Happy Birthday Boys!!

Birthdays! Birthdays! Lately I was busy with birthday cakes. Have been baking only birthday cakes for this 2 weeks and all were for birthday boys!! Yea, all were about footballs, cars, animals..etc. Whatelse for the boys? Can anyone give me more idea about things for boys? I was kind of "blank" when come to think of boy's stuffs...heehee! You bet, my hubby never gets his birthday presents for years except cakes..haha!
Alright, here's some birthday cakes pictures I'll like to share. Not much work for the 1st one, but not the 2nd one. And the worse thing is...the cake started to "sweat" (the 2nd one) under the hot and stuffy weather..:(

The 1st one, a soccer field with a soccer ball in the center for a 12 year boy!
Not much work, only piping here..:D

The 2nd one..the theme suppose to be a "Safari Zoo"...but it turned out to be a "Mini Zoo" instead..heehee! This was for a 1 year old birthday boy, who is my dear friend's son. And so this was my gift for him..:)

This cake took me 1 day to mould the animals (fondant) and another day for baking and decorating. It was not that difficult for someone whose skill is better, but not me! I'm totally stress of it!!

Then the cake was find in my aircond room before deliver, somehow the fondant started to melt when we displayed it in the hall (its a lunch party and no aircond). Maybe my cake was too moist and the 2nd tier started to slant after 1 or 2 hours. Oh dear....so we cut the cake in the middle of the party before it collapse..LOL!

About the finishing, it was kind of rough, so I told my friend that she got to view the cake from far...haha! At least the pictures turned out fine...LOL!

Here's my story for the cakes. And yes, I'll do better the next time, at least to improve on the fondant figurines first..;p

Happy Birthday Boys!!

Baked Mini Sponge Cakes/Kueh Bahulu (小小鸡蛋糕)

Feeling great when you got things done at the first time. I've wanted to try this cake long time ago but never have the gut to do it until my mom gave me the mold weeks ago. Actually I've bookmarked this recipe from my collection of books long long time ago..haha! Yeah...finally I get to to it. And yay! I've got it right in my first attempt. 

My mom used to make this Mini Sponge Cake / Kueh Bahulu every year for us during Chinese New Year. She has been using many different kinds of recipe (mostly her own recipe..haha!) and sometimes she just couldn't get it right. You know, when she refused to follow the proper recipe and go with her own instinct instead...hmm, I should make this for her to try..;p

All the simple ingredients required (no emulsifier or any artificial ingredients) and you can have some soft and fluffy mini cakes for tea or breakfast. Love it!

Baked Mini Sponge Cakes

Ingredients:
200g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
300g eggs (without shell)
250g castor sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
50g corn oil

小小鸡蛋糕

Method:
* Dry-fry cake flour in a clean wok till light. (the lighter you feel the better). Cool.
* Sieve cooled flour together with baking powder.
* In an electric mixer beat eggs and sugar till very light and fluffy. Add in vanilla.
* At low speed fold in flour and corn oil alternatively. (starts and ends with dry ingredients)
* Preheat oven at 180'C. Heat and grease molds.
* Spoon in batter into molds (3/4 full) and bake at 180'C for 15 minutes or till golden brown.
* Remove and cool completely before storing in an air tight container.
（use a tooth pick to remove the cakes from the mold if you are using the stainless steel mold like mine)

Did some with small round cake molds (about 2" width) and they look beautiful.
Maybe you can try with other flavors by adding pandan juice or cocoa powder for chocolate lovers. I think I'll try some with coffee next time...hehe!

Have a look in the inside of the cake, does it looks soft to you? Maybe you have a better one...please do share with me ya. Thanks in advance..(^_^)

Happy Baking!!!

Let's Celebrate!!

It's my friend's son's 2nd birthday, and I'm so glad that I have the chance to bake him some cakes!

I actually have this opportunity to bake him birthday cakes since he was born..how lucky I am!!Yes...I've baked him 3 times birthday cakes and I admit only the 2nd and the last one were nice...;p

Here's the 1st one....a Chocolate Hazelnut Butter Cake. A not so nice cake which is alittle dry and the piping...oh dear...it was so ugly! When I was doing this I was so frustrated and feel like throwing the cake away...LOL!! Since it was not that nice, so I'm not posting the recipe here.

