The Ultimate Chocolate

If you've been following my blog, you'd know that I am not really a chocolate person. I would sometimes crave for some chocolate cupcakes and some dark chocolate ganache, but after eating half a cupcake, I would be all ok already. I made some chocolate cupcakes the other day though, because I was trying out this technique of making a ganache with the food processor. I basically just processed some chocolates in the food processor, heated the same amount of heavy cream, and combined them in the processor afterwards. And voila! I have a shiny chocolate ganache. So what to do with the ganache? Make cupcakes! So I also made Sarah's Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake which is my favorite, because it's soft, fluffy and moist - qualities not very easy to get from other recipes. I just made 12 cupcakes, ate that piece after taking a picture, and gave out the rest to Thet and to Adam's niece and nephews.

The ganache was awesome. I would be making more ganache from now on, since it's way easier to make with the food processor. :)

Maia's First Birthday

These are Maia's first birthday cake and cupcakes. The cake is a 6-inch Ultimate Butter Cake and the cupcakes were also the Ultimate Butter Cake, and the the Ultimate Chocolate Butter Cake recipe, all from Sarah Philips.

I'm really not very good at fondants but I think I did a decent job in the cake. The cake and cupcakes turned out really good! The kids in the party loved it, especially the icing. :)

Happy birthday again my favorite little girly Maia! May you grow up still smiling sweetly like you do now. :)

The Quest for the Perfect Swirl

I'm sleepy. I was on a baking spree last night and I made some Mocha and Chocolate Cupcakes. Van and Ate Mayz ordered a bunch of those cupcakes. I started baking at around 8PM, and finished at past 3AM with a lot of welcome interruptions in between. I made 75 cupcakes, half of which frosted with Mousseline Vanilla Buttercream, and half frosted with Neoclassic French Buttercream.

The Mocha was a variation of Sarah Phillips' Orange Sponge Cake, and substituted the orange flavor with mocha and espresso. The cupcakes did not dome because the recipe is for a cake, and when baking a cake, it bakes nicely flat and very easy to frost. The cupcakes were still very cute though (although Van said, it's just a couple of bites to finish!). I frosted the Mocha cupcakes with the Neoclassic French Buttercream.

The chocolate cupcakes, which is my best seller, is of course Sarah's Ultimate Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Chips inside. The cupcakes domed nicely, and were very moist. I frosted it with Vanilla Mousseline Buttercream.

After baking all the cupcakes and before making the frostings, I ran out of sugar and it was already 1AM! I wondered where at this time could I buy some sugar. So I went out of the house and drove to 7-11 hoping that they were selling sugar. And they were selling sugar! I never thought I'd be buying sugar from 7-11, and then finding some in it.

I garnished the frosted cupcakes with a small piece of flower. I could only manage a single color at the ungodly hour. I was too sleepy to make it fancier. I also noticed that all of my frostings are just variations of white - from off-white, to beige, to slightly yellowish. For some reason, I always make the frostings when it is too late, so I never get to color it! Well I should next time, and if you request for it, I will color it to your liking. Price for the Mocha cupcakes is 460php for a box of 12 which is the minimum order.

And as for the quest for the perfect swirl? Well, the quest is still on. After 75 cupcakes last night, I still am nowhere close. I hope they loved the cupcakes though.

Samples and Orders

The last time that I baked was about a month ago and I have not been really on a baking mood ever since I came back from Israel. In fact, I think I despised the idea of hearing my Kitchen Aid churning. I dreaded the day that I will open my boxed baking stuff. I was basically out of sorts. I also never wanted to bake half-heartedly, or else it won't taste good. To cut a really long story short, I was forced to bake.

For the first batch, I made my most reliable recipes, Ultimate Butter and Ultimate Chocolate Butter Cupcakes by Sarah Phillips. I was able to yield 24 Vanilla Butter cupcakes and 36 Chocolate Butter cupcakes. I was surprised that it went perfectly, and none of the cupcakes fell off the liners. These became samples that I gave to my officemates, to daddy A for his birthday and as a thank you for driving for me, to the Dacios and to some of my Mama and Uncle Obet's friends. The cupcakes looked very elegant in the boxes. The boxes were a little expensive though, so Ly please go to divi with me. :)

The samples got rave reactions and I immediately got a lot of orders. Below is a glimpse of the orders that I got. I was only initially offering the Vanilla and Chocolate because I still had to compute the prices. Minimum order is box of 12 for 460php.

