Chocolate Marshmallow Cake

I found this recipe at www.dana-made-it.com. It's holiday today, so I have all the time to bake. Although mine, didn't look like the finish cake in the tutorial, it still is as delicious! Try this! The kids would surely love this! ♥

CHOCOLATE MARSHMALLOW CAKE

1 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (or use 1 cup milk mixed with 1 Tbl vinegar)
1/2 cup oil
1 tsp vanilla
Chocolate Satin Frosting (see recipe below)

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and grease a 13x9 pan.
2. Bring some water to boil and keep it simmering while you make the batter.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the eggs, buttermilk, oil and vanilla and beat with an electric mixer for 30 seconds.
4. Add the 1 cup boiling water and carefully stir until the water is mixed in; beat for 1 1/2 minutes.
5. Pour the batter into the 13x9 pan (batter will be thin).
6. Bake at 350 for 35-38 minutes or just until the top springs back when lightly touched.
7. Make the frosting while the cake is baking. When the cake is done, pour the warm frosting over the hot cake.

CHOCOLATE SATIN FROSTING
1/2 cup butter
6 Tbl buttermilk (or use 6 Tbl milk mixed with 1 tsp vinegar)
4 Tbl cocoa powder
1 (16 oz) box powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups marshmallows (optional)

1. In a medium saucepan, combine the butter, buttermilk and cocoa. Cook, stirring constantly, just until it comes to a boil; remove the pan from the heat.
2. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla, and beat with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until the frosting is nearly smooth (stir every few minutes while the cake finished baking).
3. Add the marshmallows, then pour the warm frosting over the hot cake, gently spreading until it covers the cake evenly. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Coffee Jelly

Found this recipe in my friend's blog : Life: A Race to Run. Try it too!

Ingredients:

2 packs of Mr. Gulaman
25g coffee
10 cups of water
500g sugar
3 box of All Purpose Cream
2 cans of condensed milk

Mix 2 packs of Mr. Gulaman, 10 cups of water, 25g of coffee and 500g of sugar. Put the mix ingredients in medium heat and keep on stirring for 10mins or until you notice that the mixture is starting to form like jelly. You can put a drop of it on a plate to check if it will form in to jelly. Then pour it in a bowl or on anything where you want to form the jelly. In a separate bowl, mix the all purpose cream and 2 cans of condensed milk and refrigerate. Once the jelly is formed, slice it into cubes and put in on the all purpose cream mixture. Mix and refrigerate.

Yema Square

I found this recipe on Alaska website. It's so easy to do and so delicious! Now, I know what to give my relatives and friends this coming holiday season.

YEMA SQUARE

Ingredients:

1/3 cup butter or margarine
1 can Alaska Condensada Sweetened Condensed Creamer 300mL
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Procedure:
1. Pre-heat oven to 350 °F.
2. Line a 6"x10" pan with waxed or parchment paper.
3. In a bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy.
4. Blend in Alaska Condensada and beat until smooth. Add in eggs and flour and mix just until blended.
5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 10 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and sprinkle nuts over the pastry and bake for another 15 minutes or until golden in color.
7. Let cool completely before slicing.

Fruit Juices

I'm happy that my son is not a picky eater (yet). He eats all the vegetables and fruits we give him. There's always banana on our dining table and every meal that is his dessert. Besides that fruit, we like giving him fresh juices which he enjoyed so much!

our juice for today dalanghita and apple

he can't seem to wait for his juice, i gave him a slice of apple

he likes to drink in a regular glass

riley: mama, wala na ba?

he can always eat banana!

"GOOD WORK"

It is nice to received good news especially when you helped in achieving that "good" news. My tutee, Leou Jae (pronounced as Lu-jay) is now TOP 1 in his class! From Top 4 to Top 1. I was happy (and proud) that our efforts paid off. He is smart but he gets lazy sometimes when it gets to his studying. So I push him through and encourage him to the best that I could. I always told him that he can do it. When he started to complain, "Ang hirap naman teacher!(The lessons are hard!)" I would always reply, "That's why we are studying it, to know it." It really takes a lot of patience to be a teacher. But fulfilling too. Sounds crazy but him being on Top 1 is like winning a prize in my part. :) And I didn't expect or wanted it. All I wanted is for him to stay and continue to be on the list of top ten in their class. When his mom approach me and she told be "Good Work!" I was really happy :)

Moving to another good news, (this week is pouring with good news!) I forgot to tell you that last week, I started working as computer teacher at Panasahan Elementary School. My schedule is every 3:30 to 5:00 pm, Monday to Thursday. You know that I still can't leave my son to work full time so I'm digging this schedule. Aside from that, it is a new environment to work with kids as my bosses. It's chaos! Hehe. But it is challenging as well. I just finish writing their syllabus and I hope the principal would approve it. I hope I can do what is expected from me in my new work. And I hope my students would learn from me to.

So that's all the good news! Isn't it nice when you received one? Have a great week y'all! :)

Smart Parenting

If you notice, most of my blog about child development are from Smart Parenting magazine. Ever since I became a mother, I always read their articles. They make my life easier. :) I learn a lot of things from them.

I love this book! It is entitled “The Smart Mom’s Guide To The Toddler Years.” And I think every parent should have this book! The monthly developments of a toddler from 13 to 36th month are specifically detailed in every chapter. There are milestones marker, what to expect, bits of information and the common questions about what’s happening in our child. This book is really heaven sent to me and to think that I bought it for P100 only. It is really very helpful and what I like best is that it is easy and light to read. As much as possible I write about what I read here to share it to parents like me. 

My other books from Summit Publications are Learn and 150+ Fun and Creative Activities for Kids

For more readings and activities join the SMART PARENTING community. You will be updated with news and helpful articles in taking care of our little ones! Its not that hard to be a smart parent after all. When you can have all the help that you can get. Thank You Smart Parenting!

i love halloween!

This is my first time to really celebrate Halloween. Before, it bears nothing to me. But of course, everything changes when you have a child. Every occasion must be celebrate whichever way we think is the best for our kids. Before I show you pictures of "scary" children in costumes here's a history of how Halloween came to be:

Ancient Origins of Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-in). The Celts, who lived 2,000 years ago in the area that is now Ireland, the United Kingdom and northern France, celebrated their new year on November 1. This day marked the end of summer and the harvest and the beginning of the dark, cold winter, a time of year that was often associated with human death. Celts believed that on the night before the new year, the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. On the night of October 31 they celebrated Samhain, when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth. In addition to causing trouble and damaging crops, Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future. For a people entirely dependent on the volatile natural world, these prophecies were an important source of comfort and direction during the long, dark winter.

To commemorate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes. When the celebration was over, they re-lit their hearth fires, which they had extinguished earlier that evening, from the sacred bonfire to help protect them during the coming winter.

Source: http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

Now that its settled, here are some of the adorable kids we saw when we attended Jolibee's Halloween Party last Saturday!

Riley as Little Devil

Rapunzel

witch

a cute bumblebee

minnie mouse

a princess

a "possessed" spiderman :p

astronauts

a lost fairy

AND

Riley (again) as Lt. Riley "the soldier" :)