Another Strawberry Cake for my Mum's 62nd Birthday

I did another Strawberry Cake (again!) Thanks to the Korean Strawberries season & its so loved by everyone in my family :D

I made a strawberry fresh cream cake for mum and decorated it with FONDANT!! I read from many bloggers saying that this is not possible as the fresh cream is too light to take the weight of the fondant... and the moisture from the fresh cream will damage & de-colour the fondant decor...etc... etc...

But I still want some nice "fondant effect" on this cake ;-) so I tried to do the colourful "生日快乐" on a piece of white fondant, then I "paste" it in the centre of the freshcream cake, decorated with a ring of apricot-glazed strawberries around it. Then I did 3 embossed pink colour fondant strips to stick to the side of the cake. The effect is quite neat leh!! ;-)

As this cake need to be refrigerated, I was surprised that the side fondant didn't "melt" at all :D It still stay neat for the whole day, till my mum cut the cake at almost 9pm last night. As for "生日快乐" @ the centre of the cake, it did "melt" a little and I'm glad I did the wordings on a piece of white fondant :D only the white fondant melted nicely into the white fresh cream but the colourful wordings still stay nicely, unmelted :D

My mum turned 62 on 23Jan10. How time flies!

Poor Ah-Mah Celebrating her birthday with my 2 gals only :( I think she missed her son & 2 grandsons who will all be in US for the next 2 years :(

Tessa's Birthday Cake No. 3

And here's the 3rd Birthday cake for Tessa! :D for celebration at grandma's place together with cousins on Saturday, 16 Jan.

This is my 1st mini fondant tier-cake attempt. ~我成功了~:D and I'm so happy that this cake was welcomed by so many "WOWs" from everyone @ Ah-Mah's house :-)

The Hello Kitty cutter from Jenn 几好用一下wor :D
....And here's a slice of the cake....

Confession time =P

I bought a pack of "Phoon Huat" Brand fondant and I coloured them pink with intension to cover the bottom layer of the cake. The top layer, I'lll be using my only pack of Wilton brand fondant. By the time I'm ready to cover the "pink" cake, TROUBLE!!! The pink fondant kept breaking up :( I knead and knead, some kept sticking to my fondant mat while the rest simply breaks up into crumps.... I just can't get them into the right texture :( After more then half an hour trying on the fondant, I GAVE UP!! I threw the whole pack into the dustbin X(

So at the very last minute, I colour part of my Wilton Fondant "PINK". Its already almost midnight and I realised I dun have enough fondant to cover the whole of the lower layer cake.. so I cut out 1 pc for the top part and 2 pcs for the side of the cake. It did cover well initially but by the next morning, the side pc start to slide down and as u can see from the picture below, there is a crack and the inside cake is exposed!! so ugly :(

I had only a tiny bit of white fondant left and i HOPE this idea works :D I rolled out 3 stripes of fondant and embossed it a little to make it look like a ribbon, then I stick them on the "crack" to cover-up the exposed area :D heheeheee... heng arh!!! it works!!! :D

And I'm so glad my 1st Fondant Tier-Cake attempt recieved quite a bit of compliments from everyone!

=*> ~ Thank You ~ =*>

Tessa's Birthday Cake No. 2

I promised Tessa I'm going to make her 3 birthday cakes this year :D

My little Tessa had her 2nd Birthday celebration @ home on her actual birthday, 15 Jan... This is my 1st tier cake attempt....

~Strawberry Fresh Cream cake, topped with a Hello Kitty Jello~

I did this in a rush... so I have no time to brush the strawberries with apricot glaze when Tessa came home... she kept asking for her 2nd Birthday cake... so I brought her the cake just like this, with a "star candle" from Daiso. I'm glad that she really likes the cake :D

...and here's a slice of the cake.... yummmy :D

My little Tessa Turns 4 :D ~Birthday Celebration No. 1: Cup Cakes~

Tessa turns 4 on 15 Jan, Friday. She had her 1st birthday celebration @ school on 14 Jan, Thursday instead coz her teachers were concerned that it will be too rushed for the children to attend the computer lesson which comes straight after the celebration. I made these batch of cuppies for the little children... they were all so excited & amazed by the Mickey, Minnie & Hello Kitty cuppies :D

