DIY: Cake Flour Substitute

Are you planning to make some cakes ahead of time before an important event yet cake flour's not even available in your pantry? Oh my! You're in trouble dude! (Ok, just kidding! :P)

Cake flour is also called soft or weak flour. It contains 7-9% protein which is perfect for cakes cause it is sleek and smooth. While AP (all purpose) flour or pastry flour has 10-11% protein and more compacted and denser.

I would highly recommend that one should stick with whatever type of flour the recipe calls for. If it's AP flour, use AP flour, if bread flour, use bread flour to avoid messing up with the recipe itself. Yes it happens, some time.

But if you're really in a hurry, you need not to bug anyone cause not no way, not no how, here's an easy tutorial on how to make cake flour in no time right inside your house.

DIY: Sour Cream Substitute

Who loves eating yogurt? Not frozen or flavored yogurt but plain yogurt alone. Perhaps it's a na-ah cause it's sour (unless you're a Thai). But did you know that yogurt can be used as pizza condiment? Yes, it's a sour cream substitute! If you're a pizza lover like me, you'll dig what I mean.

So today I'll show you how to make sour cream using plain yogurt! :)


LET'S GET STARTED!

Please Help!

Hi guys! Sorry for being MIA for a couple of days. As mentioned on my previous posts, I'll be away for a week or two cause I wanna enjoy the rest of my vacation.

I'd like to thank the one who commented on a previous post of mine about ice cream. I'd be more happy I'f you showed up your identity cause I am forever open for criticisms. So I apologize if you sometimes saw some grammatical errors and misspelling of words.

BTw, I'd like to seek some help from you my fellow bloggers and friends. This will not consume your three (3) minutes or four. I joined Yellow Cab's contest and it requires some votes and shares.

FIRST, LIKE https://www.facebook.com/YellowCabPizzaOfficial, THEN OPEN THE "GREAT TIMES WITH YELLOW CAB" TAB BESIDE TWITTER, CLICK ON THE GALLERY, OPEN 6TH PAGE AND VOTE FOR MY ENTRY NAMED, JUBILEE MACATANGAY.

Help me win guys and thanks a bunch! :)

Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe and Tutorial

Tatay and Mameh celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary last Monday and one of our viands was my favorite schnitzel dish which was named Cordon Bleu (French term for Blue Ribbon).


This dish was commonly served at weddings, hoping that it's not just me who noticed that. Okay, enough with my nonsense blabs.

ABP: Gloomy Week and Too Personal

Post Mood: Depressed (YBW!)

 
Bokeh here, bokeh there, bokeh everywhere. :( This wasn't an appropriate introduction though but I really can't help myself but rant about my Mom's camera, my precious instrument for this cyber space of mine, you know. :(

Included in my previous post, this Samsung L100 loses control and not functioning quite well. Just like our old Casio Exilim EX-S10, its lenses crashed and all it gave us were bright stripe photos. Too much exposure for the first cam plus out of focus for the second one is equals to... sucked big time and made me totally insane! :(

Good thing before the camera totally screwed up, I'd be able to document the project I am with. Done with my second batch of French Macarons (see my first batch here), and still, unsatisfied. And with such dismay, I consumed everything grievously. I just wish Eugenie will come to rescue me and help me get this cute little babies right. Might caused her recipes some sort of humiliation cause I absolutely did chronological mistakes.


Unlike my previous macarons, this batch don't have feet, nothing at all. How can I blame the oven if it didn't get the temperature correctly? This is definitely what I expected for. Two trials and still a failure. I guess I need to stop making this fragile biscuits and stick to my cupcakes and like recipes. -_-  That crumby something on the bases, you won, I gave up! I'll definitely not push anything for this again, like ever! Huhu.

Apparently, I still need to wait for another oh-so-apathetic week before we head to Bulacan. If only I can travel alone and leave my full of procrastination life for a while, I did. Sister insisted me to wait cause she'll finish her classes till Friday, so what can I do? It's more important than any other picky pleasures I want.

Ecstatic part: Tomorrow's gonna be a big day for Tatay and Mameh. What's on my list? (it's more economical to cook than eat outside, I actually don't mind the pressure, it's their 26th Wedding Anniversary!)

• pizza: gonna make 2 big pan pizzas in the morning, then heat them up for dinner
• cordon bleu: 3 chicken breasts will complete the dish, hoping I'd be able to post a tutorial too
• tuna spaghetti in white sauce: love this cause so easy to make, requires only 3 main ingredients, wow!
• lychee jellies: flavored jellos and a can of lychee in syrup will do
• ice cream: can't wait to try Magnolia's Best of the Philippines themed ice cream!
• cake: no I'll not bake, my friend handed me 2h Red Ribbon gift checks before

That's it for tonight, I assume. Despite of everything, I still pray for a great week ahead, for you, for me and for everyone. Adios!

DIY: How To Make Icing Sugar

Hola amigos/as! Como Estas? Lelz! Trying if I still know Spanish greetings but I guess, most of the words I've learned were almost forgotten by my rotten mind. -_-

BTW, just sent my cousin some chocolate chip cookies I made last night and my Aunt showed me this picture showing how happy he was. He helped me in mixing batter and stuffs. ^_^

Seon Angelo

Kudos to the experience I've got from my five (5) years college life, I'd be able to humbly share some recipes, tutorials and DIYs with you guys. ^_^ But before we proceed, here's a little info about this strange stuff here. Icing sugar is very fine form of sugar and used for icing (obviously), dusting cakes, biscuits and other pastries. Oops! Don't get confused with caster sugar or baker's sugar! Ever heard of Peotraco, it's most popular brand here in PH. So if your recipe requires this powdered sugar in your precious cookies/cupcake masterpiece but not even available in your pantry or you're not in the mood to visit the grocery store, here's an easy peasy tutorial on how to make this very fine baking necessity.

