Entries Tagged 'Sweet Shops' ↓

Valentine Sweets Madness

Chocolates and sweet delicacies are now everywhere with the Valentine’s just two days away. And different commercial establishments are brimming with their own individual promotions and gimmicks.

We’ll peek through some of them including Ministop, Red Ribbon cakes, Krispy Kreme, and Delifrance,

Ministop Valentine's Madness Promo

Ministop Valentine's Madness Promo

Ministop’s Valentine Madness Delight Promo

Ministop have the Valentine Madness Delight Promo wherein lucky customers get a chance to win a romantic getaway for two for every single-receipt purchase of any of Ministop’s participating products. Customer must write his contact details and affix his signature at the back of the Ministop Official Receipt, and drop the receipt at designated drop boxes.

There will be four winners of a trip for two to Boracay, with airfare and accommodations at the Grand Boracay Hotel; three winners of a trip for two to Cagayan De Oro, with airfare and accommodations at Malberry Suites; and three winners of a trip for two to Busuanga, with airfare and accommodations at Busuanga Island Hotel. The Valentine Madness Delight promo will run until   February 28, 2010.

Red Ribbon Roses & Kisses Cake

Red Ribbon Roses & Kisses Cake

You can also express your love in full bloom this year through Ministop’s flower delivery service, which offers next-day delivery of farm fresh roses to major key cities nationwide. Romantics can choose from 8 stunning colors. Available at popular prices, the roses are available in 3-stemmed, half a dozen, one dozen, and two dozen. You may also choose from the new flower color combination for 1 dozen and 2 dozen all meticulously grown by Ministop’s partner, Island Rose. Ministop’s delivery service is available 24/7 for special occasions all year round in Ministop stores in the metro.

Red Ribbon’s Roses & Kisses Cake

Krispy Kreme Heaert-Shaped Doughnuts

Krispy Kreme Heaert-Shaped Doughnuts

The Roses and Kisses Cake is only available on shelf from February 12-14, 2009. It’s a chocolate pound cake shaped as a lovey-dovey heart and decorated with edible sugar roses and Hershey’s milk chocolate Kisses on top. Made beautiful inside-out, it is made with layers of chocolate fudge filling sprinkled with chocolate chips.

Truly a seasonal cake just for this valentine season, the 6 diameter white heart is priced at P330.

Krispy Kreme Heart-Shaped Doughnuts

Krispy Kreme wants you to share the sweetness with their  limited edition Valentine heart-shaped doughnuts with Hershey’s Kisses chocolate which started Feb 4 . Other favorite heart shaped doughnut varieties will be available up to Feb 14. These include New York Cheesecake, Hershey’s Dark Chocolate, Hershey’s Cookies & Cream, Peanut Butter & Kreme, Blueberry Cheesecake, Snickers Classic, Chocolate Custard Filled, Chocolate Kreme Filled, Sugar, Caramel Kreme Crunch and Chocolate Iced With Sprinkles. Share a dozen for only P365

Delifrance Frosted Cinnamon Rolls

Delifrance Frosted Cinnamon Rolls

Delifrance’s Cinnamon Rolls

Delifrance comes up with its Frosted Cinnamon Rolls. A box of 12 is P450. Yummy!

There you go…an almost endless list of Valentine’s Sweets madness. 🙂

Chinese New Year + Valentines = Heart-Shaped Tikoy :)

Chinese New Year Fireworks

Chinese New Year Fireworks

Yes, they did it. Aside from the fear of fully-reserved restaurants come the big day of  Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day combined, they also made heart-shaped tikoy (glutinous rice pudding ).

Tikoy‘s literal translation in English is “sweet-cake.”

Going back, the maker of this heart-shaped ‘tikoy‘ in the picture is Polland bakery. They’re known to be innovative and creative with their products. The packaging alone (of all its product line), uses loud color to attract more buyers.

With the upcoming Chinese New Year this Sunday, Feb 14, 2010, expect the traditional ‘Tikoy‘ gifts to overflow once again from our friends  in the Chinese-Filipino community. This symbolizes prosperity and is said to make the blessings ‘stick‘. 🙂

Chinese Ang-Pao / Ampao (Red Envelope)

Chinese Ang-Pao / Ampao (Red Envelope)

Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year!

4 Times the Chocolate with Chocolate Heaven

A Slice of Chocolate Heaven

A Slice of Chocolate Heaven

Just in time for the valentine season, Red Ribbon releases its newest, richest, and chocolatiest chocolate cake ever – the Chocolate Heaven.

Promising a taste of heaven with its creaminess and combination layer of chocolate brownie at the bottom and chocolate mousse over it. It is then covered by rich dark chocolate icing and topped with chocolate shaven curls.

That’s four times a chocolate!