Anyway the cream was wonderful! I've made this Swiss Meringue Buttercream for the piping which was strongly recomended by dear Wendy (table for 2). Thanks Wendy!!

 Have a look at the cake...it was rough and dry..:(
I'll make some changes when I bake this again, and I'll definitely with share the recipe if it's good.

 The 2nd one...some Valrhona Chocolate cupcakes for him to celebrate with his school mates.
Not much decorations, just some fondant animals cut out from my cookie cutters..:)

 These were well received by his teachers and friends!! I'm glad with that..^^

 The 3rd...this was GOOD!! This was made for his actual birthday which we celebrated at his house. Everybody likes it so much and I'm so happy with all the compliments.
It's a Valrhona Chocolate sponge + Plain yogurt sponge cake sandwiched with fresh strawberry cream and a very very simple decoration!

 For the sponges recipe, please refer to my old sponge cakes recipes. I just twist and turn the recipe and added different kind of flavours in it.
I've blended some fresh strawberries and added into the dairy whipping cream for the cake. Then covered the whole cake with the plain whipped cream.

 It was 5 layers and alittle too tall...haha! So the cake was brought to his house without any boxes...;p
Soft sponges with not so sweet texture...yummy!!

 Have a look inside the cake, don't it look soft and fluffy?.....^^
I'll make this again for my daughter coming birthday, hope she won't complain why there's no castle or princess on the cake this year...hehehe!

 I actually wanted to make a nice fondant cake for his 3rd celebration, but my friend said she prefered a simple sponge cake instead. So this cake were made by her request.

Happy Birthday Royden!!

Birthday CakeS

I love birthday celebrations. Like to see the cakes people made and of course I like to bake for them if I have the chance. So this time I got the chance to bake for 2 birthday gals. Yes, 2 cakes in one go!! Anyway both were 2 small cakes, so I need only few hours to made them and further more, not much decorations to do. Then we celebrated both birthdays together last night. Oh yes, we had a great time again!!
First, there is a sweetie girl's 2nd birthday! She was one of our dear friend's daughter. A 4" chocolate cake for the little cutie decorated with fondant. Makes it looks like a mushroom and a little cute bear for her to keep..:)
Does it looks like "Papa Smurf"'s house?...LOL


There was suppose to have a small chimney on top but due to the box I have, which was not tall enough to store the cake so the idea of the chimney was out. By the way, the little girl only attracted by the candle "2" that placed on the cake...haha! My friend said she even doesn't want her present given by her daddy...haha! She's too young to know what is happening...;p

Well, simple as it is. It only took me 1 hour to bake and another hour to decorate. As you can see it was really simple but the other older kids went "Ooo & Ahh" when they see the cake. I was quite satisfied with it..:D

For the recipe of the moist chocolate cake, you can refer to my older post here. I baked it with 2x 4" round pan and a round 5" bowl for the mushroom top.

Happy Birthday dear sweetie!!

Another cake, a tiramisu. Yeah, you'll probably say "HUH...tiramisu again"!!..hehe! This was requested by the birthday gal herself. But too bad due to the limited time (but I was lazy actually...haha!) there was no almond caramel that she wish to have..."OPPS!! Sorry dear friend, but I promised to make her some caramel when I have the time..:)

I stole the idea of our dear friend Bee Bee (Honeybeesweets) on how to display the cake. Well, I just don't want the same old recipe to look so boring..;p

p/s: Bee Bee, thank you for sharing the idea but my work was far too lousy compare to yours. Somehow I took the challenge and praised myself abit for the result..haha!


Please refer here for the recipe if you like...:) See the result here, it seems rather rough but we did enjoy it. Maybe most of us love alcohol and coffee, so that the cake was half gone in few minutes..;p We had a great time and I wish there'll be more gatherings coming soon.
Happy Belated Birthday my dear friend, wishing all the best in everything and healthy always..:)

Cheers!

Year End Party

Its almost year end and tomorrow will be the last day of school. As usual, the school will be having a party celebrating the last term break. Time really flies....the older i get, i found the time passes faster. X'mas is near and we are talking about Chinese New Year too..haha! Already started planning for cookies and cakes...wow!

