What I baked for Valentines Day

Last week I told myself that I would be faithful to writing on this blog about my baking adventures but alas my laziness always wins and I missed last week. To remedy this laziness, I will try to write about something every Tuesdays (Like I will put an actual alarm to remind myself). That aside, today I'll write about something I made for Valentines, Cake Pops!

They are actually pretty easy, I just watched a few youtube videos and voila... There are 5 steps to making the cakepops, 1) Bake the cake 2) Destroy the cake 4) Shape and freeze 5)Dip in candy melt and decorate!

For the first step, I use my trusty chocolate cake recipe.. I will reveal my chocolate cake recipe *drum roll please* But the recipe is not really a secret, because it is printed in every Hershey's Unsweetened cocoa box! I snapped a picture for those people who don't have it.

Second step, is to destroy the cake.. this is my absolute favorite step because it's messy and it doesn't feel right to destroy a cake. So what I did was I split the cake into 4 parts and rubbed 2 parts each until the cake is destroyed into crumbs. Then mix your favorite icing with the crumbs until it's able to hold (I used choco buttercream for this).

Fourth step, shape the crumbs and put in the the freezer for however long. 

Last and most fun, is dip in candymelt! But before you dip them you have to skewer the candy with your cakepop sticks. Then you decorate! <3 I guess this is the hardest part for me becuase I had trouble melting the vanilla candy and chocolate for the coating because I do not have a microwave.  I didn't use a makeshift double broiler at first so I ruined like half of the candymelts (so TIP: use a doublebroiler to melt if you don't have a microwave like me).

So this is how mine looks like, it's not super pretty but cut  me some slack this is my first time making this..

I gave these out to people who went to my house around Valentines day, just to make them feel good and happy. <3 

I hope you had fun reading this! Please don't forget to like my facebook page and for any questions or violent reactions drop me a message. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charliesbygrace

Email: graceria.naval@gmail.com

Matcha Green Tea Cupcakes with Lemon Buttercream

From the moment I tried Starbucks' Greentea latte I have been obsessed with Matcha green tea. I love everything about it! I am willing to try any desserts that have matcha or greentea in them because I am sure it will be good, with this, I knew I had to try to bake a cupcake with greentea.

Before baking these yummy goods I was faced with a few difficulties. First,it's slightly difficult to find green tea here. But if you really look closely you'll be able to find it in the grocery store. It's expensive but you only need about 4 tablespoon at most.

Another challenge that came with trying this recipe is trying to look for the perfect frosting to go with it. I wanted to try something other than just greentea on greentea. So I searched and searched until I came upon this video of Matcha Greentea with lemon buttercream:

Tried it and here's the end result:

These cupcakes tasted like laying in field of flowers with the mountain breeze blowing. They tasted fresh and tangy and really different from the other cupcakes I baked.

These cupcakes are really good but I feel like the lemon buttercream frosting may be overpowering the greentea. I plan to try another recipe, I have been told by people I trust that I should do green tea on green tea, so fine I will have to try that maybe next week, so look out for it! I'm currently on the hunt for the recipe, so if you have any suggestion, please pleasee let me know! :)

And ofcourse! If you want to try these cupcakes, I can bake them for you(ofcourse with a price, but a very low price of 270 pesos per box of 6)! Just message me on my mobile or on facebook!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/charliesbygrace

Mobile: 0906 576 2427

Things I would tell my 17 year old self if I could go back in time

Since I can't go back in time and knock some sense to my 17 year old self, I'm going to be writing this for my sister because she's about to start a new chapter in her life :)

To my dear sister, I was supposed to write this yesterday but my laptop crashed, I was going to send it to you while you were having your grad ceremonies.. but my laptop died on me. Anyways, I'm so proud of you! I believe you are so much more mature and smarter than I was when I started college, but a few pointers wouldn't hurt. Please always keep these things in mind once you move here. I'll always be here for you :)

So here it goes..

1. Eat as much as you can - Eat everything you want. Do not go on diets and hold back on food.. once you get a bit older a tiny piece of french fry will make you gain like 10 lbs instantly (i kid you not). When I was in college I could eat everything and not gain a thing even if I don't exercise.. How I wish it's still like that, but it's not. So please no diets.

2. Don't be shy, go after what you want - One of things I wish I had done more was go after things I like doing. There were lots of times when I didn't try thing because I was alone and I didn't have friends and I was too shy. Please be confident, if you make a fool of yourself now, it's only going to be embarrassing now and always remember that if you do try, atleast you get a chance. ;)

3. Do not doubt yourself - Go with your gut feeling. If you feel like you should be doing something else, do it. Trust your instincts and your gut. People will tell you different things but sometimes the only person you really need to listen to is yourself.

