Fondant Figures
June 17, 2011
Did you enjoy playing with clay when you were young? I think I didn’t care much for it then.
Fondant Elephant In the Making
I remember back when I was in grade school, a guy from a clay company came to our class and gave us a small slab of clay and taught us how to do animals. Back then, I couldn’t make out what I was trying to do – my elephant looked more like a dinosaur, and the smell of the clay was just something I didn’t enjoy on my hands. How’s that for being prissy even at a young age? So clay wasn’t on my top list of things I want Santa to bring me on Christmas eve. I’d much rather have a Barbie, Santa, thank you very much!
For the benefit of those who have not encountered fondant (and I hope there’s still a lot of you otherwise I won’t be going into this business), fondant’s texture is like clay – just sweet-smelling. You can knead it, form it, roll it, cut it, mark it with “B” (“and put it in the oven for baby and me…” – oh, wait… that’s a nursery rhyme.) But the funny thing is, as much as clay is the so distant cousin of fondant, I love working with fondant. I love making figures out of them. And my elephants do look like elephants!
I won’t say molding fondant figures is easy. That elephant you see on the left caused me so much grief and stress that even when I had to put it on the cake, it lost all it’s feet cause it won’t stand and one of the legs broke on the way to the party place. I know there’s some science involved here in making those things – consider the weight of the mass multiplied by the pull of gravity, that’s how much force it will take to bring it down if it’s legs couldn’t support it. And that body was heavy, no matter if it was just about 5″ in width. So much for my 2 years of unending Physics in college – I forgot all about that!
Hear No Evil
But the day still went on and despite that error in judgement, the carnival cake still looked good and everyone was happy. The seal was still intact, the 3 monkeys were still there – altho one of them lost his ears, (which makes the adage “hear no evil”, so much truer), and the little girl fondant still stood happily in the middle of the big cake. And the 7-year-old little Colleen couldn’t be much happier to have her vanilla cake.
The Saturday after that I had to make another cake for another 7 year old. This time, for my godson, Joshua. This was a challenge since his party theme was Mario. Knowing the mistakes I made at Colleen’s party – we got to her venue about an hour after the start because I wasn’t even done working on it during that day, I knew I had to make the characters so much ahead of time. And I did. I knew I wanted lots of the stars, the characters, and of course, Mario and Luigi. This was a challenge because I had the ambition to make 3 types of flavor for each tier of the cake (something that I will have to rethink the next time), not to mention actually doing Mairo and Luigi. From scratch. With just a few youtube videos and a lot f graphic images on the internet for help. Yes. That’s all I had – images on the web that I enlarged on photoshop and printed.
Mario and Luigi Cake
This time, I’m not just using plain water to glue parts together. I found out if you have a little bit of water, put in your excess and hardened fondant, toss it in the microwave, you come up with sugar glue. Neato. I should’ve known that when I was making Mr. Elephant and Mr. Monkey up there.
I still ran out of precious time because of 1. all the different flavor cakes I had to bake (vanilla, chocolate and pandan, with 3 different icing for each of them); 2. I still had to do cupcakes which was not in the plan (but with a lot of leftover batter, what else would you have done??); and 3. forgive me, I’m still slow at these. That was it.
Altho judging from the looks of it, our friends would probably have forgiven us for coming too late. I sure hope so… Some parents at the party even asked me if I can do their kids’ cakes for future birthdays. (I had to decline tho… I still have to get the timing right before I can accept orders and honestly, this is not that time yet to do so.)
The Mermaid Cake
There’s a lot for me to learn about fondant figures. I’ve actually bought some electornic tutorials from a great lady in UK. She does really great fondant figures which I followed when I had to do my first figure cake of a lady in a bathtub. And I was able to purchase the PME human mold set which makes life a little bit easier when I have to make real human figures. I got that when we went to the Cake Festival here in Maryland. And I didn’t have any second thoughts about it, I know it was going to help me a lot! And it does. A good investment.
I also bought some books (second-hand, mind you since they’re not cheap) of how to make characters and those lovely little fairies. I just wish I would have a chance to make a cake with fairies on them. That would be a blast! I’ve bookmarked sooo many tutorials, so many pictures, so many videos, that I would probably need to do the Dewey Decimal System of cataloguing. I feel like the whole library of Baking congress is on my Mac.
