Cake decorating expo in Manila!
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: June 3, 2010
I found out about this exciting event a week before it was held. I was thrilled because Heny Sison will be lecturing and I’m such a fan! But I could only get in if I won the essay contest. I submitted my entry and got my ticket!
It was held at the SMX Convention Center. That place is huge! Anyway, I loved that the Expo had a playground where kids (accompanied by their dads or lolas) could exhaust their energy while the moms toured the booths and learned cake decorating techniques. This allowed me to roam free and get the best out of the exhibits.
Vietnamese chef Long wowed the audience as he piped one figure after another in amazing speed and accuracy – a puppy, a dragon, or Santa Claus on his sleigh! Enthusiasts also got hands-on training on how to pipe a rose, which is by far the most intimidating skill for beginners. Whipping cream used in all cake decorating during the event was sponsored by Avocet. That was a LOT of whipped cream!
The experience was worth the trip to Manila and I look forward to attending the 2nd expo next year.
Nico and the Giant Cake
"Mars" on chiffon cake by Nico
Figure-piped dragon using whipped cream
Figure-piped puppy
My FIRST piped rose. I was so proud!
Marshmallow-covered tiered cake
Different Lambeth decorations - this requires piping royal icing in several layers to build up height.
I have about a hundred pictures more but they’re all different cake decorations for weddings and birthdays. They’ll come in handy when looking for designs. Send me your email address if you would like a copy. Enjoy!
26 Random Things About Me
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: June 3, 2010
This is something I wrote a long time ago in response to a friend’s invitation at Facebook. I’d like to know what are the 26 Random Things you could think of about yourself. I’d be glad to read about it! 
1. I always go beyond the budget when it comes to groceries. I can count with my fingers the number of times I was able to stick with my list. Other than that, I’m a penny pincher. And I haven’t purchased anything from ebay. If I ever would, it will be something for my business or a car booster seat for Nico to give me peace of mind whenever he rides with us in the car.
2. Right now, I’m saving up for the Rolls Royce of all mixers – Kitchen Aid (27K) and seminars from the cake lady herself for mycake decorating business.
2. Everything about me now is home-based. Homeschooling my son, working from home, and running my food business from home.
3. Whenever I’m in a romantic mood, I hear music in my head. Reggae and classics are the usual ones (my husband would tease that I’m actually 70 years old because I know almost all the love songs from the 50′s!).
4. At the end of a crazy day I dream of retiring to a 5-star hotel room with its plump pillows and crisp sheets and soft mattress and air-conditioned room when I’m stressed and painfully tired. It helps me go to sleep faster.
5. I miss running. My good old Adidas shoes are still reliable even if the reflectors have peeled off here and there but can’t use them anymore – doctor’s orders.
6. I can type 60 wpm, drive, float and dive in the water but not do butterfly or freestyle strokes, read a music score (I did study music for 4 years!), cook, bake, clean my house spotless, write, teach, make money by working in my kitchen.
7. The first cake I ever decorated was done with the help of my husband and son so it was a memorable first.
8. I want to believe that I was a chef in my previous life.
9. I still sob when I miss my mom who passed away four years ago.
10. I dream of signature bags, shoes, eyewear, iPods but can’t wrap my brain around spending for them.
11. I love Body Shop and Revlon products.
12. I love kids so a lot of people think I’m actually a teacher by profession.
13. My son is like my boyfriend. lol. He’d say things to me like I’m an A (adorable) and a composog (pretty), and many other nice things. hehehe.
14. I still can’t tell if my son looks like me or my husband. But why bother?
15. I believe that things happen for a reason. I would have met my husband when I was in college but I never did.. When we finally met we found out we had plenty of friends in common in UP which could have led us into each other in those four years that I was there – but God had plans for us and made it happen when the time was perfect for both of us.
16. My husband is my best friend. I’m confident that our son will be, too, when he’s grown up.
19. I hope my husband wins the lotto someday so he could buy his dream home at Portofino and go to Europe.
20. If I were a multi-millionaire, the first thing I would do is put up a school for underpriviledged women – mothers specifically so that they will be empowered and have more choices in life. And it would be dedicated to my mom.
