Foodie Friday: Red Velvet Cake & Malted Milk Ice Cream

First Friday of the month:  Food finds


Satiating my sweet tooth... and yours.  
Carla & Elaine's Red Velvet Cake and Carmen's Best Artisanal Ice Cream.
These are my (overdue) sweet discoveries that deserve to be shared.

I regularly crave for sweets and always try to leave room for desserts like cakes and ice cream.  There are dozens of heavenly confections in my list of favorites, and these two are now part of that list.


Carla & Elaine's Red Velvet Cake
Moist and slightly dense, just the way I like cakes to be. The cake has a hint of cocoa, layered and covered in creamy-smooth buttercream and cream cheese frosting.  Perfectly balanced sweetness. It's ruby and cream colors make it all the more irresistible. This one also happens to be my girl's cake-of-the-moment.  Have a slice, or two!

6-inch Red Velvet Cake @ Php 420

I am a regular customer of the Kitchen of Carla & Elaine's and have bought many of their specialty cakes for our birthdays, or whenever I crave for their pastries. So I was really excited when they launched this Red Velvet Cake, which I quickly introduced to my daughter knowing she will love it!  I have only tried two other red velvet cakes and a cupcake in the past and this version did not disappoint.

Kitchen of Carla & Elaine's
198 Promenade Bldg., Wilson corner P. Guevara streets, San Juan City

Mondays - Sundays: 10am-7pm
Tel No.: (632) 480-9457


Carmen's Best Artisanal Ice Cream - Malted Milk
Super rich and creamy, real milk goodness with chunks of malt candy.  If you like Horlicks and Maltesers like me, then you will definitely love this artisanal ice cream creation from Real Fresh Dairy Farms, the same family farm that produces premium fresh milk Holly's.

Malted Milk flavor @ Php 380 / pint

I discovered Carmen's Best during the World Eats Food Fest at The Podium last July 31. I first tried Salted Caramel flavor and it was divine. But Malted Milk won me over so I happily brought home a pint of this one. They are produced in small batches, sold in plain pastic containers like this one.  I think they are still developing their label and packaging.

Owner Paco Magsaysay was on hand to entertain purveyors and customers and he shared with me that he mixed in crushed Horlicks for this Malted Milk flavor -- *drool*. It's very rich and sweet so try not to finish the whole pint like I did, my throat surrendered. Savor every scoop. The price for a pint is a bit steep but with the quality ingredients, it's worth every spoonful of this cool, decadent dessert. I have more flavors to try!

Carmens Best Artisanal Ice Cream and Gelato

For inquiries and orders:  (632) 893-1459
Find them on Facebook

What's your sweet indulgence?

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The Hubby is 30-ish

"If you have a wonderful husband who works hard and would give up anything for you, then re-post this...because great men are few and far between, and by the grace of God, I have one!"

Today, we celebrate my better half's 30th birthday...not!!! This is when he stopped counting, and I second that! Hahaha! I guess it just gets harder to accept that we're not getting any younger.  Despite the age, we learned to count our blessings, and with yet another year, we are thankful.  And I am thankful for having J in my life.  That shout-out on my opening above is from a few of my Facebook friends who posted it on their profiles. I found the line so timely and true for me, cheesy as it may sound, that I decided to humor my hubby by posting it as a greeting for him today. It was well-received.

Obviously, this entry is dedicated to J (",).

It is customary for us to have a joint birthday lunch with my brother, who's birthday is on the 5th, but that will be set another time with my parents.  For our actual birthdays, we usually eat out or just order in.  We did the latter and had a simple oriental dinner at home.

 Green soup made from pureed spinach, mixed with diced tofu, squid, shrimp, mushroom and egg.  It was good, but we've tasted better versions from other Chinese restaurants.

Since it is J's day today, I decided to order some of his favorite dishes from King Crab House along P. Guevarra in San Juan. I also thought I'd take home a Mango Shortcake from one of my favorite cake shops, Carla and Elaine's, but it was not available, and instead got the sinful Chocolate Decadence.

Birthdays will not be complete without the traditional birthday noodles.  This dish was a great combination of textures and flavors from the light and crunchy fried noodles, to the shrimp and pork sauce.

Of course I will not miss ordering the best-selling Crispy Salted Crabs.  Juicy, sweet as fresh crabs should, 'garlicky', and finger-lickin' good!

J's all-time favorite Chinese dish, the classic Sweet and Sour Pork.  This one has the right sweet-sour taste but the meat was slightly on the tough side. But still good.  

And now the most awaited moment of the day...the candle-lighting and blowing.  

