Save the Orang Utan!

Long time no update... My home PC (desktop) broke down. Now awaiting repair... huhuhu...

So, since I got this only chance to use my dear other half's laptop, these are the only pictures (saved at this laptop) that I found interesting enough to put up...

These are two of the orang utans found at Pulau Orang Utan at Bukit Merah Lake Town Resort, where the family vacationed some time ago....hahaha!

Save the Orang Utan!!!

p/s: no baking projects this time, all projects are adjourned...

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...

Long time no post - Black Forest Cake

It's been a loooooong time since my last post. Sooo busy plus sooo lazy... Nowadays, by 9.00 pm I have to say goodnite; Dalilah's order *sigh*. I have to 'accompany' her and Hasif; talk to them, sing to them, read to them...whatever... until they fall sleep. Most of the time (in fact, almost all the time), I fell asleep together with them :o...

So, there goes my blogging time....

Let's see one of latest project - my first ever Black Forest Cake. Although I lack of motivation to blog consistently, I never lose the motivation to bake and design beautiful (okay, okay, I admit...not always beautiful :)) cakes and cookies for friends and family.

I have been longing to try create this cake, printed the recipe ages ago and getting all the ingredients at hand so that when the mood strikes, I'd be ready to do it. However, I lacked real cherries and an occasion to celebrate!

Sooo, I had to make do with these processed cherries, and brought the cake along to my MIL's on my weekly visit. Coincidentally, she had some relatives came to visit, and voila... the cake was gone in no time...


Thankfully, the cake tasted great, although the design can still be improved!

Father's Day Cake & Ice-Cream Cake version 2

It has been weeks since I've last updated this blog. Also, It's been weeks that I've not done any baking pojects.



Well, what can I say.... I needed a break, simply a break!



Now, my first project after the much-needed break was this... a Father's Day cake for my dear second-half. Just a simple butter-pandan cake, without all the trimmings (icing?) for the ...errr... more 'matured' Father *smile*. Of course, the more we aged, the more we need to be concerned about the food we eat...

Happy Father's Day dear... (first time we celebrate this occasion too....:) ).


Of course, the cake was requested by our lovely daughter, Dalilah. I can always count on her to remind me when to bake a cake. Even on yours truly's own birthday... *sigh**smile*

Because the Father's Day cake was a bit boring (errr, I mean...well... not decorated), I would like to....ahem, ahem... 'show off' this belated entry... my second try on ice-cream cake and whipped cream topping. For this cake, I decorated the cake with piping jelly (the web design) - my first piping jelly project.

This time around, I brought the cake to my mum's. As usual, ice-cream cakes are more well-received by everybody (yummy!), but, in our hot weather, we have to finish it quickly, lest it will melt. Nobody wants to eat a 'runny' cake!

The piping jelly was fabulous. I would like to try out more on piping jelly decorations after this. But, guess I need to practise more on whipped cream topping. Mine fell 'flat', not 'fluffy' enough...

Happy Birthday Zarif, Hasif & Mr Papa!

This is the most glamorous birthday bash that my family ever had.

Not one, not even two, but THREE cakes were cut on the eventful day, 30th May 2009, exactly on Zarif's birth date. Hasif's was 11th May, but since their birthday was on the same month, so we decided a 2 in 1 celebration.

Then, came Mr Papa whose birth date falls on 1st June. Can he join the celebration too? asked Mrs Papa, thru SMS. Why not, I replied, since Mr Papa is my own dear brother!

So, we had a 3 in 1 birthday celebration, at last!

Let's have a look on the baking projects for this occasion...

Below is the 3D Spongebob Squarepants cake for Hasif contributed by my SIL. Our eyes nearly popped off looking at this creation.... sooo creative....

This is also baked and decorated by my SIL, for Zarif and Mr Papa. It's so neat, really like the ones I see at the bakery shops....

Last but not least, my own creation.... a soccer-themed marble cake.

