A bouquet of roses!

Wonderful, wonderful day!

I made a cake designed like a bouquet of roses for an officemate. To surprise his girlfriend, he said. Well, here it is:

It's a 6"x4" round chocolate-filled chocolate cake decorated with fondant and gumpaste flowers.

More cakes to come! Happy weekend!

Oh, Sweetcraft!

So far, Sweetcraft holds my best confectionery award. All thanks to Kate's entry on where to buy baking stuff. It's small but very organized and super clean. The attendants are really friendly and helpful, too. And surely, they sell cheaper than CL. I found the all too elusive tylose powder there, too. They also have a wide-range of cake and pastry boxes at the stall next to the confectionery.

Sweetcraft is located at 373 Boni Ave., Mandaluyong City. You could reach them at 532-1595 and 532-6289. I suggest you call them first when looking for hard-to-find products.

I don't have my own car so I just commute going there. If you're coming from recto or cubao area, take a jeepney going to stop and shop. From there, hail a boni-mrt jeepney and tell the driver to drop you off Rizal Technological University (RTU). And if you're coming from EDSA, take a stop and shop jeepney near the MRT-Boni Station and get off RTU. You may also take a tricycle. Sweetcraft is right across RTU.

Off topic: some brownies my officemates ordered: ^_^

Weekend sugarcrafting

Hello! Can't believe it's midweek again. Days are passing by too fast. I read somewhere that age has to do with people's sense of time--the older you get, the faster you perceive time. Whoah! Now that gives you an idea of how young I am. ^_^

As a working mom, I only have Saturdays to spare for my confectionery shopping. So last Saturday, I was planning to bring my sister to Divisoria to check on their baking products but ditched the plan the last minute and opted for Chocolate Lovers at Quezon Avenue instead.

(I love the castle-like structures of Chocolates Lovers stores. It gives you that fairy tale feeling^_^)

In the afternoon, I passed by Gourdo's in Trinoma after our family's mall stroll and got myself a heart cutter for my calla lilies.

Come Sunday, I used up the remaining gumpaste from my sister's birthday cake and made these flowers. I enjoyed painting the roses with red powder color. They're so RED!^_^

(I used the upper part of my steamer to dry the flowers)

(I steamed them the next day so the powder would stick)

Can't wait for the next weekend!

I love Gourdo's!

I'm a newbie baker and I am just starting to discover and explore confectioneries in town. I frequent Chocolate Lovers for my baking needs because their Q. Ave branch is the nearest to my place. But gosh, do I love Gourdo's! Gourdo's does not sell flour and chocolates but they have the widest selection of Wilton products that I have ever seen (so far)! The coolest thing is, I always pass by their Gateway branch every day after work (you know, being an MRT patron.) ^_^

Last week, I dropped by and saw that they have nice items on sale and I grabbed myself a buy-one, take-one cake stand. The attendant said it's from Turkey and quite durable.

I also got myself a black color mist, hoping that I could use it to tint my fondant. Bad idea! Turned out this food color spray is best for boiled icing and buttercream but not on fondant.

And so, two days after buying it, I finally got to use the stand.^_^

roses and a bow

Great day everyone!

I was supposed to make this entry last night but I was dead tired to do it.

Anyway, I told you I would make a black and pink ensemble for my sister's birthday but I had a disaster with this black edible spray from Wilton (Will make a separate entry for it) so I had to make a last minute decision to save the cake. ^_^

So, here's the end result:

It's chocolate cake with chocolate filling wrapped in fondant and decorated with gumpaste roses. The roses are brushed with shimmer dust from Wilton. Look closely.

And the cake tastes great. Thanks to fellow blogger Kate.^_^

Dazy, ditzy week!

First work week of the year and I'm determined to finish the week with no absences--despite feeling sick and all. ^_^ 'Cause of this, I couldn't sneak in preparing gumpaste for my sister's birthday cake on Sunday. Waaah!

But I was able to bake some brownies for her friends the other night. I'm just so glad they liked the brownies! Said it tastes like the ones from the "brownies" store in the malls. Same reaction as that of my friends from work who received those as Christmas gift from moi.

I'm so looking forward to Sunday when I make this black and hot pink cake for li'l sis. Will post pics as soon as I make them. ^_^

Welcome to my kitchen!

A blessed New Year to all!

I am all too excited to start this blog at the start of the year! I am officially branding 2010 as the beginning of my culinary journey and this blog is here so I could share all my kitchen adventures and misadventures with you.

Do check back often. ^_^