Home Bites - Strawberry Cake

When I first told people that I was learning how to bake, a lot of them told me to learn baking cupcakes. Cupcakes seem to be the dessert du jour, right behind cronuts which is thankfully dying a slow, painful death. I guess the cupcake craze started a while back, when Sonja's Cupcake gained popularity. Last year, it seems to have gained steam, now cupcake shops are everywhere! Some are small and dainty, while others are big and dainty. 

Like the cronuts craze, I didn't really jump in the cupcake bandwagon. Sure, I'd eat them when someone gives them to me, but I won't get all hung-up about it. I'm not a fan of the small piece of cake and then a dollop of frosting on top. I feel like cupcakes are for the tea-drinking, ladies-who-lunch types. Me? I'm the iced-tea-gulping, buffet-devouring variety. So I'd rather have a solid, big slice of cake. (P.S. I know I might swallow these words in the future, so to be safe, I'm not saying I won't ever bake cupcakes, alright? Hehe.)

So for my second baking project for the year, I chose another easy recipe which I found on marthastewart.com. I chose a simple Strawberry Cake, a mix of sweet and tang. It was perfect timing because strawberry is in season, and I found some big and juicy ones at the S&R branch near my office.

Strawberry Cake

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pie plate
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 pound strawberries, hulled and halved

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch pie plate. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together into a medium bowl.

2. Put butter and 1 cup sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium-low; mix in egg, milk, and vanilla.

3. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Transfer batter to buttered pie plate. Arrange strawberries on top of batter, cut sides down and as close together as possible. Sprinkle remaining 2 tablespoons sugar over berries.

4. Bake cake 10 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake until cake is golden brown and firm to the touch, about 1 hour. Let cool in pie plate on a wire rack. Cut into wedges. Cake can be stored at room temperature, loosely covered, up to 2 days.

Next time, I have to put more strawberries and figure out how to make the presentation like the one on Martha Stewart's website! But I love how the inside of the strawberry slice looks like rose petals. 

After several taste tests with my officemates, my brother's family, and Jay's family, my strawberry cake was a success! My sister-in-law asked me to bring her a whole cake next time, while Jay wanted to finish the portion I saved for his mom and sister. :) I'm very happy with how it turned out, it encouraged me to bake more. Onto project number three!

Home Bites - Dark Chocolate Cake

Jay gave me my dream Kitchen Aid mixer as his New Year's gift, so I was the happiest girl when 2014 came in! Of course he made sure I was really going to use it and it wasn't just going to gather dust and be a huge paper weight in my kitchen. So I've resolved to bake as much as I can.

I resolve to make 2014 #ayearofbaking

Around the second week of January I baked my first creation: a dark chocolate cake, the recipe of which came from a baking class I took at Maya Kitchen last year. I have yet to blog about that, but it was a fun experience to learn baking in a class, and get hands-on experience with your classmates. You also get tips from the veteran bakers.

Those classes were months ago so I had to refresh myself before I baked again. I found very detailed and helpful instructional videos at Martha Stewart's website.

Now I can't share with you the cake recipe I used because, to be honest, I don't know if the people from Maya Kitchen would appreciate me handing out recipes for free. After all, they offer it for a fee in their classes.

But no worries because I found a similar one over at allrecipes.com. It has pretty much the same ingredients, minus the condensed milk. Plus instead of icing, I used caramel sauce. Oh and instead of a food processor, of course I used my mixer. :)

Ingredients:

1 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 eggs
1 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1 (12 fluid ounce) evaporated milk
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup butter

You'll find it easier to bake when you've arranged your mise en place beforehand. 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9 inch tube pan. In a saucepan over medium heat, combine 1 cup of evaporated milk and the 3/4 cup of cocoa. Heat until the cocoa is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add the eggs, melted butter, water, vanilla, and cocoa mixture, mix well until blended. Spread evenly into the prepared pan.

3. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. (Note: I couldn't find a cooling rack at my grocery store so I bought a tray used for grilling, hehe! It does the job so that's fine with me.)

4. To make the chocolate icing, combine the remaining condensed milk, evaporated milk, cocoa and butter into a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and paste-like. Spread over cooled cake.


Now I would've made my own caramel sauce, I bought my candy thermometer and everything, but I still have a jar of Trader Joe's Fleur de Sel Caramel Sauce, so I used that first.

My first baking project for 2014: Success! 

So far, everyone who tried my cake liked it. I had three tastings, you see: Jay, my officemates, and a couple of other friends I had dinner with one weeknight. I'm happy with the outcome! But I'd definitely bake this recipe more, I'd like to master it. I might even try this recipe I posted. :)

Now I'd like to share with you one secret tip I got from my baking class. If you're going to store your chocolate cake in the fridge for a few days (it usually lasts for a week), make sure to brush it with corn syrup to keep it moist. I found that the cake is best eaten after a night in the fridge, it's more moist and rich.

Resto Bites - Golden Elephant Seafoods Garden Restaurant

Sometimes it's nice to get lost and explore because you end up discovering something good. That's what happened to us after leaving the Super Sale Bazaar at the World Trade Center last Saturday.

Jay and I went there to visit the booth of our good friend Nina, who owns Sassyfabfinds (check her store out!). We didn't have a car that day so we needed to catch a cab to get home. Traffic was still heavy when we left the bazaar and we wanted to eat nearby. We decided to walk it out and ended up at Hobbies of Asia Complex on Macapagal Ave., where there's a number of restaurants. We almost ate at one hot pot place, but Jay wanted to check out the other options.

We chanced upon Golden Elephant Seafoods Garden Restaurant. There were a lot of flowers by the door so I asked the waiter if they just opened. He said they did, only last November 28. We really only wanted to check the menu, but the attentive servers immediately led us to our seats. The place was packed, so I thought it was worth a try.

Golden Elephant looks like a Chinese restaurant at first glance but it actually offers Thai and other Asian dishes. I guess the elephant statues and gold touches should've clued me in, hehe. The restaurant has a loft design, with lots of tables and booths to accommodate big parties or dating couples. We got a cozy booth at the loft, which has floor-to-ceiling glass overlooking the main dining area.

After being seated, we were given a fresh pot of house tea and complimentary appetizer of mushrooms, onions and cucumber in hot and sour sauce.

Here's what we ordered:

Deep Fried Lapu-Lapu with Mango Sauce. This dish is a bit pricey but it's worth it. One whole grouper, fried to a nice crisp, lies in a bed of sweet chili sauce and garnished with julienned green and ripe mangoes. I'm not a fan of sweet entrees but this is too good to pass up!

They also offer Steamed Lapu-Lapu in Black Bean Sauce, which is more up my alley. I'll try that on my next visit.

Salted Egg Prawn. I have a new favorite! I love shrimps and prawns cooked in every which way so I zeroed in on this dish instantly. Seven pieces of fat, juicy prawns fried in salted egg batter sit atop a bed of kropek noodles. I scraped the tasty batter off the shell, mixed it with the prawns and enjoyed it with spoonfuls of steamed rice. Don't forget the kropek noodles! It stayed crispy even after our meal, I had it bagged to go as well. :p

We also wanted to try the Grilled Skewered Frogs but it still wasn't available. Another dish that caught my eye was a sample platter of Chicken Pandan, Spring Rolls, and seafood cake (can't remember if it's crab or fish). But there was only two of us so we passed. We noticed the Pineapple fried rice was a hit among the other diners (fried rice served on a hollowed out pineapple shell).

The owners were hands-on (we're guessing it's a family business), supervising the floors and checking the dishes coming out of the kitchen. A lady came up and gave us a silver VIP card, which entitles us to a 5% discount on every visit! We asked out server if we could use it then. She said not yet, but not to worry because we were getting a 20% discount on our bill (not including beverages) anyway! How lucky were we?

