Not-So-French-Macarons: Italian Meringue Method Tutorial

For the newbies, French Macarons are almond-based cookies sandwiching a concoction of filling flavors. Its light and airy on the inside and a little crunchy on the outside of the shells. Originally fancied in  boulangerie of Paris, it has now gained so much popularity not only in the US but around the world in the past few years. For the macaron virgins, it is now time to join the trend and get a bite of these deviliscious cookies!

French Macarons are not only known for its taste and chic appearance. It is also notoriously known for the intricate process of baking them. The hype is certainly validated through the hard work required in making them. Its not only time-consuming but also very delicate. There are 2  methods in making the macarons: the French and Italian Meringue method. To the aficionados like me, it almost seem sacrilegious to use the Italian Meringue method on "French" macarons. If you're a newbie and without all the right gadgetry, I would suggest using the French Meringue method. The Italian Meringue method is less delicate with the use of the right equipment.

The recipe below has been adopted from my favorite blogger "Not So Humble Pie". This yields about 50 cookies or 25 sandwiches. Feel free to scale up or down depends on how much macarons you want to end up with. I typically scale it up using twice the measurement as I cater to all the macaronic-demands among my friends and family.

Not-So-French-Macarons: Italian Meringue Method

Equipment (Gadgetry):

 Small Pan (less than 8 inch diameter preferred)

Candy Thermometer

Mixer (Stand Mixer preferred)

Weighing Scale

Food Processor or Blender

Pastry Bag

Wide Piping Tip

Cooling Rack

Ingredients:

170g confectioners sugar
170g almond meal
55g-60g eggwhites (no need to age or wait to reach room-temperature)

150g granulated sugar for syrup

60 g water

55g-60g eggwhites

Preparation:

Separate egg whites. Unlike the French meringue method, you do not need to age your egg whites or wait until it reaches room temperature.

Measure all your ingredients. Combine the powdered sugar and almond flour on a food processor or a blender and grind for a minute or two. Then, sift the powdered sugar/almond flour mixture. Big lumps of almond flour can cause grainy shell surface and hollow shells as it weighs down the macarons. Do not use the lumps of almond flour left after sifting. I usually save mine, dry it in the oven and process it for later use.

Prepare a half sheet with parchment paper. Most recommends to double the sheet but unfortunately for me I don't have enough sheets of the same size to allow me to double it. Also, it would help to use a template like below for sizing uniformity. 



Pre-heat oven to 275-300 degrees Fahrenheit. I highly recommend the use of oven thermometer to calibrate your oven temperature. Mine fluctuates so much and mostly too hot by 50 to 75 degrees. 

Let's RocknRoll:

Place granulated sugar and water on a small saucepan. Let it boil on medium-high heat with the candy thermometer in. To me, this is the trickiest part of the process. Most of my failures are attributed to this process. The idea of using a small pan is to ensure the accuracy of your candy thermometer. If its wide, it'll spread the water too thin and you're thermometer reading may be lesser than it actually is. This will cause your syrup to overcook which will give your a very crunch shell. Overcooked syrups also makes it hard to mix the batter during macaronage. So invest on a small saucepan and a good candy thermometer.

It is very important that you are not distracted during this process. Timing is critical and this part will hugely influence the outcome of your cookies. Most of my failures occurred during this process.

While waiting for your syrup to reach 240 degrees Fahrenheit, pour 55-60 grams of egg whites into a mixing bowl. When the temperature reaches 235 degrees, start the mixer on high. When the temperature reach 240 degrees, pour the boiled sugar into the meringue. Pour it on the side of the bowl so that its not touching the whisk.

Continue whipping until the mixing bowl is lightly cook to touch and you get a beak on the meringue when you take the whisk out. It should look glossy.

The beak should not be runny and drizzling back to the bowl. If it does, continue whisking. Fortunately, this method is more forgiving in over mixing the meringue unlike the French method but don't be confused: over mixing during macaronage is a huge killer.

