baked goods with a homeland twist

every now and then the hub and i get a chance for a day date - whether it's grabbing lunch, heading out for some shopping or even just a midday treat.  and sometimes we stumble across something new and fun - like this place we found in chino hills.  it's called baked dessert bar, and i was a little surprised to walk in and find that a good number of their treats feature filipino-inspired flavors.  i've noticed that there are some new bakeries and restaurants out on the west side that offer grub from the homeland, but this one is a lot closer to home.

this was the first thing i saw:

halo-halo is kind of like a filipino slush.  well, not exactly, but it's made with crushed ice, evaporated milk and a bunch of random mix-ins like sweet beans, fruit, coconut, and all sorts of other stuff.  sometimes you'll see it topped with ice cream, or maybe even some flan.

luckily there were others in front of me, so i had some time to peruse their menu.

the cakes looked really fun, and there was a wide variety of different flavors of cheesecakes in a jar.

macarons are always a good option.

there were cupcakes in two sizes.  these were the minis.

and i was really intrigued by these polvoron truffles.  from the description, they sound like a variation of cake pops using white chocolate, cake crumbs and polvoron - which the girls and i made a couple of months ago for one of the bean's school projects.  i would've grabbed a couple if they'd had the red velvet or chocolate flavors available.  maybe next time.

instead, i played it safe with a box of cupcakes to take home.  these are lemon meringue, ferrero rocher, chocolate peanut butter and salted caramel.

later, we put them on a plate and cut them into pieces so we could all taste each flavor.

while they were all pretty good, the lemon was a clear favorite.  light and tangy and refreshing, it really was the best of the bunch.  the chocolate cake is nice - fluffy and not dry at all, but their buttercream frosting is a no-go for us.  it tasted oily and thick, and was kind of a dealbreaker for me.

i mean, not that i won't go again.  i'd like to return and try out some more of their filipino treats, and i'm sure no one will say no if i suggest taking a trip out there again.