Mango Cake with Mango Cream Frosting

Summer is almost here...and do you know what that means? Mangoes are in season again! And yes, that makes my family and I sooooo happy! We love mangoes, you know. Though we enjoy eating it plain, we also love savouring this delicious fruit in different forms. We love making salad, ice cream, milk shakes and ice candy with it.  Indeed, the wonderful taste of ripe mangoes never fail to amaze our taste buds. 

Last weekend, I found a good deal and I decided to get more than 2 dozens of Ataulfo mangoes from the store. After making mango shake and popsicles, I thought of making something more special. I'm talking about this Mango Cake with Mango Cream Frosting...

Mango Cake has always been my favorite. Same with Ryan. When we were still in the Philippines, birthday celebrations and other special occasions won't be complete without Red Ribbon Bakeshop's Mango Cake --- a white chiffon cake layered with light mango cream filling and frosting with real mango bits, topped with fresh mango slices.  The fact that I miss it badly inspired me to make this cake the other day. Instead of a regular chiffon cake, I thought of tweaking the recipe in my Goldilocks Bakebook to make a chiffon mango cake. Mango overload you might think! Well, I tell you, the outcome was so good that the cake was gone in no time. Ryan and the girls loved it so much...and of course, I did too! The cake was so soft and mango-eey...and the mango cream frosting was amazing. It has the right amount of sweetness that complements the cake so well!

For the mango lovers out there, this is for you...You should definitely try it! 

New York Style Pizza: Cheese Stuffed Crust Bratwurst Onions Pizza and Spinach Anchovies Pizza

Making pizza from scratch has always intimidated me. Thanks to Baking Partners, now I know that it's not that difficult!

New York Style Pizza is the chosen theme for this month's Baking Partners Challenge. Honestly, I was hesitant at first and was planning to just skip this one. But after giving it a serious thought, I decided to give it a try. There's nothing to lose anyway.

So what's New York Style Pizza? Well it is a type of pizza which originated in New York City in the early 1900's. It is large, about 14-18 inches in diameter and is characterized by having a puffy, bread-like, outer crust which quickly tapers down to a very thin, crisp middle. No pans are used in baking this kind of pizza. Instead, it is assembled on a pizza peel and then placed directly on the oven deck to cook. For commercial pizza, a pizza stone is used which draws moisture out of the crust and allows it to become crisp on the outside while remaining bread-like on the inside. I don't have a pizza peel nor a pizza stone, and I didn't want to buy those pizza making accessories just for this, so I simply used a parchment paper lined disposable aluminum pan. So how did it turn out? Great actually!

I was able to make two 16" pizzas with different toppings, one with Bratwurst, Onions and Jalapeño...and the other one with Anchovies and Spinach. I made the crust of the bratwurst one cheese stuffed like that of Pizza Hut. The hubs and the girls were totally amazed with how good both the pizzas turned out! 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Of my two daughters, Cherlin (the youngest) is the one who shows more interest in  both cooking and baking. Whenever she's at home, you'll see her helping me in the kitchen --- preparing/measuring/passing the ingredients, cracking eggs, mixing, stirring, sauteing and even slicing and chopping vegetables. Instead of reading story books, she prefers spending time looking at cookbooks and devouring its pages. Honestly, I am fine with that. I remember I was like her when I was little. The only difference is that, my mom didn't have as much cookbooks as I have now...and the cookbooks she had that time didn't have as much photos and were in black & white. :) 

Last Monday, I saw her looking into my Goldilocks Bakebook. She was so quiet and seemed so engrossed flipping through the pages when out of the blue, she burst out "Hmmmm...I want to make this, mommy!". I was kinda surprised to see that she was referring to a Pineapple Upside Down Cake. She doesn't even like pineapple...she says it makes her tongue itchy, and now she wants to bake a Pineapple Cake??! I knew she hates pineapple and I was sure it's just the photo that she found appealing...so I asked her several times if she really wants it, and she kept saying YES. Well, I can't blame her --- the photo was mouthwatering indeed! To cut the story short, I gave in to her request. Yesterday, when she got home from school, we baked a Pineapple Upside Down Cake together...and this is how it turned out...

