Puppy cupcakes

How much is that doggy in the window?

It was my friend's Christina's birthday. She is a dog person, so I made her doggy themed cupcakes. 

I do love fondant. It reminds me of Play-Dough.... I made a pack of puppies - some I tried making them look like Huskies and Mini Schnauzers, one looks like Wishbone, and a couple of mongrel looking dogs. 

And if you were wondering about the half a dog, it's a puppy digging for his bones...

 A whole set of puppies, paw prints and birthday girl's name... 

Cupcakes were chocolate, with peanut butter filling and chocolate buttercream

Happy Birthday!

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....

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

Romantic Strawberries for Valentines Day!

I think strawberries are the most romantic fruit. They are so red and pink and pretty! It just speaks of love. It's even shaped like a red love with a pretty green top. It smells like a bouquet of flowers. And the taste.. oh how do I describe the taste? It's sweet and sour and beautiful! 

Beautiful Korean Strawberries

Korean strawberries are by far the ABSOLUTE BEST ones I have ever had. They are so perfectly sweet! Korean Strawberry season comes to Malaysia every once a year - and because of the competition in price between supermarkets, it gets cheaper and cheaper and cheaper! (I know this because I used to be a buyer for a supermarket in the fruit department! ;P) This year, I spotted Carefour the French grocery store, selling it for RM5.95! That's insane! I of course went crazy and bought way too many packs.

So, Happy Valentines day to myself. Yes, yes. I'm single and alone, but who cares? I get beautiful strawberries all for myself! :-*

Delicious Waffles with cream and strawberries - piled on a plate. Nothing else more beautiful compared to that! 

Sughee Rabbit Cookies

I love my pink rabbits.. :D

A couple more weeks, starts the year of the rabbit! (which also marks the end of MY year, the year of the Tiger)

Chinese New Year always means a whole lot of Cookies!!!! But year after year I get sick of these cookies mainly because in almost every home I visit - I see the same cookies everywhere. Pineapple tarts, kuih bangkit, peanut cookies, love letters.... What to do? It's tradition....

Now I love all these cookies, but it gets boring seeing them every year. So I decided to make something different this time around....

Unveiling my Sughee Rabbit Cookies!!

Purple, pink and blue rabbits!

My Sughee Rabbits are actually Sughee Cookies... One of my absolute favorite Chinese New Year treats. Made from Ghee (goat's milk butter?) gives it the melt in the mouth texture. It's powdery and soft and impossible to stop eating once you start.

What do you call a lot of rabbits? A herd? Kinda scary when they all group together...
Looks like they could do serious damage....

To make them cuter, and a little more interesting - I added a little coloring to the dough and added eyes and 'ears' to make 'em little bunnies. Seeing that it's their year - I thought it would be nice to have a little homage for them. 

Almond nibs for ears gives the cookies just what it needs - taste and look! Apart from the rich softness of the cookies, you get a little crunch in the almonds.. and the rabbits get ears!

Jack-O-Cupcakes!

I've got my eye on you! Wahahahha!!!

Heyo...

Apologies, a little back dated with the postings. Hope you guys had a scary Halloween!

As promised, I made Halloween Treats! ^_^

Domo: It's smiling at me... Whys it SMILING AT MEE??!

Domo: GAHH!! SO MANY OF THEM?!

What they are, are Halloween Jack-O-Cupcakes.
It's orange inside and out.

Orange Poppy Seed cupcake inside. Orange Buttercream upside. Yummy-ness all over! ^_*

Hallow-Domo-ween!

Domo-Mummy! Rawr!!  

Halloween is just around the corner, and we're pretty excited. And rightfully so. Malaysians don't usually practice dressing up yourself up scary and decorating your house up creepy. And why not? It looks so fun!

We're probably not going to have a dress-up party this year, so I'm kinda disappointed. So, to make up to it, I dressed Domo-kun up instead! :D

This year, I'm watching horror movies with a bunch of friends, and playing The Grudge on the Wii. :)

This year, I'm also very excited to make Halloween themed cupcakes! Nothing like munching on a creepy looking on Halloween. What will I be making? Well, thats for you to find out.....later! 

Muahahaha!

For a Halloween preview, check out Domo's scary clip.... ;)