M&M's Cupcakes

M&M's are my mom's favorite chocolate candies to keep in her bag. My little nieces and nephew love eating them and its size make it just right on their little hands. Five-year-old Javi would get the whole bag and Bella at 3 could just about finish her own share, while 1 year old Jaden only gets to nibble on the candy shell as grandma holds it.

Surely, these cupcakes would have appealed to them as much as it did to the celebrant, whose name is, of course, MM.

-From the kitchen of Carla & Elaine-

During the time when I was just learning how to make flowers, hydrangeas was one of the first I learned. Its 4-petal structure makes it naturally easy to do, making it ideal to do ahead of time and just stick to anything that needs a decor. I remember doing hundreds in one sitting during one crunch time that I was running behind schedule. Sticking a piece of hydrangea on a cupcake immediately makes the cupcake look daintier and more sophisticated. Alternatively, using it as a filler creates a bountiful look to a cake, as in the case pictured above.

These mini cakes were souvenirs for a small gathering. A red orange fondant is used to cover the carrot cakes filled with cream cheese.

A CUPCAKE CAKE

My niece, Jaden, celebrated her 1st birthday last June 7. During the planning stage, my sister D decided to have a cupcake theme for her and while we thought it was perfect for a first birthday, we wanted it a little bit different, something never done before and yet still kiddie-like. We knew that we didn't want to make a cupcake tree, so we came up with what we thought is the perfect cake : a HUGE cupcake cake.

The cake exactly matched the party invites and stage (see it in the back??), from the white icing with colored sprinkles to the brown striped paper cup. It was such a fun cake to do, garnering a lot of "aww" along the production stage.

In keeping with the theme, we made cupcake centerpieces in lieu of the balloons/candies normally used and these served as souvenirs for the guests to immediately enjoy or take home. We used chocolate cake for the cupcakes and iced them with colorful marshmallow icing plus more candy sprinkles!

Incidentally, Bee's niece celebrated her 2nd birthday on the month of June, too. We made another version of the cupcake cake, more colorful this time and topped a little cherry on it. I especially like the plum colored cake board, reminds me of our new box!

Valentine Cupcakes

Classic Devil's Food Valentince Cupcakes , availablefrom Feb1 -14 only! 

Today marks the 2nd monthsary of Carla and Elaine's! and my 1st blog eversince we opened.

We also made heart-shaped Decadence Cake and heart butter cookies to help you express your love to just about anybody!  

Personally, I think there's no better way to celebrate the month of love than with something deliriously sweet to share.

Magnolia Bakery

Cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery were every bit as good as their popularity claim them to be. I was surprised to realize that they only have 2 staples, the vanilla and chocolate; the difference was all in the icing. Other cupcake flavors, as I understood in their website, were all made to order with a minimum number of pieces. The icing on both cupcakes and probabaly in most of their other cupcakes were made from the confectioner's sugar-butter combination that almost all cupcakes are sporting, but the chocolate icing, which I liked best, had a bitter tone to it that married well with the soft, slightly bitter chocolate cupcake.

vanilla cupcake

The vanilla cupcake, on the other hand, is a purist's dream of a vanilla in a cake. It has that taste which reminded me of something old...not in a bad way, of course; it's almost as if I've tasted it way back when I was very, very young.

Magnolia Bakery's mini cheesecake

How satisfyingly good the cupcakes were only made the cheesecake disappoint in comparison. It is a baked cheesecake with all the tanginess appropriate to it, but there's also a gelatin like mouthfeel to it that seemed odd. The vanilla beans were visible enough to encourage more bites even when its graham crust was all but blown away for it's crumbliness.


Magnolia Bakery and Millie's Cookies

Now, one of the best things one can bring home as pasalubong (gift/ tokerns) are cookies. They're easy to carry, keeps well and aren't so sensitive to temperature. Almost with any chance I get, I ask for cookies from Millie's, particularly the Gingerbread cookie. It is hands-down the best gingerbread cookie for me. It is chewy, dark and brooding with spices. It is to me what chocolate chip cookies are for most people. But unfortunately, they stopped making them, for whatever reason I cannot imagine. My sister, A, got me 7 varieties which made me realize that they all taste the same save for the chocolate/fruit/flavoring used. Huh. Now, come to think of it, they look quite the same, too: thin, oversized and square-ish. Cute. The Toffee Cookie had pockmarks where the toffee candy melted, making the cookie chewier, but sweeter, too. The chocolate chip cookie was chewy and interesting enough even if the chocolate chunks were few and due to its size, far in-between. It's a cookie you'd want to nibble on until you get to the chocolate part again!

