#283_Birthday Cake for a Dear Friend

Happy Birthday, aling Leyte!!

My friend, Erlinda cutting her Mom's birthday cake

Top tier cake has 3 layers of Banana Chocolate Cake, each layer
is filled with Cream cheese Frosting.
The bottom tier is a 2-layer Carrot Cake, also filled with Cream Cheese Frosting.
The whole cake is crumb-coated with the same frosting.

More pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=10150123397034578&id=102145934577&aid=295903#!/album.php?fbid=10150124902699578&id=102145934577&aid=296488

#282_Mom-Daughter Birthday Cake

"Two for One Cake"
A dear friend, Nieves and her daughter were
celebrating their birthdays on the same day,
so I made this cake for both of them with "fence" as a partition.


On this side of the fence is for 3-year old Eya

On the other side of the fence is her mom's cake.

The cupcakes are Chocolate Banana Cake,
(extra from making the cakes)
frosted with Buttercream Frosting

The flowers I used on the cake are the sugar flowers
which I learned to make from Youtube.
(see previous post)
The cake is a 10-inch 2 layer Banana Chocolate Cake,
frosted with Cream Cheese Frosting,
while the picket fence is made of melting chocolates,
melted then cut out.

My friends, Stella and Yaye posed with the cake at the birthday party.

More pictures here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/PinoyAmericanFavoriteRecipes/102145934577?ref=nf#!/album.php?fbid=10150123397034578&id=102145934577&aid=295903

#281_Sugar Flowers for Decorating Cakes

I took the Basic Wilton Cake Decorating Course (course 1)
but that was it...."basic decorating", but an essential course.
This rosettes design will be on Course 2 which I will have yet to take.

Two weeks ago I wanted to make these flowers to decorate
2 birthday cakes that I was making
for friends who were celebrating birthdays,
so I watched this step-by-step flower making video on
YouTube where I learned to make them.
It takes some practice and a lot of patience,
but it was a lot of fun making them.

To those who are interested in making this sugar flower design,
let me share the link with you:

.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7gvetgdNnw&feature=related

#280_Tinolang Manok (Chicken Stew)

Chicken Tinola with Chayote and Chili Pepper Leaves

One ingredient that makes this dish so distinctive is ginger.
Gotta have ginger in this dish or it is not Tinola.

This is a very popular dish in the Philippines and I believe every body knows how to make it,

so I'm not going to bother to write down the recipe. The only thing that I want to share is a technique that I learned from my mother.

In order to have that good tasting broth and chicken as well, my dear mother advised that patience is the key when working with meat...be it chicken, pork or beef. I used to use the quick method which is: saute the meat quickly then add water right away. She said that's a "no-no", don't rush it. My mother would cook this dish twice as long as I would like to, but she is right, her dish comes out tasting delicious all the time because she lets the salt penetrates into the meat.

Her secret is to "saute the meat really well" on medium low fire stirring frequently, click here.
To "saute real well" is to saute in the garlic then onions in hot oil, cook the onions until translucent then add the meat, in this case the chicken, then saute until the chicken renders its own fat. This would take around 20 minutes just sauteing the chicken, and then she would add some salt. More stirring to avoid scorching. Add a little water or broth, and a piece of ginger, cover the pan, simmer, hum, hum, stir, stir, one hand on the hip, add a little more water, cover the pan, simmer...then the final liquid is added. Hindi pa tapos.... put lid back on, simmer some more, check the saltiness. Put the veggies in and cook til they are done, in this case the Chayote in first then the Spinach or Sili Leaves.

FINALLY DONE! TIME TO EAT!!

Tinola with Chayote, Spinach and Enoki Mushrooms