Recipe: French Buttercream

A number of people asked me the recipe of French Buttercream after reading my previous few posts. So here it is! 

The ingredients are simple enough:
Sugar 122 gm
Water 34gm
Egg yolks 73 gm (room temperature)
Butter 271 gm (soft, at room temperature)

Make a sugar syrup by boiling the sugar and water in a small saucepan.   Keep track of the temperature, the sugar needs to reach the soft ball stage at 118C.  In the meantime, put the egg yolks into the mixer and whisk until light and fluffy. Once you get the right sugar temperature, lower the speed and slowly drizzle the sugar into the egg yolk.  Whip at high speed until the mixture is cool.  Do not add the butter if the mixture is still hot.

Once the mixture is cool, stir in the soft butter bit by bit. Mix until everything is nicely emulsified.  At this stage, you may add any flavourings such as vanilla, etc.   Don’t panic if at any point you see the buttercream being sloppy and separated, just keep on whisking and it will turn out ok.  The French buttercream can be kept in the fridge for about a week.  Make sure it is well covered.

I copied from bakingproject.com. Thanks Min :).

Happy Birthday Dalilah!

Hi All!

This is a long overdue post. Dalilah's birthday was celebrated last month, a private affair at KFC, invited only her girl friends.

It was a joyful event, thanks to all BBS KFC staff and Dalilah's brothers who cooperated to make this a successful event. I became the Project Manager cum Event Manager cum baker too, ho ho ho!

Dalilah, the Princess of the day (with tiara) with her two birthday cakes, one from KFC and 

another from you-know-who! Chicky from KFC was there too!

Dalilah and friends in a group picture.

Because I booked the event late (a few days before the event) KFC cannot guarantee a cake (it should come FOC with the booking). However, to our surprise, the Manager managed to 'secure' a cake for Dalilah. Thanks a lot KFC!

Hence, the two Birthday cakes for Dalilah... 

Here's the cake that I made, butter strawberry cake with French Buttercream. The first time I tried French Buttercream, and I love it! It tastes more like pudding than icing. I like!

Eleven swirls for an eleven-year-old girl!

Cupcakes for the party, for the grandparents and for Diana when I visited her the next day. One cupcake missing here! Who stole it?

All in all, it was a great event. Happy Birthday my darling Princess Dalilah! We love you!

Happy 17th Birthday Diana!

It's Diana's Birthday!

It seems that it was only last week that gave born to this girl....(*sigh*).

I prepared this choc moist cupcakes with strawberry-chocolate writings.

Simple. No messy icings.

Happy 17th Birthday Darling! Love you very much!

Congo Bars for Dalilah's Ustazah

Suddenly, out of the blue, at 7.30 pm, after I arrived home from work, weary and tired, Dalilah threw me a surprise:

Dalilah: Ibu, tomorrow there will a farewell event for my Ustazah. I have to bring something to school, some food...

Me: Oh no! Why didn't you tell me earlier? I can drop by and buy some chocolate wafers or something from the shop... Now I have to call Ayah, if he can manage to drop....

Dalilah: NO, NO, NO... I don't want to bring those things, everybody would bring the same things... (*with teary eyes*)

Me: Okay, what would you like to bring? Chocolate cake? I think I have enough ingredients available for a simple cake...

Dalilah: No, I am tired of chocolate cakes already. Can't you do something else?

Me: At this time of the night? Are you kidding?

Dalilah:... *eyes teary already*...

Me: Okay, let me check what can be done.... *nearly fainted*

Luckily I have enough ingredients for a recipe of Congo Bars. Though I have some walnuts in the fridge, Dalilah requested me to omit it. She does not like any kind of nuts in her cakes or cookies.

Here's the recipe:

Congo Bars

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2/3 cup butter (I used margarine, that's the only one available)

1 lb light brown sugar (I used only 3/4 ib)

3 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla

11.5 oz milk chocolate chip

1 cup pecans (I skipped this).

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.

Stir brown sugar and softened butter, until all butter disappears and well incorporated.

Add eggs one at a time, stir well. Add vanilla.

Add chocolate chips and nuts, mix well.

Add dry mixture ie flour, baking powder and salt.

Bake in a 13/9 inch ( I used 11 x 11 inch) pan at 170 degrees Celcius for about 30 minutes or until the top is golden. Like baking Brownies, never over bake or you will have a hard brownie!

