Anything but dogs :P

Last week, another pal of mine is having a birthday. E is a dog lover, so I wanted to make something canine-ish ;)

I saw the idea for this somewhere, but I can't remember. All I know is when I'm brainstorming what to make for E, this idea came up. And I remember it's easy to decorate. Something foolproof. So I did yellow cake cupcakes, covered with cream cheese frosting, and add milk chocolate sprinkles + Milo Puff and Coco Crunch cereals. Little did I know that once it's done, no one recognize that it was a puppy until I told them so =='....

My mom thought it's bears. (Ok, I can sorta see that). My Grandma asked why I'm making rats (*ouch). My boyfriend said cute sleeping Pandas (What!?). Birthday girl E squealed and said it was cute, but sorta have no clue what it was >_<... until I told her it's supposed to be dogs (then she squealed some more... heh heh heh.... esp after she saw the cupcake liners are Scooby Doo - another dog ;)

Ok what does it look like to you? :/ *I guess I need to practice my decorating skills....* :P

On a side note: 2 outs for cake recipes. *SIGH*. The soft cake recipe I usually use in the US ended up like this. It is more difficult to make so I decided I wanted to do a really simple cake recipe this time (Not as tasty) but in theory it's a little more foolproof so it won't shrunk. Well the upside is the cake did not shrunk. BUT it didn't rise either. >_<..... GRRRR.... So the first batch ended up really hard and dry T_T... the second batch is better but still sort of flat - and ended up being chewy and dense. Thank goodness for the cream cheese frosting that sorta balance the cake out. At least I got that right and it help improves the taste of the cake :P My friends swallowed their cupcake portion and seemed to enjoy it. (They seem to really like the frosting... mwahaha) And they said it's adorable - so I feel happy ;)

Now for the leftovers: Since the house is still being renovated, we have some workers daily working on the house. So after icing the rest of the cupcakes (and I made mini cupcakes with the leftover batter too), my Mom used the leftover cereals and add sprinkles on top of the cupcakes and passed them out to the workers. Here's pictures of the leftovers:

From what I heard, they gobbled those up pretty quickly :P This is good, I can experiment and have lots of people as my taster guinea pigs :P Hihihi....

Thoughts: I really have to find a working recipe here *sigh*... Next, I plan to try making the wiid recipe in my kitchen (which ALWAYS work without any glitch back in the US). Crossing my fingers for that to work.... *wish wish wish wishhhhh*

Operation Pink - The result

Still upset with the result of these cupcakes, I'm heading to my friend's A house. Thankfully for this Project, I'm not alone. I'm working together with my very good friends A and L, both are experienced in the kitchen :) (In fact, L is a pro chef) hehehe - so I'm in VERY good hands.

Right from when I arrive, still fuming from the cupcake's far from perfect appearance, my two pals knew just how to make me feel better :) "It's ok, we can cover it with buttercream and it won't show" "Hey the cupcake tastes good!" "It's actually a good thing! More place for the sweet stuff!" :D (Love ya gals!) :)

So we made cream cheese frosting to cover up the cupcakes and worked the fondant as best as we can (The fondant is hard to work with too - it's very soft and stretchable - very difficult to work with compared to the ones I used in US) and decorate it as girly as we can to please Pink.

And I think we did a fine job given all the circumstances :) Here's what we did with the 26 cupcakes:

Not bad right??? And the birthday gal, Pink, love our surprise. Heh heh. She was squealing especially when she saw the Hello Kitty cupcakes (Yes, she's a fan) and almost didn't want to eat it. My friend L actually had to smear the kitty face so that we have an excuse to feed her a deformed kitty :D... hahaha... and Pink really like the taste - she said it's the best tasting cupcake (Aww shucks, she's just too nice ;) Here's a close up of the cupcakes:

Special thanks to my awesome buddies A and L, couldn't have done it without you! :)

So all the headaches and the drama and the stress are worth it - once we see how happy Pink is with the surprise and the cupcakes ;)

Cake Playing with Project Pink :P

I guess I can't stay quiet for too long :)

My friend Pink (Yes, she's a pink lover to the max - we often call her Pink for real ;) is having a birthday. My friends and I decided that we want to do something special this year and want to throw her a surprise party. During preparations, it was decided that I'm in charge of the cake (wonder why? ;)

Well, it's not exactly smooth sailing. Haha. From the very beginning, there's clashes to what to do with the cake itself. (i.e: Cake/cupcakes? How big? How many? What flavors? Colors? How to decorate? What liners to use? And sooo on) Since the project involves a lot of people, I had to find something agreeable to the people involved - and it just ain't easy trying to please everybody... hahaha... (I can laugh about it now ;)

Then there's the marshmallow problem. We wanted to decorate using fondant, and we wanted to make our own fondant using marshmallows. WHO KNEW that it's very very very difficult trying to locate marshmallow in Jakarta? (Oh how I miss walking to Safeway and being able to grab mashmallows in different sizes right from the baking aisle *bawl*) We went to numerous supermarkets and left empty handed. All they have is the marshmallow with fillings inside (such as jelly or other sweet stuff) and that can't be used for making fondant. Grrr....

The day before the big day, I got sick. I woke up and my whole body aches, my throat really hurts, and I have no energy. (To prove how sick I was: I have no appetite. All I can eat was half a bread roll -_-') Which was weird, because before I sleep I was really fine. I ended up spending the day sleeping and not doing anything productive (Well I did went to the supermarket still trying to find marshmallow - to no avail). Thankfully later that night, my friend located a baking specialty store and found ready to use fondant that taste fine *phew*

The morning of the big day, I woke up early. Feeling a lot better, I start preparing the ingredients to bake the cupcakes for Pink. I was happy too - brand new kitchen, clean new oven, there's a maid to help clean up the mess I'm making. Well that changed after 1 hour.

The first batch of the cupcakes is about to be done. The kitchen smelled nice, peeking into the oven door, you can see the cupcakes getting golden colored, all nice and poufy - cupcake like. THEN, once you take it out of the oven, IT SHRUNK. Like this!

My brand new oven is so temperamental. It kept getting hotter, *because the heat source is real flaming fire and not just heated wire like normal US oven* and I had to deal with 2 fire sources, from top and bottom and trying to figure out what is the best balance to properly bake the cupcakes. Luckily, I had bought enough ingredients to make more batches. This is what I ended up with, after many trials:

Frustrating. And, because I had to leave to my friend's house to start decorating, this is what I ended up bringing:

Deflated cupcakes. *Sigh*. These are the best ones I could collect. They taste ok, like ones I use to make.

So. Not. Happy.

Takin' a break :)

Hey peeps,

Hehehe... should have posted this earlier. I was so busy the past month preparing for my move from US to Indo for good - I didn't have a chance to create any more stuff ;P I actually wanted to make something for the people coming to the airport (@ my departure date) but didn't get the chance :( Sorry guys :( And thanks for coming all the way :) I'll see you again in May :D

Update from Indo: Moved to my old house, which doesn't have a kitchen yet! =='... It's still a work in progress, and according to my Dad, it won't be finished anytime soon... so atm, no bakin, creatin, and playin with food for now. (boo)

Anyways, I guess the blog will be inactive for now - check back in May perhaps when I'm visiting my sisters and my soon to be born nephew! :D I'll be sure to create stuff to celebrate then :)

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