Cakes: From Scratch And A Box Mix :)

This blog hasn't been updated for quite sometime. I already got a lot of backlogs that I wanna write about but I don't know where to start. A lot of things happened this past few months. Lots of tears were shed because of both academic and personal reasons. Being in Med school is tough and losing the person you trust most, your lover, makes it harder. Again, my guy and I drifted apart. I'm not gonna elaborate much on this but this time, I really think this is the end of our story. What a sad intro! I'm feeling a bit better now though so no need to worry. :)

Just a few of the things I did this week is to finally try my hand in baking. This isn't really the first cake I made but this is the first time I baked a cake entirely from scratch and with frosting! So yeah, I'm really proud of it. ;)

Presenting Cubbie Shell's Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting!

I only had one cake pan with a size I'm not even sure off so the recipe I followed gave me a bit too much cake mix so I decided to split it and make two cakes instead. It was a good thing too since I kinda messed up in the first cake. :)) I thought the cake was already done so I took it out and look-and-behold, it wasn't! Haha Half of my cake was still undone. So off it went back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so. This explains why only half of the cake was shown here. :)) Half of it, the fallen part, wasn't decent enough to be frosted. It was good enough to eat though so it was ok. :)

This second trial was so much better than the first one. I got it all right! It wasn't overcooked in any way. Needless to say, it was much softer than the first. ;)

 Frosted with dragees. Design care off my little helper, my niece.

The recipe I followed for this cake can be seen here. Initially, I thought I made a mistake following the instructions 'coz there was really a lot of oil in this recipe but after mixing it a few more times, eventually the mix evened up. I really liked how the cake turned out. I was just a bit surprised that it needed that much food color. a whole McCormick bottle (20ml). But again, I did like the cake, what I didn't like was the frosting. I used Heritage Cream Cheese and Che-Vital butter for the frosting. The recipe called for 6 cups of confectioner's sugar which I think was too much. After roughly 4 cups of sugar, I gave up following the frosting recipe since it was already too sweet for me.

Overall, I'm still proud of myself for making a cake entirely from scratch! :))

So since I wrote about baking already, do check out one of my favorite baker bloggers, Bakerella. She has a ton of cool stuff up her blog. I first encountered her blog a few years back when she posted about a valentine chocolate box made entirely out of cake! I was really amazed. ;) I like her. Challenge yourself too. Make something yummy this summer. ;)


Btw, I had a lot of left over frosting so we decided to make carrot cake earlier. This one's from a box (Maya) though but still yummy. It's funny, though, that I can't seem to get the right temperature or time to bake this. It was a bit hmm too moist? To the point where I question whether it's already done. Haha But it's good, nonetheless.

The presentation here's a bit unsightly so I cropped it instead. I was a bit impatient waiting for the cake to cool down so you can guess what happened. :)) My niece had a great time baking with me though. Ain't she such a sweetie? ;)

Quick Update: Happy Meal Minions!

I've been seeing a lot of Minions (from Despicable Me 2) update in FB. I read my friends' frustrations on not getting their hands on these little guys whenever McDonald's ran out of stock. There are also some interesting stories of how my friends wind up in a faraway McDonald's store just to find this elusive Happy Meal toy. :)) I just thought I'd join the wagon! :))

So here it is! My very first Happy Meal minion!:))

Cute minion. I can't understand what you're saying but you're still cute :))

I actually haven't watched the first movie but my friends who did liked it very much and are now excited to watch the second installation. Hope I'm free then so I can watch it with them. :)

Off We Go to Matgalne (June 3, 2013)

Bam and I, together with our friends, Fritz and Osche decided to get together for dinner earlier. Since I'm an avid fan of The Pickiest Eater, upon reading his recent post, I decided to take his lead and found ourselves in Makati---on the lookout for his recent hole in the wall find, Matgalne Korean Restaurant.

I'm not really familiar with Makati. I know a few places but I haven't been around much ever since I left my last company, which was along Ayala Ave. Makati Ave. was an area I'd go to only when I'm off to visit Bam (he works somewhere there). When he read that it was near St. Giles Hotel, he said he knew how to get there. So off we went! :)) Looking for Matgalne was a bit difficult since they didn't post their English name outside. What caught our attention their poster of their grilled meat buffet! We went inside, still unsure whether it was the right restaurant but Bam reassured me that it was the one and the same Matgalne we read about earlier.

We ordered the grilled meat buffet (slices of pork belly and beef brisket) for 399/head with a buffet of Korean side dishes. I was a bit surprised since the poster said that it was only 299 only to be told by our waitress that it was for their lunch promo. Still, a buffet for only 399 is relatively cheap compared to the other buffets I know so it was a good deal. My ability to retain foreign names, in this case Korean food name, was a bit slow. Heck, I even forgot about the proper Korean name of the meat buffet we had! :)) (It was Sam-something...I later googled it and the correct name is Samgyeopsal (pork belly) and Chadolbaegi (beef brisket)). 

Oh yeah! Meat all the way! Yummy!!! :) The meat was not seasoned. It was up to you to make your own dipping sauce. I was okay in eating it cooked well and crispy, unseasoned and without dipping it in any sauce. Bam, however, requested for some soy sauce. It didn't exactly change my mind about eating it the way it is but adding soy sauce did make the meat yummier. :)


Aside from the unlimited supply of meat, there was an array of Korean food. From what I read, the dishes served there were a reflection of how Korean mothers cook for their children and guests. In short, Korean homemade dishes. The restaurant was owned and run by a Korean national so the dishes were prepared the authentic way. I think the restaurant was run by the owner and her husband ( I THINK, hehe). I just got this idea 'cause when we dined there, there was a middle-aged Korean couple inside, later joined by an older Korean woman, who later thanked us warmly with their smiles for dining there. 

The food served in Matgalne was okay. The Kimchi was perfect for me. It was not too spicy but season just right. The kimbap was ok (the maki-like Korean dish). I loved their chapchae and sweet and spicy chicken. I would have eaten more of them but I wanted to try at least a bite of all of their dishes! In a buffet setting, a little goes a long way! hahaha Besides, you can always go back if you want a refill. I also make my own bibimbap! Again, a little goes a long way! :))

Here are some of the dishes we tried:

The chicken that I loved.

DIY Bibimbap

Kimbap

Tofu jeon

Since I read some writeups about this restaurant earlier I was excited to try some of the dishes that I found on other foodie blog like the mushroon jeon (a pancake-like Korean dish made mostly of eggs and flour with beoseot---mushroom), Odeng bokkeum (stir fried fish cake), jumeok bap (dried seaweed riceball), and the pancake dipped Kimbap to name a few but sadly those dishes were not available during our dinner. None the less, the dishes there at the time were all good. :)

I actually got too much food. It was the last call already before the take away the side dishes. I was expecting my friends to share a bit of the food I'll get since only Fritz and I stood up to refill our plates. I didn't really get TOO much but just enough for me and a little to share, but still I wasn't able to finish all the dishes that I got. :'( I'm really sorry for that. I would have taken them out and eaten them at home if it was allowed. The food in my plate did not deserve to be left unfinished. huhuhu

 In this battle between food and I, food won!!! :'(

 I'm sorry, food. :'( I'll stick with the "little goes a long way" next time! I swear!!!

Just before leaving, my hand was acting up again. I actually burned my hand before dining there and due to some unforeseen event my blister popped. Since it was really bothering me (open wounds are more prone to infection that closed ones), I summed up some courage to ask if they have alcohol for my burn (I know, kinda weird asking for something for my burn in a restaurant). Good thing they have some and I was really grateful for their concern. They were really friendly and accommodating.

 All in all, our experience with Matgalne was so nice that I'm looking forwards to dining there again. :) And in case the 399 price tag is still too much for you, you can avail their lunch promo price at 299/head until the end of June. :) Or you can check out group buying sites for an extension of their lunch promo. :)

Found this in Ensogo. Enjoy! :)

Been there? Tell me about your Matgalne experience. :)

Matgalne Restaurant, Main Branch
4768 Kalayaan Avenue Corner Mariano Street, Poblacion, Makati City, Metro Manila
Tel #: (02) 890 – 2949, Operating Hours: 11:00 am to 11:00pm, Monday to Saturday Ortigas Branch
2F Millenium Place BIdg., Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, Pasig City, Metro Manila
Tel #: (02) 632 – 9714, Operating Hours: 11:00 am to 11:00pm, Monday to Saturday
- See more at: http://www.kitchencow.com/2013/06/07/matgalne-restaurant-korean-all-you-can/#sthash.2bKKgbX8.dpuf

