i held a basic decor class for ruhayu, who came all the way by motorbike from batu maung in penang.

ayu wasn't too fussy about making the decorations "perfect"....she was more interested in learning the techniques. also, since she was the only student, the class went quite smoothly & we finished earlier than scheduled.

these are the cakes that ayu decorated. she has the talent (she successfully piped the buttercream roses on her first try!) & with further practice and more attention to detail, her cakes will be absolutely beautiful to look at

my son came back from school one day and told me that a teacher broke down & cried in class (why, he didn't know). i guess she must have been one of the class' favourite teachers 'cos all of them thought of buying a cake to cheer her up.

bless my son, he said, "buat apa beli kek? mak kami pandai buat kek. nanti kami mintak mak kami buat". so, that's how the order landed on my lap. i didn't have the heart to charge the kids since it was for a good cause.

i made a vanilla sponge cake (wasn't sure if the the teacher liked chocolate) & decorated the cake with whipped topping, buttercream & piping jelly.

unfortunately, i never got to find out what the teacher thought of it as the kids sent the cake to her desk when she wasn't there. but i'm sure she was pleasantly surprised

since i run a home-based side business baking cakes, it just wouldn't have been right for me to buy a cake for my darling hubby's birthday.

now, this sweetheart of mine is not a great fan of cakes....basically he just likes cheesecake, marble cake, chiffon cake & date cake. chiffon cake & date cake....not so suitable as a birthday cake cos i wouldn't have been able to "dress up" the cakes with icing. marble cake, i'd just recently made that so, that was a no-no, too. which left me with just the cheesecake.

did some searching on the net & thru my emails, and i found a recipe for this chocolate cheesecake which uses cashewnuts for the base. aha!! the perfect recipe cos it has chocolate, cheese & cashewnuts...all of which are dear hubby's faves, too!

happy that the cake turned out just nice (tho i should've toasted the cashewnuts a little bit longer...they were a tad soft) & actually tasted better the next day as the chocolate flavour really seeped thru the cheese.

i received this order in april for a wedding which was recently held on 28 june (thanks hafizah! how i wish all my customers were like u...early order & prompt payment ). hafizah ordered this for her sister's wedding & gave me sample pictures of the designs they would like.

i tried to copy the samples as best as i could but i had to make some changes. the changes were to the gumpaste flower for the fondant cake (the sample used brown & yellow flowers, but i couldn't find any like that in kulim). i also added some border work on the cupcakes as i used souffle cups instead of normal cupcake casings. if i didn't add the border, the design would have looked kinda "empty".

glad to hear from hafizah that the cakes met all their expectations

ooops, almost forgot...both cake & cupcakes were chocolate cakes.

for the first time since i started this small business of mine, i got an order for 250 simple cupcakes, 100 fancy cupcakes & a fondant cake for a wedding (thanks aisyah!).

i guess i got over-confident with my decorating speed/skills, so, i "wasted" some time on friday going here & there. ended up having to stay up the entire friday night (started my decorating work at 9 p.m. on friday & finished at 5.30 a.m. on saturday!)......i sure learnt my lesson (note to myself : don't ever do that again, or else )

to aisyah, although it's been more than 2 weeks since your wedding, still want to wish you "selamat pengantin baru, moga berkekalan bahagia hingga ke syurga"

i'd been hankering to make a doll cake for the looooonnngggeessssttt time ever, but being blessed with 2 sons & no daughters, i just didn't have a strong enough reason to do so. sure, i have nieces, but they all live so far away from kulim, kedah.

then, i got an order from a regular customer (thanks khurul 'ain!) for a "special" birthday cake. the cake was for her 12-year old sister, aina, who's undergoing some medical treatment which has her staying away from chocolate, eggs, dairy products, and nuts. now, that got me thinking, what cake could i make that would taste good, yet comply with the dietary restrictions? did a google search & found a vegan orange cake recipe which fit the bill just nice.

