Spongebob and Angry Birds Cakes for Arlynn

Some little girls are so lucky... Arlynn is one of them! She's my cousin's daughter and she just turned 9! For her FIRST birthday cake, which she wanted to bring to school to celebrate her birthday with her friends, she requested for a Spongebob Squarepants birthday cake. She spent the entire day coaching me on what Spongebob looks like and what the cake should taste like..

Sure got me crashing down to earth

Boy! I've met my toughest customer! She even asked for a sketch of Spongebob before it goes on the cake...

I made sure I made the cake while she was away in school. I don't think I could take the strict over-the-shoulder baking. I made a nice rich Chocolate cake with pink strawberry frosting.

In the end, I think she was happy with the outcome.

For her second birthday cake, she had even HIGHER expectations! Haha... Never bring your A-game knowing you would need to come back and perform again.. This time she asked for an Angry Bird cake. She kept changing her mind about which Angry Bird was her favourite. I wasn't too excited about making an Angry Bird fondants 'cos everyone has made them already! Google it and millions of pictures appear!

This time, I made 3D figurines.. no point showing off what I already showed, making a 2D one. And since I had lots of leftover fondant, already coloured to the angry bird shades (Yellow, Red, Blue, Green...) it was easy enough.

This time, I made a pink strawberry butter cake with vanilla cream and berry jam. I think the kid liked the fondant toys more than she enjoyed the cake. I told her she didn't need to eat them, and could keep them instead. The weather here in Auckland is nice and cool and dry - perfect for keeping fondants!

Phew! That was one tough challenge!

Discovering the Red Velvet

I recently discovered the awesomeness of the Red Velvet Cake. I always thought it was just red colouring in a plain butter cake, topped with cream cheese. Bah~!

But the Red Velvet is actually a concoction of amazing things like buttermilk, cocoa, vinegar and cream cheese! How interesting! I was intrigued! This sparked my Red Velvet hunt, I began tasting every Red Velvet cake I came across....

The Red Velvet Rosette created by a friend of mine

Red Velvet Cupcakes at Delicious, Bangsar. The chunks of cake pieces stuck on top makes it look like an alien!

Red Velvet, among other cupcakes sold in my office. By Simply Cakes, Puchong

A slice of Red Velvet Cake from Coffee Bean

I must say, I didn't taste the sourness and tangy flavour I expected from the cake. I was most disappointed in the one sold in Coffee Bean. The coconut and white chocolate shavings on top pretty much masked the taste of everything else. I'm still not satisfied! I can't wait to try my hand in creating a rich red velvet cake!

Bananarama!

I was bored. My friend had a bunch of over-riped bananas. This is what happened when we got together.

Banana cake with chocolate frosting and toasted hazelnuts!

Walnuts would have gone better, but I had plenty of hazelnuts sitting around at home.... Still kinda worked :)

A Potted Plant of Cake

Potted plants of Cake?

~ ~ 'Phhhoowww'"~ ~ I've got to blow the thick layer of dust off my blog. My last post seems months ago :( Even Mother's Day was weeks away...! 

Well, I could still share my Mother's Day creation, can't I? :)

My mum's birthday is really really close to Mother's Day (lucky isn't it?) In fact, some years it might even fall on the same day! This year, thinking my mum would appreciate a pretty potted plant, as she's an avid gardener - I planned a Potted Cake! :)

I bought colourful little ramekins from Daisoh, (the everything odd and end for RM5 Japanese shop) that resemble little pots. In my head, I was planning to buy a packet of edible flowers* from Jaya Grocers in Bangsar, but unfortunately when I got there... they were no longer selling them! How disappointing! :( So I had to make do with what they had....

a physa-what? These interesting berries wrapped in a pod of what looks like dried leaves are Physalis. Those berries are pretty interesting - a little sourish, a little sweet. They taste oddly, like a strawberry mixed with a tomato.

I bought plenty of Korean Strawberries (of course!), a pack of Physalis and well, cheap looking wafer roses to 'plant' in my pots.

For the 'earth' I filled the pots with Tiramisu - my favorite coffee soaked Tia Marias, and cream cheese. Tiramisu is getting to be one of my favorite lazy cakes. It takes literally 15 minutes to make and are soooo decadent!