I still have a problem doing the eyes tho. For some reason the kind of eyes that I want to accomplish isn’t going as smooth as I want it to. I’m always messing it up, or discoloring the whites with the blacks of the eyes, or sometimes, much worse, they end up looking cross-eyed. Hmmmm… really, really, really challenging my wits and sanity! But I won’t stop. I will make it happen. I’m determined to make my figures look like they’re flirting for the camera all the time. Trust me. I will.
So while I practice on creating those perfect flirtatious eyes, I leave you now till I come back… soon. There’s so much to write about!
Forty-Six Years and Lovin' It!
Posted in Kiddie Cakes, The Manilena Cakes | 
Tags: Carnival, Mario and Luigi Fondant, Mermaid | 
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The Grad Cake
June 16, 2011
Czarina's Grad Cake
There was a specific reason why I decided to go dive into the baking world. Cakes here are sooooo expensive.
Now I’m not referring to the cakes you can buy from the grocery. Altho they’re very convenient and inexpensive, they’re not much of an eye-candy. They’re just there as… cakes. To eat. I know that’s what cakes are for, but if you really want something more special, something that would make your guests go “oooooohhhh” or “awwwwwww”, those are the cakes I’m talking about. I’m talking made-to-order, tell-me-what-you-want, sky’s-the-limit, the-best-in-the-world cakes that you’ll have to order from specialty bakeries. The ones where they charge you an arm and a leg just because they can.
The Grad Cake
So when my good, good, sister-friend, Veck, and I were planning her daughter’s 18th birthday last year (a debut, in the Filipino tradition), we were in a mess looking for THE cake. We first tried calling the bakeshops only to find out that they can charge you as high as $4.00 per serving of the cake. With a total guests of about 100, you do the math. And surely, a party doesn’t live by cake alone – that $400 cake was just too much… it’s just a birthday, not a wedding. So I had this wild idea that I can just fake a cake – you know, cover a cake-shaped styrofoam with fondant and decorate it with flowers. They do that anyways. I can do that, too. Until I found out how difficult it was to cover and roll fondant. That won’t work either. We then planned on just renting a fake cake but it was too expensive and too much hassle to transport. No can do.
We finally ended up in a good bakery where they could mimic the texture of the icing to make it look like fondant. It wasn’t bad, honestly speaking, it tasted really good. But I was disappointed because it wasn’t what we originally wanted to happen. That was a huge letdown for me.
The Cake in the Making
I know that Veck isn’t the only mom out there who dreams of having a special cake for her child’s event but ends up getting heartbroken discovering how expensive these cakes really are. I know there will be so many brides in a tight-budget but would still want a special cake as the centerpiece in their wedding reception. So that’s when I decided, I should get into this. I have to put a stop to all the commercialism and heartbreaks. (Insert superman theme here) I will be the wonder woman of these ladies! I will be their… SUPER BAKER CHIC!
Hmmm…. In about a couple more years still. (*Popped Dream*) I have a lot of practice to do. And the Manilena Cake Shop is still in the works. But I am getting there.
That January after Czarina’s birthday in September was when I enrolled at Wilton to know how to roll a fondant, create real icing flowers, crumb a cake, frost cupcakes. And while at my classes, that’s when I realized, hey, I can be good at this. It can be very expensive to start with, but that’s what those coupons are for. But great dreams come with great sacrifice – I’m actually amassing a huge supply of cake supplies that I know my husband just patiently allows. But I always tell him, in a very “10-commandments tone,” all these things have a future in us. This will lead us to the promise land, my dear Moses (no, his name is Ed).
Wilton's Baroque Mold
It’s almost a year since Czarina’s birthday. She’s now graduated high school and going to college this August. We’re very excited for her and I’m so, so proud of my girl. And since I want her to know how special she is for me, I decided to make her a special grad cake. This is special, mind you, because I used a different kind of fondant icing. Not the usual marshmallow fondant that I make. I used Satin Ice‘s dark chocolate fondant. And I love the taste – kinda like tootsie roll. This isn’t a placed ad, mind you. I really did like the way it flows on your cake. And with the chocolate cake and icing I made, the fondant just complemented the overall taste of it. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
I just had a slight problem when I mixed gumpaste and fondant for the fondant girl’s toga – it got a little brittle – probably because of the gumpaste. Which reminds me – not to use too much gumpaste when making delicate figures. It was just a little upsetting when I saw those cracks and cuts on the gown. That usually stresses me out.