Mickey & Minnie cuppies

Cookie for School Break

My daughter's own cookies with her own NAME :D

My Nyx just started her Primary 1 life this week. She is still not very confident to buy canteen food on her own coz she is no good with money although we had been training her for the past 2 years :(

I had in fact baked a container of oatmeal raisin cookies which can last for her whole week. I was surprised to find out after I'm back from a half-day trip to JB on Thursday that the whole container of cookies were GONE!!! all eaten up by my hubby who was working from home that day X-(

So yesterday, I baked this batch of cookies with my daughters' name... so they won't be "stolen" again =P

Tessa's breakfast this morning

Customised Cookies anyone??? ;-)

My very own Mint Plant :D

I felt very guilty every time I steal leaves from my neighbour's mint plant =P ..... so I decided to grow my own mint plant :D I bought this Wild Mint from a plantation @ Bah Soon Bah road, near Yishun where I stay... it cost me only SGD5.00!! and hubby bought the yellow flower plant to accompany my mint :D Hope they'll "grow" under my care =P

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie ~ For Nyx's School Break ~

My Nyx just bought herself a Strawberry Yogurt Drink during school break... This mummy is so worried that her little girl will be hungry... so I decided to make her some butter cookies stuffed with lots and lots of oatmeal & lots and lots of raisin.... hoping she will get the most energy out of these cookies ;-)

Chewy, Yummy Cookies just out from my oven ;-)

*quick quick* I've got only 5mins to take pictures!! ;-)

i beg daddy to take these pics b4 i rush off to school which is only 5 mins walk from my block :D

** Daddy love these cookies too :D on Thursday, I went for a half-day trip to JB and the whole container of cookies were gone when I came back!! He was working from home that day and he finished everything up :D ahahahaa... didn't know my cookies r so addictive :D**

Napoleons with Lemon Cream & Strawberries

Napoleons aka Millefeuilles.... I saw this yummy recipe from a book I borrowed from NLB (National Library Board, Singapore) and wanted so much to make it!!

above 2 Pictures r taken by my hubby ;-)
~Napoleon au citron et aux fraises~

Lots of yummy & good looking desserts in this book!!

...and Here's the recipe ;-)

These 2 pix r taken by my phone camera =P

Yummy....yummy..... I really like it very much!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS AGAIN!! Christmas Cupcake

Did these last minute last nite.... Just in time for Christmas!!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Cream Cheese buttercream icing with hundreds & thousands on

Nice X'mas cups bought from Ann's Shop, Bakewell @ JB many months ago :P

Did not many... only 12 cupcakes in total.

Kosong cupcake for my furry babies... Sherry & DongDong :D

Those cute Christmas royal icing figurines r bought from BKK! 10baht each only wor :D

~MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE~ :D

~ a very Merry Christmas to all thy fellow Baking Bloggers!! ~
~Oh Christmas Tree... Oh Christmas Tree...~
...and I wish upon a star......
...and Christmas is all about LOVE LOVE LOVE.....
No, Not Gingerbread Man...
This is ButterCookie Boy :D ...and he wears Red Color pants :D

X'mas Tree on Cookies :D

Candy Cane cookies :D

** Credit: cookies designs & instruction inspired from http://zoomyummy.com/2009/12/18/cookie-lollipops-2/ **

~THANK YOU PETRA~

My 1st Tiramisu attempt ~ Kahlua Infused Tiramisu ~

I remembered my Italian colleagues brought me to that restaurant in Verona for lunch few years ago and insisted on me trying its "world-best" Tiramisu. I abide of coz... but was amazed by its totally unappetizing & ugly serving presentation =P (it looks like a pile of "lao-sai" spooned onto a plate!!! yaks!) and seriously, I dun have a slight remembrance of how it tasted!!!!! hahaaaa....