Alright enough for those planning stuffs...;p Back to today's post, it was about the party my girl going to celebrate in school tomorrrow. Therefore, parents have to provide some finger food for the kids. Me?? What else.....CAKES! Thought that will be the easiest of all...:)




Almost the same recipe as before but with some changes of decorations. Using some jelly icing and melted chocolate for topping this time. Thought its was easy, but i took a few hours to finish the piping....*sigh* Luckily those cupcakes still look "okay"...:)



For the chocolate topping, its alittle different from my previous posts. Here's the recipe for you...

Ingredients (Chocolate topping)
100g Dark Chocolate
1 tbsp Butter
1/3 cup Cream , thickened
1/2 cup icing sugar
1.5 cups Butter

Method:
~ Combined the chocolate and 1 tbsp of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat.
~ As the mixture begins to melt, add cream clowly and reduce heat to low. Stirring constantly, until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and cool.
~ Combine 1.5 cups butter with icing sugar, beat until light and fluffy.
~ Add melted chocolate mixture and mix well.
~ Spoon onto the cupcakes and let the topping dry slowly.



Its really difficult for me to pipe those bears here, with my shaking hands. Will get more practice...:) As you can see the cakes were covered with a layer of white buttercream before piping the jelly icing on them.

Flowers, smilling faces, ...etc etc.....can't think of anything else due to my aching back...haha!

Hope the kids will like it..;) And hopefully they can give me some ideas for my next project too...:)

Good-day!

Coffee Marble Cake

Lately I was craving for cakes. Wherever I go I'll try to look for special cakes for my tea or supper. *Gosh*...must watch out my diet right!...LOL If you know me well, then you'll ignore me when I said I want a diet..haha! There was once I tried a coffee cake from a hotel, the cake was so moist and soft. And the coffee flavour was what I'm looking for...so yummy! Anyhow, I couldn't get the right touch of the cake after a few attempt. And when I was trying for my 4th attempt last week, I tend to give up for the cake..haha! It was all because the texture of the batter was so weird and watery...my reaction was.."EEEK"!! Well, I did not throw away the coffee batter but used partly of it into my butter cake instead...;p Another version of my butter cake adapted from a bakery nearby my area. Its alittle more creamy and soft than my usual one. And so the idea of the coffee marble came into my mind..:)

Ingredients:

180g fine sugar

250g butter

6 egg yolks

4 egg whites (whisked till soft peak)

250g Plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

250g non dairy cream

Ingredients for coffee paste:

1 tsp good quality coffee powder

1/2 tsp hot water

30g butter batter from the above

Method:

~ Whisked egg whites until soft peak form and set aside.

~ Beat butter and sugar until pale and light, gradually add in egg yolks then follow by the cream.

~ Fold in flour slowly and mix well.

~ Divide egg whites into 3 portions and slowly fold into the egg yolk batter and mix well.

~ Take out 30g from the batter and add in the coffee mixture, stir well.

~ Pour in the butter batter into a 4.5"x9" loaf tin, then pour the coffee batter on top and make a marble effect by using a fork.

~ Bake at 175'C for 45 minutes.

Before I sign off, here's some pictures that I'll like to show you...heehee. (thick skin)..;p

2 cutie sponges that I did for a friend. She actually shared these cakes at her son's kindy last week and she told me the kids love them so much...:D

Recipes and method are the same as the cutie swiss roll I did before. You can have the recipe here..:)

Cheers!!

Chilled Cheese Cakes

Deepavali is coming, and everybody is so excited about this weekends...i'm talking about the long weekend which the schools will be close for 3 days. Wouldn't know about my plan yet, maybe travelling or just back to my hometown...all depends on my husband's schedule.
Anyway, baking is definetely will be on..haha! Want to know what's on my mind...hee hee..:P Stay tune!

By the way, made some chilled cheese cakes for my daughter's teachers for their hardwork tru the year and also not to forget my dear friends around. Bought some new cutter today, which i think will look nice with this cheese cakes...and yes, they did!

