HO HO HO!!! Holiday Cake

Happy Holidays!

What is better than Filipino delicacy, a scrumptious ube cake, for Holiday dessert? 

Yesterday, 12/23/14, was not a good time to buy groceries for fresh ingredients.  Grocery stores are packed and lines were long.  I wanted to get the freshest ingredients as possible for ube cake.  I actually baked two ube cakes - one for my mom's dinner get-together tonight, 12/24/14 and one for my in-laws that we will take with us tomorrow for Christmas dinner.

I did not expect that my in-laws (mom, dad, and sister) would love a Filipino delicacy.  The actual loved my ube cake.  During their visit, I baked an ube cake that they can take with them back in Maryland.  This time it is decorated with the Christmas adornment rather than just covered with buttercream.

I am pleased with myself.  I am getting better with handling buttercream.  Getting a smooth surface has been a challenge.  Without photo-enhancement, the surface really came out clean and smooth.  

Bridal Shower Cake

I enjoyed baking and decorating the beautiful bridal shower cake on the picture below for a colleague at G&W Labs.

Nishita loves chocolate. So, I made her a chocolate cake with dark chocolate buttercream.

I see the hesitations on Nishita's face as she cuts through the cake.  She didn't want to cut the cake.

What flatters was that Nishita's fiance don't crave sweets and yet ate a quarter of the 8" cake.  They told me that the cake was very good, very rich and moist.

Cookies and cream cupcakes, again

Seattle Seahawks Football Field Birthday Cake

I enjoyed decorating this birthday cake. When decorating this birthday cake,  I had some challenges. 

Thanksgiving Red Velvet Cupcakes

These scrumptious cupcakes were my family's Thanksgiving desserts.  The cupcakes were moist.  My in-laws were enjoying this delicious cupcakes.

The red velvet cupcake was iced with milk chocolate buttercream.

More Scrumptous Ube Cakes

There were three purple yam cakes ordered for Thanksgiving Day. All cakes were decorated the same, so I only took I picture of the three cakes.  

My foolproof recipe was a hit again.  The cakes were moist and dense.  It was so traditionally flavored that I received so many compliments that the cake was delicious.

Moist, dense ube cake

The ube cake turned up to be gorgeous.  Baking ube cake always possess a challenge.  When cakes cool down, the weight of the cake tends to rise and drop down as the cake settles, and it ruins the side of the cake.

The ube cake color is perfect!  It has the traditional purple hue of a Filipino ube cake.  

The ube cake is sprinkled with the toasted with ube cake.

Neapolitan Cupcakes

My good friend's son had his birthday party at a farm in New Jersey. Since my friend's children enjoyed the cupcakes I made for my son's birthday party, I made the same cupcake flavors for her son's birthday party.

The Neapolitan cupcakes were decorated like an ice cream sundae.  The cupcake filling was a vanilla buttercream.  The cupcake was drizzled with Hershey chocolate syrup sprinkled with candy sprinkles.

Mickey Mouse Cupcake Favor

My son celebrated his 2nd birthday.  He loves Mickey Mouse.  I decided to make

Farewell Party Cupcake

Cookies n' Creme cupcake is anyone's favorite, but for Shara, she loves it.  A friend of mine ordered 2 dozens of Cookies n' Crème for her farewell party, but at the last minute she added 2 more dozens.  I was short with fondant roses.  It was originally for 2 dozens, but it worked out.

The cupcake itself is cookies n' crème.  The Italian meringue vanilla-flavored buttercream. 

Roses were not part of the original order, but for my friend, I went a little extra.  In the end, the presentation was gorgeous and it was not what they expected.

5 minutes after the speech, the cupcakes are gone...all gone!  Some had 5, as I heard. The cupcake received so much compliments from colleagues, Managers, Director, VP's, and Executives. 

Birch Tree Stump Cake

This cake was for Dustin and Danielle for their bridal party.  The cake was a marble cake filled with chocolate mousse filling.  The tree stump was airbrushed with shimmering silver food color and hand painted to provide wood accents.  The dirt was dried and crushed chocolate cake. The mushroom was made of vanilla fondant.

