Hula Girl Birthday Cake

One of Ai Lin's fren's bday was just ystday. She was sweet enuff to let me do her fren's bday cake for her :) Was rather stressed out as i didnt really know how to decorate the cake, & i rarely work wif buttercream as icing.. normally i will use fondant as it's more stable in our malaysian weather. As it was a cheese cake underneath & it needs to be in the fridge, i cant use fondant.. -_- Fondant cannot be kept in the fridge!! It will "sweat" lol meaning it will be wet & sticky la.. :P

First it was decided to be a round 8 inch baked cheese cake with a hula girl ontop, but changed my mind, & told ailin a 2 tiered cake wif the hula girl ontop will look better. & here's the results, & glad that the bday girl liked it :)



The result of the stacked cakes, which i was quite happy wif :) As i couldnt stack the cakes at home, i didnt know how it will look. Cos each cake by itself looked rather plain..... :P i know i complain alot, bear wif me, i like my cakes perfect :P



I really liked how the hula girl turned out! the small flowers r oh-so-cute on her skirt!!! But i think the skirt will look better if each strip of green was thinner, it will look more realistic :P


She even had flowers on her hair!!!! :P This was last minute cos i was worried the flowers wouldnt stick.


Happy Bday Shooks! & it was a challenge since it was my FIRST time writing a birthday msg on the SIDE of a cake... -__- glad it turned out good. Had fun doing the cake, thanx ailin once again :)


I am bloody exausted cos i've been baking pineapple tarts from 2pm til 10pm at nite........... -__-

BUT, tomorrow is the first class of my PME sugarpaste course :D Happy happy joy joy. I'll graduate wif a diploma :) Will post pics on wat i did in class in the next post ;)

Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!!!

New Year New Resolutions!!! I musn't be so lazy, I musn't leech off my parents, I must GET A JOB!!!!! :P Looking at the current economy state, & it was even forecasted that the economy condition will be even worst, i need to secure a job quick. Yeap, right after CNY that is. Cos I have so many CNY cookies orders, that i cannot afford to slack. On the average i need to bake at least, 5 containers of cookies each day to finish baking before cny.. -_-

Remember about the diploma course in sugarpaste that i mentioned in the earlier post? I will be attending :) It in smacked in the middle of Jan, so i need to multi task & to plan my timing properly.. omg. However, im dem bloody excited!!! Now, i am demmmm tempted to complete the other courses & be a certified instructor.. ...... ... ..... .... but i don't know how the thing works, so... i can dream on -__- As if my parents will allow me to continue studying after spendin a bomb on my tertiary education...

Anwyayz, sorry for the lack of posts. December had been a busy month. Tons of cake orders to fill. Here r pics of a few :)


The pink & black fondant cake for my cousin



Blueberry cheese cake



Coffee chiffon fudge cake



Yein's bday monokuro boo cake



randall's xmas party cakes



Pet&You end yr party cake, i had a hard time covering the cake with fondant. the horror!!! -_- but quite pleased with the result.. but not 100% satisfied... i liked the doggie on the cake. dem cute, but it magically disappered... -_-



This cake was for dogs' consumption!! :P Loved the deco, lol Just found it a bit sad when we humans r busy partying & eating good food while the dogs sit & watch, so i baked thema cake for the yr end party :p

Have a good year ahead ;)

Say CHEESE..

Over the weekend, I've baked in total of 2 cheese cakes. One was the oh so famous coffee & cheese cake.. yes, Tiramisu. The other was an order from my cousin, blueberry cheese cake.

Honestly, i have not made both of those cakes before.. :p the tiramisu turned out pretty good, but the cake layer was was too soggy... -_- but the taste is just right!! I added something extra, some chocolate pieces in addition to the cocoa powder.



Here is a pic, I know i suck at presentation part :p tired to deco deco a bit to make it look better, didnt turn out very ncie, but who cares? :p as long as it taste good rite? Quality over the looks is my motto for making cakes :) but of course it's better if the cake would taste & look good la :D


Interested to make tiramisu? Watch this video, i took the recipe from Youtube. Her recipe is better than the rest, cos she don't use raw egg yolks. The cake itself is not too sweet as well. A recipe worth trying.




