Cupcakes, a massive one!

Just some orders a couple of months ago ;)

My neighbour in Nilai ordered a set of Red Velvet Cupcakes with buttercream frosting since they were heading to Kedah for her sister's nikah. She wanted something in purple for the hantaran.

Purple Garden

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Pak Lah, 80 L size cupcakes with individual boxes, Oreo Cupcakes and Buttercream frosting for his wedding reception as a VIPs door gift.

Triple Roses

Oreo Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting

Zalikha ordered one set of Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Buttercream Frosting for her boyfriend's birthday. She came all the way from KL to Nilai. Thanks Zal!

It was actually a design from another blogger, tak ingat mana hihi. Zalikha asked for that design.

From Mun, my ex-student for her niece/nephew's birthday. She ordered two sets of mini cupcakes, Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting.

Pretty Daisies

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Dollop M&M's

Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Nutella Chocolate Bread Pudding

Browsing through my baking pictures folder (yes I do have a folder for all my baking activities), I just realized that I have tons of photos to update. I mean although I don't have that much time nowadays to blog, it didn't stop me from baking something just to stop the craving.

Like this bread pudding.

I was alone. My brother was away to somewhere I don't remember. I had this full stack of plain bread and two jars of Nuttella. Accidentally bought the second jar when I thought the first was empty.

And so I started layering each layer of the breads with nuttella.

30 minutes later, I get a simple yet delectable on the go dessert. Oh so Nigella Lawson! Hehe.

Nutella Chocolate Bread Pudding

Adapted from Ovenhaven

8 slices of day old bread

1 egg

1 cup chocolate milk

2 tsp sugar

Nutella

1. Prehat oven to 170 degrees celcius. Spread Nutella over the breads, rolled it over and cut it into four rolls. Place it on the casserole dish.
2. In a bowl, whisk egg, chocolate milk and sugar. Pour the mixture into the rolls and leave aside for a few minutes.
3. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Best serve warm.

ps: I doubled the amount of bread because I don't like a soggy bread pudding ;)

Tiramisu

I'd never tasted a tiramisu before. Not that I don't like it but I was never a fan of coffee. Few months back, I bought 1 pack savoiardi biscuits or also called as ladyfingers. I put it away in my store room along with my other baking stuff and forgotten. Few months after that I had some cream cheese leftover so I thought I could make a tiramisu. It was too late because apparently the seal wasn't completely sealed and ants were everywhere in it.

It sucks.

Few weeks after that I bought another pack of ladyfingers. This time around pretty sure that I would make it within that week and voila!

A tiramisuuuuuuuu!

I was quite ecstatic at first. Even my brother asked me about it when he saw it on the fridge.

Instead of using Mascarpone cheese, I opted for a cream cheese instead. But if you asked me I would strongly suggest using a mascarpone cheese!

Recipe I get from here. Sorry I did typed just now and after I clicked 'Publish Post', the post gone :(

Roses Cake

Sorry for the long silence. I was pretty preoccupied with so much lately; sister's wedding, the resignation, baking orders and so much more!

And this is a red velvet and white cake. It has 3 layers (very heavy and high!); 2 white cake layers and one red velvet layer. I frosted it with cream cheese frosting and buttercream. It was for my students to marked their last day at school somewhere in February or March :p

I was so inspired by the cake from I am Baker that I immediately frosted it rightaway. The buttercream was a bit hard though sebab tu crack2 tak smooth :( I had to frost it less than an hour, that's explained.

And nothing beats me when I saw their faces :)

ps: I did try making her hydrangea cake. *sigh* need to practice more!

Cupcakes Design

It has been quite sometime since I update anything related to cupcakes. Here introducing some basic design you may choose;

Dollop M&M's

Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

Basic Chocolate

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

Basic Vanilla

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Rosies

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cupcakes with Vanilla Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Banana Cake

I know I have a very bad memory. I couldn't remember most of the things happened in my life. I don't know because of the fact that I hate raisins as much as I hate cockroaches or because my brain processor is very small I tend to omit details that won't be beneficial for me for the next 10 years.

But apart from this short term memory I do remember one thing clearly. I'd never had any homemade birthday cake made for me. I'd never fancied a birthday celebration. I thought I looked like an idiot celebrating, singing and cheering my birthday. I do prefer a quite celebration, with the family.

And I do prefer a homemade cake.

So, when a birthday is approaching, I will immediately scuffled with tons of recipes, scrutinizing everything, each of the ingredients to make a perfect birthday cake.