since aina's a girly-girl (you know, loves dolls, the colour pink, flowers, etc), it was a perfect excuse for me to make the doll cake

happy to hear from khurul that aina was absolutely delighted with how the cake looked & tasted

had some extra bananas in the house recently & i didn't want to make the usual banana cake/apam (a type of steamed cake). surfed the net, found this recipe on bakingbites.com & decided to try it out cos it looked simple enough. plus, i had all the ingredients on hand. i didn't make the frosting, but i think they tasted fine even without it.

the cupcakes were nice & moist, but i think they would have tasted even better if i decorated them with chocolate ganache. alternatively, i could've put choc chips in the batter. maybe next time...

here's the link to the recipe http://bakingbites.com/2006/05/peanut-butter-banana-cupcakes

these are pics of some recent orders i got. some are butter cakes, some are choc moist & one is carrot cake (the cupcake with the cherry on top).

thanks to all my "customers" - norasmunira, zubir, asnida & syera. hope to do business again with u in d future

recipes are as listed below (in no particular order & not translated....i'm lazy, in case you haven't already noticed that about me... )

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CARROTCAKE (AZIZAH ARIFFIN)

Bahan2 (kek) :-

200 g lobak merah, diparut & dikukus (kukus sekejap je. sekadar lembut sket oklah)
250 g tepung gandum
200 g gula perang (saya guna yg lembut/halus)
200 g minyak jagung
70 g badam, dicincang (saya guna serbuk badam je....nak mudah)
70 g kismis, dicincang
4 biji telur gred A
3 keping nanas dlm tin, dicincang (x dpt nenas slice, saya guna je nenas kiub. timbangan 150g...klu lebih dari 150g, kek terlebih moist/basah....x sedap & x cantik bila dipotong )
2 sudu teh baking powder (resipi asal suh guna 2 sudu makan. pernah try, kek jadi x sedap)
1 sudu teh soda bikarbonat (resipi asal suh guna 1 sudu makan. pernah try gak, kek jadi rasa bersabun)
secubit serbuk kulit kayu manis

Cara2 (kek) :-
campur & gaulkan semua bahan kering (tepung, baking powder, soda bikarbonat & serbuk kulit kayu manis). ketepikan.
menggunakan mixer (whisk attachment), pukul telur & gula hingga kembang.
masukkan minyak jagung & pukul lagi hingga sebati.
perlahankan putaran & masukkan bahan kering tadi.
kaup masuk lobak merah, nenas, badam & kismis.
bakar dlm loyang ukuran 9 inci pada suhu 170c selama 50 minit atau hingga masak (resipi asal suh bahagi dua adunan & bakar pada 170c selama 30 - 35 minit)
sejukkan atas redai kek sebelum dihias ikut citarasa.

Bahan2 (topping) :-

500 g keju krim
125 g mentega
150 g gula aising (nak lebih cantik, ayak dulu gulanya)

Cara2 (topping) :-
pukul keju krim hingga lembut & kembang sedikit.
masukkan mentega & gula aising. pukul lagi hingga sebati
---------------------------------------------------------
Buttercream dengan Liquid Glucose

Bahan:

v 400 gm krimwell
v 100 gm shortening
v 2 sudu besar liquid glucose
v Gula icing – byk mana ikut suka kita, nk manis, lebihkan; prefer kurang manis, x yah letak byk sgt (saya letak 200 g je)

Cara Menyediakannya:

1. Pukul krimwell dan shortening hingga kembang.
2. Masukkan liquid glucose, pukul hingga sebati.
3. Masukkan gula aising secukup rasa. Pukul hingga sebati.
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PLAIN BUTTER CAKE
(A)
250 GM BUTTER
200 GM GULA
210 GM TEPUNG GANDUM
1 TSP BAKING POWDER

