March 2017 Photo-A-Day Challenge Day 12 - Wrinkled

       So proud of my mom's work-worn hands. Her hands that cooked tasty meals and baked goodies. In turn she sparked in me an interest in baking and now I'm baking like her! I'm so glad she inspired me to bake so in the future I can bake goodies for my children.

       I remember the days when I would look forward to mom's baking, the waft of warm cake/cookies travelling its way into the living room. Those days of pleasant weekends spent with mama creating magic with her hands. I want my children to feel what I feel whenever mama bakes sweets for us. :">

Green goodness!

Symphony Torte

I am never a fan of green tea, even now. However, one fateful incident happened which drove me to try green tea based sweets, cookies and cakes. It all turned around when my boyfriend and I decided to eat at Lachi’s. The waiting list for the next vacant table was long but there are only two of us so our chances are bigger compared to larger groups. After 10-15 minutes of waiting, we got a chance to land a table for two. We ordered our meals; he ordered Beef Salpicado while I chose Grilled Pork Chop. Affordable meals for thrifty persons like us (haha!).

We pored over the menu on which cake we will try. I opted for Symphony Torte since it boasted “Layers of mocha buttercream and chocolate ganache separate thin layers of soft sponge cake. This elegant composition has seven layers and a fabulous taste.” Who wouldn’t be enticed to try it out? Since my boyfriend is not a sweet tooth, he opted for Greentea Cheesecake. I was suspicious since I am not a fan so I kept my reservations and proceeded to devour my meal.

Greentea Cheesecake

As the desserts were served, I happily dug into my sumptuous Symphony Torte while he enjoyed his Greetea Cheesecake. “Try it, it’s yummy.” Please, nag bisaya mi ato pero for the sake na masabtan sa tanan, i-translate nako ang thought into English. Haha. “You sure? You know I don’t like green tea flavours but I trust your judgement.” I was hesitant since I’m not a fan of green tea and even Kit Kat didn’t win me over their matcha variant. I carefully took a small sample...only to be shocked at how creamy, mildly sweet and yummy it was! I wanted more and it changed my perspective on green tea sweets. Of course, it’s still not my favourite flavour, however, I am giving green tea sweets a chance. Hahaha.

I noticed how he likes green tea based sweets and pastries (he never likes sweets!) so I decided to bake green tea based cookies. I kept crossing my fingers that it would turn out good. I asked my baker friends where they buy their green tea powder and told me I can buy it at Rafski. They close at 5:00 PM which is a pity since my time out at the office is 5:00 PM onwards so my boyfriend offered to go undertime and buy the ingredients for me. HOORAY! So I finally whipped Matcha Green Tea Cookies last weekend. It turned out alright! My mother even bought another pack of white chocolate for the recipe so I can bake another batch next weekend!

Here are the Matcha Green Tea Cookies! Thank you Fortune Goodies for your easy and yummy recipe! Even someone with a sweet tooth like me enjoyed this matcha gren tea recipe! I hope to try your other recipes in the future! I will also try other green tea sweets like crinkles or brownies. Wish me luck!

My prototype!

 Here’s the link of the recipe: Matcha Green Tea Cookies

Go ahead and try this recipe! Have fun baking!

Devil's Food Cake!

Finished product!

Devil’s Food Cake... I’ve been eyeing this recipe way back when my sister still resides with us. As Nigella demonstrates how the cake is made on YouTube, I’ve been very curious to try it myself. I lacked confidence then and I was afraid of wasting ingredients so it took me this long to try it out. It actually took me years! Aaaand finally! I was able to bake Devil’s Food Cake using Nigella’s recipe!

I kept watching the video and observed how she does it and studied the recipe a few days before actually baking the cake. I checked if the ingredients were available here and scouted for them beforehand. As that fateful day drew close, I got more and more anxious to the point that I want the day to come faster so I can get over my anxiety!

Glossy AF! XD

I planned on baking this cake a day before my mum’s birthday with the help of my partner but unfortunately he turned up late and I had to start baking before lunch to avoid finishing before brownouts takeover. I was really annoyed that he wasn’t able to help in the main baking time but I brushed it off ‘cause I don’t want to ruin the mood in making the cake.

My brown babies! :3

Lo and behold! The cake was a success! It turned out better than I expected. I kept patting the cakes lovingly while waiting for the frosting to get ready for application. My partner kept teasing me at how I’m petting the brown babies. I kept saying, “What? Don’t you wanna pat them? Aren’t my babies beautiful?” Hahahaha he must think I’m weird but I don’t care. I was filled with pride at the success of the cake. It gave me confidence to explore more recipes in the future. Thank you, Nigella, for your easy recipe!

He ended up mixing the frosting till it’s ready and helped me apply them to the cake. He said the cake was yummy and I hope he’s right and not just biased. I have this psycho thing where I think what I do is not good enough despite people saying it’s delicious or it turned out great. Anyway, it turned out beautifully, inside and out! Hurray! I hope they appreciated my efforts in baking something different. I will definitely bake some more in the future!

Rest assured, my children will always have a birthday cake made by their mother every birthday. ;)