Journal # 5: Violet Cupcakes

I am obsessed with mastering the art of decorating cupcakes. It took me a while to figure out how to use the different tips that were available to me.

With the vanilla cupcakes I had on hand, this is what I ended up making, the Violet swirls and designs! Flowers and swirls are generally the easiest designs anyone could do! I think I did fairly well. Did I?

Pretty pansy!

Isn't the pansy beautiful? This was the result of my third try. It was really difficult for me. LOL But I never gave up! I still have to work on it though. 

I first piped a plain swirl then I added the pansy. I made 5 petals and then I added 1 silver ball instead of piping another color. I didn't have enough bags to have another color of frosting to be piped up.

After doing this, I thought of swirling/tinting my plain white frosting with the violet one and so I did. I first did the swirls, they turned out beautifully too! FYI, violet is my favorite color. So anything that has the color violet is beautiful for me. haha

I will not give up! I will learn new tricks to improve our business and share with everyone the good this brings! :)

Christmas is in the air and I'm really excited about baking the orders that have been lined up already! Thanks for the support! 

BTW, the foodnetwork.com's Vanilla Cupcakes are awesome! :) You guys should try them out. Get their app on your iPhone, iPad or iTouch too! It would be a great help to you! 

It's like a flower garden!

 

Violets

Journal #4: The Burger Queen

Read the title again with a Darth Vader voice. I think it's creepy sounding. HAHA

Anyway, about 2 days before our cousin, Gaile, left for CdO, I decided to make burger patties! I used the recipe in BBC. I forgot the title and link (maybe find it and attach later) but it was easy and delicious! A very easy recipe for a burger that you could easily alter to suit you and your family's tastes!

Mixy, mixy, mixy!

It only requires ground beef, eggs, flour, seasonings, bbq sauce, garlic, onions, and a little tomato sauce. I think that's about it! :) You just mix them all together by hand or by a wooden spoon. I did mine by hand. It was a bit icky. It'll turn out like this.

I don't remember the exact measurements but you only need about 1/2 kg. of ground pork or beef. For my burger patties, I used pork since we didn't have any beef around. Make sure you taste a little portion (cooked) of it. To ensure that it tastes awesome!

The lonely patty!

After mixing tutti ingredienti, I shaped my patties into flat circles. Again, You can do this by hand or by use of a spatula. I only made 3 circles then because there were only 3 of us in the house that time. I want my patties freshly cooked in every meal. 

I didn't think burger patties were so easy to make. I had fun making them. I'm getting hungry just thinking about making them last time. HAHA.

So, by this time, the grill that you will be using should already be preheated and sprayed/brushed with a little oil. The directions in the recipe claimed that I should fry it. But to make it less fatty and healthier I decided to grill them, less oil is better! :)

I used some flat silicone spatulas (the ones at the back of the uncooked patty)to transfer the patties and used them for cooking too! They made all of it easy! 

1, 2, 3, 4, don't put them in the fire that long!

Based on this picture, you can see how lovely and delicious looking they turned out to be!

The only problem with mine was, it was a tad salty. So be careful with how much spice you put in. I also added some secret ingredients to further suit our taste. :)

Cooking time wasn't specified at the recipe, so I suggest for Pork Patties: 3-4 minutes on each side, medium fire. Beef Patties: 4-5 minutes, medium fire. You should always check the patties after 1 minute, you don't want them burnt.

That is so delish!

I like my burger simple, so my sisters and cousin sliced some onions and tomatoes, prepared some fresh lettuce and sliced cheese. My favorite dressings are Mayonnaise and Mustard plus some pickle relish. My cousin, Gaile, cooked some fries for the side too. It was awesome!

I'd cook it again some time! I had some left over patties and I freezed them. Oh and I added lots of garlic and onions to the patty mixture, I love those flavors on my burger! 

Eat away! 


Signed, 

The Burger Queen
Ice :)

Journal #3: Basic Dinner Rolls

I was highly interested in making dinner rolls or bread but I had a problem: all the supermarkets around my area don't have ACTIVE DRY YEAST. So, all that I could buy was INSTANT DRY YEAST. 

The Back story:
My sister has been trying for quite some time now in making soft bread. Every single time she tried, she ends up non-rising bread. We still bake them and they end up as a good pizza crust. I realized then that something else may be wrong.

I, then, searched for recipes online for dinner rolls. I tried to find the easiest ones and so I did. I then began making the bread and followed the instructions very carefully. The part where I had to let my batter sit out to rise or double in size did not happen! I was really frustrated. I did not know what went wrong. So then I read the recipe again. Checked my ingredients if they were still good. Then, I read the label for my yeast. It says "Instant Dry Yeast", I looked at the recipe and it said "Active Dry Yeast."

*FacePalm*

I finally figured out what went wrong. My tip to you new bakers would be to make sure the ingredients that are asked would be the ones you would use, just to avoid disasters. LOL And that you'd READ the entire recipe first before doing it. Make sure you understand what you have to do.

So yeah, I changed the recipe that I was using and searched for recipes that called for the use of Instant Dry yeast. And I found the one called "Perfect Basic Dinner Rolls" by StressBake7 from Yummly.com.

The recipe was very easy and I tried it. My Rolls turned out really great! Although I did some minor alterations by adding herbs to my dough, more flavor for the bread itself etc. 

Oops, where'd the other pesto roll go? *burp*

 The first alteration I did was adding freshly made pesto to the rolled out bread. I baked it at 360 Farenheit for about 15 minutes. It had a good color and aroma. 

You may also use ready made pesto that's available on any store. :)

It tasted really fresh and good. Oh, and before I forget, I reduced the amount of salt in the recipe coz' I found it a bit too salty. 

Eat me! Pestolicioius!

 Based on the picture on the left, You can see that my rolls weren't sealed. I forgot to add water to the side to seal it. LOL. So, to avoid that next time, I plan to re-check every step that I do.

That's really good bread!

The second alteration I did was add some sesame seeds on the bread. At first, without thinking, I placed the sesame seeds on top right after I floured the dough, this is wrong. The sesame seeds fell coz' it had nothing to stick to. So, on the next try, add the sesame seeds on top before flouring the dough and shaping it. Or maybe butter could help. If you forget to add the sesame before you flour, you could finish all the steps first then just butter the top then put the sesame seeds on 'em.

The baking time for these regular rolls are 17minutes. A little more and the bottoms would turn black.

Hmm. Chocolate Bread.

The final alteration I did was add chocolate chips in the dough. Who doesn't love chocolate on their bread, right? I loved it! I added about 6-7 large chip in the middle then sealed the bread. When I tasted it, It seemed that the chocolate was too little. I guess next time I'd add more for more flavor. 

I baked these for 17 minutes too. Their sizes were the same as the the regular rolls. 

 So yeah, here are the products of my perseverance and creativity-ish. I'm not really good at conceptualizing things and creating one-of-a-kind dishes. I'm here to deal with what I have in the kitchen and produce what I think would be best for everybody. :)

I just love baking food, don't you feel the same way?