Recipe | Nutella Cupcakes

When I started learning how to properly use our Oven Toaster to bake cupcakes, I started checking so many cupcake videos on YouTube to know about different flavor combinations. One of the "easy" cupcakes to do is the Nutella Cupcakes, which I baked when my sister celebrated her birthday three days ago.


Nutella Cupcakes
{yield - 10 cupcakes}

Ingredients - Cupcakes

• 1 box Maya Butter Cake Mix
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 medium eggs
• 1 to 2 tablespoons cocoa powder (optional)

Ingredients - Frosting

• 2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon Nutella spread
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Let's bake!

> Cream softened butter and blend in the cake mix until well combined.

> Make a well in the center and add in eggs - one at a time - lightly mixing the batter in between eggs.
> Add the water and mix until well combined, making sure not to over mix the batter.
> Line muffin trays with cupcake liners and pour in batter, filling 2/3 of each cup.
> If using oven toaster, cover the tray with aluminum foil and bake in the oven toaster for 7 minutes.
> Take out the foil cover once it reached the 7 minute mark and bake further for three more minutes.
> Once the cupcakes are fully baked, cool them on racks and set aside.

To make the frosting, just beat the butter and cream cheese together until well combined, the pour in the vanilla, followed by the Nutella spread. Beat further then slowly add the powdered the sugar. Continue beating the mixture using an electric mixer until it becomes fluffy. As always, if it's too heavy, add milk (one tablespoon at a time) or if it's too light, add more powdered sugar. Top cupcakes with the frosting using a spoon or a piping bag, making sure the cupcakes are completely cool before frosting them. If it's warm, the heat will just melt the frosting. Drizzle the cupcakes with Nutella spread before serving. Also, you can also bore a hole into the cupcakes and fill it with Nutella spread, if you want to. I didn't do this as I don't want to overwhelm myself with the Nutella flavor.

As you can see, I made two kinds of cupcakes. When I checked YouTube for videos, most of the videos used chocolate cupcakes, but one used vanilla cupcakes because chocolate cupcakes might drown the Nutella flavor. To find out which I prefer, I decided to make two different kinds.

I just made the batter and made five cupcakes using the basic mix, and for the second batch, I added a tablespoon of cocoa powder and half a tablespoon of water into the remaining batter. Personally, I preferred the chocolate one more maybe because adding the cocoa powder made the cupcake less sweeter compared the butter cupcakes. My sister and mother loved it, and I was a happy baker.

This Christmas, we will certainly make our own cupcakes, but of all the ones we baked, we loved the Carrot Cupcakes with Sour Cream Frosting the best, so that would be part of our Noche Buena menu.

Food Trip Flashback | Tokyo Tokyo

There was a moment when Tokyo Tokyo at SM Fairview was closed for renovations. My sister and I happened to be at the mall when it re-opened, and because it was near lunch time already, we decided to eat there.

There was a very big change - for one, the counter was directly across the entrance of the restaurant and the dining area became spacious with ample amount of lighting.


Chicken Karaage
As usual, my sister went with her favorite Tokyo Tokyo meal - the Chicken Karaage. The place may have changed, but the food remained the same... it was still as delicious as we once tasted it.


Chicken Oyakudon Donburi
My favorite Tokyo Tokyo meal is the Beef Misono, but because Tokyo Tokyo just released new dishes, I decided to try it out. Japanese food is something I am teaching myself to appreciate and love, and this didn't fail me. Serving was more than enough to fill the tummy, the sauce was just right, and it gave me a new reason to come back at Tokyo Tokyo.

I am liking Tokyo Tokyo more and more. They provide good Japanese food at affordable prices, and whenever cravings for Japanese food arise, we know eating there would satisfy that.

Imbento Istapegi

My blog wasn't updated regularly since last Friday because I am actually struggling if it's "right" for me to post about food - when I know thousands of my countrymen were in dire need of food and water after super typhoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) hit the country, causing massive destruction on all the provinces along its path.

Still, I feel the need to update this blog, so for today let me just share something that is not really insensitive.

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Have you ever felt those moments when you can't think of anything to cook? We do feel that every now and then, and last week... while thinking of what to eat, we just had the sudden cravings for spaghetti. Knowing we have spaghetti noodles, hotdogs, and ground pork, I decided to cook spaghetti for brunch, but I was faced with a little setback when I realized we already ran out of spaghetti sauce.

Like what they say, "necessity is the product of all inventions," and using what we have in the fridge, I came up with this dish.

Obviously, I started cooking the spaghetti. We all know spaghetti noodles take a lot of time, so to save time and fuel, we at home boil the noodles until halfway through then cover the pot and let the residual heat cook it. Of course, this meant checking on the noodles few times to make sure it doesn't overcook. If we are to eat it right away, I drain the water once it's al dente... but if we are to serve it to guests and dining time is uncertain, we drain it just before it's cooked, so the heat remaining would further cook it. Quite a tricky thing to do, but we've mastered it already. Also, we don't run cooked spaghetti under water after cooking because it washes out the starch on the surface of the noodles.

Anyway, while waiting for the residual heat to cook the noodles, I sauteed finely chopped onions and garlic on lite butter, before adding ground pork. I sauteed all together until the meat turns opaque and season it with salt and ground pepper. I then added the hotdogs, tomato sauce, sour cream, and a spurt of McCormick bread spread (herb and parmesan) to add more flavors. Simmered it until pork was cooked and mixed it with the spaghetti noodles, and topped it with grated cheese before serving.

This was the first time I used sour cream with our spaghetti sauce. It provided an interesting twist, which blended well with the bread spread. For an uncertain dish, this turned out to be okay, and since I didn't receive any violent reactions from mom and sis, I knew I did well with this dish.