When I brought the orders, I also brought samples of the Red Velvet cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. I was finally able to make it red, oh I love food colors here in the Philippines! The Red Velvets also got rave reviews. I don't have prices for the Red Velvet yet. I know I should be computing it really soon, as I already have orders!

Here's a sample of how the cupcakes look like in the pretty boxes. This is just a box of six though, as these are gifts.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

I have made a Red Velvet once, as a cake, and I made it a year ago. It felt like a million years ago. I was not exactly proud of what I made last year because as far as I remember, I ruined the cake, broke it in half while torting and just frosted whatever is left of it. I promised myself back then that I won't make it again unless I can make it properly. And I forgot about it. After a year though, as I was browsing through my recipes, I thought of making it again (plus there is my handwritting on the printed recipe that says "try again after a year"). So I tried it again, though not because I am already worthy, but because those are the only ingredients that I have left in my kitchen. Hehe. I normally stack up on eggs and butter but this weekend I only have 2 eggs and a stick of butter. I am going home soon, that's why. I am starting to clear up my kitchen and finish all that's in the fridge. I only have a couple of cakes to go for Christmas and that's it, I'm heading home.

I made Sarah's Red Velvet recipe as cupcakes because of the available ingredients that I have. I can only make half the recipe, which is good enough for me, Manny and a few friends in the the office who are my regular tasters. Making it this time was a breeze after all the baking that I had the past year. I was worried though because after mixing the batter, it was not bloody red. It was red, but not red-red. I said red thrice in a sentence, and I used it in the last three sentences that I wrote!

I then put it in the oven for around 18 minutes and I was prepared to see it fall off the liners. I tend to have cupcakes fall off the liners the first time I bake a recipe, and I make the necessary adjustments when I make it the next time. I was so happy that it stuck on the liners even after cooling it on the rack. As I had expected, the cupcakes turned out as dull red, and not bright. The recipe called for liquid coloring and since I did not have it at hand, I used gel paste. I guess I needed to use more, I did not know how to substitute 4 tablespoons of liquid coloring to gel.



The not-so-red velvet cupcakes turned out to be very moist and delicious! Of course I am not surprised, Sarah's recipes are the best. I was supposed to frost it with Cream Cheese Frosting, but then again, I did not have butter anymore so I settled for the French Buttercream that I have frozen. It was a lovely combination though. And as always, I made Manny and a few officemates' morning happy. :)

Black and White Cupcakes

I made cupcakes again today. The cupcakes were made with the Chocolate Cake Recipe from Baking911 and I added a few chocolate chips inside so that it will melt once baked. The frosting is the Vanilla Mousseline Buttercream. The cupcake was a breeze to make and it baked nicely domed. It is one of those days too where I got lucky in baking cupcakes and I yielded 100%. Not a single piece fell off the liner. The buttercream gave me a scare though, because it started to get really thin when I started to add the butter, and got really liquidy once all of the butter were added. It was a lot more liquid than how I usually made it but it magically turned into a luxurious cream after beating it for a few minutes on high.

As you many have noticed, the colors are not my usual. In fact, it is my first time making black flowers. I would always plan on decorating cakes and cupcakes with a lot of colors normally with a lot of pinks and yellows, sometimes bordering on being over the top. Hehe. I notice that black and white cakes and cupcakes had been becoming really popular. I find it quite elegant actually, especially after making one myself.

The decorations were made of gumpaste flowers with sugar dragees, pearls and a little edible luster. I often get asked if the dragees or the flowers that I make can be eaten, and yes, it's all edible. However, I recommend eating only the frosting and cupcakes because the decorations can be really sweet, as it is almost entirely made of sugar.



The final cupcakes looked beautiful and really elegant, but best of all it was delicious. The cake was very good and particularly rich especially with the melted chocolates inside. The Mousseline is slowly creeping up in my list of favorite frostings, if only it were easier to make! :)

Molten Lava Cake

Molten Lave Cakes or Volcano Cakes are usually mini cakes with gooey center which will flow like Lava once eaten. I wanted to make some fancy dessert for dinner today so I made some of these and planned on topping it with vanilla ice cream and strawberry syrup.

I made the cake at around 5pm and I was done after 30 minutes, including mixing the batter, baking the cake and surfing in between. :) I used a 70% extra bittersweet Ghirardelli bar for the chocolate and it turned out to be really decadent. While I was not able to look for that perfect recipe in the web, I manage to interlace a few to be able to come up with something simple that is perfect for my taste.


