"Its All About Squares!"

After a long break, I had an order last weekend for cupcakes with the Minecraft theme by Jesrina Arshad. I have heard of the minecraft game as my kids are absolutely nuts about this game. I do know that everything in the minecraft world is square and is made of square blocks. So, when Jess told me that her niece, Zahra wants the minecraft theme for her 9th birthday bash, I thought to myself, this should be easy enough.

Well, I was quite wrong as its not that easy to make the gum paste to be perfect squares or cubes. Thus, the sugar modelling took longer than I anticipated and I ended up pulling an all nighter as I didn't take the day off from work that Friday. If I had done so, I probably won't be so rushed for time. I started out making the square like boy and girl characters. Its fairly simple enough but when its scaled down to fit a cupcake, all the parts are going to be small!! So, its a very tedious process!

I felt that by the time I had all the sugar characters ready for the cupcakes, I was turning square too!!! 

Lesson to self: Never procrastinate and always take time off work if the order is quite challenging!!

I actually don't enjoy making cupcakes with sugar modelling as it is very time consuming and very tedious especially when I'm such a detailed person. I much rather do a big cake and have the modelling done on a slighlty larger scale. I ended up making these characters and things for the cupcakes: 4 pieces boy characters, 4 pieces girl characters, 5 TNTs, 5 square rose plants, 5 creeper faces, 4 diamonds and swords and lastly, 3 sheeps. 

The overall view of the cupcakes... The square and stiff world of MINECRAFT...

The cute little square sheep and the girl character

The boy character and the square rose plant

The sword and diamond and the creeper face

A closer view of my sugar work

 I hope Zahra was happy with the cupcakes and thanks again Jess for the order...

"A Lesson in Chocolates"

I've always wanted to learn how to make chocolates the correct way. I mean the real way not those chocolates that people sell online made from compound chocolates!! I've always wanted to learn the process of tempering chocolates and also how to make the variety of fillings that are used inside these delectable sweets.

I've already hinted to Soon Ching of Artisan, a few times, to conduct a chocolate class at her center. So, when the opportunity to learn more about chocolates was given to me, I was very excited. The chocolate class was conducted by Chef David Lee of Epicurean Cuisine & Patisserie. This would be my third class with him. Prior to this, I've attended his macaron and choux pastry class.

Chocolates are very temperamental. That's what I learn!! You have to handle them with great care! Just like how you handle a woman, I guess. Hehehe.... The chocolates need to be melted at the right temperature, then cooled down to the right temperature and then bring it back up to the ideal temperature. See, what I mean about chocolates being temperamental! Different type of chocolates would have different kind of temperature reading. Dark chocolates are more hardy as compared to the milk and white chocolates. So, we need to be very careful when working with different types of chocolates. That being said, the rest of the class was actually quite easy.

First step, to melt the chocolate

Then, temper it to a lower temperature - 27-28 C for dark chocolates

The dark chocolate at its ideal temperature and ready to be worked on!

I learned to make three types of filings, the sea salt caramel filing (which I so love!!!), pistachio ganache and raspberry ganache. The caramel filing was paired with dark chocolate, pistachio ganache with milk chocolate and raspberry ganache with white chocolate. Of all, my favourite was the caramel and dark chocolate pairing. We also learned how to make truffles.

Coating the base of the chocolate mould before piping in the filing

The base all coated with chocolate

The sea salt caramel piped 3/4 into the mould

Our chocolate all beautiful and ready to be eaten

The truffles were relatively very simple to make. Chef David prepared the chocolate ganache first, then had it piped and cooled in the refrigerator. After its cooled and has harden a little, the ganache is coated with dark chocolates and then coated with good quality cocoa powder. I don't quite like the truffles made with dark chocolate as its quite bitter for my palette. I am going to try making it with milk chocolate instead. Hopefully, I can try making them soon rather than later!!

 The ganache is piped into a cone like shape

 Then, dipped into the dark chocolate for coating

Then coated with a good quality cocoa powder

The truffles are then put into a sifter, to shake off the excess cocoa powder

Walaaa... our handmade truffles!

All in all, it was a fun learning experience. I learned so much about chocolates and am quite excited to try my own handmade chocolates. Its always good to learn something new and for me, I always look forward to gaining more knowledge and to explore more new things especially in this culinary line.

I end my entry today with 2 photos taken at the end of our class with our instructor/mentor, Chef David Lee.. Until next time, cheerios ;)

Our treats for the day

Group photo with the instructor

 xoxo,

Elinna Bahrin

Pink Ellies Novelty Cakes

"My last order for April 2013"

Yes, its only the 16th of April 2013 today and I'm closed for orders this month. Reason being, my other half and me will be embarking on a spiritual journey to Makkah and Madinah this week. We will be performing our umrah and our trip will take us about 8 days. Before leaving though, I've managed to squeeze in 2 orders last week.

The first order was from Azlina, who wanted me to make for her son Ben 10 cupcakes to be taken on her son's kindy picnic. I didn't take any photos for this order as I was in a rush and totally forgot to do it!!! The cupcakes were chocolate with vanilla frosting and decorated with edible Ben 10 images.

The next order was from my neighbour (2 doors away), Kak Nora, who wanted to surprise her childhood friend, Christine with a birthday cake. She gave me a free reign on the cake design and only requested that I make for her a vanilla cake. She also mentioned that Christine loves the colour orange. When I was informed about this cake, in my mind I could already picture the cake that I wanted to make. I just wanted it to be simple and elegant with only one sugar flower on the cake and the sides decorated with 2D effect.

