Nana's Wedding Part II

It 's no secret to the family that Nana's dream was to have a 3-tiered cake for her wedding. She had been talking about it for ages and ages.

This young auntie of hers (I am not THAT ole', mind you...hehehe!) offered to make this fervent wish possible. With most trepidation and suspense, this young auntie baked, decorated and stacked the cakes. Fortunately, this young auntie has some assistance from little helpers and a resident engineer who calculated, plan and helped executing the stacking the 2 big cakes on 8 thin pillars, without any risks (or minimal risk) of the cakes tumbling down.

Phew! I'm glad that it was a success, Alhamdulillah.



Thanks Nana, for trusting this young auntie...

Graduation Day!

To my son, Zarif, who has just graduated from high school, a graduation poem:

Graduation Day is the climax of a dream.

A parental dream that began when a child is born,

And their hope come true it would seem,

A triumph held after periods of forlorn,

A feeling of pride and euphoria years away

For a daughter or son - Graduation Day.

It is a peak of success for the graduate,

Not only for the graduate but parents too.

A joyful event after many years they had to wait,

Realizing the glorious thrill of a dream come true,

A genuine smile accompanied by a deep sigh,

Often a handkerchief in hand as the class goes by.

Graduation is a deserving, hard earned goal

With mortarboard and gown as foretold,

A gratifying service of the mind and soul

In a simple and beautiful sheepskin told

That the graduate fulfilled the educational rule.

At last, for the mother and father,

a dream come true.

Graduation Day!

Joseph T. Renaldi

The above special cake was for Zarif on his Graduation Day 06112009, to be shared with his friends. He will be sitting for his SPM examination starting tomorrow. Wish you best of luck, my dear! My prayers are always with you....

Nana's Wedding - Part I

Dear Nana,

As you embark your new life as a wife, I wish you happiness always as Mrs Wan Adlan. May there'll be lots of little ones ( little Wans?) to grace your life and may Allah's guidance be with you along the way... always...

Lots of Luv,
Auntie Zura





Note: The fondant cake above was for Nana's 'hantaran balasan' during the Nikah ceremony yesterday. I would like to thank my SIL and my sifu/ friend for the guidance and assistance to make this fondant cake possible.

Best of Luck!

One of my staff is tranferred to another department. So, we arranged a potluck farewell party, together with two other staff from different sections.

Here's my contribution. By now, everybody expects a cake/ cupcakes from me whenever there's any potlucks or similar events. I don't mind, really, because I love doing it. As long time permits!

First time I tried this sunfower design. Do you notice the large heart shape design, shaped by the three-rosettes cupcakes?

Nobody realized, not if I didn't mention it... perhaps, I should colour it differently from the rest...

Best of luck, Azura. Hope you are happy in your new place...

Housewarming + Eid Celebration

This cake was a gift for my brother's housewarming + Eid celebration.

First time I tried the basketweave design. Mmmm, not bad, but still can improve... hehehe...


May God let the house bring warmth and happiness to the family...

Labbaikallah hummalabbaik...

Labbaikallaa hummalabbaik
Labbaikalaa syarii kalakalabbaik
Innalhamda
Wanni'mata
Lakawalmulk
Laa syarii kalak...

Dear Zub,

How are you doing, now that you have arrived safely at Madinah Al Munawwarah? Hope that you are fine and able to complete the 40 consecutive prayers at The Mosque. Please pray for me so that I'd be able to visit Madinah again, okay...

And, please don't forget to pray for me too during Arafah Day when you do your Hajj. Please mention my name, or at least keep me in your thoughts and prayers whenever you are in Masjidil Haraam, whether during tawaf, sa'ie or i'tikaaf.

May Allah bestow upon you Haji Mabrur.

May Allah grants us our wishes and keeps us on the right path. Ameen...

Note: The above cake is a gift for my colleague, Zubaidah, during her Birthday cum Farewell-for-Hajj event at my office. Her departure date was 30-10-2009. Have a safe journey, Zub!

