Food: the perfect Christmas gift
If, like me, you’re tired of procrastinating between buying good-quality but expensive Christmas gifts and low-quality but inexpensive Christmas gifts, you might want to consider giving away boxed goodies sold through backyard businesses. Because these entrepreneurs do not have to pay high overhead costs like renting stalls or shops in malls, they can afford to keep their prices down and the quality of their goods high. Some of them offer door-to-door delivery; others only offer pick-up arrangements. One of those that offer door-to-door delivery for an extra charge is Toni’s Homemade Goodies. Just how did I discover Toni’s?
Karen Nina Danao is a Pinoy cook reader. As is my habit, when a commenter provides a URL to his/her own site, I check the site before approving a comment to make sure it doesn’t lead somewhere with girlie pics and things like that. So, the first time Nina left a comment, I checked out her site and, from there, I went on to read a feature story in the U.P. Diliman website. Nina had been baking and selling cookies and cakes on the side and her story simply amazed me. Toni, for whom the business was named, is her daughter. I went on to write an article about her and two other entrepreneurs that, I felt, would be an inspiration to anyone who wanted to start a small business.
So, anyway, I did write the article and it was published in December last year although I never had the chance to try Nina’s products. It didn’t matter to me at the time, because the angle of the story was entrepreneurship. You know, guts and resolve. Last week, I received an e-mail from Nina and she has started her Christmas run. I e-mailed back and placed my order. The baked goodies were delivered last night (the delay is my fault, not hers) and the box in the photo above contained a round banana cake with streusel topping.
That’s a slice of the banana cake above. Moist, soft and definitely not short on real bananas. The trouble with most commercial banana cakes is that instead of using the right amount of bananas, banana extract is substituted and what you get is a lot of bread that smells strongly of banana but without the corresponding texture that only a sufficient amount of bananas make possible. You won’t have the complaint with Toni’s banana cake.
Above, the box of choco mint cereal bars.
When I opened the bag inside the box, the first impression I got was nutmeg. Honestly, I felt it was a bit overpowering. But into my third bite, there was just the crunch and the cool feeling inside my mouth. Not toothpaste cool but a whiff of refreshing cool. Okay, I’m a huge fan of mint — I’m the kind of person who dunks Andes chocolate mint bars in my coffee — so the cereal bar experience was great.
Because I like reserving the best for last, that’s the bag of Outrageous Peanut Butter Cookies above. Outrageous, they were. With cookies that thin, I expected them to be crisp all the way. But they weren’t.
Towards the centers, the cookies were actually chewy. Marvelous! I mean, how do you do that with such thin cookies? Amazingly good.
You can check out Toni’s Homemade Goodies for the prices and packaging. The site seems to be down right now but you can check again in a while. I had a PDF file of the products and prices but I can’t find it right now. I do remember that a dozen Outrageous Peanut Butter Cookies costs P110 while the 10-piece box of cereal bars cost P125. The cookies and cereal bars come in different flavors. The cakes come in different flavors and sizes.
You might want to try these too!
Comments
16 Responses to “Food: the perfect Christmas gift”If you want your own pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
I'm everywhere!
- Pinoy Cook on Facebook
- I am Pinoy Cook on Twitter & Plurk
- My Multiply account
Noche Buena
- What to do with holiday leftovers: make a pie, a soup and Oriental fried rice
- Pre-Christmas callos
- Tiramisu, party style
- Fried lapu-lapu with pineapple sauce
- Food for the gods, a better recipe
- Cooking for Christmas and the New Year
- Roast duckling on New Year’s eve
- Peach pata hamonado
- Spaghetti with longganisa (sausage) meatballs
- Kalabasa (squash) and potato soup
Oh, so sweet!
- Crepes a la mode
- Easy dessert crepes
- Comfort food and home cooked meals
- Coffee jelly dessert
- Chocolate-pinipig balls inspired by Magnolia’s pinipig crunch
- Christmas jello
- Midnight snack: crepes, bananas and guava jelly
- Mango Royale
- Peanut butter and cream cheese pie
- Choco-mocha-cinnamon pudding
I take photos
-
Credits
- Except for quotes, all text and photos © Connie Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- Ploghost - web hosting Philippines
- Revolution Lifestyle theme by Brian Gardner
- Except for quotes, all text and photos © Connie Veneracion. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Hmmm, that sure looks like a yummy banana cake with streusel topping.
And you’ve got it nailed there, Ms Connie–when you said that homebakers keep their prices down while keeping the quality of their baked goods high! I should know because I am just like Karen Nina Danao. I bake chewy choc-oat-chip cookies with choco drizzle and apple crumble pies (as my best sellers)… I also do oatmeal-raisin cookies that have that quality — the marvelous quality of being chewy and thin and crisp.
