Baklavas

We had leftover phyllo pastry from December so my sister has been requesting for baklavas. I've never made baklavas before and this would just be my second time to work with phyllo pastry. The first time was just a forgettable experience. It just way difficult to work with thawed phyllo pastry especially when theyve stuck together --its way difficult to pull them off one another.

This time, the box specifically said not to freeze! So goodie! When we opened the box, the sheets were dry and just perfect. Buttered and cut the sheets, put in walnuts mixed with some sugar and cinnamon and then put in more sheets. Baked in 190 degrees for 15 minutes or golden brown. Honey should be drizzled after the baklavas have been cooled but we were too excited to try it out so we just squirted extra light whipped cream...



My sister and I found the phyllo pastry a tad salty but it cut through the sweetness a bit which was good.

It's a versatile pastry which can be used with fruits or savory! oh oh! which reminds me --I think Jamaican patties use phyllo pastry to make those nifty beef pies (something i just ate for breakfast today!)

Overall a good experiment. Phyllo is not so hard to work with. Just remember to store it properly.

New Offering for the New Year!

We have exciting news from Quintbelles! We understand that every occasion simply cannot go without the perfect cake and we're very happy to bake and decorate cakes with the same love and attention our clients give their loved ones. They are the ones who continue to inspire us! We promise to strive harder to improve ourselves this coming year.

One of our biggest news is that we can now decorate cakes and cookies with photos! We've always been asked to make those nifty cookies with famous characters photos but unfortunately we did not have the equipment to do so (besides having to deal with character licenses.) But we recently invested in edible ink printer!

Now we can make cakes and cookies with photos of parents, siblings, friends (or enemies!). We can even make cakes with company logos! Unlimited possibilities!

For sample cakes, please visit this site.

I do-- A bridal fair

Edsa-Shangrila together with Wedding Essentials hosted a bridal fair, I do, on May 4 and 5, 2007. We were invited to participate and display some of our cakes. We contemplated on joining because we are a bit nervous since the famous and institutional cake makers are going to be there--Pastry Bin, Dexter's Bakeshop, Cake Concepts, Vienna Cakes among others! But, with nothing to lose but some sleepless nights and sticky floors, we set out to plan for the fair.

This year's theme is oriental. With this in mind, we brainstormed for suitable cake designs...dragons, double happiness, round and red cakes! Surprisingly, the famous cake artists did come up with exactly these designs! Quintbelles finalized the design as such: One tiered cake, oriental flower design with a hand painted vase filled with colorful flowers; one red round cake with paper cut of a chinese girl painted in gold luster; and 5 mini cakes with strip and flower design.

We prepared mini cupcake samples in 2 flavors: chocolate and carrot cake and 2 icings: buttercream and creamcheese icing. We got good feedback from suppliers and guests alike! Some guests asked questions, inquired and many tasted our cakes! :) Yum yum was good enough for us.

Our calling cards were nice looking but still computer printed. This was on of our issues before but we will soon have a professional-made full-colored ones.

The only problem we have is that space was too small and it was hard to move around and not occupy our neighbors space! But the other suppliers are a friendly lot and didn't mind us overstepping a couple of times. We gave out several boxes of the cakes to thank them. Oh, surprisingly won a bottle of wine :)

Overall, a great experience that allowed us to meet wonderful people in the wedding industry!

Elaine's POV

--written by Elaine

I had wanted to start off this blog with how we started and why the name Quintbelles. Val wrote how we came up with the name already. I tease her that if I were the author of that article, I would have written that it all started with me. Tee-hee…

But kidding aside, we started with simple recipes like cookies and biscuits. Lifestyle Channel was not yet shown on tv-- we didn’t even know how to beat egg whites into soft peaks. With no formal baking lessons, we made a salty cookies (due to use of salted butter then added salt!), uneven baking (temperature mistakes), uneven shapes (no patience) , flopped cakes (underbaked), burnt cakes (overbaked!), watery icings (no mixer), tough pie crusts... every mistake you can think of...

So we try and try again, and even enrolled in some baking classes...the outcome improved over time and we would change the recipes according to our liking. I remember our first cake--it was a total disaster. It turned out like melted ice cream! It didn't hold its shape! Our parents, supportive of our venture, tasted our cakes and told us parts we could change. We'd like to think that we've improved since and we’re now doing wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and other celebration cakes.

Drop by our site www.quintbelles.multiply.com and view our recent cakes --you wont find the melted cake there! Haha! :)

Ting and Gilbert's Wedding Cake

Quintbelles used to have a photolog but since it was difficult to upload photos, we have stopped using it-- fortunately after Tere chanced upon our site. After several messages and emails exchanged, Ting and Gilbert (her friends!) confirmed their order for their wedding on Feb 2007. The wedding ceremony and reception was held in Tagaytay. The photo above was sent out as their wedding invitation. The couple explained that they are inviting their friends and family to travel with them (the Fairy Couple leading the way) to their destination wedding. As a continuing thread, we made a fairy couple for the cake topper.

A very decisive couple, Ting and Gilbert sent us a drawing of the cake design they had in mind. Motiff of pink, silver and dark chocolate brown were all incorporated into the cake.

The final wedding cake is 18" high (6", 10" and 14" diameter) carrot walnut cake with cream cheese icing .

We allocated 3 hours to drive to Sonya's, estimating that was all we needed to get there before the agreed time. The cake left 8am and was supposed to be there by 10am-11am. Unfortunately, traffic in city prevented us from getting there as expected. After several frantic calls and text messages, the cake arrived at 12noon. Thankfully, the couple (and the guests) were still on their way to the reception. We were still able to take a few shots of the cake and retouch some parts of the cake that might be necessary for problems that *might* occur during cake transport.