Chocolate Crinkles Recipe

When I was younger (make that way, way, waaay younger)... there were three things I thought were true -

• Iced tea that has a frothy top has whipped cream on it. (I know, what was I thinking?!)
• When the fruitcake recipe says add orange rind, the white bitter part should be added also. I haven't baked a fruitcake since.
• Chocolate Crinkles are cake crumbs rolled into flattened balls then coated with confectioner's sugar. Oh wait... now I know that is not true, I now know they are baked.

I first tasted crinkles at a canteen in high school and for a chocolate lover, every bite is chocolate cookie heaven. So when someone requested a I feature a Chocolate Crinkles recipe, I went straight to work at it. Want to see how it goes? 

Chocolate Crinkles Recipe
from All Recipes
350F/72 cookies

What we need:

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Here's how:

(1) Combine cocoa, white sugar, and vegetable oil a bowl. Mix well. 

 (2)  Add in eggs one at a time. Then stir in the vanilla. 

 (3) Sift together all dry ingredients - flour, baking powder, and salt then add into the cocoa mixture.

(4) The dough will still be soft at this stage. Cover the bowl with clink wrap and refrigerate for four hours.

(5) Use a 1.5 oz ice cream scoop to roll the dough into balls then coat it with confectioner's sugar before before baking for 10-12 minutes. Remember not to overbake so the cookies will still be chewy. 

How to Make Nail Polish Cupcake Topper

And here I am thinking March is my "book phase". March is the one month of the year where I voraciously read all the books I want to read - non-stop. I read as if I have been stuck in a deserted island for 11 months so I'm sort of making up for lost time. It's the one month I made Amazon a very happy company and my wallet the saddest place on earth. Strangely enough, it only happens March of every year. I know, I'm weird that way.

For some totally inexplicable reason, May is becoming my "baking book phase". Help me, I can't stop. Perhaps if I start spending more time making posts for this blog I'll be able to distract myself. 

Okay, so let's concentrate on this one for now. Today, we're making Nail Polish Cupcake Toppers. You still with me? Yes! Let's start.

Nail Polish Cupcake Topper Tutorial

What we need:
Fondant in pink (or any color you want), white and black
Rolling pin
Knife
Heart plunger
Toothpick
Water and brush to paste things together

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

(2) Shape it into a thick short cylinder with the top narrow than the bottom part

(3) Roll black fondant into a tall thin cylinder.With the edges defined.

(3) Roll a small amount of white fondant into a thin rectangle and place it on one end of the black cylinder.

(4) Arrange the nail polish like so. An option would be to add a heart design on to the nail polish bottle for a cute decoration.

Oops! As an added effect, I made an extra nail polish bottle someone forgot to put the cap on so when someone reached for it, it spilled. Whew, that was one long explanation for that small bottle below.

Hope you like it everyone!

My First Ever Teaching Experience!

Exciting.

Fulfilling.

Something I can do over and over again... (I think!)

Honestly, I didn't know I had it in me to teach. But last weekend, I had the opportunity to do so when I taught a series of classes in Bacolod over at Chefs and Bakers. And wow, it was loads of fun! 

I would like to thank Jenno, JP, Hillary and Ely of Chefs and Bakers for the huge amount of blind faith that I can pull the whole thing off despite my lack of teaching experience (first time teacher here). You guys are the best! And thank you so much for taking good care of me while in Bacolod.

I'd also like to thank everyone who attended the classes! You all are the best students ever! You made the whole experience fun! Love how you made the classes very engaging!

Thank you so much for those who came all the way from Cebu, Ilo-Ilo and to those who traveled hours just to make it the classes. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

A special shout out to all who made an effort to come and meet the person behind Bake Happy the blog, especially Girlie, Liza and Tita Melanie. You just don't know how happy you made me. Meeting you all was the highlight of my trip! It was really heartwarming to know that the long hours, the effort in documenting every step for every post, the passion I put into baking is very much appreciated. I would love to hug you over and over again :)

Want to know how the classes went? Here it goes!

There were a total of four classes I was scheduled to teach that weekend. First up, the fashion themed toppers class. Here I am explaining how to make my version of Marshmallow Fondant. Don't let my stern face fool you, I am nervous! :)

 Here's one of the students - making a fondant shoe. 

 Our finished products!

 Saturday afternoon was dedicated to teaching the fondant animals class. Here are some of the students' works. Aren't they amazing? :)

 All of us hard at work!

At the classroom, there's a mirror on the side/top! You can see all of us in the middle of making a cute version of a giraffe in fondant. 

Then on Sunday, it's back to back Cupcake Baking for Beginners Class. Here we are making some red velvet cupcakes. Recipe here :)

 Everyone helping out filling the pans with liners.

 And they also tried their hands at piping frosting into the cupcakes! This must have been the most fun part! The students even came up with their own very impressive designs!!! So cool!!! 

 Here I am helping out piping frosting into the cupcakes :)

 Here's a pic from the afternoon class, we're making Red Velvet - the second batch for the day.

 Time for some group picture!!! With the morning class :)

 And with the afternoon class!

 Look at the amount of cupcakes we made in just a few hours!!! So many! :)

Sa uulitin!!! :)