Choco Crinkles

My dearest husband had been bugging me about baking him some chocolate crinkles. 

Last Friday i was able to fulfill his dream by buying Crinkle Cookie Mix of Celebrations by Sharon from the Maya Kitchen line of products.

What i love about this mix is that It's super duper easy to make. 

The ingredients are:

1 pack of Crinkle Cookie Mix (Celebrations by Sharon) - the Sharon Cuneta!

2 tablespoons of oil

1 medium egg

Confectioner's Sugar

After the mixture had been made:

*Scoop a ball of the mixture and drop into a plate with confectioner's sugar.

*Roll it back and forth until ball is fully covered with confectioners.

*Place it in baking sheet. 

The recipe calls for 370F for 3 to 5 minutes.

*DO NOT OVER BAKE*

Once you remove it from the oven, it will look like this:

Go forth and Bake,

Dina

Frosting a cake

A pretty cake adds a bit of ceremony to an occasion, don’t you think? As far as birthdays and moments of congratulations go, I think flowers and cakes are the perfect thing for celebrating. I had a friend who used to make a pretty little cake for each friend on their birthday. So I thought I’d share with you a new little trick I learned in case you’d like to do the same: how to frost a smooth, level cake, with no crumbs in the frosting

Of course you will need a cake, buttercream (recipe of choice) and some leveled spatula. 

Once the cake is cooled, level it using a cake leveler or serrated knife. Whenever possible, I like to level the cake right in the pan, then take it out and let it finish cooling.

I was recently introduced to the cake icer tip, which I use with a 16-inch pastry bag. It is fantastic for laying frosting on the cake. If you don’t have one, you can improvise by piping your buttercream frosting out of a ziplock bag and using a knife to keep it on. The trick is to lay frosting on the cake, not rub it over the cake, which will pull crumbs up into your frosting.

If you use the cake icer tip, the jagged edge faces towards the cake, the smooth edge away from the cake.

Use a spatula or knife to level the frosting. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just mostly level. Again, try to press the frosting against the cake, not rub it up from the cake.

If you put strips of parchment under the cake, carefully pull them out.

Let the cake sit for 15 minutes to let the frosting dry a bit on the outside.

This is the last step, the fun part. Use a piece of parchment paper or a paper towel and lay it right on the cake. Use your finger to press lightly over the cake and smooth the icing, then peel the paper away. Do the same for the sides. You can pull it  up and press it back on several times to get the cake as smooth as you like it.

Note: If you use a papertowel with an embossed pattern, you can have the pattern transfer to your cake. If this is the effect you’re going for, make sure you use the embossed side of the paper towel against the cake. And for this effect, you get only one shot of laying down the paper and peeling it away; you can’t re-lay the paper once you’ve peeled it away.

Happy Frosting, 

Dina

Techniques from: http://www.giverslog.com/?p=1502

Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I only use lemon for 3 purposes.

1. i always drink lemon water
2. Tequilla purposes.
3. Lemon Drop Cupcakes

I adapted this recipe from http://partypatisserie.com

Oven 350 degrees F : Bake 18 minutes.(depending on your oven)
*if your using an electric oven check your cupcakes 5 or 10 minutes before time. 

• 3/4 cup butter
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2/3  cup milk
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon finely shredded lemon peel
• 1 recipe Lemon Frosting
• 1/2 cup lemon drop candies, finely crushed

l. Allow butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, line twenty 2 1/2-inch muffin cups with paper bake cups. In a medium bowl stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a 2 cup glass measuring cup combine the 2/3 cup milk and set aside.

2.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In  a large bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar and lemon peel; beat until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.

3. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each about  three-fourths full. Use the back of a spoon to smooth out batter in cups. Bake for 18 minutes or until tops spring bakc when lightly touched. Cool cupcakes in  muffins cups on wire racks for 5 minutes. Remove and cool.

4.Up to 1 hour before serving, generously spread or pipe Lemon Frosting onto cupcakes. I crush lemon candies and sprinkle on the top.

LEMON FROSTING: Allow 1/3 cup butter to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl beat butter, 1/3 cup shortening, and 1 teaspoon vanilla with an electric mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. Slowly add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating well. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Gradually beat in 2 cups additional powdered sugar. Beat in 1 to 2 tablespoons milk, 1 teaspoon at a time until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Makes about 2 1/2 cups frosting.

Bake me, 

Dina

Mass wedding and Devotion

My husband and i have been married for 28 months now.That's 2 years and 4 months. Unlike most of my friend, i didn't have a grand wedding, because hubby and i couldn't afford something grand during those times. I was 8 months pregnant when we tied the knot and we really didnt have much time to plan a wedding. I kind of like broke the news to my parents on June, hubby converted to Roman Catholic in July and my sisters arrived in august and hubby put a ring on my finger in September 8.

Hubby and i participated in the mass wedding held by our shrine every once in awhile. We got married on September.08 together with 6 or 8 other couples. It was a very intimate celebration because only our families were present during that day. I had the most number of guests compared to other couples and we celebrated our reception at Bread Box which is located a few steps from the parish.

Like i always say to my friends, "wedding is not the same with marriage" getting married is easy while maintaining a marriage is a alot of work. I am really thankful that God blessed me with such a wonderful partner. I could not ask for more.

Last december.08.2011 our parish held a kasalang bayan for 7 couples. I really wanted to give something to the participants so i decided to bake them a cake. I bought cake mixes, and then i frosted them with buttercream and i also made some roses out of the excess butter cream.

For the butter cream recipe, i've been using wilton's recipe for years. You can check it out HERE

and Finally, i was able to used my sisters christmas gift Wilton design pattern press set.

If you are curious about the mass wedding, you can call National Shrine of the Sacred Heart and they'll be more than willing to answer all your concerns.

Till death do us part!

Happy Baking,

Dina