4. Make lots of friends - Actually, make lots of friends but find true friends. I think my college bffs are one of the best things that happened to me during college, they have been the people I can go to whenever I'm sad and I know they won't judge me and will always be there for me. I hope you find your set of soul sisters during college too.

5. Guard your heart - I don't know how to explain this. Just remember you're still young and sometimes love is just an illusion. ;) You may think someone is perfect for you but that is just an illusion, that is just what you think love is like, it's not necessarily love. 

Love Someone

I have been obsessed with Jason Mraz' Love Someone from the moment I heard it last night when he posted it on facebook. It was on repeat in my car and it brought me to thinking about what loving is and how love is supposed to feel like.  the song just perfectly describes how I think love should be like, in it's simplest form.. It should be without all the complications, it should be a very happy thing.. It should feel like flying and it should be about being sure that the amount of love you give will return to you.

The song made me double think my relationships, it feels like most of them do not have love in them, everything feels complicated and it feels like it is always an exchange of something. It's like I'm always expecting something in return. I know it shouldn't be about that, it shouldn't be about waiting for someone to give, it should be a selfless thing.. It should be yourself giving and not you expecting someone to give to you.

Maybe I've been feeling like this because I have not given as much love as I think I've been giving, I have been expecting people to give to me instead of me giving to them. I guess I have not been seeing love because I am too focused on people not delivering and not giving me what I think I deserve.

I guess I just wanted to share my thoughts about love.. I guess this is me trying to convice myself to believe that love should be about giving love and knowing that somehow the love you give out will be returned to you in thousand folds.

TBC (i hope).

Bagoong fried rice

I always have left over cold rice. It always ends up wasted and thrown in the trash or fed to my kitties outside.. what a waste! And today I found cold rice sitting on my refrigerator again, usually this gets turned into your normal fried rice but today I wanted to do something different. After scanning a few recipes on the internet I decided to try out bagoong friend rice with unripe mangoes. *I thought I had unripe mangoes but it turns out they've already ripened, but it's okay*. In my recipe I used skinless longanisa, you can use pork belly or liempo. Here's a quick recipe for cold left over rice:

Ingredients:
Left over rice, around 2 cups
Bagoong (Shrimp Paste) 3 tbsp
chopped garlic
2 eggs
Cooked skinless longanisa (sliced into bite size pieces)
Ripe or unripe mango
Chopped scallions *optional*
Salt and pepper

1. Beat eggs and add salt. Scramble eggs and slice into bite size pieces. Set aside.
2. Saute garlic. Mix in rice. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add the bagoong, mix until it is evenly blended with the rice. Stir fry for a few minutes, like around 3 minutes, then add longanisa and eggs.
4. Once cooked, place in a plate and add the mangoes and scallions.

Chicken Paella

Hi! This morning I woke up insanely early and I chanced upon the movie Julie and Julia on HBO, and it inspired me to cook today :) I went through our little library here at home and found one of my mom's cook book, then just randomly flipped a page and found a recipe for Chicken Paella. It looked easy enough and *most of* the ingredients can be found at our local market. So I went out bought the ingredients and just started cooking. I did change a few stuff from what's in the book but it still turned out really good. So here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
Lower half of the chicken (thigh, leg)
1.5 cup rice or Italian risotto (I just used rice as I couldn't find risotto at the supermarket)
2 pcs sliced onions
4 garlic cloves
4 pieces skinned tomatoes
2 pieces seeded green or red bell peppers diced
Olive oil
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets
Saffron or safflower (kasuba) *i used safflower, can't find saffron either*
1 little chili
1.5 cup water
1 Knorr chicken stock
Salt and pepper

1. Cut the chiken into 4 parts. Chop the the tomatoes.
2. I used a wok pan to cook the chicken in olive oil. Turn until all sides are browned (half cooked)
3. Add onion, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, cauliflower. Season to taste.
4. Scatter the rice or risotto into the pan and add water. Chop the knorr cubes into tiny pieces and add. Stir until water is boiling.
5. Simmer for 30 minutes or until chicken and rice is cooked. You can add more water if it dries up before the rice is cooked.

Advise to self

It feels like a favorite worn out shoe that hurts your feet whenever you wear it. But you just can't get rid of it because you love it so much and it has sentimental value.

Maybe you should just stop wearing it and try something new.