Chocolate cupcakes for year end party

Baked petite chocolate cupcakes for the kids' year end school party that was held on 10th Dec 10. 

Iced them with chocolate ganache...

and sprinkled them with hundreds and thousands...

One more cake please....

This time around, Faiz requested for a chocolate cake instead.

I baked the "perfect all-American chocolate butter cake" for him, recipe from The Cake Bible. Made it into cupcakes, reduced the sugar by 10% and added in some chocolate chips, mmmmm yummy. 

 

Cake please...

Baked this cake again as Faiz had requested for one. Faiz x kesah kek apa sebenarnya, dan memandangkan jam dah pukul 9 mlm, buat pound cake jer la, bagi Faiz puas hati. It took about 10 minutes of my time to mix all the ingredients and pop it into the oven. It's the simplest cake ever :)

Recipe for this cake can be found here.

Birthday tarts?

I wanted to bake a cake for my hubby's birthday, tapi bila tengok dalam peti sejuk, fresh milk dah habis. Sebab tengah dalam pantang, takdela nak gi kedai nak beli fresh milk. Since bahan2 untuk buat cheesetart ada kat rumah, I ended up buat cheesetart for his birthday.

Happy birthday darling, I love you :)

Our little one

It's been just over a month since our little girl was born. Amirul & Faiz dah jadi abang, yay!! tapi sampai sekarang still ramai yang panggil Faiz "adik", kena tukar nih, takleh panggil Faiz adik dah. Dia suruh panggil dia Faiz dan bukan Abang Faiz.

Here's our little one, Nuha. Isn't she adorable :)

Perfect pound cake

I bought The Cake Bible, written by Rose Levy Beranbaum about a year ago but had never tried any of the cake recipe from the book. I have tried her ganache recipe though.

I re-visited the book again recently and decided to try out her recipe for pound cake. From the instructions given, it sounded pretty easy. Since I have all the ingredients available in my fridge, I have decided to give it a go.

It turns out to be really easy to make and it tasted great too. Will definitely make this cake again.

Here's the recipe from the book:

Ingredients:
3 tablespoon milk
3 large eggs
1.5 teaspoon vanilla
150 g cake flour
150 g sugar
0.75 teaspoon baking powder
0.25 teaspoon salt
184 g softened unsalted butter

In a bowl, lightly combine the milk, eggs and vanilla.


In another bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix on low speed for 30 seconds to blend. Add in the butter and half the egg mixture. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the speed and beat for another 1 minute.


Gradually add in the remaining egg mixture in 2 batches.


Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake at 175 degree Celsius.

Flan

I found this flan recipe from the whimsical bakehouse and since I'm still searching for the best creme caramel recipe, I have decided to try it.

Here's the results:

Personally, I found that the almond flavour (and the smell of the almond essence) was way too strong. Besides, I don't like the texture of the flan.

So, my search for the perfect creme caramel recipe is still on. Wish me luck :)

Kuih raya 2010 - biskut cornflakes

I's a bit too late to post this entry... but anyway.....



Mula-mula memang takde niat pun nak buat kuih raya tahun nih. Tapi sebab dah lama tak buat cookie ngan anak2, sian pulak kalau tak buat kuih raya tahun nih.

So, a couple of days before raya, Shas cari resipi kuih raya yang simple untuk buat ngan Amirul dan Faiz. Diorang tolong susun baking cup dalam dulang, then tolong masukkan cookie dough dalam baking cup tu. 

Lepas siap bakar, tak sabar-sabar diorang nak rasa cookie yang diorang buat tu.

Overall, cookie nih senang je nak buat, rangup dan sedap. 

Resipi untuk biskut cornflakes nih Shas dapat dari myresipi.com, tapi Shas ganti ceri ngan mix fruits.


Biskut cornflakes:


250 g butter
1/2 cawan gula
2 1/2 cawan tepung naik sendiri
2 cawan cornflakes, diramas sedikit
mix fruits


Pukul butter dan gula sehingga kembang. Masukkan tepung, cornflakes dan mix fruits. Sudukan dalam baking cup dan bakar sehingga masak (suhu lebih kurang 160 darjah celcius).

Blueberry cheese tart

Waktu birthday party Amirul the other day, among other recipe yang Shas buat ialah blueberry cheese tart. Boleh tahan ramai jugak peminat cheese tart nih.

My sister-in-law minta resipi nih and I've promised her to post it in this blog. So sorry Awin, it took me quite some time to post this recipe here.

Resipi nih sebenarnya Shas jumpa kat internet, dari blog norlilovescake dan sumber asal dari rinnchan.

Here's the recipe:

Bahan-bahan (untuk doh pastri):

250g butter

80g icing sugar

2 biji telur

440g tepung gandum

1 sudu kecil esen vanila

1. Satukan semua bahan dan uli sehingga menjadi doh.
2. Ambil sebahagian kecil doh dan tekankan dalam acuan tat.
3. Cucuk-cucuk pastri menggunakan garpu dan bakar doh pastri selama 8-10 minit atau sehingga separuh masak pada suhu 175 darjah cel. (Shas tukar this part, Shas bakar untuk 15 minit pada suhu 160 degree celcius)
4. Sementara itu sediakan bahan isian cheese.

Bahan-bahan (untuk isian cheese):

250gm cream cheese

3/4 cawan gula icing

1 biji telur

1/2 cawan whipping cream

1 camca teh esen vanila

Blueberry filling secukupnya

1. Pukul cheese dan gula aising hingga sebati.
2. Masukkan esen vanila, telur dan whipping cream. Teruskan memukul adunan sehingga kelihatan berkrim.
3. Tuangkan adunan secukupnya ke dalam pastri separuh masak tadi dan sudukan blueberry filling di tengah-tengahnya.
4. Masukkan kembali ke dalam oven dan bakar selama 15-20 minit pada suhu 175 darj cel. (Shas tukar this part, Shas bakar pada suhu 160 darjah celcius untuk 5 minit).
5. Sejukkan sebelum dialih dari acuan dan diletak dalam papercup. 

Hasilnya:

Cheese tart tu tak cantik, tapi sedap. Still kena improvise lagi and hopefully boleh buat corak yang cantik the next time buat cheese tart nih.

Birthday Amirul Part 2

Ok, ni updates on Amirul's birthday party.

Atas permintaan, I baked a 10" chocolate cake for Amirul's birthday. Filling dia cam biasa, crushed oreos with whipping cream. Bila dah siap cake tu & dah salut ngan chocolate ganache, Amirul minta buat flower atas cake, sebab dia kata birthday cake ni nak share ngan mama, untuk celebrate birthday mama sekali.

Tapi sebab mama dia dah penat buat kek tu, and ada sikit lagi balance chocolate ganache tadi, whipped je la untuk buat design sikit-sikit kat atas, pastu letak smarties.

 

Raya 2010

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, Maaf Zahir dan Batin.

Gambar-gambar  kat bawah nih kitorang ambil pagi2 raya:

Baju raya Amirul dan Faiz tu Shas jahit sendiri, sampin pun jahit sendiri gak. Ni first time buat baju untuk diorang berdua. Selalunya, jahit seluar panjang jer untuk diorang untuk pakai kat rumah. Tapi, satu hari Amirul tanya bila mama dia nak jahit baju pulak. Tu yang beria nak jahit baju melayu untuk diorang nih.

So, ambil la baju lama diorang, study camne nak jahit. Search jugak kat internet untuk cari tutorial for help, last-last jumpa tutorial from my.crazyartzone.com untuk jahit baju kurung teluk belanga dan cara nak buat lubang leher untuk baju tu. Tak banyak beza sebenarnya baju kurung dengan baju melayu, tapi kena tukar sikit-sikit la cara menjahit, and kena tambah poket kat depan. I found the tutorial given to be very helpful, especially cara nak buat lubang leher. Thanks a lot Maya for sharing the tutorial.

Amirul dan Faiz suka sangat pakai baju tu, diorang pakai sampai malam dengan sampin sekali, tak bukak2 sampailah kitorang balik rumah lepas satu hari beraya.

Once again, selamat hari raya aidilfitri to all, maaf zahir dan batin.

Double chocolate mint cookies

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for so long, double chocolate mint cookies shared by Gina of Kitchen Capers. Here's the source of the recipe: mycakedecoclub forum.

