Ben 10 Scooter & Safety Gear!

One of his favourite gift he got for his recent birthday was a scooter.   Actually I dont even know its called a scooter until he told me LOL!!    Grandma bought this from the pasar malam .... cheap, only RM55 compared to those from ToysRUs ... more than RM100! Aiyoh, heart also pain see the price there.

His aunt bought him a set of safety gear, consisting a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads and gloves.  He learnt about this safety gear after visiting the safety campaign for kids at Petronas Science Centre.   Well, glad he actually learnt something that day! LOL!!  But this safety gear, not cheap oh.  Costs RM99.  More expensive that the vehicle itself .. hahaha.  Too bad pasar malam dont have, else I would have asked his aunt to buy that .. reason being, as usual, he only hangat-hangat tahi ayam for a couple of weeks.  

There is a playground and a nice basketball court at our housing area.  Perhaps now I can feel its safer to take him out there to ride on his scooter and/or bicycle, his birthday gift from last year :D

The scooter looks a bit small for him but the height is adjustable.  But for now, its perfect for him.

Race Car Themed Party Packs

For Bryan's 5th bithday party at school, other than the race car themed cake I baked for him, I also prepared 15 sets of party packs for his classmates & teachers.

To start it off, I googled for some free clipart images and copied them into powerpoint (cos I dont know how to use publisher or similar).   From there, I design based on what I want and fit into the size that I want).   After several attempts, I was happy with what I have designed and proceeded to print them out into ordinary A4 paper.   Used paper glue to stick them onto the bags.  You can also use double-sided tape but you will need quite a bit.

The whole idea of party packs came after I realised I had a big bunch of paper bags I saved up from my frequent takeaway lunches from this sandwich place.  

With the bag planned, of course I have to fill it with something right?  So instead of party hats & toys, I decided to try my hand at preparing some customised mineral water bottles and also some food/snacks.

Needed food/snacks that could last a couple of days as I needed to prepare them over the weekend, so ended up with a box of snacks (candy, chocolate, sweets) and another healthier box of store bought mini cakelets which could last up to a week.  Perfect!

Seems like a lot of work, but really, I had quite a bit of fun doing.   All it takes was just cut & paste job.   Of course does not look as professional as those that actually supply/cater for high-class parties but I was very happy with how it all turned out.   Did a little each night and it worked out well.

Bryan was very very proud at school at the day of the celebrations.   His teacher was also very excited that each & every kid in his class had a chance to take home a bag of goodies of their own.   Am so glad the kids & teachers enjoyed it & appreciated it so much!!   Am sure I will make them again for his next birthday since next year will be the last year at this kindy :D

Race Car Themed Cake

Months earlier, I have already asked Bryan what kinda cake he wants in terms of the theme.  One day it was Mickey (again!), then it was Supa Strikas and another it was Ben 10 (again!!) and on some days, it was race car or Transformers.   Make me headache only.     

Knowing my limited skills in cake decorating, I decided to psycho him to stick to race car theme, hehehe.     I was surfing the net for some ideas and then I realised that it was also pretty easy to make party packs with the same theme too.   So off I went started on this project a month before his birthday :D

I actually planned for 2 cakes.  One for the school (lots of icing) and another simpler one for the family (without icing preferably).    Below is the shot of both cakes.  

Rectangular choc moist cake covered in lemon flavoured buttericing with fondant "5" decorated with race flag toothpicks and other minor deco.

Oreo multi flavoured ice cream cake topped with fresh strawberries!  This one is actually pretty easy to "assemble" .. yes, me love assembling food.    Will do a post on how to assemble this soon okie?

Minnie Mouse Cake

Received an enquiry 2 weeks ago for a girl's 1st birthday and the parents wanted a simple round cake. So I suggested to them my novelty Minnie chocolate cake! Its still a pretty simple cake but looks really attractive I would say. Its my first ever novelty cake order!
















Then i found out that they were living in Seremban and didn't mind at all to come to KL to collect it. I felt so honoured!

