Sweet Start

It's the first day of Toni's bazaar in SM Megamall today.

And as the supportive Tito, being there was a non-negotiable.

Even before 10am, Toni and her team were busy setting up. And even as they were setting up, the people started to gather.

At 10:01am, this was the line!

Looks like another sweet and successful bazaar run for Toni! 

And we couldn't be prouder of her.

Fun with fusion

With no bias whatsoever, Toni's latest creation - the Bibingka Cheesecake - has to be one of the best cheesecakes I've tried.

Ever!

Amazing how a little bit of fusion - adding a Pinoy twist to a Basque Cheesecake - can make a world of difference.

I'm going to make a bee line at Toni's next bazaar just for this.

Toni's Trinoma Takeover

The folks and I went to Trinoma last Sunday to check out Toni's bazaar. As expected, the line was long and the demand was high.

Since the crowd was building up, we decided to help out. Dad became the line marshall, calling people up and directing them to the booth. My job was to decorate the cake slices and make sure that the chiller was always refilled.

Given my experience at McDonald's, it felt fun being behind the counter and serving again.

It would be both great and fun to do this again.

Pi-stash-cio

Heck, even 7-11 is riding the Pistachio train.

They're now selling Pistachio brownies!

Maybe I'm used to Toni's super-duper-delicious Choco Pistachio Crack Cakes, but this brownie doesn't have too much pistachio flavour and crunch. It seems like they scrimped on the supposed star.

Then again, it's just P99.

Despite feeling underwhelmed, I'll still add this product to my stash.

Taking the cake

Finally!

They're quite hard to find, but I've finally gotten my hands on Toni's crack cakes!

It's easy to understand why these boxed cakes are so in-demand. They're so, so, SO good!

And that's an unbiased opinion. You can take my word (and Toni's cake) on that.

Back to Becky's

Here's another Christmas tradition that resumed this year:

Becky's Kitchen!

We missed having their brownies, food for the gods and Swiss Chocolate Cake on our Noche Buena table. So, having it again this year made the festivities much sweeter.

Taking the cake

It's always great to discover foodie gems from other parts of the country.

Through Becky, one of my former students - Maila, sent a box of pastries from a shop in Nueva Ecija called "Edna's Cakeland."

Their pastries are yummers! Their empandaditas have this yema filling that's not too sweet or overpowering. Their brownies and caramel bars have the right amount of firmness and sweetness. And they had sampaloc! 

Nest time I'm in that area (which isn't soon, boo!) I'll definitely take the cake at Edna's Cakeland.

Catchy!

It was Mark who first introduced me to Pokemon Go.

To say he's an avid player would be an understatement. He's probably completed his PokeDeck by this time. He has a range of regular and shiny Pokemons. Whenever there's a raid nearby his place, he'd excitedly join.

Whenever we travel, he makes it a point to catch Pokemons there as well. Part of my fond memories of our trips include catching these cute characters while we were in Tokyo, Jakarta and SG. 

That's why for his birthday cake, it was but natural that I gave him one that's Pokemon-themed.

When we had lunch yesterday and showed him the cake, he was both happy and excited to see the design.

That definitely caught his attention.

The Sweetest Thing

No, this isn't a post about that awesome song by U2 and Bono. Which, by the way, has an equally cool MTV.

This post is about this cake:

It's a sweet concoction with an equally sweet message printed on top. And yes, the message is from our go-to karaoke song by The Turtles.

Happy Valentine's Day!

From Sketch to Superb

As expected, Raymond took my Chicken-scratch sketch and turned it into a superb-looking cake creation.

This cake is just so pretty, I can look at it for days.

Superb work, as always!

Berry, Berry Nice

As a major fan of Strawberries, this new product from Dexter's thrilled me to bits.

Strawberry bits, that is.

Yup, they now have Strawberry Pianono!

Not biased or anything, but this is the best pianono. 