And when it was time for the boyfriend, I know one thing: he loves Secret Recipe's Banana Chocolate Cake. Although I was contemplating to bake one at first (because I just gave him a chocolate cake) but in the end it was his day, and I should get over it.

I was having problem with the ganache as always. I just have to find a good ratio of the whipping cream and chocolate and a proper temperature to pour.

I opted for a simple design. I don't want anything fancy. I don't want any wordings on the cake (now whose cake was it for? hehe).

The verdict? The bf loved it! My principle of making a layered cake: be generous! You really don't want a layered cake to be stack with just a few mm of filling. No, not good.

And the bananas? To prevent browning you can mix few drops of lemon/lime after slicing it.

Chocolate Banana Cake

Adapted from Citarasawan

Chocolate Chiffon:

(A)

30 g cocoa powder

4 egg yolks

100g sugar

130g self rising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

60ml oil

1 tsp vanilla

(B)

4 egg whites

60g sugar

1/4 tsp cream of tartar (I omit)

Filling:

400ml sweetened whipping cream

100g melted cooking chocolate (I used Hershey's chocolate syrup)

1 1/2 tsp nescafe (dissolve in 1 tbsp hot water)

1 tbsp gelatine (I soaked it in 40ml warm water for 15 minutes)

Banana slices

Chocolate Ganache:

140ml whipping cream

350g cooking chocolate

1 tbsp butter

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.
2. Mix all ingredients in A and beat using high speed until fluffy.
3. In another bowl, beat B until stiff peaks form.
4. Fold in A into B mixture gently and pour into a 8" pan. Bake for 40 minutes.
5. When the cake has cooled down, slice it into three or four even layers.
6. Beat the whipping cream until it doubles in volume and add in vanilla essence, melted chocolate, coffee and gelatine. Mix well.
7. Spread the filling on top of the first layer of the cake as a base. Make sure it is about 1/2 inch thick. Arrange banana slices on it before topping it off with another layer of cake. Repeat until finish.
8. Spread a thin coat of the filling around the whole cake as a crumbcoat. Cool it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, heat the whipping cream using a double boiler until its boil. Take it off from the heat and add in cooking chocolate and butter. Stir until it melts. When it has cooled down and reach to your desire consistency, pour it over the cake.

Of course I am not perfect!

Did you know there are few certain things that you don't know about my baking adventure. Like how I'd never bake anything related to yeast. Or my biggest fear during the whole baking process is beating the egg whites. and many more.

What you didn't know is it is not all beauty when it comes with the cake. I had few failures, sinking cake, as hard as rock cake (yes ain't no lie here), no taste cake, awful cake, yes you named it!

This is my brother's birthday cake. And I totally forgot peanut butter and cheese really ain't my thing.

We'd settled for three slices and threw away the rest. Well, it was more like I accidentally flipped over the cake pan and the cake fell on the floor, facing down. But I didn't even feel guilty afterwards. It was more like, relieved! :p

Recipe from here: Peanut Butter Fudge Cheesecake

And then, among other cakes that on my failure cakes list was Durian Cake.

My boyfriend was a hugeeeeeeeeeeeeee fan of durian until one day we ended up of having three large size tupperware filled with durian until we almost puke everytime we closed the fridge's door. I searched high and low for the recipe and settle for this; cake from here and filling from here.

It wasn't my biggest mistake but the cake was tasteless. I was dying to finish my unsweetened whipping cream so I used that. And I was never a fan of a chiffon or spongy cake, so I threw it away half of it because eventhough I thought it was tasteless, my brother think the other way round.

Just wait until the next durian season (probably next month).

The most disastrous cake I made was an attempt to bake a Pandan Layered Cake. An attempt because I couldn't even assemble. An attempt because eventhough I halves the recipe, my cake was solid. Like rock. Like a thick chopping board. Hard, very hard. And bitter.

In the middle of measuring, I realized that I was out of cake flour (and all purpose flour) so I substituted it with corn flour. Just a teeny weeny corn flour and 30 minutes after, I could just use the cake as my temporary hammer.

I was devastated at first but happy few minutes after that because I could finally called it off for that day and sleep early :)

I baked a Buttermilk Banana Bread the other day. Looking at the picture from the original blog, I thought mine would be as delicious at it seems. But no. I don't know what happened but I just baked a Bingka Pisang instead of a bread. So yeah. I don't know what went wrong. Up until now i just called my delicious banana bread as bingka pasang.

Maybe I should be a magician?