la velvet rouge cheese cupcake

la velvet rouge cheese cupcake

Cupcakes are on this exciting trend of sweet yummilicious dessert delicacy. Everywhere you travel, they have these small boutiques specializing in sweet delicacies.  Cupcakes of all different flavours decorated in frosting of various themes.  How can one not pause and be in awe of this edible craft?  If you think about it, it really is the ideal dessert.  It’s the perfect size.  It’s individualized and if you have great self-control, one cupcake is enough to satisfy your sweet tooth.  :D

I call these cupcakes a delicacy because, let’s face it, they are pretty expensive! Up to $4-5 for a single cupcake!  All because they are sooo damn cute and pretty that you just have to have one!  I’m a total sucker for cuteness.   Had it not been my mr holding me and my wallet back, I would have gained an extra 30 pounds and would have to hold a second job just to fulfill my wants.  I must admit, once in a while, we do treat ourselves to such delicacies but the problem is, I always feel sooo guilty afterwards!   Firstly, many of the cupcakes we buy are overly sweet, especially with the frosting.  Secondly, we all know it is pretty easy and inexpensive to bake a batch of cupcakes!  So why don’t I?  I didn’t want to make just any ordinary cupcake; it had to be different and had to stand out in flavour.  The wow factor had to come in play. 

Months ago, after some research, I combined several recipes, twit some ingredients, making it my own.   I would call this la velvet rouge cheese cupcake.  Yummmm.  The reason for me to make this type of cupcake actually started off 3 years ago, when mr and I had a slice of Cheesecake Factory’s red velvet cheesecake.  It was sooo yummilicious.  Problem is, the closest location is across the border in Buffalo! So we been looking and tasting for the next best thing locally.  Only St. Phillips, a very well-known Italian bakery, with their plain cheesecake, strawberry topped comes second best.   So the very first time I made a batch of my la velvet rouge cheese cupcake, I was pretty impressed.  The texture and flavour was exactly what I wanted; the cake was soft and moist and the flavour was distinctive built by the cheesecake component of the cupcake.  For those who got to try my first batch all agreed.  My favorite compliment was from someone who said he preferred my cupcake over St.Phillips.  Winner! Winner! 

A week ago, I got a chance to make a second batch of the cupcakes.   I was excited because the first time around, I was unable to take a decent photo of the cupcakes!  My frosting skills were soooo poor that it was an embarrassment!  Sad thing is, I consider myself to have decent drawing skills!  So I made sure the cupcakes were somewhat decent looking.  I still got a long way to go with my frosting skills!  My piping bag kept air bursting.  Oh dear! This time, we shared the batch to mr’s and my coworkers and boy was I giddy with the compliments I received. :D  Some have said they will order from me for their next occasion.  Winner!  

I am super proud of how this recipe of mine turned out.  It had taken quite a bit of research to make this recipe right; lots of patience, attention and love.  As a lot of people say, love is the secret ingredient. J  Even though it was been quite some time that I have put a halt to my textile design work for the  corporate world with a stable Monday – Friday salary, I found another outlet to be creative, with food.  J. 

Do your research, know your ingredients inside and out and you will be amazed what you can put on your kitchen table.  Best part is, you’ll be amazed just how much money you save. :D

detail of la velvet rouge cheese cupcake :D

Bulalo - Filipino beef soup

Last year, when mr & I went to Tagaytay, Manila, we had Tagatay's famous bulalo soup.   Imagine this; driving for just over 2hr on slightly unpaved highways from Manila to Tagaytag, past small huts selling mangoes, bananas, nuts on the road side, small make shift wooden homes to a small street of local restaurants all selling what they claim to be the best bulalo soup.  As a tourist myself, I wonder, just how do you know which restaurant really does serve the best?  Mr keeps talking about this bulalo soup, which by the way, is his favorite soup.  To me ..its just beef broth soup with vegetables!! Just how good can it be?  How can a simple beef soup claim to be the best here in Tagaytay?  Well lucky for us, Mr.'s dad, who owns a beach house in Tagatay knows exactly which restaurant delivers the best bulalo soup.

We drive up to this restaurant, kinda like a hole in a wall style setting... plastic chairs & tables, buffet style setting of selective filipino dishes with flies all over the place, men in sleeveless undershirts sitting on steps fanning themselves..... ummmm... this place serves the best bulalo soup?  seriously?  We don't even see a big pot anywhere!! Well, no matter, we sit ourselves at the table, men with sleeveless undershirts suddenly disappear. 10 minutes later....2 simple looking bowls of soup come out, placed upon us.

Tagaytay's bulalo beef soup

I take all my skepticism back.  Just one sip of this glorious, yummi-lious beef soup, had me hooked and my perspective of a beef soup changed entirely.  To this day, I still think about this soup. It's clean & pure simple style beef soup with less than a handful of ingredients to put together.  I knew, back there in the hole in the wall restaurant, sleeveless shirt men watch over huge potful of roasted beef bones, covered with water, slowly simmering for long hours to flavorful perfection.  I thank you, sleeveless shirt men, for this wonderful experience.

A while back, while shopping at Loblaws, Mr came acoss these huge chunks of marrow bones, and he pointed out, "These are the bones used to make bulalo soup! Lets get some!"  These bones were the size of your head and at $2 each, I couldn't say no! So with Mr guiding me with the ingredients involved, I attempted to make this bulalo soup.

Ingredients:
1 large marrow bone
4 large chucks of ox tail with bone in
1 white onion, few medium size chucks of ginger, 6 cloves of garlic
1 1/2 tbsp of whole black peppercorns
1 1/2 potato
1/2 head of cabbage
splash of fish sauce
salt

Directions:
1.  In a large pot, put the marrow bone in boiling water and boil for 5mins. After, take out marrow and discharge water, clean the pot thoroughly.
2.  Rinse the marrow briefly to rinse of any scums and unwanted blood.  Be carefully not to wash away the marrow!!!
3.  In the cleaned pot, on medium heat add oil, once heated, add chopped onions, ginger, garlic and black peppercorns. Cook for about 3 mins.
4.  Next, add ox tail with bones to pot and brown all sides. Afterwards, add a splash of fish sauce (approx. 2-3tbsps)  Cook for another 2 mins after you add fish sauce then cover with water, bring to a boil, then allow soup to simmer on low heat for 2-3hrs. During the last 1/2hr of simmering, add your potatoes.
5. Turn off heat and allow to cool before putting this pot in the fridge.  If you are watching your calories, your cholesterol, do not attempt to drink this fresh!  Once you cool in fridge overnight, you will know why!!
6.  Next day, take out pot of soup from fridge and skim off all the fat.  You will be surprised all much fat come out!! and reheat.  Once the soup is heated tthrough, add how ever much cabbage you intend to eat for the meal, cook vegetables and salt to taste.
7.  Once veggies are done, serve and enjoy with a bowl of rice! This is the traditional way of eating this dish.  :)

Meat, bone, veggies taken out from soup (pls excuse the gloves:P) 

Close up of marrow - yummmm.. mr's favorite part, spooned over top of white rice :)

bulalo soup :) not as good as Tagatay's soup, but it'll do :) 

A splash of this over the veggies, marrow, meat ... = yummm:)  you can get this in asian groceries