Easter Inspired Carrot Cupcake

I am itching for Figaro's carrot cake and I can't get it here in Canada, I attempted to bake some and hope that it will suffice.

I decided to make an early Easter Inspired Carrot Cupcake. The flavor would be perfect for Easter, anyway, with the bunny usually used to symbolize the occasion.

I chose a recipe for Carrot cake here and tried the icing from this recipe.

I got my chocolate sprinkles and Cadbury Mini Eggs to make my nest.

It's simple and cute.

* Easter Egg Nest 

I ran out of Mini Eggs and decided to alternate other cupcakes with colorful sprinkles.

* Colorful Sprinkles

I am so glad to get this cupcake box at a bargain in Marshall's when we went for a day trip in U.S.A. last weekend. It was the perfect box to house my Easter cupcakes and at a really good price too!

* Perfect box to house the little sweets

* Easter Nest Cupcakes in their natural habitat, no pun intended :)

...and as for the taste of my carrot cupcake,

* Look who we found with his hands in the cookie jar cupcake table

...if this is an indication

* I guess I passed the taste test in flying colors

* * * * *

HAPPY EASTER

...I am the resurrection and the life.

He who believes in me will live, even though he dies;

and whoever lives and believe in me will never die.

John 11: 25-26

Dine In Weekend: Aristocrat Theme

We miss Aristocrat in Manila, Philippines and decided to try our hand at reconstructing an Aristocrat dinner for ourselves for our Dine In Weekend...

* Preparation for the Sisig

Thanks to correspondent, Twinny for doing the pictures of the preparation. Would love to be there earlier but the babies need their power nap to be their best selves by dinner time :)

* Twinny still doing the chopping when we arrived...

for the java rice ;) woohoo!

* Little tidbits of tocinos...

* Sisig is already done and ready for reheating for dinner

What is Aristocrat with it's famous Chicken Barbeque? 

These chickens were marinated for 2 days to get the flavors in...

* Barbeque: Grill in session

* The sauce that made the chicken

* Grilled to perfection (Karl and Mel's Dish)

Aristocrat Chicken Barbeque

(Source: Epicurious Recipe)

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice, or kalamansi juice
1/2 cup sugar
2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (3 1/2 to 4 lbs.) chicken
 

* Java Rice (Twinny's Dish)

Garlic

Butter

Rice

Tocino

Ketchup

Achuette Oil

Salt and Pepper

* Sisig (Stone's Dish)

Labor of love from Stone. Chopping starts in the morning. Seasoning. Boiling, Frying and more.

Thank you for this yummy dish. Made from scratch!

* Nilagang Baka

Short Rib Beef

Carrots

Potato

Corn

Lettuce

Ginger

Salt and Pepper

* Our Spread minus the chicken :)

Pumpkin for Dinner

No it was not mainly pumpkin for every dish but we had to use up the pumpkin from the patch, right?

Any reason to do another get together he he!

plus we had to scrimp on our dine outs

Pumpkin being carved, er sliced up for the Pumpkin Soup

* Chef at home... Couldn't have it any better

* PUMPKIN SOUP*

Pumpkin

Evaporated Milk

Chicken Broth

Bacon preferably(we used ham)

onion, salt and pepper

Spring Onion

Red Peppers

* Pumpkin Soup by the bowl

I had to feed the chef just so he'd be inspired so I made...

* PUTO*

Finally got acquainted with my rice cooker/ slow cooker/ steamer :)

Some Veggies to keep the balance,

* FRESH ASPARAGUS*

Asparagus

Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

...and my contribution is the Spaghetti I saw feature in KrisTV

TFC has some perks, you know... I had my reservation with this recipe and had my fingers crossed the whole time I made this. You see, this spaghetti has something that we never considered to put in a spaghetti...

LIVER SPREAD. Hubby was hovering while this was being cooked saying again and again to lessen the liver spread. I did lessen and it did not tasted like liver spread at all... Hurray! It was actually good if I had to say so myself...

*SPAGHETTI ALA JULIA*

Spaghetti noodles

½ kilo of ground pork

1 pack of spaghetti sauce or tomato sauce

½ cup spicy ketchup

1 can of liver spread

½ cup of cheese

½ cup butter

5-8 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium sized onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper

Hotdogs

Mushrooms

Sugar

Salt and pepper

Put butter on the pan.  Butter will serve as the cooking oil, add onion and garlic. Pre-mix liver spread into 1 cup of water.  Put ground pork, let it cook first then mix the spicy ketchup, tomato sauce and the liver spread mixture. Let it simmer, then add mushrooms, hotdogs and bell pepper.  Salt, pepper and sugar to taste. Then put the cheese into the sauce.

* RIBEYE in CHIMICHURRI*

(Chef Stone)

Marinate the cooked to perfection.

Yummy!

* Corn on the Foil*

(Twinny's Pick)

* FRIED EGGPLANT with GROUND BEEF*

( Mama Maria's Contribution)

* Our spread that evening

It was really fun to cook together and eat together.

The best part was we enjoyed the experience of messing up the kitchen and cleaning up after.

Not the same when we just do it for ourselves.

* * *

Thanks Stone and Twins 

for the 

Pumpkin Dinner :)

Desperately Seeking SWEETS

Now that I am finally trying my hand at working the oven and cooktop, I am always in the search for a quick recipe that makes good results....


With a simple dessert of just grilling a pineapple slice and topping it off with a caramel vanilla ice cream and finishing off with a drizzle of caramel topping.

It's as easy as 1-2-3 and satisfies my sweet tooth for the night :)

3 in 1 Casserole

I love YUMMY MAGAZINE. I have brought some of their issue to Canada as my reference for a pinoy taste, easy to make dishes. My choice for the week... the 3 in 1 casserole.

The ingredients:

500g fettucini
1 can corned beef, saute seperately
1 cream of style corn
1 can campbell mushroom soup
1/2 cup butter (softened)
250g cheddar cheese

Pre heat oven at 375, make fettucinni in a seperate pot. Saute corned beef at a seperate pan. Put half of the creamed of mushroom at the bottom of the oven safe container, put half of the fettucine on top of the creamed of mushroom. Put half of the creamed style corn and then half of the cheese. Repeat the process (cream of mushroom, fettucinni, cream corn, corned beef then rest of the cheese). Scatter softened butter on the top for added taste. Bake for 30minutes... ENJOY!