Easter

... yesterday was Easter and we were invited to an Easter egg hunt and picnic with some families from our kids' school. The day before my kids and I planned to bring some cookies to give away to their friends (instead of the usual chocolate Easter eggs) and I planned to bring an Ube Macapuno cake for my plate to share. This is what I like most living here in Australia, everyone brings a dish to share... no one has to bring all the food, the responsibility of it lies with everyone. So the whole of Saturday was spent baking and cleaning up. I baked 2 cakes, one I brought to my in-laws for Saturday dinner and the other one for our picnic the next day. Both were a success, so now I move on to the next cake to perfect...

the cake I brought to my in-laws... Ube Macapuno Cake (purple yam and coconut) with Vanilla cream cheese icing

... the cookies I baked and the kids iced (including the 2 toddlers)...

... top view...

... the kids are now getting interested in baking, everytime they see me bring out the measuring cup, they will start coming over and ask what am I baking... this is what I love with the school holidays, we don't need to wake up early, no need to be in a rush and we are able to spend the day together... now that I am so into baking, I am hoping that I will rub it off to the kids so that it will be second nature to them to love the kitchen as I have learned to love it... I thank God that he has given me this absolutely wonderful talent in baking...

sans rival

... after a few tries of making desserts, hubby realized that I have improved my dessert making skills... he requested that I make his all-time fave, sans rival. It is sort of like a cake made out of four (or more) layers of almond merengue, sandwiched in French buttercream, topped with almonds. Hah! Little did I know how time-consuming this dessert was going to be...

... finding a recipe was easy enough, trying to understand the complicating procedure had me reading the recipe for a couple of days, it was like trying to decipher morse code, there were a couple of baking terms that I had to search and find out what I was meant to do but reading it made it even harder to understand so I had to youtube it, I find it easier to understand if I saw what I was meant to do... it took me a week to get the nerve to try making it... with the weekend coming up, I bought all the ingredients with the plan to make it...

... weekend came and we conquered! It took us (hubby, the kids & I) at least 3 to 4 hours to make, it was a labour of love and in the end, they all loved it... the next day the kids got sick (there was a vomit bug going on around school during the week) and they blamed the cake!... haven't made it since then... will try to make it again, soon!

my very first attempt

... when I was a child, I loved eating sweets and my all-time fave was a dessert called Brazo de Mercedes. It is sort of a roll made of merengue which has custard as its filling. I absolutely love this dish and was utterly disappointed that there was not a bakery here that made that... actually there was no Filo bakery at all close to where I used to live. That was way, way back in the 90's, so it took me at most a decade before I finally found someone who can bake it. The problem was, everytime I had a craving, it would cost me a fortune and I was not prepared to eat the whole log by myself, that would only equate to me getting fat. So, the next best thing that I could do was try and make it myself.

I searched and searched the net and finally found one that seemed easy enough to make. The first time I tried it, I couldn't perfect the roll, it cracked when I tried to roll it but the taste was absolutely heaven. It tasted exactly the way I remembered it when I was growing up! Fantastic! The best thing of all, my kids loved it! What a relief! Now I don't have to eat the whole log by myself, whenever I have a craving, I just cut myself a small piece to satisfy my craving and the rest, the kids can have it hehehe...

the beginning...

... it's been awhile now since I've been toying with the idea of starting my own blog... I just couldn't find the right time having to look after a 6-month-old baby and 2 toddlers... I felt that everytime I sat down in front of the computer, one would immediately start to make a fuss, and lately my 6-month-old has been having separation issues (at such a young age), he just doesn't want to let go of me, he has to be always in my lap (even when he is taking a nap)... thank goodness for the school holidays! Now my older kids are at home helping out in everything, including carrying the baby... so I decided now is the right time...

... Lately, I have been having this obsession to bake... I can't remember when this obsession started but I am really glad of it because now I have been able to replicate a lot of desserts that I used to crave but have been unable to have. It is so hard to crave for something that you can't have and I must say it has been hard to deal with it especially when you are so far away from home... my only consolation was that I was with people that I love (hubby and kids). I can still remember those years when I first came here and it was such a struggle, I thought I wouldn't be able to cope, it took me 9 years to adjust and I am finally happy to be at a stage in my life where I am content with everything that I have that I don't need anything more... I have God to thank for that...

... so join me as I explore this wonderful thing called life and this obsession called baking... enjoy!