The kids just love blowing out the candles, no matter who is celebrating.  And two rounds are not enough! (",)  It was J's idea to allow my girl to put as many candles as she can, and just make the cake all aglow. It did turn out quite spectacular with all the lighted candles.

Simple birthday cake -- Chocolate Decadence, made extra special with several lighted candles that included the lone yellow Smiley head. 

The girl before and after the cake-cutting. 

This is the moment she has been waiting for the whole day...to eat cake! And it was all worth the wait, as the cake was as decadent and rich as we imagined it would be -- two layers of moist chocolate cake covered in dark chocolate ganache and topped with thick caramel sauce. At the shop, I just requested for a greeting written on top and they added candy sprinkles, which my girl with a sweet tooth eagerly picked and scraped off the top as soon as we cut the cake, as you can see below.  

A perfect sweet ending to a delicious meal.

The girl made her own birthday card for daddy. The boy got a perfect score from his exam in computer class today, and declared that daddy will be proud of him today.  I am sure these are just the perfect gifts that J could ever receive today.  I still owe him a gift, but for now, my wish for him is to be blessed with good health, courage and wisdom as we go through our life's challenges, to be safe always, and to achieve success in his endeavors.

Happy Birthday! Hugs and kisses from me and the kids. We love you!

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Carla's and Caroline's Sweet Endings...and In-betweens

"I want cake, mommy, a pink cake!"; "I want that one, the purple one!"; "That's my birthday cake!"...and the shout-outs keep coming from the mouths of babes.

Even at different times of the day, at different days of the week, the boy and girl of the house will demand for their sugar rush. They know they have a limit. And since mommy can't say 'no' to desserts and sweets either, I simply oblige and promise them a reward for good behavior -- a scheduled trip to the nearest bake shop, grocery, or patisserie to fill their cravings. That will surely make their day!



Everyday, as I bring my boy to (and from) school, we pass by this fairly new strip of establishments along M. Paterno St. in San Juan. There's a clothes store, a salon, a foot spa, and Patisserie Caroline. And so, as promised, after we fetched him from school, we dropped by this quaint cake shop and cafe with a delectable display of confections.

Super Moist Chocolate Cake, New York Cheesecake, Banana Toffee Pie...which one to get? I only had money to buy one box of cake, a mini-cake to be exact, for P350.00. And my boy reigned with his choice -- pointing to 'the purple one', Ube Cake (purple yam cake). We can't wait to get home and eat!


The 6-inch cake has double yam-flavored cake-mousse layers, with snowy-white cream icing, topped with pieces of rolled white chocolate shaving. It has the sweet smell of yam with a mild hint of pandan essence, i think. Moist and subtly sweet, the cake did not disappoint. Even a small slice was quite filling. Although personally, with all the 'purple cakes' out there, I still put Red Ribbon's original Ube Cake at the top of my cake list. Since it's introduction in the 80's, this is the only ube cake I really crave for.


On our way out, my girl was quick to grab one of these flower lollipop cookie (P30) and even asked her nanny to buy it for her! I guess she made sure she gets to bring home 'something pink', since big brother won this time with the purple cake.


With a tempting cake selection, and a list of beverage and savory short order meals available for dine-in customers, I will definitely try to drop by again at Caroline's and bring home one of her best-sellers to surpise the kiddos. I found her site and you can see for yourself the many yummy-looking baked goodies she has to offer.



We also pass by another bake shop everyday, on our way home from school. That's why I can't escape the finger-pointing every time my boy sees the giant cup cakes (far right, from photo below) on the window display of The Kitchen of Carla & Elaine, along P. Guevarra St., also in San Juan.

On a more recent ride from brother's school, my girl won this time with her 'pink cake' -- that's the Strawberry Shortcake with super moist and light sponge cake layers filled with strawberry cream frosting! Really luscious, with just the right sweetness that even my sugar-conscious in-laws indulged on a slice. I think I ate half of the whole cake (we also ordered the petite 6-inch size, P380)! It was quite addicting once you get started!



This shortcake is one of two versions, the other being their bestseller, Mango Shortcake, which we first bought for my girl's second birthday last January. It was our introduction to the many mouth-watering desserts at this shop. Everybody who got to try this pink one, however, unanimously voted for the mango version.

Digging into a slice of Mango Shortcake, specially topped with pink icing birthday greeting for my girl

You will also finds loads of goodies here which include breads and cookies. And since it's just in my neighborhood, I will surely be dropping by for more sweet treats for the family at The Kitchen of Carla & Elaine.


Patisserie Caroline
Shop: 17 M. Paterno St. Pasadena, San Juan City Tel No: (632) 7226839

Carla & Elaine
Shop: 198 Promenade Bldg., Wilson St., corner P. Guevara, San Juan City Tel No.: (632) 4809457

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