(B)
5 BIJI TELOR
1 TSP ESSENCE/EMULC0
TUANG KESEMUA BAHAN A KEDALAM MIXER DAN ADUN SEBATI. SELEPAS TU MASUKKAN BAHAN B PERLAHAN-LAHAN. PUTAR LAGI SELAM 4 - 5 MINIT. PUTAR SEHINGGA ADUNAN LEMBUT DAN TIDAK BERBINTIL2. TUANG ADUNAN KEDLM ACUAN 9", BAKAR 160 C SELAMA 50 -60 MINIT ATAU UJI DGN LIDI DENGAN CUCUK DIBHG TENGAH KEK.
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KEK COKLAT KUKUS ROHA (Roha)
2 cawan tepung gandum
2 cawan gula - gula pasir dikisar halus
1 cawan serbuk koko - boleh kurangkan kalau tak suka pahit
1 st baking powder
1 st soda bikarbonat
1 tin kecil susu pekat / kalau krimer pakai setengah tin saja
1 cawan air mendidih
5 biji telur
1 cawan minyak masak
Panaskan kukusan, ayak tepung, baking powder, soda dan serbuk koko.
Campurkan dengan gula, minyak, susu pekat, air panas dan telur, kacau dengan
senduk saja hingga semua sebati, tuang dalam loyang yang dialas dan
dilengser dengan butter, kukus selama 1-1 1/2 jam atau bila bilah penguji
kek keluar bersih. Semasa mengukus pastikan air kukusan ditambah dng air
panas.
---------------------------------------
GANACHE

1 liter non-dairy whipping cream
1.2 kg cooking choc (potong kecik2)

panaskan whipping cream atas api kecil smpi timbul buih2 kecil. masukkan cooking choc & kacau smpi choc larut. alihkan dari api & biarkan semalaman utk mengental.

my mom's birthday is on 9 may & being a "baker", obviously i baked a cake for her. i know she likes citrusy cakes, so, for this year i made her a lemon butter cake. i also know that she prefers less sweet toppings, so, i used non-dairy whipped topping to decorate the cake. unfortunately, i whipped the topping too long & that resulted in a grainy texture. couldn't repair it cos i ran out of whipped topping. but, my mom loved it anyway (what do you expect? she's my mom, of course she'd love it... ). ooops, almost forgot...my 2 boys, jahran & amsyar, were the ones who picked the colours for the cake...they said to use pink as a base (pink being such a "girly" colour) & yellow for the a little bit of contrast.

anyway, here's the recipe (in malay as i'm too lazy to translate....this is beginning to sound like a regular statement from me, right?... )

PLAIN BUTTER CAKE
(A)
250 GM BUTTER
200 GM GULA
210 GM TEPUNG GANDUM
1 TSP BAKING POWDER

(B)
5 BIJI TELOR
jus dari sebiji lemon
kulit dari sebiji lemon

TUANG KESEMUA BAHAN A KEDALAM MIXER DAN ADUN SEBATI. SELEPAS TU MASUKKAN BAHAN B PERLAHAN-LAHAN. PUTAR LAGI SELAM 4 - 5 MINIT. PUTAR SEHINGGA ADUNAN LEMBUT DAN TIDAK BERBINTIL2. TUANG ADUNAN KEDLM ACUAN 9", BAKAR 160 C SELAMA 50 -60 MINIT ATAU UJI DGN LIDI DENGAN CUCUK DIBHG TENGAH KEK.

it's been a while since i had a bread making class. for bread classes, i only accept 1 student per class as bread takes time & really needs a hands-on approach.

this class was attended by kak roz. i always enjoy having her as a student cos she's a chatterbox (like me... ) and asks a lot of questions. so, my classes with her have been really interactive.

for this class, we did two types of dough - sandwich bread dough & sweet dough. the sandwich bread dough was made into a loaf of bread (after all, it is sandwich bread ). the sweet dough, we had fun with that - we made garlic butter rolls, red bean flower buns, red bean rolls (my kids call them roti ulat gonggok cos they look like ulat gonggok... ), sugar plaits, chocolate-filled turtle buns, and cinnamon buns.

the buns that look a bit squished up - well, here's the story. kak roz wanted to learn how to make sausage buns, the kind that had bits of sausage on the left & right. didn't have any sausages in my fridge, so, we made "red bean sausages". of course, the "sausages" were too soft, so, when we twisted the bread to left & to the right, the shape went everywhere. but, despite that, kak roz did manage to pick-up the technique..