Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Birthday Celebrations with friends....

I got to know Alice when IBM recommended her catering company for an event. That must have been way back in the 90s and we've been friends ever since. She is such a wonderful, bubbly lady, you can't help it but be friends with her. Through her, I got to know her son, Nick who is a chef. I became even closer to them when I started taking baking classes with Nick at their home.

Last Saturday (26 June 2010), Alice invited me to celebrate with them, her hubby's, Ernest's 70th birthday.  The man doesn't look it !  He he.  Below a pic of dear Alice at one of Nick's baking class that I attended. Pic of glam Alice that night is not to be, that's when my camera decided that it does not have enough memory!

Alice Bain in her element - the kitchen. She's always there to make sure that the students are well fed during lessons !

Ernest admiring his 70th birthday cake, loving done for him by his chef son, Nicholas.

Ernest's cake and cuppies !

After the birthday party, went home to decorate another birthday cake for Siti. For her teenage daughters, Nadia and Natrah. Natrah's birthday fell on 27 June, while Nadia's was a week before. She also got me to bake vanilla cuppies for the girls, and since cream cheese is her fav, the frosting was of course, cream cheese. The cake was Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. Alia did the surfacing, I did the decorating on the cake. I need to go for more cake decorating classes !

Below are proof pics of the cake and baby pink/blue cuppies I made for them... The most important thing, they were happy with results and enjoyed eating the cake and cupcakes.


On Friday (25/06/2010), I baked another batch of cupcakes for Farah Hani again. This time its a gift for a pair of bride and groom. Requested for pink color. See below, I just love that pink shade. I mixed christmas red food coloring, bits of purple and food whitener to get it... I was told that the 'pegantin' eat with gusto after the celebration winded down.... good to know ! ;D


Since there seems to be quite a bit of cakes and cupcake postings..
plus I'm wishing (and pray, insya'allah with God's blessings) for more of such postings,
I've updated this blog with a cup of coffee background.
Coffee (or tea for that matter) goes so well with cakes,
 if I may say so...

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day 2010 - Carrot Cake with Cheese Frosting

I did it !  
Baked the cake & decorate with cream cheese frosting....
To dear hubby, Happy Father's Day !






Saturday, June 19, 2010

In A Cupcakes State Of Mind....


Pictures below are cuppies of the original butter cupcakes recipe that I'd learned from Nick but with cheese frosting piped on.. and below balanced from those I made for Eddy and Liza's Penang's trip. They stayed at the new happening place - the Hard Rock hotel !  Just the place to be seen with my cuppies.... ;D


Cupcakes galore... all the cuppies we can eat !

The Carrot Cake odessy.........

I've been on the odessy of looking for a great carrot cake resipi.  Have tried a few but unfortunately have not been very successful in getting a good one.  These were from a recipe I got from Kraft Foods. Kraft Foods recipes always use one shortcut or another. This particular recipe calls for the use of any of pre-mixed Butter cake, then add in other condiments to turn it into a carrot cake mix. Its nice and tasty but a little dry....



Finally I got a recipe from my fav Carrot Cake sifu, Shaz. Tried it last night, brought a box over to the office and got the thumps up from my regular tasters. I'm so happy, so this is our dessert for this Sunday.  20th June 2010 is Father's Day. Just what Mr Hubby wants, a carrot cake !  Below are some pics of what I'd baked last night. My carrot needs to be improved !  He he he...



I've love to be able to decorate like these taken from the internet. I think I can... to me the simply simple ones are the best. So, how do you keep them stuck well to the cupcake casings?

or lovely roses like these,
or, just so simple but so elegent...
Martha Steward's so simple, anyone ca do this !
My favourite flowers, Hydrangeas

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

My United States of Cupcakes


Sometime last year, I joined a hands-on cupcake baking session with a caterer that I've worked with at office functions. When with 2nd girl. It was run by her chef-son, Nick. A wonderful class, taught us basic cupcake mix, baking and of course icing. Fondant, butter icing, etc. So, from there on, I've been making cupcakes regularly. No problem with butter cupcakes because the recipe that Nick gave us is just so excellent. Everytime I make cuppies using this recipe, I will definitely have lots of happy campers...

Nick the chef/instructor. very imposing isn't he but looks can be deceiving, nick is one nice guy, and very generous with his knowledge. his mum is very proud of him ! ;D ladies, he's still single too..
class in progress
our materpieces..