Golden Elephant Seafoods Garden Restaurant is a good place to take your family for special occasions or Sunday lunches and dinners. Fresh seafood and other flavorful dishes with generous portions are served, and they have an extensive menu you can choose from.

Dine at the restaurant and enjoy 15% discount until December 31, 2013. And if you're lucky, you might be able to get a discount card too. :)

P.S. After doing research for this post, I realized it's not an entirely new restaurant, but they just changed their name. It's formerly Koh Samui Thai Cuisine. That explains the print on our table napkins and take away bag. Just the same, the good food and great service promises a good experience for diners. :)


Golden Elephant Seafoods Garden Restaurant
M6, Hobbies of Asia Complex, Macapagal Avenue, Pasay City
Tel Nos. +632-556-6666/+632-808-9999/+63915-7722229

P.S. I know the correct term is "seafood" and that's actually what's in their discount card, so I hope they drop the extra "s" on their front signage.

Resto Bites - Kuppa

Since my office moved to Bonifacio Global City, I've been on the hunt for quality but reasonably-priced restaurants. There are a lot of good restaurants there, but the price range is more suited for an executive. That's why my team and I rarely eat out (but that's also because we have a kick-ass cafeteria/food court in our building hehe).

During one of our team lunch-outs, we passed by Kuppa, a coffee place that catches your attention because of the handwritten menu on their windows. It reminded me of the movie Amelie. That day, some of my teammates and I decided to have our dessert there. We tried two cakes, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe and lemon cake (I forgot the actual name).

There is so much more to their menu than cakes and coffee, so I decided to come back with Jay to eat there during one of our date nights. Just to set your expectations, I am not a coffee drinker, so although Kuppa is also known for its coffee, there's none of that in this post.

Kuppa has nice interiors, a mix of concrete, brick and wood set against black and white walls. The space has high ceilings with exposed beams and plumbing. There are huge picture windows but the handwritten menu acts like a thin curtain for diners inside. There's a second floor with more seats, and a smoking area as well.

Yummy pastries, chalkboard menu, and nice interiors. I'm sold!

Here's what we ordered:

Water was complimentary, but the bottle is nice so I included it in the photo. :)

I had iced tea and Jay had lemonade. They serve their iced tea with syrup as sweetener, which reminded me of the one served at Chocolate Kiss (in UP Diliman).

I'd like to think I'm more adventurous than Jay when it comes to food. His philosophy is that when he's hungry, he'd like to be sure he's eating good food. We were nearly starving at this point so he opted for the basic bolognese. And I'm glad he did. This is one of the more flavorful spaghetti I've had in a while. The serving is good to share if you're also ordering other entrees.

While we were waiting for our pizza, Jay wanted to order the kebab but the server said it would take a while so we'll just reserve it for our return. There are other interesting entrees too, like the Osso Bucco and Lamb Caldereta. They also have a variety of sandwiches as well as a breakfast menu.

For our pizza, our server recommended the Prosciutto Cotto e Funghi as one of their bestsellers so we tried that. As you can see from the photo, some edges of the crust were burnt, but the rest of the pie was amazing. They didn't scrimp on the mozarella, cooked ham, and mushrooms. When I'm with my more adventurous foodie friends, I'd like to try their signature pizza called Cristina, which has an interesting mix of toppings: mozarella, balsamic, gorgonzola, fig and grapes.

Now, I've mentioned before that I am not a chocolate fan. But I'm more likely to eat chocolate when it's incorporated in another dessert, like a cake. This Chocolate Peanut Butter Bombe has my approval. It's rich, with the right amount of sweetness. A layer of peanut butter is sandwiched between white chocolate mousse and chocolate cake, then encased in chocolate ganache. You'll be licking your dessert forks with this one.

Just like Bob's, Kuppa is a cafe that originated from Bacolod. I wasn't able to pay a visit while I was there, but I'm happy they now have a branch in Manila. It's definitely worth coming back to!

