterity, but as requirements for when we wish to become Wilton instructors ourselves later on. Something to put in the portfolio, perhaps. Luckily, I brought my DSLR and snapped away. I even took photos of my Filipina classmate's cake because she didn't have a camera. Just in case we want to be cake decorating instructors in the future. But presently, for blogging purposes for me. I can see myself doing cake after cake until I get old enough to qualify for a Medicare plan.

KG had asked in a comment on a previous post if I could share the recipe for the buttercream icing which uses meringue powder that we had used for the class. I must warn you, though, that since it's stiff, it will give your arms quite a workout mixing it. Unless you have a nifty stand-alone mixer. Here it is from our Wilton Basic Cake Decorating Course booklet:

Buttercream Icing Recipe (Stiff consistency, makes 2 1/2 cups)

1 cup solid white vegetable shortening
1 teaspoon Wilton flavor (Vanilla, Almond or Butter)
7-8 teaspoons milk or water (I use water)
1 lb. pure cane confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon Wilton Meringue Powder (*Allergy warning: may be eliminated if allergic to eggs)
Pinch of salt (optional)

Cream shortening, flavoring and water. Add dry ingredients and mix on medium speed until all ingredients have been thoroughly mixed together. Blend an additional minute or so, or until creamy.

To turn this icing batter into thin consistency, add 2 teaspoons of water for each cup of the stiff consistency icing mentioned above. Therefore, you will add a total of 5 teaspoons to make it thin, that is, soft.

The thin icing is the one used to frost the surface of the cake, while the "medium" consistency is used to add decorative icing, such as the fish design and dots you see on my cake.

Decorator icing is like modeling clay, only you squeeze them out of icing bags with specially-shaped tips. Wanna try?

Christening Cupcakes

There's a story, a celebration, behind every cake. These are the cupcakes I made for my baby niece's christening last Saturday. I only had one muffn pan to bake these cupcakes on, so I stayed up late baking batch after batch and adding swirls and Spring-themed sprinkles on top of each cupcake.

I had originally planned on using the Peeps marshmallows as cupcake toppers, as if they're sitting on a nest of frosting. I ditched the idea last minute and used the Peeps as decor instead.

I was excited to use the cupcake tower I had bought on clearance from Walmart after Valentine's Day. For a mere $5, this tower came with a lid, 6 icing bags and 3 decorating tips.

Last night's dinner at a Chinese restaurant had me pulling two fortunes from just one fortune cookie. The first said "You are gifted in many ways." The other said "You will be unusually successful in business." Could the heavens be telling me to open up a cake business? Baking franchises, maybe?

I'm so glad I signed up for the Wilton Basic Cake Decorating course this month. Best $17.50 I've ever spent for myself so far. Only two more Mondays until the course ends. But we're already given another discount coupon for the next courses if we're interested.

I see fondant in my future!