A birthday cake for a mom and grandmother

This is probably my fifth cake order. A colleague and friend ordered this cake for her mommy. I learnt that her mommy adores her two grandchildren and her favourite past time is shopping. So I created this custom cake for her.

A teeny tiny teddy for the girl .. probably the size of a 10 cents coin.

And a last minute addition .. the little boy's favourite doraemon. A feeble attempt, really. But my hubby thinks it looks cute in a funny way, so I decided to add that in anyway.

I had loads of fun creating this cake ... but spent way too much time that I felt like a lousy mommy myself.

The Rejected Birthday Cake

Chinese New Year second day was my mother-in-law's birthday. Baked her her favourite mango cake. Mango is not in season now, so its much more expensive than usual and rather hard to find. But I managed to get some really fragrant Australian ones.

Due to some mis-understanding, the cake was not presented to birthday girl.

However, I am glad that the unhappy episode had since blown over.

Assortment of CNY cookies

Caught the cookie bug recently. Had been baking nothing but cookies. Here are the assortment of seven types of cookies I baked for Chinese New Year.



First, the pineapple tarts. Tougher dough for open tarts and melt-in-the-mouth-dough for closed tarts.


Peanut cookies and biscotti. I never quite liked peanut cookies, but MIL's old recipe is good. The peanut cookies tastes great after a few days.

Chocolate almond cookies, dried shrimp cookies and melting moments butter cookies.


A very happy Chinese New Year to you. Cheers!

Baptism cake

Jennifer, our cell group leader's daughter got baptised recently. SHe's a really sweet girl. The big sister who took care of the little ones (including my two children) while we adults have our bible study.

I baked a carrot cake for her to comemorate the occasion and of course, to convey our prayers for her.

Here's a closeup of the little girl

May you grow in the Christ each day, Jennifer.

Pistachio Macaroons

I had been trying my luck at baking macaroons again. But alas, I had nothing but failures.

First attempt on 1 Jan 2009.

This batch has :

- no legs
- bad colour, not even green

- cracked top

Second attempt, 11 Jan. Same recipe

-With thin legs
- flat-ish
- not cracked, but uneven surface
- dis-coloured, uneven colour

Despite above, still continued to fill it. Tried both cream cheese and chocolate ganache filling.

Unable to figure out what's wrong. Any expert advise from anyone?

Got the recipe from Tartelette

Pistachio Macarons, adapted from Stephane Glacier.
Makes 35
225 gr powdered sugar
60 gr almonds
65 gr pistachios
3 egg whites (about 100gr)
green food coloring (optional) (powdered is better)
25 gr granulated sugar

In a food processor, run the nuts and powdered sugar until the nuts are finely ground. Run through a sieve if needed.
Whip the egg whites until foamy, slowly add the granulated sugar, until they are glossy. Add the green food coloring if using.
Slowly fold the nut/sugar mixture into the whites with a wide spatula. The mixture should remain shiny and flow easily.
Fill a pastry bag with the batter and pipe small rounds onto parchment lined baking sheets.
Let the macarons rest for 20 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 315 and when they are ready, bake them for 12-15 minutes.
Let cool, remove from the paper and fill with the ganache.

Finally.

These I bought from Bakerzin.

Yummy pancakes for breakfast

Recently, when I bake, my 5 year old boy would come to me, wanting to help. I would find excuses to refuse because he tend to make the whole baking process much longer and messier.



Feeling bad, I asked him to make pancakes for the family breakfast. He was thrilled. I printed a recipe from the internet and asked him to follow.

He measured the ingredients, sift the flour, mix the ingredients together.. of course with loads of help from mommy. But when we served the pancake, he proudly announced that he made the pancakes with only a little bit of help from mommy. He also keep announcing how delicious it was. :-)





Recipe taken from ALLRECIPE by Dakota Kelly

Good Old Fashioned Pancakes

INGREDIENTS
190 g all-purpose flour
10 g baking powder
6 g salt
10 g white sugar
295 ml milk
1 egg
45 g butter, melted


DIRECTIONS
In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and melted butter; mix until smooth.

Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Girly cupcakes - update

Managed to download a few pics taken using my phone. Warning - quality of pics is bad.

The main cake :

The sides :