Thanks kitchen guardian for the recipe!

Yours truly, cutting the Congo Bars, with Dalilah at the background...

All bars, nicely cut (11x11 bars)...

Ready in the container, all 42 pieces of them bars..

I wanted to put more in the container but Dalilah said 42 was enough. She's too lazy to bring back any leftovers. It turned out that the bars were a great hit that it was not enough!

I have brought the remainders to the office... serve her right!

Story ends.

Bread Banana Pudding and Apam Polkadot

For this post, I just feel like sharing some recipes which I recently tried. Great recipes, tried and tested ones. The first recipe was baked using my newly purchased 8 x 4 inch Pyrex dish. Just to try it out :)! The amount of this recipe can just perfectly fit into the dish.

1. Bread Banana Pudding

4 pieces of bread (tear to pieces)

1 200ml box of full cream milk (I used Dutch Lady)

3 medium-sized eggs

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

4 tablespoons sugar

half teaspoon salt

1 medium sized banana (cut to small pieces)

1 tablespoon butter

Place the teared bread and banana pieces in the baking dish. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, eggs, vanilla essence, sugar and salt. Beat until all the sugarget dissolved in the liquid. Pour the mixture into the bread+banana-in-the-baking-dish and let it set for about 10 minutes. Put the butter randomly on top of the mixture (sort of sprinkle it). Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, 170 C.

Ta-da! Here's the results, I mean, what was left of it... :)

This second project is not a baking project, it's a steam project, but what the heck!

Dalilah has been bugging me to do this and I have to find the recipe in the Net. I got it here and so far Dalilah love it!


2. Apam Polkadot

I'm too lazy to type it here, but you can find the recipe here :)...

Have a nice day celebrating Maulidur Rasul!

Happy Birthday Kak Long!

I have been dreaming of trying the basketweave design again on any cakes. The last one I did was during my brother's housewarming event - here is the link.

I got the chance during for Kak Long's birthday cake. Awesome!

Actually, this cake was made and decorated on the same day as in my previous post. The cake is the same, strawberry cake. I purposely made the buttercream icing for two cakes (and use the same colour, too lazy to prepare so many colours *smile* ).

The difference is the shape of the cakes and of course, the deco.

Let's see what I prepared for Kak Long....

I lost the Wilton tip to do the roses *sad*, so I have to be satisfied with this easy-rose design.

Can you see the basketweave design?

There's still room for improvement (RFI), I know... *smile*.

View from the side of this square cake. Notice that some part of the 'grass' is white? I ran out of green-coloured icing and ran out of time,

thus have to be satisfied with white-coloured grass, lol!

Oh, there's something new which I have not tried before, notice the white-picket design at the sides? It was Dalilah's idea! I think it looks great on this cake!

After the intricate basketweave design with the sweet roses around it, I failed on the handwriting again*grin*. Well, there is RFI!

Another view from the side...

Happy Birthday to my lovely niece, Kak Long Ameera Farisha! We love you!

Congratulations Zaharah & Hj Mohd Raimi

Dear Zaharah,

Thanks a lot for the invitation to your lovely wedding reception at Bukit Aman recently. I'm really happy for you. I'm sure Tuan Haji would be a fine husband/ partner for you and a great step-father for your children. Yes, you will gain a step-son too, and a whole entourage of great in-laws! Very glad to know and witness that they really welcome you into their family wholeheartedly!

I sincerely hope and pray to Allah SWT that this marriage will bring happiness to both of you in this world and the Hereafter too.

As a little token from this humble friend, here's a little cake for you & family. A butter-strawberry cake as I have some strawberry juice from my vacation to Cameron Highland recently, which I think would be a lovely for you. The all-white buttercream icing with some pink roses seems so fitting with the occasion...

Here's the cake before putting any wording's on it. I tried some string-work on the sides.

Hmm, looks like I need some improvement on that area :)

Here' the top view...

Yours truly is finishing-up some final touches to the cake...

The final output, at last ....:)

All packed and ready to be presented to the bride and bridegroom at their house.

Hope you like the cake Zaharah, and again, Congratulations!

Barakallahu lakuma

Wa baraka alaikuma

Wa jama'a bainakuma

Fil khair...

Sheriman's Wedding Cake Part II

I can't help creating a second post on Sheriman's Wedding Cake, credit to family members who painstakingly took hundreds of The Cake pictures for me. Err, wellll, not exactly HUNDREDS, but there are SO MANY of The Cake pictures that it took me HOURS to go through all those pictures and to select some for this post.

