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!

Ham, Cheese and Chili Crepe

Changes, changes... as they say, there is nothing constant in this world except change.

When change comes, I press the panic button before trying to step back a little to understand what is going on and think things through. When I panic, I usually make mistakes. tsk tsk.. Though sometimes, I am happy to say it's the other way around. Yes, just sometimes.

At least! :)

I wish changes, in all forms, is just as easy as changing your weekend food. I didn't go full circle, but I just tried to have something we don't usually have. Crepes. Oh yes, it's refreshing and rewarding after the changes, panic and the boo-boos... my boo-boos! :S

This is a savory crepe inspired by Café Breton's Vesuve. Sheila had me try this back in December and I instantly loved it.

For the ham filling, you'll need:

vegetable oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
about 6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 to 4 ripe tomatoes, finely chopped
8 slices of cooked ham (not sweet), diced
Chili pepper flakes (start with half a teaspoon for a mild spicy kick)
pinch of salt and pepper
1/2 bar of quick melting cheese (this is about 100 grams, you can grate a little extra of you want)


Prepare the filling - heat the oil and sauté the onions until translucent, add the garlic, then tomatoes. When tender, add the ham, then sprinkle the pepper flakes, add just a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

For the basic crepe recipe, I got it from the book Joy of Cooking. I just made a little changes below:

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt

1 cup warm milk
1/2 cup warm water
4 eggs
4 tablespoons butter, melted
extra 6 teaspoons of butter (for the pan)

mix dry ingredients (flour, salt or sugar) and set aside. melt butter, set aside
in a large bowl, mix the milk, water, eggs and add melted butter. Mix well
slowly add the dry ingredients by sifting it through the bowl, then mix thoroughly until there are no lumps anymore. I like my milk and water warm as it dissolves the dry ingredients faster.

Note: This makes about 6 crepes. I am using a 9-inch non-stick pan. You can prepare the crepe batter ahead of time and store it in airtight container in the fridge.

To prepare the crepe, heat your pan, melt a teaspoon of butter and pour a ladle of the crepe batter (I pour about 1/2 cup) and tilt the pan in circular motion until you achieve the round form of the crepe. Cook until the bottom is ok, about 2 minutes on low to medium heat, like if you see a little toasted color under, then that's good.

Then in the center of the crepe, put about 2 tablespoons of the ham filling and a tablespoon or more of grated quick melting cheese, then fold the crepe. Careful on folding as the crepe tends to tear. I suggest you use two cooking spatulas/turners when you fold the crepe. If you want to cook/prepare all the crepes first, go ahead :)

The crepe batter is also good for sweet/dessert crepes. Just omit the salt and add 4 to 5 tablespoons of sugar (will post our dessert crepe soon!)


I am in the process of learning to accept the other side of change. That: it's not always bad, that it's not something to be scared about. I should think that change is also a step towards improvement. So here I am, resting on this well deserved weekend, preparing myself to embrace the changes that will come.

Happy weekend! :)

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! :)