One for me, one for mum, one for dad, one for bro, one for grandma and one for my aunt :)

For the sake of my grandma, I redecorated two pots to grow only Strawberries - worried that she might mistake the inedible stuff to be edible.

Nothing prettier than a whole bunch of strawberries....  

Happy Birthday and Mother's Day Mum... <3 <3

*They DO sell edible flowers... So pretty, though I have no idea how they actually taste (even though my mum told me I used to eat her Petunias when I was little). You could actually make flower salads, and decorate gorgeous cakes with them :) But, please make sure you buy or pluck ONLY the edible flowers....

I LOVE You Tiramisu!

Poor darling..  I've been ignoring my poor DOMO! Poor poor DOMO! :(

Well, I'm back... and this time with a brand new camera! :D I finally got me a DSLR, one Nikon D3100.... Hopefully it encourages me to bake more and take better pictures.

I apologize if these pictures look like bad photography - I'm still getting used to my camera. And I'm real sorry if my Tiramisu squares look a little messy - I was too eager to photograph them!

My white chocolate words

And, for the first time my melted chocolate actually turned out pretty well! :D My white chocolate melted and hardened perfectly too... I piped them into words to put on my Tiramisu squares... and decorated my LOVE with little hearts <3

Making Tiramisu is so easy!

Dip your Tia Marias in thick black coffee

Lay them at the bottom of your dish
Spread a layer of Nutella on top
Smother it with Cream cheese topping (cream cheese + icing sugar + vanilla essence)
Sprinkle cocoa powder on top
Decorate
Eat!

A post for:

Pick Me Up!

I know it's supposed to say 'Happy Birthday Gaya', but 'Happy Gaya' is true as well....

Previous post showed my Tiramisu cake I did for a friend's birthday... Coffee, cheese, chocolate - what's there not to love about Tiramisu? :)

Tiramisu, means 'Pick me up' in Italian. Or 'Make me happy'. I love both translations - it makes perfect sense of course. If it's coffee, cheese and chocolate in you cake, it'll certainly pick you up! And if you lace your coffee with a little Kahlua, then it's sure to make you happy!

It's one of the easiest cake to make, as there is no baking required. I bought a large pack of Ladies Fingers and some chocolate Love Letters to complete the cake. Now, I'm not a very science-y, count-y kinda girl (which should not be appropriate for someone who claims to bake a lot) so I do not actually have a recipe for this. I'm more of a feel-y, estimate-y kinda chick, so I put in as much stuff as I think should go in.

So, here's my feel-y Tiramisu recipe:

These are Ladies Fingers
(dip them with the sugarless side down)

You'll need a pack of Ladies Fingers, Love Letter wafers, Cream cheese, Icing sugar, Gelatin, Coffee Granules

Chocolate Love Letter wafers

1. Mix one bar of cream cheese with icing sugar well
2. Mix in two teaspoons of gelatin with hot water, till gelatin melts
3. Beat in the gelatin mixture with the cream cheese mixture
4. Now, line a spring foam pan with baking paper on the bottom and the sides
5. Mix about 3 tablespoons of coffee granules with hot water (basically make a thick and black cup of coffee) in a shallow plate
6. Dip a Ladies Finger in strong coffee for about 2 seconds, only on one side. (Don't leave it in for too long, you can feel the Ladies Fingers soaking up all the coffee and start to crumble)
7. Now, line the ladies fingers at the base of your pan (about 4-6 fingers, depending on the size of your pan)
8. Pour a layer of cream cheese on top of the soaked Ladies Fingers.
9. Now, take your Love Letters, and line the side of the spring foam pan - making a sort of fencing on the sides
10. Repeat with a second layer of ladies fingers, topped with the rest of the cream cheese.
11. Now, let it set in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.



I cut out her name, and used it as a stencil. Unfortunately, Gaya's 'ya' got a little smudged...

12. Sprinkle some cocoa powder on top before serving

Birthday Girl and her cake

Garfield Cake for Vivien

Garfield made from marshmallow fondant

Fondant decorations always give a very neat, clean and professional look to cakes. Because you can mold them and shape them according to templates, it's not too easy to screw it up. And even if you do, it's pretty easy to repair!

However, the thing I do not like about fondant is that it is made almost entirely out of sugar. It tastes yuck - and you can't refrigerate it as it'll sweat when you take it out of the fridge. I usually tell people not to eat the cute doll on top of their cakes, unless they are looking for a sugar high.

