The holidays ain't over yet. In the Philippines, which has one of the longest Christmas celebrations in the world, the Yuletide extends to January. It is "officially" over after the Feast of the Three Kings on 6 January but there is hardly a mood as the calendar moves on to the next feast, The Chinese New Year in 22 January. And in all of these celebrations, cakes and breads figure prominently.

First, the breads…
Breads and pastries are not just for breakfast. They also make excellent light lunches, meriendas and desserts. They easily adapt to special occasions, such as Christmas and New Year. Masa Madre Bakehouse, led by master baker chef Kris Edison Tan, has come up with a bread collection inspired by Filipino Christmas flavors. These include Bibingka Croissant, Puto Bumbong Croissant, Hamon et Queso Croissant, Tablea Puff, Pain aux Pistache, and Fruit Cake Bi-color.

For the trio of festive croissants, Bibingka Croissant is filled with smoke-burnt coconut spread with salted egg buttercream and charred Cheddar cheese on top; while Puto Bumbong Croissant has the beautiful golden-brown croissant filled with pirurutong custard and salted butter topped with fresh dried coconut. Hamon et Queso Croissant, which makes full use of the season's bountiful ham and cheese, has got the flaky bread filled with truffle buttercream topped with grated Cheddar cheese, candied ham, and parsley.

For the three "sweet" treats that complete Masa Madre's Christmas 2022 set, they take on different shapes — square with a gentle twist for the Tablea Puff (which is filled with cream cheese tablea and zest or dust of tablea), round and flat for the Pain aux Pistache (which is filled with pistachio custard then topped with finely chopped pistachio), and round and segmented like a mini squash for the Fruit Cake Bi-color (which has a piece of fruitcake inside with glazed fruits that have been soaked for three months).

To order, send a message to Masa Madre Bakehouse's Facebook and Instagram accounts.

…Then, the baby cakes
These days, cakes are not only for special occasions. We love to enjoy them even on ordinary days. So, Consuelo's thought of creating baby cakes, approximately four by three inches in size, so we can taste all the flavors that we want and not get stuck with just one regular cake.

Consuelo's baby cakes were introduced in 2021, initially highlighting its top four best-selling variants — Ube Pastillas Cream Cake (ube chiffon cake with ube halaya layer, pastillas mousseline, and ube whipped cream frosting), Old-fashioned Chocolate Cake (moist chocolate cake with slow-cooked cocoa fudge frosting), Tarta de Santa Teresa (vanilla chiffon cake in traditional Spanish yema frosting with torched sugar topping), and Coffee Crunch Cake (coffee chiffon cake infused with local coffee beans from Sagada, filled with coffee custard and honey crunch, frosted with sweetened whipped cream, and topped with honey crunch chunks).

But now, customers also have 15 other flavors to choose from, with each baby cake selling for P250 to P280. Consuelo's offers three packages: Box of two for P400, box of four for P750, and box of six for P1,200. A hit this holiday season, they are available at Consuelo's commissary kitchen in Greenland Village, Cainta, Rizal, at the newly opened Consuelo's outlet at The Podium, and for delivery via Viber (0961-6392954), Facebook and Instagram (@consuelosartisancakes), or mobile numbers 0977-3713150 and 0939-5587819.