You can visit Matgalne Korean Restaurant at: 

 Makati Branch 
Address: 4768 Kalayaan Avenue Corner Mariano Street, Poblacion Makati City,
Metro Manila
Phone: 890 – 2949 
Pasig Branch
Address: 2F Millenium Place Bldg., Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio,
Pasig City, Metro Manila
Phone: 632 – 9714

Also, you can try reading other bloggers' Matgalne experience. Here are links to some of my favorite food bloggers:

 The Pickiest Eater in the World
The Purple Doll 
The Pigout Session

PS: Photo credit to my friends, Fritz and Osche. :)

Yellowcab Goes Sauceless: Mrs. Hudson's Pizza

Lately I've been reading a lot of reviews on Yellowcab's Mrs. Hudson's Pizza. They've been raving about this sauceless pizza for quite a bit already. Some of my favorite bloggers swear that they like it. Since they launched this food item as a limited edition, and would probably be gone by the end of June, me and my family decided to give this baby a try.

Yellowcab's biggest pizza would be around 18 inches. Since they changed how you refer to your pizza sizes, from merely ordering it based on it's diameter, they now refer to them as regular, family and new yorker sizes. They confused me a bit there. On the bright size, they now give you an estimate on how many people can share each size of pizza (regular-4pax, family-6pax, and new yorker-8pax). We ordered one new yorker size with a pitcher of coke to be shared among the 7 of us.

Since the pizza is relatively new, I didn't really feel too confident of my choice. It didn't help that half of the waiting time my sisters kept nudging on why I didn't choose New York's Finest (our staple dish at Yellowcab) and that given the picture, there wasn't much toppings. Also there seem to be an abundance of tomatoes which would mean that this pizza would have to be high on uric acid---one of the enemies of my aging parents.

When our pizza arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at how big it seemed. Maybe it had more to do with the color than the actually size though since they didn't really deviate from their original measurements. :P I would have liked our pizza in square cuts though (which you can ask the staff to do but I unfortunately forgot).

Upon tasting the pizza, I was again surprised. It was sweet. I knew it would have a bit of sweetness but I never actually expected the pizza to be just sweet! They claimed to have stroke a balance between sweet and salty but sadly it failed my expectations. It was just sweet. It's not bad or anything just wasn't what I expected. The cheese didn't even contribute a bit of saltiness to the dish. We ended up adding a bit of red pepper sauce to make it more palatable. It was just like eating sweet bread. Also, some parts of the pizza was caramelized making me think of toasted bread with butter and sugar on top. Since this pizza makes use of caramelized onions, I think the sweetness of the onions overpowered the dish. The pizza's saltiness it seemed mostly relied on its prosciutto. Again, it didn't do much for the dish in its entirety.

There were more ingredients in the pizza than tomatoes, prosciutto and caramelized onions. There were herbed Boursin cheese, which you can see as lumps in the pizza, that added a bit of creaminess. There were also tarragon and other premium cheeses. Since I don't really know what tarragon tastes like, I didn't really notice. And the other premium cheeses would have been good if they gave more saltiness than creaminess.

Overall, we weren't really satisfied with this pizza. It's not that it's bad, it just didn't fit what we we're looking for. As much as my mom said she liked it since it wasn't salty, she'd still go for our regular New York Finest.

On a brighter side, it was really a different pizza experience. ;)

How was your Mrs. Hudson experience? Share your thoughts. :)

Give them a hit!
Yellowcab's FB Page
Yellowcab's Official Site

Etude House BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit Review

The BB cream has been around for a few years already and yet I have to confess that this is the first time that I actually tried and bought one.

