September Wedding

September was quite eventful to say the least. For some reason, it was a month full of birthdays, baptisms, and weddings. Many credit this to the fact that there's a lot of lovin' going on during the holidays that result in babies being born in September. Whatever the reason behind it, I got a truckload of orders from clients for macaron cakes and towers. 

One of them was a wedding cake from BJ and Tin who were tying the knot on the 25th. We met a couple of times to discuss the details of their wedding cake, and I could easily tell they were a sweet and fun couple, very easygoing and not at all overly stressed about their big day. 

{dream clients!}

BJ, the dutiful groom that he was, gave Tin all the leeway regarding the wedding cake, and Tin wanted it to have macarons, be three feet high, and not so stiff and formal. Blue, pink, purple, and green made up their wedding's color scheme. 

She specifically wanted the word "Love" on the cake, which I thought was so romantic. Not only, of course, was their wedding a symbol of their love, but it's also what they call each other.

{sweetness.}

Tin came up with a 5-tier design with a fully edible cake at the base. This was going to be one of the biggest cakes I'd ever done. She also wanted macaron hearts to be included in the design. The flavors she chose were hazelnut (purple), pistachio (green), chocolate (pink), and caramel (blue). The cake was a banana chocolate chip cake.

I don't know why, but everytime I deliver a major project, rains seem to follow. This was what I saw heading towards Edsa Shangri-La Hotel! 

After a few last minute touches and adding macarons to the middle layer at the venue, the cake was setup in the ballroom.

I love stepping back and looking at macaron cakes. They are always so fulfilling to make, and yummy to eat! 

"Hi Georgia, the cake was cute and beautiful. Thank you very much!" 

~ BJ and Tin ~

Incidentally, I gave birth to my second child, a boy, a week after finishing this project. Maybe there is some truth to why so many people are born in September :p

Laughcry

Laughcry.

It's a new word I picked up from my friend, Eartha (her touching post here inspired me to write this), last night while we were texting overseas about the recent passing of our dear friend, Maj. We can't help but laugh and cry at the same time because not only do we realize that Maj has left us, but we also remember what she left us.

Generosity. Laughter. Love. Lots of it.

{Generosity}

Though we weren't in the same barkada at the start, I remember her giving me a gift on my birthday. It was the second day of our freshman orientation, I had only known her a day (plus or minus a few hours). We were at the William Taft Little Theatre, and Eartha was sitting between us. It was a small, green paper box. I was so touched that she thought of giving me a gift, and when she handed it to me, I opened it with much excitement and suspense.

But there was nothing inside, it was just a paper box that she had made herself.

{Laughter}

I have fond memories of how stingy we were back in the day. She and I would bring packed lunches (to college!) so we could save our allowance and splurge on neo-prints. We were so disappointed about this particular one because we didn't like how we looked and we vowed never to show it to anyone. Funny thing is, it's the only one I have.

(Hope you don't mind, Maj.)

It seems so timely that last weekend I took home a box of old stuff from my mom's house, and in it was a college scrapbook. I had dedicated one page each for my closest college friends, her included.

On the right was her artistic rendition of our Economics class. On the lower left was a note we passed talking about a guy who was sitting beside me in class who got a higher score in his exam than I, even if he copied his answers from my paper! She was as upset as I. I barely passed that class, but she, maj-ically, got no less than a 3.0 even if, from how I remember it, we spent the whole time gossiping!

To Maj, everything was no sweat. One of the funniest things she taught me was that if I had a big zit, I should wear deep red lipstick to draw people's eyes away from the pimple. 

After graduation, keeping in touch was difficult, she missed my wedding because of work, but we touched base again a few years ago when Eartha regularly visited the Philippines. In those dinners we had together, we often talked about, what else, college, and how someone thought she was my lesbian lover! 

So we used to spoon food into each other's mouths, it didn't mean she was my girlfriend! 

We laughed so hard at the thought that we were compelled to pay homage to it with a photo.

