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.........

Busy in the Kitchen.....Cakes, Desserts, Noodles, Rice and everything nice...

I have not been blogging for a while as I have just started a new job and am trying to familiarize myself with my new position. Since today is my off day, I decided to blog a little.

Pongteh is a peranakan dish and when someone mentions pongteh, people who knows this dish will directly have an image of a non-spicy dish with pork, pig trotters cooked with preserved fermented soya bean paste.  However, as I had lots of chicken meat in my freezer, I decided to whipped up another version - Chicken Pongteh. Furthermore, my 2 kiddos love hard boiled eggs and I made sure I included that inside the dish.  I often add in stuff which are not suppose to be added in.  However, for a busy Mom like myself, as long as everyone in the family is happy and is eating well, adding or taking out an ingredient is not a big deal for me.  Here's a photo of my version of Chicken Pongteh.

A friend of mine just loves pandan chiffon cakes and she is willing to travel miles just to buy a couple.  As I had some pandan leaves and coconut in my cabinet, I decided to make a pandan chiffon cake for her. Pandan is actually known as Pandanus Amaryllifolius Leaves and chiffon cake is a light airy cake made from oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and flavourings ( in my case, its pandan).  I was quite fearful at first as I did not have a chiffon cake mold and I was using my silicon bundt mold but thankfully, it came out pretty OK.  Here's a photo of my pandan chiffon cake.

Noodles...that's like a staple food in my family.  My 2 kiddos just love noodles..just like their Mommy and Daddy.  So, what did I make recently?  A simple version of Wat Tarn Hor (Flat Rice Noodles in Egg Starchy Gravy).  This is a hit with my kids and I suppose its a much loved dish for a lot of kids.  Most of the time, I will just ask my kids what they want for lunch / dinner and then go searching for the ingredients in my fridge.  So, if I run out of one ingredient, I will substitute with another...haha!  Here's a photo of my simple version of Wat Tarn Hor.

I had a friend from USA visiting us recently and we were talking about General Tso's Chicken which is a famous chinese take-away dish in USA and we decided to make it at home.  I did some research and I found out that this dish is not originated from China but from New York, USA.  So, here's our version of General Tso's Chicken and its really yummy with white rice.  My friend gave me 2 thumbs up... :)

Moving on.... I had to do some cupcakes for a function.  They wanted chocolate cupcakes and it must be a little fancy too.  So, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a dallop of ganache inside of it and I pipe roses on top of it.  Thank goodness everyone loved it.  Here's a photo of my chocolate cupcakes.

My other half wanted some lor mai kai which is a popular item in a dim sum menu during yum cha hours.  Since I still  have 1/2 packet of glutinous rice left, I decided to make him some since dim sum also mean touch your heart. So, gonna make some lor mai kai to touch my other half heart...haha!!!  Here's a photo of my lor mai kai.

I also made some macarons for a friend of mine who is gluten free.  She just loves macarons and what better way to spoil her than make her a batch of her favourite cookies.  Here's a photo of my macarons.

Had some over-riped bananas in the kitchen the other day and I decided to do some Cokodok (Banana Fritters) which is a traditional Malaysian snack made of flour and bananas and its deep fried.  This snack is delicious when its hot or cold.  Here's a photo of my Cokodok.

And since I am on the topic of snack, here's another delicious snack which I often make when I want something Malaysian.  This is my version of cucur badak (lazy version) and here's my photo of it.

Lastly, I made cupcake bouquet for my lady boss. It's her birthday and I decided to make something so that she can share with her family when they celebrate her birthday with her.  Here's a photo of my cupcake bouquet.

These are some of the things which I made for my family and friends last month.  Most of the time, I just totally forgot to take photos of the things I made as I am always rushing, rushing, rushing...haha!!!  Will update soon.  In the meantime, have fun in the kitchen and see ya!!!

Cupcakes, Cupcakes, Cupcakes

I am one person who doesn't really know how to express myself.  Therefore, I prefer to do it by making them something to say thank you for being my friend. Since I am on leave now, I decided to make some cupcakes for my friends when I visit them to catch up.  Its nothing much but that's how I know to say what I just don't know how to express out...you know.

Here's the cupcakes (made couple of batches) which I made for my friends.

I am so glad that my friends loved the cupcakes.

Thank you friends for being MY friends.

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.

June, June...busy busy month of June

It has been a while since I last wrote. Lots of things are happening in June....birthdays and I mean lots of birthdays and school holidays.  I have been so busy making cakes, cooking for friends and relatives and making plans for the school holidays.

Here's some of the things which I managed to take some photos of....busy, busy, busy...

Deep Fried Fish Soup with Rice

Cream Cakes for the June Birthday Boys and Girls

Winnie the Pooh Cupcakes and 2D Cake for my little Princess.  She turned 5...a big girl now.

Japanese Curry Chicken Rice

Prawn Noodles (Hae Mee)

Cream Sponge Cake for a Customer

Right now, I am busy baking cupcakes and a mudcake for my little Prince's 7th Birthday.  He wants me to create a Minecraft Theme and he wants to celebrate it in school...wish me luck!!!

Cupcakes with Love

We were planning a nice day out with the family but I received a phone call asking if I could bake some cupcakes.  An old friend of ours is down as someone broke her heart. My whole bunch of girlfriends wanted to sent the message across - WE LOVE YOU! We are here for you! I told them that I could come out with something simple as I really do not have much time to bake and decorate...especially if I only have 2 hours max.

So...with a simple chocolate cake recipe, I baked the cupcakes. While I was baking it, I made the buttercream with 1 shot of espresso. I also wanted to send the message that we LOVE her!  So...here's what I came out with....something SIMPLE.

Brought over the cupcakes and when I saw her face... I knew she got our message!
My dearest friend....we are here for you!!!

Happy Halloween Cupcakes

We don't really celebrate Halloween in our family but my little prince wanted to bring some Halloween cupcakes to school to celebrate with his friends.  He asked me what is Halloween and I had to read about it before explaining it to him...me bad, right? It seems that its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. This is the time where the 2 worlds - living and the dead overlaps. Wow...that sounds so much like our 7th Month (Ghost Month). It seems also that the masks and consumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them. This is indeed so interesting. To read more about it, please visit http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

These are the cupcakes which I made for my little prince.  I used a simple chocolate cake recipe which my kids love and iced it with orange buttercream and spiders which I bought from the neighbourhood shop.
Verdict - they loved it!

Cupcakes....

I have been making cupcakes for friends and relatives for awhile now and just the pass 2 weeks, 2 of my cousins asked me to make 3 dozens each for their departmental party or something. The first 3 dozens was a flower theme. She wanted something that is simple, nice, sweet and with flowers.  So, I came out with a few designs and she wanted several designs in her 3 dozens.  Here's a photo which my other half managed to snap.

For my second 3 dozens, it was to the theme of "Rough Sea of Love".  Made 2 different designs and here's what my other cousin picked.  Here's a photo of the cupcakes.

Received phone calls from my cousins and the verdict - THEY LOVED IT!!! Wohoo!!!  I got another order from her colleague... :)