Kitchen Adventures: Birthday Cake from scratch!!

My Niece who's in 2nd year of highschool had her birthday last March 23. I wanted to give her something really special so I decided to bake her a cake. I have baked cakes before but that was soooo long ago and I used store-bought icing and candies back then. This time around, I wanted to make everything from scratch. I already had the type of cake in mind which is a new recipe-Strawberry carrot cake. I basically came up with this one because we had this jar of strawberry jam sitting inside the ref that nobody cared to touch so I decided to make something out of it so it won't go to waste ( I also have this knack for creating something out of what ingredients are available around the house this is due to watching door knock dinners on the food channel when I was young...familiar with this show? :D). I made that as my cake base and decided I'd do a special icing  I came up with just recently, again utilizing what ingredient is available. I have come up with a cream cheese icing dupe that is actually much more affordable. Now, I don't want to dwell on measurements in this post, because sometimes my experiments were made out of gut feelings meaning, I don't measure I just mix, mix, mix...haha! Making the icing was somewhat of a challenge also because I don't have a mixer. I incorporated air by mixing by hand( it's all in the wrist baby!! :D). Since my niece likes the color pink the cake has to be the same color. Initially I planned to just frost the whole thing and pipe in the borders but then I noticed the cake was crooked so I just decided to pipe icing on the whole thing. Well, the project did not disappoint me. Here's what the cake looked like (drumroll please...):

  

I forgot to tell you, this is just a mini cake I'm not yet that ambitious *wink. Now, problem is, I have no box to put this in! Guess I'd just have to come up with something.. :D

Kitchen Adventures: Peanut Butter-Cinnamon Empanadas!!

Hi Readers! (or reader..haha!) As you know, being the curious cat that I am, my interests does not only focus on beauty alone. I am also fond of doing little experiments in the kitchen. This is primarily due to the influence of my mom who used to make ME her little helper around the kitchen. Everytime she would try her new concoctions, she would call me to her side and teach me every trick up her sleeve. I did enjoy those bonding moments with my mom and I'd like to thank her for instilling it upon me. Aside from my mom, I'd like to thank my other mentors: Alton Brown, Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, and all the other chefs from my favorite cable channel-The Food Network. :D I basically became more interested in cooking because of these guys.

Anyways, before I even began cooking savory dishes, I have been pretty much into baking. I always find the smell of freshly baked breads comforting and calming. I like how you could already make many things with just a kilo of flour, sugar, yeast, eggs, and milk. My mind is always busy formulating new recipes...what could I do with this, what would happen if I mix this and that together...you know, those things.

As I also love peanut butter (I literally would eat it out of the jar like winnie the pooh but with a spoon and underpants..haha..) and cinnamon, I tried making something out of nothing. I was craving for some snacks the other day but could not find anything to munch on so, I decided to make these from scratch since I have some flour and some butter on hand.

So what I did first is to make a basic pie crust dough (so many recipes on the internet on this). I took a cup of flour and incorporated some chilled butter until it develops a coarse consistency. Then I added some cold water to help them stick together and then form it into a big ball. I wrapped it in cling wrap and let it rest inside the fridge. After atleast 30 minutes, I took it out, knead it and rolled it out flat and cut out circles big enough to house as much peanut butter you want, in my case, a big one!! I then put in the peanut butter, sprinkled some cinnamon and turned the dough over. Sealed the edges of the empanada and then sprinkled some sesame seeds on top.  I popped it inside the oven and baked it for like 30 minutes. And here's what it looked like after..



Of course I put some garnishes to make it more appealing to your eyes.. :D





And Here's what it looks like cut in half. just to show you the peanut butter filling..YUM!

This is a simple snack you could do at home. You can even make batches of the pie crust dough ahead of time and just stick it in the freezer for future use! Make different empanadas with different fillings whichever do you fancy. :D

So Have you also experimented in the kitchen lately? I'd like to know! :D