Project: Cake for two wedding anniversaries

My third wedding anniversary project. Officially, my second tiered cake. 

Emma, the lady who I made the hairdresser theme cake for, ordered this for her grandparents golden wedding anniversary.  On Wednesday, when they came to have lunch at the Dome, they gave out some specific details for the cake.  They've decided to combine two wedding anniversaries into one same cake - 50th and 5th wedding anniversaries.

Project: Cookies and cream polvoron

I've got Thursday and Friday off this week, which I haven't had in a long long time. For the longest time, I've been given either Monday and Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday. To be honest, I don't really mind. My only concern is for me to have at least a couple of days to rest my legs and to do my household chores.

I have long wanted to make this sweet treat.  Somehow, I know the basic ingredients.  As a first timer, I want to be a little more creative so I thought of adding in some flavor. 

Ingredients

Softened butter
Plain flour
Ground Oreo cookies
Granulated sugar
Powdered milk

Tried to use my Hello Kitty cookie cutter but some of the mixture gets stuck.  The bow on Kitty's left ear looks a bit messy in this photo.

Hello kitty polvoron

My recipe yielded 93 pieces.  Kept about two take-away containers in the fridge then gave the rest to our friends for them to have a taste.

polvoron, anyone?

Hyacinth Ashlyn's Birthday Celebration (February 18)

The dinner celebration for Ashlyn's second birthday.

Two Sundays ago, the parents have already organized a simple dinner to celebrate her actual birthday. And now that Ina Letty is so back from a short holiday, a bigger celebration was held. Purple was the color motif to go well with her favorite cartoon character Dora the Explorer, which was also the theme of the castle cake I made for her. Cute and adorable as she has always been, no doubt, Ashlyn enjoyed her birthday party. 

Click link for photos: http://s929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/sherylsantos31/Ashlyn%202nd%20Birthday%20Celebration/

Project: One-tier castle cake for Ashlyn

Ashlyn just turned two.  How time ticks really fast?  Can't imagine it has been a year already when I made the barbie cake for her first birthday.  She couldn't walk steady on her own then and neither could she talk quite understandably.  Seeing her now makes me miss the good all days when she would just walk in our room to try getting hold any of my Hello Kitty stuff, which eventually made her like Hello Kitty, as well.

This is the cake I created for her. 

Dora-inspired castle cake

Here's another snapshot.

Ashlyn and Winnie cutting the cake

8th Family Day (February 19)

After the successful celebration on Saturday night, there was still so much food left. And to save us all from cooking and preparing our own plates for Sunday's affair, they've decided to have it at their place instead. I swear the lechon tastes better when it's cooked the "paksiw" way; and nothing could be more compatible with dinuguan than puto.

After the sumptuous dinner, we moved back to our original venue for some singing-along. Chad luckily got this Pioneer brand home theater system at a garage sale that morning, which we just wanted to try out. You'll never really know what you could find these days. Anyway, we had so much fun. We even did a Whitney Houston tribute though we were struggling very hard to reach the high notes.

Click link for photos: http://s929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/sherylsantos31/8th%20Family%20Day/

7th Family Day (February 12)

Hearts day was just around the corner but unlike the previous year, wherein we went to Lawley Park just to have a shoot with all three of us dressed in pink and red, this year's celebration was very subtle. I guess because we've had dinner the night before while Kumare, on the other hand, was at the Filipino Association's V-day party.

But Family Day has always remained special to all of us. Whether there is something to celebrate about or it's just an ordinary Sunday in the calendar, we always mark it "red". Red, in its most simple definition, means the only time throughout the week to be spared from all the stress imposed by work or life itself.

Click link for photos: http://s929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/sherylsantos31/7th%20Family%20Day/

Valentine's Dinner (February 11)

Venue: Golden Town Chinese Restaurant

We were supposed to have this pre-Valentine dinner at Joop Thai but they were fully-booked that weekend so we had to find another restaurant. Among the many choices around Albany, we picked Golden Town. They've got buffet dinner and we thought it would be perfect for our Asian preference.

But it turned out as a big disappointment. Hubby and I had dinner there three years ago and the food was great; they must have hired a new chef, I was guessing. Though the buffet table looked full, none of the food on there seemed pleasing to our taste buds. The fried dimsims were too oily and bland; mongolian beef lacked the strong flavor of tenderized beef; fried rice and noodles tasted like they were deep-fried in oil and there was not even a single desert. At $16/head, we deserve far better food than what we had to pay for. We could have just bought a box pizza which we will surely enjoy.

Click link for photos: http://s929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/sherylsantos31/Valentine%20Dinner%202012/

Project: Cartoon-style turtle cake

A former workmate of mine now living in Perth ordered this for her friend's birthday, who is residing in Albany. She settled the payment thru bank deposit and gave me the contact number of her friend.

This lady with the name Charli loves turtles so much.

Project: Cake for Gabby

Two weeks ago, I got this message from Trish who used to work at the Dome. I made a cake for her in December before she left for Melbourne.

Hey Sheryl!
How are you?? Hope you had a nice Christmas!
My friend from Albany- Fiona, wanted to get your number as she loved the cake you made for me! She wants to call you and arrange for you to make her a cake, if that's okay?

So if you don't mind could you send me your number and I'll pass it on to her?

Thanks Sheryl!!!

The following day, Fiona rang up to order a cake for her daughter's 18th.  Honestly, I still have hesitations in making tiered cake.  But I know that the only way to for me to learn is to actually try doing it.

And I guess I'm all ready for the challenge.

6th Family Day (February 5)

Our recent family day would probably be the shortest we've had since we started. Normally we finish dinner by seven and from there onwards, we would just have casual talk in between watching TV or karaoke. Though we all have to work the following morning, we don't part ways until about 11 or 11:30PM.

Last Sunday, was just not the usual. After having dinner, we, the ladies went to see Ina Letty as she just got back from Manila that afternoon. From there, we went to a dinner invitation at Rey Family's new place. The family have just moved to a new house on Friday (the house owned by Lulette at Grevilla Street). Because we were all getting tired from going one house to another, so we called it a night and bid each other good night.

Click link for photos:  http://s929.photobucket.com/albums/ad136/sherylsantos31/6th%20Family%20Day/