Princess Themed Fondant Tutorial - Princess Carriage

Remember when I said plan to make tutorials in themes? We're starting today! Stay tuned because in the next few weeks I'll be showing you how to make all things Princess-y. Isn't it exciting? [I type this with my pinkies up in true princess fashion]

Since we're on the subject of starting things. I think I may have rekindled my love for painting. The past few weeks I have been obsessing about watercolors. I have been reading (and reading, and reading) lessons about it, I've been buying my art materials and as what Nike has been saying the past few years, I just did it. As in yes, I've been painting. Which totally distracted me from updating this little blog last week. Anyway, here's a watercolor portrait I did of Claudette Colbert, a movie star from the 1930s. I can't wait to paint more! :)

Anyway, back to our princess themed tutorial, we're starting with the Princess Carriage. This very much reminds me of Cinderella and her pumpkin carriage. Well this one is the fondant version and although it looks quite challenging to make, I'm telling you, pinky swear, it's really easy. Here's how.  

Fondant Princess Carriage Tutorial

What  we need:
Fondant in purple and white
Fondant cutters (round, flower and heart)
White edible pearls
Rolling pin 
Toothpicks
Brush and water (to glue things together)
Violet pearl dust (optional)

Here's how:
(1) Roll purple fondant into a circle. 

(2) Run a toothpick through it to resemble segments much like with a pumpkin. 

(3) It should now look like this. 

(4) Get some purple fondant, roll it into a short rope with ends thinner than the middle. Curl the ends inwards. Make two. 

(5) Attach it to the sides of the carriage. 

(6) Roll some purple and white fondant. Cut out a circle and a flower from the white fondant. And a heart from the purple fondant. 

(7) Arrange them on top of the carriage.

(8)  Make the wheels by rolling white fondant into a long rope and curling it inwards. 

(9) Make the curtains by cutting squares from a thinly rolled fondant and pinching them together in the middle.

(10) Cut two small rectangles from a thinly rolled fondant and paste the parts of the door of the carriage. 

(11) An optional step would be to dust the whole thing with violet pearl dust. After all, what are princess cariages if they don't magically sparkle?
Stay tuned for more Princess-y tutorials here on Bake Happy! :)

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

5, 0 and 3. These three numbers totally changed what I know about Pineapple Upside Down Cakes.  

I was blog hopping awhile back when I came across this podcast made by Lori Baltazar of Dessert Comes First. In the video she's with Sonja Ocampo who was celebrating the seventh anniversary of her cupcake shop when halfway through their conversation, at 5:03 exactly, Lori dropped the bomb on me (I didn't say us, just me,  because you may probably know this) - Pineapple Upside Down Cake is a retro dessert. Oh my, can we just do a quick rewind here? 

[Insert rewind sound effects here] 

Yep, she said it.  Pineapple Upside Down Cake is retro. And then I realized, it is. It's something we won't normally see now in baking books or in dessert shelves. Which is kind of a sad thing. I wonder why? This cake deserves to be a classic, along with Chocolate Cake, Red Velvet and Chocolate Chip Cookies.  

So as a little push to the right direction, we're making a Pineapple Upside Down Cake today. Yes, I loved it so much I not only baked it, I even painted it in watercolor. And I really need to practice my watercolor painting skills. Oh well, here's the recipe :)

 

Pineapple Upside Down Cake Recipe

350F/40 minutes

What we need:

1 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 can sliced pineapple

maraschino cherries (not stemmed)

5 egg whites

5 egg yolks

1 1/2 cups white sugar

7 tbsp pineapple juice

2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Here's how:

(1) Melt butter in a small saucepan. Let it cool. Once cooled down, pour into a 12-inch round baking pan. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over the butter.

(2) Arrange the pineapple slices and the cherries on top of the brown sugar/butter. Be as creative as you can be. Me? I'm sticking to how my Ma taught me :) Classic. 

(3) In a medium sized bowl, sift / dry whisk together all dry ingredients - flour and baking powder. 

(4) In separate bowl, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Set aside. 

(5) In another bowl, beat egg yolks and sugar until creamy. 

(6) Add pineapple juice and the vanilla extract.

(7) Then add the dry ingredients. 

(8) Fold in the egg whites into the into the egg yolk mixture until you have something like this. 

(9) Pour batter into the pan and bake at 350F for 40 minutes or until done. 

Thank you, Auntie Fely for this wonderful recipe. 

Fondant Bubble Gum Dispenser Tutorial

We had a little field trip at Celebrations Party Central a few weeks back, didn't we? I bought a few things, all cute. There was this very intricately designed paper straws I immediately put to use in this post, then there were these yellow polka dot paper napkins! So bright! And then there were these... bubble gum dispensers. If there was a race on cuteness, these bubble gum dispensers went to the moon and back before any other cuteness contender could even finish a quarter of the race. This little baby here will be stationed at my place in the office for the time being. 

And so, as you can see, the bubble gum dispenser is the inspiration for this post. And it's really easy. You can do it while sleeping. Wait... okay, so not while sleeping. You can finish way before ... you can complete it by  the time... You'll be done as soon as...

So I ran out of words. Just trust me on this one.. It's easy.

Fondant Bubble Gum Dispenser Tutorial

What we need:
Fondant in red, white, black and blue
Round cutter
Sprinkles in different colors
Rolling pin
Water and brush to glue things together.