PHEW! (anyway, thank you guys... you know who you are ;), I love you all..)

So, without further ado, here's the second part of The Cake, at the venue itself... K-Club, Taman Melawati.

TA-DAAA!

The Cake, situated near the Wedding Dais, sharing the glamour...:)

View from the Wedding Dais, you can see some guests eating at the round tables...

Aha, the most precious picture, the groom and his bride cutting The Cake.

They are so adorable, aren't they? (hmmm, maybe I'm a little bit biased here...:))

Another view of the cake cutting ceremony....

The Cake, before they cut it...

Yes, it's yours truly, cutting the cake for the guests...

The cake on the plate, ready to be eaten...

Again, dear Sheriman and Noriah, here's some prayers from this auntie:

Barakallahu lakuma wa baraka alaikuma wa jama'a bainakuma fil khair..

(from Maher Zain's song - Barakallah , check-it-out!)

Sheriman's Wedding Cake

At last, the day that's we have been looking forward to this year, the Wedding of The Year (of the Adnan's clan) has arrived! Sheriman's wedding!

But I am not going to tell about the wedding, of course! I just want to tell about the Wedding Cake *smile*, which I have been (gleefully) planning for weeks!

I have done his engagement cake here, and I feel honored to do his Wedding Cake too. Of course the Wedding Cake must be spelled in CAPITAL letters, because to me it is soooo very, very important, the grandest cake of all mother-of-cakes *grin*.

I really had so much fun planning, baking and decorating this cake. I am so glad that Sheriman gave me the freedom to do whatever cake I had in mind. Oh, not so much freedom, he had two requests that I have to comply - the cake must be the usual chocolate moist cake that he likes and the theme color must be in white and silver/ gray. No problemo!

In any new baking projects, as much as I can, I try to do something new, by challenging myself in doing something that I have never done or tried before. It's so much fun and exhilarating! I wish I had more time (and occasion *grin*) to experiment more! Anyway, back to The Cake, I have accomplished the following skills/design, which I have been planning to do:

- Tiered fondant cake
- Stacked fondant cake
- Applying fondant on a square cake
- Applying fondant on a BIG square 11-inch cake (this is really a challenge!)
- Doing both stacked and tiered cakes in one project
- Make roses in a new way - learnt from youtube!
- Learn how to 'cover' imperfections(?) on a fondant cake... LOL!

Now, let's view The Wedding Cake......ta-da!........

The "topper", 7-inch round fondant choc moist cake with simple white roses,
adorned with silver balls (as dew drops) and ribbons.

The stacked "base", square 11-inch and 8-inch fondant choc moist cake adorned with connelli design (royal icing) and white fondant daisies with silver balls.
Not to forget the silverish gray ribbons!

Here's the square stacked cakes from top view.

Phew! Here's the 3-tiered stacked + tiered Wedding Cake *smile*.

Another view of The Wedding Cake.
I'm so glad the cake was successfully done, Alhamdulillah...

I would like to thank my cake mentor who have given me some tips and advice and my family for their endless support. I took me two whole days to finish it! The cake was so heavy that we had to plan carefully to transport it. Next time I'd know better!

And to the newlyweds, Sheriman and Noriah, Congratulations! Wish you the very best in this life (and Hereafter too!). Also, Congratulations to Kak Dah and Abang Din for the new addition to their family!

Macaron oh Macaroon!

My first burning question before posting this entry is the difference between macaron and macaroon. I found that everywhere (well. almost everywhere) in the blogosphere that bloggers use these two words interchangebly. It's rather confusing for an inborn spell-checker like yours truly :). (Spell-checker? Reaaaalllly?... my children would laugh if they read this post)...

So, what's the difference actually?

According to wikipedia, macaron is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies.

Macaroon is a type of light, baked confection, described as either small cakes or meringue-like cookies depending on their consistency.

Therefore for a layman like me, I can conclude that basically macaron is two macaroons sandwiched together :). Is that correct? Wow, that's a relief to know!

Although this post is late, I would like to document my adventure baking these little creatures. They have feet you know, that's why I refer them as 'creatures'...

I tried several times, the last one better than the previous ones (Thank God!). Anyway, it does not matter if you got it wrong, although they don't look as you expect them to be, the taste is still the same. In other words, if your macarons become a disaster, you can rename it to macaroon, isn't that swell? :)

As you can see here, this is my first try... they looked nice on the baking tray, looking all pink and healthy...

