Project : Perfect Fondant Cake

Before the end of April ended, I already informed everyone that I will not be accepting orders for the month of May.

I wanted to rest for awhile from all the baking and decorating, especially since my shift at work has been changed back to a graveyard schedule. This will give me time to re-adjust to this schedule again before accepting any orders.

And the major reason why I wanted to stop taking orders for this month is because of the cakes I recently baked. I was so bummed because the cakes rises in the oven and then after I take it out, the middle part just fell. Some of them really falls big time, but the others slightly fell in the middle. And it worried me more because the edges of the cake seems to be dry.

And then I tried to remedy this by brushing the dry edges with the filling I put between layers. I covered the whole cake with more buttercream icing than usual, but I made sure that it is not too thick or too much.

So the cake, if it's not eaten right away, is moist and tastes really good. Believe me, I tried the cake. Remember the Batman cake I made? That's what happened with it & the reason why I had to bake a few more cakes.

Before, (I'm using the same recipe, BTW), the cake just grows and it won't fall in the middle part, but everyone would say that it is delicious but dry.

Now I made a cake before the Batman cake. It was for a friend's birthday. She told me that the cake was moist & it wasn't dry anymore. With this cake, I put it in the oven at a low heat and left it there for about 2-3 hours. My partner turned the oven off and when I checked the cake, voila! The middle part didn't fell nor did it rise. It was perfect. It was an evenly perfect round cake. I didn't have to carve it or anything. I just went ahead and decorated the whole cake. Take note, I was using the same recipe.

I also made another birthday cake for my godson. My partner & I thought the cupcakes we made were a failure so we had to make another batch using a different recipe. The next day, I ate one of the cupcakes we thought failed, and it was soft, moist, and very tasty.

I am now confused. Am I improving or am I doing something wrong?

So, I am now on a mission to try the same recipe again. I will make sure that I will get the result that I wanted. And since, I already know now how to put on the fondant, I will now work on how to make the sides of the fondant smooth without making it skirt-like. Just a smooth looking fondant without any tears or cracks.

Wish me luck, guys!!!

"A good person is never alone. One who sows kindness reaps friendship; One who plants thoughtfulness reaps love."

What's For Dinner?

Been thinking of another simple, yet delicious dish for dinner. I listed 3 choices : 1) Chopsuey; (2) Bulalo; (3) Estofado.

However, when I went to our little supermarket, they had so little to offer for my first 2 choices. So I ended up choosing the Estofado dish. I decided to use chicken because we didn't have any pork meat in fridge. (I thought we still had it. Turns out I was wrong. he-he!)

Chicken Estofado

Ingredients:

1/2 chicken meat (or pork meat)
2 tbsp of brown sugar
2-3 pieces of potatoes, cut in big chunks
2 pieces carrots, cut in big chunks
5 cloves of garlic (if you want), minced
1 onion, sliced
1 tomato sauce
*saba banana, quartered & fried
1/2 cup water
cooking oil (you can use olive oil, vegetable oil, anything that suits you
soy sauce
vinegar
2 tbsp cornstarch mixed in water
1 bay leaf (optional)

Procedure :

1) Marinate chicken in vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, onions, and garlic for an hour. You can marinate the meat for 30mins if you don't want to wait that long.

2) Heat oil in a pan or skillet. Remove pork from marinade and set the marinade sauce aside (to be used later). Fry chicken until lightly brown. Pour excess oil in a container, leaving at least 2-3 oil in the pan.

3) Pour the remaining marinade sauce & 1/2 cup of water over the chicken. Simmer for 15-20mins or until meat or chicken is tender. (Chicken cooks easily)

4) Add tomato sauce, potatoes, carrots, & bananas. Cook until vegetables are tender, but still crunchy when you eat one.

5) Pour in cornstarch with water & bay leaf (makes your dish smell better & yummy!). Mix for 2mins.

Serve while still hot. Eaten better with rice.


*saba bananas - we call this cooking bananas because it is firm enough to mix in different dishes like Estofado.

(photo taken from Market Manila blog)

Carousel cake by sugardva

carousel cake, originally uploaded by sugrdva.

This is absolutely one of my dream cakes to make!

I just discovered sugardva's works and they are all great! And I envy her so much, I kept on thinking about her artwork of cakes while in the office.

She is as talented as the people in Rosebud. I hope to make cakes as great & as grand as theirs.

Good luck to me! Hallelujah!