My First Ever Chiffon Cake

MISSION: bake a chiffon cake with boiled (a.k.a. “foam”) icing.
TARGET ACHIEVEMENT:  0%

Hehehe.

Okaaay. It was my first time to bake a cake on my own. That is, outside of class without a master baker to look after me and without teammates to help out. The outcome? #BakeFail! Hahaha. 

Everything went well at first. I enjoyed measuring each ingredient and organizing them on the table so I wouldn’t mix up the similar-looking ones. I was doing okay until the part when it already involved the egg whites. According to the recipe, I had to mix it with cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form (see photo below). I knew exactly what to do because it was taught in class. The problem was, there was no soft peak forming. Huhuhu. I continued mixing but the point came that I gave up. I was damn sure that I already over-mixed and that I missed the soft peak formation. At this stage, I could not salvage the egg whites anymore. I was left to choose between throwing the mixture away and stop my baking, or continue with it and pray that the finished product would still look like a cake. Hehe. I chose the latter.

This is how a "soft peak" looks, one of the multiple stages an egg white mixture goes through when beaten. :)
(Photo courtesy of Google Images)

Because of the egg-white mishap, the base cake didn’t rise enough. :( At this point, it still looked and smelled like a cake.  But I already knew something was very wrong.  I had to wait ‘til I tasted it.

Same egg-white-soft-peak-fail happened when I was doing the icing! :( Look how flowy it was! It’s supposed to stand firm and take shape, but it never did.

My ever-supportive hubby said it tasted okay, he even said it’s yummy! (%5$!2#*??!) But of course that’s him, so I took the statement with a grain of salt. Bolero eh!  Haha. I myself sank my teeth into this unsuccessful creation. In fairness, it still tasted good, but I knew it wasn’t supposed to taste that way. Didn’t taste like chiffon at all. It was more like sweet bread. Hehe. Oh well, I’ll just try again next time! No pain no gain! :) I just wish that Rolly would never get sick of all my cake experiments. I wouldn’t want him to regret buying me my baking tools. Hehe.

Cheers,

Project Brownies

June 22nd. It was Day 1 of my “baking life” outside of our baking classes. Hehe. My project: BROWNIES. Don’t laugh. I know this is pretty easy, I’ve been told that countless times. But as a first timer, I was kinda nervous, especially because it would be my first attempt at operating my kitchen oven, one that’s very different from the ovens we used in class.

I enjoyed mixing the batter.  I started doing it with my bare hands, but I got tired after a while, so I sought help from my kitchen mixer named Missy. :)  This was how the mixture looked after Missy laid her tough hands on it.

And after baking it for 25mins under a 350-degree (F) temperature, voila!  There goes my first ever brownies!

It’s really true, brownie-baking is child’s play! And I felt good after overcoming my intimidation of the oven. Haha. Hurray hurray! :) This will do for now, but next time I will already add toppings to jazz up the brownies so that they wouldn't look too sad and dark. =D Hehe.

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Cheers,

New Toys

Who’s on cloud 9???

ME!

Because my sweet, sweet hubby got me my birthday wish – a handy dandy electric mixer for all the beating and mixing needs of this amateur baker here! Yippeee! :)

Isn't she gorgeous? Her name's Missy. MISSY THE MIXER. =D

On top of Missy, I got these other baking tools!  I now have an oven thermometer, round and square pans, pastry bags with tips of different shapes, a smoother and decorating comb, plastic scrapers, a cooling rack, measuring cups and spoons, greasing brushes, and of course an oven thermometer.  I'm a very happy baking wifey!!! *big, big grin!*

I didn't name each of them anymore. Hehe. =D

I am very blessed to have married someone who supports me in things that I want to do, despite the gastos sometimes. =P  Thank you, lovey!  Promise, I'll try to be really good here so that you'll be proud of me. :)

Now that my stuff are almost complete, I am ready! I'm super excited to bake already! :)
 

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Baking wifey,

My Newfound Interest: BAKING!

They say the fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. If this were true, then perhaps my mom never wanted any guy to like me, because she has always made me stay out of the kitchen growing up. Hehe. Seriously, I did not know anything concerning pots and pans before I got married. I only knew how to eat, but I had zero knowledge in cooking. Imagine how huge a jump it was for me the moment I became a wife. But much to my surprise, I’ve started to like kitchen stuff! Really! Oh well, maybe it’s plainly because I want to be a good wifey so that my husband is happy (mushy alert!).

At the onset of the year, two of the items I wrote in my goals list had something to do with the kitchen. One is to learn at least 10 ulam dishes in 2013, and the other is to learn how to bake muffins per Rolly’s request. I’ve already made progress in my first goal, now knowing how to cook 5 out of 10 ulams! Hehe. For my second goal, on the other hand, I regret having started late for I didn't expect how fun baking would be! I only discovered this after my friend JJ enrolled me in a cake baking class for beginners.

The 2-session course was held at RFM’s Baking & Culinary Center in Pioneer. There was a lecture at the beginning where we were told that “baking is an exact science.” It’s not like other kinds of cooking where one estimates how much of an ingredient to put in the dish. When I heard that, I knew baking is for me. Hindi kasi ako marunong mag-tantya. Whenever I bug my friends for recipes, I always want them to dictate the exact amount of soy sauce, for example, to put in my adobo. Hehe. So hurray hurray sa baking! 

These are some photos taken on our second session when we got to bake and design our own cakes!

JJ and Joycee

I operated an oven for the first time! Haha. :)  I'm holding a "cake comb" on the second photo.

the chiffon cake's BEFORE and AFTER.

My teammates and our kiddie cake! :D

I finished the course! Yaaaay! :)

Words can't express how much I enjoyed our baking class! As in super duper trooper! I can’t wait to move on to the advanced course, and perhaps Cake Decorating classes after that. For now, I need to PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE until I can bake even with my eyes closed. Hahaha. Expect a lot of cake-posts here from now on. :)

Pastry chef in the making,