But to make pretty little dolls and cartoon characters; fondant is still the way to go. So Garfield - you have no choice but to be fondant. Plus, making alphabets to spell out the names of the birthday girl is easier too, with the help of my alphabet cookie cutters :)

I love this picture! It looks so artsy! 

I traced an image out and cut out piece by piece and layered them one on top another. Garfield is relatively easy - only 4 colors needed; orange, yellow, white and black. Oh and a pink nose.

guess who?

I can't rely on my icing being yummy anymore - seeing that I encourage people to cut it off the cake, instead of eating it, I had to make the inside as yummy as possible. I sandwiched two butter cakes with melted chocolate, cream and Korean Strawberries! :) Yum yum...

Korean strawberries are the best strawberries in the world!!!! Seriously!!

Fondant done. Cake done. Now to put it together.... I faced a dilemma. The cream will melt if not refrigerated, but Garfield will sweat if refrigerated. I had to wait till the last hour to put them together.... I still stuck it back in the fridge anyway. A sweating Garfield is nothing compared to soured cream and strawberries!

Another submission to Made by You Mondays. You guys should check them out, they make the cutest things on the planet! :D

Birthday Candles

February.... Stayed up till this time (in the AM!) because I'm addicted to making cakes.... 

The month of February holds the birthdays of two of my friends from work.

Wanting to surprise them even before their birthdays, (because that's when they least expect it) I baked each of them a cake based on what I know (or think) they like. With the help of another friend, I lured the two birthday girls to my house....

And tortured them with fire that never goes off!!! Muahahaha! (Oh.... that sounds wrong)

(the candle blowing went on for about 20 minutes or so...the one on Garfield just wouldn't quit!)

These candles are so fun!!! Oh you better watch out.. I'm gonna buy them for every single birthday cake I make from this moment on...

One birthday girl likes cheese and coffee, the other likes...well, she likes Garfield. Therefore I decided to make a Tiramisu cake, and a.... Garfield.

I did have plenty of fun making Garfield out of fondant. I was worried that he might look like a knock off Garfled made in China - but in the end he just looks like Garfield high on caffeine. Not too bad, if I may say so myself :)

I was also very pleased at how my Tiramisu turned out. The cheese had set well, and was nice and thick. My Ladies fingers were well soaked and slightly frozen in my bitter thick 'Indocafe' coffee.

It was all plenty fun - making the cakes, presenting them to the girls, an eating them. I hope you girls enjoyed it too... Happy Be-earlied Birthday Gaya & Vivien!

Layers of Fun

It's almost tradition. Every Chinese New Year, my parents would open our doors for friends and neighbors to come for a night of food, drinks and entertainment.

It is great fun, but extremely tiring. Especially because the hostess (my mum) believes that her guests can never be full. She needs to feed her guests till their tummies explode. And thats not enough! All her guests needs to be given a huge array of choices to eat! Our table will be laden with all kinds of food - curries, rice, noodles, soups, roasted chicken, satay... you name it! Can you imagine the amount of cooking and the amount of stress??

And certainly, not forgetting the dessert....

This - of course is MY department. This time I wasn't prepared to make a dessert, as I thought the load of new year cookies littering the house would suffice. But of course - my mum insists that the guests would love to have a cake. So, I scraped up everything I had in the house to make and decorate a cake.

The crystal cut glass below would be my mum's pretty glass cake stand

My mother wanted a pretty cake to display under her pretty glass dessert stand. With no ingredients to make a butter cream icing, I was wrecking my brains on how I could decorate the cake. I had some left over cream cheese in the fridge, and thought that would go perfectly with my cake. I strolled out into the garden, and discovered my mum's lime bush was laden with beautiful green balls of lime. Well, thats all I need!

Layers of cake, tangy cream cheese and light fluffy meringue....

I sandwiched my usual butter cake recipe with beaten cream cheese, mixed with plenty of lime juice and some rind. Making sure that the cream cheese was plenty sour, to keep the cake from being to rich and heavy. And for the topping, to make the cake lighter - I whipped up some meringue and scorched the top.

My Cheesecake Solero!

So heres my layered lime cream cheese, meringue cake. I'll call it my Cheesecake Solero! Because it tastes like a cake version of this Solero Split ice cream pops :) 

Solero Shots from Walls- Lime sherbet outside, creamy vanilla inside :)

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