This pic is during the 'drying' phase, before putting it into the hot oven...

This was my first batch :( ... the 'feet' went all over the place. The 'feet' growed on heads, shoulders and bodies :(. They should be where all feet should be - at the bottom.

This was my second (or third) batch. They looked better, don't they? The 'feet' all dutifully stays at the bottom :)

Here's all the 'good-looking' macaroon-that-turned-into-macarons. They are filled with buttercream filling.

And here are the all the macaroon-that-stay-as-macaroon in a plate. They can also be called as meringue cookies! That's a glamorous name for discarded macarons :).

In conclusion, there is still room for improvement!

This adventure is just the beginning...

Happy Birthday Cik June!

It's been a while that I last made vanilla cupcakes.

So, when somebody ordered this blue-themed vanilla cupcakes, I jumped at the chance! And, the best part was, I was given a free reign to design whatever I feel fit for the occasion!

Blue-themed English bouquet, my favourite design...

View from side...

View from top of box...

Extra cupcakes for Hasif's teachers,
Happy Teacher's Day for BBS Q-Dees teachers!

Happy Birthday Cik June!

***Note: While busy decorating these lovely cupcakes, I got the sad news that my beloved Grandma has passed away... Al-fatihah...

Hasif's 6th Birthday Cake

I scratched my head to think what theme to celebrate Hasif's birthday this year. The previous year was Ben 10. Before that it was Spongebob Squarepants. At last I settled on Cars theme for this year. As I didn't think I will have the time to do a complicated cake, I decided to decorate with edible image. Simple! Just order from my friend Lea.

As last year, Hasif preferred/agreed to celebrate at his kindy, together with his friends and teachers. Phew! I prefer that too! Less hassle to this busy mom...

These are the things to do if you want to celebrate your children's birthday at his/her kindergarten/school:
1. Call or talk to the class teacher, asking for permission and state the celebration date.
2. Tell the teacher what things (food, cakes, party packs etc.) you wish to bring to school, so that the teacher can be prepared.
3. Ask the teacher what time you can bring those things and whether you (or other people) could attend too or whether the teacher could manage without you coming along (or whatever plan you have in mind...:)..)
4. Not to forget, it is important to ask the teacher anything else needed to make the celebration smooth and enjoyable for all. In my case, the teacher reminded me of paper plates and how many party packs that I should prepare. I threw in some disposable forks and spoons too. And serviette.
5. Lastly, prepare everything in advance so that you won't forget anything.

So, here's what I prepared for Hasif....

This light-blue-coloured, 11-inch, 5-kilos square choc moist cake took hours to decorate!
It is more difficult to smooth a square cake compared to the round one.
Not to mention a BIG cake like this!

The sleepy Hasif, with the cake just after I finished decorating, nearly at 1.00 am.
He insisted to wait until I finished decorating...he could't wait to look at the finished product...
Isn't that sweet of him...

A little detail at the side of cake....

Hasif with his friends at the kindy... (it was gym day, thus the t-shirt...).
Smile for the camera! Cheeeeese!

Happy Birthday Hasif! We love you very much!
Muah, muah, muah...

Butter Cake for Shamsul's Fiance-to-be

It's been a long time that I have last updated this blog. In fact there are some baking projects that I have not updated yet. Sorry peeps. I'm up to my ears with work nowadays :(....

Having said that, it takes a really special event that motivate me to publish this post. Ahem!

What event?

It's the 'merisek' event for Shamsul, my niece! Merisek is a pre-engagement tradition that most Malays still practise. Nowadays it is usually a small event only attended by the parents of both parties, at the girl's parent's house.

But for Shamsul, it was quite a big affair, similar to an engagement.

Thus, it needs a cake! A beautiful (ahem..) cake!

Here it is!

I have been finding the opportunity to try this two-toned rosebuds! At first it was a challenge, but after a while, it's a breeze! Love it! I will surely add this to my repertoire!

More simple two-toned roses at the bottom of the cake...all around the cake...

More rosebuds at the sides...

Lastly, packed in the decorated, transparent box to be presented to the fiance-to-be...

It's a joy to decorate this cake.

Thanks Kak Sal and Shamsul for the trust in me.

For Shamsul, really happy for you and please take care, dear....