Fondant birthday cake

I have to bake a birthday cake today and I was eager to try out the fondant cake decoration I learned last week. I was worried that it will not turn out well because it will be my first try on a real cake.

I use only fondant icing. I couldn't find gum tragacanth at both the bakery stores near to my house so I can't make any gum paste. I don't want the cake to look too plain so I came up with some simple design for the cake.

I have to get some colouring for the fondant but both the stores that I frequent don't have it. The sales lady at one of the store told me I could use normal food colouring. I took her advice and the colour turn out quiet good.

The cake decoration turned out better than I expected.

I use butter cake and frost it with butter cream before I covered it with the fondant icing. Probably I have added too much milk to the batter of the butter cake because as you can see in the photo the cake looked a bit damp. But overall, the cake is still okay.

Fondant cake is actually nice to see but not nice to eat. The fondant icing is very sweet. When I eat the cake I threw the fondant away. The fondant icing I made actually tasted quiet good because I added butter vanilla flavouring to it. But I can't eat it because it is too sweet.

It is actually fun decorating and work on the design for the cake and I will try out a few more soon.

Rose garden

I was lucky to get the opportunity to stay at my Technical Manager house in Hamilton and then my MD's house in Auckland when I visited our NZ HQ in 1995.

Below is my Technical Manager's garden, it look awesome to me because I don't see flowers blooming this well in my neighbourhood. I like the roses the most.

He has a few plum trees too. Unfortunately I didn't get to eat any plum because they weren't ripe yet.

And, this is my MD's grapefruit tree. Too bad I didn't get to taste it.

Both my MD and Technical Manager has a great family and they are great host too. I had a great time staying with them and the memories will last forever.

Few years later I tried to grow some roses in my garden but it didn't turn out well. Guess the weather here is just not suitable for roses.

After a while the leaves became dry and full of holes, I guess there must be some bugs that is eating the leaves. I have got rid of all the rose plants.

Gardening

I love gardening when I am not baking. Lately I have been crazy over baking that I have neglected my garden for a while. I have a small garden and every now and then I like to move things around a bit so I don't get bored looking at the same things all the time.

I love plants that grows on the water. I had all the lotus plants for more than 6 years already and they are still growing very well and blooming every once in a while. I have both the yellow and pink flower lotus.

I love plant that bear fruits too. Since I have a small garden I grow most of the fruit plant in the pot except the grape plant. Those I have in the pot are longan, pomelo, mini apple, pomegranate and 2 different type of limes.

Guess, I have to spare some time tidying up the garden already.

Mini chocolate cupcakes with butter cream

The butter cream I made yesterday was very sweet. I used 230gm icing sugar with 113g unsalted butter. It is just too sweet for me. I gave it another try today but I change to another recipe that I got.

Today I use 120gm (recipe said 240gm) icing sugar with 105gm margarine. Both my mother and my brother said it is still sweet. But my SIL and I think today's butter cream is okay. I like the recipe that I use today. However, I will give it another try some other day and will reduce the icing sugar to 80gm.

I bake some mini chocolate cupcakes to go with the butter cream today. I like the chocolate cupcake recipe. It is moist and delicious. In the picture below you will see that the cake cracked at the top but it is not dry.

My brother said the chocolate cake is bitter but I felt it is okay when eat together with the butter cream.

Vanilla cupcake with butter cream

I was eager try out the cupcakes recipe I got from the web. So I baked some this morning. The cake is nice with a bit moist but the butter cream is a too sweet to my liking. Guess I have to look for other butter cream recipe.

Fondant cake decoration

See my 3rd cake decoration..... a speedy improvement comparing to the previous two times right?



ha ha ha.... the decoration is real but the cake is not.

I was really curious to know what is fondant and so I attended fondant cake decoration class today. It was really interesting and fun to learn about fondant and gum paste and what you are able to do with it. I still needs lots of practices and I just can't wait to do it on a real cake and see how's the result. A big thank you to Teacher Yasmin Sanusi.

Assorted jelly & Mum's chicken curry

My mother asked me to have dinner at her house tonight, she is cooking chicken curry. Another of my daughter's favourite dish.

But nowadays the weather is so hot and dry, so I thought I will made something that is cooling for dessert. I made some jelly and I will take over to my mother's place tonight.

My mother blended her own secret recipe chilly paste for all her curry. The aroma is so nice and the curry is simply irresistible.

Unlike me, I only know how to cook with the ready-mix chilly paste. I still got so much to learn.

Cuttlefish & shrimp curry

My daughter is going to be very happy when she comes home from school today. I cooked her favourite cuttlefish dish.

I use the chilli paste that my mum made. My mum doesn't do baking but she is very good at cooking and the chilli paste she made is very nice for any curry dish.

I am lazy to go to the shop to get the freshly grated coconut so I use whipping cream instead of santan. Taste just as good.

Coconut bun & Mini sausage bun

I love baking bread the most because I love the aroma from the baking filled up my kitchen. The aroma make me feel good guess that is why I like to go to bakery shop or just walk by them will also be enough.

I baked some coconut buns and sausage buns yesterday.

The buns are soft and nice.

I tried to roll the buns as round as possible but every time it failed. The roundness just dissapear during the final proofing. I wonder if there is a special way to roll the buns?

Orange Chiffon in the cups

I like the pandan chiffon in the cups and since it turned out so well, I thought I will change the receipe a bit and make some orange chiffon and will see if it turn out well.

I ran out of fresh orange at home and I don't felt like going to the hyper market because there is always a crowd on Sundays. So I asked my daughter to get some orange juice from 7-eleven.

The cake turned out well. It was slightly dry on the top at the begining but it turned soft and nice after several hours later. The cake was still yummy after the third day.

Pandan Chiffon in paper cup

I tried the pandan chiffon recipe from bakingmum, the cake was really good and yummy. I bake some more in the paper cup again last Thursday and it was just as yummy as the first time I bake them.