V Day project - WIP

Hello folks! Yes.....I'm still alive and kicking :) Although, I still feel unwell at times, must be from my recent bout of food poisoning during Chinese New Year. Damn those peanuts, shandy and sunflower seeds...

Anyways, here are some pictures of my Valentine's Day project. *drum roll* Presenting V-Day ......blueprint!


I can just imagine you guys saying 'What?!!" Lol...Sorry people, I got to wait till after V day to put up the finished cuppies. Let's not spoil the surprise for the recipients, shall we? :)

I am making boxes of 6s and 9s, with different designs in each box. Took me a while to put the final designs together. And yes, even with sketches to follow, I made some changes along the way. I stuck to 3 colours, pink, red and white. And a fat, cuddly teddy bear will make its way as the centre piece. I can't wait to put them all together! 

Miniature Cakes

I went for this very interesting miniature cakes class about a month ago (yeap...this post is long overdue) at Cake Connection. I was a little unsure and very, very excited. I didn't know if I could pull it off. Because they're so small, and I have large, sometimes clumsy hands. Really.

But our friendly instructor, Lynette made it so much easier with her clear instructions and demonstrations. As usual, print out of recipes were provided, as well as materials like cake, fondant, sugar paste flowers and decorating tools. We were taught 2 types of miniatures, a single tier square cake and a 2 tier round cake. And then the time came when we had to spread our wings and fly.......Lynette went round asking which miniature we'd like to start off with; almost all of us picked the square cake. Lol....but it was inevitable. Like Lynette said, sooner or later we had to finish both of them.

The cake provided was madeira and let me tell ya, it was really really good. That's because Lynette used pure vanilla extract and it made a world of difference. No sickly sweet artificial smell, just pure floral vanilla. The buttercream was equally good, light and fluffy. We were in good hands :)

It took us about 2 hours to assemble miniature cakes of our own. Everyone was beaming with pride by the end of the class. It was so satisfying to see something so delicate made possible with our bare hands. We all swore not to eat the cakes...haha, well how could you? Take a look at the pics and you'll see why.

this is the first cake, looks pretty simple eh? it's about the size of my palm

and can u see the half way done 2 tier cake in the background?

pardon my very un-manicured thumb, just wanted to show you the size of the cake in relative to my hand

2 tier mini cake, looks like a wedding cake eh?

these are done by the master herself, Lynette

the stripey green cake on the left was a demo only, not included in our class

very tedious work as the green lines were piped alternately with royal icing

cross section of the cake....

just in case 'some' people don't believe that it's edible, rite Darryl? :p

I would say that I'd love to make miniatures again but probably not for sale. They are very tedious and time consuming. But having said that,  they are such a joy! It's like producing a work of art. This is definitely one of the best classes that I signed up for. 

Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year 2009

Helloooooo! I've been MIA for 3 weeks. That's a loooong time in blogging years :) Apologies but I've been busy of late. My colleague Nads ordered some cuppies for her engagement last week and Nicko for Xmas. Kind, kind people they are :) It's been a whirlwind adventure so far, thanks to supportive friends and Facebook! Posted some pictures on it and next thing I know, I'm making cupcakes for sale.

I'd love to stay and go on a barrage of stories, so many things to share with you (like BunsInTheOven :))! But alas, I can't be too long here, gotta prepare some toppings for May's order. Her wedding is on the 31st and her 'guo dai lai' or delivery of bethrothal gifts is this Saturday. Instead of the usual cakes, she's opted for cupcakes. Btw, she's having a black and pink wedding how cool is that?

Ok, here are some pictures of Nad's cuppies and a sneak peek at Nicko's. The Xmas cupcakes are basically what you saw on one of my earlier posts. But this time I made sure that I used a mixture of gumpaste and fondant. And oh, to add HANDS for the snowmen!

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year my virtual friends, may 2009 be everything you ever wish for and more!

What Do You Do With 320 Cupcakes

Why, you give them away of course! Hello there, I'm back! And how have you been? :)

The past 2 weeks have been hectic but loads of fun. Had my hands full with cupcakes, cupcakes and more CUPCAKES. Goodness, I even dreamt about them in my sleep. And when I woke up, the smell of vanilla and buttercream still lingered on my hands. All for my brother's wedding which was, awesome! I hereby would like acknowledge the 2 fantastic sous chefs i.e. mom & sis who came to my aid. You guys are champions!

The first batch of 120 cupcakes were delivered to the lovely bride in Singapore, as part of the bridal gifts (along side some other auspicious items) from the groom. The 20 boxes of cupcakes survived the journey, although I freaked out a little when I found out that the boxes were growing warm, tucked away for 4 hours in the car boot. But thank goodness for the fantastic buttercream recipe; none of the cuppies suffered the effects of gobal warming. Phew!

The fondant flowers were made 3 days in advance while the baking was accomplished the next day (2 types of cake, the basic chocolate and vanilla). Finally all decorating works were done the following day; there were a total of 6 designs. Everything was kept simple as I didn't want to be too ambitious the 1st time around. 

from the back: chocolate cake with cocoa buttercream, chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream and the rest are vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream.

these are all vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream

Wanna take a closer look? Here we go :)

lovely metallic dragees

nothing says it like to 2 hearts united on a cupcake!

swirly swirly

I kinda like the orange one in the background, it reminds me of sea corals. No Nemo though :)

6 in a box

And they were packed in these (brace yourself Wee, lol!)

