Wednesday, August 15, 2012

#351_Updated Photos of Custard Cakes (Leche Flan Cakes)

 Personal size or Minis Custard Chiffon Cakes

 9" round Custard Chiffon Cakes

 Nice and smooth

 Chocolate and Chiffon Custard Cakes

Ready to go!!

For Custard Chiffon Cake Recipe, click on the  link below
http://pinoyamericanrecipes.blogspot.com/2009/06/150mango-custard-cake.html
just omit the mangoes.

Monday, August 13, 2012

#350_ Cupcake Bouquets

This was my very first cupcake bouquet I made inspired by one I saw on Pinterest.

                                            I had a Cupcake Bouquet fever since that first one......











Sunday, August 5, 2012

#349_How to Make Cupcake Wrappers

Let me share with you a DIY cupcake wrappers using paper doilies, the idea of which I saw on Pinterest.

                                     
The wrappers on the left are cut out from the doilies and the ones on the right are the store-bought laser-cut ones which are kind of pricey.
These doilies are $1.00 for a pack of 10 at the Dollar Store.







First, make a template: or you can download one from the net.
Wrap a piece of paper around a cupcake, tape the seams together, then mark where you want to cut it out. Make sure to mark about 3/8 of an inch above the rim of the cupcake.

                                         Take out the paper and cut out along the marked lines.

 Open it up and use this template to trace it with a pencil on the back side of the doilies.(I used a marker pen so the marks will show in the picture) You can stack up your doilies as many as your scissors can cut. You can get 3 wrappers out of one doily, which  means that out of the 10 pieces you'll get 30 wrappers just for a dollar!! How cheap can that be?!


This wrapper is made from a doily paper.









You can also make your wrappers out of gift wrap papers for birthdays, baby showers, bridal showers or any occasion.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

#348_Old-Fashioned Suman at Katiba

                           
                                          
This is my all-time childhood kakanin. I enjoy eating it with Katiba, specially with ripe mangoes and Pancit Guisado. Mmmmmm!

My mother has been making this suman ever since I can remember. For her it is usually a 3-day ritual, making the Katiba one day, prepping the banana leaves the next day, then the following day she would make several batches of suman so she can give some away to friends and neighbors (pangregalo) specially during holiday season. Unfortunately, none of her four girls including yours truly have attempted to make it.

When I called her up last week to tell her that I finally replicated her suman recipe, she got so emotional. The reason probably was because finally somebody in the family can carry on her legacy of suman making (sistahs, got the hint?). I told her that I've missed her suman and I've always wanted to make them when I got here in the US. My problem has been that I've never have access to the banana midribs which she uses to tie the suman. The leaves that are available here are frozen and the midribs have been removed. Now, I've solved the problem by using toothpicks to secure the flaps, an idea of which I got on the web just recently.

This Suman is a kind that doesn't have any sugar added in the rice mixture. The sweetener and flavor come from the coconut caramel sauce or Katiba. So beware, if you eat this by itself, it's bland. There's not much taste to it, just like eating mashed potatoes without the gravy or eating spaghetti without Spaghetti Sauce on it. That's why this Suman is best accompanied by Coconut Caramel Sauce or Katiba in Pangasinan, Matamis na Bao in Tagalog. Although you can dip them in white sugar just like how we had done when mother was unable to make the Katiba, the taste is not the same as when it is eaten with katiba. It is so amazing that the katiba brings out the flavor of the suman.

After posting pictures of this Suman on my FaceBook page the other day, I received some requests from friends and fans on there for the recipe and the instructions on how to wrap the suman. Actually the suman recipe itself is super easy to make, but I'll try my best to write down the instructions step-by-step on how to form the banana leaves into "cone cups". Please bear with me. Here it goes.....

                                                 Preparing the Glutinous Rice:
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 Rinse 4 cups glutinous rice with cold water. Discard water.
 In a bowl, combine glutinous rice, 1 can coconut milk and 1 Tb salt.
Let soak for at least 4 hours (best soaked overnight).

 Prepare the banana leaves.... 

  1) Wash then dry the banana leaves 
(I placed the leaves in a pan then poured very hot water in it to welt them)
2) with a pair of scissors, trim off the midribs, leaving  skinny edges.


 Forming the banana leaves  into "cone cups":


1) Tear up the leaves into about 5-6 inches wide
2) take the top right corner.....







                                       3) bring it towards you and at the same time rolling it up.....

                      4) continue rolling it up until the whole leaf  is wrapped around itself and is shaped like a cone.
                                                   
                                               Now you're ready to fill the cups with the rice....

