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Some last minute orders over the weekend...

Dilla ordered cupcakes for SIL's bday..... very d LASTMINUTE.COM!

LENNY’S TOOTHFAIRY BIRTHDAY CAKE

My SIL is the only person I know who has two birthdays. Something to do with her dad accidently wrote the wrong date on her birth cert. Anyway, recently she had to go for a minor operation – taking out her cracked tooth. It was really bad. She was given leave for a week. And because her birthday was near I thought of creating a tooth fairy cake for her. Get it? Cracked tooth? Tooth fairy? ...... *sigh* nevermind.

I made four tooth fairies. Ok here’s the thing, while I was making this fairies, I was ambushed by my SIL who suddenly drops by the house unexpectedly. Somehow I have this feeling she knows that I’m making a cake for her. Damn that woman! And my mom wasn’t helping. I tried telling her to stall my SIL but she couldn’t stop laughing seeing me went into a panic mode and chucking the fairies in the cupboard. So at the end after all the drama I checked my fairies and their condition was bad. Somehow I left them as it is *sigh*.

Left: 'Hangover' fairy, Right: 'Grandma' fairy

Left: 'Botox' fairy, RIght: 'Virgin' fairy

The cake turned out nice. I made this huge tooth wearing this retro sunglasses seating in the middle of the cake. So to SITI SAZREENA, HAPPY TOOTHDAY!! xxx

Bday gal

MY JOURNEY AS A CAKE DECORATOR (part 12: Male figurine)

I was super excited just thinking about making Sue-Ann’s b’day cake. It’s my 1^st attempt doing full body male figurine. I wanted the man to have 6 packs, muscled biceps and the rest if you know what I mean. I know somehow I won’t be able to create a good looking man. So I went with a funny looking guy with a fit body instead. The idea was having him lying on the bed, a blanket covering his private parts *ehem* and probably rose petals here and there.

It’s hard trying to do especially a naughty cake when your mom is seating in front of you and bro + SIL seating left and right watching and impatiently guessing what is it I’m making. And later walks in dad and you quickly grab a cloth and cover the whole thing! I just couldn’t go through the endless interrogation.

I just realize the man has a third nipple!

So Sue-Ann, I hope you like the cake, coz I truly enjoyed making it for you. Happy Birthday luv!

Birthday gal decide to chop the head off... ummmmm it says alot doesn't it?

MY JOURNEY AS A CAKE DECORATOR (part 11: Royal Icing)

Recently I’ve discovered a technique using Royal Icing as a cake decor. Tried it on a cake I made for my staff. His wife just gave birth to a baby boy. So as I was cracking my brain thinking of ideas for this cake I suddenly found myself back in time when I was living in London. I still remember the Tatty Teddy phenomena. I assure you I was sucked into d craziness of Tatty Teddy. The bear is just truly, ultimately, maximum cuteness! You get the idea? Yeah, Tatty Teddy cake.

Now, this is seriously a trial and error process. I wasn't sure what the outcome will be. I’ve never tried using royal icing as a decor. It’s a bit complicated and tedious I should say. After I piped the royal icing on a plastic with a printed paper of the bear underneath as a guide, I had to leave it overnight so the icing will harden. I was so anxious to see the result. During this time, MUST NOT touch the icing, it’s very fragile.

The next morning, I checked the icing and it looked really nice! I was happy until I tried to transfer it on the cake. It cracked!!!!! *sigh*.... but I manage to piece it together and just gently placed it on the cake. It wasn’t that obvious.... seriously! What I’ve discovered is that to use this method, the icing has to be thick. And the safest way is to draw and fill the design with black and white icing; colour it on top like a colouring book. I dunno, I have to try making this again.

Round 2 coming soon!

My cute little helper

Before I started making the cake, I whipped up some Jamie Oliver pancakes and homemade caramel syrup for breakfast.. yummy!

Jamie Oliver Pancakes:

3 large eggs
115g/4oz plain flour
1 heaped teaspoon baking powder
140ml/5fl oz milk
a pinch of salt and Cinnamon or vanilla (option)

First separate the eggs, putting the whites into one bowl and the yolks into another. Add the flour, baking powder and milk to the yolks and mix to a smooth thick batter. Whisk the whites with the salt until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the batter – it is now ready to use.

Heat a good non-stick pan on a medium heat. Pour some of your batter into the pan and fry for a couple of minutes until it starts to look golden and firm. At this point sprinkle your chosen flavouring (see below) on to the uncooked side before loosening with a spatula and flipping the pancake over. Continue frying until both sides are golden.

Caramel syrup:

1/2cup butter

1 cup sugar

1/2cup buttermilk or 1cup milk + 1tbsp vinegar

1tbsp syrup

1tsp baking soda and vanilla

In a large pot, combine butter, sugar, buttermilk and syrup; bring to a boil for about 2 – 3 min. Add baking soda and vanilla. Mixture will fizz to twice the size or more, so make sure use a good-sized pot! Set it aside to thicken while stirring occasionally. Pour over pancakes or French toast. Super YUMMY!)

In between baking the cake and decorating, I made my 1st cut out cookies. Super COOL! Taste awesome!

MY JOURNEY AS A CAKE DECORATOR (part 10: things I've learn so far)

This post is dedicated to all Malaysian amateur cake decorators.