Mix the remaining egg whites into the powdered sugar/almond flour mixture until well-incorporated.

MACARONAGE (pronounced as macronahj):

Macaronage refers to the delicate process of mixing the meringue and almond flour mixture. This process will later on determine the dome-like shells. If over mixed, it will flatten and if under mixed it will appear taller and rounder. Of the two though, you'd rather under mix than over mix.

Add the meringue into the almond past. With a spatula, draw a straight line in the center and fold in using a "J" motion. Slightly rotate the bowl while doing the "J" motion. Keep folding until reaching a lava-like flow.

As soon as you reach a lava-like consistency, then stop. Remember, its better to under mix than to over mix.

It may still look a little grainy but it will even out as you pipe it later on. Before placing it on the pastry bag, add your food coloring. I like different colors so I half the batter and use 2 food colorings.

On one bowl, I added a matcha green tea and the other one a purple gel food coloring. As much as possible, stay away from water-based food coloring. The last thing you want to do to your batter is add another liquid to the ratio of your batter. For once, you will get a more vibrant color using the gel or powder.

If you decide to split the batter to have 2 colors, make sure you do this before its fully incorporated. Adding more strokes to mix the colors may cause you to over mix your batter.

Pour the batter into the pastry bag on a tall glass.

Then start piping! The hard part is over! I've been reading a lot about whether or not you should allow the shells to dry out for at least 20 minutes. I've had successes in both and personally don't wait anymore. I bake my piped shells right away.

Place the sheet in the top middle rack of your oven. Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes at 275 degrees. I like to turn the sheet around halfway the baking time to make sure its baked evenly. Slightly wiggle one of the shells to check if it still moves. It it does, then bake for a few more minutes. If the shells cracked, you may have overcooked it or the temperature may be too high. Each oven works differently, it may take awhile for you to become very familiar. I highly recommend the use of oven temperatures.

Take out of the oven and allow to cool a little for about 3 minutes then transfer to the cooling rack. Match same-sized cookies and pipe with filling. Make sure you wait until its fully cooled before piping in the filling. Some filling are butter-based and it will cause the butter to melt. You will have a huge buttery mess just like me.

Pardon my photography skills! Here they are and they're boxed for an order! haha..

I will post recipes of the filling at a later time. Its about 4:30 AM in the morning and I haven't slept yet!

By the way, macarons have a very short shelf life of about 3-4 days in the fridge and 2 months in the freezer. I don't like my macarons frozen because the shells looses its crunch. Place your macarons on an airtight container and allow to mature overnight before serving. This process will allow the filling to flavor and moisten the inside.

Have a happy baking! And I guess a very early good morning from my side of the globe! 







What You Focus On Expands

I will guarantee you that every single champion in all arena of life will say that "focus" is paramount to their success. Unfortunately for me, it was one thing I severely lacked in my life. Fortunately,  I am a work-in-progress. One of the quote that has impacted me so much in the past year is what I always hear T. Harv Eker say, "what you focus on expands". Whatever the dominant thoughts in your mind are, will dominate your physical reality. Very simply, the more you focus on anything, the truer it becomes.

It is very typical to hear "Emergency Funds" in most envelope budgeting system. For years, we focused our budgeting in the realm of emergency funds. Among the first step in Dave Ramsey's envelope system is to complete the first $1000 on the emergency funds right away. There's no arguing that preparing for the rainy days is a smart and responsible thing to do. However, because we focused on saving for emergencies, that's exactly what we keep getting. Either a car breaks down or an unexpected bill arrives just in time for our newly-funded emergency funds to get depleted again. Have you ever had that situation when you thought you could get ahead of your savings account only to find something very important to spend it on? That was us!

After realizing that what we focus on truly expands, we started shifting our focus. We graduated from Dave Ramsey's envelope system to T. Harv Eker's Money Jar. The money jars represents the envelopes, only more visual. The only difference is that the most important of the jars is the "FFA" or "Financial Freedom Account". Part of the jar is the "contingency jar" as I try to avoid the word emergency. The tiny shift of focus has worked magic for us allowing us to become financially independent. Its amazing how an exact amount of money managed with a slightly different focus can have a better result. Guess what, we definitely had fewer emergencies.