Magnolia Bakery's Oatmeal Cookie

Magnolia's cookies sport the chunky, rotund look that's very much an image of bakery-style cookies; but, they don't have the mass-produced taste I almost expected. The cinnamon in the oatmeal cookie was very evident and fared better in fragrance than what I'm accustomed to. So, this cookie was the favorite among all. The chocolate chip cookie has chocolate chunks that are bittersweet and considerably a lot, which offsets the lack of flavor in the dough. I prefer a more pronounced vanilla taste and smell in the dough.

Another great surprise of a dessert is the Banana Pudding (comes in 8 and 16oz take-out cups) from the Magnolia Bakery. It is like an icebox cake, only unbelievably creamier. It has banana slices and cake wedges lodged between waves of banana cream. It is such a revelation to eat, especially since the desciption sinisterly rich is usually reserved for chocolate desserts, but this banana pudding fits the bill. It's truly a must-try-- even over the cupcakes. A lady I met once recalled trying the pudding and it was a pleasant surprise to hear someone gush over it with as much conviction and passion as I do. I eat it straight fromthe cup, it's like having the satisfaction of eating ice cream but without having to wait for it to melt in your mouth. YUM-MY.

Almond Toffee Cake

Early this year, I remember feeling that time is dramatically slow. It was pleasant in a way that I didn't wonder where the days went. On the other hand, if there was to be a perfectly good example to the saying "time flies" in my life, this year would be it.

Frozen Royal Sansrival

For starters, this blog has not been updated. Regardless of the many instances that I would have loved to write about. Has it been that long? 6 months? Where was the entry about the new place, The Stockmarket, at Bonifacio High Street? or how about the nice dinner I had at Katre? And more importantly, where was my brother's wedding day and his wedding cake that my sister, Carla, created for him? Well, they all flew. But stuck to my memory. And this is no the first time I'm thankful for that one part of our brain that is designed to hold memories.

One of the best things I've lost my time into is planning for Cosmo Bread's first ever store, newly christened Carla & Elaine's, for my sister-partner, Carla, and I. One day I was just dreaming about it with a great deal of time perfecting it. But just as there is a right time for everything, there is also a time for realization- that it is, in fact, the right place at the right time. Now, everything's going faster, flashing brighter, days seem to be shorter. I've enjoyed scouring flea markets, antique shops and department stores for the cheeriest little flower pots, the loveliest photo frame, the home-iest cookie jar; it was imperative that I have the right plastic bag, the right wooden board and the right wall color. The many taste tests (still on-going as of this writing!) on our sunday lunches has almost become a ritual, with family and friends asking for "what's next?". The homemaker (gee, that sounded maternal) in me on total alert mode, churning out desserts in various forms and sizes. So, you should know that our new collection is a family affair and everybody contributed a lot, even just to tell me how wearing an apron suits me! hehe. Original Peppermint Bars

Carla & Elaine's is opening real soon! And I'm looking forward to seeing and meeting our old and new clients! We have cakes, gourmet cookies, pound cakes as well as souvenir ideas, wedding and other themed cakes. Our online shop will be available soon at CarlaandElaines.com, so watch out for that, as I'm sure you will enjoy shopping online! In the mean time, our old websites Cosmo Bread and CakesbyCarla are still accessible.

See you!



Cheers,

Elaine

Bridal Expo at SMX

This is the first time we set up a booth in SMX and well, it's a big place, all right; the walkways weren't crowded and they have more than one section of washrooms, which is really great because there were a LOT of people.

One thing that I wasn't too happy about was when I got to our booth the next day (Sunday), most of the butter cookies I displayed got lost. Tsk..tsk.. a lot of itchy hands, I say.

Please see our album to see more photos of our booth and the products we displayed!