We look a bit awkward here because we couldn't seem to go full lesbian.

{Love}

She also missed my baby shower, but easily repaid her absence with the tenderness she always showed my daughter. I like to think that she had so much love to give that it spilled over to A.

Little did I know, A's birthday in April would be the last time I would see her. She arrived fashionably late, but I was glad she came. She gifted A with a pink and purple musical potty.

But, of course!

That was Maj. She may have not always showed up on time or at all, but she always made up for it--in trademark Maj-style. 

Looking back, though she was one of my dearest friends, Maj always had an air of mystery about her. Many things did not add up. Even her sudden death leaves me puzzled. But I like to think that in life, Maj measured things with a different yardstick. With her, a small, handmade box meant 23 years of friendship, cheap packed lunches and crappy neoprints were in exchange for clear, unerasable memories, and a potty was a wonderful sign of love.

In the beginning she may have given me a small gift, but in the end, I received from her
 the best things in life.

Evermore,

G

Another Macaron Tower Post

Just need to put this up somewhere.

I know I just did a macaron tower story a few posts back, but this I just need to share. I "met" Raissa via email when she sent me a message inquiring about my macaron tower for her wedding in October. I didn't hear from her after my reply, but about a week later, her fiance, Rich, contacted me. I think he was assigned to take care of the cake, because he, too, met with me to finalize the tower they wanted for their wedding.

Pewter. Salmon. Cream. Pink. 3 feet. 300 macarons. Edible cake base. Wow.

The couple's color peg.

This was going to be my biggest tower to date. I've done modest-sized towers for weddings in the past, usually as an addition to the dessert buffet, but this one was the wedding cake. The center of attention. Immediately after meeting with Rich, I went into working on the materials. Unlike traditional wedding cakes, I assemble my macaron towers no more than 24 hours before the event, otherwise, the macarons would be crumbly, dry, tasteless, yucky. 

Satin-covered pedestal

Tower topper.

The week of the wedding was probably the worst/best of my year. It was G's birthday, and he hadn't hung out with his friends since forever so I decided to invite a bunch of them the night before the wedding 

{So, of course, when you have a bunch of guys at the house and they see the half-made tower at the breakfast table, they cannot help but pretend to ruin it/eat it/slice it. I almost got a heart attack.}

Two days before that, my mom wanted to celebrate his and my sister's birthday at her house in Paranaque, then the day after the wedding was the celebration with his side of the family! That meant I needed to prepare 3 celebrations. I.Wanted.To.Die.

So the afternoon the day before the wedding, I started assembling the tower. I decided to complete half the tower at home, then finish it off at the venue which happened to be in Tagaytay. During the whole 2 hour transit from Quezon City to Highlands, I was in constant prayer that everything would hold together. When we got there, this greeted me.

Gale-force winds, baby. Courtesy of "Pedring".

I finished the tower and held my breath hoping the typhoon wouldn't topple it. Ah, it was a sight to behold, though!

Personally, I loved the couple's pewter motif. I wanted that in my wedding, but back then, I was such a pushover that I caved when my coordinator suggested brown (!!). Damn. 

What also caught my eye were these silver shells with blossoms you'll see at the bottom of this photo. I am liking the flowers a lot.

Anyway, back to the tower. Here it is!

Eat it and weep.

LANDMARK (Trinoma): My Happy Place, Part 1

There's nothing I don't love about Landmark-Trinoma. I love the supermarket which I will talk more about in a later post, I like the soundtracks they play on the speakers (sometimes standards, Broadway, Lady Gaga--very diverse), and the fact that, when I went looking for a pie pan in Gourdo's a few steps away, they didn't have any (that's weird), but I easily found one in Landmark's department store.

But what caught my eye today were the staff's outfits. In the past holidays, they've dressed according to theme, like last Christmas, they were in Nutcracker soldier outfits that were FAR better than a passing Santa hat.

Since last month, though, they've done this: