Pre Xmas Party order!!

VC is having a pre Xmas party on 1 December 2007. He placed an order for 30 cupcakes and a Tiramisu with me!!
He gave me the room to decide on the flavors of the cupcakes and decoration..
Cracked my head on what flavors to make...there's so many options and so many I want to do...
Finally decided on:
1. Rum & Raisin Cupcake with Rum Swiss Meringue Butter Cream
2. Strawberry Cupcake with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream
3. Blueberry Chocolate Cupcake with Rich Chocolate Swiss Meringue Butter Cream

Next.. how shall I decorate the cupcakes??!!!
These are what I came up with!!









"Xmas Tree" is Rum & Raisin Cupcake with Rum Swiss Meringue Butter Cream.
"Teddy wants pressie for Xmas" is Strawberry Cupcake with Raspberry Swiss Meringue Butter Cream.
"Snowy & his Candy Cane" is Blueberry Chocolate Cupcake with Rich Chocolate Swiss Meringue Butter Cream.

Made purple stars (with sugar paste) for the Xmas Tree Cupcake deco as VC said the color theme for his Xmas Tree this year is Purple & Pink.. So, to suit his color theme, I had the stars done in purple!!

As appreciation for his support, I made some cupcakes and had them individually boxed (boxes personally made by me!! haha..) for each of his guests to bring home after the party...

Tiramisu........

Hi there!! I'm back!!
Been ages since my last entry.. =p

Made tiramisu today... This time, a different style from what I usually make..
The previous ones I made usually comes in the container.
This time round I want to make something that looks more like a "cake"..haha..

Here you go!!





I like my tiramisu with that strong liquor taste... Added a lot of Marsala wine to the mascarpone cheese... so...sorry kiddos, this dessert is not suitable for you guys...hahaha....

Wedding Cupcakes.... the sequel...

I've just received the best news 5 minutes ago!! It's better than striking lottery!!!

The bride just called me and told me that I scored an A+ for the cupcakes!!! Yeah!!!! I'm really on cloud nine now!!!

The wedding duos were given out to her mum's colleagues today... They liked my cuppies and were impressed with the cupcake deco!!

All the hard work these couple of weeks is really worthwhile!! Satisfaction is definitely here now (to think that I was kind of worried about how the reactions would be when the cupcakes are distributed out to the bride's mum's colleagues)!!!

I really must thank the bride for giving me the chance to work on this project.. Thanks Doreen!!! Muaks!!







P/S: you should see me now while I'm typing this entry.. my grin is almost touching my ears now......hahaha...

Vi's pre-celebration for turning two!!

Slept at 5am after doing all the 100 pieces of wedding cupcakes.. Thot I would sleep all the way till late afternoon...who knows, woke up at 9am!!

While baking for the wedding cupcakes yesterday, I baked a few more extras intending to make them as birthday cupcakes for my princess Vi..

Vi will be turning two this month, on the 13th (her birthday is 2 days before mine..haha..), since she's coming over my place today, we're going to throw her a simple celebration..

Intended to go out and get some cutesy sweets or candies and use them as toppers for the cupcakes, but then.............Heavy rain la!!! I can't go out (hate getting my feet wet)..

Ransack the cabinets and managed to find a box of kids crackers in shapes of sea creatures.. no choice, I'll just have to use what I have.. haha..





Vi enjoyed her birthday cupcakes, the chocolate butter cream smeared all over her face.. she's even poking all her fingers into the cupcake and licking the cream off her fingers..hahaa...





En, was "caught red handed" also.. haha...





P/S: oh ya, had an order to bake a oreo cheesecake for birthday, it's really been a busy weekend for me.. haha..

Wedding Cupcakes

Couple of weeks back, colleague wanted 100 pcs of cupcakes as a gift for her mum's peers.. Two in a box..

Started off with looking around for the box... A box to hold two cupcakes with a window on top (a window to view the cupcakes inside).. Oh man, looking for such a box in tiny Singapore is really a nightmare.. Been to almost ALL "known" baking supplies stores and none was found.. The closest I could find was in SKP, small rectangular, no window, and size.. abit over sized.. Not what I wanted..
Sis told me the box I wanted had to be custom made, minimum order of 1000 boxes.. OMG.. I needed 50 only, get that and what do I do with the other 950 pieces??? Whahahaa..

That's it! Can't find what I want, I'll just have to make 50 myself!!

Next, the cupcakes.. Settled with Blueberries filling Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Swiss Meringue Butter Cream AND vanilla Cupcakes with Kahlua Swiss Meringue Butter Cream..

Ok, then come the small details.. the decoration part of the cupcakes... I like making my own.. so, started off early to make the toppers with sugar paste..





Dad was robbed in to help me make the boxes.. Luckily I have him, else.. think I'll be busy making the boxes now.. haha...

Woke up really early on Saturday (6 Oct 07) morning and started baking the cupcakes, beating up the butter cream, piping, decoration...
I was the "Production Department" while dad, he's the "Packaging Department".. haha..

