My Kitchen Adventures: Red Velvet Fever On A Sleepless Morning

Hello!

I have here a recipe post. Yesterday, I posted about the Red Velvet Crinkles from Little Bites. While writing I had this really bad craving for the crinkles, only problem is that Las Piñas is a bit too far! :( I thought of just making my own red velvet crinkles. Though they were good, I still like the ones from Little Bites better. A few more adjustments I suppose.

I had quite a lot of left over cream cheese frosting and still had the red velvet fever. So, I made red velvet cupcakes. :)

I searched for a Red Velvet recipe that uses the ingredients that I already have on hand. I have my own recipe, but all my recipes are way over at the US. lol long story of how it got there, okay. Here goes, I tweaked this recipe a little.

Red Velvet Cupcakes by Laura Vitale

It makes 12 cuppycakes

Ingredients:

1 ¼ cup of all Purpose Flour
2 Tbsp of Cocoa Powder *- I used 3 Tbsp
½ tsp of Baking Powder
½ tsp of Baking Soda
¼ tsp of Salt
¼ cup of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature
¾ cup of Granulated sugar
¾ cup of Buttermilk *read note
1 Egg
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract
Red food Coloring *- I used a little less of 1 Tbsp of liquid red, you can adjust the amount 'til you reach your desired shade.

 Frosting:
2 Cups of Powdered Sugar
4 oz of Cream Cheese, softened at room temperature *read note at the bottom
2 Tbsp of Unsalted Butter, softened at room temperature *read note at the bottom
1 Tbsp of Milk
1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

Process:

1. Preheat your oven at 350. You shouldn't wait for your oven to get to the right temperature. Line your cupcake pan with liners.

2. In a seperate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. The first 5 stated there at the top, and set aside.

3. In a bowl, you can use a whisk and spatula or an electric/stand mixer. Cream butter and sugar til it's light and fluffy or light in color.

4. Add the egg and vanilla, mix until well combined and creamy.

5. Add half of the dry ingredients and add half of the buttermilk. I added the food color to the buttermilk. When incorporated, add the remaining dry and wet. Then mix with a spatula.

6. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter evenly in your liners.
7. Bake for 18-20min. or until toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean. *Mine was done before 18min. So always check your cupcakes at least 2min. before the indicated time.
8. After 2min. remove from pans and let them cool completely before frosting.

For frosting:
1. Combine all the ingredients and mix until the consistency is of a thick frosting. Best done with a mixer (if using a stand mixer, use paddle attachment and then whisk attachment).
2. Let it cool in the fridge for at least 10-15min for it to set.

**Notes:
1. Use unsweetened cocoa powder. Use the light colored cocoa powder, (I forgot what it's called, sorry, all my notes are with my recipes that are oceans away).
2. Now, here in the Philippines, buttermilk is almost impossible to find. Substitute it with regular milk and vinegar or lemon juice. For every cup of buttermilk, use 1cup of milk + 1tbsp of plain vinegar or lemon juice, let it sit for about 10-15min. If you're going to add the red food color, add it just before you pour the buttermilk in to the batter.
3. Remember, food color gives a bitter taste, don't put too much. Or try to use a no-taste red.
4. Don't over mix your cupcakes or else they will become tough and bread like.
5. The cupcakes will rise, like really big and puffy. So don't put to much batter, never fill more than half full. Best to fill it two-thirds full.
6. Frosting- if you live in a country where the climate is like the Philippines', use cream cheese and butter straight from the fridge. But not frozen! You can adjust the amount of milk or powdered sugar, if it's too thick, add more milk, if it's too runny, add more sugar.

Enjoy and Good Luck! :)

I used this vanilla.

I love the Vanilla Company's vanilla extracts. These are pure and not like the imitation ones, pure extracts are better to use, specially if the vanilla flavor has to stand out. I usually buy at Gourdo's and Cook's Exchange. I prefer the bourbon one over the tahitian one.