There were no news from them after 2 days which I was rather disappointed. Usually my customers would at least send a thank you sms or a complimentary sms (thank god so far no complaint sms!!) but nothing from this particular customer. Then one night, the call came and they were very happy with the cake!! He even passed on my contacts to all his cousins, aunt & other relatives who enquired about it. I was happy sampai tak boleh tidur that nite. Hehehe. Cannot really explain how happy I feel when people tell me how much they loved my bakes. Its not the money really. Its customer satisfaction. Simple as that.

Best Durian Cake!!

Says who? Says all 16 people who tried it!!! Oh well .. the story goes like this.

MIL celebrated her 72nd birthday over the weekend and a week before that, I baked my first ever durian cake. The texture was ok and since she loved durian cake, she wanted one for her birthday.

















I baked the 2nd one last week and improved on my recipe. Had piled on more durian pulp for its fillings and i must say this one turned out very delish instead!!!

While at the restaurant, we offered some to the waitress & the captain as well .. and oh boy! they all loved it and the captain was certainly surprised that it was home baked! She offered to promote for me and told me that once she promotes it, I better be prepared with orders streaming in! I politely declined as I can only bake on weekends and furthermore, the restaurant is quite far away from where we live.

Nevertheless, the captain was very impressed with the taste of the cake that she ordered one for herself! I was very happy that nite, hahaha.

Ben 10 Cake

Here is the Ben 10 cake I did for Bryan's family celebration at home. Its also my first chocolate cake. Everybody thot it was really nice and special with his face on it :-p

Ben 10 Cupcakes

The school had a celebration for April babies yesterday and Mommie decided on some Ben 10 cupcakes since Bryan is sooooo crazy over this series lately. Was not sure how many kids in the class but I guess a box of 16 large cuppies should be enough for the kids + teacher. The flavour of the cuppies are chocolate and iced with buttericing and a few decorated with edible images. Will have to make a full Ben 10 cake for his home celebrations this weekend and will post it up her for your comments, ok?

Train Cake

My very first order for a real cake for a real customer!!!! Well, so far, I've had orders for cupcakes and was busy all of Christmas fulfilling them, but this is the first time I got an order for a full whole cake!

I have baked & iced many cakes before but they were always for family and friends but this one can collect money one .. wuahahahha!

Customer only had one request and that it must be a Thomas Train cake. I googled for some ideas and finally decided on this train design as I felt it was much more attractive than a simple round or square cake. Do you like it?


















Its a vanilla butter cake with buttericing. Face of Thomas was hand-moulded fondant. Every single thing on the cake board is edible including the tyres, tracks, etc :-)

The cake was almost 2.5kg *heavy*. I normally do not deliver but if its nearby or on my way, I dont mind delivering it to the customer. Qi Xuan was really really happy to see his cake! Cake deliveries are every baker's nightmare but I guess when you see a child so happy with your creation .. its indeed very satisfying.

Decorated Sugar Cookies

I realise that cupcakes are kinda "over" and the new kid in town is the decorated sugar cookies. Seen some wedding favours these days with butter cookies beautifully drawn with royal icing with colors, so really wanted to try to see if its easy to do.

I found a really good butter cookie recipe and the dough is kinda easy to prepare. The smell in the kitchen while it was making was sooooooo good! Allowing it to rest while it cooled off, its time to prepare the royal icing. That was easy as well but not cheap! Those days people used pure egg whites whipped with icing sugar, but these days, and like many other things, food ingredients are no longer safe, so the trend is to use meringue powder. And the only brand that we have in Malaysia is from Wilton. Which is kinda expensive, but anyway, you always need to be safe than sorry right?

















It was really fun piping in the colors - but the REAL PAIN in making these sugar cookies in waiting for the royal icing to dry. It literally takes ages!! They never ever dry in our so-called room temperature as we have such high humidity levels. So you need to dry them in a air-conditioned room for at least 3-4 hrs (overnight is better) and only until they are really dry that you can stack them or pack them into cellophane bags.

So now I understand why for such a tiny wedding cookie favour, they can sell it for a higher price than fully decorated cupcakes! Cos need to factor in air-cond cost .. and all the waiting time .. and painfully painting each and every one in tiny details!!!!

If you know if any other way of drying it faster or have a better royal icing recipe, please do share it with me pleazzzzzzeee!!