All nicely cut and topped with fruit jam....yummy..:)
Actually the recipe is for a 9" loose base pan, somehow it can be any shape as you like....the most important is the taste.
Anyone who's interested........

Base:
150g Digestive biscuits or Marie biscuits (crushed)
100g Butter (melted)

Filling:
(A)
2 egg yolks
150g Sugar
160g Fresh milk

(B)
2.5 tbsps Gelatine
6 tbsps Hot water

(C)
250g Cream Cheese

(D)
250g Double cream ( lightly whipped, set aside)

(E)
1/2 tbsp Lemon juice

Method:
~ Combine the crushed biscuits and melted butter, pour into the 9" loose base pan, press down the crust firmly with the back of a spoon. Store in the freezer before use.

~ Cook (A) with double boiling and set aside. Mix (B) together and pour into (A). Stir and mix well.
~ Beat cream cheese until smooth, then add in (A+B) mixture, then add in (E). Mix well.
~ Add mixture into (D) , stir and mix well.
~ Pour into prepared crumb crust and chill for 2-3 hours until firm.
~ Top with favourite fruit jams or fresh fruits.


I did it with a 10x10" square pan, so its easier for me to cut with those cutter, and those jams i used was blueberry pie filling, strawberry jam, kiwi and mango puree. Some of them were decorated with chocolate chips cause i see its rather bare with just the jam on top.

Yeap, my finishing is abit rough huh.....;p..that's what my sis used to comment..haha! Will try to improve, guess i need more practice. "Practice makes perfect"!!
So don't wait...get started..:) Cheers!

Cotton Cheese Roll with Mocha Cream

My husband is out of town again, and that means I don't have to work for few days..hehe! Good, then I'll pamper myself with some shopping, meeting with old friends and also alittle pedicure & manicure..haha!
Let's start with some cakes for my supper later.........
I want some cheese cakes, and the same time I want some coffee cakes. Well, at the end I combined both...;p This was the first time I went into a bakery supply store without my list. I just grabbed some cream cheese and butter and hopefully I have everything I need at home..;p When I reached home I just started off with what I have and turn my idea into a swiss roll....a cheese cake roll...LOL!


I'm quite satisfied with the result actually. The texture turns out good and the cheese and coffee I wanted in the cake were there too...so it's DONE!! Let me show you what I did.....;p

The ingredients for the cheese sponge:
120g sugar
6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

50g butter
250g cream cheese
100ml fresh milk
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp lemon juice

60g superfine cake flour
20g corn flour

** 2 tsps cocoa powder (for the flower prints ) ~ optional

First, I melted the cream cheese, butter and milk over a double boiler. Then cool the mixture completely. Then Add in egg yolks and lemon juice and mix well.
Second, I whisk the egg whites with cream of tartar until bubble forms and add in the sugar gradually and whisk until a soft peak forms.
Third, I took out 1 tbsp of egg yolk batter and 1 tbsp of egg white mixture and add with the cocoa powder. Spoon into the piping bag and piped some flower prints on the prepared tray. Bake this flower prints at 180'C preheated oven for 1 minute then remove from oven and set aside.
Fourth, I fold in the egg whites into the egg yolk batter and mix well. Pour onto the prebaked printed flowers and level the top. Back into the oven and bake at 180'C for 20 minutes.


Notice that the steps are similar to the printed Strawberry Swiss Roll? Yeah, I've converted the whole thing here but I realized that the finale bakes for the sponge cannot be 12 minutes. Think its because of the cream cheese added and the sponge needed slightly another 5 minutes.
Lastly, spread the whipped Mocha cream on to the cooled sponge and gently roll up the cake. Please becareful while rolling, this sponge is alittle heavy compare to the normal swiss roll.

Ingredients for the Cream:
1/2 cup non-dairy cream (whipped)
1 tsp mocha paste
1 tsp coffee paste
** Mix everything together and its ready for spreading.

The sponge texture and taste are quite similar to those Japanese Cotton Cheese Cake. It really goes well with the Mocha cream. Trust me, if you like to have a light cheese cake and some coffee cream, this is definitely for you.

Submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #9 - Swiss Rolling Good Times hosted by Obsessedly Involved with Food.

