Bitelicious

Kungfu Panda!

2009-01-19T17:11:00.004+08:00

I saw these really cute designs while browsing through google images and decided to have a go at it. This is my attempt at cute little Panda cupcakes. I find them just tooo blardieee CUTE!

I also had a special request from Monica all the way in the UK to have these special design made for her sister as it was her birthday. I had no idea what they were but apparently these are very famous japanese candy called Pucho Candy.

Pocoyo Cake

2009-01-19T16:50:00.003+08:00

My little nephew Prince was turning four and he had insisted on having a cake with Pocoyo on it. First of, yes, his name really is Prince and secondly I too, had no idea who on earth Pocoyo was! But the 'Prince' often gets what he wants so his mother rang me and got me to agree to this task. Curious to know who this pocoyo dude was, I headed straight to the Cyber cafe and googled him up. Thinking some japanese - anime - Pokemon - look - alike was about to pop up, I was shocked (pleasant shock of cause) that this little Pocoyo fellar was really something like a 2 or 3 year old toddler. He was Too Blardie CUTE and I fell in love with him that very instant. In fact I now watch his shows on Play House Disney! LOL!

Anyway back to the cake.. she wanted a butter cake and so I decided to frost it with a nice butter cream icing but have the characters done with fondant. It took about 2 days to mould lil' Pocoyo and his friends the Elephant and the Duck. Once I had it finished, I left it to dry up and when I needed to use them, I would just prop them up unto the cake. Of cause it never is as easy as I make it sound... problems soon started. The oven started working up, I could not get the usual round shape I wanted so I had to make do with a rectagular shape, Pocoyo wouldnt sit on the cake without tipping backward so I had to prop him up with a candy cane, and worst of all, I had to fill up more white area since it no longer is a round 8" cake but a 9" rectangle! After a lot of changes here and there, I finally managed to finish the cake and it looked pretty 'OK'. But amidst all that trouble, I had no time to take a proper picture so I had to make do with one I took with my phone at the party itself.

Till My Next Kitchen Adventure, God Bless!

Adult Cakes

2009-01-19T16:14:00.004+08:00

I often get orders for adult cakes. Most of the time, my customers who do order these are really either already married or has hit 30 yrs or so. So, yes, I rarely have perverts calling me up asking for these and I really end up doing these designs with nothing more than a touch of humour. For those of you who think I have a sick sick mind, I have four words for you - 'Give Me A Break!'

Moving on... Calvin my cousin turned the BIG 3-0 and he asked specially for a double D cup pair of tits. I couldn't turn down his birthday wish so out came my round stainless steel bowls and I set out to creating those pair of DD cups. Since he also specified for Chinese titties I had a tough time getting the right colour for the skin but somehow I was very happy with the end result and I must say what was more satisfying was having the birthday boy even more happier!

After the whole DD cup ordeal, I had a call out of the blue one weekend requesting for a Penis shaped cake. Since it was rather last minute I offered to have it done in a simple 2d shape and frosted with a simple butter cream icing rather than a 3d fondant design. She agreed and said that it was for her husband who again, happen to be chinese, so I had to work with that skin tone. Since I do not have a ready made Penis shaped pan, I baked it in a square pan and a 6 inch round pan. I cut the Square pan into half and lined them up to creat the shaft and then I cut the 6 inch round cake into half to create the balls on either side. Some how, everything turned out fine and once again I was pretty satisfied with my final product. Do drop by with your comments as I would love to know what you all think.

Till my next Kitchen adventure, God Bless!

Getting Groovy and Retro-fied

2009-01-19T15:36:00.003+08:00

My regular customer S decided to get a cake for her boyfie. After going through my designs on facebook, she finally agreed on a retro looking cake. But instead of a pink ribbon she wanted a more 'manly' colour and a bow instead. I was more than happy to deliver to her wants and needs so I got started and I really enjoyed creating this one.

