Christmas Chocolate Cupcakes

2 New Years have passed this month!!! Happy New Year and Happy Chinese New Year to all!

Hope everyone had fun during the holidays! Mine was! It was pretty much packed with reunions here and there, cooking, baking, gift wrapping and last minute gift shopping! With work still included, you can say it was really a busy holiday!

Sharing a photo of the Christmas-themed Chocolate Cupcakes I made for my cousin Kuya Bobby and his wife Ate Pam.

I used Hershey's Perfect Chocolate Cake recipe for the cupcakes. They are soooo moist and chocolatey. This recipe never failed me! This makes 24 cupcakes, or even 30 if you fill the pans halfway only. I also use this for our chocolate caramel cake!

For the butter cream frosting, I used Wilton butter cream icing recipe. I just lessened the amount of the powdered sugar to 3 ½ cups as it can be really sweet.

Read: DIABETIC :)

I got the Christmas toppers from Manna Ingredients. They have loads of stuff there for baking,food packaging etc. I am happy to say that they don’t overprice their goodies. Promise. So to anyone there who will come across this entry and if you’re at the East side of Metro Manila, go ahead and visit their humble store. It’s along Marcos Highway, beside the entrance of Town and Country Village.

Ok, I do know the fact that I have so much backlog and making up to do! I wish I can still find time somehow to share something here – at least once a week to or maybe once in 2 weeks? monthly? Quarterly? Tell me about it.

With all the busyness before and what’s going on, though I am still very much inspired to cook (never lost that touch, thank God!) I feel that along the way - I lost the inspiration to write... Or, was I just too tired or too preoccupied?

Signs, signs, signs.

On a positive note - I believe that this year has a lot of beautiful promises. I will just go with the flow and try to stay focused at least 99% of the time, if not 100%!

This year’s going to be busier in all the corners of my life as an individual, a mom and a wife (no, Archie is not into politics, he’s just going to be busier too!). Despite that it will be busier; I will try my best to rest more, play more, reunite myself with writing… and playing the guitar (this is another side of me).

Well, here I am, back for the new year! So, here's to a busy but wonderful, healthy, happy and successful 2013 to all! And here’s to another entry next week!? :P Cheers!

Cake Pops and a mini baby shower surprise

Nope, not me. My good friend Ross will be bringing her second little princess out in a few weeks . Ross was born with a sweet tooth but was under strict "sweets diet" in her childhood days because her mom was super taking care of her teeth (She really has nice teeth by the way so good job Tita Lita!)

Anyways, she likes cake pops, so these cute, pretty, pink cake pops were made as souvenirs for the mini baby shower my colleagues, bosses and I had for her this morning :) Thanks and good job to us all! As we have seen this morning, the surprise brought her to tears! (Awwww!)

Lolli-cakes, cake pops, cake balls, cake truffles or whatever you want to call it, is starting a craze. I've been really curious and eager to make them since I came across Bakerella and features from Cupcakes Take The Cake , only to find out that my cousins in the US have been making cake pops for quite sometime now. Way to go Kuya Aljan and Ate Eileen!

I am in no way able to give a history of it but I can tell you that my first few attempts failed. I thought it was so easy to make, but it wasn't. Talk about Disaster and Drama. My cousin said to just keep practicing. so I did.


I have used as guide the basic recipes from Bakerella, The Kitchn and sought help from the super detailed photos, troubleshooting, plus a video tutorial on how to dip cake pops from Veronica's Cornucopia. I was able to surpass the cake pop dilemma because of them. Thank you!

To make about 3 to 4 dozens, you need a cake baked in a 13 X 9 pan or two 8" round pans. If you have all the time in the world, you can bake from scratch. Bless your heart.

You can definitely use store-bought box mix, or grab a ready made cake.

In my case, I combined my left over cupcakes. I have been inspired by Chichajo's mission to resurrect left overs in any way possible, give them justice and honor in their new form. I've been trying to do so in left over dishes and now I have applied her wisdom to left over cakes and cupcakes by making these cake pops. You see, sometimes I crave for cakes or cupcakes, bake dozens of 'em (for cupcakes), eat them everyday for consecutive days and realize that I and my fellows here can't finish them off anymore. The little boy has his own share of eating them but me thinks he can't have sweets overdose!

So I had 15 pieces leftover chocolate cupcakes (9) and red velvet cupcakes (6)

- crumble them in a stainless steel bowl and set aside. My left overs amounted to just about half of the original basic recipe.