I really dunno how the blueberry cheese cake taste like, this is the first time made one cos it was requested from my cousin. He apparently loves blueberries. I am selling the cake at rm48. Pricey, but this is becos the ingredients itself is so dem expensive!! butter, the biscuit for the base, the cheese, the blueberry!!! Must ask him how's the cake. I have not taken a pic of the cake.. so be patient la, I will post it when i snap a pic ;)

On an unrelated topic, congrats to randall for getting 3rd in the Tropicana Bowling Masters 2008 yesterday. When belanja?? :p I went and support u ok!!! lol

This week will be a busy week, I have so so so so so many orders for the orange chiffon cake (so far i've sold more than 30 of this cake), batik cake, butter cookies and a normal chocolate sponge cake o_O

I wanna bowlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll........ :(

Butter Fingers

Im sorry. I know, I should be blogging more often. I should blog bout baking more -_- Im so sorry. Really have been busy.. wif baking! That's cos I haf a few cheese cake orders plus bday cakes to bake in October. First there was blackforest cheese cake for randall's grandma's bday in jack's place. Then it was HIS bday, i decided to take the risk & bake a fruit cake & decorate wif sugarpaste. Surprisingly, it turned out really nice, for a first timer. It's not as good as those u see in blogs n all, but it's good enuff :p


Black forest cheese cake. Love the roses & the pattern on the cake. Looks so lovely. If my bf can make liddet & give me it'll be dem sweet lo... *ahem* But the cake has to taste good as well la :p hahah I know, im very picky & demanding :p bear wif me.



Randall's bowling cake, cute eh!! I made the pins + the lane + the balls ALL BY HAND. NO TOOLS. the pins itself took me 1 hour to complete... -_- luckily all were done days b4 i actually assemble the cake. The cake took me about 2 hours or less to assemble + the lane la.

Other than that, i baked some butter cookies for our bowling "sifu" to thank him on giving us many tips on bowling. As I haf some sugar paste leftovers, I baked some cupcakes for the bowling event for breast cancer awareness and distributed them for free :)


cupcakes!! If i get any better i think i can start selling them :p


butter cookies is the most sellable item so far. I get so many orders during CNY til i can pengsan.. -_- sorry no pic. lol

Coming back to the charity bowling event, we were a sponsered team cos the fees were too exp for us, RM1000 for a team of 3 ppl, 3 games each O_0 The team consist of me, randy and his mum. Dun laugh, his mum can whack u in bowling anytime ok....

We didnt expect to win anything, but to bowl for the fun & the experience. But we ended up getting 5th placing out of 40 over teams :) Prize money of RM300 was donated back to the organisation, but we kept the gifts. We each gotten a perfume each, ladies had clinique happy while randy took home DKNY b'delicious. Cool eh?


Prize Giving :)

I am so caught up wif baking & bowling training that i don't have the time to sit & write my resume... -_- I know, i should get my arse to start working & earn my own money. I really dun haf the motivation to do so... -_- but i told myself, oct 31 would be the last day to laze around. shit, now it's already 2nd of nov... Okok, time to go.

Cupcake Deco 101 part 2

Ok, so here is part two to cupcake decoration post. I baked vanilla cupcakes, but I spiced it up by putting chocolate chunks in the cupcakes.



The result was good, since the chocolate is melted and it is in larger amount, the moment u bite the cupcakes, u can feel the chocolate oozing out... :D~~~~~~~

Ok ok.. moving on!

After baking the cupcakes, it is time to let ur creative juices flow, and decorate them so that they look even yummier!! :) One of the most common icing used to decorate cupcakes would be buttercream. Other than buttercream, chocolate fudge, fondant or royal icing can also be used. For my cupcakes, I used buttercream as the icing. It's very versatile, and u can mix and match the colours u want :) Here's a recipe for buttercream.

Buttercream Icing(Recipe from Wilton's website)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening*
1/2 cup margarine, softened
4 cups icing sugar, sieved
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 Tablespoons milk

*Since shortening has trans fat, I would substitute shortening with butter. Never use all butter for this recipe. The buttercream will be less stable (ie melt easily, does not hold its shape). So make sure you use half margarine and half butter.

Methods:
1. Beat butter, margarine and vanilla until very light and fluffy.
2.Gradually add in sugar, one cup at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Mixture will look dry after adding all the sugar.
4. Add in milk, and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Store in airtight container and put in fridge when not in use.
6. Can be kept for up to 2 weeks.

