A Baker is Born

I have a sweet tooth. I love chocolates, ice cream, cakes and anything that is sweet. My fascination and love for sweets made me curious on how they were made. And so one day, I just had this strong urge to try and bake. But how? We don't even have a microwave oven. I remember, every time we visit the grocery and pass on the baking section, I always stop and look at the baking products on the shelves. The devils cake, the yellow cake, brownies, muffin, etc.

And so march this year, when the LPG gas went on crazy high on early part of the year, we noticed that our consumption is getting faster. A's uncle said that our gas stove's burner consumes more than the regular one because it has double rings. To save on gas, we must purchase single ring with lesser holes.

This type of burner consumes more LPG. Double Rings.

Single ring with fewer holes in the middle.
Unlike the picture above, this one can help you consume LPG longer.

Ok...because we are trying to save on LPG, we went out to the nearest mall and look for a new gas stove. Guess what, we ended up buying and bringing home a gas range with oven. har har har!!! Now that's what we call cost cutting! :P
Well, A and I have our own hidden agenda in buying the gas range. We both want to BAKE!!!!
I want to bake cakes and pastries and A wants to bake dishes of fish, chicken, pork and do roasts too!

So now I have the main machine to bake, I started buying baking utensils, cupcake pans, mixing bowls, measuring cups, weighing scale and the newest addition is the mixer!!! Yey!!!

My Mixer

Ultra Moist Chocolate with Chocolate Whipped Ganache

Let's eat?

Chocolate cupcake with Cream Cheese Frosting

My two recent bake products were both a hit to our tastebuds. And I was so proud of myself. (too proud actually! hahaha)

Thanks a lot to online bloggers for sharing there recipes. I really learned a lot. If you will notice too, I added another blog list on my sidebar on my favorite sites for baking. :P

To get a copy of the Ultra Moist Chocolate Cake, you may get it HERE.
Again, thanks to Aikko of Bake Happy.

I must admit, a BAKER is finally born in ME...hihihi.
Expect more baking adventures.... x-o-x-o

Photo A Day Challenge: Summary for May

I did post a couple of pictures in this blog for the month of May photo a day challenge. And I did try my best to post one picture per day. Unfortunately, I was not able to post 31 photos. But I was able to post a bunch! I think I missed 5 days or so...Pwede na di ba? :P

Too bad when I tried printstagram, they are not offering freebies anymore. All come with prices. And so I tried Instagrid but I can't filter for month May and so I have to manually pick each photo for May Photo-a-Day Challenge by FatMumSlim.

Here's a summary of the photos for the month of May. Enjoy!

Oooopss! I missed 10 days pala! ^__^

Golden B(o)(o)bie!!!

As my ticker says,

So Yes, I earned my GOLDEN B(o)(o)BIE Award! Yey!

I am ofcourse happy and very much contented that for more than 12 months and still counting, I am able to nurse and feed my baby and give him the right nutrition, bonding moment, patience, perseverance and endurance a working mom can give.

Though I am no longer exclusively breastfeeding Jared, still I feel so much blessed.

I really really thank God for this gift a mom can offer to her baby.
I promise myself that never will I stop nursing Jared until the last drop or Jared decides to wean on his own.

Afterall, it's Natures gift...FREE MILK! :-)

Bday Preps #2: Aedan Jared's 1st Birthday!

Hah! I'm back again, after a long hiatus. I'm trying to balance work, mommyhood and being a wife 24x7, so some personal-blogging-time has to be sacrificed. I'm sure my fellow N@wies can really relate. :-)

Allow me to look back and gather my thoughts so as to update this blog. Ok, I'm supposed to give updates on our baby toddler's first birthday.

From the first blog entry about preparations (click here), I was able to pull it through in a month's time. (ofcourse with the help of hubby A, my brother, mother and Anna - our househelp. Thank you guys!)

Party Theme - Jollitown. As if there are many choices. Just two for boys, Jollibee itself and Jollitown. The other one was Barbie Party for girls. We chose Jollitown.

Invitation - They are included in the party package that we avail from Jollibee. 30 pcs in total. However, we were not able to distribute all. Still have 5-7 invitations with us. I wish I did not write on them so I can make use of it by next year. hahaha.  The Guest List ate most of my time. It's always a challenge on who to invite and updating who will be attending. *Sigh*  We are targetting 100 guests (adults + kids combined). But we are blessed with friends and big families from both sides so the list went on 160. Wow!!! The rest were invited online via FB and email.

Guest List and Invitations

Jollitown Them for Invitation

Party Favors/Loot Bags - All from Divisoria. Ofcourse!!! So that we can stretch the budget and give Jared's guests (kids) some cool prizes and nice take home goodies.

B for Boys; G for Girls

So what's inside the loot bags?

Total of 8 items per Loot Bag:
Sulit na sulit!
Peso Power = Php 35/loot bag
:-)

Pencil + Eraser Top

Candies in Cola Can and Mini Gas Tank

Coloring Books to match 8-pcs of Crayons

Mini Toys for Boys: Robots and Cars

Jack Stone for girls

Bubble toy and plastic balloons

Game Prizes

Party Crew:
My brother Jett, Me & Anna

Photo Booth - By Party Boothster: We got them on promo!!! Booked last year (2011). As expected "BLOCK BUSTER"!!!! Guests keep on coming back. For a 3-hour packaged, we dearly enjoyed it a LOT! The photo printing quality is very nice and printing itself was speedy! I can highly recommend them.

Loved the Photo Layout. Swak na swak sa party theme!
Peso Power: Php 4000 (Photobooth=3500 + Customized backdrop = 500)

Party Clothes - For our baby, its Debenhams for Toddlers for his shirt and Market Market mall find for his maong pants. His shoes are from SM Baby Company but are no longer new because his Nike shoes from Tito Ninong LA that is supposed to be his shoes for the party are still too big for him he may look like a little clown. :P

Cake - On the actual day of Jared's birthday, I'm supposed to bake him cupcakes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of time. I will make more kwento on what transpired on his actual birthday (June 28) and a separate post on the birthday celebration at Jollibee (June 30).

Chocolate Cake from Red Ribbon.
I customized the design to have a unique look.
DIY cake candies are from Goldilocks. 

Party Cake from Jollibee c/o Red Ribbon
Flavor: Chocolate

Photo/Video -  It's Daddy A. We are working on a tight budget so professional photographer and videographer were out of the game. Good thing, Daddy A is good at this craft. Sulit din! :-)
Video were taken using my humble iPhone. Enough to capture the highlights of the party. Tito Ninong Raymond (my youngest brother) and Daddy A were responsible in taking videos.

I am proud to say that we were able to fit in within our allotted budget of 25,000 (max)!
Promise, I will give more details. More kwentos on next entry. I hope I can find the time! :P

Good night for now.