Snowflakes!

Things have been buuuusyyyyy.... final projects and exams... *So glad it's my last semester...:)* Anyways, I have presentation for one of my class tonight. The class is loooong since there's about 20 presentation, 12 minutes each O_O. So, I decided the class need some sugar help. (And I'm tired with working on my projects all the time. I need some cake play :D So I made these :)

Made about 2 dozens of these. I was so tired with all the school projects though, I was pretty slow during the making..... hahaha...

But it was fun :) Here's a closeup.

This is chocolate cupcakes covered with with buttercream, baked using gold foil cupcake liners, and topped with snowflake shaped fondants + gold colored buttercream :)

Happy Holidays!

PS: Four (4!) of my classmates actually asked for my card /email... they wanted me to do some cakes :D... *It's sooo unfortunate that I won't be here next year! :P But that made me so happy that there are others beside my friends and family actually considering me to be their cake maker ^_^

Thankful for Macaroons :)

Last week I took a macaroon class with Richard :) This is what I brought home: It's macaroons filled with nutella. YUM. (Oh, they're all the same flavor, I just add some colorings for fun :) Oh and the blue ones have coffee sprinkled on top of it :)

Apparently, my bf loves this new creation so much. He said it's the best thing I ever made, hands down (beats all the cakes, bars, cookies, and cupcakes) :) and munched everything away.(All of these photos were taken before he got the chance to eat everything) :)
The next day, we went to whole foods (supermarket) to get some stuff. And there was some macaroons for sale (expensive too! $1 per small macaroons, tsk tsk). My bf wants some, (and he said: hey, you have to compare yours and the competitors) I said fine, and we bought a couple. He dig right into it in the car, and said: "Yours is way better". (and begged me to make some later that day) Hahaha... that made my day :)

So this thanksgiving I'm thankful for macaroons, among other things ;)

Mini chocolate chip cupcakes

My classmate Coleen is very-very nice. She scanned me over 50 pages (YES, Five-zero) worth of materials for my final project. It's extremely helpful for me and she was super nice about it.

Naturally I felt like I should make her something :) So I did: 1 dozen mini chocolate chip cupcakes. This is how they look plain.

Of course, no cupcake is complete without any icing (or sprinkles!) So we top it off with chocolate buttercream and pretty colorful sprinkles :)
Thanks again Colleen! Hope you like these! :D

Mini Quarter Birthday Cake :)

Once again, it's my bf birthday. Two years ago, I tried this. *wincing in pain* Last year cake was more successful. And this year? :D

It's his 25th birthday, so I made a really small cake, just a quarter, actually :) *quarter century, get it? :P* Now with that shape I can only think of a block of cheese. Here's the back view.

Of course, since he's a mouse, (chinese zodiac - so am I) there should be a tiny mouse peeking out from the cheese, right? :D Here's the top view.

My bf actually joked that the mouse is sinking into the cheese. Heh heh. It kinda does :P

Happy birthday, boyfriend!!! Say Cheese! :D

Shoe and Roses for P

Hehey it's November! 1 year ago this happened. This year... a little disaster happened too. :P

So it's my sis P birthday. She like shoes - she like the color red. And this is what the cake looks like.

Yeaaa.... I'm not happy with it either. I've been sick the past couple of days and I think it shows on the cake :( It's messy and not smooth and.. ugh... frustrating...:(... well the birthday girl like it, so I feel a little better :P Here's the back view of the shoe: it's based on Louboutin shoe, hence the red heel.

Anyways, I also made some cupcakes for the occasion. 21 in fact, since she's 21 years old :)

Red Velvet cupcakes with buttercream icing, sprinkled with red sugar :) Here's a close up :)

Happy Birthday sis! *and sorry bout the cake... ahaha*

Mummy!!!

Mummy dogs actually! :)

Saw the recipe on the Pillsbury Website. Had the ingredients and it doesn't require too much time, so I went ahead and make some :)

And here's a close up. See those eyes? :D The recipe actually calls for mustard, but I don't like mustard, so I used ketchup instead. Still cute :)

I found that it's hard to eat 1 mummy dog (because it's too long), so I made mini ones! :D And I can't stop smiling when biting into these little mummies ;)

Happy Halloween! :D

Bacon Crackers

School has been really crazy the past two weeks. I haven't got a chance to play in the kitchen for some time now :( Esp this week: this week I have a big finance midterm... T_T...