For the chocolate melt, I found chocolate bars easier to use so i used approx 500 grams of white chocolate bar, chopped and melted (double boiler) and I added about 1/4 teaspoon of red food color to make it pink. Pretty sprinkles c/o the ever reliable Manna Ingredients and the Cocoa Pantry.


When I saw the results of this latest attempt, I had a feeling of triumph as it's giving better texture, the chocolate hardens and there was no "falling off" happening. Cheers to that! :)

Here are some things I learned from blogs, watching tutorials on cake pops and my own disasters:

To make presentable cake pops, one must have patience and energy to go back and forth the fridge and working table. Prayer is very powerful.

If helper is available. By all means, let them help. Thank you Gemma and Abi. They designed their own cake pops but I have no permission to post it here :P

Best to use bars and melt them in a double boiler. I have tried to melt it in low heat in the microwave but it doesn't work well for me.

Whisk the melted chocolate a few times to release heat before dipping your cake balls.

Take out 2 or 3 pops at a time because in our kind of weather, the cake balls tend to soften fast, ergo the chocolate will not harden and the ball will fall off the lollipop stick (I am speaking from experience)

You need fast working hands when putting sprinkles as the chocolate melt dries fast because of cold cake ball.

Now with all these in place, I am looking forward to make another batch. The little boy is turning 4 next week and maybe I can give it a go if time permits! :)

Happy weekend everyone! :)

Happy Holidays! :)

Merry Christmas everyone! :)

Here's something our family gave to our relatives for this holiday season - Banana Chocolate Chip cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream. As always, Banana and Chocolate go well together, thus we have these cupcakes, and how much more good will it be if you top some chocolate butter cream on it? :)

I used my favorite Banana Chocolate Chip bread recipe for the cupcakes. Then I just reduced the time to 20 minutes, rotating the pan halfway. 1 recipe makes about 15 cupcakes. The chocolate butter cream recipe was inspired by two recipes.

It's still a busy time now and hope to be back soon!

Have a blessed, healthy and happy 2011! :)

Banana Chocolate Nutella Smoothie

This was inspired by our team's ever memorable team building trip in wherelse but there (?!)


For a little twist, I combined peanut butter and Nutella for a more nutty action.

For 3 medium sized cocktail glasses, I used:

3 ripe lacatan bananas
about 1/2 cup of nutella
about 1/2 cup of peanut butter (local - Lily's peanut butter. Love it to bits!)
about 3 cups full cream milk
1 tsp of vanilla
brown sugar - I suggest you drop a teaspoonful one at a time and do your taste test.
1 cup of crushed ice


Lucky you if your blender can crush ice really well!

Mine cannot crush thoroughly so I manually shaved ice through my manual ice shaver! Yes, like pawis-steering.

For more creamy texture - if you have vanilla ice cream handy, by all means add a scoop!

What to do: mix them altogether in your blender and slurp-slurp-slurp! (Or you may opt to chill it longer)


The heat is definitely ON! How's your aircon doing?

I have been to this wonderful promised land for just four times and been ordering Mango Shake like there's no tomorrow on the first three trips. Just for kicks, I tried this on my fourth visit and so glad I did. Of course, I will still have my Mango Shake - but now I know what else to get on my 5th, 6th and so on...

BORACAY, 'til we meet again!

Banana Caramel Cookie Crunch

This one I learned from a good friend who is now happy in heaven. She came up with this in a retreat some decade and a half ago I guess, where she was OIC for the food committee. Just because she was left with very few resources, she came up with this fun and easy to make dessert. Funny this can be a Banoffee pie's neighbor!

And so I learned that you have to make do with what you have in the kitchen and you'll see that you can make something spectacular out of them.


On the photo you see:
Crushed chocolate chip cookies / Any butter cookie you like
1 Ripe Banana (lakatan)
Caramel syrup
Chocolate Syrup (Hershey's or Clara Ole, or melted chocolate!)


*When my friend shared this with me, she said she used Chips Ahoy, ripe lacatan bananas and melted Hershey's chocolate!


No official measurements! Just assemble it in any order you desire!

I like to assemble it this way:

In a plate or cup, put the crushed cookies, then sliced bananas, pour the caramel and lastly the chocolate syrup!

