It's a weeeeeeeeeeeeeeekend!
Hmmmmmmmmmmm..
I am thinking of sharing my baking journey with you guys. THough I honestly admit that I am not a Pro, I am way way way far from them. How I wish I could have the culinary or baking courses needed to enhance my capability in baking. I have told you before how I loved baking even if I lack the proper schooling because talking of experience, I have but a few. I call myself as the frustrated baker because there are more things needed to be done and things I really really wanted to learn. If , I have mastered a few tricks or hacks there are still more mastering in some areas. Do you get me??!! I seemed lost myself in there too.. hahahahaha..
As I have told you, I started baking when I had a miscarriage way back in 2017 and that was before Little Mali. I had diverted my depression, anxiety and probably guilt too, into something more productive, thanks to ex-boyfie who had pushed me into that direction.
Looking back, I only started with the very basic moist chocolate cake, no other frosting or customized design yet. I was plainly using tub containers and earth-friendly cake boxes to make them look sassy and cute at that time. And I called it the Choco Moist ala Q, this has been my branded cake for it took me months that I only sell this kind of cake and nothing more. Somehow I had mastered how to made the cake more moist, the more it stayed in the ref, the more moist it gets. I think my cake can last for 2-3 weeks in the ref. While my chocolate ganach is just as amazing more like the Red Ribbon Frosting but better (yeah yeah self-praising..😂🤣). And of course, that is not all, I also topped it with lots and lots of pure dark chocolate shreddings! I knoooooow, they look like worms at first sight but don't be fooled, they are way yummier hahahaha!!!
As time went by, I became really bolder. Why? because I said so! hahahaha... nah kidding aside, I became more creative and bold enough to try new things. That is by doing and experimenting other flavors, too. Yes, I do create cakes with different flavors now!! WOhoooooooo, it is a milestone achieved.. You know me, I do not copy the recipes as it is but I do some experiments where the result would be great for my palate. I don't want to create cakes that I don't enjoy eating. I make sure that I myself looooove the cake before launching them to the public.
My second flavor was the Banana Cake which I often calls Nutty Benene. Yees? you do remember my not so long post about it with Little Mali?! Goooood! Read it back.. hehe
I called it Nutty Benene in the sense that it would stand and turn out unique despite the many bakers in town who do banana cakes. Banana cakes are but simply made, you see, my version is very moist and nutty. I add in generous amount of cashews, walnuts and chocolate chips and sometimes sliced almonds. If you look closer, it is very very moist, the way I want may banana cake should be. I have tasted a few that were really dry, naaah I don't want that. It took me several failed experiments before I perfected the recipe. And now, I am soooo much glad that may efforts really paid off. This is one of the most requested cake flavors these days especially my family. They said, they have never tasted banana cake this good, that is from their mouths not mine, I swear on my neighbor's life!!!!
Of course, our quest for learning does not stop there. The next flavor I had been hooked on several ocassions is the Ube Cake which I call UBEBE because once you get a spoonful you would sing Ooooohhhh baby baby. Yeaaaaah, I name my cakes differently hahahahahaha.. it's cute, aint it? come on be honest!
My Ubebe cake is baked with pure perfection using real Ube Flavorade and is best paired with a creamy creamcheese frosting (you can never go wrong with it!!). But, that is not all, there is a small secret ingredient, I cannot make it without it. UBEBE is not UBEBE when there is no Ube Halaya in it. You heard me right, I mixed in Ube Halaya for a more better taste of the Ube Cakes. Ube halaya is a typical Filipino Jam, it is made purely from purple yam that has been boiled and mashed. I think purpler yam is a family of the sweet potatoes.
Again, my most requested cake flavors. I do not bake this as often because there is a limited supply of the Ube Halaya in the locality. Sometimes, I order them in other regions which is a little bit costly. But my clients insisted it, what can I do but to please them. So UBEBEs are on limited orders only. And whenever UBEBEs are readily available, they are immediately soldout in less than minutes.
Next, we also have the Creamy Carrot, again I call these babies as Kremi Kerut. I have had the recipe from my good friend, Iris, she is a baker as well but she bakes for family consumption only. She then shares her recipe with me which we all loooooved! I only tweaked a few of the recipe to make it more mine. And same with UBEBE, Kremi Kerut is much tastier if paired with creamcheese frosting. In my cake base, I used lots of shredded carrots in it and it takes a whole lot of my arm muscles to shred the carrots. Sometimes I feel I would lose an arm. 😭.. Sadly, I shred manually 'cuz I do not have the required equipment yet, its rather costly and I'm that poor.. hahaha. So, I like my carrot cake tobe more tasty like in every mouthful you can taste the goodness of the carrots in it. Yes, this is as well a very moist cake same sa the Nutty Benene. At first, I was heistant to make a carrot cake because I feel that it is quite complicated. But then, you can never say never unless you tried, right. So I did and I was inclined more to create a carrot cake based on my favorite celebrity chef Marvin Agustin. He is one of the excellent celebrity chefs I follow and super love. He named his carrot cakes as Kerut, yeeeep! I got the idea from him.
These days, my orders either fall for either for Choco Moist or Kerut as their cake flavorings. This is because they are very moist and densed and heavy which is better for making tier cakes as compared to chiffon as cake base.
And last but not the least, I also have the Sweet Lemon Cake. It may seemed simple yet when you eat it, you'd feel of some sort of a blissfully amaaaaaaaazing cake experience. Hey, they said that again and not me!!
Usually, when baking Lemon Cake, my kitchen is smelling divine!!!! The smell is soooooo lemooooony and the taste is much lemoooooony roo. You get me, right?! I just can't seem to put the right words into it, but I swear on the next next neighbor's life, that everything is tangy and zestiest lemon all over the cake. I also add a lemon extract into the creamcheese frosting to boost more of the zesty flavors of the lemon. I told you, creamcheese frosting is the best! It is mostly paired with almost my newly flavored cakes.
As you can see, I am improving a bit with my baking abilities especially I can now offer different flavors to choose from. However, I am not closing my doors just yet. I want to try to create more flavors, like those Blueberry flavored cakes as well as the Strawberry Shortcakes. They seemed to be trending everywhere. That are a few of my cake wishlist, I am but finding my momentum and right timing to do my experiments. My sister 
I believe baking is a never ending journey and may not be for everyone. Baking takes a lot of patience and patience. And you do not need to have all the tools, equipments and gadgets, you just have to have the will to do it and how to do it. There are a lot of baking hacks that can save us from using expensive tools and equipments. Even my Kitchen Aid Mixer is still a dream to me, out of my reach at the moment. One day Kitchie you will fall into my hands..... We will meet someday!
There you go! I hope you had enjoyed my parade of cakes today. Maybe next time, I will showcase my customized cakes.
Love you all!
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x o x o