The last pair was finally boxed at 2am!!! Poor dad, slog with me all the way...
I took over and finish off the last part of the production.. tying the boxes with ribbons and tagging them.. Wau!! It was 4am when I finished tying the last box.. Really tired, but..the sense of satisfaction was definitely there...











P/S: Daddy's the best! Without him, this project would not had run so smoothly.. Thanks Pa!!

Another Order!!! Yeah......

Had an order for 70 pieces of Cupcakes over the weekend..
The cupcakes were meant for a pre-moon cake festival celebration... haha...

Baked 2 flavors for the cupcakes:
1. The good old Blueberry Chocolate cupcakes &
2. New flavor, Kahlua cupcakes (no cocoa powder this time)

3 flavors for the Frosting:
a. Chocolate Ganache for the Blueberry Chocolate cupcakes,
b. Kahlua Swiss Meringue Butter Cream for the Kahlua cupcakes &
c. Kahlua Whipped cream (no cocoa powder again!) for the Kahlua cupcakes

I was told the cupcakes were almost gone, only 4 or 5 pieces left in the fridge.. haha.. if only I could go around to those who tasted the cupcakes for their comments... I could improve my cupcakes for better...

Sorry folks, no pictures... I was dead tired after frosting the cupcakes and cleaning up the kitchen.. No more energy left to take pix.. haha.. Next time.. I'll make sure I take some pix of my end product..

Oreo Cheesecakes

Its granny's birthday today!! Happy birthday ah ma!!
Days ago, was planning to make "a pile" of cupcakes (assorted flavors) as her birthday cakes.... Who knows.. my cousin was way too fast and she order a big birthday cake for her... chei......
Nevertheless, I will still bake something for your buffet dinner...

My cousins and their kids loved my oreo cheesecake, so, oreo cheesecake it shall be!! Started baking the cheesecake at about 10 plus the night before... These were what I get around 11 plus...






Ok folks, the cheesecakes looked on the "wetter" side in the last pix.. Why? Aya, my impatient character again la, instead of waiting for the cheesecake to cool down completely before cutting them, I "fast hand fast leg" started running the knife thru the cheesecake... Hence, resulting in the "not so nice" shapes and gooey cheesecake squares.. BUT, not to worry, they still taste good.. hahahaha...
k.. k... I promise to be more patient next time...

Beside the cheesecakes, I was intending to make some Hi-Hat cuppies also (saw the recipe from "the barmy baker" thru "Cupcakes take the cake")... The Hi-Hat cuppies by "the barmy baker" looks sooooooooo pretty and so yummy that I was tempted to make them.....

But then, when I wanted to bake them today, my old ailment strike me again... My neck and shoulders were in great pain!! Darn... all because of the sleeplessness I'm getting these couple of days (ok, I haven't slept for at least 36 hours when I'm writing this entry)...
I'm too tired to make anything today....
Have to KIV the idea then... wait till my neck and shoulders get better....

Blueberry Chocolate Cupcakes with Rich Chocolate Ganache

Baked some blueberry chocolate cuppies on Wednesday. They were meant for my doctor whom I visit for my regular "face maintenance" (got to look forever 24 years old... whhahahahahaha....)....

The first batch of chocolate ganache I made was a total disaster.. I ended up with a layer of oil in my ganache, and the texture were all grainy... Yucks!!
Frantically searched thru the net to look for an answer on what causes the disaster...
Realized the cause might be due to the overheating the ingredients (got the answers from "Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum"), causing the fat to "separate" from the chocolate...
No choice, the first batch of chocolate ganache was a complete flop, I had to discard the whole batch.. ITS SO OILY!!! Think I can even extract the layer of oil and fry some french fries with it..hahhahaa....

Scramble thru (it's 12am when I started with the 2nd batch) to start on the next batch of ganache, this time no more cheating by melting the chocolate in the microwave..

The end results... tar tar... see below pixs...

Beer Cupcakes....Hoegaarden

Made some beer cupcakes today..
VC gave me a couple of bottles of Hoegaarden couple of weeks back..

Had been looking at the beer cupcake recipe for days, dying to try them... Finally had sometime to whipped up something with the Hoegaardens..
The recipe was from "Beer City, Little Kitchen".. The recipe calls for Guinness, I don't have that, only had 3 bottles of Hoegaarden in the cabinet..
Guess it should work, they're all beer anyway!!! Haha..
Gena (author of "Beer City, Little Kitchen") uses a Cream Cheese Glaze for her beer cupcakes..I substitute it with Beer Whipped Cream instead (a "reinvention" from the Kahlua Chocolate Whipped Cream by How to eat a cupcake.. hahaha)...



The beer whipped cream smell soooooo GOOD!!! The cupcake had little beer taste.. probably the beer I used was too light... the cocoa powder musked the taste I guess...
Gave some of these cuppies to VC (of coz, he got me the beer what...haha) and a couple to EW...
VC tried 1 on the spot.. same verdict as mine, he was expecting a stronger beer taste...
Ok, I'm going to "alter" the cupcake recipe abit (or maybe I should stick to Guinness next time) and try it out another day.. hmmmmmm......