Christmas is a time for sharing desserts

MILLIE: My mom had a sweet tooth. So do Karla and I. She would treat herself to an occasional churros con chocolate or a chocolate-chip pancake with peanut butter and syrup. Every night before retiring, she would eat her fresh banana with strawberry jam, condensed milk or coco jam and a cup of warm, fresh milk or hot chocolate with tiny marshmallows. Mom would definitely end each meal with dessert and knew where to buy all the best desserts.

Some of Mom’s favorite desserts are the old-fashioned sans rival with crisp layers made from egg white and sugar and sprinkled with chopped cashew nuts. Mom’s sister Ching Albano Mendoza used to bake this herself and taught me her secret recipe, which must have been a generations-old one. Domini Torrevillas is known to make this same sans rival that we used to wrap in aluminum foil and store in the freezer to keep crisp.  Domini still sells it at present for only P600 per whole cake. What a steal! A modern-day version is Jill Sandique’s oval-shaped sans rival sprinkled with chopped pistachios.

Other special cakes my mom’s sister Ching taught me how to bake and I, in turn, taught Karla, were her Christmas prune cake and Brunn butter cake, both considered great family favorites! Both are must-haves for Noche Buena and any other family gathering. The Brunn butter cake was also one of dad’s favorites, which he would eat with fresh strawberries and whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

KARLA: Christmas isn’t Christmas without food for the gods. The best ones I’ve tasted were the ones made by my lola’s Auntie Puring Lorenzo. It has been a family favorite to the point that we would fight over the last few pieces, keep safety pieces on our plates or wrapped in tissue. As soon as it arrives, mom, lola, lolo and I can’t help but immediately pop in a few bars. Unfortunately, they don’t sell it anymore and it will be my first Christmas without it.

Some goodies are Costa Brava’s cakes, especially the marshmallow cake and caramel cake. When the Costa Brava cakes come as assorted little cupcakes in a box, it seems to be more dangerous because I end up losing track of how many I’ve had. Ha ha! The texture of Mayo Rocha’s tocino del cielo is so smooth, rich, and sweet with a hint of citrus. I was only able to get a couple of spoons’ worth, but Lolo absolutely enjoyed it. During special occasions, we look forward to special edible gifts like the chocolate cake by Divine Desserts, which was introduced to us by CB Garrucho. The buttery, thin slivers of lengua de gato gifted by ate Ria Reyes-Dizon and brazo de Mercedes, which is brought by my tita Maryjo Reyes-Feraren to our family dinners, is always a big hit.

When I was a kid, we used to go on frequent trips to Hong Kong in December and on every trip, I would have at least one day to be lola Meldy’s tagalong and follow her wherever she had to go. I remember making trips to the Hong Kong Hotel Coffee Shop in Harbour City or to the Peninsula Bakeshop for her favorite, chestnut cake. I remember she used to pre-order a whole cake and have it packed just so she could hand-carry it home to Manila. Lola’s other favorite is the Engadiner Nusstorte, which Rolf Grunhut, mom’s friend, would send each year from Zurich, Switzerland. Lola also loved nougats, marzipan and See’s Candies, another hand-carried item from Hong Kong. Lola’s ultimate favorite was the green cake with layers of meringue and sponge cake topped with marzipan called Gateau Princess. It was one of Plaza’s bestsellers, but it became too expensive. Mom recreated it this year and designed it with polka dots and it brought back precious memories to the family with just a taste. Lolo Joe’s favorite cake from The Plaza would be the strawberry cheesecake, which he would have with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

MILLIE: A recent find is Dimpy’s chocolate cake with caramel sauce. My sweet friend Len Enrile — sweet because she loves sweets — brought a cake for Wawi’s birthday and guess who ended up eating all the ends! Burp! For my birthday, Len brought a huge crepe cake from Dessert du Jour by Mara de la Rama, which was so light and gorgeously delicious! I ate it with fresh strawberries and it reminded me of one of my dad’s all-time favorites, which he called crepes a l’heure. Mara’s crepes have choices of cream filling: vanilla, Nutella, dark choco, low-sugar vanilla and chestnut. She has other cakes like queso de bola cheesecake, Tres Leches and Len swears by Mara’s baby Mississippi mud cakes!

I like plain and simple but delicious and light cakes. I so love the icing on top, that’s why I always get the ends. I scrape off the icing and eat it first. I adore the mocha-flavored cakes from Goldilocks. Estrel’s old-fashioned caramel cakes are simply divine and the icing not so sweet.

Ah, then there’s the lemon meringue pie from Goodies & Sweets, another one of my luscious favorites, which Dad and I used to enjoy sharing while enjoying a cup of good coffee. We would spend hours at the Podium just people watching as we waited for Karla to be fetched from a concert or come home from a party. It was there that he started dictating to me excerpts for his life story.

Some of my favorite desserts you can’t buy. They are home-baked with tender love and care and are simply not for sale.  Pat Garcia’s home-baked apple pie topped with lots of crumble was one of my dad’s favorites. I’d eat it plain and warm and Dad would also, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, a la mode.

For about 20 years now, the ultimate, much-awaited sweet has been and always is Marot Fernandez’s Tortitas. These are ensaymada-like but smaller, round and minus the cheese topping, just sugar-coated but light and airy and wow! Deliciously superb! I could devour three successively. Marot never fails to send it for Mom and Dad’s birthday and at Christmastime. Dad literally waits for it and when it comes, hides the box from everyone else! He takes a mouthful almost instantly and another one with his coffee or hot chocolate. Sometimes we have it for dessert with cheese and strawberry or apricot jam.  I’ve been trying to convince my friends to sell, but it’s a flat “no.” I guess that’s what makes it more special; it’s a gift from the heart and they are best because they are shared. Christmas is a time for sharing and remember that “it is in giving that we receive”!

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For orders and inquiries, call the following numbers: Dimpy’s – 843-9021, Mayo Rocha – 0918-945-6362, Domini Torrevillas – 0917-592-8906 (order two days in advance), Costa Brava Cakes – 896-1267, Estrel’s  - 372-2965 or 371-7038, Divine Desserts – 913-9875 or 439-3063, Goodies & Sweets – 722-8740, Dessert du Jour by Mara de la Rama – 806-9511 or 0917-811-6272, Delize by Jill Sandique – 0922-826-2673 and The Plaza – 890-8446 and 729-0001.

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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.