Thank heavens for creativity.

Recipe | Fish Cakes Salad

There are so many ways to create your own salad, but I still haven't explored about it yet, so whenever I make my salad at home, I usually stay with the typical ingredients - lettuce, cucumbers, carrots, and sometimes, tomatoes. Even if I go for these ingredients time after time, I do try to mix and match, so I won't get tired eating the same ingredients over and over again.

My mom cooked some Paksiw na Galunggong for lunch and this I used to create this salad for my dinner that day.


Fish Cakes Salad
{serves 1}

Ingredients - Fish Cakes

• Leftover fish from Paksiw na Galunggong - bones removed, meat flaked
• Finely minced garlic and onion
• Finely minced chili fingers (optional)
• Flour and/or Cornstarch
• Panko Breadcrumbs (optional)
• Paksiw sauce (as needed)
• salt and pepper (to taste)
• Oil for frying

How to Cook - Fish Cakes

• Mix all ingredients except for the oil. 
• Using a melon baller or a measuring spoon, scoop out mixture, roll it with the palms then flat it. Do this until all the mixture has been prepared into little patties.
• Heat oil and fry the patties until brown. Drain on paper towels, and set aside.

Ingredients - Salad

• Lettuce of your choice (I used a combination of romaine and lollo rosso)
• Carrots, julienned
• Cucumber, diced
• Tomatoes, diced 
• Green bell pepper, sliced thinly
• Red Onion, sliced paper thin
• Pomelo
• Store bought Thousand Island Dressing, mixed with ground pepper

How to Assemble - Salad

• Layer your salad ingredients in your choice of plate or bowl
• Top with the fish cakes
• Drizzle with dressing.

Things to know:

> If you don't have leftover fish paksiw, you can use any kind of fish you like - just cook it in water with your choice of seasonings (salt, pepper... with onions, garlic, and bay leaf if you like) then flake it. Or, you can just boil / steam the fish then flake it.

> If you want to go with the Paksiw, cook the fish with vinegar, salt, pepper, chili fingers, onion, garlic, and ginger. Set it aside for a few hours so the vinegar sauce would penetrate the fish meat.

> To bind the mixture, I used the vinegar sauce from the paksiw, but you can also use 1 egg as your binder. I decided not to go with the egg to lessen the calorie content of my meal.

> You can pan fry the patties or use a pan grill. The choice is up to you. Since the fish was pre-cooked, all that was needed was to crust the outer parts of the patty for added texture.

This salad tasted like sandwich minus the bread. The pomelo provided more tang into the dish, and now I can say that I love, love, love having fruit on my salad. This is one versatile dish and you can go with different choices. You can also go with your choice of dressing - the Mango Vinaigrette went well with this, too.

Cooking with Leftovers

Last Friday, good friends from Jollibee sent us two Chickenjoy Bucket Treats. Each bucket contained 8 pieces of fried chicken, and because it's just us three girls here at home, eating all the chicken pieces was a little overwhelming. We did send some to our next door neighbors (the essence of eating Chickenjoy is to provide joy, and I think the kids next door were happy for the treat), but we still had too much to eat. Thankfully, one of the buckets contained all breast parts, so after we ate our share of the chicken, I decided to take out all the breading and skin from the breast parts, flaked the meat, and store it in the freezer for future use.

What we did to the flaked chicken meat?

Manang's Chicken to Open at SM Fairview Soon

My sister and I just love Manang's Chicken! We do have different preferences - I love to eat my Manang's Chicken hot off the kitchen, while my sister loves to wait for hours so the chicken meat would absorb the sauce. We find ourselves craving for it every now and then, but even if the nearest branch to us is the one at the Wilcon City Center, we usually dine at either SM City North EDSA or Glorietta branches because those were the most accessible.

One weekend afternoon, my sister and I food tripped at their Glorietta branch and we had:


Manang's Fish Fillet Meal.
My meal. I wanted to try this as soon as I saw it on their menu, but it was just this moment that I finally tried it out. I love battered fish, but I usually pair it with aioli or coleslaw, so tasting this with the Manang's Chicken sauce was a great revelation. I loved the sweet-salty-spicy blend and it really went well with the soft, flaky fish and its lightly crunchy covering. Just like the sauces for the chicken, diners can opt to go with their choice of sauce - original, mild spicy, and extra spicy.


Manang's Chicken Cut Meal.
One thing we loved about Manang's Chicken, the flavors seeped through its meat, unlike the others we tasted that tasted bland on in the inside. The amount of sauce was enough... but should you want more, you can just avail for extra sauce. As for us, we buy several little cups of sauce to take home, so we could still have a taste of Manang's Chicken.


Cheezy Spaghetti.
Something sister and I shared. Their spaghetti won't win any awards, sure... but there is just something about their spaghetti that makes sister and I crave for it. This is marketed for the kids so it was a little on the sweet side, but instead of adding grated cheese, they added cheese sauce. Sister said it felt like eating spaghetti when we were kids... kinda like having a flashback of the past, which is maybe why we love it a lot.


Manang's Chips and Dips.
Another favorite at Manang's Chicken. This was the large size, which came with one dip of choice (we ordered another dip because we loved mixing the two dips together). Aside from this and the regular sized one, they also sell this by tubs (small and big). One trivia... we love this so much that we actually ordered two tubs of their chips as part of our media noche - the family shared the big tub, the small tub we gave to our neighbor so they could taste it, too.

It's been a while since we last dined at Manang's Chicken, so when I received news that they are opening a branch at SM City Fairview, we were very happy. No word yet as to exactly when it will open, but they are targeting the month of November. As soon as it opens, the girls and I will definitely visit and binge (mommy loves their Crispy Pancit, by the way), and of course share the experience here on the blog.