I owe my culinary inheritance to my mother, who made me dream of what I have become now, a pastry chef and cook.

My mom, Cora Monfort, was a woman ahead of her time. She was a busy woman who not only took care of her home, but was also a businesswoman who loved to entertain. This became my introduction to our beloved kitchen.

Our home parties were catered, from soup to desserts. It’s no wonder I was fascinated and awestruck when a castle cake was baked for my birthday. This started me dreaming of one day baking this wonder myself.

At 7, when my nose barely brushed the top of our kitchen counter, my mom bought me my first KitchenAid mixer, and the love affair with baking began.

By high school, classmates would buy my baked goods so that by graduation, my foray into baking was well on the way. When I moved to Manila for college, all this was put on hold, but I continued taking cooking and baking classes here and there.

Another move, this time to California, brought me a life change. At 44, I studied pastry arts and honed my baking skills. In 2011, I moved back to Bacolod where I threw myself full-time into opening my pastry business and taught at the Institute of Culinary Arts in La Salle Bacolod for their baking module.

Finding a niche

It was my life until the pandemic struck, and I found myself stranded in Manila under lockdown.

With nowhere to go and nothing to do, I found a niche need in our village for good food, pastries, cakes and anything “comfort” that would feed a little of our bodies and soul during these anxious times.

I teamed up with Manny Torrejon, a close family friend and sometime suitor when I was 15 years old. In 2017, having found ourselves single, we started dating and have been a couple since. We are now collaborating and partnering in a food business where he handles the savories while I’m in charge of the sweets and pastries. His forte is Spanish cuisine, and his ingenious fusion paellas are a must-try. The street-style pork barbecue with java rice and chicken inasal paellas are just some of his hits. There’s also our new caldo line offering. It comes in a variety of frozen soup kits ready to be heated and served—a sure hit for fast, nutritious and from-scratch fresh food!

The Hummingbird Cake

Dry ingredients:

3 c all-purpose flour

1½ c sugar

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp nutmeg

Wet ingredients: 3 whole eggs, lightly beaten

1½ c vegetable oil

1½ tsp pure vanilla extract 3 c mashed bananas

1 c crushed pineapple with juice

1 c chopped pecans (bake pecans for about 5 minutes to toast them lightly, let cool)Preheat oven to 325ºF.

Prepare pans. Grease and flour three 9-inch pans. Set aside.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the center. Pour all the wet ingredients into the well. Combine the dry and wet ingredients well. Fold in the pecans. Pour the cake batter into the prepared pans.

Bake for about 25-27 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean when checking the cakes for doneness. Let cakes cool.

Transfer the cake to a cake board. Ice the first layer with cream cheese frosting. Add the second layer and repeat the procedure, then add the third layer and ice the top and the sides of the cake.

If you choose to crumb coat the side of the cake with crushed pecans, prepare about 2 cups chopped pecans.

Cream cheese frosting:16 oz cream cheese, softened

1 c unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

2 c powdered sugar

Use an electric mixer attached with a paddle to combine cream cheese and butter, then add all the rest of the ingredients until they are all combined. Do not overmix. Chill frosting for about 10 minutes before icing the cake.

Chorizo Paella

1-2 Tbsp paella seasoning (available at Terry’s)

¼ c olive oil

1 medium tomato, grate

250 g skinless Spanish chorizo, precook and save the oil Paella:3 c Japanese rice

7 c broth made from chicken and pork

Sofrito (To make ahead, saute the following: about ¼ c each: minced onion, minced garlic, grated tomatoes and grated red bell pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes in very low heat. Set aside.)

3 sunny-side up eggs, for garnish

Heat up paella pan or any shallow skillet. Drizzle the olive oil. Add freshly grated tomato and sofrito. Saute for about 2 minutes. Add rice and saute for another 2-3 minutes. Then add ¾ of the precooked chorizo (reserve remaining chorizo for garnish on top). Season with salt and pepper.

Add the broth, paella seasoning and saffron. Stir the broth well with rice to distribute rice evenly. Increase heat to medium-high for about 10 minutes uncovered. Important: Do not stir!

Reduce heat to low for the next 8 minutes, and you may cover the pan with a lid to help cook the rice (again, do not stir!). Garnish with the remaining chorizo and sunny-side up eggs 4 minutes into the cooking time.

Check the rice for doneness. Should rice be undercooked, add more hot broth to cook the rice until tender.

Remove paella pan from heat and rest for 5 minutes before serving. —CONTRIBUTED INQ

The author is the baker behind her eponymous brand, Marlene Monfort Pastries. Tel. 0917-7020007; facebook.com/marlenemonfortpastries; @marlenemonfort on Instagram.

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