21. I wish my sibs, dad and I could travel together once more. One of my sibs is in Australia on a contract, dad is getting really old, so it’s almost impossible to pull off and time is of the essence.
22. The first two countries I would want to visit are Hawaii and California to visit my aunties and uncles from both my parents’ lines.
23. I’m obssessed with Hawaiian Host macadamia nuts. Nothing beats it.
24. One of my life-long legacies would be to publish the genealogy of both my parents’ lines that I’ve been working on for years now.
25. I actually researched on pregnancy and parenting when I was still pregnant and followed expert advise to the dot. I still do now and it keeps me sane.
An Apple Cake (Or Half Of It) In Honor Of The Teachers
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: March 9, 2010
Last month we celebrated Teachers Day here in the Philippines. I homeschooled my son from 2008-2009 so I can just imagine how difficult it is to be a teacher. So to honor the teachers in my son’s school (I’ll make another post about the decision to immerse him in a classroom setup) I decided to bake and decorate a cake just for them – I would gladly make hundreds more for the other teachers I know but my budget is restricted for just one cake (whose isn’t anyway?).
As you have seen my cakes in my previous post, I lean towards 3D because I’m bad in piping figures. Also, I wanted to go with something unique – not just something copied from pictures – and my son is very reliable when it comes to creativity, which I lack. In my mind I was toying with the idea of making a chalkboard cake with the greeting Happy Teachers Day on it (yep, boring, and it’s not 3D at all!) but then I followed my instinct and asked my son what he has in mind. And he said, “Like an apple. Remember, you give apples to teachers?”. What a no-brainer! Where would I be in cake decorating without my son’s creativity?!!
Now, before you laugh at the side view of the cake (you will see that it’s just the upper half of the apple and the bottom is missing!), I’m happy to tell you that one of my son’s teachers actually recognized it to be an apple! lol! She also thanked me the other day for the cake and said she was touched by the message. But the part I liked the most is when she said “it was so yummy!”. My heart swells with pride. What a sanguine I am! I would be a poor soul without hearing a praise in a day!
If you’re familiar with the quote I wrote on the tray, I edited Christa McAuliffe’s and intended to put her name on the tray but I had very little space left (I still have to practice writing!!!).
If you happen to be a teacher or a teacher-mom like me who spends a good deal of the day with your kids or other people’s children, listening to and nurturing them, this cake is for you, too! May God bless you for doing an incredible mission in raising citizens of the future. Happy teaching!
Cake Wrecks
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: January 28, 2010
Since I started working last year, I set a goal of buying myself the much-coveted Kitchen Aid stand mixer. 12 months later I still don’t have one! Anyway, the reason for such goal is so that I can start making my own frostings from scratch and stop relying on Betty Crocker frostings. I live in a country where the product literally melts at room temperature! Lately, it’s been cooler so the frosting holds up longer than the usual. Oh well, here is my very own cake wreck roll…
Train Cake for my nephew (face decorated and tracks piped by my husband)
This one's a real flop 
It’s Afritada But With A Hint Of Caldereta!
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: January 28, 2010
Today I cooked one of my favorite dishes: afritada! The hint of caldereta comes from the liver spread (aka live wurst) and peanut butter. (Apparently, my helper heard me ask her to prepare the ingredients for caldereta). To the recipe…
Ingredients:
1 clove garlic
1/2 onion, sliced
4 pcs chicken (any part you like), washed
1 Tbsp soy sauce
4 Tbsp tomato sauce
1 cup water
2 potatoes, peeled and quartered
1/2 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
1 can green peas (optional)
To cook:
1. Heat oil in a pan. Fry the potatoes until golden brown. Remove and drain in paper towel. Set aside.
2. In the same pan, saute onion until transluscent. Add in the garlic and heat through until fragrant. Saute the tomatoes. When tomatoes are of mashing consistency, add the chicken pieces, coat with the oil, Season with soy sauce, pepper and simmer until watery.
