over the past weeks
April 10, 2010 at 2:23 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cheese, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Fruit, Royal Icing, Weddings/Engagements | 2 Comments
aidah’s girlfriends ordered this for her hen party last month – peach cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
for a baby shower – chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
peach cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
chocolate cupcakes with royal icing
lemon curd cupcakes
January 31, 2010 at 8:15 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cheese, Cupcakes, Fruit | 10 Comments
i think i have temporarily ceased the search for a one-bowl-vanilla-cupcake recipe. this is fuss-free and just the way i like it – dump everything in one bowl and mix! it is sufficiently moist and dense, without drying out. my friends were pleasantly surprised by the lemon curd centre, and i thought it was nicely paired with the cream cheese frosting.
vanilla cupcakes; makes about 12
150g butter, softened
150g caster sugar
175g self-raising flour
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract/essence1. preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius. line a cupcake tin with paper liners. put all the cake ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat with a hand-held electric whisk for 1-2 minutes until light and creamy. divide the mixture evenly among the cake cases.
2. bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes till risen and firm to the touch. test with a skewer if required. transfer to a wire rack to cool.
i would think that this recipe lends itself well to fillings/mix-ins. for these, i added about a teaspoon of lemon curd as a filling prior to baking. i guess you could experiment with diced fruit or chocolate chunks/chips as well.
peanut-butter-custard-banana tart
January 31, 2010 at 3:04 am | Posted in Birthdays, Fruit, Peanut Butter, Tarts and Pies | 2 Commentswe celebrated the birthday of one of my favourite boys tonight. as a matter of formality, i asked what he wanted and he mentioned “that peanut butter dessert we had in KL two years back.” i tried my best to recall what comprised the tart we had at this nice little cafe at bangsar village. i knew there was peanut butter, bananas and some semblance of a custard. (there’s a picture on the website; i know my rendition of it is way off)
initially i wanted to modify dorie greenspan’s banana cream pie recipe, but i always find myself a little turned off by her long instructions. i appreciate her detail but sometimes i’d rather follow a recipe that has minimal steps (there you go, the lazy streak in me). that resulted in me pulling out the tried-and-tested donna hay’s sweet shortcrust pastry and creme patissiere recipes. the peanut butter frosting was a mixture of butter, peanut butter and icing sugar – no exact amounts; a sheer matter of estimation.
the boys, being boys, gave raving reviews. my only gripe was that i should’ve used del monte bananas instead of malaysian bananas, but i can’t complain since i asked my dad to buy them.
cake backlog
January 25, 2010 at 8:22 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Cheese, Chocolate, Fondant, Fruit, Orders, Weddings/Engagements | 2 Comments
chocolate cake, ferrero rocher filling with nutella buttercream for a good friend’s birthday. this was overkill, seriously. everyone was on a sugar high.
cheesecake with chocolate ganache for an acquaintance’s solemnisation.
strawberry cheesecake – i really had reservations with the wordings on this cake… but my friend insisted. -_-
chocolate cake, sliced bananas and nutella ganache.
chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.
daddy’s mango cheesecake.
brownie with fondant figurines.
birthday cake
December 6, 2009 at 1:14 am | Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Cheese, Fruit | 4 Commentsmade this cake yesterday for the boy’s sister. i opted for a simple design because i wanted to make the pink stand out, and stand out it did! i think it’s a bit of an overkill… hope she’ll like it anyway. it’s a strawberry cake, sandwiched by a layer of fresh strawberries and cream cheese frosting.
strawberry cupcakes with meringue frosting
December 3, 2009 at 2:38 pm | Posted in Cupcakes, Fruit, Meringue | 2 Commentsnow that it’s the holidays (or so it seems), i’ve got a little bit more time to bake. tonight we’re celebrating a friend’s birthday and since she wanted something “strawberryish”, i decided to try a new cake recipe, martha stewart’s strawberry cupcakes.
the cupcake was sufficiently moist; my personal prerequisite for good cakes/cupcakes. i took a bit of time thinking of what frosting to pair it with – i didn’t want cream cheese (one of my friends doesn’t care much for cheese, a very weird thing i must say) and the thought of buttercream was too cloying. chocolate ganache probably wouldn’t go well with the strawberry… so i settled on a meringue frosting.
3 egg whites
½ cup sugar
¼ tsp cream of tartarset a metal bowl over a sauce pan with an inch or two of boiling water in it and beat egg whites until foamy. add in cream of tartar and beat until fluffy. add sugar gradually until meringue reaches fairly stiff peaks. spread or swirl onto cooled cupcakes. place in oven (about 150 degrees celsius) for about 5 minutes until lightly browned.
the duo-toned frosting was achieved by “streaking” the insides of the piping bag with gel food colouring; i used a toothpick. since this frosting isn’t particularly sweet, i could afford to load up on it. after the whole act was put together, i realised that these looked more like christmas cupcakes than birthday ones!
garden-themed cupcakes
October 29, 2009 at 11:16 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cheese, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Fruit | 6 Comments
coconut cherry cookies
October 13, 2009 at 10:57 pm | Posted in Cookies, Fruit | 2 Commentsi have been wanting to recreate a coconut raisin cookie one of my friends baked for me a couple of years back but she can’t remember which recipe she used. i had to use up the packet of sweetened flaked coconut i got weeks back so i decided on a simple recipe.
the coconut taste came through sufficiently – it was not overpowering. the cookie also had a nice crisp.
5 oz butter, softened
3 oz caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
5 oz self-raising flour
2.5 oz sweetened flaked coconut (Baker’s brand)
glace cherries, quartered
1. cream butter, sugar and vanilla essence till light and fluffy.
2. add flour and stir with a wooden spoon. add coconut and mix until combined.
3. prepare ungreased baking sheets. roll into small balls and flatten slightly by pressing the cherry quarters in. bake for about 15 mins or slightly brown on the edges. leave to cool on sheets for about 10 minutes before transferring onto wire racks.
peach streusel coffee cake
August 18, 2009 at 10:17 pm | Posted in Cakes, Fruit | Leave a commenti was slapped with one week worth of medical leave since last thursday because i was having the flu. it’s the sixth day today and i was so bored that i decided to bake. i’m up and about now; what’s left is a niggling itchy throat that still makes me cough periodically.
i’ve been wanting to make something with streusel for the longest time and i’m glad i did. this cake is a breeze to make and it’s wonderful eaten warm from the oven.
it is sufficiently moist and the crunch of the streusel definitely won me over.
of cake and cupcakes
August 1, 2009 at 9:51 pm | Posted in Birthdays, Cakes, Cheese, Chocolate, Cupcakes, Fruit, Orders | 2 Comments
order from a secondary school friend for her son – chocolate cake layered filled with strawberry slices and covered with chocolate ganache,
mum’s birthday peach baby-heartcakes with buttercream,
for a friend’s birthday – raspberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting,
for two other friends’ birthdays – lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting,
and an order – peach cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
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