Chewy Cinnamon Raisin Cookies Recipe and Tutorial

Nope, this isn't an oatmeal cookie. Why complicate if you can serve your family a simple yet delectable dish this rainy season, right? (What?!) It just rained once then I've declared it's rainy season already. (I do enjoy baking ^_^) :P So without further ado, let's proceed!

Simple and Basic Cream Puff Recipe and Tutorial

Bonjour! Greeting in French all of a sudden? Why? (why not?) Cause I'll be sharing a French delicacy named cream puff today. *throws confetti* It is a light puffy pastry ball that is filled with either custard cream or whipped cream.

Sadly, I made my very first cream puff three (3) years ago at our university lab and it turned out like a golf ball soaked in a melted iron and then thrown to the fridge. Just imagine how hard was that. -_- I can't remember what went wrong but all I know was I got a failing grade and haven't passed my NCII assessment because of such mess. *sob*

But for now, I guess I succeeded on my second attempt so I'll be sharing it with you guys! *applause*

Versatile Blogger Award

I know I know, this post is kinda late but still, better late than never. Hehe. I'd love to acknowledge two pretty ladies who granted me this award, Aian and Trish, thanks a bunch for trusting this blog.

from Sis Aian

from Sis Trish

Rules:
Thank the person who gave you this award.
Include a link to their blog.
Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you've recently discovered or follow regularly.
Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award, leave a link to their page and a comment on their latest post to let them know they've been nominated.
Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

Of course I made my own version. A badge you can proudly place on your blog's sidebar, or not, it's up to you. :P So at this juncture, I'd like to award this VBA to those awesome people I've met here in blogosphere, in random order. You'll decide if you'll link me or not ^^, it doesn't matter anyway, just saying. :P

Le Myxilog Version

<img src='http://i.imgur.com/is3o2L6.jpg'>
1. Ate Michy
2. Ay-Mi
3. Senyor Iskwater
4. Fiel
5. Nathalie
6. Athena
7. Ate Ile
8. Bee
9. Yvancka
10. Ate Vee

Apologizing if I have to cut the awardees from 15 to 10, just love being exact.

Seven Things about myself.
1. I'm noob with beauty products.
2. I scream for ice screaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmmmmm!
3. Plucked my eyebrows once and it hurts!
4. Never get wrong with liquid eyeliner.
5. Blogger since 2010.
6. Hispanic-Filipina. hindi lang halata.
7. I can drive a car. FYI Wala na kong maisip, haha!

PS. Working on an entry for a week now. Phew. Will post once done!


That's it! Bye for now!

Dela Rosa Beach Resort at Lemery, Batangas

I had my very first summer outing at the beach last week at Lemery Batangas. And I'm glad to show you some of the photos I've got from the resort called Dela Rosa. Please don't expect a snap of me wearing my favorite summery blue two-piece cause I'm pretty sure you'll never like what you're gonna see. LOL!

So here's the pool.


And then the beach.


Mom and Me without any make up.


Apologizing too if I can't tell you some of the stories behind these photos, I'm just not in the mood today. Adios!

PS. Not in ChurpChurp yet? Use this link to sign up (thanks for helping!) and start earning money online just by tweeting!

French Macarons; First Trial

Since I'm engaged with baking this summer, which I think, too bad cause it's extremely hot like inside a preheated oven, I've tried several pastries and treats like red velvet cake (which turned out pink) and pine-carrot cake. So to challenge myself a little, quelle my fears and beyond what I used to, I tried making my own French Macarons. There were so many recipes and tips on how to make the most perfect cookie of a lifetime but I stuck to Eugenie's recipe. Why? I found her cute (yes, Eugenie, LOL), cause she's a Korean living in France (if you wanna know other details of her journey, better visit her blog ^_^) Some uses aged eggs, but I used fresh eggs from chicken's cage, kidding!

Here's a photo collage from setting to baking and presentation. Bear with the blurry and not-so-focused macaron images, I just used my Dad's phone to snap some of my hardwork. True, it is a bit scary how to handle things like this (especially that finicky “macaronage” which is the process of incorporating the dry ingredients with the egg whites to make macarons, people fail here mostly), but you really need to fail at first, so you can trig your next action (assuming I've succeeded in this, haha!).


They're all in bright blue color cause I added too much color gel, but lesson learned. Hihi. As you can see, some of the macarons I've made has teeny tiny feet, and some has nothing at all. (at least they're not flat) And that's my  biggest problem.

So done reading some troubleshoots and the like, I guess I need to move forward. I just hope my friend visiting Macau can hand me some almond flour cause it's really hard to find it here. BTW, I prefer not to mention but I'm itching to tell you guys that I bought a pack of almond nuts and grind them at home. That costs Php50 per 45 grams, about 15-20 pieces of nuts. Tsss.

That's it for tonight guys. Expect my updates for my next batches!

PS. Mom's back from LINK seminar! Yehey! And the cam's back too! ^^,