From left, Zarif, Hasif and Hafiz, before cutting the Spongebob apart....

The three cakes, all lined-up, posing for the camera....

Happy Birthday Zarif, Hasif & Mr Papa!

Cupcakes for Min's friend

Looks familiar? The design is exactly like my SIL's. This particular customer wanted this exact design, but since my SIL was quite busy, I was asked to to do this set. I gladly did!

It was fun doing it, and I have to admit that I like this design too. This is the first time I did a purple & white design...

They are sooo sweeeet and simple. And elegant too, if I may say so *smile*...


Here are some extras for Damia, my niece, whose mother, Min, ordered the above set on behalf of her friend. Damia's mom is also my SIL.

I have done this designs a number of times before. Just practise... practice makes perfect, right?

Thanks a lot to both of my SILs for giving me the chance to do this delightful set of cupcakes.

Thanks a lot, dears.

Teachers' Day Cupcakes

This is a belated post. This is ordered by....who else.... my darling Dalilah. She chosed carefully which teacher she wished to give a 'present', as she hates to bring a big extra bag to school, just to bring presents. As hard as I could, I tried to persuade her to bring more as she currently has more than six teachers, but to no avail. She counted only six favourite teachers shall receive the honour of receiving her, ahem, precious cupcakes.

Six different design of colourful M-sized-solo-cup cupcakes in domed containers for six favourite teachers. posing for the camera...

These two are my favourite ones. They're sooo sweeeet, if I may say so.....*smile*....

Sorry all the male teachers at SKBBS II. Not one of you are counted as Dalilah's favourites! Perhaps it's a blessing in disguise as well because all the cupcakes are pink-themed, not suitable for you guys...hehehe....

Anyway, Happy Teachers' Day for all teachers out there!!

Strawberry Cheese Tarts

It has been quite some time that I last updated this blog. I'm not sure why, but the internet was down since last week, and it took one week before 'somebody' could make it up again. Cost me about RM 300.00, and I have to surrender myself to the wireless choice, thogh I'm not really comfortable using wifi at home. Too much microwave around the kids! I'm concerned about their health in the long run since scientific studies on using wireless connections (including using handphones unnecessarily near the kids) are still not conclusive on it's side effects to human beings in the long run (still at infancy stage).

Anyway, hopefully, this wireless setup won't be troublesome.

Okay, enough on that. Here's my baking project during my 'internet silence'...

Ta-da!!

These yummy cheese tarts took a lot of time to prepare, but it's worth my time. I used strawberry instead of blueberry filling. Enough to share with my parents, sister and brought some for daughter Diana at SSP.

Aren't you drooling by just looking at these beautiful tarts? Hehehe, I know you are... especially Adek, whom I dedicate this posting to....:)

Happy (Pre)Birthday Hasif & Happy Mothers' Day

This is my first ever ice-cream cake, at last! As this is my first try, I just did a small one, a 7-inch cake. Anyway, limited space in my fridge did not allow me to do a bigger one! And this is my first 'whipped cream' topping.

Brought it to my MIL's house last weekend to be shared with he family. Coincidently, the date falls on Mohers' Day, and a day before Hasif's birthday.


Glad to say that even though the cake was not pretty *smile*, everybody loved it, in fact, it was not enough!

Hmmmm, next week I have to do this again!

Chicken Pie anyone?

Chicken pie is one of the savories that my family like, especially my better half. So, last weekend I made some, using the recipe from Norzailina Nordin, the celebrity chef, who generously shares her famous recipes.

However, I'm too lazy to make the pastry from scratch. So I used ready-made 'roti pratha', hehehe.

From the recipe, I managed to get 3 big pies and 6 small ones (egg tart size).

I really slaved in the kitchen last weekend to do this, but, it was worth it. Not a morsel left!

Note: At the moment of this posting, my better half is at Birmingham, UK. I guess he has forgotten my chicken pie already, instead, he might be having a good time eating countless, tastier pies over there! Huhuhu...