Banana Cake and Indonesian Layer Cake or Spekkoek

Have been having lots of visitors dropping by during tea time and I decided to make some cakes for my friends.  When we have a cuppa, I will serve the cakes warm...verdict...delicious.

Banana Cake is very popular in Malaysia and Singapore and I have been eating banana cake since I could remember.  Since bananas are so cheap in Malaysia and Singapore and you can even find banana trees in quite a number of house gardens, banana cake will be baked at least once a week in most households.

Another cake which I made for my friends is the Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek).  It is also known as a Dutch-Indonesian Layer Cake which originated from this cake called Baumkuchen.  It takes ages to do it as I had to bake layer by layer but the finished product is just awesomely yummylicious.

Here's the photos of my Indonesian Layer Cake and Banana Cake.

Indonesian Layer Cake (Spekkoek)

Banana Cake

Thank you so much for loving my cakes my dearest friends...let's have tea again soon and catch up!!!

Tiffany Box Cake & A Very Merry Christmas to All...

My very last order before Christmas....

Yes...a customer wanted to order a Tiffany Box Cake for her daughter's 21st birthday and I only had 24 hours to do it.  So...I told her that I will try my very best.  I baked the mudcake, crumb coat it and lay the fondant over it and worked on it to make it look like a tiffany box. I am happy to say that the customer was happy with the cake and I am really hoping that her daughter will be happy with it too.  Here's the tiffany box cake which I made.

After that...hubby and I were buying buying ingredients for our family Christmas dinner....

***

Here's what we cooked for 2013's Christmas...

Till we meet again...

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!!!

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake

I know that some people loves a good old lemon meringue pie and others would just die for a good lemon cheesecake.  So, what if these two desserts can be combined and then everyone can enjoy the best of both worlds? Well...you can and its in the form of Lemon Meringue Cheesecake.  I have been trying to get the right smooth and creamy texture of the cheesecake, the tanginess of the lemon and the heavenly crispy bite of the meringue and this is what I finally came out with.  Since I had extra meringue, I made some meringue cookies.  I was a little worried that my lemon meringue cheesecake will be a huge failure but....phew!!!.... everyone who tasted it loved it...wohoo!!!  Here's a photo of my lemon meringue cheesecake...

Here's to the "best of both worlds".....

Cakes and Cupcakes

My two precious have finished their schools for this year and I wanted to thank both of their teachers for teaching my children for the year.  So, I decided to make some cupcakes and cakes to show my appreciation.

Number One Teacher
By Joanna Fuchs

I’m happy that you’re my teacher;
I enjoy each lesson you teach.
As my role model you inspire me
To dream and to work and to reach.

With your kindness you get my attention;
Every day you are planting a seed
Of curiosity and motivation
To know and to grow and succeed.

You help me fulfill my potential;
I’m thankful for all that you’ve done.
I admire you each day, and I just want to say,
As a teacher, you’re number one!

Here's what I managed to do within a day....

After that...I remembered that my boss's birthday is just in a few days time and since he loves Japanese food, I decided to make him some cupcakes in the form of sushi.  Fingers cross....really hope he will like it...

That's all for today....am planning what we are going to do for Christmas...

Bye.........

Baking, Baking in the Kitchen

Christmas is coming and what better way to entice my family than to baked myself a fruitcake.  As we do not take alcohol, I made a non-alcoholic fruitcake using juices.  I remember when I was young and my Grandma will line us (her precious grandchildren) up and put us to work on the dining table.  She will be busy cutting her fruitcakes into pieces and all of us will be busy wrapping it up for our relatives, neighbours and friends.  Once the job is done, she will cook us our favourite dinner dishes.  While wrapping these cakes, we will be spoiled with Milo Dinosaur, Chocolate Chip Cookies, Currypuffs and Prawn Crackers.  I have never stop following this tradition of my Grandma's....I am still making fruitcakes....yes, siree!!!

Here's a photo of my 1st fruitcake for this year...

This fruitcake only lasted 2 days in this household....haha!

The next day, I was pestered by my little Princess to bake her some focaccia bread.  It seems that this bread originated from Italy and mostly seasoned with olive oil, salt and some herbs.  Here's a photo of my focaccia bread...managed to bake 2 slabs.

And...the following day, my other half wanted some butter cake. I tend to bake butter cake every week. Sometimes, I change it a little and transforms it to a marble butter cake so that everyone in the house will not be bored with it.  I not to sure if I have posted any butter or marble butter cakes before in this blog...so, I decided to post one today.  As you know, when someone mentions butter cake, you know that the main ingredient will be butter.  I have been eating butter cakes since I was a toddler.  This recipe has been passed down from one generation to the next and I am going to pass this down to my kids.  Here's a photo of my marble butter cake.

