"Captain America"

A friend of mine, Nurbiha or Nur, as I call her, ordered this Captain America themed cake for her son's 8th birthday last Saturday. I managed to squeeze in this order before I left for my hub's hometown, Batu Pahat over the weekend. The cake was a chocolate cake with Belgian milk chocolate ganache. Since time was not on my side, I only made the base of the cake in Captain America's colours and theme. The figurine, unfortunately was a toy! I usually try to make these figurines with sugar paste but I didn't have the luxury to do so this time. However, I was quite happy with the cake and so was birthday boy, Raimi.

 

Birthday boy, Raimi at his birthday party!



According to Nur, he was so thrilled with the cake! Thank you for the order, Nur and a happy belated birthday to Raimi!!

"Shimmery Ivory Cupcakes"

I was commissioned by Raja Jesrina Tan Sri Raja Arshad or fondly called Jess to make another order of cupcakes. This time its for her Wedding Party, which was held on 19th April 2014 at the Shang-ri La. The concept of the wedding party is elegant, luxurious & ethereal. The colour she wanted was a combination of white and light ivory. The flowers were fantasy flowers and filled with sugar pearl dragees in the centre. I had the flowers and cupcake base airbrushed a pearl sheen so in order to create the shimmery effect. The lace cupcake wrappers were also custom made in light ivory and ordered from overseas. The cupcake itself is lemon poppy flavoured with vanilla frosting.

 

The ivory base of the cupcakes were airbrushed a pearl shimmer as Jess wanted the shimmer and lustre effect

The cupcakes with the fantasy flowers in ivory and pearl dragees

The wedding cupcake up close. Looks ethereal and classy and just the way Jess wants them to be!

I had these flowers airbrushed too

  

I had the cupcake lace wrappers custom made in ivory to match the theme of the wedding party

  

Congratulations again Jess on your marriage!! Thanks for the 2 big orders for this year. I guess with these two big orders, I am sort of done on big orders for the time being. I will see how the future pans out for me and then decide if I should really continue. For now, I will only make special request cakes and on a smaller scale as my hands are still not a 100% healed!

 

 

 

"Pizza Crazy Kids"

My kids are absolutely crazy about pizzas. They can eat pizza every day and not get bored of them, I tell ya'! I decided to make my own pizza from scratch, which I haven't done in a long time. I usually use the pre-made pizza base bought at my bakery supply store, which is not too bad. However, I wanted a pizza base like the Italian pizza, not too thick and crispy.

 

Basically, I used Annabel Karmel's really simple pizza dough recipe from her book, Mommy and Me Cookbook :-

 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp sugar, 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling
1 cup warm water
21/4 cups bread flour, plus extra for sprinkling,
A pinch of salt

This is how you make it:

1. Mix the yeast with 3 tbsp water. Set this aside for 10 minutes or until it is frothy.
2. Sift the flour and add the sugar, salt and pepper. Then make a well in the center.
3. Pour the yeast, water and oil into the well. Use your hands to mix everything together.
4. Sprinkle the flour over a clean work surface. Then knead the dough for 8 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.
5. Oil a large bowl, put in the dough, and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size.
6. Is it ready? Poke holes in the dough. If the holes stay, it's ready.
7. Knead the dough again. Then cut it into four equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 7 inch circle and place on a baking sheet.
8. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spread sauce and place toppings on pizza. Bake for 13 minutes.

 

My dough

It has risen and doubled in size

My homemade tomato sauce, made with garlic, tomatoes, stewed tomatoes and basil



My homemade pizza base brushed with olive oil, pardon the shape! Its not a perfect round shape

Margherita pizza for my son ready for the oven

We were too excited when the pizza was out of the oven, that I totally forgot to capture a photo of the cooked pizza. It was good and I have been making these pizzas for my kidsa few times already! I will never buy the pre-made base again after this. The base is so easy to make!!

 

Do try this recipe! Its really fun to make with your kids in the kitchen!



"White Roses"

These cupcakes order was commissioned by Raja Jesrina, who recently tied the knot on 16th April 2014. She had a specific idea on what she wanted for her akad nikah (Muslim marriage solemnisation ceremony) gift box. Her ideas were of course great but I realised that it was quite a lot of hardwork and I needed to start early so that I don't get too stressed at the last minute. 
 