Taking a photo of the cake was a challenge because the idea was that the Lave cake was supposed to be eaten hot so that the fudge in the middle would ooze. So after 2 minutes of taking the cake out of the oven, I topped it with Vanilla Ice Cream, Strawberry Syrup and shaved chocolates. As expected, the ice cream would melt because it was still hot, and photo had to be taken fast. Even if we're fast enough, the ice cream still melted. :) I also tried to slice the cake in the middle to take a photo of the gooey center, but ice cream just flowed on it so no chance of seeing it!

After taking photos, Manny and I ended up eating the cakes already (forget about having it for dessert!) and it was so good! It was really fancy, like something that you'd order from an expensive restaurant. The Vanilla ice cream complimented the chocolately flavor of the cake while the strawberry syrup provided a nice contrast on the taste. We intended to divide one cake but we ended up eating one each so we just decided to skip dinner altogether. :P

Ice and Ly's Baby Shower

Two of my bestfriends from college, Lyra and Ice are both expecting and are due to have their babies on September with Ly having baby Sam a few weeks than Ice's Jem. While I was on vacation in the Philippines, Chen, who's also on vacation in the Philippines, planned a baby shower for both of them and I volunteered to prepare some cupcakes for the party. So last July 11, the moms-to-be had their baby shower at Chen and Bondi's place in Greenhills. Wonderful photos are from Ging (visit her awesome photo blog!) and Tin and Buddy.


Here are the girls looking radiant with their baby bumps. They're even wearing coordinated shirts that says "Due in SEPT".



And the cupcakes. I made Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes and Strawberry Butter Cupcakes topped with Vanilla Buttercream. It was a little difficult making the cupcakes using an oven that I never used before and with very limited tools like having to do with a hand mixer. Mama's oven was pretty much unused for the entire year (the last use was Dec last year for some Christmas hams she made) so it was very "cold". It choked up a few times in the middle of my baking and temperature fluctuates so the cakes were not as moist as I wanted it to be. I was also supposed to make Pink and Blue cupcakes because Ly is having a boy and Ice is having a girl. The mint green ones were supposed to be light blue but for some reason, the color that I bought at the supermarket back home won't give me the light blue hue that I wanted. Here's how the cupcakes looked like. Here's Ly and Chen sampling the cupcakes.
Parents-to-be Bryan and Ice also taking a bite. And Manueli! I love this shot!
The Dacios, Manuel and Ly with Baby Sam in mommy's tummy, during Charades.

And the Cabicos, Bryan and Ice with Baby Jem.

Some of the fun games that Chen prepared for everyone. Here's Donald during Charades.

Roy and Buddy during that glug-glug game (I don't know how it's called!).

And it's us girls enjoying some Pancit and Barbecue for dinner.
I had fun at the party, and I bet the everyone had a great time. It was nice seeing old friends again. Thanks Chen for planning out the baby shower party. It was a blast! And here's Chen with her and Bondi's gwapo bundle of joy, Seb.

Summer Solstice

I made a variety of cupcakes this weekend as I am preparing to go on vacation back home. These are Butter and Chocolate cupcakes topped with Cream Cheese Frosting.

For the Butter Cupcakes, I used the Ultimate Butter Cake recipe and I found Elle and Vire in one of the supermarkets here. Elle and Vire is an expensive French Butter which is being used in many successful commercial cupcake sellers and I tried it to see the difference with the regular Israeli butter that I am using. There is totally no difference in the taste of the baked cupcake. The only difference that I noticed is in the texture which turned out to be a little more smooth. Otherwise, it's totally the same! Oh well.





As for the chocolate cupcakes, Manny brought me some Ghirardelli chocolates from SFO. Chocolates here in Israel are abundant, from the more expensive Belgian/Swiss brands to the cheap locally produced ones. However, there are no Ghirardelli chocolates here. Manny bought me a lot of variety and for this cupcake, I used the semisweet chocolate chips. The chips are bigger than the normal chips, they're almost as big as the Hershey's kisses. The chocolate cupcakes turned out to be very moist and tasty. The kind of chocolate used really made a huge difference in the cupcakes.


I used Cream Cheese Frosting for both cupcakes. We kind of started liking the Cream Cheese Frosting because it's not too sweet and has a tangy taste. I normally use it for the Cinnamon Rolls and the Red Velvet Cake, only to realize now that they actually taste very good with chocolates. I always use Philadelphia.