I remember one December afternoon, when me and my friends hung out in Greenbelt that I was deeply fascinated by the texture and appearance of their skin. They looked shiny, flawless and hmm a bit plastic-like. And they told me that they were using BB cream. I'm not really sure if I liked it at that point. For one thing, I didn't like the shine too much. I think I found their creams a bit glittery. So maybe they were using a bit too much? I'm not really sure... I'm not really good with makeup. Actually, I'm a noob (I'm the powder-lip balm-lip stick kind of girl). It was only recently that I tried experimenting with it a bit (It started with E.L.F. Smokey Eye kit but I'll blog about it next time).

One fateful afternoon, after shopping for Bam's birthday gift, I dropped by Etude House. I would usually distance myself from it, really, since I didn't want to be associated with something a bit too girly. I'm not a girly-girl and the shop with its pink motif just screams too girly! :)) It kinda intimidated me a bit but, hey, that's also part of its charm.

I've been meaning to buy a BB cream for myself for more than a few months but I was still a bit hesitant. After reading a few good reviews and also checking out what the product does to the skin, I figured might as well try it. What really lured me in was that they say that you can use it on its own already since it moisturizes your skin, has sunscreen, evens out the skin tone and gives light to moderate coverage. I'm in! :)

When I got inside, they have a lot of stuff! :)) I didn't look around that much and just stayed in the BB cream section and yet it took me more than a few minutes to choose. They have powders with BB cream (I think), other stuff with BB cream, and a variety of BB creams. I was a torn between the Total Age Repair Royal BB cream and the BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit. I settled for the latter since they're almost they same to me with sunscreen protection only higher in the former (SPF45 vs SPF 30). Also, the BB Cream Precious Mineral Bright Fit was cheaper (798PHP vs 998PHP). I'm guessing not bad for my first BB cream.

I was so excited that when I got home, after washing my face, I tried it on immediately. The product was a bit thick that I only needed to apply a little at a time. I accidentally put too much on my first try that it was harder to evenly spread it on my face. After putting it on, I though my face looked a bit greasy but eventually after a few minutes, I think my skin absorbed the moisture and left my skin with just the right amount of shine. I guess that's the dewy look? :P Not too much shine to the point of oily, still I was not used to seeing shine on my face. I'd always gone for matte. I mean the shine was not a bad thing, I was just not used to it. The good thing about it was because my skin looked dewy, it looked more even and smoother. I liked that about the cream. I used it the following morning. Since I was still uneasy about the shine thing, I asked Bam often if I looked oily. Guess what, rather than oily (which was a no), he said that my skin looked smooth. Oh yeah! BB cream for the win! :))

Have you tried Etude House's BB cream? Tell me what you think. ;)

PS.

I don't really have a decent cam as of the moment so please excuse the pictures. I took them from the Etude House Philipines' FB Page and Etude House web. :P Once I get my hands on Bam's phone, will upload pics. :))

Thanks for reading.


UPDATE:

I found a picture of me the second time I used this BB cream (last Sunday where we attended Bam's nephew's baptism). I used the 2nd shade W13, Natural Beige. Does it look okay to you? :)

Voucher Happy at Mr. Chow! And a Tous les Jours cake! :)

My friends and I have a bit of a problem hanging out. Since we finished college, it's almost too difficult to set time aside to just hang out. Mia, Ayen and Kuya Jalil were working, Kat was looking for a job and I, though not working, was going back and forth to Batangas helping out with my sister's wedding. A very good example of this is our birthday celebration. Kuya Jalil and I have the same birthday, March 3. We we wanted to celebrate it a bit later but, by later, we didn't mean APRIL! See how difficult it is? :P Since our birthday was early March and it's now late April, we decided to have a joint birthday celebration with Mia as well because her birthday's on the 23rd. I already found a cheap way to celebrate it thanks to cashcashpinoy.com where I bought a voucher for Mr. Chow's set meal. It cost me 600php, originally 1,200php, and it was already good for five people. Let's see. That's 600 divided by three...each celebrant pays 200! Pretty cheap for the fare :)

On the day of our birthday treat, I was running a bit late. We reserved our seats (prior reservation required to avail the deal) for 1pm but we rescheduled at little before one and moved it to 2pm instead. I got to SM North 2-ish and stopped by Tous les Jours first to buy one of their cute cakes. This one's the Rich Chocolat Cake which I got for 398php. And then I wandered around SM Hypermarket trying to find Mr. Chow.