The turn out was good, the cupcakes were delicious. It's a dense cupcake, but isn't dry. If you want a more moist cupcake with a tender crumb, you can use recipes that use cake flour. I'm not fully satisfied though, I'm looking for a specific taste. This makes me want to go on a search for the best Red Velvet cupcake recipe. 

The cream cheese frosting on top of red velvet cupcakes that I usually see are piped using big round tips, some with just a big round glop of icing, or topped with a fondant heart, or sprinkled with a little bit of cocoa. But I used a star tip for this one. I wanted to try a sort of rosette look. I'm not sure what tip number this is, it's Ateco, but a Wilton 1M tip is usually used for rosettes.

For a person without sleep, I think I did pretty well. I was bored and couldn't sleep so I ended up baking. :)

Ughhh...

I'm still not sleepy or tired! So I made this post, and I'm done writing this post and still not feeling anything. Hmmm maybe I'll go play Dance Central on kinect and dance my arse off.

XXXOOO,

   Les :)

Red Velvet Crinkles From Little Bites Cupcakery

Red Velvet is a real southern treat. A traditional one will taste like it has the right amount of cocoa that sets it apart from a vanilla cupcake, but not too much that would make it a chocolate cupcake. It is originally topped with sexy, velvety smooth cream cheese frosting, some top it with white chocolate frosting, I like mine the traditional way. I really don't like those red velvet cupcakes that are way too chocolatey. Don't get me wrong, it's just that red velvet is supposed to taste like red velvet, otherwise just go and eat a vanilla or a chocolate cupcake.

One of my favorite cupcakes, or even flavor, is red velvet. It is of course, well known in cake and cupcake form. But now there's red velvet ice cream, gelatos, cookies, cheesecake, truffles, etc. Recently, I had the chance to taste red velvet in crinkle form at the Ultimate Taste Test, in fact it's one of my favorites from the event. I've posted about the UTT, here. A few weeks after my first taste of Little Bites Cupcakery's Red Velvet crinkles, I was craving for it like crazy.

 Before we went to our house in Las Piñas, we picked up my order at Cittadella. It was my second time ordering these cute little sweets. I didn't get to take a picture of the first. Blame my mum, she ate most of it, I guess that's just how good these are. We got 8 boxes of Red Velvet Crinkles and a box of half a dozen Cookies N' Cream cupcakes. Whoa! I know what you're thinking, that's quite a lot of crinkles. 6 of those were for Polla, one of those was a gift for my mum, a whole box all to her self. Two for moi. :)

100Php for a pack of red velvet crinkles.

They come in plastic containers to seal in freshness, no one likes stale cookies. Packaging matters, but honestly, it isn't that big of a deal, it's all about the taste.

40Php/piece for the regular flavors like their Cookies N' Cream

Let's start with the crinkles...
There is no denying that I absolutely love their Red Velvet Crinkles!

Two small, thumbprint sized cookies sandwiching the creamy cream cheese frosting.

These are tender to the touch, you can tell that they are moist. They are soft and are not crumbly. Like little pillows in your fingers. The texture and consistency is great, most people would complain that it's too soft or what not, but crinkles aren't like most cookies that are crispy or pact and solid. They are meant to be soft and light, a little chewy too, and these are exactly that.

I must warn you, you can never eat just one! lol I'm telling you, we are so hooked on these.

The Red Velvet Crinkles are divine! Not too sweet and the flavor is just perfect. It's more on the chocolate side, but not too chocolatey. It had the perfect balance. The cream cheese frosting in the middle is my favorite flavor from the whole cookie. It's creamy and light, not too tangy though which is fine, the taste is smooth (lol, yeah! smooth/mild). It complements the taste of the cookie. I understand that too much frosting will cause the cookies to slide off, can't help it, I really wish there was more of the frosting to taste.

What I don't like about the cookies? I don't like the aftertaste, it's a bit bitter. Must be the powdered sugar if not the food coloring.

A few cupcakes were missing. Polla nicked two.

Moving on to the cupcakes...
Presentation wise, it was cute. Swirls of frosting with an Oreo and Oreo crumbs.

The cupcakes were good! Though not like, "Oh wow! That's delicious". The cake was dense, but wasn't dry.