Let me end my post with a shot of this decadence:

Kuppa Roastery & Cafe
31st and 4th
Bonifacio Global City
+632-552-1057

Resto Bites: Sincerity

A couple of months ago, my former office mates and I decided to have a field trip in Binondo to eat at Sincerity, a hole in the wall restaurant famous for their fried chicken.

I first came to know about Sincerity through my Mom, who frequents Divisoria for her garments business. She would sometimes bring a take out order of fried chicken, which is so good even after you've put them in the fridge overnight. The chicken remains tender and flavorful. It's been years since I last ate their chicken.

One Saturday we met up in front of Binondo Church and walked for about ten minutes until we found the restaurant squeezed between other establishments on the busy Yuchengco Street. The interiors are nothing fancy: basic plastic tables and chairs. One wall has mirror panels to make the place look bigger. Above them, there are framed photos and plates signed by celebrities. A small TV screen by the counter plays on loop a Kris TV episode (with Kris Aquino and Kim Chiu) that was shot inside Sincerity.

I found it cute that their serving plates are the ones my relatives had when I was younger--those white and beige ceramic plates with a classic print of a lady and a gentleman. It brought me back to my childhood!

Our orders:

Three half orders of Sincerity Fried Chicken. Like I said, it's great. This is not your fast food chicken. Each part is seasoned well, and the pieces are cut just right. Looking back, I should've ordered some for take-out.

Oyster Cake. This is an acquired taste, one that I'm glad I got. The oysters are removed from their shells, enveloped in scrambled eggs, then it was either baked or fried. All I know for sure is this is a must-try! If you love seafood, then you shouldn't miss ordering this.

Polonchay belongs in the same family as spinach. Tastes like spinach too. We ordered this because of guilt. All our orders were fried and oily! Hehe.

Kikiam. Again, not how your typical kikiam looks like. One order costs P50 pesos, but the serving size is big. And it's yummy!

Sincerity Fried Rice. A Chinese restaurant staple. I think we ordered several extra servings of this.

And because one of my office mates ordered it, I got jealous and ordered a sago't gulaman for myself! Perfect thirst quencher.

We only had to pay P189 each for all our orders (including drinks). That was two hundred pesos well spent, I tell ya. Food is excellent and service is good. They even gave us house tea and complimentary ube ensaymada! If only Sincerity was more accessible, I'd be a staple for sure.

Here's a blurry group photo. Happy smiles and happy tummies!

Sincerity Restaurant & Cafe
497 Yuchengco St., Binondo, Manila
Tel. No. 241-9991/241-9990/241-9972

Sincerity Restaurant & Cafe
G/F Luck Chinatown Mall
Reina Regente St. cor. Dela Reina St., Binondo, Manila

Sincere Restaurant & Cafe
549 Banawe St., Quezon City
Tel No. 711-0212/711-0280

Resto Bites: Maple

I wanted to like Maple. I really did. I chose the restaurant for my despedida lunch with my office friends before I left my former job. Our office was near Shangri-La Plaza, and the recently-opened East Wing promised a lot of new restaurants waiting to be tried. The day before we went there, I saw Christine Dychiao post a photo of their Truffle Omelette Souffle on her Instagram account.

Maple is a modest-sized restaurant with dark wooden furniture, giving off a warm, log cabin vibe. An accent wall has a huge stencil of a Maple tree, with backlighting that emits an amber glow. Their menu reads like a fairy tale book, and they offer traditional and modern American dishes.

Only a couple of tables were taken when we came in (the photos above were taken after our meal), but the restaurant was filled soon after we sat down. The ratio of the servers to the tables weren't quite balanced, we only saw about three servers for more than twelve tables, and they were always out of sight.

Our bad experience started with the dusty water glasses. Ten called the attention of one waitress and told her of our concern. What I noticed was the waitress didn't apologize or seem bothered, she even thought what we were pointing out was a lime pulp, which they serve with their house water. That was fine, we let it pass. Our water glasses were replaced.

