The year has been stressful—to say the very least. With food becoming our lifeline for the past few months, we’re extremely excited to see what new trends will be popping up in anticipation of the holiday season.
We’ve made a few predictions on what’ll be trending when the Christmas bells start ringing:
Christmas themed “bakes”
Sushi bake really hit it big during the early days of quarantine. The trend spawned the “bake-ification” of other dishes, like samgyupsal bake and nacho bakes. We’re expecting to see a few holiday themed bakes this year, like ham bakes, barbecue bakes and even lechon bakes.
Seafood platters
While restrictions on both domestic and international travel may have eased, it’s still ill-advised to go on vacation during the holidays. People who are missing the beach might find some comfort in seafood platters they can get delivered to their homes. A few businesses on Instagram are offering ready-to-serve seafood platters, so we won’t be surprised if business will be booming during the holiday season.
Kakanin reinventions
Kakanin is an essential part of Christmas. Ben&Ben even wrote a song about bibingka and Simbang Gabi. Aside from being delicious, kakanin is also versatile enough for reinterpretation.
A cafe in Baguio got a head start by creating kakanin donuts in bibingka, ube, pinipig and leche flan flavors. We wouldn’t be surprised if we see moron ice cream, palitaw flavored churros and tres leches yema cakes this year.
Tablea flavored everything
Tablea is another indispensable part of Christmas, a fixture among Simbang Gabi goers to warm them up after attending Mass at the break of dawn. Though tablea is most often turned into a drink, notably thick tsokolate eh, there are many other ways to incorporate the cacao discs into other desserts and dishes. Theo & Brom has made tablea the main ingredient in their baby tablea cake, which our managing editor enjoyed as a midnight snack.
[READ: What’s making me happy: All the food trips I’m enjoying from my own dining room]
Tablea is also less sweet than typical milk chocolate, so it’s something older generations and people watching their sugar intake would enjoy.
Pastries that can pass as decor
The quarantine trend of hyper-realistic cakes was honestly terrifying, but we’d like to see those skills put into use to turn pastries into Christmas decorations. Snow globe cupcakes and cookies that double as Christmas tree ornaments were in vogue a few years back, so we’re looking forward to seeing more ingenious, hyper-realistic pastries this year (like maybe a parol made of sugar or a chocolate belen).
Header image courtesy of Theo & Brom Facebook
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