Valentine’s day may be for lovers and being a singleton, it is easy to dismiss it as a regular day. However, Valentine’s day is also about love and I have loved ones around me so I try to make the day a little more special. To be precise, I do something special with food. In the past, I have made popsicles and cooked a meal.
This year, I planned to prepare breakfast, cook a meat dish, make a salad and bake a cake. However, I had to finish a report so I ended up doing everything in batches. It was a good thing because Valentine’s for us extended until the 15th.
I ‘multi-tasked’ our lunch on the 14th. I was still doing the report and it was already 10 a.m. I cooked the pork belly in the pressure cooker to soften the meat. After which, I marinated the meat in a korean barbecue sauce. I cooked the marinated meat in the turbo broiler afterwards. I picked this type of cooking because I do not have to look after what I am cooking. I just let the timer run and it rings when the food is done. Voila! Say hello to our Valentine lunch. This was a hit.
I was able to finish the report on the 14th so by February 15th, I was free! I woke up early to make breakfast. I planned to make ‘egg on a cloud’. I saw that Tasty video and it looked easy. Boy, was I wrong! These do not look like the one on the video.
Yes, you can start laughing. The egg white looked fluffy in this picture but it tasted like paper.
We tried to analyze what happened. It really looked like they were eggs on the cloud while they were in the oven. However, I left the eggs there when I turned off heat because I left the house to buy bread. I did not want to leave them outside for fear there might be flies and other insects landing on the eggs. Maybe that caused the egg whites to continue cooking. It is safe to say that was a fail.
After breakfast, I prepared the salad. Since Waldorf salad is best eaten cold. I made it first so I can chill it in the fridge. We love the Waldorf salad that a family friend makes and since we have walnuts sent to us by my aunt in Canada, we wanted to try to make Waldorf salad. The Waldorf salad is said to be invented by the maitre’d of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. It is a simple salad made of apples, grapes, celery with lemon and mayonnaise for the dressing and topped with toasted walnuts. My version used cucumber instead of celery and calamansi instead of lemon. I also added yogurt and cashew nuts.
For me, it tasted good. For my aunts, they wanted to add cream and sugar. I guess they are used to the salad dressing we often make.
The highlight of day is the caramel cake. I wanted to bake a cake likes Estrel’s so I found Corinne’s blog. She shared a similar recipe from her aunt.
I love how my chiffon cake turned out. I used to burn my cakes because my old oven did not have temperature control.
This is what it looked like when I poured the caramel icing.
The Swiss buttercream frosting held up, too. I just need to practice the consistency of my swirls.
It is a pretty cake (if you look past the imperfections).
Beyond the aesthetics, the true measure of good food is the taste. My aunts liked it. One aunt said that the buttercream is too much to her liking. My cousin also said that a thinner layer of buttercream will do. But I secretly love the buttercream. Real butter (as opposed to margarine) is divine! The buttercream hardened in the fridge when we stored the leftover. When I wanted to eat the cake, what I did was I let the cake rest beside me while I work and eat it when the butter softens. Yum!
This is hit. But… I might not make this cake anytime soon. It took me 6 hours to finish from baking the cake to frosting it! But this will definitely be my go-to cake for special occasions.
By the way, belated happy Valentine’s day! Hope you all had a good one.
The cake just looks divine!!! The salad looks amazing as well… Happy Valentine’s Day…
Thank you.
Food sure looks delicious. Makes me hungry just looking at them. Would love to try them out. lol Belated Happy Valentine’s Day. Hope you had a great one. Thanks for sharing some of your dishes. Looks like it was a success! Keep it up!
Thanks, PJ!
That does look like a yummy cake. It looks attractive, especially that it’s homemade, so there’s a labor of love factor in it. 🙂 The salad looks sumptuous, too.
Thanks, Claire!
Oh my, good job! Pag pag holidays, I get l lazy to cook talaga. Unless I’m determined to impress with food lalo when we have friends over. I should start cooking again for parties. Kaso nakakapagod diba?!
Yep, nakakapagod. I just learned that I can make the cake and buttercream in advance!
What a beautiful thing to do for Valentine’s day. I honestly don’t mind that much icing on my cake! YUM! The cake looks amazing and so do the other dishes. Sorry about that egg cloud, at least you know where it all went wrong.
I love butter now. I have been used to margarine. Pure butter is heaven!
Heehee that egg bit is just too cute. The cake looks wonderful, btw.
Paper eggs!
I guess there are hits and miss in cooking for you. I guess, you’ll be excellent at it with a few more tries.
I’ll try again next time.
No matter what you think about your preparation, for me you made it good and perfect. Your thoughtfulness means a lot to your family and friends and that’s Valentines Day all about.
Thanks!
I was working on a report myself the same weekend that you did your report. So that’s what I was busy about last Valentine’s Day. I super wish I had the patience and the gift to create and cook all those goodies. You nailed it, ang galing … especially the cake. Great job!
I wanted to ask, what font did you use ( for the text happy valentine’s day ) in the last photo? 😀
Re: font. It is my own handwriting. I write on paper. Take a photo. Open in Photoshop. Select the text and superimpose on the cake pic. I’ll do a tutorial next time.
The cake looks so heavenly and the icing has made it super yummy.
Yes I had a good one and hope you too. Its so sweet of you to cook for Valentine’s Day. I like the cake decoration too.
It’s the thought that counts and I love how you try to do it and the best thing is to make the meal together with your loved one! Happy Valentine’s Day!
Always wondered how to make my eggs look “fluffly” but it ends up looking flat or burnt every single time haha, mind sharing the secret babe? Or it’s just “baking” that did the trick?
Fluffy sunny side up? I think it has something to do with using fresh eggs and cooking in the right amount of heat (medium, i think).
I loved that cake. It looks so yummylicious. Special cooking for Valentine’s is a great idea.
What a tasty way of celebrating the Vday. The cakes look delicious. Belated Valentines day!
Your chiffon cake looks great and looks like it tastes great as well. Congratulations for a homemade Valentine meal that your family appreciated so much.
How I wish to be able to cook and bake like you. Awesome. That’s the best date i would able to give to my hubby, which is to cook a full meal for him. 🙂
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