Mr. Chow was a bit hard to find, specially if you're not that familiar with SM North. The landmarks other bloggers posted were that it was near SM Hypermarket, near Sbarro, Ground Floor...Well yes, it was near SM Hypermarket. Near but they didn't say that it was ACROSS the street from SM Hypermarket (Enter near Tous les Jours, go to hypermarket. Then turn left. Walk towards the exit and woolah! You'll see Mr. Chow! Cross  the street and you're there).

When I got there, the four of them were already seated outside the restaurant waiting for me. I was a bit worried about the time since I was still late for our rescheduled reservation. I asked whether we can still avail the deal and thankfully, it was a yes.

The interior of the restaurant was okay. It was not too small, not too big and gives off a cozy feeling. The staff asked us to transfer inside and we immediately fought over who seats on the couch. We ended up with everybody on the couch with no one daring to sit across the table on a non-padded chair. Haha

They served us our drinks first followed by the soup and then the sweet and sour pork. I would have preferred if they served the drinks with the kropek first though. Then our unlimited yang chow rice followed, then the runner beans and finally our chicken. :) (didn't get a picture of the chicken here though)

The iced tea was nothing special but it was a tad too sweet and not that cold. I guess it needed a bit more ice, to subdue the sweetness and cool it. The food in itself was okay, again nothing special, though I really like the added meat on top of our yang chow rice. It was good enough to eat on its own since you already have your "ulam" there. It would be nice if they added a bit of meat in their yang chow refill as well. The sweet and sour pork was tasty. The pork was not that soft but still okay. Their chicken had a hint of sweetness in the sauce and was juicy. Yet as much as I liked their meat, the star of my meal was their runner beans. Well, how should I put it, the beans were delicious. It was savory, a bit salty and sweet with a bit of a spicy kick. I can already eat it as my ulam and that's a big deal since I only eat veggies on the side. I love it. Hehe It kinda reminds me of my mom's cooking. :) It was really yummy. We cleared our food with almost nothing to spare. Our tummies were really happy with the food but we're not done yet! Now comes the dessert!

For dessert, we had our tables cleared, lighted the candles and made a wish before finally devouring the awesome looking cake. It was "Filled with Dark Belgian Chocolate Goodness, Covered in Rich Luscious Ganache". The wafer stick covered in Belgian chocolate was okay (think of chocolate dipped Stik-O). The cookie shaped heart was okay as well though I would have wished they were crunchy instead. I'm not a fan of pancake-like cookies. The cake itself was yummy however, after a few more bites, I find that this cake was too luscious for my taste to the point of being "nakakaumay". It was too rich. As they say, too much of a good thing is bad for you. Needless to say, me and my friends drank a lot of water afterwards.

Overall, we enjoyed our late lunch. We hang out. Talked a lot. Laughed a lot. Updated each other with our lives. And we ate a lot. :)) Who wouldn't love that.

Have you tried Mr. Chow or Tous les Jours? Tell me what you think.

If not, you can visit them here:

Mr. Chow: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA. (See directions above)
Tous les Jours: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA- The Block
Tous les Jours webpage

Photo courtesy of my friend Kat :)

Eyelash Extensions Noob

One of my friends got eyelash extensions. It looked so good on her that it makes her look like a doll. I was smitten. I wanted one just like hers. So last Saturday, when she asked me if I wanted to go with her to Let's Face It Salon to have her extensions filled in, I tagged along. Exploring my kikay-ness! :))

The procedure was easy to explain. The technician asked me to close my eyes. She the taped my lower lashes and lids with micropore tape. She taped the lower lashes to avoid getting glue on them. She them proceeded to gluing the extensions on my lashes (one extension to one lash). Painstaking process. The glue hurt my eyes :'( It burned. Good thing whenever I feel pain or discomfort in my eyes, they have this pump to blow air on them. To speed up the drying of the glue, I guess, and to blow away the hurtful fumes. :P After almost two hours, the extensions were done! Yey!

