by Lori Baltazar
l-r: tsokolate cake, caramel chocolate cake, caramel espresso crunch
I guess if I wanted to be traditional, I could title this the “12 Best” instead of the “10 Best.” But 10 is always a good round number when doing lists ”“ and we all have 10 fingers besides ”“ much easier to cross names off sans paper and pen. When coming up with this list, I thought long and hard about what I’d love to receive for Christmas. Obviously, it couldn’t be just all desserts, though I of all people certainly wouldn’t mind ”“ but variety is key and I myself would love to receive any, heck all of these gifts come December 25.
So here then are my 10 chosen gifts that I’d give to the food lovers on my list this year. I did a lot of shopping, browsing, and tasting to find these items. I didn’t settle for just anything, since that would be totally missing the point of giving, wouldn’t you agree?
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Taza Platito stands for cup and saucer, and the memorably delicious conversation that arises over coffee and dessert. Owned by Tina Diaz who also does all the baking herself, it’s a cozy set-up that provides sweets to caterers and some coffee shops in the metro. Tina and I used to be colleagues, both contributors at a food magazine; I’ve moved on, but she’s still there, their recipe tester extraordinaire. I find it hard to believe that in the three years we worked together, I never got to try any of her pastries except for her brownies.
pastillas de leche cake and assorted bars
Let me tell you about Tina’s brownies: cut rather diminutively, these bars have bite, owing to the baking soda which opens up their crumb. High quality cocoa powder instead of baking chocolate ensures that her brownies have the softest centers and a chewy, candy-like crust. Drizzled with caramel and decorated with almond slivers, these brownies are a revelation and a good change from the overly fudgy blocks of brownies common today. Other bar cookies that Tina offers are mango bars, food for the gods, oatmeal raisin bars, prune walnut bars, and almond fudge bars (all P240/box of 24; P350/48 pcs). She also bakes up nutty oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (P250/box of 10; P450/20 pcs), as well as some mean chocolate crinkles (P150/box of 10; P250/20 pcs), the only desserts her brother will eat, so enamored is he with them.
It is Tina’s cakes however, that have no equal. She reinvigorates classics. Take her caramel chocolate cake (P495) for instance. Often called a decadent chocolate cake in Manila because of the characteristic caramel pool that it sits in, Tina has instead piped little rosettes of dulce de leche around the cake’s border. “I wanted the cake to look clean instead of sloshing around in caramel while it’s being transported,” she explains. The dulce de leche is homemade and also serves as the filling to this cake enrobed in ganache.
Another chocolate cake, but which sits on another pinnacle is Tina’s Tsokolate Cake (P520), which utilizes native ingredients with talent and class. Made from tablea, our local cacao, it’s a powerful hit of chocolate. Usually gritty, I’m amazed at how Tina has ground the tablea so that it’s smooth, almost like a ganache. This “revamped tablea” is now the chocolate base that makes up the cake and the silky frosting. A whisper of coffee rounds out the robustness of the cacao, emphasizing the pillowy-denseness of the cake. And to think that I thought tableas were only good for my hot tsokolate.
Tina, who declares it her mission to celebrate native ingredients through her desserts, has created a stellar dessert in her Pastillas de Leche Cake (P520). Pastillas de leche is a candy made from carabao‘s (water buffalo) milk, it’s mixed with sugar and stirred over low heat until thick. Usually wrapped in white crepe paper, Tina jokingly tells me, “Imagine, I had to unwrap each and every pastilla!” Seeing my shocked look, she giggles and says, “Of course not! I use the one that comes in bottles.” Sometimes I just don’t know how to take a joke. Anyway. This is a chiffon cake so soft that I can press it down with the roof of my mouth, dissolving it into divine oblivion. The pastillas, which she whips with cream, is actually present only in the cake’s frosting and filling. A nut brittle mixture provides textural variety.
It’s this riotous nut brittle crunch that echoes in another cake, the Caramel Espresso Crunch (P520 — see cover photo). Infused with Kahlua, and an intermingling of dulce de leche and cream, it’s a cake that speaks to those who adore coffee and caramel equally. I think of it as a honey crunch cake, but lots, lots better. As I bite down noisily on the cake’s honey crunch topping, Tina and I both laugh.
fallen chocolate cupcakes and cheesecake shooters
If there’s one thing that can’t be forgotten at Taza Platito, it’s the Double Chocolate Chip Fallen Cupcakes (P180/box of 6; P340/12 pcs), which along with the caramel chocolate cake are Tina’s trademark desserts, the ones she’s known for. I see from my notes that the fallen cupcakes are the dessert that I’ve scribbled the most about in my notes. Called “fallen,” because of its sunken middle, and “double” because of the presence of chocolate chips in the batter and on the top, Tina tells me that this is best eaten at room temperature. Why? Because it’s only then that the cupcake’s sweet density is appreciated, its echo upon echo of romantic chocolate flavor reverberates on your tongue and in your heart, and its crumbs that tumble upon themselves as bite after magnificent bite is taken. This is a dessert to serve when you want your guests to swoon to the floor.
