Noche Buena 2012

This year's Noche Buena we decided on a White Christmas theme. Everything we served is white except for the Christmas ham of course. Well we tried our best to make everything white anyway but colored dishes are really tasty hehe. Enjoy!

White Christmas Noche Buena. The ham is Purefoods Bone-in Smoked Ham

Choco Santa Cake by Tous Les Jours. We just added the powdered sugar to make it white

Mom's fruit salad

Mom's carbonara

Mom's prosciutto and asparagus

Chao Fan by Chowking

Mom's Lumpiang Ubod

Razzzo Bistro and Serye for Valentines

For Valentines 2012 I treated my family to Razzzo Bistro and Serye since they both had group buying vouchers at that time.

Razzzo is located inside BF Homes along Aguirre Avenue. I've always passed by their restaurant going home from work and I'm glad I've had the opportunity to eat there. The place inside looks very nice. I love the interior designing. I imagined this would be a great place for dates and romantic dinners.

Love the wall designs

 

There are dining booths along the walls for a more private dining experience

I love the chicken and drinks at Razzzo. The chicken is just tasty all the way up to the bone. I'm even craving for it now while I'm writing this. I also ordered a Green Tea Smoothie and it was great! But I ordered one of the combo meals and didn't realize it included a blue soda drink so I had two drinks to finish :(. But they both tasted great anyway. I think the blue one is dalandan flavor.

One of the combo meals that includes chicken, pasta and pizza and a blue soda

pasta

Pizza

Burger

We checked their comfort rooms and I just had to take a picture of it. It's so nicely designed. The whole place is just a treat for the eyes.

Razzzo's comfort room

Near the comfort rooms - me and my sisters playing with the mirrors :P

After having lunch at Razzzo we treated ourselves for some dessert at Serye. There's one located in Sucat road at Santana Grove which is fairly near from Razzzo. Their promo is a cake and a coffee for only P99. I've always wanted to taste their Macapuno Pandan Cake because I love pandan and green cakes so that's what I ordered. It's the best Pandan Cake I've tasted so far :). Didn't disappoint me at all. Not too sweet and just right. My brothers and sisters said their cakes are all good. Below are their pics.

Apple Pie

Chocolate Decadence Cake

Sans Rival

Suman

Mocha Manila Cake

 

Macapuno Pandan Cake

Biscotti to go

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake

On Mother's Day my sister brought home a Tous Les Jours cake from SM Southmall. It's the first time I've heard of the brand and my sis was all praises about it being high quality and healthy. Well when we first unboxed it we were all oohs and aahs but I was dubious about the taste because the appearance looks too good to be true.

My doubts disappeared the moment I had that first bite. I've always wondered what those cakes in Asian (Korean, Japanese, Tawainese) telenovelas tasted like because they looked so neat and artsy. Well now I've tasted one and it's everything I've imagined! The cream on the cake is just perfect. Not too sweet. The Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake is a strawberry-flavored cake so you get that tangy taste of strawberries inside the cake itself and not as a filling. It's the like the sponge cake has sponged all the strawberry juice while there's a heaping amount of cream all over the cake inside and out. It's just so wonderful. Just like a cloud.

My mom and our family loved it. Mom as a housewife who likes to bake herself said the ingredients are all high quality. She appreciated her cake and her flower as well :).

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake

Tous Les Jours - Rose Inspiration Fresh Cream Cake (slice)

You can visit their website at www.tlj.ph or their FB page www.facebook.com/touslesjoursph

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake

I have mentioned this in my other posts and so it's just right I should have a blog about it.  Introducing my favorite cake: Baby Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake!!  I bought one for my birthday.  It's been more than a year I think since I last tasted it so it's high time I buy one for me and my family again.  I'm so glad it still tastes the same. Lol. If you love dipping strawberries in cream then you would love this cake. But this cake's icing is not just cream mind you.  It has strawberry bits in it as you will see in the pics.  With other cakes the icing is white and whole strawberries or strawberry filling or jam, or whatever, is just put on top of the cake.  The icing in this cake is pink because the strawberries are already infused into the icing.  I just love the way this tastes.  It's not too sweet and it's refreshing.  I read in another blog that it's like having ice cream and cake in one.  Hmm I guess the satisfactory feeling of it is the same as eating ice cream I agree.  Oh but if ice cream is heavy, this is fluffy and light.  It's like eating a cloud.  And the one thing I like about this cake is they didn't save up on the icing and filling.  They just give you the satisfying amount.  It's almost a sin haha.  Well actually for me it just satisfied my girlhood dreams about this cake.  I know when I was a kid this is what I thought strawberry shortcakes should taste like :).  So below are the pics. Enjoy!