Look at that lovely drape!!
Oh, and I used one of those new Wilton mold products. The “Baroque Mold” was a joy to use. All I had to do was splat in the fuschia fondant in the crevices, roll it in with my small rolling pin, pop it out, cut the sides and voila! An embelishment for the cake. Thank you, Wilton! You really made my life sooo much easier.
So, if I have to carry my own bench (in Filipino, “magbuhat ng sariling banko”, which means to brag), I would have to say, I did a fine job with this one. I guess because firstly, I had the whole night to make it (stayed up till 5am that morning) so Moses… I mean, Ed and I were not stressed out the day itself. I was getting faster now using those human molds I got from PME at the cake convention (which is another entry next time). And I even had the luxury to watch my brother on his TV show that I had so many days I needed to get caught up on. Heck, I was even able to ice about 21 cupcakes for Czarina’s 10 year old brother, Chester, because it was his birthday last week.
During the day, we were even able to go to church and hubbie even had time to stop by Goodwill, just to browse around. I had time to fix myself, wear my new MAC lipstick and put on some nice summer dress. We got to Veck’s house at exactly 3:00 pm – long before the guests arrived, long before Czarina came back from an errand she and her boyfriend had to do. It was soooooooo light. I had a very lovely Sunday.
I’m probably earning my own graduation from stress baking. Just maybe…
Happy Graduation, Czarina!!
Cupcakes
May 28, 2011
The firsts of my successful cupcakes
So I’ve been experimenting on cupcakes for about 6 months now. When I started I bought 2 books on cupcakes that were really a hit as far as the variety of flavors I can make. I didn’t care much for the icing recipe tho. Like I said, they were just too sweet for my Filipino taste buds. I’d much rather use the signature icing I have in hand as base and adapt the flavorings the book has for each of the cupcakes. It works, actually. Even better, if I can say so myself.
The books contain simple recipes that are easy to follow. I’ve already made some scribbles on post-it notes that I stuck to the recipes to remind me what special thing I had to do instead – a change in an ingredient here, lesser sugar there, condensed milk here, lesser baking time there, but definitely, no powdered sugar, ever! I have an admission to make – I’m beginning to have a dislike for powdered sugar. At most cases, I would rather switch to condensed milk or concentrated juice drink or even yogurt to some extent instead of that white powdery stuff. My theory is, you only use powdered sugar when you’re doing royal icing. So on most of the recipes I’ve made, even for the rare frostings I’ve tried, I don’t use powdered sugar. I don’t know why, but powdered sugar to me seems the queen of all the chemically-induced sweeteners in sugarland.
My Mocha Cupcakes with Mocha Icing and Cherry on Top!
From the two books, I’ve discovered making green tea cupcakes from their recipe of earl grey cupcakes, malted cupcakes using Ovaltine, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes that I plan on using more “exotic” jelly/jams next time, strawberries and cream, blueberry bursts, red velvet, chocolate and banana and dark chocolate cupcakes. Delish. Superb.
I’ve experimented on using pandan and ube on some of the base recipes they have. One thing I have to note, when I come home to the Philippines next month I have to buy lots of extracts that they don’t have here. Oh pandan and ube you can get here – in a small bottle that costs $2. That’s like highway-robbery in broad daylight inside a Filipino store. So I’m bringing the works – pandan, ube, mango, coconut, coffee, langka – EVERYTHING. When I come back here in Maryland, I would have amassed a whole bouquet of aromatic extracts for my cakes enough to last me two years (the timeframe my husband and I have when we plan to go back home the next time).