Celebrations at SMX

C's Birthday Dinner Date at Aubergine

The first time I heard that ISCAHM was opening a fine-dining restaurant, I remember feeling ecstatic with the idea! I got step-by-step progress report from one of my best friends, D, who works as Chef Ernie's (Babaran) assistant; an enviable job, I know, and I do constantly tell her that-- to work with one of the country's finest pastry chef, learn first hand how he sculpts sugar and make the fanciest desserts was definitely worth the long hours she sometimes whines about. And now, I'm happy to say that she is one of the chefs handling the dessert section in Aubergine Restaurant Patisserie and still maintains her role as Chef Ernie's assistant at school.

I remember when I first enrolled myself in the Fundamentals in Bread Making course (and later Fundamentals in Pastry Arts) in ISCAHM, there were only 14 of us in the class. The class was pretty relaxed and whenever it's time to share the products we baked, we simply grabbed our own share-- there was always so much for everyone. But now, I heard that classes are always full and students have to line up first to ensure a fair share.

I've heard mixed reviews about Aubergine that spiked my interest more, if that was even possible as I've become impervious to comments or critics, if you may. I chose the perfect night to have dinner in Aubergine and it was on the night before C's birthday. (and also after spending long nights watching reruns of Hell's Kitchen, I'm determined to go eat some fine risotto; they always serve risotto, yes?)

Ensconced at the 2nd floor of the 32nd and 5th Building at The Fort, Aubergine (which translates to eggplant) sits on an impressive space. Its floor-to-ceiling glass wall gives a glimpse of a well-interiored restaurant. Rows and rows of fine wine greets you as you enter, followed by a chiller full of artistically designed cakes and colorful macarons.

Wild Mushroom Soup

C got the Sea Bass and I ordered the Grilled Chicken with Foie Gras on top of the Wild Mushroom Soup and Sauteed Scallops & Prawns we ordered for our appetizer. As the waiter brought us the bread basket, I can see Chef Hans (Schallenberg; director of ISCAHM and Aubergine) roaming around, checking on each table-- talk about quality control up close and personal. It's a good thing, of course, as any new restaurant as upscale as Aubergine needs a personal touch of some sort.

Sauteed Scallops and Prawns

Our Wild Mushroom Soup with Truffle Foam (P260) arrested my sense of being. I love mushrooms and I HEART truffle oil. It was smooth... and rich... but not cloyingly. There was the essence of mushroom that I can just imagine took some real good time to capture. C loved it, too, and it was especially good with chunks of bread as C and I are wont to do every time we order soup. Next came the tower of Sauteed Scallops and Prawns (P680). It has a mild curry flavor that I didn't expect would go so well with the scallops. There were sesame brittles and melon balls that offered sweetness to balance off the citrus dressing of the fresh greens. The art of piling all the flavors in one bite added excitement and a fun side to the eating experience.

Grilled Chilean Sea Bass

Soon our main entree came along with "pepper, sir?" and it was impressively done so with a lighted automatic pepper grinder, cute! C's sea bass had a tomato fondue bouillabaise froth and it clearly complimented the grilled sea bass with its slightly salted, succulent flesh. I also appreciate how it was not too greasy as some bouillabaise can be.
Oven Roasted Chicken Breast with Seared Foie Gras

My grilled chicken was tender with just the right touch of bite to it. I liked how it was not dry, even on the breast part. At first glance, it seemed like an upgraded Cordon Bleu. While at some aspect they may be similar, this one doesn't have the ham to spoil it. The mildness of the ricotta cheese and even its grittiness on the palate gives a creamy taste that's direct and a comfort to eat, while the accompanying balsamic reduction gave a mildly sour undertone that added dimension to the taste. And my vegetables were perfect; they were crunchy, sweet and fresh. The rice was a bit on the undercooked side, though, but I've always loved a little bite to everything I eat. They can probably cook it longer if you find it not to your liking.

As we were both too stuffed to even consider ordering desserts, we nibbled on complimentary macarons. They were delish! I love macarons, but sometimes I find them too sweet. Aubergine's macarons differ from other macarons in that they contain more nuts, so it kind of takes your mind off the sweet part.

C is now 26 years old, hurrah!


Aubergine Restaurant

32nd and 5th Building
5th Avenue cor. 32nd Street
Fort Bonifacio 1634 Taguig
Philippines
Tel. # : (632) 856-9888