Does it look delicious to you? Well, it really is! And Cherlin (as well as the hubs and my eldest daughter) said, it looks even better than the one in the Goldilocks Cookbook. :) 

Biko (Sticky Rice Cake with Fried Coconut Milk Curd Topping)

It's the first day of May...and in the Philippines, it's the start of the monthlong Flores De Mayo (Flowers of May). It is a religious celebration held in honor of the Virgin Mary, wherein devotees gather together every afternoon or evening to offer prayers, songs and flowers to Mary. After the ceremony, the Hermanos or Hermanas for the day will give away homemade delicacies and snacks to the participants. I remember that whenever my family was the Hermana, my mother would always make Biko, a sticky rice cake similar to Bibingkang Malagkit, but is brown in color and has latik (fried coconut milk curd) topping. Aside from being my mom's favorite kakanin, biko is also very economical to make, and I guess that's why she loved making it. With just glutinous rice, sugar and coconut, you'll have a yummy snack or dessert in no time. It's usually served during New Year, Christmas and other special occasions and (for my family back then), during Flores de Mayo. :)

Yesterday, the hubs was working from home and when he was drinking coffee during breakfast, he suddenly said he misses biko and wants me to make it. It's so good with coffee, and the hubs really like it. It has been a while since I last made it, so I immediately checked the pantry to see if I have the ingredients. Luckily I did, and I was able to accommodate what seemed like a simple and reasonable request. By around 3 p.m. yesterday, this yummy rice cake was ready...

...and the hubs enjoyed his afternoon coffee break! :) 

Biko is a favorite Filipino delicacy that has a very simple yet delightful taste. It requires very few ingredients and requires no baking unlike the Bibingkang Malagkit.If you love Filipino kakanin (sweet rice delicacies), you should try this!

Nutella Magic Cake

I've been seeing a lot of Magic Cakes on the web since March...and honestly, I wasn't so interested. But when I found the Nutella Magic Cake at Kirbie's Cravings, I knew I have to try it! You see, we're big Nutella fans in this family.  We eat it with toasts, bagels, pancakes, waffles, crepes, crackers, ice cream, strawberries, bananas, and even apples. We bake with it, make desserts with it, use it as a dip...and sometimes, we would just eat it plain on a spoon. It's just so good and addicting, you know! And the thought of how yummy a Nutella Magic Cake could be, was enough to make me jump on the Magic Cake bandwagon!

So what is so magical about this cake, you may ask. Well, if you can see in the photo above, the cake has three layers...i.e., sponge cake on top, custard in the middle and fudge at the bottom. But would you believe that it was made from a single batter? Yes, you read it right! This cake was made from one batter that magically turned into 3 layers while baking...and that is why it is called Magic Cake. Of course, there's no magic involved here at all. It's actually Science that made it happen. Though I am no scientist to explain it fully, I think density has something to do with the layering that took place. Being less dense, the part with the meringue (beaten egg whites) went to the top of the cake, the part with the egg yolks and milk which is more dense went to the middle and the Nutella part which is the most dense settled at the bottom. Oh well, no matter what the scientific explanation behind this Magic Cake is, I must say that it turned out really amazing...and in the eyes of my daughters, there really was magic in it! :) 

I've read that some who have tried the original version think that it tastes like a chiffon cake lacking flavor...so I'm glad I made the Nutella version. At first, I was afraid that I will end up having only two layers as what happened to some. I was looking through the sides of the baking dish, and all I could see are two visible layers...but when I sliced it,  there were indeed 3 layers! It was so awesome and beautiful to look at! And the best part is --- IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! You really can't go wrong with Nutella!

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Roasted Pecans

Green Cabbage is one of the vegetables that my daughters don't wanna eat. They say it smells awful. Whenever I make pancit, nilaga, chopsuey, vegetable stir-fry or even salad with green cabbage in it, they would eat everything else except the green cabbage. That is how much they hate this nutritious vegetable. They don't have a problem with red, napa and savoy cabbages, neither with bok choy...but with green cabbage and its miniature counterpart, Brussels Sprouts, it's totally a different story. My daughters will do everything to avoid eating them!

Unlike the green cabbage which I grew up eating, "Brussels Sprouts" is something I haven't heard of until I came to the US. The first time I saw Brussels Sprouts at the supermarket, I thought they are baby green cabbages. Well, they look exactly like green cabbage...and they taste the same too! They actually belong to the same family, but they are of different variety. Brussels Sprouts won't grow into big cabbage heads like what I first thought. They grow on a tall stalk and stay small (only 1"-1.6" in diameter) even when they are mature. But like cabbage, Brussels Sprouts is an excellent source of vitamins A, B6, C and K. They are also rich in protein, fiber and antioxidants...and also contain iron, copper, calcium, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. They are incredibly nutritious vegetables...but like cabbage, they have a strong unpleasant smell which my daughters don't like. 

But this Oven Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Roasted Pecans seems irresistible for them. My daughters love bacon...so I thought adding some in a Brussels Sprouts dish will definitely lure them to eat one of their most hated vegetables. Well, it worked! The first time I made this, they seemed so excited seeing all the bacon in it...though still a bit hesitant to try it. But Cherlin started digging in when she noticed that she could hardly smell the Brussels Sprouts...and then, Clarise followed. Since then, Brussels Sprouts is no longer a part of their "not-to-eat" list.