Cake for MIL

It was my MIL's birthday last Saturday and luckily I called my SIL to ask if they have ordered a cake or was she expecting me to bake one. My SIL said "of course we expect you to bake lar" ... so there I went, at 9pm on a Friday evening, baking a cake (1.5 hrs), waiting it to be cool down (2 hrs) and another 2 hrs preparing the icing and trying to ice the cake! Didnt manage to finish it the same night so woke up at 6am the next day to finish icing it.


















I am definately not a pro in baking & cake decorating. Only a total beginner and learning from internet off & on. I try my very best to do the best I can and honestly, my cake does not taste super good but its not too bad either!

We had a 10 course dinner (thanks to elder BIL's expensive taste that cost all of us quite a bomb!) and tummy was filled to the rim! So we requested for a tiny tiny piece of the cake each towards end of the dinner. I personally thought it was a wee bit dry (would have been better if it was slighly moist) but it was really not too bad. It was quite ok. As usual, icings are all sweet and I purposely layed a very thin layer on the entire cake. If you are into cake decorating, you will understand how tedious and difficult it is to lay a thin layer of icing!!! The thicker they are, the easier to lay and faster to lay it as well. We probably only ate 10% of the cake at most! Rest MIL & SIL took it home.

So Sunday, we would usually go back to MIL's house for dinner. As we were early, I looked in the cupboard & fridge and did not see any cake wor. Asked hubby to ask where was the cake cos I thought I would like to try a decent piece and see how it taste mah. Then she said, she has given away the cake! Distributed to friends wor! Which is totally strange cos my MIL is one person that would keep things in her fridge ETERNALLY! And at the same time I noticed there were 2 pcs of cake that she must have bought from the market that morning! Nevermind. Then hubby asked her, why you distribute the cake away and then you buy cake again from the market?? I didnt even bother to stay there to hear her answer. I felt like so bodoh. Already never tell me that I am suppose to bake until I ask, then late night start baking and icing and early morning wake up to finish it. Then now easily give it away.

There was a strange feeling inside me. I kept wondering ... if its really too sweet or even too big a cake, why didnt you ask if we wanted some to take home? I was trying to think of all possibly excuses why she gave the whole cake away like (1) too high cholestrol, not good for her mah (2) too sweet also not good cos she is diabetic (3) she cant finish the whole cake(?) - but then why buy 2 pics from market hor? Nevermind.

At the end of the day, I do my part. But if you wish to throw it into the drain also I dont care.

Thanks Facebook!

That I managed to find so many long lost friends. Its really a gem to rekindle both primary and secondary school mates after 20 odd years!

Had a tea party at my place last Sunday with some of them and it was really really nice to meet all of them again. After all these years, there are still so many things that are similar (even looks, my god!) and so many funny stories to share about what we used to do in school,etc.


















December would be another busy time as I have at least 3 other friends returning from abroad. Cant wait for that to happen.

Easier Tiramisu Cake

Not much happening at home lately. Its all routine and nothing more. Have not been baking much as well but promised myself to make a cake for one of our close friends. He was turning 40 and it was a cause for celebration!!

I decided on a tiramisu cake. Tiramisu would sound intimidating for those who dont know how to make it, cos they normally taste real heavenly and looks good too! But once I ran through the recipe (more than a year ago!) and actually started doing it, it was real easy. And the finished product looks soooo impressive even if its made by an amateur!

The only "highly skilled" part of making this cake is when it comes to whipping the cream. In our weather, I've learnt from past mistake that we need to FREEZE the bowl, beater and the cream for at least 10 mins. Only then, the cream turns out nicely whipped :-) Trust me, learnt from personal mistake and cream aint cheap these days you know. Even cheese is so darn expensive! Dont even try mascarpone cheese cos they cost almost RM30 for a bar of 250gm which is just enough for a small cake. I stick to cream cheese :-) To me, they still taste heavenly if you have a generous dose of Baileys ... hehehe.

A Birthday Cake Attempt

I had a very busy weekend. We had guests in town and also had to visit my grandma. And I had in mind to practise some cookie making and also wanted to bake a cake, complete with icing and all.

It was hubby's birthday and since I had my built-in oven now, its only fair that I "attempt" to bake a "real" cake. After all, I have to start somewhere and not be "afraid" of attempting one although I had never iced a cake in my life!