I've pasted the recipe shared by Gina, as follows:

Ingredients:
115 g salted butter
180 g self raising flour
1 tbsp cocoa powder
80 g castor sugar
50 g light brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tube of Polo Mints
1 cup of chocolate chips


Methods:
1. Crush Polo mints in a bag, set aside
2. Cream butter, sugar in a mixer till creamy.
3. Add egg to beat till well mixed.
4. Turn off mixer and fold in flour, cocoa powder, chocolate chips and crushed mint.
5. Lined a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Use a piped bag to squeeze out tiny spots on the paper.
7. Bake in preheated oven 180 for 15 mins.
8. Remove and cool completely on wire rack.

I've taken some pictures of the cookies, but it doesn't look as nice as the one baked by Gina.

But the kids loved them anyway (since the get to "help-out" in making the cookies).

Thanks Gina for sharing the recipe. The cookies were yummy, but found it to be slightly on the sweet side, maybe because of the type of chocolate chips that I used. Next time, will reduce the sugar, add a little bit more butter and double the amount of Polo mints.

   

Birthday Amirul Part 1

Waktu birthday Amirul hari tu, dia minta mama dia masak kek coklat, sekejap nak yang ada gambar ben 10, sekejap nak yang macam treasure chest, sekejap lagi nak yang ada smarties. Tapi mama dia tak bake pon kek tu, sebab barang2 basic, eg tepung kek, coklat, whipping cream etc semua dah takde. Kalau nak bake jugak kena gi beli dulu kat kedai.

So, sebab tak bake birthday cake untuk Amirul, we have decided to just buy one for him first. Amirul pilih sendiri kek dia, sebab waktu birthday Faiz hari tu, Faiz dapat pilih kek sendiri.

Ni gambar2 waktu Birthday Amirul.

Disebabkan selalunya bila celebrate birthday anak2, mesti buat birthday party, Amirul dah tanya dah, "bila semua orang nak datang tengok abang tiup lilin ni?" Nanti mama buat birthday party untuk Amirul ek.

Happy birthday Amirul!!

Birthday Faiz

Lama dah tak update blog nih, kek pon dah lama sangat tak bake. Amirul dan Faiz selalu tanya bila mama dia nak buat kek.

Untuk birthday Faiz hari tu, beli jer kek sebab tak larat nak bake.

The first cake beli kat KLCC, beli yang kecik jer sebab kitorang berempat jer yang makan. Faiz pilih sendiri birthday cake nih, disebabkan Faiz suka sangat strawberry and chocolate, kek yang dia pilih kena ada both strawberry and chocolate. 

For his birthday party, beli cheesecake kat secret recipe.

Happy birthday Faiz!!

Chocolate cakes weekend

Apart from the 2 chocolate cakes that I baked last week, I also baked a few more chocolate cakes:

1. a stacked cake for my anniversary, my sister-in-law's anniversary and my father-in-law's birthday;
2. a 6 inch chocolate cake for our tea time treat; and 
3. another 6 inch cake to bring to my office. 

All in all, I actually baked 6 cakes (all chocolate!!) last weekend. I even told my husband that the next cake that I'm gonna bake won't be a chocolate cake (hopefully - my kids loves chocolate cake though).

This was my very first stacked cake - chocolate cake, decorated with white chocolate:

And this was the picture of our 6 inch tea time cake:

I didn't take any picture of the other 6 inch cake that I brought to my office. It's the same chocolate cake, with cookies and cream filling and chocolate ganache icing.

Gathering @ Marriot

Last Sunday, we went to Marriott Putrajaya for dim sum brunch. Seronok sangat sebab dapat jumpa kawan2 dari office lama. Dah lama sangat tak jumpa diorang. If I'm not mistaken, it's been more than a year since we last met.



I brought chocolate cake for the gathering, decorated with white chocolate stars. Anak2 seronok sangat masa tengah buat chocolate star tu, asyik nak makan jer. Nasib baik dapat save sikit for the cake.

Here are some pictures from the gathering:

Lepas makan dim sum kitorang gi ambil gambar ramai ramai. The kids were all excited tengok "snow".