Chocolate Crinkles - Is it a cookie or a brownie?

"Chocolate crinkles? I love chocolate crinkles!" my 3-year old said. She was ecstatic when she found out I was going to make some.

I remember there used to be a bakery in the Philippines that makes this really good.  I have no idea where to buy this cookie...or brownie here in US. Some consider it a cookie but i think its too soft to be a cookie. Some say its a kind of brownie. I don't really know what this is but I had to make some myself 'cause it's really good and yummy!

I like making Chocolate crinkles because I know that I will always have assistants when I make it. My kids love to help me especially my little girl. (Which reminds me...I think I should get her an apron now that she's got her own kitchen set.) So, in my opinion this is a great mom and daughter/son activity. That is if you are okay with getting you kitchen really messy.

With the way how this Chocolate crinkles look like, I think this can be one of the food you can serve on Christmas. Oh, I tell you...not only the kids will love it...you will too!

Lil' girl gets her Dora cake

My lil' girl asked for a Dora party. She's turning 3! We all know that having a Dora party would mean having the Dora cake too!

Birthday parties are never complete without a cake.  Sometimes with these affairs, guests look forward more to getting a piece of the birthday cake which makes a lot of people thrilled versus the celebrant who is more interested with opening the presents which makes only one person happy.:)

Anyway, being the mama of that little girl, of course I started planning for her Dora party and birthday cake. The problem was, I don't really watch Dora shows/ movies so I needed to exert extra effort to come up with some ideas for her cake. I knew she was called "Dora the explorer" and she speaks Spanish. That's pretty much what i know. So research..research..research! 

So this is what I've come up with.  Presenting....my version of Dora the explorer cake...

I don't know if it looks like a jungle to you but it sure does to me. :)  What's important is that my lil' girl got her Dora cake.

"Like it? Love it? or Gotta have it?" 

Maybe on your kid's birthday...I can make them their birthday cake, too. You know...it's a piece o' cake after all!

RIBBON ROSE CAKE WITH CREAMY CHOCOLATE FROSTING

  So here's what I made last night...I thought it really looked sumptuous! What do you think? It probably took me 4-4 1/2 hours making this as I am just beginning to learn how to do this kind of designs. So, if you are a pro...don't even look at it closely. :)

I think I used an 8" baking pan for the chocolate cake and the batter was too much that it took forever to get it done. Not to mention that I hate it when there's a bump on top of your cake once it is finished. I had to cut them off! The good side of it was my mom and my kids had the first few bites of the cake. They loved it. I've heard that it is actually the best part of the cake. Don't ask me why.

While baking, I was waiting for the butter to cool down to room temp. Also, I was still deciding what kind of icing I would make for the cake. And I remembered that I have kept one recipe from a long time ago. I have ripped one of the pages from a magazine that was being thrown away. Whoohoo! The recipe was worth ripping and keeping. I have never used cream cheese on my icing before. Maybe because I never really made my own icing. I used to buy the pre-made ones. Hehe!

For the decorations...I've had some decorating tips that I played with. I have always seen shell borders and I have done that a lot. So i thought let's put some leaves as the border. There were some spots in between the leaves that didn't really look good..so I decided to put some berry looking dots using tip #3. The ribbon rose (using tip #104) was the most time-consuming thing I've done for the cake. This was the first time I've done this so please bear with the looks of it. I made a couple of pieces and had to let them dry on a wax paper. It was taking so long and I couldn't wait so I went ahead and placed the flowers on the cake. Some were falling upside down on the cake because I didn't have the flower lifter. I had to make a couple more flowers because some of them broke.

I think it still ended up pretty good coz the paparazzis were after my cake. LOL

To end this, I want to share the mistakes I did and what I learned.

1. Fill the cake batter halfway only. Or it will take forever to bake the cake. Better yet, use two bake pans and you'll have a two-layered cake in a breeze.

2. Have in mind what you want to do for the icing. If you are already decided at least you can get the ingredients ready and maybe buy some that you don't even have.

3. Use flower lifter. I bet that would make it easier because that is what it's designed to do.

Enjoy your day and bake a cake for your family...you know IT'S A PIECE O' CAKE!

Great idea!

Call me Roz! I'm just a regular person who likes to cook and is into baking at this time. I think that this is something I am really into that I just want to be able to express my thoughts and share it with you.

Tonight, I got done baking and decorating a sumptuous looking (at least that's what I thought) cake with creamy chocolate frosting. I told my husband that I was so delighted with the outcome and I got him to take some pictures of it so I can post in FB. I've been doing this a lot but I am not satisfied with just posting pictures...I wanted more. Then my husband asked, "Why don't you start blogging about what you make?" Oh, I love him! I thought it was such a great idea. And so, here I am trying to do what my husband suggested and what I think I love to do. 

So that is how it all started. I hope that you guys will like it as I share my passion. My goal is to be able to encourage you that as I am just a regular citizen of this world that cooking and baking...IT'S A PIECE O' CAKE! You can do it too!