Cheers!!

Mocha Walnut Roll

Another coffee flavour one!! I'm a coffee lover, and I really can't live without at least 2 cups a day..;p LOve all kinds of cookies with coffee, cakes with coffee and even if possible dishes with coffee..haha! Is there one?..LOL Before I started with some kuehs, here's another swissroll that I've baked last 2 days. Its a new recipe for me, and well it was a good experiment I did too..heehee! I mix and match those cakes I've done before with some walnuts and wrapped up with some cream I love...and here it goes...;p Actually its quite similar with the one I baked for my mum's birthday last month..;) Recipe: 100g walnuts (finely grind). 30g plain flour. 100g icing sugar. 3 eggs 20g cornoil. 4 egg whites 25g sugar. Fillings: Fresh cream (whipped). Mocha paste. Some melted chocolate Method: ~ Preheat oven at 190'C and lined a 10x14" swissroll tray. ~ Lightly whisk the eggs and icing sugar until well mix. Then add in cornoil and mix well. ~ Add in grinded walnuts and flour and mix well. Set aside. ~ Whisk the egg whites until foamy and add in sugar and continue to whisk with high speed until stiff peak form. ~ Slowly fold in egg white mixture into egg yolk mixture. Mix well and pour into prepared tray. ~ Bake at 190'C for 12 minutes and transfer to wire rack to cool completely. ~ To make the fillings, just mix in the mocha paste into whipped cream.(amount as desire, I used 2 tbsps into 100g whipped cream) ~ Turn sponge onto sheet of paper (inside faced down) and spread enough cream over sponge. ~ Roll up gently and let chill for 30 minutes, then top with some melted chocolate and roasted walnuts (whole) is desire. Yummy roll, and the texture is really soft. Hope you all will like it! Maybe you can replace the walnuts with any other nuts that you like, I bet it'll taste good!!

Good Day!!

A Birthday Cake for My Mum

Yesterday was a happy and tired day for me. Have been baking the whole night before yesterday, and frosting and decorating cakes the next morning. There were 2 birthday cakes to prepare and I'll like to do my best to make the cake look pretty. One was for my neighbour birthday girl, she has not much request on the deco anyway, but for a 4 years old girl, I think she likes something cute and colourful..heehee! I didn't load up the photo here because its the common chocolate cake I baked before and the decorations were quite simple with a pinky teddy bear on it.
The cake shown here was for my mum. Actually her birthday falls on the coming weekday but we had an early celebration for her last night. Well, it was a simple celebration which we had a cutting cake session for tea then a western dinner at a so-so restaurant nearby. By the way, there is no nice and classy restaurant found in my hometown....haha!

Walnut Mocha Cream Cake


To make it simple, I didn't bake my own sponge this time. So end up using the sponge mix I got from the bakery store. Not bad at all...:)
Recipe adapted from Kevin Chai

Recipe for the Sponge:
180g sponge mix
3 eggs
45ml fresh milk
100g walnut (chopped)
60g butter (melted)

Recipe for the Mocha Cream:
200g fresh cream (whipped)
20g mocha paste

Topping:
Some melted Valrhona Chocolate
Fresh Strawberries

Method:
~ To make the sponge, preheat oven at 180'C, line a bottom of a 7" round cake tin with greaseproof paper.
~ Beat sponge mix, eggs and milk with high speed until light and fluffy. (about 8-10 mins)
~ Fold in chopped walnuts and mix in melted butter until well blended.
~ Spread batter into prepared tin and bake for 30 mins. Remove from oven and cool completely, then sliced into 3 layers.
~ To make the mocha cream, just add in the mocha paste into the whipped cream and mix well.
~ Sandwich the sponge with the cream and coat the cake with remaining cream. Refrigerate for a while.
~ Melt some valrhona chocolate and pour over the cake. Refrigerate for a while. Then decorate with some fresh strawberries.

The texture of the cake was not those smooth ones because of the chopped walnuts added. But it tasted pretty good with the crisp of the nuts and the taste of the coffee cream. All my mum's favourite was in this cake....:) Well, except the strawberris...haha! All her grandchildren grabbed the fresh fruits instead.

Happy Birthday Mum!!