Crisma, where do you sell you goods? I’d like to order some, aba, para masubukan.
I’m guessing the secret to crispy / chewy combination cookies may be glucose syrup which is available in most bakery supply stores. We add a little amt of this to butterscotch bars to make them chewy. Have you tried it? Thanks for the holiday gift giving tip!
Thanks for the tip, too, Lourdes. I’ll try it sometime.
Wow! it would be an honor for me to let you try my cookies—yun nga lang when I checked the site of Ms. Danao, I knew that she’s waaay bigger than me…I am persevering, though.
exciting!
My primary customers come to pick up the cookies here at our house in Cubao. My biggest customer kasi has a coffee shop in San Beda College and my cookies are a mainstay sa kanilang offerings. Students raw crave for it. Pinagdasal pa nga raw ako ng San Beda priests who have tasted my cookies na sana raw ay magkaroon ako ng good health so that more people can be nourished by my cookies.
Thanks for your interest to taste my goodies … hayaan mo, we can arrange for a meeting one of these days siguro.
Madali lang yan, Crisma, my -in-laws live in Cubao. My hubby works in QC so pwede daanan sa Cubao. Can you e-mail me your product and price list? sassy(dot)lawyer(at)gmail(dot)com. Paying customer ako ha. Excited na naman ako hehehe
am one teacher crisma’s customer…surely you’ll love her cookies…
Hi Connie
I know I personally thanked you for the great review you gave. But I think it’s also important for your kind readers to know how grateful I am for the article you wrote back in December 2007 and now for this review.
I also think it’s important for me to share to your readers how serendipitous the delivery arrangement was. It was really a blessing-in-disguise that the pickup arrangement did not push through.
Regarding your question about the chewiness of Toni’s Outrageous Peanut Butter Cookies, I don’t use glucose syrup. I’m no expert, but I think the texture comes from the peanut butter that I make from scratch using high grade peanuts from Iligan City. Incidentally, Toni’s Chewy Cereal Bars have no nutmeg hehe
I am a big fan of the Chocolate-Mint combination, too.
I don’t make brownies but I know someone who does. Taga-UP din. If you’re interested, I can give you his contact info.
May God bless you and your family.
Nina
Hi Crisma,
Your Apple Crumble pie sounds really delicious. Kindly send me your price list to nina(.)@gmail.com. I’d like to order.
Do you have a day job, too? I’m happy that you have a coffee shop that regularly orders your products. I hope to have a similar arrangement, soon. I’m saving up for grad school.
In my experience, ang business minsan malakas, minsan mahina. I used to have a regular client in Laoag but they’re now focusing on environmental efforts. As in the Yo Gabba Gabba song: keep trying, don’t give up; never give up. Haha
When did you start your backyard business? I only started in 2005. Hindi madali mag-business no? Especially if you have a day job and a toddler. I wouldn’t be able to do it without the support of my family.
God bless you and your business.
Nina
Hi. Thanks so much for featuring my friend Nina’s homemade baked goodies. I most especially love her carrot and walnut cake. It has the right kind of moist texture and the icing is not so sweet that it obliterates the taste of the cake. It’s so nice to have friends who know how to bake and to make a good business out of it. Baking is one talent I don’t think I’ll ever have.
To all of us who appreciate good food, cheers! 
Thank you for featuring my sister! Siyempre biased ako when I say masarap talaga iyung baked goods ni Nina! My two boys and their other cousins (Nina’s other pamangkins) regularly order her cookies for school baon. And for family gatherings, mainstay ang cakes niya, for me I love her carrot cake, better-than-sex chocolate cake and of course, the peanut butter cookies (which you so aptly described) and her oatmeal raisin cookies too. Bilib ako sa sister ko because she turned her passion into a small business. The best part about it is she’s doing someting she loves and she’s getting paid for it! Thanks again!
Hi, Nina…You know what, I was really surprise d that one of the comments here turned out to be for me na pala! Thanks sa “venue” na pri-novide ni Connie for like-minded people to interact. Thanks for your interest sa apple crumble ko… sige email na lang kita. With lots of kwento! God bless you and your family too.
Hi Connie… I emailed you already regarding my product list and prices. Hope you received it already. Thanks.
I’ll check, Crisma. Thanks.
Hi thats was amazing, i became hugry because of that…..
to all bakers,
sarap nmn ng pinag-uusapan nyo!nakakagutom talaga!sarap basahin ng mga sulat nyo, helping each other and sharing! to Ms. Connie i love your website.Thank you for your commitment to post your recipes and share your knowledge in cooking, daming kong natutunan. I bake too, pero minsan palpak, ang lagi akong palpak is pandesal parang bato lagi.Cinnamon buns is my favorite din,just dont have recipe for that.If anyone has a recipe kindly share Pls!