Guest Post at Nava-K.com Featuring Suman sa Lihiya

Happy Monday everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

I am glad to be doing another guest post today. This time it's for my Malaysian friend, Nava who has this very wonderful lifestyle blog called Nava-K.com where she shares her love for beauty, fashion and food. I am one of the lucky bloggers she asked to do guest posts for her while she attends to some important matters. I am truly honored for this opportunity, and I've chosen to feature a favorite Filipino kakanin (sweet rice delicacy) called Suman sa Lihiya. This is basically glutinous rice with lye wrapped in banana leaves and is something we, Filipinos enjoy either as snack or dessert.

Please drop by Nava's blog and see for yourself how to make this very simple yet so delicious kakanin! While you're there, be sure to check out Nava's recipes as well as her fashion, beauty and travel tips! Don't forget to subscribe to Nava's blog and follow her on Facebook  and Twitter too! 

Guest Post on Wok With Ray Featuring Filipino Custard Cake

It's a wonderful Friday morning and I am super excited to be doing a guest post at one of my favorite blogs! (^.^) Which blog am I talking about? It's Wok With Ray...which is owned and written by Ray Gingco. Does that name ring a bell to you? Ray is a popular Filipino blogger who I admire a lot! He's one of those guys who enjoy cooking and do it so beautifully. A simple dish can turn into something very appealing with his food styling and photography skills. But that's not all! I admire him more for being able to maintain a wonderful blog while juggling an IT career, a catering business and a family life. I find him so AWESOME...and I'm really a big fan of him, I tell yah!

For my guest post, I am sharing my favorite Filipino Custard Cake. I've been reading Ray's blog for a year now, and I've noticed that he hasn't shared any baked treats yet so when he asked me if I could do a guest post for him, I thought it would be nice to share a cake with his readers for a change.

Hope you'll all head over to Wok With Ray to join me and know more about this delicious upside down cake! While you're there, be sure to dig into Ray's archives!  You'll surely be amazed with all the recipes you'll find! And please don't forget to subscribe to Ray's blog and follow him on Facebook  and Twitter as well! 

Happy Friday to y'all!

Dulce Dé Leche and Coffee Cake with Caramel Latte Glaze from Chic & Gorgeous Treats

It's Friday! That means the weekend is almost here again...and I know you guys are excited! But before you indulge into whatever weekend activities you're planning, check out what I have for you today! I'm pretty sure that just like the thoughts of the weekend, this will excite you too...and will definitely give you delight!

Are you drooling now? So mouth watering hah! Well, I didn't make this one...I wish I did though! As I've mentioned many times before, I am not much of a baker. I bake but I can't say I'm that good at it...so I really admire those who are, and Joanna Tham (or Jo as I call her) is one of them! She's the Malaysian blogger behind Chic & Gorgeous Treats...and she made that cake! I requested her to do a guest post on my favorite Dulce De Leche Cake...but to my surprise, she made something even better - a combination of two of my favorite cakes: Dulce De Leche and Coffee! Wow! She's truly amazing, isn't she? Well, I've known that for more than a year now, that's why I am a big fan of her and her blog! Jo is one of the most passionate baking bloggers I know and I tell you, she makes the most fabulous baked treats...from cakes, cookies, cupcakes to donuts, pies and tarts! She's a gifted baker I tell yah! She truly is admirable and I am thankful and honored to have her here today! Without further ado, I give you Joanna Tham...

Hi there foodies! I’m thrilled be able to guest post for Tina today. If you don’t know who I am, or that is because I am still new in the whole food blogging era, I’m Joanna, the blog owner of Chic & Gorgeous Treats. By day, I am an IT consultant and by night or mostly weekends, I pretend to be a patisserie chef, and I suspect this could be my alter ego too.

What do I have installed for you today? This is quite a mouth full. I baked one of Tina’s favorite cake but with my own spin to it. It’s DULCE DE LECHE & COFFEE CAKE with CARAMEL LATTE GLAZE. These flavor combination is truly inspired by one of my favorite caffeine drink, Iced Caramel Latte.