A vanilla cupcake base with a whole Oreo surprise underneath. The frosting was, I think vanilla as well, but it tasted like cream, like the cream filling in Oreo, only a little toned down.

All in all, I think Little Bites Cupcakery has delicious sweets. But their Red Velvet is a best seller for a good reason.

Little Bites is a home based business. Won't be long before they make it big, specially with all the hype they've been getting. They already have quite a huge clientele. Ms. Cham (name above) is the owner and baker, she's nice. I met her at the UTT event, we had the booth next to theirs.

Try their sweets, they're really good! They have quite a lot of cupcake flavors, from the basic vanilla to blueberry, banana split to Ferrero and Bailey's Caramel. They also customize cupcakes and giant cupcakes for any occasion. Anyway, you can tell how good a cupcake shop is by trying their classic cupcake flavors and not just their best sellers.

Little Bites Cupcakery- Las Piñas

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They have pick up locations at Las Piñas, SM Makati, and SM Mall of Asia (by schedule)

We picked up our order at their home in Cittadella near Las Piñas Doctors Hospital.

XXXOOO,

   Les :)

An Early Christmas In August

August is ending and we're welcoming the 'BER' months again, next thing you know, people are starting to put up their Christmas decors. And during the holidays, don't you just love the feeling of opening those presents. I know, I know, there's the "give love on Christmas day" non-material thing that is the most important part of it all, okay. lol so yeah, but let's go back to that feeling of opening prezzies, the excitement you feel when you're about to find out what goodies lies inside. It doesn't matter if you get a pair of socks or some hideous sweater, or maybe even a gift you know you're just going to re-gift. What I'm talking about is the opening part, and at least you got something. Of course, there's nothing like that feeling of getting what you wanted.

Well, it certainly felt like Christmas in August during the long weekend we had. The package I've been waiting for finally arrived. I knew about most of the stuff that was going to be inside, the stuff I've been wishing and waiting for. Those things were enough to make me feel ecstatic, but there was so much more inside.

 HANDLE WITH CARE

Let me tell you, I was so stressed out while waiting for the box to arrive. What if the stuff got damaged while in transit, what if the stuff for my sweets melted, what if the mixer was broken. A package from the US via LBC (via sea) usually takes about, give and take 45 days before it gets delivered. 2 days to be picked up and sorted for travel, almost a month in transit at sea, then on it's arrival, it goes to the customs and sorted again at their main warehouse for delivery, about 2-3 days.

I really thought the stress was over when it arrived in the Philippines, all we had to do was wait for it, but I was so wrong. I must admit though, I'm not really a patient person, so impatience + excitement was not a good mix. Long story short, there was a mix up. But I'm not saying it was LBC's fault, in fact, they have very helpful representatives on their hotlines and facebook page.

Finally, the boxes arrived...

We immediately went to Polla and Tita Gina's house. From Manila to Las Piñas, the traffic was such a downer, but not even traffic nor some fiesta could stop me from getting to the boxes. I could not wait, "I can no longer contain my excitement!" lol yes, I said that to my parents. We finally arrived, there they were, the box filled with my goodies. Of course, I had to take a picture, but I never thought that my dad was more excited than me, he wanted to open the box before everyone finished dinner.

The First Box

My eyes widened when my dad opened the first box and it was full of these little packets of fruity gummy goodness. My Tito Dennis was pure genius! He used all kinds of goodies to fill the box so it wouldn't wobble so much during travel.

Welch's Fruit Snacks, one of my favorite gummies.
The box was filled all the way through with these. Every extra corner or space had these.

The box with the Xbox that I wanted, a few accessories and games. It was filled with other things to, like the stuff my dad and other family members requested. 

The Second Box

Underneath this pile of chocolates and other odd things are the baking stuff. Lol don't mind the unmentionables, Tito also sent a few of his stuff for when he comes home during the holidays.

Not all fillers were goodies. There were fruit snacks, boxes of green tea, chocolates, candy, vitamins, Nesquik, then the random therapeutic stockings, flashlight, toothpaste, batteries.

