Craving for Mangoes

If I have to choose what food from the Philippines I miss most, I would have to say it's mangoes! The big, ripe, yellow, juicy ones! Yum-yum! Sadly, none of the mangoes available here can compare. I pretty much tried all the imported mangoes they have here but they all suffer in comparison -- not as sweet, not as juicy and too fibrous.

Thinking of mangoes also makes me think of the mango shake in Boracay. Can't get enough of those! Every time I go to Boracay, drinking mango shake with every meal is a must! ;)

Seeing as I'm in a mango state of mind, I decided to bake mango mousse for dessert. Besides, I have been meaning to play around with the mini-cheesecake pan I purchased and I knew this would be a perfect cake to bake in it. And I was right, it produced several perfect single-servings of the mango mousse! And to top off my mango mousse dessert, I even had mango juice tonight. Overkill, I know. But at least it satisfied my craving for mangoes... for now. =)

Cookies, Anyone?

I must say that though I love baking, I've never really baked a lot of cookies. I think it's primarily because most recipes usually give a yield of about 3-4 dozen cookies (too much!), and I feel like a lot are going to waste if they don't turn out well. And since they usually have an odd number of eggs in the ingredients list, it's hard to half the recipe. But I've always wanted to try my hand at making different kinds of cookies.

Last Christmas, I saw the opportunity to try out a few cookie recipes. I baked a few batches of different cookies, put a few pieces of each in a small plate, wrap it in Christmas-designed foil paper, tie it with a ribbon, and voila! An instant Christmas present for my co-workers. Not bad -- I got to try some cookie recipes and spread some holiday cheer at the same time! ;)

Earlier this afternoon, I was trying to organize some of the recipes I've printed out from the internet. I saw a really old print-out for Mocha Rounds recipe from the Land O'Lakes website. It seemed simple enough so I decided to give it a go.

I didn't have the white chocolate baking bars, so I used white chocolate morsels instead. I only had a couple ounces of the semi-sweet chocolate bars on hand, so I used a Hershey's Bar for the chocolate dip. I don't really like the taste of vegetable shortening, so I omitted that one and just opted to melt the chocolate by themselves. I also made a few boo-boos while measuring the ingredients - I used half a teaspoon when measuring the baking powder and salt insted of a quarter teaspoon stated by the recipe. In the end though, they still turned out really well! You may want to follow the original recipe, but I don't think my goof-ups and substitutions actually hurt the cookies (although I wouldn't recommend using Hershey's Bar for this purpose - they're yummy but don't really harden once you've melted them so handling the cookies becomes a little messier than needed). Why they ended up having a cracked texture look to them, I'm not exactly sure. I would probably skip the white and chocolate dips next time. They look prettier after dipping them, but I actually liked the cookies by themselves. =)

Cakes, cakes, and more cakes!

I stopped by Michaels (love that store!) on my way home from work today to sign up for the Wilton Course II Cake Decorating class. Can't wait to learn how to do different flowers using Royal Icing! I'm still debating though if I should go ahead and take the fondant and/or gumpaste class as well. I'm a little hesitant since I think I'm doing pretty well on that medium on my own so far. ;) I'd probably just try to continue to self-study first and take it from there.

Here are the snapshots of the cakes I've made in the past three months. I need more practice, so please throw a party so I have an excuse to bake more cakes! =P