Pound cake, traditionally made from all a pound eggs, butter, sugar and flour.The recipe has been reinvented since it yielded a very tough cake in the old times. I personally would change the ratio of each ingredient to make this cake lighter but still a little dense, sweet, cakey by moist, lemony but not overpowering. You see,baking is precision but texture, taste, structure should contrast and at the same time complement each other. Poppy seeds are mostly seen in this kind of quickbread products as well as muffins and even as a topping for specialty breads, I like it too with bagels.
It was raining when I tested on thise pound cake recipe and had it packed individually for some visitors at home. It is a comfort food for me. A better way to tea with your loved ones that proves how life is wonderful to just have a slice of this...

Rocky road, a common favorite is a mixture of marshmallows, nuts, chocolates may be with or without a cake.The word "rocky road" depicts the texture combined in the dessert. My rendition is quite contemporary using a soft and airy type of chocolate sheet cake, smudged with an old fashioned chocolate glaze, and a bed of marshmallos sandwich in between those cakes, covered with chocolate glaze with just a simple sprinkle of miniature chocolate chips. Just a tip, dipping your knife in hot water may give you a clean edged square cut of each luscious rocky road cake...

P i t a Sticks... boxed up

I must admit it middle eastern cuisine oftentimes is what I want to make once in a while. I have featured shawarma before and again it is those flat breads that keeps me going when it comes to experimenting suchwith having an ordinary oven. This is made of flour, water, a little yeast and salt contrary to its generaldefinition of flatbreads as unleavened breads. Just sliced up a whole piece and whipped up a dip made of yogurt ofcourse, garlic ,salt and pepper and a hint of paprike. I wanted to try it with balsamic vinegarand it was quite new to me, since yogurt itself is acidic, thus the balsamic vinegar does not help in cuttingthe acidity of the garlic-yogurt dip. Well, another quest may even be better...

K e y L i m e P i e...I can still remember...

Allow me to share to you my very first taste of Key Lime Pie from whereelse in the Florida Keys. I can stillremember that citrusy and fluffy lime pie from a small restaurant that me and my whole family visited called "Manny& Yssa's", they actually serve that famous heart soup -Conch Soup( conch from the squid family) andfor dessert we had ofcourse this wonderful pie. The original crust used to make this pie is graham flour andmelted butter and I wanted to try using a semi-sweet pie crust made from all puropse flour, a little sugar, cold cubed butter, salt, an egg and ice water. The filling is made from yolks, condensed milk, key lime juice and zest,lots of it, a layer ofwhipped cream with sugar and to top it all, marshmallow icing with lime zest as garnsih. Chilled it overnight and served it.Really good...I guarantee you.

Pineapple U P S I D E- D O W N Cake...

Pinapple Upside-Down Cake, I can vividly remember my mom making this old fashioned cake back in the 80s.Attempting to make my own understanding of this should I call another RETRO Cake. It is made from a goodspnge recipe baked on a mini bundt pan. Bread crumbs and stewed pineapple in heavy syrup is then laid underneath the bottomof the pan and covered with the sponge batter. Baked it at 350F for about 20 minutes. Cooled it to room temperatureand chilled a little before serving. Ofcourse, not realizing that there is such thing as National Bundt Pan Day, I was not able to make it to the season though...

Lasang Pinoy 20th Edition: Eggplant Omelet W r a p

This is my post for Lasang Pinoy's 20th edition- Eggplant Omelete Wrap. Really am not sure if I made it to the deadline. All pinoys are familiar with "Tortang Talong" which is just mashed grilled eggplant, seasoned with salt and pepper and dredged in beaten egg then fried. It was lunch during that time that I thought of using our kusinera's "Chicken Afritada" as the filling for my eggplant omelet. Well, instead of making those fancy desserts it is the perfect time to be filipino in my posts.

Still I thank Ms. Unofficial Cook for hosting such an interesting event, though I may have missed the deadline.