Fondant/Gumpaste Tools & 101 Cookie Cutters

I do quite a lot of baking so these will go a long way. They sell those here but they're more expensive here.

Pop Tarts! :D

So after everything was divided and sorted, we went to the other house a few blocks away. It's my mum's side family home. We try to come home every weekend. Yes, my room is pink haha, too bad you won't be able to tell from the next photos.

The Unboxing of My Kitchen Aid

It's a 5 quart, tilt head, artisan mixer. I also got an extra mixing bowl. It might already be obvie that my favorite color is pink. I chose the light pink one over the Raspberry dark pink one. KitchenAid has a line of pink products to benefit the Susan G. Komen for the cure. Cook For The Cure is KitchenAid's way to support the fight against breast cancer. Check out their pink product line! And another yes, I plan on having a pink kitchen, complete with a SMEG pink fridge. :)

It has all the basic attachments, paddle, whisk, and dough hook.
Please be careful with unboxing, and check everything before you throw away the box and styro. A few people actually threw out some of their attachments cause they didn't see them attached on the styro packaging, specially the dough hook. Keep in mind that stuff usually bought from the States is a 110v, so check before you plug anything. I learned the hard way! :)) This is a 110 and you can't use an adaptor or extension.

Xbox 360 with Kinect

This is my new work out! Certainly beats going to the gym, and trust me, I've tried going to the gym for a few months with trainer and everything at Fitness First, the kinect makes me sweat and move more. Of course we also use this for fun, the kids and kids at heart in our family loves this!

This is getting long lol, don't worry, wrapping it up.
We were so excited to use it that we almost broke it. Let's just say it really made quite a few sparks at home, literally!

THANK YOU TITO DENNIS! Super thank you! For the goodies, for buying and sending these. And of course, my dad, who paid hahaha! THANK YOU, PA! :*
SOOO HAPPY!

I've been so busy that I have quite a few back logs. Most of the stuff going on was just stressful, I got sick too, then after I got better, I had a few baking projects. I have a few post, watch out for it.

LBC 

webiste and facebook

*take note of your tracking number. To check on the status of your package, you're better off talking with a representative, either on facebook or their hotline. They probably thought I was annoying. :p

XXXOOO,

   Les :)

Thursday Night Dinner At Italianni's

Once a week, me and my folks make it a point to go out and eat. Some of you may call it "Family Bonding/Day", true enough, because it is the only time that my family is complete in sharing a meal.

There's something about Thursday that makes it my favorite day along with Saturday. haha okay, weird. Anyway, this week we ate at Italianni's in Trinoma. My mum wanted to eat there, no questions asked. We were supposed to go grocery shopping, but everyone, including me, was very hungry, so we opted to have dinner first.

"The More The Merrier"

Italianni's is under the Bistro Group of Restaurants (Friday's, Fish&cCo., Flapjacks, etc.) And while there are still some debates about how authentic their Italian food is, I really don't care. As long as the food is good, right? The food is great! I also understand that most international cuisines adjust the taste of their food to fit the filipino palate.

The Vanilla Company Tahitian vanilla

I was out of vanilla extract, so before I went up to the restaurant, I passed by Gourdo's to buy my favorite vanilla extract. This stuff is pricey compared to other brands, but it really is the best. Pure vanilla is always better than the imitation ones.

We were seated next to the bar. While waiting for your food you will be served with complimentary bread and you can watch TV. I love how Buddy Valastro was on the telly, one of my favorite chefs on TV.

If you've been to Italianni's, you'll notice that their walls are full of writings. The design of the place is rustic and was really made to look like an Italian bistro. The walls are covered with photos of mostly Italian families and food. I didn't get to take a picture, the place was full, I didn't want to disturb the people having dinner. 

Italianni's complimentary bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping

Moving on to the food. When I got to Italianni's there wasn't any bread left. :(

The folks went ahead to the resto when I bought my stock of vanilla. So kind of them to leave one for me, one! Their complimentary bread is good, it's baked fresh daily. I don't know what that bread is called, it was okay, soft and chewy, I like their focaccia better though.

