A Slice of Life in a Piece of Cake

GEORGE HARRISON once said, “all the world is a birthday cake, so take a piece, but not too much.”

        Well, I took too much during my birthday last year. Maybe because it was not just a birthday cake but a bunch of cupcakes with moist marshmallow icing and with yet another hard but sweet coating with greetings from family and friends inscribed on them.

        Not the usual Happy Birthday Lulu but personalized messages that really touched my heart I had to hold back tears because everyone around me was getting excited and having fun as the boxes of cupcakes were paraded before me with the first box  lighted with two reed thin candles.

                                                             THAT’S ME with my birthday cupcakes about

                                                                     to blow the candles … and about to cry.

        The day after that memorable event, I wrote in my journal:

I really had a happy birthday. At the

rate my family and friends were greeting me

as soon as the third of September

officially started a second after

the stroke of midnight,

there's no way I'm not going to be

happy on the day I was born.

My daughters, of course, were the first

to greet me. Ghiselle cannot be

outdone as she was just there with me

and at 12 midnight

verbalized her greeting. Even

Pee Ann adjusted her Canadian clock to

Manila and she texted me her

message a few minutes after midnight.

I knew that my daughters

arranged – and I really looked forward

to them – for a spa treat at

Blue Water Day Spa (near ABS-CBN) for

me and my sisters Pat and Maleck,

and bachelor brother Abe,

and a dinner at Dapo, a garden-like

bar and restaurant a few blocks away.

But the cupcake thing was

definitely a surprise!

          I was going to expound on that and write about those touching personalized messages in cake icing but I never got to finish that journal entry. I am not sure if I got more busy or maybe more lazy that journaling has been eased out of my not-so-busy but too-many-things-to-do life.

                                                              THE CUPCAKES (above and below), courtesy of 

                                                                 the cupcake architect, with those

                                                                   touching messages from my daughters, 

                                                            my  siblings,  my cousin Luis, and my friend Milen.  

                          

          Actually, that unfinished birthday journal entry signaled the end of volumes of handwritten notebooks, planners and other paper materials from where I have poured my thoughts and feelings and chronicled my life.  I seem to have finally – and quite belatedly but gratefully – embraced the digital world and typing keys on my gadgets for my thoughts and whatever else that needs recording is a breeze. Plus there's this blog ...

          But back to the birthday cupcakes I got on that day; and, more importantly, to the many beautiful and delectable cakes Pee Ann now bakes together with boyfriend Alex.

          While talking about that latest birthday, Pee Ann said that if she was here, she would have been the one to make those cupcakes for me.

          I don't know exactly where she got the talent or even the interest or inclination to bake. Everybody knows I am not a natural in the kitchen and the only thing going for me is the fact that I can read recipes and I have people from my family – my mom, (may she rest in peace) and my sister Pat – who are culinary experts and all I have to do is ask how a particular dish is prepared. But, of course, it’s not always as perfect.

          One thing remains vivid in my memory though. Way back in grade school, she decided to bake cookies, specifically crinkles, as part of a homework wherein they

are supposed to display a particular talent. I remember Ghiselle telling her, “bakit hindi ka na lang magsayaw?”

          But thinking back to that time gives me a smile because we had fun – the three of us – collaborating to come up with crinkles from a ready-to-bake packet. Take note, we were using an old almost rusty oven toaster, a gift from the company I was working at (F. Jacinto Group, Inc.) for some years of service.  

          During her college years (B.S. Hotel & Restaurant Management, Batch 2004, St. Paul University, Quezon City), she learned to make blueberry cheesecake and some cupcakes from somewhere. After college, she was doing more of these as well as volunteering to make sandwiches for Ghiselle's baon and we discovered how delicious her pasta was.

          During that time, I would sell those cupcakes and blueberry cheesecake to officemates, who until now when the topic is about my daughters, they would tell me they miss Pee Ann’s sweet concoctions, and, yes, her pasta, which they tasted when I celebrated an earlier birthday several years ago.