If you’re curious, and wondering what is the difference between Dulce De Leche and Caramel? Apart from the color and taste, they are both rich amber brown and sweet. Dulce De Leche, a Portuguese version is made from sweetened milk (in this case condensed milk), where it’s either baked in an oven, using the bain marie method or cook in a double boiler until the sugar caramelizes.

In my opinion, I think it’s much easier to make compared to Caramel which I believe is the English version. Caramel requires you to cook sugar and water together until its golden brown in color over low heat without letting the sugar burn, and lastly adding the cream to the caramelized sugar to transform it into a caramel. All it takes is 1 second of your attention away from the sauce pan and you will end up having burnt sugar. It sure has happen to me a number of times.

While I might steer away slightly from the original Dulce De Leche Cake; I assure you this DULCE DE LECHE & COFFEE CAKE with CARAMEL LATTE GLAZE pound cake is just as good. Maybe double or triple the goodness. Let me break it down for you. It has 2 flavors in a cake dulce de leche and espresso. I was really inspired by my favorite caffeine drink Iced Caramel Latte; and just knew that the coffee would help tone the sweetness level of dulce de leche and also adding that extra aroma and richness to the overall pound cake. The smell of your kitchen will be heavenly when it's freshly baked out of the oven. To emulate some classic steps of Dulce de Leche cake, I made my own Caramel Latte Glaze, with something extra too "Bailey's Irish Cream" to drizzle over the cake. To finish off, I topped off with heaps of crushed Snyder's Salted Pretzels.

Have a wonderful weekend and hope you enjoy this post as much I enjoyed baking this cake for you. Do pop over and give me a holler!

Chicken Biryani from Playful Cooking

Truth be told, one of the few things that my husband and I have in common is our love for food. We enjoy cooking and eating together since our dating years. We've shared the best and worst meals of our lives...but there's nothing about food that we have ever argued about. Back when we were in the Philippines (when we didn't have the  girls yet and didn't care that much about frugality), Ryan and I used to enjoy eating out a lot! We really loved trying different cuisines...but I don't remember being able to try Indian Cuisine back then. Actually, I don't even know if there was as Indian restaurant in Manila that time. It was only here in Texas that we got our first experience with Indian food...and it was like we fell in love with it at first taste! Ryan and I both love spicy food...and with all the different herbs and spices used in Indian Cuisine, we find it perfect for our taste buds. 

For our PiTCC's Favorite Dishes from Around The World series, I want to share with you one of the Indian dishes that have become my favorite. It's called Chicken Biryani. 

Biryani is a dish that's popular in India and Pakistan and is made of rice, herbs, and spices as well as vegetables or meat like beef, chicken, lamb, goat, fish and shrimp. The chicken version is my favorite. I just love the aroma and texture of this dish! It's an all-in-one meal that's so tasty and comforting! 

Today, I am happy to bring you Kankana of Playful Cooking to share with us her Chicken Biryani recipe. Kankana is from India but is now living in California with her wonderful husband. I met her last year when I was just starting to blog. She has become one of my favorite bloggers not just because of her mouth watering recipes and vivid photos that never fail to amaze me, but much more because of her very warm personality that can clearly be seen on her awesome blog. I'm truly glad that she found the time to be here with us today despite her busy schedule! I really can't thank her enough! Without further ado, I give you Kankana Saxena...

Thank you Tina for making me a part of this series and it was my pleasure to prepare the Chicken Biryani for you. Hope you will enjoy it! 

I am a passionate foodie and wannabe photographer who married the most amazing man in the world and I am currently enjoying life in sunny California. My cooking is mostly healthy with little bit of indulgence here and there. We all need that in our lives, don’t we? I like fast and easy cooking and that’s what you can mostly expect to see in my blog :) 

Today, I am sharing a Chicken Biryani recipe that I learned to cook from my brother when I visited home last winter. As a kid, I remember my brother would spend more time in the kitchen than I would but this time, my little brother totally impressed me with his cooking skills. 

One afternoon, he prepared Chicken Biryani and that was the first time that I actually enjoyed biryani. The strong aroma and warm flavors made me crave for it more than ever! 