We ordered four dishes: Huevos Rancheros, Truffle Omelette Souffle, the Blueberry and Cream Cheese Pancake Tower, and Bourbon Bread Pudding for dessert. Presentation-wise, the souffle looked the best, while the pancake tower left us disappointed. It was lopsided and looked like it was put together hastily.

Huevos Rancheros is a Mexican breakfast dish composed of fried tortilla chips, beans, chicken and cabbage, topped with a sunny-side up egg, cheese, and a special ranchero sauce. We liked this dish, but you have to finish this immediately while it's hot, as the tortilla chips tend to get soggy when left untouched. Think of this as breakfast nachos.

Taste-wise, I also liked the omelette best. I never had an omelette souffle before so the texture of the dish was a welcome surprise. The smell of truffle (or was it truffle oil?) got us hooked. The dish, like most of Maple's offerings, is big enough to share. It is served with slices of garlic bread, but you can also order a side of rice if you want a more filling meal.

Now, remember the sad pancake tower? It turns out, it WAS put together hastily, because after only one bite of those pancakes, I had to stop and check why there was a metallic taste in my mouth. Out came a piece of aluminum foil the size of my thumb nail. Sorry, I was too shocked to think of bringing out my phone so there is no photo. We showed the waiter the piece of aluminum foil, and guess what he said? "Ay galing po yan sa cream cheese (That's from the cream cheese packaging)." As if we didn't realize that. The good thing is he asked us if we wanted the dish to be replaced (of course). The bad thing is he didn't apologize either! He just took my plate and acted like it was an ordinary thing, as if they always find a piece of foil casually mixed in their dishes all the time.

Our second tower of pancakes came and it didn't look any better, only there was no foil anymore.

But it's hard to get past the incident, and after that everything just tasted blah. Even the Bourbon Bread Pudding didn't do anything for me, and I love pudding!

In one of Top Chef's episodes, Chef Tom Colicchio said people come to a restaurant for the food, but they come back because of the service. And this is really what Maple should improve on. It was so hard to call the servers' attention, they were always inside the kitchen. And when we did get their attention, they seemed apathetic to the concerns we were raising. If they don't care about what they are putting out, why should we bother coming back?

Our bill, when split among us three, didn't really hurt our pockets. But I'd rather spend my hard-earned money some place else, one that has great food and even greater service.


MAPLE
L/GL East Wing
Shangri-La Plaza
Mandaluyong City

2/FL San Antonio Plaza Arcade
50 McKinley Road
Forbes Park, Makati City

Home Bites: Banana Bread

I baked my first banana bread from scratch today. I've baked brownies and banana bread before, but I always used boxed mixes. After attending a baking class last month, I found out it wasn't that hard to bake from scratch. But the recipes we did called for an electric mixer, so I was hesitant to try them out at home.

While browsing for recipes online, I came across Panlasang Pinoy, which has a simple recipe for banana bread that didn't require a mixer. He even had a video demo for it.

Last weekend I bought the ingredients and was planning to bake on Sunday night. But my laziness got the best of me so it was put on hold. Then this week, we had an unexpected death in the family. My aunt died of acute appendicitis.

I'm only on my second week at my new job so I'm still adjusting. It's been sad and stressful so I decided to make use of the holiday to bake the bad vibes away!

Here's the Banana Bread recipe from Panlasang Pinoy:

1 cup banana, mashed (I used five small lakatan bananas)
1 cup sugar (I used Muscovado)
2 pieces raw eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda

I mixed the dry ingredients first: flour, sugar, salt and baking soda. Then I added the wet ingredients: eggs, mashed bananas, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. I whisked everything together to form a batter. I made sure there were no large banana chunks. I transferred the batter to a greased 9" x 5" x 2.5" loaf pan.

My oven uses Celcius so I preheated it at 170 degrees (350 degrees Farenheit). I set the timer for an hour and watched Kell on Earth on my laptop.