The overall view of the cake made with different shades of orange

The sugar flower in sunset orange - airbrushed and dusted with edible dust colouring

The decorated sides made to look a bit like lace

I quite enjoyed making this cake as this was a very simple order compared to my other cakes. Thanks for the order, Kak Nora and so sorry, I'm not able to take your order for the 20th of April this month. Next time ya...

"Azlina's Birthday"

One of my besties, Azlina, celebrated her birthday last month, on 24th of March to be exact. The same day as my niece's, Myiesha's birthday. I decided to organise lunch and meet up with her as we've not seen each other since last January. I had two of my other besties, Sheila and Mastura to join in the fun. Sheila was the designated person to get the pressie and I thought, why not surprise Azlina with a cake. 

Azlina loves, loves chocolate and I decided to make for her a chocolate almond cake frosted with chocolate ganache and peanut butter chips. As for the deco, I decided on the colour purple as Azlina loves that colour!!

I didn't really get a chance to capture the cake photos as
I was rushing for time to finish the cake
 

 Basically, it was decorated with lilies at the sides and airbrushed to achieve the sheen

I had Azlina's name in glitter as she loves a little blink, blink on the cake

We had a great time catching up and how Azlina's kids have grown!! Was very happy that we got a chance to catch up that day. Although the four of us, Sheila, Mastura, Azlina & me rarely meet, we all know that deep down we are always able to depend on each other when the times are good or bad. We know that we shall remain true friends for a long, long time! I love you gals :)

Azlina and her two babies, Adam & Iman with the birthday cake

Happy birthday, my dearest Azlina... May the coming year bring you more joy, happiness, good health and of course prosperity!! Love ya...

"Angry Bubble"

My friend, Elo wanted to surprise her hubby, Halim, who celebrated his 59th birthday last week. Elo and Halim were in KL for the hols. They both reside in Jakarta and that's where my friendship with them began. We met them while we were staying in Jakarta few years back. Even though, we've moved back to KL since 2011, we still remain quite close to them.

Back to the surprise party, Elo wanted a very fun cake to celebrate a fun occasion! After going through a few ideas, Elo decided on the "Angry Bubble" theme. Halim is absolutely gaga over this game on his tablet and is quite addicted to it. As for me, I never heard of this game before and I had to make a cake based on the screen capture that Elo had sent to me. I decided to do more research from the web and came out with a few ideas that I captured into this cake...

The screen capture I finally decided for the Angry Bubble theme

Elo's idea for this cake was brilliant! I love how cheerful the cake looks...

The whole view of the cake and cupcakes for the guests

  

A close-up of the cupcakes

Elo pretty much left everything else to my imagination. I decided on the colour silver & black as its most suitable for a man's birthday theme and the colours go very well with the bubble colours. I made the colourful bubbles as the main deco for the cupcakes. Elo requested a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

Happy Birthday again, Pak Halim and we sure enjoyed ourselves that night :) Thanks again Elo for all your orders and support. 

xoxoxo

Elinna

"Myiesha's 4th Birthday"

My niece, Myiesha celebrated her 4th birthday last Sunday and my mom had organised a small family lunch to celebrate the occasion. My daughter and I decided to surprise Myiesha with a birthday cake. Since Myiesha is so into "My Littlest Pet Shop" figurines, I decided to make her a cake with these figures on them. Hannah is also into these cute animal figures and I asked her to choose 2 or 3 for me to replicate in sugarpaste.

The pets took longer than I initially thought to make because: 

1) I started late - almost 10 pm

2) I had no idea which one to make

3) I was still tired and recovering from the 230 cupcakes that I just completed and delivered the day before!!!

So, I wasn't really my energetic self but since the lunch was the next day, I had to somehow finish at least 3/4 of the cake decoration. I did manage to get my sugar figures done and the cake covered with fondant by the time I stopped at 1.30 am. I was glad coz I didn't really have much time the next day! 

I made Myiesha a banana cake since she loves banana and the cake is frosted with vanilla buttercream. My mom was very happy with Myiesha's cake and I was quite satisfied with the result. I had to ask Hannah if my figures looked almost the same as her toys and she gave me the thumbs up!! Phew!! She did warned me before I started making the cake that the pets had very detailed eyes and that I had to follow or my pet won't be the same. And so I did... This was how my cake looked like :)

The whole view of Lil M's cake

One of the birdie LPS pet

The cake looks so bright and cheerful 

  Happy 4th Birthday, my dearest Myiesha... Mama Lin loves you, sweetie :)

"Ninjago for Hussein"

My bestie, Sheila wanted me to make for her youngest son, Hussein a cake and 30 cupcakes to celebrate his 6th birthday last week. This was a very simple cake as she just wanted me to put the edible image on the cake. Since Hussein is so into Ninjago, Sheila had him choose his favourite images and I had these images printed into edible form.

The cake and cupcakes were made of rich chocolate with vanilla buttercream.

The main cake with brown sugaras requested by the birthday boy

Close-up of the Ninjago image

The cupcakes for the celebration in school

The cupcakes in 2 cupcake wrappers in red and black

I hope Hussein had a great celebration in school and also at home with his family... Happy 6th Birthday Hussein...