It is recommended to prepare the buttercream a day ahead as it will be quite hectic and tiring to bake the cupcakes, prepare the icing and decorate all in one day. Spread it out, trust me, I've experienced this before. Not nice at all -_- Tiring betul!

So after all the cupcakes are cooled, the fun part begins!! Time to decorate. First, pick a theme you wan. Of if you r lazy to think of one, you can just pick out a few colours you want to be on your cupcakes. The first batch of my cupcakes I wanted to do a 'doggie theme'. I picked green for the cupcake's background. And brown for the outline of the dog, since dogs don't come in blue, red or yellow -_-

1. Add few drops of food colouring of your choice into a small amount of buttercream and stir well until all colours are well combined. Do the same to other colours of your choice. Prepare all the colours that will be used in decoration now. Will be easier than just preparing one colour, decorate the cupcakes then going back to preparing the buttercream -_-

2. Using the palette knife, apply a thin layer of icing on the cupcakes and spread out evenly.

3. After doing so, fill some buttercream into the paper cones. Cut a tiny hole in the sharp end and test the consistency of the icing by squeezing it out onto some other surface and get the hang of it before you begin decorating. Draw anything u want on the cupcake. I chose to draw a dog on leash and this is how it turned out.

I also drew some teddy bears supposingly holding baloons after i ran out of ideas of what to do for the doggie theme -_-

Other than a dog, i did paw prints with some deco as well. So the cupcakes turned out quite cute, but wasn't really happy, cos the colours were slightly dull.

The next batch of cupcakes were decorated with a 'doraemon theme' for my little nephew since he likes the cartoon alot :) I only decorate 8 cupcakes for him.

I applied the cupakes with buttercream, no colour added. I later outlined doraemon's face. I drew all of them free hand :) Later i just filled in the blue and red, and added a yellow dot on his neck as his bell. Cute eh? ;) I am very proud of the outcome.

The smiling-with-his-mouth-opened doraemon

The 'normal' smiling doraemon LOL

I then decorated the remaing cupcakes using yellow and blue icing. I used the star and leave nozzle for the motives on the cupcakes. As usual, ice the cupcake thinly with buttercream. Then squeeze the yellow icing in alternate rows like below.

After that, fill in the remaining spaces with blue icing. This are the end results. U can leave them as it is, or add pink dots as shown in the below picture.

Here are pics of the doraemon batch of cupcakes :) Love the colours!! Hope my nephew loves them too.

So that's how i spent my weekend :p Any questions, feel free to ask. Any comments feel free to let me know. Til next time, toodles and take carezzz! :)

Cupcake Deco 101 (part 1)

Since this blog has a cupcake theme, with the background to the header I've decided to give some tips on cupcake decorations. I am no expert, so don't expect too much ok! :p I like to look for designs online and try my best to follow and perfect those designs.

I've tried my hands on cupcake deco before, and once I start I can't stop. I just wanna decorate more and moreeeee. It's addictive I must say :D

Okok, moving on!!

So, before starting cupcake deco, the most important thing that u really need is...

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..

CUPCAKES OF COURSE!!!

duh :p Sorry la, I know Im being lame but bear with me :p

Other than cupcakes, there are some things u may need to make decorating easier. The essentials would be:

1. Paper Cones. Make these in advance, and have at least 5 so that you won't have to make it halfway through decorating when it runs out. Paper cones are handy as decorating require piping out designs, from wordings to lines. It also saves me money, rather than using plastic piping bags. So, it is better to use home made paper cones rather than plastic piping bags, more environmental friendly.

Wonder how to make paper cones? Click here to find out.

2. Nozzles are also important. It can give us shapes and cute shapes, especially flower petals. Without the nozzles, we cant make any flower petals with buttercream.


3. Other than buttercream as deco, we can purchase these ready made bottled decoration stuff. All are edible so no worries :)


4. To make various buttercream colours, we will need food colouring. Also we need the palette knife, i don't know if it's called that, but it is used to spread the icing on cakes and cupcakes.

