Vanilla in Manila

Vanilla.

The 2nd most expensive spice in the world. (Second to saffron, of course) Vanilla Beans are magical when added to baked goods. They just exude pure flavor that just makes everything taste.. right. During my first few months of baking, I was tortured over the fact that I could hardly find any vanilla beans in the city. Also, pure vanilla extract was also something very pricey and was only available in specialty food stores like Gourdo's or Santi's.

After a few months of searching, I found said Vanilla Beans Pods through multiply. Vanilla Philippines (you can search them by logging on to multiply) they sold vanilla beans by the bulk, and at a very low price. Each pod costs around 50 pesos if I remember correctly, which is a far cry from the 180-250 pesos per pod that were available in the market. There, started my journey in creating my own vanilla extract which I now use regularly. It was torture for me to wait for the extract to ripen, but now I have enough extract to last me for months at a very low cost. You can try googling on how to make your own vanilla extract. It is actually very simple, and oh so worth it.

Featured in this post are my vanilla cupcakes. I used vanilla beans for this (though you cant see the specks of seeds). These are the mother of all the cupcakes I make since they are the base for everything. I also had a hard time piping the icing on that. I am an amateur piper. I wanted to make roses on top, but I still have to practice. :)