You may also opt to add a little vanilla ice cream or whipped all purpose cream, and instead put them in a small clear glass to make it appear like a trifle, plus a cherry on top! :)


This one's for you Sab! I know you are smiling down on us!


Alright everyone, dig in!!! :)

*this is an addition to my Banana festival moment. Simple, pero ROCK! bow!

Banana Choco Nutella Cream Pie

My blog has been appearing in my sleep, talking to me, saying how irresponsible I have become. No single entry for the past 4 weeks? How could you??!

How could I?

I felt like I left another baby in the middle of nowhere. Sorry bloggy. You see, I have been busy, but it doesn't mean I forgot about you. No, I think about you all the time! :)

I have been trying to write drafts in my notepad however I couldn't finish them just yet. I have been praying for second winds at night but they never came to me.

But anyway, I am here now! :)

And so the quest for the banana festival continues!

Banana Choco Nutella Cream Pie --- Long title? :) ChocNut is even supposed to be in there!

This version is inspired by Ross' recipe (whom I have been convincing to make her food blog as she loves to cook too!) and another version from Pauline. Thank you ladies!

Some time ago, Nestle All Purpose Cream came up with two flavors of their All Purpose Cream: Chocolate and Mixed Berries. Given this recipe, I grabbed the Chocolate All Purpose Cream (luckily, it was buy 1 take one then for only 50.00 Php) and made this cream pie.

As done here, it's best to make the cream filling first so that you can chill it. It's easier to assemble your cream pie if the filling is chilled.

For the filling:

6 ripe lacatan bananas - sliced (about 1/4 inch and will look like thick coins)
2 packs of Nestle Chocolate all purpose cream
about 3/4 cup of Nutella (or any other hazlenut spread available in the market)
4 tbsp of white sugar (you can put less, depending on your sugar level)
a small drop of vanilla essence

Beat cream, nutella, sugar and vanilla and if they are totally mixed well, fold in the sliced bananas and chill for about 1 to 2 hours.

For the crust and toppings, I used:

about 1 cup to 1 and a half cup of crushed MY San graham
about 2 to 3 tbsps white sugar (you can put less, depending on your sugar level)
a small pinch of salt
about half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder
about 3 to 4 tbsp melted butter (I used Magnolia's Baker's Best)
about 16 pieces crushed ChocNut (Pauline says to crush it with your fingers!)

Mix crushed graham, sugar, salt, cinnamon in a bowl then create a well in the center, add the melted butter. make sure the butter is evenly distributed and as much as possible try to achieve a kind of "slightly wet and sandy" kind of crust.

Put half of the crumbs on the bottom of a rectangular container and press it down and set aside or put it in the fridge. Set aside the other half but do not put it in the fridge. The butter will harden and it will not be easy to loosen the crumbs for your topping.

After 1 to 2 hours, pour the chilled filling onto the crusted container and smooth the top with your spoon or with a spatula. Top it with the remaining crumbs and the crushed ChocNut and chill it one more time for at least an hour before serving.


Note: Nestle Chocolate all purpose cream is not available anymore in the market (unless they bring it back, that will be great!) So in this case, you can use the regular all purpose cream about 1 and a half pack and mix it with 1 cup of melted chocolate.

I like to add more ChocNut on top however, my body says DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. Heeheehee! Hope you'll enjoy this!


Ooops, it's almost time to go now!

It's nice to be back!


Until the next KusinaSerye and banana festival entry! :)

Chocolate Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Gorgeous aren't they?! Thanks a lot to AverageBetty! The attempt to make these cupcakes is long overdue. Yesterday morning, aside from having other things in my head, upon checking the fridge after breakfast, I realized that the butter needs to be consumed ASAP.

So it's really high time for some Cheer Up Yourself Moment! And boy, these cupcakes are miraculous!

Now I am on happy mode again! ;) The original cupcake recipe actually has pudding inside. Yummy! If only I had all the time in the world I would make the pudding but for now I only had time to make the cupcakes and frosting. Nonetheless I am thrilled to say that it was a success even without the pudding in it. Maybe next time! :)

If you are planning to make these cupcakes, make sure to take out the butter and eggs at least 30 minutes to an hour before you start, to achieve room temperature : )

For the chocolate Cupcakes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, softened (1 stick)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
3 1/2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk (buttermilk info below! read on!)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract


Preheat oven to 350(F) / 175(C)

Melt chocolate and set aside - either in the microwave-carefully Or the old way. (I used the old way!)