Cookies 'N Cream Cupcake, aka Oreo Cupcake, and Cappuccino Cupcake

My thoughtful manager (the VP of the department) ordered 4 dozens of cupcakes to surprise and give treats to his hardworking team, as a token of his appreciation, at the staff meeting.

What is more delightful than to see your colleagues at work enjoying each scrumptious bite of this delectable, guiltless cookies 'n cream (Oreo) cupcake and cappuccino cupcake? 

(Cookies 'N Creme)

Used: low fat ingredients, besides the high-sugar-content Oreo cookies, and still came out good.

Dark chocolate meringue Italian buttercream is filled inside each cupcake. Vanilla meringue Italian buttercream is swirled on top of the Oreo and cappuccino cupcakes.

(Cappuccino cupcake)

Baby Shower Party

The cake was an ube (purple yam) cake with macapuno (sweet young coconut) buttercream.  A favorite dessert of the Filipinos.  

A variety of colorful and adorable creations. 

 Diaper cake (126 pieces) of size 1 diapers stacked into 5 tiers.

Adorable diaper cupcake on a decorated champagne glass

Lollipop wash cloth.

A basket of lollipop wash cloths.

 Diaper cake with diaper tricycle topper.

Damask Pillow Cake

To stencil Damask design on a quilted pillow cake is a challenge, as the surface area of the cake is not even.  

It took many many hours to finish this cake.  

The cake was a moist lemon cake with cuts of fresh strawberries on a vanilla buttercream.

The rocking horse cake topper was provided by host of the party.  

Cake Tasting

Bottom to Top: Ube cake with macapuno buttercream, Ube cake with semi-sweet chocolate and dark chocolate buttercreams, chocolate cake with chestnut and semi-sweet buttercreams, chocolate cake with hazelnut and semi-sweet buttercreams, chocolate cake with strawberry and dark chocolate buttercreams.

Ube and chocolate cakes on a cake platter, unfilled.

His and Her cake tasting.  Six flavors of buttercream.

My son calls these buttercreams as ice creams.  He was so excited thinking that these were his ice cream desserts.

Italian Meringue Buttercreams

Italian Meringue Buttercreams

 

Heavenly Ube Cake - Part 2

There are a variety of purple yam (a.k.a. "ube") cake recipes available online.  The recipe I used for this cake came from my grandparents, the former owners of F. Quinal Store & Bakery in the Southern Province of the Philippine Island that was established since 1949 through 2004, but with some modifications.  

The modifications to the recipe includes the following: ingredient substitutions, incorporating baking techniques that I learned from the Institute of Culinary Education, applying the Lean Six Sigma principles (Gage R&R and DOE) to provide consistent results and to identify and reduce variations in the measurement system, and applying Chemistry to balance acid and base during ingredient substitution.  After all, baking is science and art.  I am such a dork!

I finally perfected the recipe after so many Design of Experiments!  Changing one variable at a time to produce one light, moist, dense, and delicate piece of art.

This cake started with these gorgeous deep purple-colored yams that were cooked, boiled, and mashed.  Thanks to food processor.

Bake until perfection.  This batch of 6" cakes is trial number of something number.  I can't recall how many failed batches I made and how many happy stomachs it fed.  They were all pleased to be my Guiney pigs and asked to keep it coming.   However this batch (cooling on the rack) came flat and gorgeously smooth.

 Another batch...  Consistent result!  No dome and / or sinking in the middle.

This ube cake recipe has a sponge or chiffon cake texture.  

This recipe is a keeper!  

It was dense and moist!

I find it a compliment when this home baked cake is compared to renowned commercial bakeries, such as Red Ribbon and Goldilocks.

I have to continue practicing to perfect smooth buttercream covering. 

I am not avid of food coloring, but for the sake of traditional “purple” ube cake I have to raise the purple food coloring quantity in my baking to accentuate the purple hue of the purple yam.