Way Behind

OMG! I'm so sorry for being missing in action for quite a long time. You see, I just got back to work at the hospital and our duty days have increased in number thus taking away a lot of blogging and lazing time for me. :/ I've also decided to go the healthy way lately so I try to make time for walking/jogging as often as possible. I've lost weight already but I'm still kinda fat so I have to do a lot more to achieve my normal BMI. I have  set an appointment already with the endocrinologist by the end of the month and it's kinda getting me anxious. duuuuuh. 

The good thing though about my hectic schedule is that I still have time to bake. Been doing it for the past month, major highlights being Valentines Day and Blissful Nibbles Anniversary. So without further much a do, I'll show you the stuff I did. 

VALENTINE CUPCAKES

VALENTINE COOKIES

me after packing them individually

VALENTINE CAKE

SOME BIRTHDAY STUFF

 Superman Cake

Ocean theme birthday cupcakes

BLISSFUL NIBBLES ANNIVERSARY

February 16, 2011

It's the blog's first birthday. :)

I made Chocolate Mocha Cake with Chocolate Fudge Frosting topped with chocolate chips.

Brought some to the hospital. 

Was a sure hit!

And here are my early March creations. 

Tink theme cupcakes

Motherly birthday cupcakes

and monthsary cupcakes

Weeeeeeeeeee. I'm sooo glad I have finally updated my blog after a long long time. 

I will try my best to keep posting soon. 

I have something in mind but I'll keep it a secret for now. hihi

Superman Cake

Hospital Duty seems to be taking most of my time lately. I have been in the hospital almost daily but it's fun. I'm assigned to the ER now. I still get a little confused as hospitals do have some differences with policies. I also have new friends and a new set of 'bosses'. hihi :))

Well anyhoo, I came from a night shift and went straight to making this cake. I planned this for days though so I was kinda organized. I baked the cake the night before and did the decos today. I finished early and went out for a walk. I do walk a lot nowadays too as I want to have a beach body by summer. haha:D It may sound ambitious but hey, I'm working on it, okay? :)

So here's the cake. 

It's a Superman cake ordered by a friend, who now lives in the UK, for her brother here. 

I had fun making this and I was pretty meticulous. hihi :D

I also notice that my hands get really colorful after doing things like these. 

I've washed my hands a number of times already. 

The food colors are stubborn. 

I still have a few to post about but I get too lazy sometimes so maybe I'd do them in one post only sometime soon. 

My blog anniversary is at hand too and I'm planning to make something special. I hope I can pull through. :) 

Tinkerbell Doll Cake

Ooooh the holiday gifts thanking never stops, does it? That's because I received quite a number and I feel really excited when I get the chance to make use of them.

You see, I received a Wilton Doll Cake pan from an aunt and I was wondering how and when I'd be able to use it. Thanks to a number of Youtube videos, the Wilton site and a niece who fell in love with Tinkerbell, I got to make a doll cake for the very first time last wednesday.  It was really fun to do. I enjoyed decorating it as much as I am in awe of the pan. haha :D

Here's my finished product. My brother says, I did a pretty good job for a first time cake like this. hihi :D

That's her with her cake and party food. :) 

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

One of the many many food gifts our family had received for the holidays is a jar of Skippy Peanut Butter. It was actually given to my cousins family then her turning out to give the jar to us because she couldn't find any use of it since the little kids don't like its taste. It's more salty than sweet which is not very appealing to the Filipino palate when it comes to peanut butter. Well that's per observation though I don't mean to generalize. 

And so I make use of it by pairing it with jelly as in PB&J sandwich. They mix together so well that I end up gobbling up not just one but a few more sandwiches. I have also thought of making cookies out of them. And so I browsed through Tastespotting again [my go to site] for a good peanut butter cookie recipe. I decided on this one from Confabulation in the kitchen because of the rave reviews. The only little tweak I did was adding a cup of chocolate chips. I then teamed up with my cousin and her kiddos so we could bake in the new oven of their new house since her mom keeps asking me to 'baptize' her oven. hihi :D

Here's one of my neices with the waiting batch of cookie doughs

Us patiently waiting...

