Awesome April

has just begun.

I woke up early yesterday to prep my Pop so we could go to our little fishermen's warf to witness the first harvest our our fish-friends-now-food, the Milkfish better known at our place as BANGUS!

harvesting mode.

[It was really fun watching the men trying to catch the fish with the net only seeing the fish fly over them. They did rounds of catching but still never finished until today. The had to stop at high tide.]

fresh from the sea.

[aren't they lovely? Some bones got stuck on my throat today. I'm okay now and I ain't giving up eating them at all. ]

Next Topic.

Family gatherings are just plain fun. I like having little chitchats with some cousins and aunts... I also like seeing little children run around, shout and speak like big people do... making negotiations using their toys and making their own game rules. It makes me miss those days when I was just a kid playing house with my older cousins and allowing them to feed us petals. Last night was one of those fun gatherings because it was a joint graduation party for some of my cousins and it was kinda sad too because one of them is leaving us and no one can tell how long she will be away. Anyhoo, enough for the sentiments.

I was busy yesterday but it's not the kind that gets me ranting. It's the fun kind of busy because it's for the said family gathering. My cupcake tower also made its show again last night... the same chocolate cupcakes but different owners this time. My aunt asked me to make them and you can imagine what I went through making those. Baking and frosting about 48 cupcakes in about 5 hours? But I don't want to complain because I must admit, I had fun. I also think that baking for family or close friends add an additional amount of pressure for perfection. So yeah, I did my best and thankfully the batches turned out really great. I also baked some cookies days before as my present to the kiddos who graduated from preschool.

On to some pictures. I didn't take much because I was to tired to do so. I only chatted my way through the night with an old college friend.

Here we go.

girly cookies

boy cookies

[Both cookies were inspired by Bakeat350 and Sweetopia]

I know, they scream for more practice. :D

And here's the cupcake tower and the cookies laid out on the dessert table. :D

Now, my cousins have left and there are a few still staying.

Oh, did I tell you that we don't have water right now? Our water pump broke so we have to ask [or buy(?) ] water from our neighbors.

And I burnt a small part of my left hand yesterday with the glue gun. Arggh.

Celebrations and Firsts

Whew! I'm so glad to be back to posting. This, I believe is going to be jam-packed. Our internet connection was down for days, you see. Sooooooooooooo..........

My brother, Jovan, arrived from Bacolod City last Friday for a family celebration and we are more than happy to have him around. I always love making excuses to bake and this occasion is the perfect excuse! hahaha:D So I did whip up something with the use of my magic microwave[again]and made a special upsized[this time] version of the chocolate mug cake.

I've also read about cooked frosting and that it is [as they say] the best frosting for chocolate cake so I decided to go for it the first time. I didn't make much as it was just a test so I downsized the recipe to one-fourth.[I know, right? I do a lot upsizing or downsizing of recipes to fit my needs.]

Texture-wise and taste wise, the chocolate cake was in its best form... doesn't feel "microwavey" at all. And the frosting? I don't know if I did it right because it's kinda runny but it tasted good.

On to some photo-sharing...

view from the top

side

closer

Jovan cutting his cake

view from our dining table

sliced.

Back to the celebration I was talking about, yeah, it was quite a big one. It's my other brother Jonathan's graduation from college. Yeah, three out of the four Tan siblings are already out of school[in a good way]. Only one left, our baby girl [she's 18] Jackie. :D So the celebration made me really think of building a cupcake tower for the first time. Nothing really fancy, just a simple one to grace the table aside from the cake. Hence, I was really busy the whole day since my parents had to join him in the school festivities. I helped in setting up the tables, chairs, food and the venue. By the way, I used cake boards and old milk cans for the tower, covered them in blue and black cartolina[paper] and glued them with Mighty Bond. I was really a little scared that the tower will tip but I was really glad it stood sturdy[though a little wobbly when moved] the whole time.

So here's another photosharing...

here goes... that's Jonatz right there with his sweets. :D

[i didn't make the cake... that's BQ's]

here I am

basking in my stressed 'glossy' look. hahaha :D

[it's worth the time and energy ain't it?]

By the way, that day, a very good news came to me.

My OVEN is FIXED!

I love it! :D