I'm berry sure of it!

Pass the Panettone!

The fam got a very pleasant surprise this weekend.

Very pleasant, very flavourful, and very scrumptious, in fact!

It started with a message from Ate Lissa in the U.S. She said that one of her co-Titas was going to send bread to the house. At first, we were expecting it to be something Pinoy and comforting like ensaymada or pandesal. But when the bread finally arrived, we were all stunned into silence. (And delight.)

The "bread" turned out to be one big box of Loison Panettone!

I've seen this brand before. They sell it at Terry's and I've always admired it for its wonderful packaging. (I'm a sucker for nice packaging, obviously.) The box is covered in this beautiful botanical print wrapper which reflects the panettone's flavour.

While the packaging is appetizing enough, the real star is what's inside!

It's moist, flavourful bread which is packed to the rafters with glazed fruits. I'd say it's a cross between a fruit cake and my all-time favourite Gardenia Fruit and Nut Loaf from SG. We first opened the black cherry one, and it was just divine! We tried our best to keep ourselves from finishing it in one sitting. (We succeeded! We made one cake last for 2 days!)

Thank goodness for the kind hearts of wonderful Tita-friends! This is a sweet respite which is much needed these days.

Berry dreamy!

Suddenly, I have a craving for Baby Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake!

This creamy, dreamy concoction is definitely TDF!

Where o where to get it?!

Boy, oh Boy!

A few weeks ago, my colleague came up to me to ask about Dexter's making a cake for Boy Abunda's birthday.

After confirming with them that Ate can make a cake within their time frame, they put me on the spot and asked me to sketch a cake design.

This is what I came up with.

And this is how Dexter's executed it.

Pretty cool, eh.

Sketchy Stories: Nice and simple

Last Saturday, Mark's godson - Luigi - was baptized. As Ninong, he decided to give Luigi a cake, and asked me to come up with a design.

If Mark had his way, the cake would have Thor and Unicorns. Harhar. But since it was a easy, quiet celebration, I thought the cake should be nice and simple as well.

Thus, an elegant cake based on the color scheme and invite of the event.

Simple can be really, really nice.

Digital Design

There are times when I'd like to sketch something, but a nice pen or pencil is nowhere to be found.

Odd, but true.

In that case, I just open the trusty photoshop and try to digital my way out of the predicament.

Just like this design that for Richard's cake. Dexter's is going to do a great job on this.

It's actually faster to do it digitally at times. But call me old fashioned, but the traditional sketching is still my preference.

Jesse takes the cake!

Birthdays are a funny thing. It feels like I just attended Jesse's 1st birthday party, and now, he's celebrating his 2nd birthday!

Mark showed me the cake they wanted for his Avengers themed party, then I looked at it, did some modifications, and sketched this:

As always, Ate Bullet and their team at Dexter's did an awesome job turning it into the actual cake!

According to Mark, the cake was a hit! Especially with Jesse.

And that means we did our job right.

Bring out the smiles

One of our clients celebrated her birthday, and they asked me to design a cake for her.

They own the brand Smileys, the sandwich cookie that we launched last year. And inspired by that, this was the sketch I made.

The concept is 2 Smiley cookies on top of each other, and the top layer features the face that's on their vanilla flavor.

I gave the design to Ate and they came up with this!

Heck, I couldn't help but smile.

Sketchy stories: Watch me whip, watch me...

Sketching cakes is a source of joy. Much more so when the cake you sketch is for a milestone event of a sweet, little girl who's also a source of joy.

Belated Happy Birthday, Lei Lei!

Sketchy Stories: Dressed up cake

One of our clients celebrated her birthday last Friday, and the office asked me to design a personalized cake for her.

If there's one thing I vividly remember about this client, it's how she's a big fan of flannel shirts and ballet flats. So, I sketched this design for her.

As expected, Dexter's was able to execute my idea beautifully.

It was such a sweet surprise for our client.