Mangoes...Mangoes

I LOVE Mangoes! Mangoes always reminds me of summer.  I think mainly because of it's sunny yellow color, so unlike mangoes found in America. My godmother always say nothing beats Philippine's Mangoes, they are so much sweeter and succulent than their American counter part.

I got this recipe of Mango Ice Box Cake, years ago on a local TV show called A Taste of Life with Heny Sison, sadly the show doesn't air anymore so from time to time I bring out my VHS recorded copies of the show and re-watch them.  The main ingredient here are mangoes, not fond of them? then this is not for you.  This is such an easy no-bake cake, god for a lazy Sunday afternoon, when you just want something light and easy.  The bottom part is made of graham cracker crust topped with yummy mango custard, then generously studded with chunks of mangoes, sprinkle with another layer of graham crackers, and re-layer the other ingredients again.  This cake need to set in the fridge for minimum of 4 hours to enhance & develop the flavors.  Best eaten cold, I even like it frozen like eating an ice cream! I can't wait for supper.... :p

Would You Dare???

Yup! you guess it right. It's time for the Daring Baker's Challenge. This month's challenge is Lemon Meringue Pie, its hosted by Jen of Canadian Baker. To be honest, when I found out that the challenge will be a lemon meringue pie, I wasn't even scared or excited because well...I did it before, eions ago and it didn't turn out well. My crust, after a while turn out soggy because my eggwhites were weeping. I've read somewhere that its due to having a humid environment. Me living in Manila, we have a very himid environment, Wow! lucky me right!?!

When I finally got the chance to get started on my pie, Mother Nature was with me. Outside was cool and breezy. I thought everything would be great, I spoke too soon. What I hate most in making pies is making the crust. Me and crust making are mortal enemies!!! Jeez! this one is no different! I really got to get that food processor that I have been eyeing for quite sometime now, I can't really make them by hand. My crust turned out flaky but tough, by dog love the leftovers though. The filling, hmmmm.... it's procedure is quite different from what I used too. For one thing, the lemen filling that I use to make doesn't contain corn starch so I was a bit hesitant do follow the recipe as is. However, I kept thinking....this is a Daring Baker challenge so I don't have a choice but to follow the recipe. Well, I'm happy to say that I didn't regret it, the filling was nice but lacks a little more lemon love the texture when it was still warm. After than it seems like it gelled, maybe I should have pour it directly in the tart shell while warm instead of waiting for to cool off, still tasted good though. Hmmmm...the meringue, you ask??? welll...I love the meringue with its soft billowy texture and roasted top, like a marshmallow but much better. ;p

I'm planning to do this again so that I can berfect my crust. The truth is that's just an excuse to make lemon custard, I recently adore lemons.

Two Thumbs Up!

Whenever, I have leftover filling in the fridge, I go look for thumbprint cookie recipe.  They are small, pop-in your mouth thumbprint cookies.  I made two variation Chocolate Thumbprints & Lemon Thumbprints.  Both are easy to make by hand and each one is topped with dollop of lemon curd and sticky chocolate frosting, that has been in my fridge for quite sometime.  These are the perfect for those leftovers that couldn't quite cover an entire cake or something and nobody ever knows that the fillings were made to top other dessert. 

Hmmm...tasty!

Buttercream Overload

Ever wonder what I did with the excess buttercream yielded from the Daring Baker December Challenge last month? Being a typical Chinese girl, we don't like to was food as much as possible use everything! This cake are composed of leftover parts from different desserts. The cake, I had frozen from a recipe I did couple weeks ago for a Christmas gift. Buttercream, from the Daring Baker Challenge. Chocolate curls, from a previously commissioned cake too! Isn't life easy when you have everything at hand and just waiting for you to put them all together. And the clincher for me is the fact that it didn't alter the taste whatsoever, every one still loves it ;)

Eggy Exploration Continues

With the Philippines being a former colony of the Spaniards for more than 300 years, there are some dishes, the Filipinos have adopted from them. In the dessert world one of those is the Leche Flan or Flan as it's more popularly known in western culinary books & magazines. Flans are like the creme caramel of the French. Here in Manila, everybody has there own recipe & technique of making a Leche Flan or Flan as it's more popularly known in western

culinary books & magazines.

