First Fondant!

At last!!! My big bag of marshmallows and confectioner's sugar are not going to waste.

These 2 simple ingredients are all you need to make fondant :-)

You can find the recipe for marshmallow fondant anywhere on the net. I used this simple one:

• 6 1/2 cups small marshmallows
• 3 3/4 cups confectioners sugar
• 2 tbsps water
• some shortening

1. Microwave marshmallows with water in 20 sec intervals (total of 2-3 minutes) till marshmallows melt.
2. Grease work area with shortening.
3. Put 3/4 of the confectioners sugar in your work area and pour melted marshmallows.
4. Add rest of the sugar.
5. Knead as you would bread dough till the fondant is elastic and does not tear easily.
6. Wrap in plastic cling wrap and let stand in room temperature overnight.

To color: After fondant is kept overnight, add color and knead.

The cake is from Martha Stewart. This is the simplest cake I every made. The ingredients are so simple (no butter!).

Martha Stewart's Double-Chocolate Cake

• Vegetable-oil cooking spray - Butter and cocoa powder for me (do not use flour on chocolate cakes)
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup sunflower oil - I used canola oil.
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar

1. For the cake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Coat an 8-inch round cake pan with spray.
2. Whisk water and cocoa in a small bowl until smooth. Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl, and make a well in center. Add cocoa mixture, oil, and vanilla. Whisk until smooth. Whisk in vinegar. Pour into pan.
3. Bake until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake, invert it onto rack, and turn cake right side up. Let cool completely. Transfer cake to a serving plate or a cake stand.

Make sure you drape your fondant carefully and make sure there are no air bubbles. My example above is what you should NOT do.

D is for Dustine, my sister-in-law who turned 11 last May 24. I can still remember the day you were born! :-)

You guess it right! The designs were meant to cover the flaws hahaha!

Pawis rating: 3 of 5 it was hard, but it was fun :-)

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes

I've made several chocolate cupcakes from scratch using recipes I found here and there in the www. Today, I was looking for a great chocolate cupcake recipe again and stumbled upon this post from Glorious Treats. What a wonderful recipe! Looking at the pics, I'm sure I won't be disappointed.

This recipe was originally from Hershey's :-)

Perfectly Chocolate Cupcakes

(makes 24-27 standard sized cupcakes)

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa (best quality available)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup whole milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (best quality available)
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions:

1. Line muffin tin with paper liners. Heat oven to 350*F.
2. In a large mixing bowl, stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
3. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. Beat on medium speed for one minute.
4. Stir in boiling water (the batter will be thin, don't worry, this is right).
5. Fill liners 2/3 full with batter. (I usually put the batter into a large measuring cup with a pour spout, and then pour the batter into the liners.)
6. Bake cupcakes for aproximately 22-24 minutes.
7. Cool completely on wire rack before frosting.

I was able to make more than 24 cupcakes. In fact I was able to make 24 mini-cupcakes from the leftover! My daughter enjoyed the miniature sized cupcakes, she ate 4 at once!


The cakes are very moist and very chocolatey. The kind that you'd want to devour after a breakup. Great to eat with Coke! Ok, we can stop with the sugar addiction now.

Mini and adult cupcakes :-)

Do you want it sticky and chocolatey?

I feel like I'm in Bohol

I didn't use the prescribed cream cheese frosting because I used up my last pack of cream cheese yesterday. Let's use the dependable buttercream shall we? This time, let's make it a Brown Sugar Buttercream frosting.

This is from Martha Stewart.

• 4 large egg whites
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into tablespoons

Directions

1. In a heatproof bowl set over (not in) a pan of simmering water, whisk together egg whites, sugar, and salt. Cook, whisking constantly, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is warm to the touch.
   
2. Transfer to the clean bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium speed until fluffy and cooled, about 15 minutes.
   
3. Raise speed to high; beat until stiff peaks form. Reduce speed to medium-low; add butter, 2 to 3 tablespoons at a time, until fully incorporated.
   

Just for fun, I colored the buttercream blue and yellow

Cute

Mother and daughter :-)

Pawis rating: 2 or 5 very easy!

Baked Macaroni

Make this your specialty :-)

Do you have a go-to recipe for events, gatherings or parties? My husband's Kapampangan clan has all sorts of specialties. Each would bring their own specialty in almost every family event.

Mine is this one. I am proud to say I can make a mean baked mac. It's very easy!!!

Again, this probably comes with age, I forgot where I got this recipe from. So if you recognize this, please let me know :-)

Baked Macaroni

• 225 g of macaroni (penne or ziti), cooked according to package directions undercooking by 5 minutes

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp of butter
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 kg of ground beef
• 1/4 kg of smoked ham/bacon/salami/pepperoni
• 1/4 kg of sliced button mushrooms
• 1/4 kg of tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 kg of onions, chopped
• 4-5 green or red bell pepper, cored and chopped
• 1 whole garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 3-4 cups of good meat broth
• bunch of basil leaves or 1 tsp of dried basil
• salt
• pepper
• sugar

Topping:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 of 225g quickmelt cheese
• 1/2 of 225g cream cheese, softened then cut into small pieces
• salt
• pepper

Cook the pasta sauce:

1. Heat the butter and olive oil together over med-high heat
2. Add ground beef, breaking up the lumps
3. Add garlic and cook until meat starts to brown
4. Add ham/bacon. Stir and cook for few minutes
5. Add the vegetables and cook.
6. Add tomato paste and stir. Pour the meat broth. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
7. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 mins.

Cook the topping:

1. While pasta sauce simmers, prepare cream cheese topping.
2. Melt the butter in saucepan.
3. When frothy, add the flour all at once, stirring. Let the flour cook for about 5 minutes. Usually the flour is cooked when the mixture starts to turn golden brown.
4. Pour in the water in a thin stream, stirring as you do. Mixture will be lumpy at this stage.
5. Pour in the milk slowly, again, stirring as you pour. By the time the milk has been incorporated in the mixture, it will appear to be a little thin. The cheeses will thicken them to required consistency.
6. Add the cheeses. Set the heat to low and let the cheeses melt, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.

Baking:

1. When the sauce is done, add the cooked pasta and toss well. Let the mixture cook over low heat and occassional stirring (5-6 minutes).
2. Pour the pasta and sauce into a baking dish. Make sure that the dish is large enough so that the mixture is an inch below the rim.
3. Pour the topping onto the pasta mixture, spreading to seal the edges. If you don't seal the edges, the exposed pasta will dry up during baking.
4. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-25 mins or until top is lightly browned.
5. Let the baked mac rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

I bought a pyrex 9X13 baking dish last week and was very excited to try this today. Lo and behold, the dish wouldn't fit my measly oven!!! Damn you cheap oven! I had to be resourceful and find an alternative.

This must be my unlucky day because I decided to use my 9X13 teflon pan to make classic crumb cake (which I have not posted yet, lazy me). So that is not an option. I used my 10" round teflon pan and 8X8 pyrex baking dish. A little tedious but this tactic actually worked.

Mixing the pasta and the sauce

Arrange the pasta in your baking dish
Pour the topping
Bake - I wish you can smell this


Eat :-D

Pawis rating: 4 of 5 - This is not at all difficult but it had so many steps and so many ingredients I needed to chop! My hands are tired :-(