Random F A C T S about Myself...

I have been tagged by Ms. Unice of Lamesa at Kusina to post 8 random facts about myself. Thanks Unice for such a sweet invite. We do have similarities but ofcourse there will always be some qualities and traits I will have. Well, it is quite hard to acknowledge oneself but I have to be honest,lol. So here it is.

1. I want to make things simple. In short, I hate complicate things, if I feel like doing this, then that is what I will focus on.
2. I like to express what and how I feel, communication is very important in anything that you do especailly when working with other people.
3. I think people are naturally nice and I can say I am realizing that I have many friends and ofcourse just a few are the best ones, which are rare to find.
4. I love to appreciate things, people and their achievements. It is important that people around me should be acknowledged in anything that they do. I love making people good. I nevr want to complain to God about my life because all these are great blessings from HIM.
5. I am so, so, so inclined in arts. Anything about arts: food, arts, music and the people.
6. I am a very disciplined person having reached the age of 30,lol, finally. When you are discpline, a day is not enough to do all the great things you want to accomplish. "Time is gold".
7. I love food. Anything about it. I never stop reading about it, working with it... sharing it with my loved ones. Food is my passion.
8. I do have my family as my support but my son is the greatest thing that God has given me. My purpose and my strength. I am happy as a person and I share that with my son.

Once again, Unice thanks for tagging me. More power to you!

I c e C r e a m Cake

Just watching food network can be a day off for me as a full time mom. There are a few of my favorites like Barefoot Contessa, Everyday Italian, Oliver's Twist and Iron Chef. For this post, it was Jamie Olivre's of Oliver's Twist that made me really want to try and taste just two days after seeing the show. It was actually Vanilla IceCream with espresso coffee and caramelized cashew nuts.
I made my version of the dessert with my homemade vanilla ice cream,regular brewed coffee, applecake, struesel and caramelized nuts.I am lucky to have an ice cream maker to whip up the vanilla ice cream. The applecake that was served for a catering and its good I kept a few for this. I always have my coffee maker on whenever I work in my kitchen, house blend of Starbucks and poured it over the churned ice cream. Struesel is what I use for topping my apple pie whcih is a mixture of butter, brown sugar, bread crumbs and assorted nuts. Finished it with caramelized nuts.
Chilling the goblet or stemmed water glass will help maintain the shape of the ice cream an hour before serving this good dessert, well for the first 3 minutes. It can be called Trifle...really good.

A s i a n S l a w

Every now and then I crave for a vegetarian appetizer that has less calories. So what I did, one time before watching a good movie with my son, is I got 1/4 from 1 head of a cabbage. Shredded it, boiled a few peanuts for extra flavor and a little texture. Having a hot pan coated with a just a little olive oil, caramelized 1 small red onion, , took out he onion having better flavor in the oil, wilted the shredded cabbage, added in the nuts and seasoned with salt and pepper. There you have it, easy and health asian slaw, healthy,easy and simple.

Caught in the act...C u b e d B r o w n i e

This brownie I had put together a few weeks ago for a small party was a success. People would not know if I only have a few baking staples in my kitchen. During those times, I was short for everything and all I have left was flour, cocoa, sugar and oil. Ofcourse the necessary ingredients like baking powder and baking soda is always present. Not even eggs, believe it or not but I was able to make such a moist brownie. Lighter thanthe usual brownie. I whipped up an american mocha buttercream which is powdered sugar, butter and coffee powder.Sprinkled the top with Honey browns which is powdered brown sugar. I may have survived this event, wish me luck for another unexpected one...

Midget baker...

My dearest son, thank you for sharing me those wonderful moments even in the kitchen. I want to let you know that my kitchen is yours too. It was so touching for you to annoy mom that day to make somecookies we brought in Hong Kong a few months ago. It was a chocolate chip cookie that you liked in that whole box of cookies. I know that this will be a good start for you to love mom's passion, baking. Thatis why I have alotted a small space for in my hub. There you have all you need for playing and baking, goodluck and happy baking son!Love, mom...
[This is my son's version of chocolate chip cookies which is a mixture of cake flour and all purpose flour, butterbrown sugar and white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, eggs, vanilla and some chocolate chips. It was baked at 350 F for about 9-10 minutes.]