In my family, my Aunt Celia's flan are the best! Every time we have a family reunion, she whips up her flan and we gobbled it all up in a new york minute. I often wonder what's so special about her flans, so last December, when she is in one of my mom's shopping expeditions, I asked here for her recipe and suffice to say I got it. With the Christmas orders that I was receiving last December, I didn't have the time to try it out.

Still butter-less and itching to bake, I went on and did her recipe from what I can remember, that is :) I lost the paper where I wrote it drown! Crap! How bad could it be right? I can make cakes so I can definitely make a flan, right? Well.....I spoke too soon. Forgoing the normal norm in making a flan found in western cookbooks, I went in search for our steamer. I found the part with hole, however, I couldn't find the bottom part. So such a ninny that I am, I didn't notice that the handle of the steamer part is made of plastic. Guess what happened? Yup! you guessed it right the whole thing fell with the plastic handle all melty and disfigured! Fortunately, it fell after my flan got cooked. That's disaster #1, #2 is as I was making the caramel topping as I was swirling in in my 'liyanera' aka flan mold. My sugar got caramelized too much so as you can see in the pictures. My topping is darker than it should. Whew! who would have guessed that flans are such complicated thing to do! But the stars are with me and had a beginners luck because even after all that trouble, the flan turn out great if not just a little bit too sweet for my taste :)

Here is the picture of my ruined steamer. Can you see the white melted part in the picture? That used to be the handle.

An Eggy Sunday Afternoon...

Is 'eggy' even a word? After the Christmas baking frenzy, would you believe, I'm all out of butter?!? What the a heck? Butter is one of the building blocks in baking!!! My mind is on hundred miles per hour, wondering what dessert to make. Then AH HA! I remember that before the frenzy bug bit me, I recently found and bought TWO boxes of Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry Dough and alas my parents just recently restock of fridge and I have dozens of eggs available, am I lucky or what? I quickly grabbed the Food Network book that I got on sale before, and went in search for the Portuguese Egg Tart, that I've been eyeing ever since I saw it.

It was such an easy procedure and the outcome are gorgeous and might I add yummy! The egg custard are soft bellied and the puff pastry crust are crisp, all in all such a light and indulgent dessert. But I must admit that in my excitement to make this that I miss read the instructions. I should have just cut my puff pastry dough into 6 pieces and not 12! But in the end, my mistake turn into my advantage because the custard that the recipe yielded was way too much for just 6 pieces, but just right with my 12 pieces.

Long Life Cake

With my busy holiday baking monsoon over, I finally have the time to blog about it. My sister's Grandfather-in-law celebrated his birthday, last December. My sister asked me to make the cake, I'm so thrilled to do so, I used Dorie Greenspan's recipe with minor tweaks. I used Dorie's buttercream icing and for the cake I used my personal recipe for sponge.  I was a bit afraid it wouldn't turn out great, its the biggest cake I ever made! Luckily, it was a huge success! They love the cake!

A wee bit late.....non the less still Daring

This yuletide season (December 2007) was one of my busiest season ever. My sister and I decided to sell baked goods for the season, all I can say that it's A LOT of hard work! I'll blog about this experience in my future blogs.

I know my posting is a weee bit late, however I still want to share my experience in the December 2007 Daring Baker Challenge, The Buche de Noel, hosted by the founders of the group.

The first time I found out that we'll be doing a Buche de Noel, I'm both thrilled and scared! Thrilled because I've been meaning to try it years before, now I have the chance to. Scared because I have never in my entire life made a rolled cake before, never made mushroom meringues before too! I felt like I'm way in over my head. But the Daring Bakers lay down the rules and dutiful member that I am, I suck it up and "carpe diem" (seize the day)!

Early December 24, I started following the instructions of the recipe. And I'm a bit surprise to say, it was quite easy. I was just impatient in making the meringue mushrooms and there where too much of them! Up till today I still have few mushrooms laying around! and the recipe for buttercream included was a bit too much I have tons of left overs. Any suggestions as to what to do with them? I'm also wondering how come my buttercrean didn't turn darker? I looks a bit pale for my taste.