I baked a basic butter cake on a Saturday night. Next morning, i was up at 5.30am, preparing to send off my guests who needs to take an early flight from LCCT. After dropping them off at KL Sentral, I reached home at 7am and straight away ventured into icing the cake.

It took me 1.5 hrs to ice a darn simple cake. My hands were shivering and not stable at all. Nevertheless, I am happy at my first attempt. Loads of room for improvement, but I do feel more comfortable and relaxed now if you ask me to ask my next cake *smile*.

I only own one star nozzle at the moment. So I did very minimal designs on it. And stuck to minimal colors as well cos I dont wanna start washing my nozzle and then put in another color, etc. Lazy mah. Moreover, Bryan woke up early and I didnt want to stress myself with the cake when he was so cranky.

Not bad eh for a first timer?

Bryan's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated the lil fella's birthday last Friday. It was again a family-only affair as I dont see a point in hosting a big birthday celebration since he is too young to understand. Moreover, he does not have any friends of his own yet, right?

Both Mommie & Daddie took the day off to spend some time with him. First thing that morning, we headed off to the Buddhist Maha Vihara Temple for a blessing service.


Then off we went to Aquaria KLCC to let him see some fishes .. but as usual he ran more than anything else! We had to cover the place in 2-3 rounds cos most of the time we had to run after him and did not have a chance to view anything! And since we had to pay a bomb, we had to just view the not-so-impressive fishes. I feel like suggesting to them to have special cheaper prices for us, Malaysians! It's too expensive for what they can offer inside!

By noon, both of us were like dead cows! Sent him back to mom's place for his nap while we went out to collect his cake.



Then it was dinner at Lala Chong .. one of our favourite place for tau fu kang! Its damn good! A bit far .. but once in a blue moon, what the heck!








So glad to be back at home at the end of the day. It was more tiring than going to work! I bless my mom .. who can (no choice, have to) take care of him at least 10 hours a day while we are at work!

Hopefully next year when he turns 3, he will have some friends from his playgroup at his nursery and then perhaps Mommie will hosts a small party for him at our new house then ... yeah!

P/S : Coming to think of it, perhaps I should be the one that needs "blessings" .. oh god! When on earth can I stop the night feeds!!!

My visit to Q Jelly .. pretty!!!!

Last weekend, I also decided to check out Q-Jelly, the much talked-about bakery that specialises in jelly cakes. Oh my god! They are just so pretty! Especially those barbie doll cakes .. they all have such a lovely colourful jelly gown!!!!

From their display counter, I saw so many lovely jellies in such beautiful and cute designs. Hubby suggested we buy some to get a taste of their cakes. So we choose a pack of mini-animal themed jelly pieces that comes in both chocolate & strawberry flavours. Hmmm... yummy lah! But not cheap at all lah.

I went through their album to see if there is a Blue's Clues charactered jelly cake which I thought would be perfect for lil one's birthday next week. Unfortunately, they only have the rights to Disney's characters ..what a pity.

I went home thinking about jelly cakes and I was wondering how on earth people can sell such cakes for so much when the ingredients cost so little! I, therefore, tried, doing one on my own that same afternoon! With limited ingredients at home, I embarked on my jelly cake journey ... to some disappointment *sob sob*.

I must say I loved the texture of my own jelly cake attempt. Sweetness was just right and texture and "chewiness" was just right for me.

The only thing not right was it lacked the "vibrant" colors as I was too afraid they would turn out too "bright" and might look artificial if I added too much food coloring. I also did not have any milk or coconut milk to add to the "in-between" layers, so the colored layers looked as if they are all combined into one. And also, I dont have the proper moulds to mould them into cute little art pieces like the ones we bought lar. So many excuses eh?

Nevertheless, I was not demotivated. I vow to learn to make these lovely desserts to something more presentable someday! I promise!

But can someone show me a really good method to keep the remainder of the boiled jelly warm while the individual layering cools down? Should I maintain them over low heat in the pot? Waste gas wor ... Someone told me to place the boiled jelly pot into a larger pot of hot water and when the hot water cools, down replace with more hot water. But practically, I find it more troublesome since I need to boil more hot water every 10 mins or so to refill the pot right? How? How? Any easier fool proof method?