Truly understanding that whatever your focusing on expands is empowering. Sad to say my focus towards my life vision isn't exactly laser light today. I am distracted even more now with more wonderful opportunities coming my way. With my innate enthusiasm, its easy to loose focus. The good news is that both focus  and success are learn-able skills. So I am going back to the very basic by forming the right habits.

Since I want to inculcate success in my habit, I've decided to start a success journal. This allows me to focus on being successful on a daily basis. At the end of each day, I will right down successes I've had that day and at the end of each week, I will write down 2 major successes. Journaling about my small daily successes not only helps me focus on being successful, it also motivates me to do something worth celebrating. Today is day 5 of my success journal. I taught an SAT class, something I've been doing for years now but because of my success journal, I prepared myself better and taught the class with a higher energy just so I can celebrate this success today. Notice how a shift of focus can make a huge impact. Same activity, different focus, different result.

I encourage you to observe yourself and your dominant thoughts in the next few days. Pinpoint your key focuses and examine if it is supporting your vision and goals in life. How do you know if your focus is not supportive to your goals? Its simple--look at your results. Are you anywhere close to your goals? If not, maybe its time to shift to a better perspective. Shift your focus from focusing on the  problem to the solution itself. Use helpful tools like journaling and the jar system.

Truly understanding the power of focus is liberating. Within one year of shifting our focus to a more solution-oriented perspective, Marlon and I have accomplished things we only dreamed of years ago. We now know to channel our energy and focus only on things that supports our vision. Its amazing how a small shift of focus from "emergency funds" to "financial freedom funds" changed our lives exponentially.

Bacon Cups Breakfast

Bacon Cups Breakfast: Recipe

This is a perfect concoction to serve for brunch or holiday breakfast. Its scrumptious and super easy to make. The idea of this recipe is that you can fill the bacon cups with just about anything you want. Some fill it with pancake mix in the bottom and sunnyside up. For this recipe, I used sourdough bread for my base and eggwhites and turkey bacon.

Turkey Bacon Breakfast Cups Recip

Cooking Time: 25 minutes


Ingredients:
5 Turkey Bacon (cut in half)
2 sourdough bread
jack/cheddar cheese
5eggwhites
chopped chive
pepper

silicone cupcake cups (preferred) but other cupcake cups or pans are fine
baking sheet
round cookie cutter

Pre-heat oven at 375 degrees.

1. Cook halved bacon slices but not thoroughly for about 2 minutes.
2. With a round cookie cutter, cut 5 pieces of bread.

3. Once bacon is half-cooked, place it on the side of the silicone cup. 
4. Add the bread to use as a base. Sprinkle some cheese into the bread.

 5. Add chive into the eggwhites and pour the eggwhites into the bacon cups.

6. Sprinkle the top of the egg with freshly ground pepper.
7. Place the bacon cups on a flat baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until the eggwhites are cooked.
8. Take bacon cups out of the silicone cups and serve immediately. You can drizzle ketchup on the cups. 

A Personal Invitation

Marlon and I would like to extend an invitation to you and a guest to join us in this life-changing seminar.

Millionaire Mind Intensive

Convention Center

J St Sacramento

April 5 thru 7

7:00 AM 

In 2008, Marlon and I became part of a multi-level marketing in Financial Services. Though we did not pursue that business opportunity for long, it became clear to us that more than anything in life, we wanted to have the freedom of time. For the first time, we actually believe that there is more to life than our 8-5 jobs and the crazy part is that we believed we can do it. Our long journey and still an on-going journey  to entrepreneurship began that year. We've had few failed businesses since we started but our heart to achieve financial freedom never faded.