Taza Platito of Tina Diaz
For orders, please call:
373-2732 / 926-2501
Pick-up Point:
12-A Scout Tobias corner Fr. Martinez St.,
Quezon City
**From Roces Avenue coming from Tomas Morato, turn left at the second intersection, which is Scout Tobias. It’s very near Books for Less and Chocolate Kiss Café
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I am MOST intrigued with the Pastillas De Leche cake. I think it’s really really cool of her to make an effort to make desserts that are based on Filipino origins.
(Hmmm, how does one make a Pastillas de Leche ice cream? 😉 )
And: what did she mean ‘from a bottle?’
They are so wonderful…they are a treat to any food lover…now i’m drooling for some of them….well also drop by my Holiday Blog sometime for some more wonderful resources for the holidays….have a great time during the holidays!!!
The cakes look scrumptious.
This time of the year must be especially hard on diabetics. Lori, do you have any recommendations for foodstuff to give as gifts to gourmand diabetics?
Thanks.
Alexandra– I can only recommend one place: Sugar not! For a baker, I recommend KG’s Kitchen. Her sugar free brazo de Mercedes tastes like the real thing.
Hi lori! Many many thanks for your beautiful shots and equally vivid prose 🙂
To answer Ian’s question, my pastillas de leche comes in convenient 500-gram containers; they come straight from Bulacan, always freshly made. I hope to use more homegrown ingredients in my desserts, so please watch out for them 🙂
Tina – thanks for the info. Where might I be able to purchase a bottle of Pastillas de leche to play around with?
Hi Lori!
Thanks for posting about Taza Platito. I read about them in the November issue of Food Magazine. I have been looking for more info about this place. I’m a big fan of your blog. Keep on posting!
Thanks for the recommendations, Lori. I’ll check out sugarnot! and KG’s Kitchen. It’s great that there are alternatives!
I’ve seen bottles of pastillas de leche sold at the Sevillas kiosks around the malls in town, check them out Ian.
Ian- There is a Sevilla’s Sweets stall in Shangrila Mall, Crossings side that sells pastillas de leche in bottles. As far as I know, only Sevilla’s and Ocampo’s have them in bottles, have not encountered one from Bulacan Sweets.
Btw,your idea of pastillas de leche ice cream (not just bits of it in the ice cream) sounds interesting; might try that at home 🙂
drool! okay forget giving these to family and friends. i’m going to hoard these babies for myself!
hi,
got to taste the pastillas de leche 🙂 but i ate it in a different branch near my house–it’s the one infront of colegio de san lorenzo in congressional avenue.
hi! i just bought a small bottle of pastillas de leche from Sitsirya booth in Tiendesitas Delicacies area. Haven’t tried it yet though 🙂 The small bottle costs Php90. I’m thinking though if it’ll be as good as the small sweet pastillas rolled in white sugar! 🙂
good day!
is this the same taza platito near congressional avenue? particularly near san nicolas de tolentino church.
Bakya and Pilar- Yup, it’s the same Taza Platito 🙂 We’re now at our home base in Scout Tobias. Thank you for trying out our pastillas de leche cake 🙂 am happy to let you know that we’ve added more of everything to all our cakes- more pastilla goodness, more chocolate ganache, more caramel, more honey crunch! Hope you can check us out again 🙂
Sugar Not at The Block sells eclairs and cream puffs buy-one-take-one near closing time ü
it is a fantastic blog and the pictures are also amazing..
I tried the Pastillas de Leche cake yesterday but unfortunately there was not the slightest flavor of the pastillas in the cream frosting. This does not mean that I will not try her other cakes in the future. I admire her for being creative enough to include tsokolate and pastillas in her creations.
Next time I will try the Tsokolate cake.
There are bottled Pastillas de Leche in Magalang, Pampanga. Around 300 pesos , Venti size. Just imagine the short pastillas all compressed in a bottle. Now you have an alternative to the ube or leche flan topping of your halo-halo…Yummy!
I’m looking forward to what’s next on your list Lori!!
Cheers!
Lori, this lest of Top 10 Christmas gifts is an absolute GODSEND! Thank You!!! I am so crazed this year, will probably resort to some pre-made goodies from your finest sources…
Your photos are gorgeous … and ~P500 a cake seems like a good deal. =)
i tried the tsokolate cake during a xmas party and i must say it tasted ordinary to me. certainly no match to some of the other chocolate cakes available out there but it wasn’t bad per se, just not as good as other cakes available.
Hi! Just love all of Taza Platito’s super yummy cakes…Hope I can bake these cakes and turn out just as delicious as these treats! Yum!