Inspired

Hello!
I'm sorry for being missing in action [then again] for like more than a month. Things have been pretty hectic for me both with work at the hospital and baking. So many things have happened and I have been more than eager to share them here. But time constraints always keep me from doing so... I'm glad I have this day off all to myself and I'm excited to do my sharing now.

Well firstly, I have had major milestones in the past few weeks. I have catered for a debut party and a wedding for the first time.

The bookings are all thanks to my cousin January Tan of Debut's and I Do's. :)

Other than these, I also had small orders for cupcakes and cakes. 

Ain't life grand? :) 

Now, how about my blog title? Inspired? Well yeah I am. With a lot of things. My family. My friends... and [what you might be waiting for] my 'uhmmm' pretty boy. :) yeah he is a pretty boy. I get ispired to try things that appear intimidating. I d k. It's different now that he's around. But you know, I don't expect him to like me-like me. I just like it that he likes and enjoys what I do. I d k if he knows [and I hope he doesn't]. I don't want to ruin our friendship. But yeah, right now... he does inspire me. hihi. I don't want to sound all cheesy and elementary-ish  now so I'll be sharing the pastries I've tried doing and succeeded anyway [because(again) I am inspired].

Sylvanas

Oatmeal Bars

Copycat Oreo Cookies

Pavlova

Cream Puffs

See? Hihi. It's been fun. :)

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