I’ve also discovered that those colorful, cute cupcake papers that they have at the stores don’t seem to retain their cuteness once the cupcakes are baked on them. They lose their color, they’re not even noticeable. So instead of using those, I would rather use the plain colored ones or opt for the white paper or the silver or gold foiled ones. Those are actually better and the oils from the butter don’t seep thru the paper. Just perfect. Plus they give the presentation a little bit of elegance, specially when they sit on a nice cupcake stand. My other mentor, Joanne Weineke of The Little Cake Patch has suggested using a Cricut cutting machine and using the cupcake pattern to create pretty cupcake wrappers. I might try that someday. I just have to get the Cricut first.
Obviously, a Strawberry Cupcake
One thing I love about cupcakes is that I can have myself a piece of it and be ok. Also they’re more portable because they’re “ready for grabbing” anytime. As opposed to a huge cake that you’d have to cut slices still and put them in a to-go plastic container, then you’d have to clean up after and wash everything you’ve used. Did I tell you I kinda not like washing dishes?? Also with huge cakes at home I have a problem of how to finish them off without putting all of that inside me (or my husband). First, because it’s just not possible, and secondly, because I’m diabetic. How does a diabetic person even make cakes?? That’s another story for another blog entry…
I know cupcakes are the new thing these days. I guess with all those designer fruo-frou’s that have mushroomed all over, it’s not a surprise. Altho I have to admit that they’re really, really very fun to make. Not to mention, there’s always a flavor there for each person. I know I sound like the latest ad for an ice cream pop (“fun flavors for everyone!!”), but it’s true. Evidence: Cupcake Wars – imagine putting anchovies or a strip of beef jerky in your cupcake! Really… you can’t get more universal than that!
Speaking of Cupcake Wars, someone once asked me if, given the 1/1,000,000 probability to be invited to participate in that show, would I do it? Of course not!! That show has so much drama and zen-crashing elements that it will surely make the thing I love become the thing I’d be so stressed about. Nah… not even for the $10,000 grand prize they have which isn’t really much for all that stress. I don’t need that… I need my peace of mind.
My cupcake pans, my piping bags and my 1M and 1A tips are my special toys that I like playing with. And when I can whip that icing into a perfect swirl, that is my version of art. I am in Zen.
Ummm... Yummy....
The First Day Starts Today
May 27, 2011
The Decorating Basics Kit from Wilton
When I left the Philippines in 1996 to migrate to Canada, I didn’t know how to cook. Are you kidding me??? I had a remarkable paternal grandfather who, by viture of being from the province of Pampanga, was gifted with a talent to cook. After Papang, my mom is also an exceptional cook. And she just doesn’t cook, she also bakes. And just as backup, the maids were always there even. So, what reason do I have to spend my time in the kitchen?
Until, I landed in Calgary.
My aunt, lovingly called Wowa, knowing that I will not survive my new life not knowing the difference between a kaldero from a pressure cooker, the very day I arrived, pulled me to the kitchen and taught me the Philippine national ulam. Adobo. And, honestly, I enjoyed that experience.
That day was the start of my culinary exploration. From that adobo, I ventured into sinigang, afritada, ginisang giniling, pangat, paksiw, pansit and the ultimate experiment that became a favorite – empanada. Whatever recipe was on that hand-me-down Philippine recipe book from Wowa, I tried to do.
The cookies we decorated with the "too sweet" icing.
And it wasn’t just the cooking that I enjoyed. Feeding my friends my kitchen discoveries was something I always looked forward to. I started doing this when I began to live on my own. There would always be a food party in my apartment and we would have a blast. And usually, my friends never left home empty handed – there was always the traditional “pabalot”.
Marrying someone who knows his way around the kitchen gave me more confidence to try out more dishes. Together we would cook up a storm and come up with lip-smacking wonders. The most popular dishes we’d do and that people would ask are our pansit palabok and kare-kare.
But inspite all these, baking is something I was so scared to get into. There was just something about making cakes that I was so scared to fail at. I knew this is something I had to conquer. Specially when my husband would make those philsbury squares with cream cheese inside. (Hmmm…. yummy…) I knew this avenue is something I should also get immersed in. And so, I decided to make cupcakes, icing included. Cupcakes were small, they should be a breeze to do. Right?? Results? The cake was dry and the icing was too sweet. Fail. Miserably.