You can visit this site, En Route, for more information on how to order.  It's where I found the contact info because I lost my price listing already.

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake (whole)

close up

more close up

Mrs. Yulo's Strawberry Shortcake (slice).  Two layers of filling! Yum!

Brownies and cupcakes from Bread Monster

My sister brought home these heavenly brownies and cupcakes one day from the Fort. I'm a fan of Brownies Unlimited and I really don't know other brownie brands who are as good as them. Until now that is. Well the cupcakes and brownies from Bread Monster really tastes so good, has a fluffier texture to it and has that melt in your mouth kind of feel. Although it's really good I still can say the chewiness of the brownies in Brownies Unlimited is something I will always crave for especially their Rocky Road. But if you want something new, a different feel but with the same satisfaction then try this out from Bread Monster. My sister said they're located in Market Market at the Fort. Enjoy!

brownies and cupcakes from Bread Monster

food

Cielin's Peaches and Almond Cake

Cielin's Cake House has a new dessert and it's called Peaches and Almond Cake. We were deciding whether to try their old bestseller, Mango Torte, or this one and decided to go for their newest creation instead. I have posted before about their Lemon Meringue Torte and I find this cake similar to that except it has peaches in it. I love this one better though because of the almonds! The 'something' missing in the Lemon Meringue Torte I found it here in Peaches and Almond and that is the crispiness! I love that there is a crunch to every bite. I love the cream and I love the peaches. My mom said it probably lacked peaches but I didn't mind. I felt whatever fruit you put inside this cake it will still be great! I really love this new creation!

Cielin's Peaches and Almond Cake

Close up Peaches and Almond Cake

Cross-section of Peaches and Almond Cake

Slide of Peaches and Almond Cake

desserts
cakes

Cielin's Mango Cake

Out of the blue we just decided to buy Cielin's Mango Cake since the price isn't that too high unlike the commercial cakes out there.  And we added our favorite cupcakes as well!

This Mango Cake became my older sister's favorite cake. Well  not really favorite but she plans on giving this cake to her friends. She said it's great to give as a gift or for parties. It's refreshing and not too sweet. The icing tastes like whipped cream with mango bits and it served as a filling as well. I actually love the icing and wished there was more of it. It reminds me of my mom's refrigerator cake with lots of cream. The cake itself as usual is soft and fresh as what you would expect of Cielin's. This mango cake might look simple but you can't go wrong with it. I'm sure everybody will love this one.

Cielin's Mango Cake

Cielin's Mango Cake (slice)

Cielin's Mango cake (better view of filling)

Cielin's cupcakes - strawberry (for me), mocha (for younger sis) and cheese tart (for older sis)

food
desserts
cakes

Cielin's Pandan Cake

On my payday I decided to try one of Cielin's cakes to treat my family with and their Pandan Cake is what I chose. I've been wanting to try it ever since I saw it in their Facebook page. I love everything green especially in food and I also love the refreshing taste of pandan so that explains my craving for this one. This particular cake you have to order one day ahead. They don't keep it in stock probably because it taste best fresh. From my experience with it, it taste great even in the next day and the next.

The pandan flavor is in the cake itself and not in the icing. It's not really overpowering but you can taste right away the flavor on the first bite. I was expecting the icing to be refreshing but it's made up of butter with green coloring in it and no pandan so expect the icing to harden a bit when it's cooled. The brown you see on top are grated chocolate. I thought it was muscovado at first or some kind of brown grated coconut hehe. As usual the cake is soft probably because Cielin's cakes are always fresh. So, this was just a simple Pandan cake with butter icing. I guess I was expecting too much of a traditional Filipino dish like buko pandan and expected everything to be refreshing. Also I don't like butter icing too much. When I was a kid our birthday cakes are usually made up of this kind of icing and maybe I got tired of it. But for those who love butter icings or old fashioned cakes this will be a real treat.  My family actually loved this pandan cake and it's become a favorite of my mom and brother. Me? I would buy it again but not anytime soon unless my siblings are craving for it right away. All in all I think this is a fair cake especially for its price and would go great with tea.

Cielin's Cakehouse box

Cielin's Pandan Cake

Cielin's Pandan Cake

Cielin's Pandan Cake (slice)

Cielin's Pandan Cake (cross-section)

food
desserts
cakes