Steamed Egg Sponge Cake

I was feeling much better yesterday night and decided to satisfy my itch in baking. However, my bitter memories of my very recent sore-throat, terrible flu and fever last week told me to forget about the oven but instead steam one.


I settled for an easy recipe which requires less butter and something not too sweet and ended up with a modified recipe from Amy Beh. Also, a recipe that uses a small can of condensed milk seemed "healthier" than 250gms of sugar ... well at least that's what I think la.

Ingredients:
125gm butter at room temperature
180gm self-raising flour, sifted twice
3 large eggs
1 small can of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
a pinch of salt
some food coloring (optional)

Method:

• Grease an 8" round pan.
• Beat butter till light & fluffy.
• Then beat in eggs well, one at a time.
• Add the can of condensed milk, essence & salt. Beat till well mixed.
• (I beat it till it doubles in volume).
• Slowly fold in the flour.
• Divide mixture into 3 equal parts & add coloring to 2 parts.
• Pour batter alternatively into the pan.
• Steam for about 25-30 minutes till done.

Remember to sieve the flour so that the cake will be softer. You can also use Hong Kong flour if you prefer as its finer. And its important to have room temperature butter, else when you beat it, it turns out yucky and not fluffy and light. And oh ya, make sure water is boiling rapidly before you put in your cake to steam okay?

Since lil one was screaming "cake! cake" once he started see me taking out my beater, I decided to make it colourful for his sake. To cheer him up! If it was my choice, a simple cake with some chocolate flavouring marbled in, would be my favourite .. hehehe. Otherwise, this is just as nice when its plain.

Lil one loved it .. cos we "pretended" it was his birthday .. with candles and all .. and he tried blowing the cake after we sang the "birthday song" ... hahaha. Good practice for his upcoming birthday dinner. Guess what cake I ordered for him? The clue is "clue" ... hehehe.


P/S: My apologies for some bad pics ... took via my mobile phone.

He decides for himself ..

Time flies. My lil brat is a big boy now. He knows what he wants. We cannot change his mind. He is pretty stubborn .. like me .. kekeke.

On one of our visits to Mid Valley, we dropped by Carrefour to stock up on Mamypoko disposable diapers. Its cheaper here .. usually abt RM48.80 compared to Jusco which can sometime price it at RM52.90. When Carrefour is on sale, its even cheaper at RM42.80. So almost 10 bucks in savings per pack.

My lil one usually heads for his favourite department ... which is the toys lor .. where else right? But he does not go for the cars or balls. He only goes for the bicycles. Popo (his maternal grandma) promised to buy him one for his birthday next month. So our lil fart quickly grabbed one and .... see the price tag ..??? Not to bad lar .. so ok ok, we will KIV this for him.

As for me, I have not decided what to get him yet .. but I do have something in mind. Will have to start looking out for some bargains.

Gwen's 1st Birthday Party!

It was Gwen's 1st birthday party celebrations last Sunday and we took little one over to have some fun. It was held at Bijou @ Mont Kiara and the theme of the party was "Fairytales". The restaurant was beautifully decorated with countless colourful balloons and cupcakes !












There were various activities to keep the young ones occupied like a beads & jewellery counter - for little princesses to make their own bracelet, chain, ring etc.



A lil playground in the compound for those restless lil ones .. like mine.

A body & face painting booth for those we love some fun!

And a activity table and mat corner where kids can just play with loads of balls and toys thrown all over for them to have fun.

I particularly loved the balloon deco! I think they are pretty cute cos these were shaped into animals and tied up to the bushes and trees right at the entrance. Cute ya?

The food served was really good. The adults had pasta, fish cakes Thai style and baked fish. There was also fresh oysters and free-flow of wine and champagne .....*burp*.

For the children, they served sandwiches, brownies in kiddy bite sizes and mini cup-cakes as well as some salad.

Each and every guest took home a large cupcake that we soooo cutely decorated with lovely designs!

And oh .. here's the princess birthday cake!

How I wish I had the dough to spend on my lil one's birthday in such a scale .. sigh ... think have to start buying Mega TOTO ... 1st prize is RM20 million.