Birthday Celeb/ Play-Date at Zoofari and Cake Galerie

Three weeks ago (late post alert!), Yuri and I went out of our comfort zone to attend my inaanak Andrei's second birthday.

Gee. Where did the time go? Parang kahapon lang when I visited them at the hospital when he was born. Now he's as loud and makulit as Yuri!

I said we went out of our comfort zone because of two reasons. First, it's our first lakad with just the two of us, and second, we ventured again to the southern side of the city. So far!

But we had a great time. First, George and I spent an hour with the two little men at Zoofari.

PART 1 - ZOOFARI

I have been to the main branch of Zoofari at Bacaca, which is nearer our home, but this was the first time I've been to Zoofari at SM Ecoland. Since we were at the former for a blogger event, I had no idea what to do inside. Haha.

(So you have to get registered at the counter and have your and your child's photos taken. Then they will hand you a stub containing the time you entered the playgym. I'm reminded of my internet cafe days in college.)

While Andrei was too excited to play (he already ran inside when we were struggling at the counter), Yuri had another crying episode. He always does that when he's in a new place. He also didn't have a nap, which didn't help.

He only calmed down when I pointed out to him a line of trucks and tractors. Thank you God!

While the other children zoomed in and out of the playgym, Yuri generally just stayed within his comfort zone, that area with the trucks and tractors. I was just thankful I didn't need to chase anyone around.

Speaking of comfort zone, Andrei started inside his, too, for the rest of the hour: the ball pit. Despite George's persistent invitation, Yuri just wouldn't go inside the pit. Sensory issues! :D

Yuri Turns 2: The Simplest Birthday Celebration

Warning: Photo overload ahead

I mentioned in a previous post that we chose not to have a birthday party this year. I realized that when the child is very young, especially if he is as deathly afraid of strangers as mine was (a year ago), then the party is not really for the child; it's for the parents.

Let the guilt-trip begin.

Just kidding. Of course, I know our intentions. We want to celebrate their birthdays with a blast! And we want to do the very best we can do to do it. And if your child is happy with people and parties, then by all means, go for it!

Yuri is no longer the timid baby he was last year, but this time, I want to make his birthday all about him. I wanted it to be completely stress-free and just happy. The result is the simplest birthday celebration ever.

There was no theme, no fuss. Well, the general theme of the day was everything Yuri likes and loves. Since it's his day, I wanted to make sure he ate, played with, did his favorite things. I'll stop here and let the photos do the talking.

The birthday boy in pambahay clothes.

Playing with his favorite toys: cars!

Ate his favorite breakfast food: yogurt with fresh fruits!

We also read some of his favorite books. This is The Quiet Book.

And I let him play his favorite video game but only for a limited time, don't worry. :-)

It's also one of the rare occasions we get to watch TV.

Just lying around, doing nothing. Careless like a child should be!

Running (and dancing) out on the street

The cake!

Thursday Breakfast: Imbento Brownies

Cheers to poorly-edited photos done in PicMonkey! - said the girl who has no Photoshop in her laptop.

This morning, Yuri slept in again. Because of the lack of time to prepare breakfast, I only prepared cereal with bananas. (No milk, just the way he likes it).

Follow me on Instagram: @maanlaxa

This time, though, he asked for something else. While dutifully spooning cereal into his mouth, he said, "Cake." "Ano?" I asked. He repeated, "cake." Uh-oh. Who am I not to oblige?

So after he finished breakfast and made some cuddle-time with me (I know, I know), and while he and his yaya were playing outside, I quickly surveyed the kitchen to see what I could come up with.

Since we already ran out of baking powder, a real cake was out of the question. Fortunately, we did have cocoa powder and the remains of a giant Beryl's Gourmet chocolate bar (yes, we regularly have those things), so I figured I could make some brownies. And hope for the best.

Like with all trying-hard recipes I post, this only took around 15 minutes and a microwave. Perfect for the lazy baker.

What you need:

Around 3 teaspoons melted butter

A chunk of dark chocolate, melted to look like this:

Melted chocolate. Mainit pa.

Around 2 tablespoons cream

4 tablespoons flour. Note to self: Buy mom decent flour canister. One we would actually use.

4 tablespoons Dutch Cocoa (or whichever you have)

We ran out of sugar na pala, so I used honey. 4 tablespoons

And poured the remaining of the milk. Around 3 tablespoons

I wanted to use vanilla, too, but I can't figure out where it is. That's always the problem whenever we do general cleaning. Di ko na makita yung mga gamit! Haha!