Red Ribbon Chocolate Heaven Cake

Red Ribbon Chocolate Heaven Cake

The verdict: Yes! It’s the chocolatiest ever! Stop reading this and taste one for yourself. 🙂

The junior size is priced at P335 while the regular size is P560. It has been available in select stores since early February but will be is available nationwide in all Red Ribbon branches today since yesterday.

Wait, there’s more! Join the Chocolate Heaven Photo Contest today! See mechanics here!

Love is in the Air…and in Red Ribbon’s Valentine’s Cake

It’s the season of commercial love. Yes, a market-driven one characterized by candies, chocolates, flowers, gifts, and occasional greeting cards, to materialistically symbolise one’s love and affection for another.

But whatever the Valentine’s Day critics say, it always feels good to receive a chocolate, a bouquet of flowers, and a cake from your loved one, be it your relative, parents, kids, or special partner.

Roses & Kisses Cake

So Red Ribbon made sure this becomes easy for the gift giver with their seasonal Roses and Kisses Cake which is now available for pre-order until February 9, 2009

It’s a chocolate pound cake shaped as a lovey-dovey heart and decorated with edible sugar roses and Hershey’s milk chocolate Kisses on top. Made beautiful inside-out, it is made with layers of chocolate fudge filling sprinkled with chocolate chips.

Looks and sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

So what about the taste? I like how it tastes different from the usual sweet cakes we usually have. It isn’t tiring to the taste buds, so I believe a couple can finish a whole cake in one sitting. 🙂

Truly a seasonal cake just for this valentine season, the 6 diameter white heart is priced at P330 and is customizable with a total of 14-character text before and after the “Happy Valentine’s Day” box for your special message for him/her.

Red Ribbon's Valentine's Day Cake - Roses And Kisses Cake

Red Ribbon's Valentine's Day Cake - Roses And Kisses Cake

Read this blog post too late? And it’s Valentine’s Day in a day or two? Red Ribbon’s Valentine’s CakeRoses and Kisses is available off the shelf in all Red Ribbon branches nationwide from Febraury 12-14, 2010.

Serye Cafe Filipino on Food Foto Fiesta

As promised, we’re bringing back Food Foto Fiesta.

I had a recent surprising discovery of a Filipino restaurant called Serye. It’s related to the classic Aristocrat restaurant that anyone above 20, and residing in the Philippines, would be familiar with.

Actually, Serye have been around for sometime but is currently re-branding from Serye Restaurant and Cafe, to Serye Cafe Filipino; but that story deserves a separate article altogether. Stay tuned for that in the coming weeks.

For now, feast on the 10 photos I recently took from their Eastwood Libis branch.

Gambas

Gambas

Pork Spareribs

Pork Spareribs

Kesong Puti Puttanesca

Kesong Puti Puttanesca

Pork Binagoongan

Pork Binagoongan

Arroz Ala Cubana Pandesal

Arroz Ala Cubana Pandesal

Tuna Sisig

Tuna Sisig

Kesong Puti Salad

Kesong Puti Salad

Dinuguan and Puto

Dinuguan and Puto

Boneless Crispy Pata

Boneless Crispy Pata

* Food photos taken at Serye Cafe Filipino Eastwood Libis Branch.

Holiday’s Santa Wish Cake from Red Ribbon

Ok, this post is quite late, but nonetheless still made it. 🙂

Red Ribbon introduces Santas Wish Cake

Red Ribbon introduces Santa's Wish Cake

Last month, almost at the same time as the launch of the Choco Walnut Fudge, Red Ribbon Cakes by Design introduced a cake made for your Christmas festivities, the Santa’s Wish cake. It really looks appealing and in season.

Santa Wish Cake

Santa Wish Cake

Inspired by the beloved icons of Christmas, Santa Claus, with his cherry-red hat, twinkling eyes and fluffy white beard, Red Ribbon’s Santa’s Wish cake enhances the joy of the Christmas spirit, not withstanding the true meaning of Christmas which is Christ Jesus. :).

It’s made with moist and dense rhumbutter cake and a layer of creamy caramel filling. The outermost layer is covered with icing and decorative green and red pine tree cuts.

Santas Wish Cake Slices with the Green & Red Pine Trees

Santa's Wish Cake Slices with the Green & Red Pine Trees

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Embarrassingly, I tried to take a bite off the green pine tree on the first time I tried it thinking it was made of sugar. It actually is, however, it was thick and not made with the purpose of being eaten. 🙂

What’s special about this cake is that the Santa’s Wish cake will be available on a pre-order basis only at any Red Ribbon store from November 27 – December 15.

But don”t worry, Red Ribbon’s Santa’s Wish cake will be available off-the-shelf in all Red Ribbon stores from December 22 – 24 at P550 – so you still have like…uhm… 2 days. :)  Merry Chirstmas to all! NomNom will be back after Christmas! 🙂

A Yummy Christmas Dinner

Last night’s dinner was made of Yummy, figuratively and literally. Yummy foodie magazine invited a group of foodies, including Nomnom, for an intimate dinner at Tosco in Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City.

