December's Here!

Oh yeah and it only means one thing for me : THE HOLIDAYS ARE HERE! Weeeeeee!! I cannot contain my excitement. Anyhoo... We always celebrate the beginning of December with a blast because the first day of this month is my Mama's birthday! 

Last year, I was struggling trying to perfect my marshmallow frosting and presented to her a store-bought chiffon cake. I was just starting then and my techniques are so novice. 

Lookie here! hihi 

Very novice indeed. :D

Well I went up a little level higher this year and made my mom a Coffee Cake with Coffee Frosting that I found on Tastespotting yesterday. I printed the recipe from Gastronomy Blog. I hurriedly made it since I was going on duty at 12am. 

Lights off and here it is :)

This is how it looks like with the lights on. 

cake innards

My mom is a coffee fanatic and it is needless to say that she loved the cake and so did the family. I brought some to the hospital and one of my colleagues just licked the frosting 'til there's so little left. I love coffee too but don't drink much so my tolerance for coffee is not so high which I think explains why I didn't feel so sleepy last night while we were taking care of our lone NICU patient. I must admit though that I slept a little.... about 3-4 hours after eating the cake. :D

Btw, here's my mom. Pretty noh? :D

Happy Birthday, Mama

and 

Happy Holidays, Everyone! :D

Special thanks to Catherine of Gastronomy Blog for the recipe of this cake.

Coffee Flan (?)

Last night, I was craving[as almost always] for something sweet. I looked through the fridge and saw some leftover egg yolks and milk. And so some form of bug invaded my mind telling me to whip up something to satisfy my craving... And here goes, I thought of making coffee flan. It's an alternate to leche flan which I saw last Saturday on Youtube.

Feeling a little adventurous, I took on the challenge of making my own recipe simplified using the microwave oven to cook it. I took four little bowls/sauce containers and placed a tablespoon of sugar on each one. Then I added a tablespoon of water to the containers with sugar. I then put them in the microwave to boil and make a syrup... of course it didn't turn out the way it's supposed to be but still, I moved on. I then got my egg yolks and mixed it with drops of calamansi to remove the stench then added milk and sugar. I didn't measure anything, i just felt my way through it. hahahahaha It's a bit crazy but what is an adventure? :D

Continuing on, I added some instant coffee granules until it was brown enough. I then took a strainer and poured my mixture through it[to remove the lumps] into the containers with the syrup. After, I put them into the microwave and cooked them for a minute. And another minute... and another minute... until i got tired because it never stopped boiling...

So I took it out and had a taste... I also asked my siblings to taste it and of course, they didn't like it that much. They said it was too sweet! :) I gobbled up some of them and realized that indeed it was too sweet. And it didn't look appetizing to me at all... So much for the adventure.

Looking at it right now makes me laugh at myself for doing it. :D

end product. :D

poured out. :)