Here is a basic vanilla cupcake recipe. If u haven't baked any b4, I would recommend this recipe, as it will not be so expensive compared to recipes like orange chocolate chip cupcakes if anything goes wrong with the cupcakes. (Many things can be added into this recipe to zest it up. You can be creative, add in choc chips, raisins, strawberries, or some orange or lemon rind, and u will get orange or lemon flavoured cupcakes! :))

Basic Vanilla Cupcake

Ingredients:

200g unsalted butter (if using salted butter, don't use salt in this recipe)

200g castor sugar*

3 eggs (at room temperature, cold eggs will make the batter curdle, so don't use cold eggs, I've experienced this many many times b4)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

200g cake flour (sieved)

1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (sieved together with flour)

1/4 teaspoon salt


*If u have vanilla sugar, then substitute half of the castor sugar with vanilla sugar. This will enhance the vanilla flavour of the cupcakes. I have the method of making the vanilla sugar, I will post it at the end of this post.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees C and line cupcake tray with paper cups of your choice.

2. Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. After all the eggs are beaten, add in vanilla essence and salt.

3. With the mixer on a low speed, add the flour, in few additions. (It is better to not use the mixer at this stage. Use a spatula to hand mix in the flour. Over beating the flour mixture will cause the cupcakes to be hard as gluten will form).

4. Fill the batter in the paper cups on the cupcake tray until 3/4 full. Don't be greedy and fill it to the brim, it will puff up, and it will be difficult to decorate later on. Bake until top is golden brown, and to test if it's cooked, poke a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out clean it is cooked. Remove from oven, and cool completely on wire tray.

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Vanilla Sugar(Recipe from Cupcake Blog)

1 vanilla bean

250g castor sugar

1. Split the vanilla bean into half but do not scrape out the seeds. Put the vanilla bean together with the sugar in an airtight container. Shake it once in a while. Keep up to 5days before using.

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Ok, I will stop here. Will continue with the second part of cupcake deco another day :) stay tuned!

Over The Moon

Mooncake festival or Mid-Autumn festival is celebrated by the chinese all over the world on the 15th day of the 8th month in the lunar calendar (in our normal calendar it is around September), where the moon is seen at its fullest and brightest. The is a legend behind the reason why we celebrate this festival, and there are so many versions to the story.

One of the version which was told by my mum when I was younger, was about a forbidden love between a mortal and a goddess, "Ngau Long" and "Chik Lui". But, in Wikipedia, the names were changed to HouYi and Chang'e.. I don't know how the translation goes but the story is similiar.

So, the story is about Chik Lui who was a goddess and Ngau Long who was a mortal farmer who fell in love with each other, without knowing that she was a goddess from heaven. Soon Ngau Long found out, and the gods were pissed at them as a goddess is forbidden to fall in love with a human. They had a child together, but she had to leave him and their child behind on mid-autumn. Out of pity, the gods allowed them to see each other once a year on mid-autumn. It is said that she represents the moon, he would represent the sun and the child would be the stars. So this is how Mid-Autumn festival comes about. And if u look closely, u can see outline on the moon which looks like a rabbit, which is suppose to be Chik Lui, I think :p Basically whole year round, Ngau Long can see Chik Lui on the moon as a rabbit. So, can only see no touch.. LOL

So, with the forbidden love story aside, mid-autumn festival is celebrated by kids, carrying lited lanterns and walking around the neighbourhood. Mooncakes are sold by many bakeries and chinese restaurants for people to buy. This year is different for my family, bcos they no longer need to buy mooncakes to distribute to my family. My aunt(whom I shall be referring to as D'Master from now on) taught me how to bake mooncakes :) Last year or a few years back, D'Master taught me to make the easier version, the non-bake type of mooncakes, called "Bing Pei" or Snow Skin mooncakes.

D'Master didn't want to teach me the baked mooncakes as they were difficult to be made. But finally, she has deemed me worthy that's why she passed down her knowledge to me :p LOL

So here are some pics on the mooncakes i baked. Family and friends have tried, comments came back good so I am happy :)









Some tips for those who are interested to make some:

-Always make sure that you get a wooden mould like mine shown above, nvr ever get a plastic mould cos with all the knocking you will do just to get the mooncake out, the plastic mould may break.

-The mooncake will tend to stick to the mould in the process of knocking, so make sure u put alot of flour on the mould and also on the dough b4 pressing it into the mould.

-The egg glaze should be only egg yolk, and diluted using abit of water. It is recommended to glaze the mooncake when it is half cooked, if not it will tend to be burn b4 it's even cooked thoroughly.

-Remember to keep the freshly baked mooncakes for an extra two days for the oil of skin to emerge. This will make the skin softer and yummier to eat ;)

Some websites with mooncakes recipes are below:

Mooncake recipe 1

Mooncake recipe 2

Happy Baking :)