Cream butter, white sugar and brown sugar using your electric mixer

Add eggs and mix well

Add the melted chocolate and vanilla and mix very well.

Add flour and baking soda and combine thoroughly.

Add buttermilk slowly and combine thoroughly until smooth.

Fill muffin cups 3/4 full with batter and bake for 20-25 minutes or so. (my cupcakes took 28 minutes)

Just test the doneness on the 20th minute by inserting a toothpick in the middle and see if it comes out clean with very few crumbs. Otherwise, allow a few more minutes.

Cool the cupcakes in the tins for 10 minutes.

Remove from the tins and cool completely before putting (filling and) frosting


Note: If you don't have ready to use buttermilk, you can make some by mixing together 1/2 tbsp calamansi or lemon juice plus milk of almost 1/2 cup. If I may suggest, in a measuring cup, put the calamansi or lemon juice first, then slowly pour some milk until it reaches the 1/2 cup mark/line. For other buttermilk substitutes, click here :)


For the Frosting:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar
(Original recipe used 2 1/2, however, I would like to lessen my sugar intake.... *lol* NYEH!!!!)

1/2 cup butter (I used 1/4 regular butter and 1/4 UNSALTED butter)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 tablespoons whipping cream (I used, chilled Nestlé All Purpose Cream)


Directions:

Mix together sugar and butter. Mix on low speed until well blended and then increase speed to medium-high and beat for another 3-4 minutes.

Blend in vanilla.

Add tablespoons of cream gradually and continue to beat on medium-high speed for several minutes more, until light, fluffy and smooth.

Mixture will have a pearly sheen and perfect spreading consistency.

For my Pink frosting, I added about 4 "dots" of Red food coloring then i just folded it until I achieved the pretty pinkish color.

Get a big load of frosting on a knife

Swirl frosting and put on some candy sprinkles


Note: Do not refrigerate before frosting cupcakes.


Let me share some highlights below:

Look at this egg!

This is was the first cupcake liner I have ever filled! Really, I was nervous! Walang exaj ito!

Because I was nervous, I am dead sure I overfilled some cupcake liners! Hehehe!

I wanted to make Blue, Purple and Yellow colored frosting. But Pink was the winner!

Little J had the privilege of being the first "customer".

He ate a cupcake and a half. BUT, Mommy gave the unfrosted ones!
Too much sugar + Toddler = HYPER ACTIVITY *lol*

It's almost the weekend! Cant' wait to have another cupcake tomorrow!
I still have a few left in the fridge! Goodnight!

The belated and imperfect square chocolate birthday cake!

Given the title of this post, I made this cake two days after little J's official natal day. This was unexpected. I never planned to make cake because:

1. Lolo Pepe and Ninang Abi gave cakes last Sunday. Thank you! :)
2. I am a scaredy cat when it comes to baking. Especially cake!
3. I planned to make chocolate truffles again

Let's talk about # 3

The supposed truffle mixture did not cooperate that Sunday afternoon simply because there's lack of time and I have put too much cream in it. I was thinking, "pwede naman gawan ng paraan!". I was quite wrong. Bigo. The mixture did not turn firm at all. It was rather sticky. The mixture was back and forth in the freezer and chiller but to no avail. It just did not work. So come Wednesday I finally decided make use of it as chocolate cake frosting and to have more space back in the fridge.

Here's the recipe I used for the cake, courtesy of the back of the package of Gold Medal All Puporse Flour. Just click photo to enlarge:

I do not have 2 round pans, so I used my square pans. Lookie!

The cake on the left was the one on the first photo. It was gone in the afternoon of Wednesday. Javie's playmates enjoyed it. May nag take home pa! ;-)

And then, come Friday morning, I played with the 2nd cake (on the right). This was actually more moist than the first cake. Is it because the first cake was thicker?

Anyway, I cut the cake in half to make 2 layers and removed the bumpy parts. And because I want to achieve a dark chocolate caramel cake, I tried my very best to make a thick caramel filling. The taste was good! But the filling just reached a certain extent of thickness. I even put the pan in a bowl of ice water and beat it with my electric hand mixer. Pauline said it needs something to make it thick and firm enough for a cake filling. Maybe I should have prepared/used Dulce de Leche instead (?) Will research.