Chocolate Moist Cakes

These are some of the cakes that I baked during the festive season for my family and friends.

I did a baking marathon for this chocolate-cake-in-aluminium-foil theme. One each for Diana, Zarif and a get-together-event at Robi's house.

So simple, a bit boring, but suitable for a busy mom like me...

Just pour some choc ganache and sprinkle on some choc rice. Voila!

Bored and tired already with the cake-in-aluminium-foil theme, I'm back with the usual not-so-simple choc moist cake.

This is for Joe or Uncle Joe to my children. My other half's best friend.

A gift for his Open House event.

With utmost difficulties, I managed to decorate it although the cake is still warm.

The ganache took a looooong time to harden and the wordings melted, in fact it 'drowned' into the ganache! *alarmed*

Luckily, the wordings were not totally 'drowned', lest you couldn't read it!

Lessons learnt: Do not attempt to decorate any cakes while it is still hot/warm! Cool the cakes for at least 4 hours before decorating, teacher said.

Blueberry Cheesecake

Phew! Cheesecakes really test your patience!

First, you have to bake the biscuit base.
Second, you have to bake again with the cheese mixture. Steam bath some more! This took me one hour!
Then, you have to let it stand in the the oven until the oven is cooled off (after turning it off). This process takes at least onother hour...
Then you pop it into your refrigerator for about 3 to 4 hours, before, at last, you can slice it and.....mmmm......pop it in your mouth, yummy!

No wonder the price is so expensive! Errr... to my standards laaaa *smile*...

The first picture was my first blueberry cheesecake, which I didn't steam bath. I just lower the temperature to 130C. You can differentiate by looking at the sides of the cake. It's brown.

I baked another two cheesecakes after the first using steam bath technique. Example, the second cake. The sides are yellow, creamier.

Of course, steamed bath cheesecakes taste better, yummier, creamier and it melts in themouth....mmmmm....

Drool...drool... wipe off your drool please.....:)

Cookies for Eid 2009

Yes, as shocking as it may seem, I have successfully baked my very own cookies for Eid celebration :). Fout types of them! It may not seem much to most people, but to me it's a huge accomplishment (eat your heart out, Adik!).

Clockwise from top left: pineaple tarts, crunchy choc chip, semperit and choc cornflakes.



Here are some extras, specially baked for my nieces, Shazleen and Shahinaz. Since Shazleen is pregnant with her second child, it's hard to refuse her craving for 'flowery pineaple tarts', as she claimed that she couldn't find it after searching for it high and low, almost everywhere. Although I find it hard to believe, I am game for a try...

And Shahinaz will only be here for 2 weeks after Eid, before she has to go back to Sydney, by which time, there'd be surely no 'flowery tarts' would be found at the shops.

Soooo.....finally it took me half a day to bake all 128 pieces of these beauties... phew! Such hard work!

The 'flowery tarts' are quite small though (but cute :)) because that's the only, nearest to the 'flowery' mould that I could find in my modest collection.

Hope Leen & Inaz enjoy the tarts. Sorry for the delay dears, as Auntie was only able to do it on 5th Syawal!

A little bit late, but better late than never!

Happy Eid Mubarak 2009

It's Eid Mubarak again! Time flies very fast nowadays, I found it very hard to catch up and update my baking projects here. I 'm keeping a lot of my projects since the last post. Hopefully I'll be able to update it all soon!

I'd better start with my latest 'babies', chocolate moist cake, simply decorated using ganache and chocolate rice, and.... ta-ra!... my first ever pandan-layered cake. The first is for Kak Eton, who ordered it for this festive season and the pandan-layered is for my beloved MIL.

My own mom? Sorry mom, no cakes for you this time. You must have enough cakes from your other daughter and your DIL!

Last but not least, Happy Eid Mubarak for all Muslims, my brothers and sisters from wherever you are...