5) With one hand holding the cone-shaped leaf, lightly spoon a heaping tablespoonful (more or less depending on the size of the cones) of the soaked rice into it. (Don't fill it up high so you can close the flap and don't press down the rice so there's some room for the rice to expand while boiling it).


               6) push in the side facing you which is the shortest side, covering the rice.....
                                
                                       7) fold over the left side with your thumb, then the right side or vise versa....

8) Fold down the back side which is a pointy side and bring it to the front, tucking the outer leaf under....
        9) then secure the flaps with strong toothpicks. Use bamboo toothpicks as they are much stronger than the wood kind.
10) Arrange the suman in a big pot; cover it with cold water. On a medium heat bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium low; simmer for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Start testing for doneness after 1 hour 15 minutes.

 
Place cooked Suman in a colander to drain.

11) Serve suman with Katiba and ENJOY!!


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How to make the Coconut Caramel Sauce or Katiba
 or Matamis na Bao:

This is the only kind of hard sugar that I can find. In the Pangasinan, we use what we call "Sinakob" which is a solidified molasses from sugar cane and look like halved coconut or convex shaped usually packed together. At the Asian store, I saw similar ones, but they are "palm sugar".

In a pot, dissolve the "sinakob" with a can of coconut milk over low heat. Continue to simmer, stirring occasionally until the mixture becomes thick. That's it! but here's a caveat for you....this process takes a lot of patience as it takes a long time to thicken the mixture. It took me about 1 hour to get the consistency that I wanted, which is a pourable consistency. Here's an idea: if you don't want to make katiba from scratch, you can use the store-bought Coconut Jam sold at the Asian or Filipino stores. And here's another idea that I still need to try: take a can of Dulce de Leche and dilute it with some coconut milk and heat it up on the stove over low heat, (maybe microwave will do). Dulce de Leche are available in Mexican stores or you can make your own Dulce de Leche by boiling a can of unopened condensed milk for 1 hour...a process that I still need to try one day.




Thursday, May 17, 2012

#344_Dressing Up Ms. Barbie with Fondant






Barbie Doll cake

I dressed up this doll cake with homemade marshmallow fondant.

Friday, March 30, 2012

#343_Sweet Potato PanCakes Surprise

No More ‘Mallows Picketer

In the Philippines, Sweet Potato, known as Kamote is one of the staples that we always eat almost every day of the week, whether as a snack or as a breakfast item.
When we were growing up my mother always told us not to peel the Sweet Potatoes when we eat them because nutrients were hiding in those peels. She was right. Aside from a good source of fiber, Sweet potatoes have plenty of nutrients in them
.


My Sweet Potato PanCakes Surprise

I call it Sweet Potato PanCakes Surprise because you can surprise your family or friends with different fillings in the cakes each time you make them. They are like chocolates in a sense that people will never know what they're gonna get until they bite into it.


Here's my "surprise" for today.

My recipe is super easy to prepare and is very forgiving. Nobody can go wrong with it, in fact when I make this, I just eyeball everything.

My simple filling is composed of (mostly leftovers) sliced ham, sliced cooked chicken, grated jalapeno jack cheese. If I have leftover roast beef I'd throw it in there too with peas & carrots.

Here's my recipe for the Sweet Potato Cake Surprise

2 lbs. Sweet Potatoes
1/2 stick butter
Microwave the Sweet Potatoes for 5 minutes until soft (microwave one at a time).
Mash with fork until smooth. Stir in the butter or mash sweet potatoes and butter together.

For the filling:
1 cup cooked chicken, sliced into cubes (I used left over rotisserie chicken)
1 cup sliced ham
pinch salt
dash of freshly cracked pepper
1 cup jalapeno jack cheese, grated
Mix everything in a bowl

1 cup panko bread crumbs for coating the cakes
Canola oil for frying

Procedure:
1) Put the Panko bread crumbs in a bowl. Drop about 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes right into the bread crumbs, spreading them out to form a circle.
2) Put about 1/4 cup of fillings on the mashed sweet potatoes.
3) Make a patty by taking another 1/2 cup of mashed sweet potatoes and place it on top of the filling, covering the entire bottom sweet potatoes. Sprinkle patty with more crumbs.
4) Repeat procedure until everything is used up. You might have some leftover fillings you can use for something else.
5) Heat about 2 TB canola oil in a frying pan and fry the patties, 3-4 patties at a time depending on the size.



Spread out mashed Sweet Potatoes on the bread crumbs forming a circle.
It doesn't have to be a perfect circle.


Put some fillings on the mashed sweet potatoes and make a patty.


Coat patties with Panko bread crumbs

Just a little bit of oil is needed to fry these cakes.


Serve them with maple syrup if you desire.

ENJOY!!!