New toys for the baker wanna-be

I've been in hiatus for too long!

It has been a crazy past few weeks at work that when I get home, all I do is sleep. I also have been MIA in our kitchen the past few weeks, but not for long!!! especially with my NEW BAKING TOYS!!! :D

Remember the entry when my boyfriend and I baked cookies for the first time? How his muscles were put to test because I used him as my manual mixer? So, for my birthday, he gave me a mixer!!!

I was ecstatic. Excited. Beyond the clouds happy. I LOVE IT. I did not enjoy baking then to the fullest because of the manual mixing part. But now, here it is, I have my own mixer!!! FINALLY! It was totally unexpected.

A few days before my birthday he teased me that he got me a Minnie Mouse shoes and a pedal-type mixer. I did not know if there really is a pedal-type one. But true enough, he wrapped the mixer in Minnie Mouse wrapper, and I was laughing so hard thinking "so he did buy me a Minnie Mouse shoe?!" I was readying myself for the shoes and the pedal mixer, and instead, it's a legit mixer! He chose the Oster hand and stand mixer because I was raving about it and as he said "it's practical"! And then it was there! :)  (My KitchenAid Artisan mixer dreams will have to wait, I have to "perfect" baking first in this mixer, before I step up and spend a lot on a mixer I might not even use when baking decides I'm not for her. HAHA.)

My siblings also had the same idea. They wanted to buy me a mixer, but to their relief, my boyfriend gave me the gift first so they were spared from the trouble and "expense" haha!

Nevertheless, they bought wonderful baking goodies. ;)

When I saw the card, Gourdo's,  I immediately know what is inside. It could only be baking materials! And they were! It's Wilton's beginnner's cake decoration set. I swoon.

I'm particularly excited about these tips!!! I can just imagine the decors to do!!! GAAAH.

HAPPY BAKING TO ME!!! <3

Hershey's ultimate brownie

Love.

Finding love..




Accepting love..
 


Staying in love...
 

Oh, what a great feeling....
To love and be loved.
To cherish and be cherished.
 To admire and to be admired.


I came home to an extraordinary amount of flowers in the house. They were so many that it felt like my dreams of "lying on fields of flowers". But no, it was no dream. It was real. And they weren't for me. ('Duh). It's for my sister. *winkwink.


My older sister finally has a boyfriend! 

I am so happy. And thrilled. And ecstatic. And overjoyed for her. HAHA. She has been this girl who "loved and lost" before, and finally, she learned to open her heart again. YAY!

I think every girl who is in love tends to develop an inner liking to the kitchen. And my sister was no exemption. This guy she is with is into sweets --- a lot.I tease her that her boyfriend might be a girl disguised in a guy's clothing, 'cause hey, only a few guys are into the whole cakes, chocolates and ice cream thing that girls are notoriously known for. Right?

So anyway, she approached me one night to ask for a go-to recipe of a brownie for his boyfriend. Of course, I immediately recommended Hershey's. It's real easy AND it REALLY is GOOD. So here are the products of her (with some assistance from me) baking-for-boyfriend experience:

These are the second and third pans that we made. In the first one (no photos, sadly), we followed the buttercream frosting, but for these next two, we let the frosting go, and instead, drizzed the brownie with Hershey's chocolate syrup, and topped them with chocolate chips.

Also, we added 1/3 cup of cashew into the mixture before baking. CHUNKY NUTS inside a CHOCOLATE BROWNIE with drizzle of CHOCOLATE SYRUP on top is HEAVEN ON EARTH.

Kudos to my sister, for her new relationship and the interest in kitchen hits and misses :*