[Challenge] "Miniature Sweets for My Sweet"

"Sweets for My Sweet"
Philippine Polymer Clay Guild Miniature Food Challenge

The latest challenge of the Philippine Polymer Clay Guild was "Food for your Eyes" where they asked us to make miniature models of our favorite food.  I immediately knew that I wanted to make a dessert spread.  I made a croquermbouche drizzled with chocolate, Orange chiffon fondant cake and assorted cupcakes.

Whenever I make my crafts, I keep the computer one while I watch different TV series or movies. The latest series that I watched is MasterChef USA where in Episode 4 they were challenged to make Croquembouche which is a French dessert made of choux pastry, creamy filling and topped with threads of caramel.  I love profiteroles or cream puffs and this is the mother of it all.

The next is Orange Chiffon fondant cake and vanilla buttercream decorated with purple flowers.  Yum!

Finally, I made an assortment of cupcakes:  Purple yam, Vanilla and Caramel cupcakes.  Decadent!

So, who's ready to party?!

♥ michelle ♥ 

[Baking] Leche Flan / Caramel Custard

The thing with making meringue is that you get a lot of eggyolks.

Remember the Silvanas that I made?  

That recipe used 3 eggwhites which left me with 3 eggyolks and 1 broken egg.  Ngek.  I didn't want to waste it so I added 4 more eggwhites, milk, a squeeze of calamansi  or calamondin and made me some Leche Flan.   It is the Filipino version of creme caramel or caramel custard.  

In my opinion, leche flan should be soft, melts-in-your mouth and with perfectly caramelized sugar.  The secret to making a smooth, bubble free flan is to gently stir and strain the mixture.

I didn't have a small oval pan (llanera) so I used one of my small corrugated pans.  The sugar was perfectly caramelized but it was difficult to release the baked and cooled flan, hence the irregular bumps in the photo below.

Leche Flan

There are a lot of variations in making this popular Filipino delicacy.  The result of my experimentation tonight was delicious - it was smooth but not too creamy.  Maybe because I used 1 whole egg in addition to the 7 eggyolks.  I don't know.  One of my kumares (the mother of my godchild) shared with us her homemade flan that was oh so velvety smooth, creamy and yummy!   Mr. C and I slowly indulged on it over the New Year.  LOL.

Have you tried eating leche flan?  Try it.  

You might love it.

Let me know if you do.

♥  michelle  ♥

[Sweets] Crave Cupcakes Houston Tx

Happy Birthday to me!  Happy Birthday to me!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday,

Happy Birthday to me!

Psalm 28:7
"The LORD is my strength and my shield; My heart trusts in Him and I am helped;
Therefore my heart exults, and with my song I shall thank Him."

Today is my birthday and I feel so blessed!

A friend and sister-in-faith of mine gave me these beautiful tulips and a couple of premium movie tickets. Lovely!  I love tulips when they're not in full bloom yet.  Our coffee table is oh so happy!

Beautiful tulips to celebrate my birthday and also to  remember the people hurt in Boston today.

Lunch was with hubby and our mentors.... Thai Spice buffet.  Yum!

Dinner was at Azuma Sushi and Robata bar... more on that next time.

And the highlight of my day was the dessert!  

I am fascinated by how cute "modern" cupcakes look with their thick frosting and toppings.  I usually scrape off the icing and try the cake to see how moist and delicious it is.

Today, I tried CRAVE cupcakes of Houston.  I've heard good raves about it so I had to try it out.

The store is pretty, bright and clean.  You can watch the staff decorate the cupcakes and be mesmerized by the rows of beautifully decorated sweeties.

Crave Cupcakes
5600 Kirby Drive
Houston, TX 77005
USA

We got 4 flavors:  Coconut, German Chocolate, Crave Chocolate & Cream, and Red Velvet.

All I can say is:  THEY. WERE. YUMMY!

(Take not of the past tense - "were")

It was a wonderful and blessed day for me.  

However, I also mourn for the family of the people who died and were hurt in the Boston bombing that happened this afternoon, during the Boston Marathon.

May the good Lord bless and keep you, my friend.

Sincerely,

♥  Michelle  ♥

[Food] Screaming for Ice Cream

I scream for ice cream all the time.  It's a staple in our home growing up and everyone in the family loved it!  Sundays are extra special when we drive by the store to buy half a gallon of this deliciousness!

Now that I'm older and with slowwwwwwer metabolism, I have to watch what I eat.

Take a look at this:  Blue Bell Moolenium Crunch topped with a fresh Cherry.

My Dear Husband (DH) and I are trying to do portion control, as advised by my trainer.  Of course, we can't let go of our dairy (though I know it's not too good for our body) so we decided to go another way.

This is our version of portion control... LOL!

A taster's cup and spoon with barely a scoop of ice cream.  

I guess it worked because it took several teaspoons to finish one serving and somehow, it satisfied my craving.

How do you portion your food?