Biryani is a very popular dish in India made with rice, meat and lots of spices! There are typically two types of biryani - Kacchi/Kutchi(raw) Biryani and Pakki(cooked) Biryani. For Kacchi biryani, uncooked marinated meat and rice are layered and cooked together. For Pakki biryani, both rice and meat are partially cooked. Then, they are layered to cook for some more time and the flavors blend between the rice and meat. 

I prepared Pakki biryani and it's very much like Hyderabadi biryani. It involves a lot of steps but at the end, it will all be worth the effort!

Chocolate Mousse Cake from That Skinny Chick Can Bake

It's the third Wednesday of the month...and PiTCC's Favorite Dishes from Around The World is back!

Today's recipe is different from the first two we've featured before. It's something rich, moist, sweet and decadent! It's the first "cake" guest post in our series...and I am both excited and humbled that Lizzy of That Skinny Chick Can Bake found the time to share her recipe of my favorite Chocolate Mousse Cake!

I'm sure you all know her! She's that fabulous, sweet and very caring lady who's such a valuable asset in the food blogging community, not only for her mouthwatering recipes and stunning pictures, but much more for her very warm and inspiring personality. I met Lizzy through Foodbuzz and I have been a big fan of her since then. I am not much into baking so I really admire those who are good at it, and Lizzy is one of them. Though she's not from France where chocolate mousse originated, when I think of cakes, she is the first person that comes into my mind! Baking queen is what I consider her to be and I truly feel so honored to have her today! Without further ado, I give you the amazing Lizzy...

Hi everyone! I'm Lizzy of That Skinny Chick Can Bake. I am a self taught home cook who loves making every dish both beautiful and delicious. My family is full of chocoholics and this is reflected in the embarrassingly high number of brownie recipes on my blog! My household composed of a hungry husband and 3 grown up kids plus one sweet, geriatric pup named Lambeau.

I am thrilled to be kicking off Tina's guest posts on cakes for her  PiTCC's Favorite Dishes from Around The World series. She has asked a number of her baking buddies to demonstrate some of her favorite cakes. I was excited to see a chocolate mousse cake as one of her options and nabbed it immediately! My youngest son's birthday was approaching and I was certain this would be his idea of nirvana.

Chocolate is melted, eggs are separated, whites are whipped. Lack of flour makes this cake smooth and silky...a melt in your mouth wonder. The birthday boy was smitten with this fabulous cake...I hope you will be too!

Chocolates are gently microwaved with butter, till smooth and melted.

 

Springform pan is buttered and wrapped in foil.

Egg whites are whipped till stiff.

Egg whites are folded into mixture of chocolate, egg yolks, and flavorings, then scraped into prepared pan.

 Baked in a bain marie (water bath) to perfection.

Thanks again Tina, for inviting me to your incredible blog! You are a constant inspiration both as a home cook and a mom. You are such a dear and supportive blogger friend. 

Guest Post at Exquisite Niche Featuring Chicken Estofado

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. It's President's Day here in the US which means no school for the kids. Before I go spend some quality time with my girls, I want to invite you all to check out my guest post at the Exquisite Niche! If you haven't been to this site before, I am very excited to introduce you to it. Gursahiba Anand, a wonderful lady from India started this wonderful blog late last year with the hope of encouraging all those who have the passion for cooking and baking by sharing her own cooking adventures. Just like all women in this world, she wants everything in her house and life to be just exquisite, hence the name of her blog.

I was truly delighted when she invited me to do a guest post for her. Not only did she ask me to share a Filipino recipe, she also let me introduce the Filipino Cuisine to her readers! As you all know, sharing my love of cooking and my county's cuisine has always been my goal, so being able to do this somewhere other than my own blog is really exciting for me!

For my guest post, I prepared a short history of the Philippine Cuisine, and since Gursahiba loves Spanish food, I chose a recipe that resembles a Spanish dish that we Filipinos call Estofadong Manok (Stewed Chicken). 

So what are you waiting for??? Head over to Exquisite Niche and get the chance to learn a little more about the Filipino Cuisine and the Spanish inspired recipe that I am sharing with Gursahiba and her readers. While you're there, be sure to give her some blog love either by saying hi or following her blog via email or Facebook. Have a wonderful Monday, everyone!