In 2012, we've officially launched our business " Mobility Express Homecare & Transportation". Marlon and I quit our jobs and fully committed ourselves to this new cause. Often, we heard that the first year is the toughest. Some say that actually starting the business is the hardest part, it become easy as time goes. Maybe, maybe not. In my experience, the hardest part is GROWING you as a person. The growth or success of our business is directly related to how much we've grown in character and in strength.

For the first half of our first year, we were struggling financially. We weren't getting enough business and it felt like there's a huge wall of resistance. What are we doing wrong? Is starting this business even a good idea? Are we in the right business? Somehow, I miss the sense of security and structure in being an employee. I miss going home and tuning work-related things out.

To get a different result, you have to do things differently. It is foolish to wonder why you keep getting stuck when you've been doing the same things month after month. We realized we had to muster  up all the courage we could and push on. 

Out of our desperation, our prayers were answered. NO, God did not throw clients right in front of our noses. Instead, we came across T. Harv Eker's "Millionaire Mind Intesive". Marlon couldn't go the first time I attended the event. I had no idea what was in store for me. I've learned most importantly that my character and strength defines my success. The result in my business is merely a reflection of who I am.

Marlon and I learned about our money personalities and how our relationship with money has affected our marriage and our results. We've learned new approach to budgeting and other strategies. Immediately, we've implemented our new-found MMI knowledge into our lives and almost immediately, we are seeing better results.

Its not even a year yet since our first MMI but Marlon and I have already achieved in our business what we could not achieve for 10 years in our jobs. We became financially free! To some, this may be a new concept. Financial independence means having an income (passive income) even without putting in the work. This also translates to having the freedom of time that we can spend it with each other whenever we want to. People assume that you  need so many millions to do that but that's not the case. Thank God for MMI, we now understand differently.

Other than marrying the best husband, the single most impact-full event in my life is attending Millionaire Mind Intesive. Last year, we brought so many of our friends whose lives are changed just as much as ours. We simply keep coming back and its happening in our neighborhood this time (Sacramento)!

All it took was the courage to dream! In 2008, we dreamed of a life beyond our 8-5 jobs; a life of freedom of time and money. Its been a long shot but its worth every wait. I dare you to dream! That's all you need to get started, just dare! With MMI, you will learn about the reason to your current money habits and how its affecting you and your family. Then, you will learn practical strategies to help you propel your current financial situation to where you want to be.

In 2008, Marlon and I were heavily in debt, no savings, tired of our jobs and desperate. This could be you or anyone you know. If we can do it, so can you!  Our mission is now to help educate couples and individual about being in their best financial position. This seminar did not only help us climb the wall we were facing in our business but also in our marriage.

From our hearts, we are inviting you to join us on this life-changing event! April 5th thru 7th, Friday thru Sunday at the Sacramento Convention Center. I know its hard to take off for 3 days but make an exception. If you want more out of life, then you have to stop making excuses and start doing things differently. If Day 1 doesn't already change you, by all means skip the rest of the seminar. You owe it to yourself and your family to be the best that you can be and this could be the start!

If you're interested, send me a Facebook message or email me at grace.capon@yahoo.com. Here's the link to sign up for the event:

http://www.millionairemindevents.com/united-states/sacramento/

By the way, this cost $795.00 but you can get it free using this link. Consider it a special gift from us! 