The cupcakes were then topped with Frangipani sugar flowers with sugar pearls in the middle. I always get asked if the middle pieces are edible, and I always say, everything is edible - from the flowers to the dragees. The flowers are in Pink Rose and Blue with the Pink ones sprayed with pink edible mist and the Blue ones sprayed with yellow mist. I was pleasantly surprised at how the combination of the Blue flower and Yellow mist turned out to be - tropical like.

The cupcakes turned out to be very pretty with the bright colors. It reminds me of my favorite time of the year - Summer!

The Travelling Cupcakes

Manny is going on a business trip to San Diego next week and at the last minute, he decided to go home first before going to San Diego. So instead of leaving next week, he left very early today for a flight to Manila. Not without me sending some cupcakes for my parents and Creamy, of course. :)
I started getting interested in baking around October of last year, and the interest grew into a hobby, and now after 8 months, I'd say that it became a passion. My family had not tasted any of my baked goodies yet, and I think it was good that they were not there when I was just starting! My family is such a food critic and my brother is the worst of them all being the chef that he is! Had they tried my first attempts at baking, they probably would have told me to just be an engineer. LOL! So now, regardless of what they'd say about the cupcakes that I sent them, I would not be dissuaded, I am now a baker (a novice, that is!).

I sent them 18 cupcakes with four varieties. I wanted it to be a sampler of the chocolate, butter and fruity cupcakes that I previously made, but decided to just stick with basic flavors without the fruity ones. It surely would perish after the 16-hour flight.

This is the Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake by Sarah Philips with melted dark chocolate inside. The melted chocolate inside made it so decadent! I also glazed it with some melted bittersweet chocolates on top and frosted with Vanilla Buttercream.

This next one is still the same chocolate cupcakes with dark chocolates inside, this time topped with melted white chocolates and frosted with Strawberry Buttercream.

Yet this one is also the chocolate cupcakes, however this variety has melted white chocolates inside. I simply glazed it with melted bittersweet chocolate. This one is so sinfully rich with chocolates!

This variety is my favorite combination, the Ultimate Butter Cupcake with White Chocolate Raspberry Ganache. Just thinking about it makes me seem like I gained a pound or two!

And here's another shot of the lot that I sent home. I called my mom the other day and I asked her over and over again not to give creamy any of the chocolatey stuff! She easily gives in when Creamy stares at her with all those cute droopy puppy eyes.
I do hope hope the cupcakes arrive in one piece, although while Manny was in Amsterdam, he told me that the security officer at Tel Aviv turned the luggage over. Good thing we added support so that it would stay in place even if it's flipped over (hehe!). Anyway, I have photos of how it originally looked like so even if it get beaten, it should be good enough. I hope they would like the cupcakes!
Oh and while I was cleaning up stuff at my house today, I saw this bag which had the Hugo family's gift for me on my birthday. Iya wrote all the text below, she has such a nice handwriting for a four year old! :)

Happy Birthday Iya!

My favorite little girl here Iya turned 4 last April 15 and she can't have a real kiddie party here in Israel because first, there are no kids other than her, and second, there are now only five of us here to party. Thet and Mike decided to just have a small get together for her. I made her some cupcakes with sugar flowers because she loved the valentine cupcakes that I made back then also with sugar flowers. She told me to make her pink cupcakes with yummy chocolates and flowers. See, she's only 4 but she knows what she wants already!
I had always planned on making her cupcakes anyway, regardless of whether she will have a real kiddie party or not, and whether they'd buy her a birthday cake or not. However, as the day drew nearer, I got busier by the day at work and the eve of her birthday was the busiest day ever in a long time. I made the sugar flowers and dried it up two days earlier so it had been done already but I still need to whip up the chocolate cupcakes and the vanilla buttercream. So on the eve of her birthday, I planned on going home early to watch Tennis and make her cupcakes at the same time. But lo and behold, that did not happen. Moore's law is really true. I was home at around 11pm, but I cannot stop working yet because I was fixing the test program for my night jobs. I stopped (but not finished) working at 2am, and started working on Iya's cupcakes. I was too sleepy already, but when I started Blacky (my kitchen aid mixer), I seemed to have gotten a boost of adrenalin. Chocolate cupcakes are one of my more comfortable recipes so I finished pretty quickly and while the cupcakes were in the oven, I made the buttercream just in time until the cupcakes were ready to be frosted. By 3am, I was already taking photos of the finished cupcakes. You could imagine that I was so groggy the next day at work.
So these are Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes, topped with Vanilla Buttercream and decorated with hand made Sugar Flowers from a stored home made fondant that I have. My recipe yielded 12 regular cupcakes and 2 mini-cakes.