Mom flat out disapproved of white boxes (she didn't think it was auspicious) & i couldn't find silver ones that could fit 6 regular sized cuppies. I drove from Puchong to Section 14 to Kota Damansara to Kepong, alas, the search was futile. These are SCREAMING auspicious, don't you think?

the rest of the bridal gifts

spot the not! :)

Well, that's the first 120. I'll write about the rest of the 200 in another entry. Till then, take care!

And oh yes, I'll post the recipes too ;)

Look Ma, cupcakes!

I signed up for a cupcake decorating class with Cake Connection and boy, was it fun! Nancy, the lovely instructor demonstrated the making of the cupcakes and frosting and then she showed us the correct way to handle the decorating tools. Then the real fun began when she taught us how to ice the cakes and pipe some basic designs like the star, rosette, rose, balloon & leaves. We were then given 6 cupcakes each, bowlfuls of pastel coloured frosting & a few decorating tools to start designing on our own. 

It was rather interesting to see everyone's faces as they went about their task, some were smiling and some with wrinkled foreheads. Mine was a combination of both, I was rather wrinkly at first but soon got the hang of it and I was grinning from ear to ear.

At the end of the 2 hour session, this is what I've done. 

took this shot right after the class ended..tsk tsk....

In detail, this is what I've learned in terms of piping techniques. Clockwise from top left;

• Peachy pink sundae swirl cupcake with silver dragees - using an open star decorating tip 1M. I would love to explain it to you but these guys do it better, Wilton ;) 
  
• Lemony yellow cupcake with rosette - using an open star decorating tip 22. Those red flecks are edible glitter.
  
• Pretty purple cupcake with flower and leaves - this one's simple. I just plopped a ready made sugarpaste flower in the centre and piped some leaves around it, using tip 67. And some purple glitter to fill up the space around it....
  
• Yellow cupcakes with a trio of balloons - balloons were created using tip 12, while the string and ribbon using tip 2. And oh...some yellow glitter all around it. Sheesh...I am really loving those sparkly things.
  
• Pink cupcake with purple flowers - using the same 1M tip for the sundae swirl, different technique. And  i just HAD get my hands on the sprinkles. This time I used pink sugar crystals.
  
• Baby blue cupcake with stars to form the letter 'L' (don't know why I chose that aphabet though....I must have been feeling the LOVE there...) - using the same tip 22 for the rosette, different technique. And of course, some pink, blue and purple glitter. Gawd, someone call the glitter police!!!
  

Here's a close up on one of the cuppies;

check out my stars, they remind me of xiao long bao :)

Kylie On My Shelf

Look what I won recently! It was a contest organised by my company's newsletter. I submitted 4 entries. Not sure which one is the winning slogan but I think it went like this;

I want Kylie Kwong's My China cook book because it's the Chinese connection to gourmet perfection!


And did I mention her John Hancock is on it too? :)

it says 'Love Kylie' (yeah it took me a while to figure it out too)

She's gonna be sitting next to Anthony. Heehee....

A List of Excuses

Here's a list of stuff that I plan to make and along with it a list of excuses on why I haven't gotten round to making them;

1. red bean mochi (the packet of red bean paste Ryan got me earlier is still chilling in the fridge, but the expiry date is not till Sept next year.....)
2. claypot chicken rice (images of a cracked claypot and burnt rice are among the reasons why I've been postponing)
3. chwee kueh (don't have the moulds nor the proper steaming equipments right now)
4. sushi (got myself a starter kit a month ago, consists of 2 pairs of chopsticks, a small rolling mat and recipe book. All I need now is the ingredients, and lots of motivation!)
5. fondant (always wanted to find out what I could do with it, and to see if my plasticine toying days will be of use here but the weather's been so hot lately, what if my spectacular creations melt before I could show it off to everyone?)
6. kaya (the thought of standing over the stove, staring at a pot of 'almost there' kaya, stirring and stirring and stirring and stirring...so close yet so far)
   
7. chicken rice (came across numerous recipes over the internet, with methods varying from the really simple to the really meticulous. I am all for simple recipes but if it takes just a little more effort to produce a yummy dish, why not. Alas, still have not found THAT recipe)

I foresee it's gonna take a while before I can clear off this list, but hey, it's always nice to have something to look forward to eh? (there you go, another excuse that wraps up this entry nicely!)

Wishful Wishlist

Check out this baby! I'm drooling......

Sleek, gorgeous and functional!
This cool gadget is the brain child of Noah Balmer.

sexy back

more reasons for some action in the kitchen

I wouldn't dream of taking my laptop to the kitchen, what with my tendency to spill stuff. I might just start a fire...that will eventually burn down all 6 blocks of apartments surrounding my unit. And I love my cookbooks too much to risk having stains on them. (psst...my cookbooks are my bedtime reading materials). Neither do I fancy the idea of printing out recipes, it's just a waste of resources. And although running in and out of the kitchen to view the recipe on my laptop seems like a good form of exercise, there must be a better way.

The answer to all my woes - Noah Balmer. This is one cool dude who creates functional gadgets. Hats off to you Mr. Balmer!

In a nutshell, the Kitchen Sync is a small, good looking, flexible, good looking, washable screen with a dock. Did I mention good looking?! You can download recipes directly and follow links to buy ingredients, and see tips online. With its wireless internet connection, you can also chat with other users cooking the same dishes for a richer cooking experience. (Not to mention how cool you'll look lugging it around at the supermarket.)

Alas, the bad news - the Kitchen Sync is still a concept. And I think it will take a while before it reaches our shores. But hey, keeping my fingers crossed. Go Mr. Balmer!!

Anthony On My Shelf

A friend gave me this yesterday, fab recipes aside, it's hilarious!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!