My friend Ida Mariam rang me up earlier today. She got super excited with my chickens and goats blog post. So we started talking and talking. What we talked about was how challenging it was to decorate a cake in this humidity i.e. Malaysia. She asked me how many trial and errors I had to go through in order for me to get my cakes right. I told her I'm still in that learning process. I was frustrated not being able to find any blogs from Malaysian or Asian cake decorators mention anything about their problems with the humidity. I mean they did, just not in detail. I had to learn the hard way. I don't go for any cake decorating courses , therefore i rely on the internet to get infos. I would like to share with all the cake enthusiasts out there on how to get your cake right in this type of climate. I mean this is how I did with mine, but if any of you have a better way to do it, do share!

1. After crumb coating the cake, i find that to put in the fridge is a no-no. This is because after taking it out, you need to leave it at room temperature and that takes at least 1 whole day. What happened to me was that I decorated my cake right after I took it out from the fridge and it start to sweat BIG TIME! So do NOT put the cake in the fridge. Leave it in an air-conditioning room. No sweat and it will go crust hard.
2. Because I'm leaving in this kind of humidity, cakes tend to dry up easily. This technique is super awesome! After baking the cakes you leave it to cool on the wire rack. Once that's done wrap in cling film (twice) and leave in the freezer overnight. When i did my 14" cake, I couldn't throw it in the freezer ( i have a small fridge). Another technique is to wrap the cake in cling film while its still warm. It will trap the moisture. There is this one tip i read from some forum. Spray light sugar water on the cake. I tried it before. Didn't turned out so good. The cakes become 'sticky'. 'Bleurgh'!
3. There are so many tips to keep your fondant pliable. Some say use icing sugar to knead it back to a pliable state. And others suggest to use cornstarch or Crisco (vegetable shortening). I tried all of 'em and I can confidently say that cornstarch and Crisco is the way to go. I mean you've got your fondant the right consistency and if you add more icing sugar it'll get even harder. So I don't quite understand why some people suggest using icing sugar at the 1st place.
4. I personally love using both Rolled Fondant and MMF (Marshmallow Fondant). But for figurines i prefer using Rolled Fondant.
5. I love using buttercream. But there are few things i learn while using this icing. If you use the same piping bag for more than i dunno 20 min. put it down! If you work too long on a design using the same piping bag, the heat from your hand + the humidity will literally melt the buttercream in the bag. And don't fill up your bag too full! Some suggest before working with your piping, drown your hands in icy cold water. Ok then!
6. When i made those cute chocolate bees for my friend's birthday cupcakes, let me tell ya! It wasn't easy!!!! Our weather temperature makes it really hard to work with melted chocolates. I had to work really fast. I haven't found any good tips. All i know you should melt chocolates using microwave rather than broiling it. There are forums that says it depends on the type of chocolate you use. I dunno.... I just haven't figure it out yet.

And there you go! This is what i learn so far. I might not be right with the techniques but hey! It works for me!

MY JOURNEY AS A CAKE DECORATOR (part 9: more figurines)

Yesterday was my dad's birthday. Think he is 66 (I'm bad with numbers). Well of course i made him a cake. But let me tell ya, this was one ad-hoc cake! My dad was in a foul mood this past few days, probably coz he's turning a year older (kehkehkeh). So me and my mom thought we could do a really nice birthday dinner this weekend but then when my SIL dump my niece at our house, foul mood out the window! I told my mom we should just go ahead and do the dinner. Lucky for me i've baked the cakes, all i need to do is decorate 'em. It was really hard trying to decorate the cake and avoid being discovered by my dad when my niece kept running pass me. But eventually i manage to complete it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYAH!

If any of you are wondering what's with the chickens and goats. Well my dad has an orchard and he really, truly, seriously devotes himself taking care of the place. So it felt right for me to do a cake that has that orchard elements or feel to it.

My bro was determine to gobble up d chicken

MY JOURNEY AS A CAKE DECORATOR (part 8: 1st Wedding cake)

I received a call from the wedding planner extraordinaire i.e. Mel Majid and she enquired whether I’m up to doing a 2-tier wedding cake. I can honestly say I was sceptical with the whole idea. But I said to myself that I won’t get this kind of opportunity and making some $$$ at the same time. I told Mel to meet me the next day so I can do a bit of homework. The bride and groom wanted 2-tier cake with a modern contemporary feel to it. Elegant with pink and green colour theme. I found few cake samples from the internet which I like and goes hand-in-hand with my vision of the wedding cake. I sketch few ideas and met up with Mel the next day. At the end of our brainstorming session I came up with this.

It took me 24 hours to make this cake (no I’m not lying). My freezer was not big enough to stuff two 14” cakes. What I did was after baking the cakes I wrapped it with cling film so that it will seal in the moisture. Now I miscalculated few things such as picking up the 14” cake and stacking it together. I almost break both cakes!!!! For the fillings I made lemon buttercream flavour. After I crumb coat the cakes it took quite some time to get it crusted up. By that time it was almost 10pm. So I figured I should try and sleep and wake up early to start decorating the cakes. But I couldn’t really sleep. Started working on the cakes at 2am and finished it around 7am. By 8am my SIL came to the house and help me deliver the cakes to the wedding reception.

The roses was prepared 4 days in advance

Overall I manage to please the wedding planner and the bride & groom. Oh yeah they said that the cake was delicious! YEAH!