The Foodie's Food Trip: all me

Showing posts with label all me. Show all posts

My New Apron

A few days ago, my sister was here for a week of vacation with her friends.

When she was here, I accompanied her to this store that sells kitchen stuffs - baking, cooking, etc. We looked around and drooled at what the store is selling... we love them all!

Before we left the store, I was able to purchase something... this cute little apron.

By the way, that apron... it's for kids. :D I chose to buy this instead of their adult aprons (which also have cute designs) because this size fits me well, and covers all the right places. The adult size just hangs too low, I would need to clip the neck part.

Cute, right? :D

The Cupcake Survey

I have a problem and I need your help. On Christmas, there will be a small gathering in our house with some friends. They will spend Christmas lunch at home. It's pot luck, everyone will bring something and since I'm still in the hype of my baking, I volunteered to make the desserts.

I'm planning to make a few cupcakes since there will be less than 10 people coming over. Now my problem is... what to bake?

The Cupcakes

I have three choices for the cupcakes:

Red Velvet - red... perfect for the holidays
Chocolate - for the chocoholic in me
Vanilla - something simple for a change

The Frostings

If I choose red velvet cupcakes, I have two options for the frosting:

Creamy vanilla frosting - a la NY's Magnolia Bakery
Cream cheese frosting - perfect combination.... sweet and tangy

For the vanilla cupcakes, I also have two options for the frosting:

Vanilla frosting - plain and simple
Chocolate frosting - to contrast the vanilla cupcake... plus the chocolohic in me just won't let go. :D

For the chocolate cupcakes, I have three options for the frosting:

Chocolate ganache - rich, dark, thick
Whipped chocolate ganache - whippy version of the chocolate ganache
Chocolate buttercream frosting - back to basic

So all in all, there are a total of seven choices. I'm planning to make one type only. But depending on the number of people attending, I'll make the top two, for a bit of variation. Or maybe make the cupcake the same and just change the frosting.

Take your pick (cupcake and frosting)! Send me a message or comment which one you like most. I will be announing the winning cupcake/s by weekend.

Back From Vacation... Again!

I'm back from my vacation... again! :) This time vacation's really over. My next vacation is not so soon... maybe middle of next year. I did some baking during my vacation. I made some chocolate chip cookies, red velvet cupcakes and carrot cupcakes. I even searched for some more recipes online at Food Network, but was not able to do them anymore. I got some pictures of the red velvet cupcakes I made... I'll upload them once my sister sends me the pictures.

Hubby and I arrived in Singapore yesterday after lunch. I'm really surprised that he was able to keep the house clean. Good thing he's also a bit OC like me hihihi! Although the house needs a little more cleaning 'round the corners and a little sweep here and there. Other than that, everything's fine. The dinnerware are still neatly stacked in the cabinet and the silver flatware are all in the drawer.

Now that I'm back, I started cleaning the house this morning and did the laundry. Still thinking if I'll iron some clothes today. Later I will be cooking chicken adobo... that is if hubby and I won't go out to watch a movie tonight.

P.S.
There will be changes in my blogs soon. One of these changes is I've removed Entrecard from my blogs. Visit my other blog Journal of Thoughts for more info on this.

Chocolate Overload!

My first cooking class... Heaven! Why? Because it's the Ultimate Chocolate Treats course!

Ultimate Chocolate Treats I

I love chocolate! Our house never runs out of chocolates... May they be chocolate drinks, chocolate ice cream, or chocolate candies (most of the time, all of the above). So when I saw the opportunity to attend a demo class with chocolate as their main ingredients, I told myself I had to enroll no matter what!

Outside Shermay's Cooking School

Sign on the way up

The class was at 3pm, but we were advised to arrive early so we can pick our seats and have some drinks/refreshments before the class starts. Choice of drinks were ice cold water, brewed coffee, hot water, and iced tea. I only had the iced tea and I love it. It was Gryphon Tea Company's Lemon Ginger Mint tea... very refreshing!

So anyway, since I want to get a nice seat, and not seat at the back of the room, I left early,around 1:15. I arrived just in time, 2:45 and I got a seat on the third row.

Chef Joycelyn Shu started 3pm sharp. Chef Shermay Lee, the owner of Shermay's Cooking School was also there.

The recipes she demonstrated were: Creme Chocolat, Ultra Fudgy Brownies, Heirloom Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares (with samples passed around...yummy!!!), and last was Black Forest Trifle (using the Creme Chocolat made).

While the class was ongoing, they passed around Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares for the class to try. Omygosh! speechless! It has that perfect sweetness, perfect texture, perfect flavor! They also passed around Black Forest Trifle.... heaven!!! It has just the right amount of alcohol and cherry flavor... not overpowering the chocolate.

Other than the chocolate peanut butter squares and black forest trifles given during the class, each student also took home a chocolate chip cookie and a chocolate brownie. The chocolate chip was so chewy and yummy, one piece was not enough! The chocolate brownie was so soft and chocolatey... perfect!

Ultra Fudgy Brownies

Heirloom Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies & Chocolate Peanut Butter Squares

Black Forest Trifle

That's not all they gave away... We also were given a pack of all-purpose flour and a pack of cake flour! Thanks to Prima for that! (damn! wrong time to not have an oven!) :)

The chocolates used for all the recipes were Valrhona. For the brownies, creme chocolat and the chocolate peanut butter squares, Chef Joycelyn used Valrhona Equatoriale Noire 55% Dark Chocolate. For the cookies, Valrhona Perles were used.

The Ultimate Chocolate Treats course is divided into two series. The second one, Ultimate Chocolate Treats II will start in April.

Visit Shermay's Cooking School website for more info about Shermay's Cooking School.
Visit Chef Joycelyn's blog for more info about the demo class.