          Now let me tell you with pride about Frosted Crumbs (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003211531133), the bakeshop Pee Ann has set up with Alex. She has definitely graduated from making plain cupcakes and blueberry cheesecake and is now baking cakes and cupcakes big time.

          What’s interesting is they don’t just come up with the usual icing and sugar flowers to decorate their cakes but they create fantasy and fairy tales and real drama even to make these cakes truly delicious and appealing to the eyes .

          And the story of Frosted Crumbs is a fairy tale come true for Alex and Pee Ann. While here in Manila, they likewise partnered with friends to set up a small coffee kiosk called Seven Circles at the UST school compound. Aside from coffee, they were making cupcakes, brownies and some other baked stuff.

Daughter Pee Ann works at the Frosted Crumbs
cake shop. These cupcakes were
were donated to Santa Anonymous last Christmas.

          Frosted Crumbs started when a friend held a bridal shower and they decided to bake a cake as their gift. I said bridal shower so you probably know what shape or figure the cake was – which I feel is too adult to print in my blog. Oh that cake was in pink icing!

          Because that first one was a success, cakes became their signature gifts to friends. When they got their residency, Alex and Pee Ann applied for a business permit and eventually set up their own cake shop.  In a short while, friends and friends of friends started ordering cakes from them – in all shapes and shades and colors, making sure customers’ specifications are satisfied.

                                                                  (Above photos) CUPCAKES and cakes

                                                                   Frosted Crumbs make.

                                                                  The cupcakes were made for birthday boys,

                                                                   while the cake above was for a debutante.Below

                                                                   is another birthday cake for a little girl named

                                                                   Moka and lower photo shows a letter of

                                                                   appreciation sent by her mom.

          Despite their success, they continued to be generous and made cakes for free for friends’ kids. This paid off because others who would see their cake gifts would also want one for their kids or any member of the family. Until they were baking cakes for almost everyone in their community in Banff.

          Now this post won’t be complete without writing about another cake maker. She is Bea Mateo de Silos, the creative one who did the cupcakes during my birthday. You already know that the entire celebration was memorable but those personalized cupcakes were the icing on the cake, so to speak.

          At the risk of hurting Bea’s feelings, I only knew her as Ghiselle’s schoolmate (UST College of [then] Architecture & Fine Arts) who eventually became her close friend because they were teammates in basketball. As far as I was concerned, her claim to fame was just that – like my daughter, she plays good basketball – and I didn’t know she can bake.

          My daughter tells me now that Bea has been doing some baking since college. She has a day job as an architect (http://mayamangkarpintero.blogspot.com/). In fact, she is Smart Parenting magazine's Nursery Makeover design consultant, with her latest work featured in its March 2012 issue. She and husband and fellow architect, Arnel, have set up the ABDS Builders and the duo builds dreams into reality.

          When she gave birth to her son Pablo, she decided to be a WAHM (work-at-home-mom) and in between breastfeeding, she whips up cupcakes. Thus, the cupcake architect (http://cupcakearchitect.blogspot.com/) was born. Check her out and get ideas on how to make a loved one’s birthday or any occasion memorable.

THAT’S BEA putting on the final touches on

her cupcakes. Looking on are

husband Arnel and son Pablo. And below

are some of her bestsellers.

          So there you go. Looks like baking cakes as a business seems like fun. How I wish I could whip them up myself. But it’s definitely no piece of cake for me.

          I am happy that Pee Ann makes a living out of celebrations. And so with Bea. There’s a slice of life in every cake they bake – as a kid or grown-up has another birthday, or somebody marks a milestone, or some person simply wants to celebrate happiness.

          Even in her day job (chef, Banff Park Lodge Hotel), Pee Ann gets to come up with sweet stuff for their customers … as a fitting ending to a sumptuous meal.  

          Let me end this post with a few lines from a classic Eraserheads song … for whatever it may convey –

Take a bite, it’s alright,

life is a piece of cake.