...for these babies to cook. 

And Voila! Beautiful and uberly tasty cookies!!! 

The perfect blend of Peanut butter, Oatmeal and Chocolate. 

Mmmmmmmmmmm :P

Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from AllRecipes

Ingredients
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1 cup peanut butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup quick-cooking oats

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, beat shortening, butter, sugars and peanut butter until smooth, about three minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda and salt. Add to peanut butter mixture and mix well. Fold in oats, stirring until just combined.
4. Drop by teaspoon-fulls onto cookie sheets. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until cookies are just brown on the edges. Cool for a couple of minutes on sheets before moving to wire racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Thanks,  Abby of Confabulation in the Kitchen for sharing this recipe. This sure is a keeper! 

Lingerie Cookies

After the holidays, I wasn't really very busy anymore. Add to that the fact that I still wasn't taken back by the hospital so I didn't have to go there. I got bored. Sure I had to bake a number of goodies but they were box mixes and those simply aren't my thing. Take this red velvet cake for example. It's better than the first one I made but still I don't feel so fulfilled as I know I did it using a cake mix. It looks so pretty though. I just wanted to share. Fudge frosting btw is also store bought. 

Fortunately, I got an order of 150 cookies for a bachelorette party last Saturday. I started baking them on Monday and finished packing them on Friday night. I know it took quite a long time but it's okay. I also didn't have much control on the blacks so they were like bleeding. Good thing the client liked the end products.

Here they are. 

150 cookies in the making.

the start of the decoration job. 

finished products.

another view.

The red lace looking part of the packaging were actually strips of cartolina run through a Martha Stewart puncher gifted to me by an aunt for Christmas. :)

Hope you enjoyed them. :D

Oatmeal Choc Chunk Cookies

We have a big bag of oatmeal gifted to us during the holiday season and I swear it begs to be noticed. The holidays never seem to stop for us. I guess that's because some of our cousins who don't actually live here[they're from the US] are still here and my Lola[grandmother]'s dining table is never empty. Meat mostly and sweet sweets[know what I mean?], foods like these make me miss the good stuff. I mean those that are really good for the body like veggies and fruits, and maybe oatmeal. :)

I was browsing through Tastespotting days ago and found this Oatmeal Kiss Cookie Recipe from Within the Kitchen Blog. Like her, I am looking for a good oatmeal cookie recipe. Hers looked really appetizing so I decided to try it. I found the chocolate addition interesting as it wasn't mixed with the batter like the ones with chocolate chips, just placed on top. I didn't have 'mini-kisses' but I still had about two thirds of a bar of dark swiss chocolate sitting in the fridge [one of the many chocolate gifts last Christmas.] Please forgive me if I didn't get the name. I found it wrapped in foil when I decided to use it for the recipe. I then used a knife to cut it into small bits and topped them on each cookie. 

So here they are.

Wish i took better photographs. 

Guess I'm just not a pro in that aspect. 

The Verdict? Right after baking it, I said to my mom that I want to just give them away because they're not sweet. I didn't like them. She grabbed a bite and so did my sister. They both disagreed with me and my ranting. I then decided to pack them and keep 'em in the fridge. Yesterday, we went to an island and I gulped up considerable amounts of salt water like more than three times! So when I got home, I needed a quick sweet fix. I opened the fridge and looked for my cookies. I grabbed one, then another, until I finished what were left in the bag. [Don't look at me with accusing eyes yet. There were only about five left and I gave one to my sister so I ate the four. haha] In short, I loved them and I'm going to make more of them soon. :) 

Thanks, Within the Kitchen Blog for the recipe. [I'm sorry I can't find the name of the writer].

If you need the recipe, head over to her blog entry. 

Pirate Cookies

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrhhhh!!!
The treasure must be here somewhere....

Well here they are! My first project for 2011. Pirate Cookies for a birthday party.

Aren't they adorable? :)

I'm kinda sick right now[cough and colds] and looking at how cute they turned out is kinda making me feel better. 

Haha so much for self love. 

But I do hope you liked them. :)