Thinking of doing a cake giveaway. Haha.
I just thought it might be a good idea as a blog event. Besides my baking blog needs to be ressurected. Its crying for new content and visitors. Hehe. Though I don’t know if people would notice it. I haven’t been bloghopping for the past few months. I’ll wait until I get a note from Ingrid with regards to my packaging concerns. If she replies to my email today or tomorrow and she confirms the availability of the box and board, I might do a tiny giveaway. I might even bring one when I attend the WordCamp this coming Saturday. Yipeeeee! 
Popularity: 7% [?]
I need to bake…or I will go crazy.
My hands are itching to bake. Since I started working, I only had a chance to bake twice and I made the same thing. My chocolate cake. Right now I feel like baking. I’m in the mood for it. The thing is I don’t have much ingredients to experiment with in the kitchen. My supplies have dwindled and I need to go get some but I can’t leave my two younger siblings since everyone left and I was assigned to look after them. I seriously miss the feel of dough on my palms. I love kneading them and making them into something. Its both relaxing and fun. I want to make another cake too. I’m thinking another chocolate cake but adding my leftover maraschino cherries and syrup as a variation because I am a bit tired of making just chocolate cake. I also want to make a chiffon cake and maybe make a bit of custard to sandwich in between so my siblings will have “baon” as well. Its been quite long as well since I last made pizza. I don’t have mozzarella. I’m desperate. *cries*
I seriously need to keep 3k on my next payday so I can go splurge on my ingredients. I’m going to buy 10 kilos of flour and sugar immediately, a few bottles of vegetable oil and olive oil, a chunk of mozzarella, two 5 pound bags of powdered sugar, 5 bars of unsalted butter (I need more but its expensive already), a few cans and cartons of milk (evaporated, pasteurized and condensed), some whipping cream, a new batch of yeast, a couple of berry preserves (yes fresh ones aren’t readily available so I have to make use of canned strawberries, blueberries and other rare fruits I can find), baking cups, vanilla, baking soda and at least another 10 inch round cake pan.
I haven’t included yet a Kitchenaid to my priority list (although I want to…badly) since its quite heavy on the pocket. Heh, who knows I might win one somewhere or someone might feel like giving me one. Haha. Seriously if I get gifted with one, I’d love that someone forever. I’m known to give out cakes and other baked stuff randomly so they might receive one every now and then from me. I hope Kitchenaid hears my plea. Lol. Hmmmm, now that made me think which I want to get first. A larger oven (since I’m only using a small one so I can’t make large batches) or the Kitchenaid. I just know I want both. Anyone want to sponsor? Haha.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Baked my cake, and ate it too.
I finally baked my own cake. *squeals with delight* The other day I finally tried baking a cake without using a cake mix. Bwahahah. The very first time I baked a cake was last May 25th for Dad’s birthday and I used a Pillsbury Cake Mix for the base and made my own chocolate frosting. The other day though, my little sister TinTin was asking me to bake a cake since they wanted one for dessert. I finally gave in and decided to try my hand at making one from scratch. I was a bit scared since this will be my second time making a cake but my first time doing it from scratch but I’m not someone who’d back down from a cooking (or baking for that matter) challenge.
Since I liked how the recipe for Chocolate Sugar Cookie Drops from Hersheys before, I decided to use their “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” Chocolate Cake. But as usual I substituted some of the ingredients for those I had on hand. Hehe.
Modified HERSHEY’S “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” Chocolate Cake
Ingredients:
* 2 cups sugar (I used brown sugar)
* 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used local flour, what people call as primera (first class) in the local market)
* 3/4 cup HERSHEY’S Cocoa (As usual I used regular baking cocoa.:P)
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
* 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup milk (I used a cup of Alaska Evaporada from a local sari-sari store. Lol.)
* 1/2 cup vegetable oil
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 1 cup boiling water
* “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING (I didn’t use this one, instead I opted to make my own coffee cream frosting. :P)
Directions:
1. Heat oven to 350°F (175 °C). Grease and flour two 9-inch round baking pans.
2. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla; beat on medium speed of mixer 2 minutes. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost with “PERFECTLY CHOCOLATE” CHOCOLATE FROSTING. 10 to 12 servings.
VARIATIONS:
ONE-PAN CAKE: Grease and flour 13×9x2-inch baking pan. Heat oven to 350° F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely. Frost.
THREE LAYER CAKE: Grease and flour three 8-inch round baking pans. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Frost.
BUNDT CAKE: Grease and flour 12-cup Bundt pan. Heat oven to 350°F. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 50 to 55 minutes. Cool 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack. Cool completely. Frost.
CUPCAKES: Line muffin cups (2-1/2 inches in diameter) with paper bake cups. Heat oven to 350°F. Fill cups 2/3 full with batter. Bake 22 to 25 minutes. Cool completely. Frost. About 30 cupcakes.
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Ok, so as usual I had to modify the ingredients because I had to use what I had on hand at the time. I also used one 10 inch round baking pan for it because that’s the only pan I have available. With the substitutions I did, the cake still came out really good. TinTin and Miguel (our youngest siblings) thought highly of the cake. They said it was much much better than what we had for Dad’s birthday, so I think its safe to say I won’t be buying that Pillsbury mix again. Lol.
I would have posted the pictures sooner but my computer hanged up a bit since its low on memory. I have to remember to save up for one since I just bought my oven. 
Popularity: 6% [?]
Chocolate Drop Sugar Cookies
Okay, I decided to share some of the things I’ve been making for our family here. This domain was supposed to be a cooking site before I used it as my personal blog so I think sharing my favorite recipes would sit well with my blog. :DSo for today, I’d like to share the recipe for the Chocolate Drop Cookies that I’ve been feeding my little siblings as well as random people in our village. Its really easy to make and it takes just a few minutes to prepare the cookie dough. This recipe is based from Hershey’s Chocolate Drop Sugar Cookies but to save money since a large box of Hershey’s Cocoa Powder here costs P300+, I decided to substitute it with regular baking cocoa. I found some in one of the local bakery supplies shop in our supermarket here so its easy to find and cheaper too.
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Chocolate Drop Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients:
1. Heat oven to 350°F (175°C). Lightly grease cookie sheet.
2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until well blended. Add egg and vanilla; beat until fluffy. Stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; add alternately with buttermilk to butter mixture. Using ice cream scoop or 1/4 cup measuring cup, drop dough about 2 inches apart onto prepared cookie sheet.
3. Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until cookie springs back when touched lightly in center. While cookies are on cookie sheet, sprinkle lightly with additional sugar. Cool slightly; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. About 1 dozen cookies.
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I’ve tried using butter and margarine on two separate batches and they turned out the same way. Though I prefer the batch where butter (Magnolia Gold was the one available in the grocery though I usually use Anchor butter) was used since it felt more creamy and it tasted more like chocolate cake. I used unsalted butter because I prefer using it. If you only have margarine (like Dairi Creme) at home you can use it as a substitute.
I used refined sugar in making this and I used confectionair’s sugar for the sprinkled sugar on top. For the recent batches I made, I opted not to add some sugar on top since the cookie is pretty sweet already. I tried adding chilled Nestle All Purpose Cream on top of the cookie after baking and it tasted like eating an ice cream sandwich. xD So far my little siblings love it, and the neighbors approved of the taste so I’d be keeping it in my little recipe box since its a great thing to serve when relatives come over since they got lots of children in tow when they do visit. 
That reminds me that I have to go window shopping again for some coffee tables. We need a new one for the veranda where we have our coffee in the morning.
Popularity: 4% [?]
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