A look at my Finale Cake at Wilton first class, with my treasured icing recipe.
But, see, I was always so turned off with the cakes they would serve at parties. For some reason the cakes here in the US (and even in Canada) are too sweet for my taste. Most specially, the icing was something like eating raw powdered sugar and that’s so disappointing because I always loved icing growing up. Thank you, Goldilocks, Red Ribbon, Luisa and Sons, you really spoiled my tastebuds.
So I went on a quest for that ultimate icing recipe. I promised myself that I won’t be baking anything ever until I have a recipe for icing that would make those baking goodies mouth-watering. This quest became stronger when one day we went to a Filipino party and the cake served to us was a pandan cake with an icing that I can’t stop digging my fork into. That was the icing I was looking for! That was the icing that reminded me of my children parties back home. But of course, even when I got to know the woman who made these cakes, I was so embarassed to ask her the recipe only because I know this was her trade secret. I had the fear that she might give me that incredulous look that meant, “you’re kidding, right??”
My 3rd Wilton Class Finale Cake. And I made that fondant girl myself 
And so I asked around, looked up the internet, tried and tried. Until I told my chef par excellence friend, Oliver Isidro, my frustration. And out of the goodness of his heart, he sent me a recipe for an icing that I should try. So with this in hand, I decided to bring out the cupcake pans out of the oven shelf and try again. Of course, trying out a meringue with sugar was something I haven’t done before and top it off with putting in butter when I thought the meringue has stiffened enough was a total disaster. It was half watery and half-stiff. But then, the taste was incredible and sooooooooooooooooooo WONDERFUL! I knew even when I failed, I had to try and try again. And the second try wasn’t good either. But on the third try, I did it! And I was really and actually doing the dance of joy. And that was the happiest day of my culinary life. I now have the recipe I have most longed for, thanks to Chef Oye.
Of course the cake itself was something I also had to experiment on to perfect. And since I wasn’t scared of that oven anymore, I baked and baked. The most important tip from my mom for a very moist cake – bake a cake about 2 mintues short of the low limit of the time frame given and pull the cakes out when a few crumbs still come out with the stick when you test the cake’s doneness. That tip was a treasure for very moist cakes. Plus, the taste just has to be excellent. An advice, no a forewarning, from my sister, the know-it-all (and I say that with so much love), it doesn’t matter if you’ve made the best looking cake, if it doesn’t taste good, it’s not a very good cake.
So what else was there to do than to learn how to decorate my cakes. And that’s where the Wilton classes came in. And the rest, as they say, is history. And today is the start of my journey to my soon to be opened Manilena cake and coffee shop. And I am claiming it. It will happen. And while I wait for my shop to open, I am going to practice some more, and then some more. So you will get to have a front seat to the cakes I will be baking. And my friends, unfortunately, might have to stay a little longer at the gyms or in front of their Wii exercise games because, I’m telling them, the cakes will keep on coming.
Ricky Martin Is Out!
March 30, 2010
8/365 days of blogging.
So he’s out! His last sentence on his announcement on his website says,
“I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.”
If you ask me, there was nothing really shocking or surprising about it. I think it was pretty obvious that he is – he has this aura about him that seems to tell you that he is – homosexual.
Is it bad? Will it affect his career? I guess, for those women who only like him because of his good looks (and very sexy bod, may I add), these girls would probably look at someone else to fill their fantasies with. But for those who appreciate his talent, no matter what his sexual preference is doesn’t really matter. He’s talented, he’s (still) sexy, and he has very sexy songs… what’s not to like?
So welcome for coming out, Ricky!
Save The Date – The Final One
March 30, 2010
7/365 days of blogging.
So we’ve finally decided on what save-the-date photo to use. I like having her photo in black and white against all the subtle colors around it. This was taken from She’s Full of Scrap‘s kits. (It pays to have sisters in the business.
My friend decided to have this printed thru Office Depot. She wants it printed on magnetic paper so that the recipients of the cards can just post them on their fridges. I didn’t even know that Office Depot does that now. They would even cut it to specs so that’s one less thing that my friend and I have to do if we did this ourselves.