Lotsa Love -Grace & Marlon

Super Easy Rosemary Roasted Shrimp with French's Onion Topping

You cannot possibly screw up on this recipe, its just that easy! So, ditch the measuring cups and allow your senses to take over. The combination of the smell of rosemary and onions swirling in your kitchen will make this recipe a definite go-to for busy weeknights.
Ingredient:
Peeled and devined shrimps
Olive oil
Freshly ground salt abduction pepper
Rosemary sprigs
Garlic powder
French's onions (optional)
Begin by infusing the rosemary flavor into your Olive oil. On a shallow oven-proof pan, drizzle enough Olive oil to be able to coat your shrimp later on. In the pan, add the sprigs of rosemary, salt and pepper. Toss lightly and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 4-6 minutes. Rosemary's aroma will take over your kitchen.
Take the pan out of the oven and place the thawed-out shrimp. Make sure its dry and at room temperature. The water from the frozen shrimp will lessen the flavors. Then add garlic and more salt and pepper if desired.
Lightly toss the shrines to fully coat with the rosemary-infused Olive oil. Bake for 3-5 minutes until slightly orange out not cooked  through.
Add french's onions on top of the half-cooked shrimp. Turn your oven to the broil settings and broil the shrimp and onions for another 3-6 minutes until browned.
Viola! Here's your 15-minute dish. You wouldn't think something so good can very that easy to make.
The use if French's onions is optional. Rosemary in itself can flavor the shrimp quite delectably. I paired mine with a green salad and instead of croutons, the crunchy texture of the broiled onions substituted it. Also, its much flavorful compared to the croutons.
It was a perfect match to top on my Greek salad with red vinegar dressing. Salads can be bland at times but the shrimp made it just more exciting.

Easy 3-Course Week Night Meal

Who doesn't love an intimate and gourmet dinner at home with great company? Don't we all?! Now let me ask this again, who doesn't love hosting a gourmet dinner at home with great company on a weekday? Probably most of us don't. The notion that gourmet home dinners does not belong on a weekday is wrong. The only difference is preparation and finding the right menu.

For my cousin's 30th birthday, I've decided to make an intimate and fancy dinner for a group of 8 people. Unfortunately, with the craziness of our schedule, the only day we could do it is on Thursday. It took 4 days to plan this dinner. And when I say plan, I mean timing and scheduling is included. As it turns out, with careful planning and preparation, three course dinners are easy breezy on a weekday.

Here's the menu:

• 1st course: Crockpot Tuscan Tomato Basil Soup
• Main Course: Pan seared/roasted Filet Mignon, Baked Shrimp Parmesan with steamed broccolini and herbed-roasted potatoes on the side
• Dessert: French Macarons

Its all about the timing. All in all, aside from the cooking time with the slow cooker, it took me an hour to cook and half an hour for food prep and cleaning. While potatoes are roasting in the over, my shrimps are marinated. Right after taking the potatoes out of the oven, I placed the shrimp which took less than 10 minutes to cook. Additionally, broccolini's were steaming while cooking the steak. Orchestrating your timing is paramount for this seemingly complicated yet simple undertaking. Like everything else in life, planning ahead of time made it manageable and even quite simple.

For the avid bakers, we all know that French Macarons is, without a doubt, a difficult dessert to make. This takes days to prepare thus unrealistic to include in this menu. However in my case, I made the cookies 2 days in advanced. There are plenty of desserts that are easy and fast to make to substitute these dainty little cookies.
 
1st Course: Tuscan Tomato Basil Soup (Crockpot)

 This serves 8-10 people. 

Soup Ingredients:
2 (14oz) cans diced tomatoes with juice
1 c diced celery
1 c diced carrots
1c diced onions
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 c fresh basil (or more, adjust to your taste)
4-6 c chicken broth (depends on how creamy you want your soup, I added 5 cups on mine)
1 pc bay leaf
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

(Roux Ingredients)
1/2 c flour
1/2 c butter

1 c of milk (optional, depending on how creamy you want your soup but I skipped this on mine)

1 c shredded parmesan

Add together all soup ingredients to a large slow cooker. Cook covered on high for 5 hours or on low for 7 hours.

About 30 minutes before serving, make the roux by melting butter in the sauce pan and gradually adding the flour. Use a whisk to stir constantly. Then add 1 cup at a time of the soup from the slow cooker, up to 4 cups. Once incorporated, add the roux into the slow cooker along with the Parmesan, salt and pepper.

Use a whisk to make sure the roux and parmesan are mixed properly. Continue to cook on low until serving.

Troubleshooting:

This soup is originally creamy but I prefer mine more broth-y (if such word exist). It was somewhat creamy but not quite a cream soup. To adjust to your liking, adjust the ratio of the amount of broth to the milk. With mine, I skipped the milk and increased the broth by 1 cup.