Anyways... while I was looking in the freezer for snacks I stumbled across these heavenly snack I made awhile back: Bacon Crackers! This is nothing but Bacon, Parmesan Cheese, and Crackers, baked. :D

And I'm telling you, there's nothing like a good crunchy fatty snack to cheer up the mood :D

*munch munch munch*

Breaaaddd......

Pure bliss: Eating fresh bread right out from the oven. Yes, here's a picture of one straight out of the oven. Ok, they may not look nice and even, (Hey, it's home made... kinda get a rustic feel about it. haha) and I'm going to quote my mom here: "if it's fresh from the oven....ck....ck...who cares?????" :D

I made these a couple times already. I tend to dig into them before I had the chance to take a proper picture though, lol. These are old pictures - I forgot I took them. (I guess I just started munching the bread before uploading... haha) Here's one on the plate.

And what I like best about this bread is this: All you have to do is pluck one piece out, and put it in your mouth. Mmmm... They take hours to make but it's worth every piece. :D

I'm in carb heaven *choir singing in the background*

C's Beary Birthday!

Wow, can't believe it's been a year since this.

Anyways, I've been racking my brains for weeks trying to come up with ideas on what to make. *She has 1 request: Make it cute!*... Okay... :P Then, about a week or two before her birthday, she found out she's pregnant :D (Yes, I'm going to be an aunt! Yippeee!) So right away I knew what to make for her.

See I had this bear pan for a while now. Never found the right time to make a cake for it, and this seems like the perfect moment - celebrating her birthday and the upcoming baby :D

Well, during the making, the cake... has lots of drama involved O_O... I actually wanted to have the cake finished the day before the birthday, but the pan leaks and only the upper half of the bear made it into its finished form *the cake is baked upside down*... grrr... So on the day of the birthday, I actually was in the kitchen for almost 10 hrs straight trying to get everything done.

Here's a look at the back of the cake, cooling *yes, 2nd try is the charm!... yayy* Oh, needless to say the kitchen is a BIG MESS :P (After the celebration, I spent like 2 hrs washing dishes.. haha)

Annnd here's the cake cooling, before any icing is made. It's actually cute enough plain. I almost didn't decorate it... haha....

But of course I did... ;) With chocolate buttercream. Very cuteee right? Very furry too, haha...

Oh btw I made the cake 65 miles away from the party place, about 1 hr + drive. (Yes, I was late ;) My lovely bf was nice enough to drive carefully while I'm in the passenger seat holding the cake, hanging on for dear life. And everytime there's a bump I gasped - my heart stopped for a second, and I quickly examined the cake. There were some furs shed during transport, but no major damage done :D (I even brought extra icing just in case there was damage :) - and my friends ended up trying to decorate pieces of the cake... fun :D

I was happy to report that yes the cake indeed was sliced and eaten. Many protests though, the guests almost didnt want to cut the cake... well they better, after hrs of making it :P
This is how we cut the cake, left foot first! Hahaha...

I also made the pbb for the event. I was pleasantly surprised that my friends like it very much :D (In fact, they like it better than the cake... haha) *Definitely a keeper.

Overall I was very happy with the cake. My hands are still sore piping all those furs even after a week. *I guess I need practice, hahahaha* Extremely exhausted, but worth it ;)

*wink!*

Peanut Butter Bar

Happy September!

Ok-ok, it's been awhile since I played with decorated cakes / cupcakes. Later this month I'll post cake pictures for sure *birthdays coming up!* :) For now, I'll let you see this Peanut Butter Bar! :)

Making these, I realized something: It's so difficult to cut these bars evenly! *Note to self: practice cutting these EVENLY* Here's a close up of the sides / inside:

I originally made a bunch of these for a church activity *here's the picture of the stacked bars inside the box, lined with wax paper*

But my little sis P ended up liking it so much she doesn't want to share :P I guess that's a good sign :)

Want one? :D

Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Ok ok not a cake post, but how can you say no to chocolate chip cookies? :D

I love Chocolate Chip Cookies. Can't get enough of them, and the best ones are the one straight and fresh from the oven :)

So here, it all starts with the dough...

Then couple minutes later... mmm...

You should smell the kitchen right now... seriously. I kid you not.

