Ube Halaya or Halayang Ube

"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." ~Thomas Merton

Isn't it crazy how we push ourselves to make food looks so darn good? Even I take 100 shots to finally say that "it's a good pic, I can use it on my blog". Heck! But why are some people just "naturally" good at things? It's like they don't exert effort but they do great. They pick up the skill as soon as they started trying. Hmmm, well, my hubby and his brothers are like that, they're so good in everything especially when it comes to art. See the pic above? Who would think that a simple ube halaya can be transformed to a minion creature. Wow, I'm amazed!

INGREDIENTS:
2 kg ube or purple yam, peeled, boiled and finely grated
2 3/4 cup coconut cream
2 1/2 cup brown sugar
300 ml + 1/2 cup condensed milk
2-4 Tbsp butter or margarine, room temperature
1/2 cup cheese, grated

PROCEDURE:
1. In a large pan, combine coconut cream and sugar. Cook it over medium-high heat (uncovered), stirring frequently. Once boiling, lower the heat into medium. Let it simmer (uncovered) for another 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently. 

2. Once the size of the bubbles becomes big, add in the grated ube. Mix well.

3. Add in the condensed milk and butter/margarine. 

4. Add in the cheese.

5. Cook and stir it until the mixture becomes thick and sticky (about 30-40 minutes). The mixture won't fall when you lifted the laddle.

6. Put it in a plate and let your creative side do the wonders. Mold it to whatever shape you like.

ube halaya with leche flan

piggy halaya with angry birds stuffed toys

QUICK NOTES:
1. Put the left-over in the refrigerator. It will last up to 5-7 days. 
2. If you don't have coconut cream, you may use evaporated or fresh milk. But the taste will differ.
3. There are varieties of ube which are lighter in shade, you may use violet food coloring to make it darker.



Happy day always,

Rhea

Minnie Mouse Cake

When you encounter obstacles, don't turn your back on them. Face them, confront them, and you will see them dissolving in front of your eyes. ~Roopleen, Words to inspire the winner in YOU

I made another fondant character cake. This time, I did Minnie Mouse Cake, this is for my friend's daughter birthday. Yay! The flavor of the cake is Ube with Macapuno Filling because this is her daughter's favorite. Honestly, I faced many challenges while making the cake... but I learned a LOT from it! It's not easy but truly, challenges makes life more interesting and meaningful. I just want to share with you the story behind my Minnie Mouse Cake. Here it is...

It was my first time to make Ube cake so I let google do the searching for the best ube cake recipe, but I couldn't find one because most of the recipes were chiffon and they say that chiffon cannot hold the weight of the fondant. Thankfully after a long search, I've found one. I did my first batch but unfortunately the cake turned into greenish-purplish color (Sorry, I forgot to take photos of the cake - without fondant). Even though the taste was superior, I decided to make another cake because I didn't like the color. 

I added violet food gel on the second batch. But my heart shrunk when I saw the cake's color... it became darker and still has green parts! Whew! I've beating my brain at that moment trying to figure out the source of the problem. Then I read an article that baking soda may react to colors. So I decided to substitute baking powder instead of baking soda for the third batch. While baking, something odd happened. My cake didn't rise! Oh my, I did some research again and rechecked the recipe and procedure. I'm very sure I followed all the steps correctly. Then suddenly my eyes turned to the direction of the powdered sugar. BINGO! I found the culprit. Sadly, my third batch went all to the trash. 

It's already past midnight and I'm running out of ingredients. There's no room for mistakes again, I told to myself. I pray first before making the fourth batch, I needed guidance and strength. I moved out the powdered sugar in the counter and carefully followed the steps then bake the cake. After 45 minutes of patiently waiting the cake turned out better than what I'm expecting. It has rich purple color - no green parts... and not dry! Yehey! Thanks God I made it! 

Now you may think that this is the beginning of happy ending, ah~ah! I have some issues with fondant on the next day. It's humid at that time that's why my fondant became moist. Maybe it has something to do also with my buttercream frosting. It's very hard to work with moist fondant. You have to be careful not to touch anything because you might put finger prints on it, icky! NOT COOL! 

Another problem is I forgot to put the name of the celebrant, oh my! my blood pressure rose up to the roof! I have to remove some 2D minnie mouse heads on the side and patched the celebrant's name. Well, you really need a little creativity and lots of patience on this kind of work. When I finished designing the cake, I couldn't hold my tears from falling... seriously! I'm soooo happy to see the result of my hardwork. I thought I couldn't do it. But thanks God I made it!

Lessons I've learned:

1. Find a recipe that you're comfortable with. BUT if in case you have to make a cake that's new to you. Be sure to test the recipe beforehand so you'll know if there are problems with the cake. You have more time to experiment and do adjustments.

2. Don't buy exact ingredients. Make sure you have more than what you need.

3. Ask for assistance. The minnie mouse topper was created by my husband - Thank you Larry!

4. Be resourceful, creative, and most of all be patient!

5. Keep your working space organize and put LABELS on your storage jar.
6. Practice! Practice! Practice! No wonder, practice makes perfect.
7. If everything goes wrong and all your hopes are gone. Just stop... pause... and pray. Promise, prayer works wonders!


Happy day always,

Rhea