It was delicious!!!!

Main Dish: Filet Mignon

Filet Mignon
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper
Olive Oil
Butter
Rosemary Sprigs

Cast Iron Skillet
Meat Thermometer

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. 

Wash filets thoroughly and pat with a paper towel. Make sure the meat is on room-temperature then drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Heat-up the pan on high-medium heat until very hot. Add olive oil and filets for 2-3 minutes on each side until brown. Add butter and sprigs of rosemary leaves. Place the pan inside the oven and roast for 3-4 minutes or until desired doneness. For medium rare, use your thermometer to get to 130-135 degrees and 140-145 for medium.

Take out of the oven, using a spoon, baste the meat with the melted butter in the pan. Then, transfer to a plate and cover with a foil for at least 5 minutes This allows the heat to naturally cook inside of the meat.

Baked Shrimp Parmesan:

Shrimps (peeled and devined)
Minced Garlic
Olive oil
Freshly ground sea salt and pepper

Seasoned Bread Crumbs
Shredded Parmesan

Melted butter
Lemon

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Drizzle shrimp with olive oil, salt pepper and add minced garlic. Mix together and marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.

On a deep bowl, mix together the bread crumbs and parmesan. Toss the shrimp in the breadcrumb mix to lightly coat. For this recipe, the shrimp isn't breaded rather lightly coated. Lay on a foiled baking sheet making sure its not touching each other. Drizzle with melted butter.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 7-10 minutes. The shrimp should be crusty yet soft. Do not overcook. After done, drizzle with lemon and serve immediately. 

Herb-Roasted Potatoes

Blend of Baby Potatoes (cut in half)
Italian Seasoning
Olive Oil
Freshly ground salt/ pepper
Rosemary Sprigs

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Line baking sheet with foil (for easy cleaning) and lay out halved potatoes. Drizzle with olive oil, italian seasoning, salt and pepper and add few fresh rosemary sprigs.

Bake for 45 minutes or until golden brown.

We ended this dinner with a bang! I made my biggest french macarons thus far at 3 inches a piece.

So there it is ladies and gents, gourmet dinner at home on a weeknight much like a restaurant meal only cheaper and perhaps better! Get out of the bland and usual dinner routine and add some spice to a weeknight. For me, this is mission impossible-accomplished! With my very unpredictably busy business schedule (unlike the usual 8-5), I managed to make a cozy candle-lit gourmet dinner for a party of 8. Not to mention, the french macarons. Pat in the back, Gracie!

I hope this inspires you to find some time in your busy weekdays to gather up some energy to spend an hour or so in preparing a dinner your family will talk about for awhile. Ditch the soda, have a glass of wine instead. Life is worth celebrating and its great to remind ourselves that occasionally.

Bon appetit!

Another Birthday Dinner at Home

I am thoroughly enjoying playing hostess at home! This is the 2nd formal dinner I hosted at home this year and counting a few more birthday dinners in the next months. Unfortunately, it had to be on a Thursday so it was a fun low-key night with great people. No crazy 30th birthday drinking, just a kick-ass bottle of cabernet saugvingon- thanks to my brother-in-law!

Tonight's menu consisted of tuscan tomato basil soup for our first course and pan-seared-roasted filet mignon, maked shrimp parmesan with steamed broccolini and baked herbed potatoes for the main course. Of course, what great dinner does not have dessert?! I made varieties of flavors of french macarons as requested by the birthday girl.

In my next posts, I will detail the recipes for this scrumptious dinner. Who said busy night meals has to be bland and boring?! Not I! It was an easy-to-whip ensemble, all it took was careful planning.

Cheers!

Ombre Strawberry Lemonade Cake

My cousin's birthday is coming up and I begged her if I can make her birthday cake. Note: begged! Once again, the baking itch has taken over. My library of cake and pastry ideas is growing by the day and patiently waiting for me to explore. I got right into the drawing board for my new creation.