And lastly, a buddy of mine wanted us to try this recipe - CRONUTS.  What is a cronut? Its actually a huge craze right now around the world.  It is an invention by Chef Dominique Ansel for Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City. Cronut is a combination of croissant and donut.  Here's a photo of our homemade cronuts...

That's all for this time...happy baking, everyone!!!

Kueh Bahulu (Mini Egg Cake)

Kueh Bahulu is a sentimental kueh for me as this little cutie is especially baked during festive seasons such as Chinese New Year, Christmas, etc.  When I was little, my Grandma will gather all her baking stuff and will bring it under the house where the charcoal fire has been lighted and burning softly.  My Grandma will then sit at the front of the charcoal burner and make these kueh bahulu.  My aunties will be there chit-chatting with my Grandma and helps her un-mould these kueh bahulu.  And I will be there holding the fan and upon instruction, I will be fanning away to ensure that there's always constant fire in the charcoal burner. Gosh...how I miss my Grandma Rosa L.

My two kiddos were asking me about my good old days and I was telling them about kueh bahulu and such.  They were so curious that I decided to make some just for them to try it.  Furthermore, my other half was asking for it too.  As I do not have the kueh bahulu moulds, I decided to make do with my little mini muffin pan.

Here's my little kueh bahulu (mini muffin style)....

Hubby said that even though it doesn't look like kueh bahulu, the taste is just the SAME.... 

and....my 2 kiddos love it so much!!! :)

Cakes which I made with love....

September is a busy month for me...there's always customers who are ordering cakes this month, love ones celebrating their birthdays, etc, etc, etc.  We had a joke at work about how come so many of our staffs birthdays fall in September and one of my colleagues said .....you guys figure it out yourselves...

Here's some of the cakes which I made for the month of September

That's all for now, folks!!!

Happy Birthday to all who are born in September!!!

A Piece of Cake for Each Teacher to say Thank You!

My kids were saying that they would like to give their teachers something to say thank you and I thought that a piece of cake decorated nicely would be just awesome.  It might be a strange idea but I wanted to give this idea of mine a try.

So, I baked 2 mudcakes and cut it into equal sizes,  iced it and wrapped it with fondant. Then I decorated it with something simple.  My kids gave me their thumbs up and off we went delivering it to their teachers the next day.  Here's how it looked like.  I made 8 pieces in all.

I was really happy to hear from my kids that their teachers loved it.

Minecraft Cake and Cupcakes for my little Prince

As I mentioned in my earlier post, my little Prince wanted a Minecraft Theme...cake and cupcakes which he can bring to school to celebrate.  This Mommy doesn't even know what or who is Minecraft. So, what did I do? Googled it and found out its a Wii game and the whole thing looks like legoland with Creepers and Steve and other stuffs.

So, I asked my little Prince what he wanted and he wanted Creepers cupcakes and a Cake with Steve on top of it.  I have been really busy with work and stuff.  I tried my best to make this theme happen with some help from my kids...lazy me, right?

So..here's how the cupcakes and cake looked like.

Cake with the character Steve

Creepers Cupcakes

I was pretty nervous when I brought the cake and cupcakes to school as I was really hoping that if its not 100% alike, at least they will recognise the characters.  When I displayed the cake and cupcakes and heard the "ooo...its Steve, its the creepers"..."its Minecraft"...all the butterflies flew away.  When I looked at my little Prince and he gave me the biggest smile and hugged me..that's the best gift a Mother could ever want.

Ben10 2D Cake

The whole family went for my little Prince's classmate birthday party yesterday and my little one kept telling me how his buddy loves Ben10, etc, etc, etc. So, I decided to surprise him with a Ben10 birthday cake for him to celebrate on the weekends with his family and relatives.  I made a orange chocolate cake for him, iced it with buttercream and covered it with fondant. After that, I tried to start the engine to get some creative juice flowing.  Since I only have several hours, I decided to make a 2D cake with Ben10 as the focus.  My other half helped me with the fondant as we made it from scratch.

This is what we came out with for my Prince's buddy. We are keeping out fingers cross and really hope he will love it.

See you guys again soon....right now, its hero time!!!!

Katsutera Cake

Katsutera cake is a very popular cake in Japan and it has been a very popular cake on the "must bake" list for a lot of bakers.  I have read stories on how Katsutera cake came about in Japan. Some mentioned that its from the Portuguese who ventured to Japan in the 16th century. Katsutera cake is a sponge cake made from bread flour, sugar, honey and eggs.

