Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Cupcakes for (Bigger) Boys... (contd)

Boys... when they are a lot bigger they absolutely MUST choose an EPL team to support, and the popular choice will be any one of the big 4s .... MU, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool (ranked according to their current standings, before 03rdApril mind you)
But, if you don't have one yet (really?) do read this suggestion by an American, it's an old (2006) article, i find it so amusing, especially the part "I don't care who you pick, just don't pick Manchester United" LOL!
ESPN Simmons on EPL
 This set was ordered by Naley for her bf. The numbers on the jersey must hold a special meaning for them, because I couldn't find the player names for number 3 and 7 (according to this season line-up), thus decided to remove all the names from the jersey images. Arrangement of the cupcakes is as requested by Naley, thanks for ordering....


And some (bigger) boys still find the time to go to school despite their busy work schedule and family commitments. This was ordered by Ann (thanks) for her hubby Paul,who recently completed his Masters degree. Congratulations!

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Cakes & Cupcakes for Boys


Boys... when they're toddler, Sesame Street is usually one of their favorite shows.
Imran is sooooo super cute, ooohhh... that smile could just melt your heart..... wish i could pinch those chubby cheeks! The choice of Sesame Street image was from mommy herself, thanks Suheila.
Making this cake reminds me of how much my daughter Yna loves Elmo when she was three or four, I had to call up every Toys R US stores in KL trying to find one when they launched "Tickle Me Elmo". Well.... she's past that stage now,  otherwise we'd have to get her the new "Elmo Live"  :)



Boys... when they're preschoolers or in primary school, suddenly their favorite cartoons becomes gender biased. Every little boy I know just love Ben10 and Transformers. Thank you Asmawati.... harapnya ramai lagi anak sedara nak mintak cupcakes ada gambar :)
My son Syamil helped me with the selection of popular Autobots and Decepticons to put on those cuppies... Optimus Prime, BumbleBee, Sideswipe and Megatron. (three good robots against one villain, this isn't fair!)


And.... some boys just want to be the hero themselves! :D
Here's some of the edible images i edited.... Thanks Siti n Syalina

Monday, March 29, 2010

Déjà vu....... seeing what you saw

Getting orders from customers who emphasize the words "exactly" when referring to the cake i've made before sometimes worries me, because I always try to make some improvement.
The railway track is made of black colored fondant on this one, looks better than the buttercream piping on the previous.
 The chocolate fondant planks 'sweat' when taken out of the fridge, and having to deliver it around noon just made it worse :(   Thanks Lina for ordering, hope the cake was okay when u received it.
Chef Khairy gave a brief demo on chocolate plastique yesterday, his advise was... to remove as much fat as you can from the melted chocolate when u're mixing it with glucose / corn syrup; will try that next time.

This fondant covered cake is definitely better than the previous one :)
SMS from Azreena a while after she picked up the cake "....can't focus on driving, really love d cake beside me" . Thanks Azreena!

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The many colors of cupcakes....

A set of cupcakes usually carries 4 colors... and i'm currently under swirls trance :-D

Black & Red, Black & White, Black & Pink, Purple & White..................

......an order for alphabets... with a few swirls
 

Honey... i shrank the cheesecakes, and blew up one too

The weather must be really hot because I'm receiving a lot more orders for chilled cheesecakes

Monday, March 15, 2010

Spring has arrived....

The March equinox will be on 20March2010 at 17:32. But, it certainly feels like it already (even in our tropical country), it has been raining in the afternoon since the past 3 days. Hope this will be the end to the long hot & humid weather we had for the past 3 months; and lower electric bill now that the air cond can be turned off for most of the day; i think it's simply ridiculous to be running the oven and air cond at the same time in the kitchen.
And since it's also 1 week school holiday.... 'tis the season to get married ... or engaged

Order from Asma for a maroon theme engagement, thanks.

Ordered by the bride Shima, for her orange themed wedding. Thanks Shima, I've conquered my fear of making royal icing covered cake. The drop flowers turned out quite okay I think, being a first timer at making these. With the addition of glycerin, the royal icing did not set cement hard, suitable for the cake cutting ceremony. This is a good option for those who does not like fondant covered cakes but still wants a cake that can withstand our mostly hot and humid weather.



And an order from Hidayah for her friend's purple themed wedding. It was meant for hantaran initially but was used for the cake cutting ceremony. Thanks.












The most beautiful song for spring has got to be this, Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Cakes n Cupcakes for the Girls

This order was from my daughter's friend. My swirl roses have slightly improved, many thanks to KamalinaCakes for sharing her method, use Wilton nozzle 224 and 103

When my friend Ti asked me to bake some fun cupcakes for her friend's 3 year old daughter I immediately chose Fifi and the Flower Tots and Strawberry Shortcake, although they're not that popular in Malaysia because it has not been aired on Astro for quite some time.

Another order from Ti is a tiramisu cake for one of her best friend at school. I think this is probably the 5th tiramisu cake ordered by the teachers at SMKM. Ti and her friends are hardcore fans of the Twilight series, and I think they are definitely anticipating the Twilight Eclipse screening in June, in 3d! The initial plan was to put Edward's pic but received an email just a few moment before I print, to have Kecum's newborn 'prince' and Kecum's other half pic instead.

There are so many variants of Tiramisu out there, this is the recipe I have been using
Cream Cheese                200g (mascarpone preferred, otherwise use Tatura, it's less acidic than Philly)
UHT Whipping Cream    200g
White Couverture Choc   150g
Sponge Cake                   300g, sliced into two
Savoiardi Lady Fingers    enough to cover one layer
Nescafe 3in1                   2packs
Nescafe Regular              1 tsp
Hot water                         1 cup

Beat cream cheese till smooth set aside

Whisk UHT Whipping Cream until about triple the volume (not too stiff) set aside
Melt courverture chocolate using double boil/ bain marie method and add fold into whipping cream.
Take about 3 tablespoon of cream cheese add to white choc/whip cream and fold the mixture into the cream cheese.

Mix the two kinds of nescafe with hot water to dissolve and set aside to cool in a bowl
Put a layer of sponge cake on bottom of removable base cake pan, and spread half of the cream cheese mixture.
Dip the lady fingers half of its side and flip it onto the other side, so that it won't become soggy
.
Arrange the dipped lady fingers on the cream cheese layer
Spread another layer of cream cheese. Place the spongecake piece, or sieve some cocoa powder.
Top the spongecake with whipping cream or choc ganache, voila !

And... for Ti who's recuperating at home after a kidney surgery, I bring her these.... for her kids

Take care Ti! Advise from Ti to everyone, drink more water, eat less meat. Hmm...I still can't hit the 3liter per day target set by my Herbalife consultant

Friday, March 5, 2010

Cupcakes for the Guys

MU is probably doing better (after Cristiano left), since this is the 1st order for MU themed cupcakes I received this season. Maybe it's for celebration of them winning the Carling Cup recently. And the next match everyone's waiting for will be on 10th March against AC Milan at Old Trafford, Becks is Back !
Despite all the above excitement..... I'm happy that Chelsea still tops the Premier League table and I keep receiving hundreds of edible images for cupcakes with Chelsea's and Arsenal logos.... :-D

This is ordered by Cikgu Hunny for hubby, thank you...
 

From Jaja (tqvm...) to her fiance, design based on a few pics sent by Jaja, without any info about the originator.

From Jo for his family, no specified theme, his request was for something simply 'biasa' (regular). Thanks Jo, I probably forgot to pick up Yna from school if u didn't call  :)