3. Add in the carrots, potatoes, green peas and tomato sauce. Heat through, covered. Add the water (feel free to add more to make sure there’s enough to cover the meat and vegetables). Boil then lower heat.
4. Add the peanut butter and liver spread. Adjust to your taste. If you just want afritada, skip those ingredients. Heat through until meat is tender and carrots are cooked. Reduce the liquid to intensify the flavor. If you don’t mind your bell peppers being soggy, you can add them at this point.
5. When the liquid has been reduced, taste and add salt/pepper to your liking. Add in the bell pepper, heat for 5 minutes and turn off the fire. Serve with hot rice.
Tip: The Filipino palette likes tomato-based dishes with a hint of sweetness so if you want to have a taste of Filipino cooking in your kitchen, go ahead and sprinkle a bit of sugar into the sauce as you add in the tomato sauce!
Has Your 1st Grader Asked You These Questions?
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: January 28, 2010
Here are the Top 5 Questions my son has asked me (and my husband). Don’t forget to share yours!
1. What are the kinds of comb jellies?
My son learns fast when he categorizes things. Comb jellies entered his world from a National Geographic DVD collection his Daddy got when he was 3 1/2 years old and the bioluminescent creatures just sucked him in that he would ask and ask and ask about them every single day - for weeks! A bioluminescence expert we emailed recommended this book that kids could appreciate. Check it out at . It’s one of my son’s most treasured books!
A ctenophore a.k.a. comb jelly (the great white shark of the deep)
2. Why can’t we hear God’s voice anymore? This came up when he was about 2 1/2 years old after we got reading the First Bible his Daddy got him from a trip to AZ. I would make a deep voice when reading God’s lines and I guess that made him realize it’s not the same then as it is now. I was really dumbfounded to hear him ask that question but I just remained calm and pondered on it before answering. I think I said something to the effect that God still lets his voice be heard by those who choose to have a close relationship with him and I give him instances when I heard God speak to me to comfort me.
3. Why does he/she/they do that? I’ve heard my son ask me this question when he sees a kid pick his nose with great pleasure in public, when one of his cousins peed on the front yard, when he saw his grandfather smoke, when the grass in our subdivision is burnt instead of cut (lazy farmers!), when he sees passengers throw their candy wrappers out the window, when his classmates would walk around or talk even while the class is going on (makes me wonder why the teachers allow this), the list could go on and on and on…
4. What’s wrong with your heart? when he was 3 years old I almost had a heart failure and it got him confused why I couldn’t lift, spin, or run with him around anymore. it made him very curious about how the body works (of course, together with the fact he saw me change from supermom to not-so-supermom), specially the heart. being the mom, I have the read the texts with him and explain the diagrams so he can get it in simple words. I never bothered about auricles and ventricles until he asked me to explain it to him. More on that in another blog… Anyway, here’s a video that has taught my son (and me lol!) about the human body. Enjoy!
5. What is bigger than the universe? now this is a really “huge” question. lol. of course, all my husband and I could do was rely on recent scientific studies we’ve heard of e.g. the possibility of a multiverse, and also incorporate the fact that only God could possibly know the answer to that question.
6. How does a (fill in the blank) work? this question you could definitely relate to. I notice I use a lot of hand gestures when the questions get a little too technical/mechanical for me (how do you explain how an internal combustion engine works without using hand gestures?).
7. Why don’t humans stop cutting down trees? My son knows why we need trees. What he doesn’t get is why, despite the state of our environment, do humans still shave our forests? I really feel for my son, he sees the grown ups in his household helpless about this issue. He has even made a poster that he asked me to publish in a newspaper. Good God, it’s been years and I still haven’t done it! I will post that poster here and on facebook. The film below is something parents could show their kids to increase environmental awareness. Watch it on youtube to see the other parts.
8. Why was King Solomon allowed to have many wives? The plain answer would be “because he was a king” and “because it was allowed” but really the issue underneath is the morality of it since we teach him about love and faithfulness. It’s a good thing Jesus changed that to monogamy.
I’m sure you were reminded of your kids’ questions along the way. I’d really love to hear about them.
Hello world!
Posted by: Louella Paranal on: January 9, 2010
Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!