So what’s new with the preparations? My friend’s mom and dad are going home to the Philippines this month so my friend and I thought that it might be a better idea to get a lot of our materials from the famous Divisoria and Tutuban markets and ask her parents to bring them back to the US. We’ve decided to have her daughter’s gown done by my friend’s former seamstress. We’ve also asked the seamstress to do the table linens and the backdrop for the stage. Nothing really beats the Philippines when it comes to materials for parties. Even the venues back home are actually much better than here. I guess, it stems from the perpetual “fiesta atmosphere” back home.
I’m missing the Philippines again…
Save The Date
March 10, 2010
6/365 days of blogging.
So my friend’s daughter is turning 18 this September. She and her husband decided to give her a traditional Filipino 18th birthday called a cotillon or a debut. She’s asked me to help her because these parties have a tendency to be big.
We’ve been planning it for about a year now. Since we’re trying to minimize the expenses without sacrificing on the quality of the event, we needed a long time to prepare for it. Picking out the venue is the biggest thing. There’s a lot of venues out here in the Baltimore and metros. But to pick out the one that won’t be a drain on the budget but would still work takes a lot of research and leg work.
Finally, we’ve picked out a venue and have made an arrangement already for our date. Since it’s not a flashy place, it would take a little bit of imagination to make it the perfect venue. A couple of weekends ago, we were able to create a prototype of the centerpiece we are planning to do. We already have some ideas on how to decorate the drabby wood panels of the wall and the “stage” without using up too much set up time.
The color of her daughter’s gown is finalized and a sample of it the clothe was already sent to the Philippines where the dressmaker is. We’re ordering stuff for the souvenirs to be sent here from Divisoria.
I’ll be chronicling the details of the party here so that you guys can also have an idea of what needs to be done to prepare for this kind of event far away from the Philippines.
So just as a teaser, and I will write up a whole entry about the save-the-dates later, here are 2 samples that I made and showed my friend (altho none of these came up to be the final one).
“Why I Will Vote For Noynoy – Winnie Monsod” A Hoax!
March 5, 2010
5/365 days of blogging.
So there was an email circulating recently about an article presumably written by Solita “Mareng Winnie” Monsod on why she will vote for Noynoy. I was supposed to publish it here but I wanted to put a link back to the original article so I looked around the internet. I saw replicates of the article but not the original one. Thinking that the column could be at the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I went there and search the archives of her column. Nada. Instead I saw this disclaimer at the end of her February 27, 2010 article:
“(To whom it may concern: I am not the author of an e-mail going around titled “Why I will vote for Noynoy—Winnie Monsod.” To the real author/s: Hiding behind others is cowardly. Stand up and be counted. To everybody else: Any statement attributed to me can be very simply checked by referring to this column, or my column in BusinessWorld [Calling A Spade], or a blog under my name in GMA News.TV.)”
Now, just a disclaimer, I’m not pro-Manny Villar, one of the presidential hopefulls in the Philippine elections this 2010. Truth be told, I’m leaning more towards a different candidate altho, unfortunately, I won’t be able to cast my vote because I’m not eligible anymore. So I am not writing this entry in defense of Manny. I still don’t like him and I don’t trust him. But still, I don’t really approve of people hiding behind other people, no matter what the intentions might be. It just isn’t right. Now, there might be some truth in this article but it tarnishes the validity of it when the people who write it don’t stand behind what they write.
Rest In Peace, Kenny Rankin (1940 – 2009)
March 1, 2010
4/365 days of blogging.
For you, Kenny. The icon of my youth, the singer whose songs captured my heart and was the soundtrack of memorable relationships. Your music will live on. May it really be Oh, So Peaceful where you are right now…
A New Blog Template
February 25, 2010
3/365 days of blogging.
I made a nice blog template for a friend:
She’s a very dear friend of mine and I’ve known her for a long time now. We met each other thru the internet when she and her husband were still in Singapore. And when they first moved to California, I was living there, too, so we saw each other often. And now that I’m in Maryland, we still get intouch with each other.
And speaking of websites, I also created the header for the template for our group website.
Hope you visit us there!
Posted in Website Design - Green, Website Design - White, Website Designs | Tags: Blogkadahan, Jet David, Pansitan, Template | 1 Comment »