Recently there are so many submission on FoodGawker & local bloggers with their very beautiful & neat looking Tiramisu Torte Cake... and I was very attracted to that "slice of cake" by HHB http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2009/11/just-slice-of-cake.html so I tried my 1st Tiramisu attempt :D Hubby and I were quite satisfied with this cake attempt of mine!!

7 O'clock

Oh!! See how un-neat my cutting skill was :(

how can i prevent the cocoa powder from "flowing down" to the Tiramisu filling??

5 O'clock

This is a mini Tiramisu attempt done on a 4.5-inches sponge cake. Cake tin with removable base bought from Daiso :D

Ingredients for Coffee Syrup

1 tbsp instant Nescafe Gold blend powder

1/2 cup boiling water

1/2 tbsp sugar

3 tbsp Kahlua Liqueur

Dissolve instant coffee powder & sugar in boiling water. Set aside to cool.

Stir in Kahlua

Ingredients for Tiramisu Filling

120g Cream Cheese

1 tbsp icing sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp Kahlua Liqueur

5 tbsp Coffee Syrup

120g whipping cream

**(Cocoa powder for dusting, chocolate curls & chocolate coffee beans for decoration)**

Whisk whipping cream till soft peak, set aside.

Whisk cream cheese and icing sugar till combined, add in vanilla extract, Kahlua and coffee syrup. Mix for about 1 minute then add in whipped cream & mix for another 5 mins.

Assembling of Cake

Verdict: This is a nice cake!!! however, I feel that its a little too sweet for me as I'm someone who drinks coffee without sugar. [i prefer kopi-si kosong ;-)] I will omit sugar in the coffee syrup & filling in my future Tiramisu attempt! Yummmmmm.....

Left over Tiramisu Filling and chocolate curls for my afternoon tea :D

Chilled Oreo Cheesecake ~ No Bake again!

No nuts & chocolates had been my baking rules as My little Tessa is nut allergy... meaning Oreo is also a No-No for her.... but she is turning 4yrs old next month.... We just hope that she is just a Childhood Allergy case and will overcome the "nut-problem" as she grows older.

We were advised by doctors to give her bits of nut-stuff to boost-up her war against this allergy thing. She had pieces of Oreo biscuits for the past few months and she seems not having any reaction to it... Lets see if she will break-out with rashes tonite after these cuppies :P

Thess Jelly cups had been of good use!! ;-)

~Oh~ Oreo Oreo Oreo.... :D

Berri-Berri Pie

~Oh~ Everyone is making Thanks giving Pie on FoodGawker.... Then I remembered those very Expensive Fruitti Pies selling @ Fruits Paradize, Orchard Central 8-[ **faint** I will never pay SGD80.00 for a fruit pie in my life :D unless i strike 5.5million toto all to my own one day :D

So I tried my own version of Fruitti-Berri Pie
...and I made 2 Berri-Berri Pies yesterday

I coated the Shortcrust Pastry Shell with chocolate. Reason: to act as a water-proof coating to prevent the pie filling's moisture from soaking into the pastry shell, making it soggy.

And that's my neighbour's abandoned Mint Plant wittering in the hot Singapore weather. Very often I stole leaves from this plant to decorate myBakez =P

And again, I used Jell-O Instant Vanilla Pudding mix for my Pie filling. Just add 450ml of HL Milk (instead of 600ml of milk for pudding). Mix for 2 minutes using electric mixer and its DONE!! :D simple and I love the taste.

~~and here's a slice of my Berri-Berri Pie.... Shortcrust Pastry Shell, coated with a layer of white chocolate, filled with Jell-O Vanilla Filling, sandwiched with a slice of Vanilla Sponge Cake, Topped with a layer of whipped cream, lots of Korean strawberries and New Zealand Blueberries, coated with a layer of Apricot Glazing~~

Its much easier to make a Pie like this using a loose-bottom pie tin... it makes cutting lots easier. I found these from a Bangkok Bake Shop during my last trip there. Its only 70 Baht each. Will stock-up more of these in all sizes during my next trip there in mid-December ;)