Our Food

We only ordered a salad, pizza and pasta. There was only three of us and the portions are good enough to share.

Sicilian Chicken Salad (lunch size)

I'm almost a grown woman, ALMOST, and I still can't tolerate vegetables. But their Sicilian chicken salad is an exception to my stubborn taste buds. I love this salad! It's my mum's favorite salad too. If you wanna get me to eat veggies, this is your best bet. I don't like sweet mixing with savoury, I find it unpalatable, but the flavors of this just works well with each other. I love how it's sweet and tangy, the texture of the fruits, veggies, and chicken is wonderful. The flavors compliment each other. The dressing is good too. We may change up on the pasta and pizza, but we always have this salad.

Grape Shake

Whenever we eat at Italianni's, I always have their grape shake. It's a good break from the usual mango shake and better then carbonated or sugary drinks. It's refreshing and perfect for washing down your meal.

Is it just me, or does the glass look crooked?

Shrimp Penne Mascarpone

penne pasta, succulent shrimps in light cream sauce topped with mascarpone

I don't really like tomato based pastas, I prefer cream based ones. Penne pasta was cooked perfectly, al dente, with big chunks of shrimp, and mascarpone cheese. Mascarpone, by the way, is Italian cream cheese. I wasn't expecting much flavor, but when I tasted it, I was proved wrong. It definitely had flavor, the penne alone was infused with flavor. It was light and tasty, I liked this one.

Angus Steak Pizza

minced angus beef, green bell peppers, mushroom cream sauce topped with mozzarella and caramelized onions

I love me some meat and on their menu was this new pizza, so we tried it. Not an ordinary round pizza, this one was more oblong than round. This was good, but nothing special. The crust was okay, the mushroom sauce was also tangy. I prefer their quattro formaggio pizza over this one though, I want its cheesy goodness. The flavor of the green bell pepper was dominant and I really wish there was more meat to the bite.

A bit of a close up on the pizza

This is my pops.

He's not camera shy unlike my mum. We call him Earth Angel, Congressman Ghel because he always wears those barong type polos that make him look like a congressman, and sometimes we also call him Ghel Beybeh to tease my mum.

The Bistro Circle Card

We always get one. The appetizer coupons and the discounts are really great perks. This year's card came with the complimentary appetizer vouchers so that you can try all the restaurants under the Bistro Group.

Oh and take this chance to try out their salad. I saw this one on their website.

I have a feeling my mum would love this! :D

I was so full after dinner that I didn't get to have dessert, I ate my Hello Panda at home as dessert. The food was great and I wish I could say the same about that night lol. Italianni's is one of the places you need to go to when you're craving for Italian food that isn't fast food. The staff is very nice, I forgot to take a picture of the manager, he was very accommodating. 

Italianni's TriNoma

M4 Level, TriNoma Mall

North Ave. corner EDSA, Quezon City

It's at the cinema floor, outside, near Time Zone.

Italianni's website and facebook

XXXOOO,

   Les :)

My Mum's Café Breton Crêpe Craving

Café Breton is one of the longest running crepe places in the Philippines, one of the best places for crepes. It's one of my family's favorite dessert place, where we can eat and chat. They don't only serve crepes, they also have good coffee, sandwiches/burgers, other caffeinated drinks, salads, beverages, even cocktails and wine. But of course, crepes are their specialty, that's the first thing that comes to my mind when I hear "Café Breton". 

Here's how we ended up at Café Breton late at night...

My mum has been craving for crepes for a week (I must have gotten my seriously mental craving habits from her haha), not just any crepe though, she wanted crepes from Café Breton. Good thing Polla saved the day by treating me and my mum to crepes for dessert after a day of accompanying her shopping for make up at Mega Mall. We must have spent more than an hour at Skin Food that day.