This cake has been in my "must bake" listt for ages and finally I managed to make it one fine day.  It does not look as fantastic as those I have seen in Japan but I am happy to say that the taste is pretty alike.  My hubby and my 2 kiddos loved it too. To me, that's the most important thing... :)

Here's a photo of my humble katsutera cake.

Now that I know how to bake this delicious cake, I will bake it again and again and again.

Danish Pastry, Mango Cheesecake & Cupcakes

Danish pastry....this is one pastry which I can eat time and time again...I love it more when its straight out from the oven..yummy!  Where is it from? Denmark, one may think. However, its from Vienna, Austria. Over here, we will have custard and jam in the middle or inside of the danish, and we will decorate it with fruits. I often bake these babies, however, it seems that not many people likes it here though....maybe I am not getting the local flavours right...hmmm??!!??

Mangoes are pretty cheap now and its goes nicely with cheesecake. Its also full of Vitamin A and C. Hence, I decided to whip-up mango cheesecake at my workplace and wanted to see if its a hit.  I am happy to say that its has been selling pretty well....I am indeed delighted.  Here's a photo of my mango cheesecake.

And lastly...here's something for the children...cupcakes or patty cakes.  From the stories I heard from my Chef, cupcakes were already in existance since the 19th century, believe it or not.  I have been using a basic cupcake recipe but I found out that the children prefers it when I use the chocolate cake recipe.  Hence, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes and am pleased to say that its pretty popular...wohoo! Here's a photo of my cupcakes.

That's all for now...till next time...happy baking!!!

Japanese Roll Cake - 2nd Attempt

I am the joke in this household at the moment...sigh!!! How can I call myself a baker if I can't even bake a simple swiss roll / roll cake perfectly. *Embarrassing siah!!!*  I was telling my Chef about it and he said, no one is perfect, girl. Even he himself who has 40 years of experience still cannot do some items. But, he told me not to give up ever...yes-siree...am NOT going to give up.

This time around, am going to make a simple roll cake...just with cream. My little prince complained that the jam which I spread on the roll cake the first time wasn't his "favourite".  He would prefer to have roll cake with cream only.  So, this time around, its roll cake with cream only for my little prince.  I tried a new recipe for my 2nd attempt. Since its hard to get cake flour here, I used plain flour and cornflour.

Here's a photo of my roll cake, rolled and ready to be placed in the refrigerator. This will be chilled for at least 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, I kept my fingers crossed, opened it up and cut the roll....took a deep breath and "phew!!!"....I finally able to say, I did it.  Not as perfect as I would like it to be, but, its good enough for me. My other half and my little prince and little princess ate it happily.

Till next time....ta-daa

Basic Japanese Roll Cake

My little prince wanted to have swiss roll for his morning tea and I am one person who is just pretty hopeless in rolling up a swiss roll / roll cake. However, since my little prince asked for it, what can a mother do but to bake it for him.  Since its only for my little prince, I decided to make a small roll with 2 eggs, sugar, cake flour and milk. He also wanted jam and whipped cream as filling.

I was really hoping that my roll cake will be a success this time, however.....haiz!!!....it wasn't.  Alas, my little prince still ate it and said ...."Mummy, its still yummy!!!"  I will try harder the next time.  Here's a photo of my failed roll cake.

Till nex time....happy baking!!!

Japanese Cheese Cake

I have always been interested in learning how to do the soft and fluffy cheese cake which I often bought in a japanese cake shop near my house when I was young.  When I went to Japan, I love the soft and fluffy cheese cakes which I could find everywhere. However, back here, I don't seems to be able to find anything similiar to it even though I venture out to chinatown.

When I was in university, one of my friends (she is from Japan) gave me the recipe as a birthday present and when I made it the first time, I failed big time and I told myself that maybe I am just not good at baking. However, after graduating and started working, I finally managed to bake this delicious soft and fluffy cheese cake.  Even though it doesn't look like the store bought ones, the taste is just awesome.

Since I found some cream cheese in the fridge, I decided to make the cheese cake which I love and I kept my fingers crossed the whole time...just in case, I fail again.  After taking some photos, we couldn't help ourselves and ate it with delight.  Here's a photo of my humble japanese cheese cake.

Till next time...happy baking!!!

Mango & Peaches Creamed Sponge Cake

Spring is here and fruits are plentiful. So, I have been decorating my cakes with fruits and my customers are loving it. As my other half kept saying..... "so Asian..."