Anyway, like with all microwave-cake recipes, just mix them all into a batter. Then, I popped it into the microwave. High setting, 2 minutes. Here's a poorly-photographed slice from the brownie:

To my defense, I could not take a decent photograph because Yuri was already grabbing at my shirt to have a bite. I know it doesn't look much, and it doesn't even look appetizing, but trust me, they taste delish!

PS: All of the chocolates used in this recipe are dark. If you want something sweeter, feel free to choose your own kind of chocolates. Dance to your own tune. :-)

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Noob Baker: 5-Minute Peanut Butter Chocolate-Chip Cake

Blogger confession: This post has been sitting in my drafts for, what, almost 3 weeks already! This is just to explain that since writing the initial draft, I've baked for several times na. Yabang ko lang no?

Now that we got that shameless confession out of the way, let me begin my story. Yuri is a picky eater. He doesn't care for rice much, but he loves other forms of carbohydrates: bread, pancit, cakes, biscuits, etc. He doesn't like sweets, but he does go overboard when I give him a slice of bread or cake. That's the point in my undomesticated life where I decided I should learn how to bake.

My mother is a superb baker. I kid you not. While there are very rare times when her baking fails (mostly due to our cranky oven), in the other 99% of the time, her cakes and pastries are flawless. Of course, I want to inherit her baking and cooking gene; I just didn't want have the patience to deal with an old oven and matches.

That's where I realized I can bake using our microwave oven! I've come across so many microwave cake recipes; I just wasn't interested before. What's stopping me now? So one day, when we had a bunch of bananas about to go overripe and a fresh jar of local peanut butter, I knew I just have to try.

Obviously, I was about to bake for the very first time: Peanut Butter Banana Cake with Chocolate Chips. I tweaked the recipe from here. Here are the ingredients:

The original recipe makes a cake in a mug, but that's not enough for us. So I doubled everything. I also removed the egg from the recipe.

• 8 Tablespoons Flour
• 8 Tablespoons Sugar
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 5 Tablespoons Peanut Butter (Just a local brand from my parents' officemate)
• 2 Ripe Bananas
• 6 Tablespoons Milk (I used Oaties; I like its flavor)
• 4 Tablespoons Vegetable Oil (I used Canola)

If you notice, the photo above shows Cocoa Powder. I changed my mind after taking the photo because I wanted to make a plain peanut butter cake. I decided to use chocolate chips instead (not in photo).

Now, for the procedure. Actually, there's no procedure. Just mix everything into a microwaveable bowl! I mixed the dry ingredients first and added the liquids one by one.

Here's how the mixture looked like when I added the chocolate chips:



Then, just pop it into the oven. I was able to make enough for two medium-sized microwavable bowls. Please remember not to fill it more than halfway because the mixture will rise. Anyway, I just placed the setting on High and timed it for about 3 minutes (according to the microwave timer).

After pacing back and forth, wishing that what I just made is, at least, edible, here they are!



Lovely, peanut-buttery color!



And it's really moist and chewy ha, certainly not what I expected from a microwaved cake! Actually, my sister told me it reminds her of butterscotch brownies. Haba ng hair, sayo na ang korona!

For the taste test! It's sweet and really peanut-buttery. There is a slight hint of banana, and the chocolate chips (I used dark) balance the sweetness of the peanut butter. It had the seal of approval from my sister, who devoured the bowl in one sitting. What about my other cake connoisseur?

Please know that he sneezed in the photo above. His facial reaction is in no way related to the taste of the cake.

He liked it! Woot!

For the next several days, I baked some other stuff in my microwave. I baked a chocolate cake that had too much flour and too little sugar. Fail! But I baked another one to mask the failure haha.

 My brother and I also prepared pancakes. Well, it's not baking, but it has something to do with flour, right?

On a sidenote, I seriously love Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate, the box behind the regular Swiss Miss. It reminds me of local tablea! :-)

Of course, it would take a long time before I can copy my mother's famous Chocolate Moist Cake (no photo) or her muffins that rival Krispy Kreme's Kruffins:

Or our neighbor's fantastic special ensaymada:

Or a chocolate mousse cake, like this one from Bread Talk (which my parents got one day for absolutely no reason):

Nevertheless, it is addicting and is a great stress-reliever, so I'll keep trying! 

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