Tick tock tick tock.

The smell of baking banana bread wafted around my small studio. I had to stop watching my TV show for a second and just indulge in that comforting smell. The combination of banana and vanilla smells amazing. I couldn't wait to see the finished product.

Ta-dah!

The edges were a bit burned but other than that, I think I did well. I give myself 3/5 stars hehe. The bread came out darker because of the Muscovado, but it was moist and soft. It reminded me of the banana bread from Edsa Shangri-La's The Bakeshop (not the taste, okay, just the appearance hehe). My uncle used to be their head of security and he would always buy me a loaf. This has been one of my favorite comfort foods (along with Good Shepherd's ube jam, Heat's pudding, and mac & cheese).

Maybe next time I'll add some walnuts and use white sugar, just to see the difference. This is a really easy recipe, perfect for a beginner like me. I can't wait to bake some more!

P.S. If you have tips on how not to burn the edges, please hit the comment section. Should I adjust my tray in the oven?

UPDATE: 

My second and third batches were much better! I added walnuts, used white sugar instead of Muscovado, and used rock salt instead of iodized salt. I also found out that the reason the edges were burnt because I used butter to grease my pan which is a no-no! Here are photos of my second try:

Everyone liked it! Jay, my officemates, my sister-in-law, even my Mom! I'm so happy. :)

Home Bites: It's Congelada!

As much as I love eating, I don't really have the traditional sweet tooth most people have. I don't love chocolates. An uneaten bar can stay inside my fridge until it's expiration date and I wouldn't even notice (it's happened a lot of times). I'm more of a savory/main course type of girl. Desserts won't usually come first with me.

But there are still days when I am craving for something sweet, and the usual store-bought ice cream just won't cut it.

My friend Denise Martinez asked me to try her home made ice cream and sorbets. Denise is a teacher who loves to tinker in the kitchen on her spare time. Early this year, Congelada was born.

Congelada means "frozen" in Portuguese. Denise, a linguist, went on an exchange program in Brazil in 2009.

Denise makes all her ice cream and sorbets from scratch. Here are the available flavors:

photo from @itscongelada on Instagram

Congelada is based in the South, but there are pick-up points for clients in the North. Denise and I met at Power Plant one Saturday for my Congelada tubs.

I ordered one ice cream flavor (Caramel) and one sorbet flavor (Zesty Chamomile Crisps). They came in these white tubs and gold gift boxes with two plastic teaspoons. Sorbets are best eaten immdiately, while you can store your ice creams in the freezer.

The Zesty Chamomile Crisps is perfect for cooling down on a hot afternoon. It has the right amount of sweet and zest, with crunchy waffle chips. It's surprising how they stay crispy even when soaked in the sorbet. I couldn't finish the whole tub in one sitting, so I placed it in the freezer. When I ate it again, it retained its flavor and wasn't watered-down. You can be sure Congelada doesn't scrimp on ingredients.

Surprise crisps in every bite!

My favorite is the Caramel ice cream. I love the salty-sweet combination, my kind of sweet. Because it's home made, don't expect ice cream quality from the store. But what it lacks in form it makes up for in flavor. Each spoonful gives you a rich, decadent caramel taste. I finished the entire tub in one sitting! Yes, I'm not even embarrassed about it, haha. I wasn't even able to take a photo!

Denise tries to come up with new flavors regularly. The Speculoos Cookie Butter craze gave birth to Cracker Butter. She also made Cashew Nangka as a special order.

This week, Congelada offered its latest flavor, Pink Velvet Ice Cream:

photo from @itscongelada on Instagram

I still can't decide which flavors to order next, but I'm choosing between Cake Batter and Cracker Butter. I'd probably end up getting both! Each tub costs P245. :)

You can send you orders and inquiries to +09178421986 or follow them on Instagram. The photos and texts are always pretty, it would definitely brighten your IG feed!