The technician handed me a mirror and told me to open my eyes and when I did---PAIN!!!---huhuhu My eyes were red and in pain so she offered to give me a few drops of eyemo. It felt so much better after that. I got the mascara effect for a 1000php price tag. A bit steep but hey it was my first time getting them so I was a wee bit excited. I was advised to not wet my eyelashes for the next 24 hours and some other reminders (sorry, I forgot). The extensions should last for about 2-3 weeks and then I'd have to get fillers if I want to maintain the look. I was really happy with the results. It was a bit too dramatic for me but it was good. It totally changed my aura (at least, that's how I felt :P)

When I was about to go to sleep that day, I really had a hard time washing my face. I had to wash it in two parts. First part's for the area above my eyes and then the second part for the area below my eyes. Then clean the eye area using a wet cotton ball. Spell effort? And that's not the worst part. The worst part was when the morning came and I had to open my eyes again. It was like someone kicked some dirt in them. Same feeling when I took a shower and water got in them. The redness of my eyes became even more visible. And there was still this burning sensation. Not intolerable but disturbing nonetheless. I attributed the redness to the micropore tape since only the lower part of my eyes were affected. The burning sensation must be due to the glue. I was really scared because eyes were irritated. All negative thoughts came rushing to my brain. What if I go blind?

My paranoia got the better of me and I checked with my doctor aunt. She told me to talk some antihistamine. I talked to my dad, also a doctor, who told me to take another tablet of antihistamine a day after and also to consult with an ophthalmologist. I did just that and the next day he told me that the irritation might be due to the glue and prescribed an antihistamine/ anti-inflammatory eye drops. Wow! So much for my journey to kikay-ness!

Two days after my check up, I decided to have my extensions removed. The mascara-effect was too heavy for my lashes that they tend to droop down. Also the extensions poked the area around my left eye. And some of them already fell off. So a few days after getting them, four days  to be exact, I said bye-bye to my extensions. I rather have them removed than suffer anymore!

Having eyelash extensions seem to be okay for some people. My friend really enjoys hers and keep getting them filled religiously. But sad to say, I guess they're really not for me. I don't enjoy the hassle of maintaining them and also the allergy was a high price to pay for fashion. I'd rather keep my lashes au naturel...at the moment. :)

Nestle Drumstick Indulgence Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream Review

There's nothing better than eating ice cream on a hot summer day so, taking a cue from one of my friends' posts here on FB, I decided to try Nestle Drumstick Indulgence Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream. Pistachio ice cream seems to be the better choice for today since I'm craving for something not too sweet. When I got to Mercury Drug to buy my ice cream, I was a bit surprised with the price. I kinda expected it to be a bit pricier than the usual but it was almost double the price of the Drumstick Duo. A steep 39.xxphp (i forgot the exact price :P) compared to the Duo's 20php price tag. Excitedly, I unwrapped the ice cream to take the first bite. Yummm...Pistachio.

I enjoy the flavor of Pistachio ice cream. It's not too sweet. Drumstick's wasn't anything special but I liked it. It had their signature chocolate nugget tip and bits of Pistachio nuts on top. With the Pistachio part alone, I was sold!

Well...until I tasted the Vanilla part.

Vanilla is like the most basic of the basic ice cream flavors. Normally, it's not too sweet. Being not in the mood to eat very sweet things, you can imagine how surprised I was to have it taste like McD's caramel sundae. It was too sweet for me. I'm not really sure of what was written in the label since I was too excited to eat the ice cream but I was only expecting Pistachio and Vanilla with hits of chocolate. After a few bites of the Vanilla, I discovered the mystery behind the caramely taste of their vanilla. Chunks of caramel. So there, mystery solved.

As a whole, Nestle Drumstick Indulgence Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream's okay. I would have preferred more Pistachio ice cream though. I was a bit disappointed that after the initial Pistachio ice cream on top, the rest of it (the cone part) was Vanilla. But again, it was okay. A bit pricier than the usual, the right Pistachio flavor and a bit too sweet for me on the Vanilla part. That's my Nestle Drumstick Indulgence Pistachio and Vanilla ice cream review.

Try it. Then tell me what you think. :)

Welcome to my Cubbie Shell's Adventures :)

Hi! Welcome to my new blog. This is basically still a personal blog but I'll try to keep my emo side in check this time :)) I'd be reviewing new products, fads, trends, whatever floats my boat. Your comments would be greatly appreciated. So without further ado, join me on my adventures.

Sincerely,

Cubbie Shell