Thai C a s h e w C o n e...

I was browsing thru my huge thai cook book and this one of those that attracted me most. Cashew Cone, a better wayof serving nuts. A friend was coming over and together we made this great conical ensemble. My friend had fun making it.We ended up eating the whole thing. I tried making this with peanuts instead and it tasted great. I used it now whenever dadwould order for finger foods for his meetings in the office.

Ingredients
1/8 cup of cooking oil
1/4 cup of honey
2 cups of cashew nuts or peanuts, roasted
1 cup of dessicated coconut
salt and pepper
Green Chillies, optional

Simply heat up the pan for 2 minutes, add in the oil. Pour the honey and let cook for a minute. Toss the roasted cashew nuts onto the hot mixture. Stir until the oil-and-honey mixture coats the nuts. Add in the dessicated coconut [ this by the way makes it thai flavor plus the chillies]. Stir until wellcombined. Flavor it with salt, pepper and some chillies, I prefer using red and green to better presentation.

Grabbed a page from my Oprah magazine[lol, anything will do, foil or parchement or even brown paper], made acone out of it, I used glucose syrup to seal the sides of the cone. Scooped about a cup and a half of the cooked nuts and served in on a white plate. Try and enjoy making it!

C h o c o - c h i p Sticky Bun

It was last month when I felt like focusing on making breads. One of my favorites is this recipe, sticky buns almost like cinnmon rolls. There are variable famous brands and having a piece of this just captures my mood for a cup of hot chocolate in my kitchen. Making the sweet dough for this type of bread is easy , it is a mixture of all purpose flour, yeast, salt, cinnmon, shortening, milk ans sugar, all combined and kneaded together to form a smooth and elastic dough. The usual sticky bun is glazed with simple syrup plus flavoring and I used honey along with the dessert spices cinnamon, nutmeg and vanilla. This bread is filled with softened butter, lots of sugar-cinnamon and chocolate chips instead of raisins. It was milk-washed and baked at 350F for 45 minutes until golden brown . Finished it with cinnamon-sugar and butter and choolate once again. Serve this straight from the oven. Makes a big difference.There you have it , a really stickky bun.

White is beautiful by itself. It symbolizes purity and clarity, gastronomically speaking, a light and lean egg dish . There's always a bowl of extra eggwhite in my fridge and this is what I thought would be perfect for my next post-White Omelet. Always, always, in any pastry kictchen, eggwhite should be utilized for icings, glazes and meringues. Savory is what popped up in my mind. After watching a favorite cooking show- Martha Show - a simple recipe of salt and slightly whisked eggwhite was featured. Just added grated light cheddar and leeks to add flavor to this white dish. White is beautiful still...

I found some holes, corks, pillows and triangles in my kitchen...

This is how I have interpreted my questfor a good doughnut recipe. It came out not as perfect but palatable. Not to mention popular dougnutbrands but I'm almost there. I think I will stick to the 3 things I like in a dougnut soft, frosted on the outside withwith a little bite and that strong vanilla or coffee aroma, ummm that is a real doughnut for me. I love to fry once in while when I got no gas for my oven, just kidding but it was such a joy to make this recipe.

Well, I think it is important to utilize the dough and trimmings for one person to say that I never waste anything whenI cook or bake. On the photos shown above, there I have cut the round doughnuts with the hole from the middle, the "cork"I called to describe the middle hole that I took out, the "pillows" from which the round ones are cut out and yes there were "triangles" that I got from the trimmings.

I simpy glazed this with a mixture of milk and powdered sugar. Let them set and served it warm. People from the house liked it and that is my only fuel for trying new things in my kitchen...