To date, this order is one of my biggest projects this year. Although there were only 150 pcs  of cupcake gift boxes to make, each box of cupcake is very tedious work. I started off this project by sourcing all the materials needed from different suppliers. There were many materials needed for each box - the clear PVC box, the lace cupcake wrapper, pearl beads in 2 sizes, ribbon, name tags and so on. Researching and compiling the prices are very important as Jess has set her budget and I must try to adhere to her budget.

Lace cupcake wrappers

The first thing I did was to order these lace cupcake wrappers as I wanted the cupcakes to look classy and elegant. Since the custom order takes about 3 weeks, I had these ordered in early March as I didn't want to take any chances on the wrappers not arriving on time.

The clear PVC gift boxes

I had the clear PVC boxes ready with the lace wrappers and pearl beads prior to inserting the cupcakes into the boxes. Each of the box needed to have the same amount of pearl beads. So, I had the beads weighed before putting them into the boxes. I actually stuck the lace wrapper to the box first before putting in the beads.

The name tags for the gift box

Jess had given me the pdf file format for her monogram and she wanted the tags to be printed on pearl white cards with the fonts in silver hot stamping. I managed to get my trusted company printer to get these cards printed for me at a very good price. However, Jess was not too happy with the size and wanted them smaller. So, I had them modified to the smaller size and punched a hole at the side instead of in the middle.

 

The organza ribbons were cut in advance prior to making the cupcakes. Oh, and I also had to handpaint each of the roses with silver accents as Jess doesn't want them to be too white.

Hand painting the roses

The roses were airbrushed in pearl white and I also hand painted them with silver edible paint. This process took me 4 days to complete as I only had the nights to start my work! If you've read my earlier entries, you would also know that I recently (February) had a carpal tunnel release surgery on my right hand, thus my painting pace was a bit slower then before. I also had these precious gumpaste roses handmade in the Philippines and they were flown into KL by my husband's colleagues, who happened to have a meeting in KL around the same time. Thank goodness for me on the timing! At any other time, I would probably make my own roses, but my hands are just not at their optimum best at the moment. 

This is how the gift box looks like up close

The cupcakes had two flavours, vanilla bean and orange spice. The baking process and getting the cupcakes assembled was quite easy, it was putting them all together that took a long time! I was so exhausted by the time I was done but at the same time I was very satisfied with what I have produced.

The cupcake in the box without the final touches



The cupcake gift box with the silver organza ribbon and name tag

Aerial view with the name tag



The cupcakes ready to be collected

 

All in all, I am so glad that I managed to complete the above order with only asisstance from my maid (who happened to have a very bad tooth ache at that time!). Congratulations again to Jess and I hope she was happy with the cupcake gift boxes.

 

 

Thank you again for the order, Jess!!

 

"Mini Chocolate Tarts"

Last weekend my children's school had organised a Spring Charity Bazaar to collect funds as donations towards helping the less privileged. The mums is my daughter's class decided to open a stall and sell some sweet treats, snacks and drinks. On top of that, the girls have voluntereed to open a braiding salon together with us. Each mum had to contribute and one of my contribution was making mini chocolate tarts.

 

Truthfully, I haven't actually made them before and I had googled a few recipes beforehand. I chose this recipe by Amy Wisniewski from chow.com as the reviews were fantastic. The recipe was also quite easy. Since am in a middle of preparing for a big wedding cupcakes order, I'd decided to buy the pre-baked tart shells from my baking supply store. I re-baked the tart shells for the extra colouring as the shells came in quite pale.

 

I then proceeded to follow the filling recipe from below.

 

RECIPE FOR CHOCOLATE TARTS courtesy of Amy Wisniewski (www.chow.com)

For the crust:

• 8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 vanilla bean, halved, seeds scraped, bean reserved
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 stick), cut into small pieces
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fine salt

INSTRUCTIONS

For the crust:

1. Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
2. Combine butter, sugar, vanilla seeds, and salt in a large bowl and stir until evenly incorporated. Add flour and stir until just combined and a soft dough forms.
3. Sprinkle dough over the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Using a measuring cup or your fingers, evenly press the dough into the bottom and up the sides of the pan (flour the cup occasionally to prevent sticking).
4. Cover the tart shell with plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Once chilled, prick it all over with a fork and bake until golden brown, about 20 to 25 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

For the filling:

1. Place chocolate and butter in a medium bowl; set aside.
2. Combine cream, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves and liquid is just at a simmer, about 4 minutes.
3. Pour cream mixture over chocolate and butter and let sit until melted, about 4 minutes. Gently stir until smooth.
4. Pour ganache into the cooled tart shell and transfer to the refrigerator. Chill until set, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

And these are how my tarts looked like after refrigeration.