Here's another cake which I made for one of my customers. Its a sponge cake, filled with strawberry jam, creamed and decorated with fruits.  Here's a photo of my mango & peaches creamed sponge cake.

And, here's a slab cake which I made a month ago (didn't take a photo of it but my colleague who took it was kind enough to SMS me a copy).  I am really happy when my customers love my creations.

Since I am off today, I decided to make some pizzas and let my 2 precious "make" the pizzas.  Here's a photo of their creations.  I am very happy when my kids share my passion in creating magic in the kitchen.

Besides that, my little princess have been asking for raisin bread and I informed her that I will make her some during my off day. So, when I woke-up this morning, the first thing I did with her was to bake her the raisin bread. I am so happy to see her eating her first bun and finished it within a few minutes...haha! Here's a photo of the raisin bread which we made.

And right now, am going to bake a souffle cheese cake as I found some cream cheese in the fridge and its going to expire soon.  Better bake something before I have to throw the cheese into the bin.  Will take a photo later...till then...have a wonderful weekend.

Edible Chocolate Transfer - Transfer A Picture onto A Cake

Edible chocolate transfer is similiar to frozen buttercream transfer.  This is a simple way to get an image onto your cake without buying a printer with edible ink, etc, etc, etc.  When one of our customers came in and asked if we could do a "Hoot The Owl" cake for her daugther's 1st birthday, I was all for it as I would like to try my hands on doing a chocolate transfer of Hoot.

Here's the outcome of my cake and I really hope that they will like it tomorrow.

Here's some photos of the buns which I made at work. Thank goodness it turned out soft and fluffy.

That's all for now...till next time...happy baking!!!

Busy, Busy Weekend...

It has been a very busy weekend at my workplace as there was a huge event in town. We have been so busy making cakes, pies, sausage rolls, pasties, etc. One of our regulars order his usual cake for his club and even though I know we are going to be busy, I still took the order as he is our regular customer.  Once the event is over, business will be back to normal and our regulars are the ones who will stick to us and support us. We made more than 200 pies, 200 sausage rolls, 150 pasties....etc,etc,etc.  I worked more than 11 hours on Saturday and Sunday. Besides this, had to make some slices for my boy's school fete. It has been a busy, busy week for me.

Anyway, as I was saying, I made a sponge cake with fruits for our regular customer and I was pretty happy with the results.  Here's a photo of my humble cake. Didn't even had time to display it properly..just place it into the cake box, snap a photo and pass it to the counter girls...haha!

Here's another mudcake which I made for one of our regular customers.  According to science, chocolate is a girl's best friend and it makes her smile. I am so happy to hear that the birthday girl loved the cake. That really made my day. :) Here's a photo of my humble mudcake.

Till next time...happy baking.

Strawberries & Blueberries Fruits Sponge Cake

Sponge cake is a very versatile cake and its a good celebration cake.  Sponge cake is soft and fully and its suitable for all ages.  Over here, lots of people love to sandwich the sponge cake with a layer of their favourite jam and whipped cream. Then, we will coat with it another layer of whipped cream and decorate it with fruits and such.  Since its beginning of spring, I decided to give our customer a touch of spring but colouring the whipped cream light green. I also decided to lavish it with strawberries and blueberries.  Here's a photo or two of my fruits sponge cake.

I showed these photos to a friend of mine and she said...its so Asian...you can find these cakes in most Asian bakeries....

Oh well....as long as it looks nice and taste heavenly....it doesn't matter.... yummylicious!!!

Jelly Cakes, Cream & Jam Matchsticks...is it Aussie?

Jelly cake is pretty similar to lamingtons, I guess. So, is it Australian? What's the history of this little cake? Hmm...am still finding for the story behind this though. I have heard about the history about lamingtons though...pretty interesting.  And what about matchsticks...is it another Aussie made dessert? I have no answers for you guys but in my humble opinion, YES!!!  So, what's jelly cakes? Its a sponge cake baked in a cupcake mould, rolled into a jelly dip (I prefer raspberry or strawberry) and then coat with shredded coconut.  Here's a photo of my jelly cakes.

Cream and jam matchsticks...I really wonder why to call it matchsticks? Does it look like matchsticks? Oh well, its delicious and its easy to do too. All you have to do is to bake the puff pastry which you have cut into ractangular shapes. Once its cool, halve it and fill it with jam and whipped cream. Sandwich it together and sprinkle icing sugar on top. That's how easy it is.  Here's a photo of it.

All these goodies is just awesome for afternoon tea with a cup of brewed coffee or tea.

Enjoy!!!