Tosco, Dusit Thani Hotel

Tosco, Dusit Thani Hotel

And who would say no to an intimate dinner invite by a food magazine? It’s almost sure, the food would be great. And I was not mistaken.

Potato Sour Creme Soup

Potato Sour Creme Soup

Potato-Sour Creme Soup

For soup appetizer, we had potato-sour creme soup.

It was good and creamy. The lemon grilled shrimp slices even made it better.

I found the initally served bread complimentary to its rich taste and I cleaned up my bowl to the last drop.

I think the leaves on top is tarragon – an aromatic Eurasian herb for seasoning.

Tosco Bread

Tosco Bread

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Stuffed Chicken Breast

Chicken Breast with a Surprise

The main entree looked like a simple chicken breast but I found a surprise marinated apricot and orange cinnamon couscous at its center. The serving of rice is also worth mentioning with its citrus-like aftertaste and scent. It was something new to my taste buds and I found it pleasing. Stems of green asparagus lined the plate.

Couscous is a north African dish usually characterized by steamed semolina and meat; in this case chicken meat.

Chicken breast with Orange Cinnamon and Apricot

Chicken breast with Orange Cinnamon and Apricot

Trilogie

Yes, you read it right – it ended with ‘gie.’ The dinner was concluded with a trilogie of vanilla, red wine creme, and caramelized mango. It was the goodness of dessert times three.

Tosco Trilogie: Vanilla, Red Wine Creme, & Caramelized Mango

Tosco Trilogie: Vanilla, Red Wine Creme, & Caramelized Mango

The vanilla was prepared light and covered with shreds of crispy barquillos. Lovely.

It was my first time to taste a red wine creme and I loved its softness with hint of strawberry. Although I think I’m alone with this conclusion since the plates of those around me left the red wine creme half-consumed.

The caramelized mango was, well, caramelized mango.

Although a combination of three desserts sound overwhelming, I surprisingly found it wanting. The three were all sweet but it was not overdone. Simply said, I cleaned the plate.

Toscos Caffe Latte

Tosco's Caffe Latte

And just like after any sweets, a good cup of coffee is always appreciated after.

Yummy Planner 2010

Yummy Planner 2010

Yummy Magazine - December Issue

Yummy Magazine - December Issue

It was a good way of celebrating the holidays and the blessed year of 2009 for Yummy Magazine as they release the Yummy 2010 Planner and 3 new cookbooks namely YUMMY Meals in Minutes, YUMMY So-easy Sweets, and YUMMY Weekend Cooking.

The Yummy Planner 2010 is now sold in major bookstores at P250 while the cookbooks are at an affordable price of P100 each.

Their December issue is also now out with cooking tips for Christmas like how to have a delicious and inexpensive Noche Buena. They are also adding new sections to the magazine and website Yummy.ph. Something to look forward to in 2010. Check it out here.

Tosco Wine Bar, Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City

Tosco Wine Bar, Dusit Thani Hotel, Makati City

More photos of Yummy Christmas Dinner.

We also shared a good chat over dinner with fellow foodies Fran, Az, and new friends Oggie & Ferdz of HappyFoodies.com, among others. It was also nice to see Anton of Our Awesome Planet again and Joey of Table for Three Please, for the first time. It was a Yummy dinner indeed!

Nomnom Club’s Thank You Day Photo Contest Finalists

Woot! Thank you to all who participated in my Thank You Day Photo Contest Promo a few weeks ago! This is actually a back post as I was very busy lately. Nonetheless, the 5 Nomnom Club finalists and winners are:

  • Thank You Mama! by LittleNars.com
  • “I am doing this for Mama, this is how I will show my love for her. She doesn’t deserve any other disappointment. She only deserve happiness. So please God, MAKE THIS HAPPEN.”

  • How do you spread the sweetness of gratitude? by Mamuyac.Multiply
  • “I can’t find the right words to say to my baby Charles but “thank you” on how he made my life an exciting and worthy journey that it is today.”

  • An Entry … by IAmNicely.com
  • “I want the world to know how grateful I am to God for giving me such cool and loving parents.”

  • My Entry… by Misha
  • “I am thankful for my best friends who have always been there for me through the good times & the bad.”

  • Spread The Sweetness… by NextJam
  • “I’ll be showing you how to be appreciated through my passion in Toy Photography.”

    Thank You Day

I wish you guys the best and hopefully Toblerone would be able to select one of you in their top 3 winners from among all the finalists from the online community! Cheers!

Nonetheless, by being finlaists in my contest, all you five automatically receives Thank You Toblerone Gift Packs! You will be informed via email as to how to claim these items.

Thank you also to GeiserMaclang and Toblerone for hosting this contest.

For more information on the National Thank You Day, visit www.thankyoudayphilippines.com HERE