Here's how:
(1) Roll white fondant into a ball

 (2) Shape red fondant into a big marshmallow. 

 (3) Brush the lower part of the white fondant with water then dip it into the sprinkles

(4) Place it on top of the red fondant then add a round piece of red fondant on top of the white one. 

 (5) Add some details like the small round red ball on top and the dispenser opener at the bottom

 (6) Lastly, add a bubble gum (I chose the color blue) at the dispenser for some touch of realism :)

Hope you liked this one, everyone! Till the next tutorial! 

Crumpy Cookies

A few weeks ago, I got home to find this very nicely put package waiting for me. Real pretty, isn't it?

Guess what it is? There were bottles of Crumpy in it! I can not wait to get my hands on them and bake something out of this wonderful spread! The possibilities are infinite! I have thought long and hard on what to make, cupcakes, pies, cakes, ice cream? Wait... I haven't done cookies recently, I guess it's about time. 

I made Crumpy Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies. But the name is a bit long so I settled for a simpler one, Crumpy Cookies. Chocolate hazelnut spread based cookie with chocolate chips sprinkled with rock salt. The battle of (uh... I mean, the medley) of the sweet and the salty... oh yes! It's on!!!

Crumpy Cookies
350F / 4 dozen cookies

What we need:
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 cup Crumpy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
2 cups chocolate chips
Himalayan Pink Sea Salt or rock salt

Here's how:
(1) Sift all dry ingredients together, 
(2) Cream butter, white and brown sugar until combined. 

 (3) Add in the egg.

 (4) Mix in Crumpy Chocolate Hazelnut Spread 
 (5) Add in the dry ingredients

 (6) Fold in the chocolate chip cookies

 (7) I used a ice cream scooper that holds a teaspoon of a cookie batter to make the cookies. Before baking, sprinkle some rock salt on the cookies first. 

 (8) Bake for 7 minutes at 350F.

I was supposed to bring some at work, apparently fate intervened. Before the cookies even cooled, poof! It was gone! Just like that... The names of those who enjoyed will be withheld. crispy, chewy, oh so sweet with a hint of salty... need I say more? Got to move from my seat and go bake some more. 

Thanks to Tonette of Flyace Corp for sending some bottles of Crumpy over at the Bake Happy kitchen! :)

Happy Birthday, Bake Happy!

Today marks Bake Happy's fifth anniversary! Yey!!!

I cannot believe time flew so fast.  I can still remember the day I started this blog. What I wanted initially was just a creative outlet  (I didn't even have an idea what a Marshmallow Fondant was). Until right before our very eyes, yours and mine, Bake Happy evolved to what it is today.

I just wanted to take this opportunity to THANK YOU, my dearest and darling-est friends, for the love (yes, I am claiming each and everyone of you love me), encouragement, support and inspiration.

Thank you for taking the time out from your busy lives to send me lovely mails. I have giggled, sometimes held back a laugh (as I was walking to work and wouldn't want bystanders to think I'm weird), smiled and sometimes shed tears of joy because of your messages. When I say, they mean a lot, they really do. More than you'll ever know. 

Thank you for leaving wonderful comments here, on Facebook, on Twitter and on Instagram. I always get bubbly excited when I see what you have to say. You never fail to put a smile on my face. 

Thank you for appreciating what I do. I am telling you, it's not easy. Juggling Bake Happy with my everyday work (well not every day, weekends excluded), my family and friends - among other important stuff, it's hard work. I sometimes take a step back and try to think about this blog from another perspective. Is it worth it to put so much heart, so much time, so much dedication to this little space in the blogosphere? Would I want to do things any other way? 

And my answer would always be Yes and No. 

• Is it worth it to put so much heart, so much time, so much dedication to this little space in the blogosphere? --> Definitely a Yes!

• Would I want to do things any other way? --> Uh uh, no. 

And you know why? Simply because doing all these make me happy. Which is essentially, what this blog is all about. Sometimes, on a Sunday after completing a couple of posts, I just want to crash on my bed and put my feet up because I am tired. Yes, I am tired but a happy kind of tired. I just would not have it any other way. 

So thank you my dear Bake Happy friends for appreciating the work I do to keep Bake Happy up and running, alive and kicking. Whenever I feel I lack the inspiration or I feel down, I just remember you and I smile and things are all alright again. We've bonded over a passion for baking. I cannot thank you enough for sharing this journey with me.

I would also want to grab this opportunity to thank my friends for their encouragement and willingness to taste everything I bake. You guys rock! And most of all I'd like to thank my family for their unending support. Thank you to my sister Lisa, the rock I lean on, the one who goes all out in supporting me and the one who just knows when to step in when I feel overwhelmed with a Bake Happy project, to my Pops who would drop any commitment just to accompany me to all of my caking adventures, to my Ma and Mom for always being there when I need help, a hug or a suman sa latik. My fam-bam is simply the best!

And so, to celebrate Bake Happy's five years of existence, we are moving to a new domain! I have been putting this off for years but this July, this is happening. 

Bake Happy is moving to www.bakehappy.net 

So this is the time to change your bookmarks and update your blog readers to continue to receive updates from Bake Happy.  I am soooo excited for this! I hope you are, too! :)

I am looking forward to more baking adventures with all of you! Here's to more blog posts, more tutorial videos and more recipes on Bake Happy!