I’m not a good cook. But if it’s a choice between tightrope walking and cooking, I’ll choose cooking in a heartbeat. My cooking skills are definitely not something to brag about, but every time I venture into coming up with something edible, I have the greatest of fans – my kids. Whatever I come up with, they attack with gusto. And for a mother whose cooking skills are tantamount to almost, well, nothing, that is enough encouragement for me.
Now one of my sisters - I have three of them and all superb cooks - once told me cooking was a matter of common sense. I know I have common sense stuck somewhere within this frame of mine, but when it comes to cooking, I have yet to discover if indeed that is the case.
For the New Year festivities at my mother’s place, my husband decided to cook his signature Pansit Malabon. Between the two of us, my husband is the better cook. He actually is a good one, if I must say so.
For my part, I opted to concoct something the kids will surely enjoy - graham refrigerated cake. That’s a no-brainer, one might say, something practically anybody can do. I would have to agree. But hey, at least, it’s something I recognized would be a big hit among the children. I would have been very disappointed if I decided to come up with something fancy and ended up with something messy. That would have been a waste of both my time and money.
Okay, so if you’re at all interested, here's the recipe to this refrigerated mocha cake version of mine.
Ingredients:
6 pieces 340 grams Nestle all-purpose cream, chilled overnight
350 ml sweetened condensed milk
2 packs honey graham crackers
6 pieces graham crackers, crushed coarsely
1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
1 pack Knick-Knacks chocolate-coated cookies
9 pieces Cream-O chocolate cookies
1 small box Jack N’ Jill pretzel sticks
1 small pack Jack N’ Jill pretzel twists
Procedure:
Mix coffee in two spoons of hot water. Mix coffee, all-purpose cream and condensed milk in a bowl. Layer your rectangular container with graham crackers. Add in 1/3 of the cream mixture. Spread evenly. Do another layer alternating crackers and cream. On the topmost layer, evenly spread crushed graham crackers. Top with pretzels, Knick-Knacks and chocolate cookies. Chill until cream is set.
Like I expected, it was a hit. Minutes after it was served, the cake was all gone.