It seems as though there is a sudden outburst of the word "ombre" online. It refers to a set of colors or tones that shades each other. Commonly, it is stacked or set beside each other to see the color tone change slightly. The use of ombre extends from fabric to hair color and now pastries. I found my best new unexplored baking territory to conquer.

The Inspiration

I got my inspiration from two different cake ideas. On the left is a small ombre cake cut with a round cookie cutter. The other is a strawberry lemonade cake.

Here's what I came up with:

Unfortunately, the lack of the right equipment concealed the ombre appearance. Since I did not exactly plan this out, I could not find a cookie cutter wide enough for my ideal cake size. By accident, the cake looked rustic instead of elegant.

I was hoping that when sliced, the ombre will finally become obvious. Hint of ombre is present but not quite obvious in the pictures. The frosting smudges obstructed the ombre effect. Also, I can still improve on the color palette for better effect.

I think using just the color purple is a better approach instead of pink. What I could've done is stick to purple and varied the amount I added in each batch. 

Though not quite visually stunning, it was delicious nonetheless. Butter creams are mostly really sweet. The beauty of this fronting is you have more control of the amount of sugar without sacrificing the consistency of the frosting. It is an explosion of flavor in your mouth with the combination of strawberry cake plus vanilla white cake. Also, lemon and strawberry works together,who would've known?! : )

This is another one of my lazy-woman/busy-woman's recipe. Of all the cakes I've baked in the last year, this is by far the fastest. Its a combination of easy recipe and a now more-experienced baker - moi! Believe it or not, it only took me an hour on the dot to come up with this confection.

Ingredients: The Cakes
 
Box of Strawberry Cake Mix
Box of Classic White Cake Mix
Eggs, Water, Oil (the usual ingredients needed as instructed in the box)
Red, Purple Food Coloring

Box of Fresh Strawberries  (thinly sliced vertically)

4 9-inch pans or smaller
(I highly recommend the use of square of rectangular pans instead, explained later)
Desired-size cookie cutter
Cooling rack
Cardboard for the bottom of the cake

Pre-heat the open to 350 degrees.
Spray all four pans with oil.

The How-to's: Ombre Effect

Start with the strawberry cake mix by preparing it as instructed in the box. Most store-bought strawberry cake mix is already colored pink however if not, add 3-5 drops of red food coloring. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the pan and set aside. This will become the base pink color.

Add 6-8 drops of red coloring into the remaining strawberry batter and mix. This will yield a much darker pink. Pour into the pan.

To save time, bake both pans together in the middle rack as instructed in the box. Once finished, take out of the oven set aside for 3-5 minutes then transfer to the cooling rack.

While the first 2 batches are baking, mix together the classic white cake and its ingredients. Like earlier, divide the batter in half for coloring. I've decided to color one with light purple and the other very light pink. You want this pink lighter than our base pink so add only 1-2 drops of red food color.

Bake as instructed and cooled in the rack. Once completely cooled, level the top surface of the cake using either a serrated knife or a leveler to at least an inch thick.

The Frosting: Ingredients

2 Box Instant Jelo Pudding Mix -Lemon Flavor
4 Cups Whipping Cream
1/4 Cup Graduated Sugar

Pastry Bag with Copplers and Desired Pipe to Decorate

The How-to's: Whipped Lemonade Frosting 

Whip together instant pudding and  heavy cream until soft peaks form. This time add the desired amount of sugar. I added 1 tbsp at a time until my preferred sweetness. For reference, mine isn't that sweet. I added 2 tbsp only to give a little hint of sweet. After all, lemons are supposed to be tangy.

One thing I didn't do that would make a huge difference is adding lemon zest into the frosting. It will give it a more tangy taste. 

Keep whisking until the desired frosting consistency is achieved. Mine took about 10 minutes with a hand mixer. It was a tad bit softer than a buttercream.

The Assembly: Ombre Strawberry Lemonade Cake

To fully create the ombre effect, use a cookie cutter big enough for your desired cake size to trim the sides. This will take out the brownish sides of the cake and exposes the actual color. Unfortunately, I didn't have an 8-inch cookie cutter.

I highly recommend the use of either square or rectangular pan. This way, even without the cookie cutter, the sides of the cake can be carved out. 

Set the prepared pastry bag on a tall glass. Pour half the frosting into the pastry bag.

Set the lightest pink cake into the cardboard by adding some frosting in between to serve as an adhesive. Spread out frosting on top with a spatula using the remaining frosting in the bowl. Top with strawberries slices.

Add the base pink next then the dark pink and lastly the purple adding the frosting and strawberries in each step. You can reverse the color arrangement.

Lastly, using the piping bag, decorate the top layer of your cake. You may or may not add strawberis on top.

Viola!

With mine, I only made half the amount of frosting portion listed above and it wasn't enough! So I only added 2 more layers of cake leaving 1 out.

 

The cake was not only delicious, it was also gorgeous. 

 Since I did not have the cookie cutter, I could've covered the entire cake with the frosting to conceal the less-than-perfect sides and highlight the ombre once sliced. My mistake is that I only  made half the portion size of the frosting recipe above. I barely had enough to cover the top layer. Now as I imagine it, it would be gorgeous to have it all covered with the lemonade frosting.

For the more elegant look after slicing the cake, skip the strawberry slices in between layers. It is clear in the picture below how messy-looking it can be once sliced. In doing so, I must note that you may be sacrificing taste with looks.

I will skip my usual troubleshooting part of the blog where I outline improvements. Since this is my first time, everything is trial and error. I plan on making a more elegant version of this confection soon with some minor tweaking.

Great Dinner, Great Company

The time has finally come! My "baby girl" Rose has turned 21! Yes, the big 21! For a 27-year-old friend of an 18-year-old girl, the 3-year wait seems like forever. Its hard being around under-aged kids, our activities are very limited. 

Rose and I met through the US Army in January 2011. We were roommates in AIT (Advanced Individual Training) in Fort Lee Virginia as Logistical Specialist. I'm proud to say, we both graduated with honors in our class. Even after our training in Virginia, we still became roommates in Stockton until last year. This girl holds a special place in my heart. Not only we became friends, I became her mentor and its quite obvious with the age gap. I've seen her struggle, made mistakes and now finally kicking-ass with just about anything she touches. I am very proud of the woman that she became now along with an endearing husband.

I could not possibly pass-up on a 21st birthday! Unfortunately, we had to celebrate it on a weekday so it wasn't quite as crazy as 21st birthdays usually go. I prepared dinner for Mr & Mrs Pavlushkin and Mr & Mrs Aquino. Nothing too extravagant, just combination of things I knew she liked.

Believe it or not, I only started preparing and cooking an hour an a half before dinner. With my business growing rapidly, finding time to do other things is getting harder. Luckily my mother-in-law's on board and made us deep-fried-battered shrimp as an addition to my main course. It was delicious! Plus, we had leftover sinigang na bangus from lunch.

I made Eggplant Parmesan a.k.a. Eggplant Lasagna. I'm not too fond of Eggplants until this recipe. It is not only healthy but also so flavorful! Delicious! I will post a recipe later on.

For the side dish, I blanched broccolini or baby broccoli. Then sauteed it over butter and minced garlic with lemon zest and splash of lemon and salt. Personally, I prefer broccolini over broccoli, its just much more flavorful.

The couple brought us a loaf of freshly-baked asiago bread.

What birthday dinner does not have alcohol especially that its a 21st birthday? No heavy drinking though, we all still have to stay sober for the following day. Here's frozen pink lemonade with champagne, another one of my pins on Pinterest.

 

The Feast

We finished the night with my super awesome cake! And I'm not exaggerating, maybe a little! Check out my previous blogs for the recipe of the Ice Cream Cake.

Cheers to the birthday girl! Cheers to friendship! Happy 21st birthday baby girl! We love you!