Polla and I shared this blueberry and cream cheese muffin at Muffin and Puffin for a little snack before dinner. It was okay, I didn't really taste the cream cheese in the batter, but if they were referring to that swirl of cheese on top, then that's kind of a sad excuse for cream cheese, because first of all it didn't taste like cream cheese at all. I did however like the muffin base, it was good. I might like their blueberry muffin then, maybe next time. The kuya serving there was friendly though.

Here's Piggy, she looks like she's really loving her make up.

After dinner at Sbarro, we headed to the Tomas Morato branch of Café Breton. We know there's one at Podium but I guess my mum didn't really wanna bother to walk over to Podium and the Tomas Morato branch is closer to our home.

It was past 11pm by the time we got there, but the place was still packed. Even after they were taking last orders, a few groups of people still came in. The Tomas Morato branch is one of the first branches of Café Breton. A little café hidden between restaurants and trees. It was like a little french kitchen inside, the ambiance was homey and cozy. I forgot to take lots of pictures, I really am new at blogging. 

They have a wide array of crepe flavors, savoury and dessert crepes. From the simple tomato, egg, and cheese to salmon or hamburger type filling. Don't even get me started on the dessert ones, from simple butter and sugar to the cherry preserves with cinnamon-rum flambe, oooh a few sinful ones there haha. For the Nutella crazy folks, they also have a Nutella crepe. You can also customize your own crepe, it's a never ending combinations with the different choices for fillings, sauces, and dips.

We only ordered dessert crepes. We were still full from dinner at Sbarro. No room for coffee or rootbeer floats, just crepes.

La Pinay

The craving woman's pick. It is a mango crepe with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. It's one of their best sellers. My mum loves this! It's filled with mangoes and it's good with the vanilla ice cream. Well, almost every dessert is good with vanilla ice cream. :) Simple yet really good.

lol my mum told me to take a picture of at this angle because the stream of melted ice cream was running down the crepe. Teasing you to devour it immediately.

Mango Loco

Polla's pick. Mango crepe with vanilla ice cream, cinnamon and Grand Marnier licqeur. I guess it's called that because it has alcohol in it that will make you go loco. Polla said it was good, but the Grand Marnier was a bit overpowering. It's kinda funny, she said she wanted something with alcohol in it, she was all decided and excited about it, and then ended up not liking it because of the strong alcohol flavor.

DéJa Vu

Best for last, my pick. Also a mango crepe with vanilla ice cream, special cream sauce, whipped cream,  and caramel sauce drizzled on top haha and another "and" dusted with powdered sugar. Mine is more special haha, plus anything with whipped cream looks more special, don't you think? I loved this, I really do. It was creamy and tasted full of that mango-ey goodness. Although the crepe part kind of tasted bland, like it was really missing that crepe sort of buttery flavor. I still enjoyed it, all the other components made up for it. Once you cut in to it, the special cream sauce just oozes out of it. While writing this down I remember getting a fork full of the crepe with all the right amount of filling and sauce, it just makes me salivate and crave for one again. My taste buds are missing that creamy, mango and caramel taste that just covers the inside of my mouth.

It was a good break before doing an all nighter with fondant. Seems like everyone wanted mango that night lol. Personally, I really prefer the DéJa Vu over all the other mango crepes. The creamyness of it compliments the mango flavor, every flavor just goes well together y'know. The caramel sauce adds a different flavor without over powering, unlike the chocolate sauce of La Pinay that sometimes covers the flavor of the mango and the ice cream, too chocolatey. As well as the Grand Marnier from Mango Loco, which was way too over powering. I'm also not too keen on the taste of alcohol and I'm not a fan of cinnamon either, except on snickerdoodle cookies.

After a whole day of shopping for make up, I got a new nail color. Nail polish really is my biggest vanity. Went to bed with a happy tummy and nails. I was so full, I wanted to get a second crepe, the butter and sugar one, but I was just too full.

Thank you, Polla Piggy! :*

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to raid the fridge and look for something sweet. Writing this post made me crave for DéJa Vu and it's 3am, where will I find crepes at this unholy hour? :(

Café Breton

Tomas Morato cor. Sct. De Guia, Quezon City.

Check this page for a list of other branches.

XXXOOO,

   Les :)