I shaved some dark chocolate and sprinkled cocoa powder on the tarts
for that extra flavour

Up close

I was very happy with the outcome and I sold these mini tarts for RM 1. Unfortunately for me, the kids didn't really go for this bittersweet tarts as they much preferred the candy floss we sold!! Now, that candy floss and wedges sales made up most of our gross sales that day!!

 

 

I loved the tarts though and was happy that I had a few leftovers for us to eat at home!

 

All in all, it was a very good day of sales for us and were happy that we managed to raise RM 1 K for charity!

"Bridal Shower for Jesrina"

Another order from Raja Johanna and this time its a cake! Celebrating the upcoming nuptials of her younger sister, Raja Jesrina, Johanna had organised a bridal shower for Jess. She wanted a cake to celebrate the occassion and she wanted the cake to have all of Jess' favourite things.

 

The mandatory items on the cake were HP laptop, white Chanel bag and makeup, especially eye makeup. The cake was a vanilla bean cake with white chocolate ganache. I started off the cake with sculpting the laptop. Mind you, a closed lap top actually looks easy but somehow it didn't out that way for me. For some reason, I had so much problems with my fondant. Due to the current hot and dry spell happening in Selangor, my fondant was so dry and started to crack almost immediately after I covered the cake. It was indeed a very challenging cake for me.

 

I was quite frustrated with the circumstances but I couldn't give up. Even if it meant that I had to recover the cakes again because the cracks on the fondant was so bad that I couldn't accept such  standard in my work. The make-up part was the easiest but I couldn't spend more time on that part of the cake as I was running out of time. I am glad though that I still managed to finish the cake but it wasn't my best effort.

 

The aerial view of my cake

I actually had the eye makeup cover printed on sugar paper but it couldn't be seen from this view. The laptop turned out okay and it was my favourite part of the cake.

 

The white Chanel Classic handbag

The back view of my cake

And the makeup with the brushes

Jess loved the detailing I did on the cake but I wished I could have done a better job for her! Now, am busy preparing for Jess the cupcakes doorgifts for her akad nikah ceremony this month. Its going to be a hectic first half of April for me. Do stay tune for that post later this month!!

"Sugar Cookies Fit For A Princess"

This was the first order I agreed to take after my carpal tunnel release surgery. Raja Johanna ordered these chocolate decorated cookies to celebrate the arrival of her baby girl last December 2013. She marked the arrival of baby Zahira, full name Tengku Zahira Eusnie by hosting a Majlis Aqiqah & Cukur Jambul for her relatives and close friends on the 16th of March 2014.

 

The theme colour was pink and the rest she left it up to me to decide the design and combination of theme colours. Her only other specification was to have baby related shape for my cookies. At first, I was kind of worried committing myself to this order because of my hand, which is not fully healed and also the water rationing in Selangor, but I planned and organised myself with this order. I was quite proud actually that I managed to get this order done despite my predicament.

 

I started off earlier in the week by baking the chocolate cookies. Since we were experiencing water rationing, I wanted to get the cookies done while we had water. Thank goodness, the cookies turned out well and we managed to finish our baking in 2 days as I split them into two batches. I even baked a few extra pieces in the event of breakages. My idea was to have 6 different cookie shapes with each shape comprising of 25 cookies. The cookie shapes I made were pacifiers, baby rattles, onesies, butterflies, prams & teddy bears. I also had the thank you tags customised and printed by a professional printer. The theme colours I chose for the cookies were baby pink, light grey and white.

 

The onesies in pink



The butterflies



The baby rattles



The baby prams



The baby pacifier

The teddy bear

The cookies all individually packed with thank you tags

 

Thanks again for the order, Johanna!