Chocolate Dome Cake

I got the idea for this from Foodie Magazine vol. 2 no. 6 called "Chocolate Holiday - give the gift of pleasure". The original recipe is by Tricia Ignacio-Fragante of Sacocina Catering, but as almost always with me, I tweak the recipe a bit...

melted butter, for brushing
1 340-gram pound cake loaf, purchased or homemade (home made in my case)
1/4 cup brandy
1 cup milk chocolate
3 cups whipping cream, chilled
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup chocolate covered almonds (like Nestle Almonets)
cocoa powder, for garnish
additional whipped cream, for garnish

So first i baked a standard butter cake on a square pan. Let it cool then cut the square into 4 triangles. My triangles are about 4 inches on all sides and 2 inches thick, so i had cut it crosswise to make it 1 inch thick. As for the length of the sides, it really depends on the bowl you'll be using to shape the dome, so just adjust according to how big your want your dome to be (the original recipe used a 1 1/2 quart bowl).
Put cling wrap on the insides of your bowl so it'd be easier to remove the cake later on. Brush with melted butter, then arrange

..arrgh i don't have patience with this lol.. it's hard to describe lol..

Breaded Chicken and Potatoes

For the breaded chicken:
500 grams chicken thigh fillet
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
garlic powder
breadcrumbs

Marinate the chicken in all the sauces combined, then chill in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. Roll the chicken in breadcrumbs. When I was at the supermarket I saw two types of breadcrumbs, one was more fine, almost powder-like, while the other type is a lot more coarse. I chose the coarse one, but of course you can choose any you like, depending on how you want your chicken breading to be like.
Then it was shallow-fried to perfection. I have to credit my mom there, for a while I was cooking the chicken not well enough, until she intruded haha. So thanks, Mom!
For the boiled potatoes, we just submerged the potatoes in a pot of water, brought it to a boil until the potatoes are soft and the skin is cracking. Put a generous slab of butter on top of it while it's still hot, then serve with the chicken.

I saw this recipe in a Yummy magazine, but I did some changes.

Cheesecake

Grandma said this was the best I have ever done so far. Woohooo! haha... But I think that just means she likes cheesecakes.
I followed a recipe from the internet, and then did a lot of major changes. At first I tried to follow the recipe, but since I only had one tub of cream cheese (while the recipe calls for five!), I had to cut all the other ingredients on the list by 1/5. If I did that I would probably make a cheese slice, not a cheese cake. So I decided to change some things :). You know, add a little more cream, a bit more flour, more eggs, etc. I totally was just following my gut feeling, no measurements, no anything. Just throwing ingredients here and there and hoping it would turn into something a person could recognize as a cake.
The recipe said to put it in the oven of 275 degrees Celsius for 10 mins, lower it to 200 for an hour, then turn the oven off and leave it there for another hour. Well after 10 mins in 200 degrees the cheesecake started going brown and dry at the top that it started to crack and even get some.. err.. pimples lol (see picture below). There might be something wrong with my oven, I don't know, so I took it out, let it set, and served it. It's not like the usual cheesecakes that are very soft like a mousse. This one turned out more bread-like probably because of the added flour, but it was still very sort and creamy. Everyone liked it! :)

Say Cheese!

Dark Chocolate and Mango Cookies

BURN, BABY, BURN! One look at the picture and you'll know this was a disaster. I followed the recipe (though I lowered the temperature very slightly), but after the time was done, the cookies were still very soft.. and so I decided to leave it there for a couple more minutes. Alas, wrong move. Too bad, it tasted really good while they were still in batter form, and they looked super cute when spooned to the baking sheet, but they lost their form, and err, got burned. lol
But on the bright side, I can trim the burnt edges and we're still okay! Surprisingly, people still thought it tasted good! So next time, I'll try this again, properly I hope.

I guess I should be happy I didn't burn the kitchen instead.

Trim the burns and.... tadaaaa... not so bad after all. :) (Yes I am very optimistic haha!)

Coffee Marble Cake

This is my second try on doing a marble cake, and I must say, this one's a huge success. On the taste category, this one's a 9.5/10. Mom, who is hard to please with these things, thinks it's excellent. Dad, who is easier to please, thinks the butter cake part needs a bit more sugar, but once he had some of the brown part, he realized the sweetness was there. I probably should have mixed it more. I used a package of Kopiko 3 in 1 and mixed it on part of the batter, hence I had no control on the sugar. But for me it was alright, I think maybe different people like their cakes on different sweetness levels, so I really can't please everybody haha.
    For decoration I had melted nougat and almond candies I found. It burnt a little, not my intention, but it actually looked nice when i spooned it on top of a cake slice... sweet and slightly bitter.
  

Brownie Gunshots

Brownies with chocolate-covered almonds (Nestle Almonets) and chocolate covered malt balls (Maltesers).
Well I called them gunshots because the Maltesers burned at the surface and looked like gunshots haha. It didn't taste burnt, but neither did they taste like malt lol.

Apple-Raisin Crumble

Oh wow.. This one is definitely one of the biggest hits I've made. Simply sensational, but maybe just a bit too sweet. Peeled and chopped apples, cooked until soft with sugar and cinnamon. Mixed with raisins, then topped with the crumble, which is simply flour, butter and sugar.

So easy to make and yet soooo good!
Will definitely do this again sometime, maybe using dried and fresh cranberries next time, if they're available.