I c e C r e a m please...

My son, always when visiting my aunt's house who is also a neighbor would ask for a bowl of cream. I guess that is instant recall for him, that everytime he comes to the house , autamitcally, ice cream please is what he utters. I took a shot of this beautiful bowl of strawberry ice cream by the window while watching my son indulge on this cool treat. Well I just have to find time to make homemade ice cream. I wish I can serve him this flavor. Yummy...

T w o - T o n e Angel Food Cake

Cake
1 cup cake flour
1 1/2 cups white sugar
12 egg whites
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven at 375 F.

Sift together the flour, and 3/4 cup of the sugar, set aside.

In a large bowl, whip the egg whites along with the vanilla, cream of tartar and salt, to medium stiff peaks. Gradually add the remaining sugar while continuing to whip to stiff peaks. When the egg white mixture has reached its maximum volume, fold in the sifted ingredients gradually, one third at a time. Do not overmix. Put the batter into the tube pan.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven at 375 F, until the cake springs back when touched. Balance the tube pan upside down on the top of a bottle, to prevent decompression while cooling. When cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto a plate.

Chocoalte Sauce

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 2/3 cups white sugar
1 1/4 cups water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine cocoa, sugar and water. Bring to a boil and let boil 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour next to brandy syrup and on top as well.

Simple Brandy Syrup

2 cups water
1 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1/4 cup brandy

In a saucepan, combine water, sugar and lemon zest. Bring mixture to a boil and continue boiling for 5 minutes. Take out the lemon zest.Mix in brandy. Pour onto the bottom of the plate then the cake.

Bringing a simple and ordinary cake to a new level through two-tone sauces gives it a different taste and presentation. Try it..

Lasang Pinoy 19:Barrio Fiesta [Galore]

Sampler of Minatamis na Langka, Homemade Bucaio, Pandan Pillows and Panucha
Pinipig Kakanin

This is my post for Lasang Pinoy's 19th edition,I call "G A L O R E" to justify a yearly event of true filipinos. My definition of Barrio Fiesta is a galore of all dishes and desserts you can prepare as a gratitude for all the blessings that a family has received for the year. I am from Manila and barely celebrates fiesta but I have attended several events in the provinces. My sampler plate consists of all the typical desserts you can find in pinoy homes except for the P a n d a n Pillows which is made from boiled rice flour-and-water mixture,cubed, cooked in pandan syrup. I can never resist the pinipig kakanin ( store bought),best when served hot,in my opinion. Thanks to Ms. Ang Sarap for such a wonderful idea. Let's all celebrate...cheers to lasang pinoy bloggers!

O v e r l o a d e d...

Nachos con Guacamole
This season of the year,rainy I must say is the time for Avocados. Manang would fill the basket withfreshly picked, almost ripe avocados perfect for making Guacamole. I could not help but make this savorytreat since I have been craving for chips-and-dip. Underneath is a pile of deep-fried wonton wrappers shapedin triangle and as ease,squares. Pan should be hot before adding the oil,with jsut a little of it is enoughto fry the wontons. Yummy but loaded with calories, I decided to omit the meat and simply heateda cup of tomato sauce. I think it tastes better if you sweat the onions in oil before combining it withthe mashed avocados. Have some tomatoes,why not toss it in the mixture. Grated regular cheeseand there you are, snack and full meal by itself.

Goodmoring D a d...

Mango-Kalamansi Crepe

I wake up 5:00 a.m. everyday to start my daily routine of exercise, having a good breakfast with mom and dad and so on. Since it is Father's Day, had to give up my regimen and make a good and hearty dessert for dad. Crepes are one if the easiests dessert you can do. Just made it from scratch, made some creamy filling, sliced up some mangoes. The crepe was cooked in kalamansi-syrup to add flavor. I think mango goes well with chocolate so I used it as a garnish with kalamansi zest. Mom and dad liked it and that completed my day. Happy Father's Day to all too...