Then came Aqil's birthday. Liza his mum, my niece-in-law, wanted to 'order' from me, but since its my first ever cuppies, I decided instead to give him as a gift.  So, since its a kid's birthday anyway, kinda caca-marba, colorful and playful.



Liza again wanted to order from me for her cousin's wedding, 100 cuppies (wah, she really loves my cuppies. best customer hands down ! hehe) but it was not to be since the the wedding was 30 May but she's going on 26th May 2010. It was in Penang and they wanted to try out the new happening place - Hard Rock Hotel. I didn't want to take the chance of ppl getting food poisoning. 5 days is to long... no preservative in my cakes! But made some for the road... Eddy insisted on giving me some csh.. my first ( :D). Definitly help cover the cheese ! I love cheese frostings...

Smarties topped for kids & those kids at heart, store bought pretty little red flowers and the 3rd, a little extra more toppings for Aqil & Aziq, prints done by Alia, my no 2, who temps at Secret Recipe.


There were more cuppies (I made 2 batches), so its free-hand toppings and photo-pimping time. Will add in another post later.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

We chose the right name for him....

I mean, for our son, Aiman which meant lucky, bertuah.
and why did I say so?

Last year, before any of his friends starting to even thinking of applying for places to do their internship, I'd gotten him a place at Mesiniaga !  Well, he got a place at Corp Comm and allowance of RM400.00.  Not much but enough to take care of his meals.  Towards the end of his internship, he'd already secured himself a job. 

With just his offer letter, he got his car loan approved !  Bought himself a myvi with daddy helping out with the deposit, of course. And, when everyone else had to wait for 2 months for delivery of the new car, he got his in two weeks! If that not luck, I don't know what that is.  Then, he was not too happy with his work place. 1st of June, he started at another, with a bit higher pay...... 

Alhamdullillah.

Aiman with Abah in his new car. Obliged by driving us to Sabak Bernam for a wedding!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Cuti-cuti


A much needed break indeed.  So off we went on a 4-day vacation, 4 days is much to short....  Anyway, the four of us (without the boy, since he is working, or actually starting at a new job on 1st of June... can't you believe it, 2nd job in a month!), went to the East Coast for a short vacation. One night in Kuantan and the rest at Awana Kijal, Terengganu.  Mostly lepak je, in the apartment. Went for walks at the beach, swam a bit in the sea, at the hotel pool, well hubbs and the girls, not me.  I had my book for company, complete the book by the way last night.

It is so nice, after subuh its back to bed. Got up around 9 or so, prepare some simple breakfast, toast with jam, eggs scrambled with cheese (good thing we had cheese, since we didn't have any salt ! Used margarine since we didn't have any cooking oil).  Cooking allowed in the holiday apartment, so that saved us some meals....

As I said, 4 days was not enough. On the way back today, the car aircon gave us some problems.  Kejap sejuk, kejap panas, berpeluh-peluh dalam kereta...  Stop for breather at Lentang rest area, ingat nak turun main air sungai tu, tapi malas pulak, nanti basah seluar, so tengok2 je, jalan jalan, rehatkan mata... From here onwards, the aircon worked all the way home... adoi !

So we're back home sweet home. Good thing, I'm not working tomorrow, but looks like I've got a few errants to run.  We sold off our Perdana, getting a Naza Rhondo as a replacement. Now it seems Naza is asking for the Insurance cancellation letter - original? Hmm nak kene gi minta la pulak dgn ins agnt.

Need take my girl to the bank to apply to take out some money for her Practical, she wants to do it at the Outbound Schook in Lumut.  She wants to take up Outdoor Event mgmt or something like that for her Degree. But since its out of KL, she need to give the Univ rm1K for expenses, etc.... So I'm taking it out from her SSPN acct.  Macam-macam.... pas tu nak kene amik surat from her univ for the application letter lagi.  Hmmm, and no car some more.  Must pujuk Aiman to let me use his car tomorrow....  We are only getting the Rhondo maybe on Saturday. Pray we do.

Some pics from the trip,

Kampung style chalets at Duta Village, Kuantan.

The Awana Kijal Resort Hotel.
The Awana Vacation Apartments where we stayed, sorry a bit covered by shrubbery, really its my attempt to cover the rather sorry looking state of the apartment per se.
Living room with TV, sofa bed and door to the master bedroom.








View from our balcony.








Dining and door to 2nd bedroom (with twin-beds)








Rather equipped kitchen, good enough for a short holiday.








Enjoying the stay, the sun, the surf, the hotel facilities...