And this is the toughest part. Waiting for them to cool before you can munch on them... :) *o yea, see my cool wire racks? They stack up so you can cool more at the same time and doesnt require any more space. Awesome! *

These cookies are soft and chewy - my bf like it that way. I personally prefer mine crispy. I think most people tends to like cookies soft and chewy. Hmmm...

Pool Games!

My brother in law just got a billiard table. So I made these :) Saw the idea from the Hello Cupcake book and was happy that I got to play with the idea :D

These are basic white cupcake iced with buttercream, then covered with colored sugars. The numbers are written on fondant using edible markers.

And yes, I'm using this box again. I'm guilty, I like this box a lot :) It's so useful for storing the cupcakes. And it fit the billiard balls set perfectly. Here's a look at the set with the box opened :)

And yup, I noticed that for the striped balls, I placed the numbered 90 degrees wrong XP... (Just realized it when I saw the real pool balls) o well...

Let's play some pool! :D

Chocolate Present Cake

Took another class from Richard :D
I like this cake a lot! Looks so much like a real present, right? :)

I especially like how Richard taught me the tricks on how to make the bow more lifelike. Here's a close up from the top:

This is the view from the back:

The pink bows and the green packaging are made out of colored modeling chocolate by the way - the same materials as this ducky cake. Here's a view from the side:

A boxed present inside the box, hee hee.... :D

Back in the USA!

Been back for couple days, but I'm heavily jetlag / jetlagged? (eh you know what it is)... so haven't played around in the kitchen yet, will do soon. Got some ideas and some recipes from Indo that I'll try out soon ;)

Thought I should share this: Last time, when my parents and grandma were here in the US, I made cheesecake. (Similar like this). Got good reviews on it, they like it a lot *yay*. I planned on making them in Indo - however, I later found out that its hard to find Philly brand cream cheese in Indo *argh*... when I did found them, they were expensive @!($*@&#.... did found many other cream cheese brand though... I guess I'll have to try these out next year when I'm making cheesecake in Indo.

Oh, and they didn't like my cupcakes *ouch*... hahaha.... apparently it was too sweet / too chocolatey... hmmm.....

Still alive :D

Ok it's been a while since I posted anything new... Sorry bout that! :D

The past 3 weeks have been hectic preparing for my older sis wedding... that went well, thank goodness (And I also am VERY thankful that I didn't make her wedding cake O_O... with so much things going on, the cake wud be a disaster... hahaha.... that's why we left it to the pro :)

Anyway, I am now in Indo for the next 5 weeks... so there won't be any cake playing or experimenting for a little while... :D (I'll be roaming the cake section in the bookstore for research, how's that... hahaha)

Check back mid August! I'll be sure to post the next batch of playing with cakes :)

Pain au chocolate...

Another thing you can do with the croissant dough

Flaky, buttery crust, with 55% semi-sweet guittard chocolate filling

*No other words necessary*

Big Owls and Little Owls

Inspired from the book Hello, Cupcake! :) Cute? :)

Yes, I spent some time separating Oreo cookies for the eyes :) *Now I have a jar filled with the plain side... wonder what I can use them for... haha* The book recommends slicing the plain cookie in half to use for the ears... I didn't have the patience to do that :P Anyways my sisters recognized that they're Owls (I hope people in general do too... so I didn't feel so bad not doing the ears... haha)

And I also picked the chocolate colored M&Ms for the eyeballs. Now I don't have any more chocolate colored ones in my M&Ms jar... haha... And the nose is made from yellow buttercream icing.

So here's twelve large owls cramped inside. I love how cute they look when bunched together ;)

And yes, this is the same box as this. I found out that without the insert it can fill 1 dozen standard cupcake, and it fits well! *I especially like how cramped they look when the box is closed: "Get us out of hereeee! I'm not sure about this guy next to me!" hee hee....

The mini ones goes into a plastic container I found recently. I also like this plastic box. So compact :D

I made 2 dozen mini ones. Here's the other set, with the box closed :D
Oh and there were 2 extra regular ones. Admit it, they're cute!

Here's a close up. :)

I adore this container. It's an ice cream container actually, but can multitask as a single regular cupcake container. The problem is... they're expensive! Dang it :(... But I had fun ;) And my sisters devoured them up and said they were good :D Yay!