Tips and suggestions on how to make a very very thick caramel filling? I would very much appreciate it! Like the one of Red Ribbon's chocolate cake or whichever cake shop! Thank you! :-)

Meanwhile, below, my mini two layer chocolate caramel cake. Hehehe:


Here's the choco frosting and caramel falling down! I do not have toasted almonds anymore so I used the semi-sweet chocolate chips as topping. Hubby said it tastes good and better with the caramel! Whew! That's what matters to me most!

I hope in my next attempt, planned or not, it will be a perfect one, or maybe close! ;-) Wish me luck!


Update: the rest of the chocolate frosting were stored in the chiller and surprisingly became firm today, Saturday, July 11 at about 4pm - real time. So it took 6 days for it to get firm huh? Now they are officially truffles and are situated in the chiller waiting for their master. my husband. ;-)

P.S. I said before that I am a not-so chocolate lover. I still am. It's my choco freak hubby that gets me going about this whole recent love affair with chocolate. But one thing's for sure, I can say I am bingeing again.

I think my pigging out is endless.

Our boracay team building is a few days away. Good luck!!! :P

Banana Chocolate Chip Bread and Custard Top

Banana is a staple fruit in our household. Hubby loves it, little Javier loves it, I love it and my Angels love it! Yeah, as in everybody in the house!

When I do my weekly Friday market with Dad in Law, I always make it a point to buy ripe lacatan bananas and well, as said, since everydody loves B-A-N-A-N-A-S, it would take only 3 days and they are gone, gone, gone. As a homemaker, I want to have a stock of it since we always run out of it. So last week, I decided to buy the green ones (aside form the ripe ones), those that are about to reach their riping glory in a couple of days. Me - wishing that it will be enough of a wait until the ripe ones disappear.

For some reason, the green lacatan bananas ripened so fast (is it the weather?) that we were already na u-umay to eat them. We are avoiding it to reach the rotting stage and be thrown into the garbage with a sad face.

Thank goodness I have Yummy Magazine for this month (for May too!) and I have found the perfect way to use them and justify their presence and usefulness! Thanks to Aileen Anastacio's recipe! It's soooooooooooooo d-lish!


Banana Chocolate Chip Bread by Chef Aileen Anastacio (Yummy Magazine, June 2009, p30-31)

1 and 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup corn oil
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 Preheat oven to 350F (177C). Grease and flour an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2-inch loaf pan

2 Combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Stir to mix. (the first four!)

3 In another bowl, combine brown sugar and corn oil. Add eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla and mashed bananas.

4 Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until combined. Lastly, add the chocolate chips and mix just until combined. Pour mixture into the loaf pan.

5 Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Remove bread from the oven then allow to cool for about 20 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool for another 15 minutes on a wire rack before serving.

Just a thought:
I think you can add one or two more bananas to give more banana-full-a-flavor!



So after the success of the banana chocolate chip bread (Thank you Lord!), my next plan was to create a collaboration of the bread and a custard recipe (well, i guess, even food/recipes can collaborate! Hindi lang si Justin Timberlake at Madonna! Oh, I love JT!)

Where will the custard go? On top of the bread just before serving. Parang icing effect!

I found this nice custard recipe in Good Housekeeping's Easy Everyday Meals vol 6. It's not too sweet, that's why I like! And my party people liked it too!

For the custard (got this from the Banana Cream Pie recipe, p134) :

2 cups of fresh milk
1/2 cup of white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup of fresh milk
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 large egg yolks
3 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

mix 2 cups of fresh milk, white sugar and salt over low heat. In a bowl, dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of fresh milk, then whisk in egg yolks. Combine the two mixtures and cook, whisking constantly, over low heat until it thickens and bubbles, about 4 to 5 minutes.

Remove the custard from heat and stir in butter and vanilla.

Then transfer to a bowl and cool. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or longer.

I am glad to have at least a cheap icing bag with a few pins to go with it for only a hundred something pesos! Heheehee! Ang arte ko!

Hmm.. why not add a few sprinkles of Cinnamon Powder?

Wow! That was fun!!!

Just thinking, maybe next time, I will add a little cream cheese in the custard! What yu tink?

And this was another unexpected morning baking session! I like impromptus!

I know, i know, this is another pampa-jubis (keyword: majubis) food but what the heck, it's yummy! And it happened in God's and nature's perfect timing. Me and my bingeing time! :P So ladies, let's eat sweet!

Happy weekend! :-)