The cake was a 8" round Chocolate Moist cake. I crumb coated it with some frosting and chilled it. While it was chilling, I got my black fondant out and started working it. Once it was pliable and soft, I rolled it out on a lightly floured surface (only that it wasn't flour but icing sugar), and rolled out a big round piece of about 2mm thick. When the cake was chilled, I took it out, smoothened out the edges and draped it with my black fondant. The rest were very simple as I coloured a little bit of the white fondant with a bright yellow, sky blue and lime green, then rolled them out and had round circles cut out. The bow I decided to make into a dark purple.

After that was done, it was all a matter of arranging it onto the cake. Since the cake was too pretty to disturb with any writings, I decided to have them written on the cake board instead. And to further add onto the retro effect, I had each letter alternated with lime green, bright yellow and dark purple frosting. This is what the finished product looked like. :)

Guinness Stout Cake

2009-01-19T15:03:00.005+08:00

My Uncle Eric is a big fan of Guinness Stout. Everyday without fail, he would take some time off in the evenings to head down to the coffeeshop for a stout or two. This is 'his' time to get away and recollect on all his memories and God knows whatever else that runs through his mind. My mother says Grandpa was exactly like that. Last Friday he turned 63 and Anna, my cousin wanted to get my uncle a nice cake that would mean something to him. At first we had Snoopy designs and Star shaped designs but somehow nothing could picture him best other than a nice can of Guinness Stout. So after a little discussion, we all agreed to have him a can of Guinness Stout but instead of the usual 'Guinness' we decided to have his name take on the brand instead.

Anna wanted a butter cake for her dad so I found a rectangular shaped tin and baked the butter cake in that. Once that was done, I allowed for it to cool and instead of dying my butter cream black for the base, I decided to melt some cooking choc and make a nice thick chocolate ganache. I had the base covered and once it was hardening up, I took a tooth pick and outlined the design (For this I had to buy a whole can of Stout!). Then I filled up four bags of icing. One yellow, the other white, and the other two with a little black and a light brown respectively. Then, the designing, drawing, colouring, writing BEGAN.

The finished product was something I was pretty satisfied with..

Till my next Kitchen adventure, God Bless!

Xmas Cupcakes

2009-01-19T14:50:00.004+08:00

I had a few orders for Christmas and the usual designs were either mistletoes, ponsettias or santas.. so here are a few of those. I could not get proper pics of Santa so sorry in advance. :p

Silly Santa Faces

A box of butter cupcakes with ponsettia and mistletoe designs.

A closer view. :)

Pool Table Time!

2009-01-19T14:25:00.004+08:00

Okie! So I agree that it has been a long time coming. I find it so difficult when I have no internet access and updating blogs have to then be put on hold! But I'm back and ready to update. So what is new... a few things. First off is my very first pool table cake. Got a call two days prior to the delivery date and since it was pretty urgent I decided to save the day and agreed to take on the task. The cake was going to be pretty big as it was two 8.5" square tins put together. Since the lady who ordered it could not make up her mind between choc moist flavour and rich butter I, as usual, decided to make her life easier (and mine a bit complicated) by giving her one choc moist and the other tin a rich butter. So she was happy and I got started.

After baking the cakes, I started with my fondant. I needed alot to cover the cake which was about 17" lenghtwise and about 8.5" in width. Since I ran out of brown colouring I decided to custom make the table with a chrome coloured frame instead of the usual dark brown wooden frame. So I made 2 batches of marshmallow and started kneading it with my icing sugar till it formed a pliable dough. (I hate this part as it can get rather messy and cleaning up after is such a bother!) Once I had that done, I separated them into a few pieces and started working my colouring into it. Out came my green, whatever little brown I had, black and of cause for the balls, I had a little purple, orange, yellow, blue and red.

The results...... TADAAA!

I thought it could be done better but I really did my best and I was pretty satisfied with it since it was afterall my FIRST pool table cake. :)

A different angle.

Well so this is it. Till my next blog, God Bless. :)

Shirt Cake

2008-10-28T10:54:00.002+08:00

Shanee wanted a cake for her daddy and the most typically ordered ones are of cause shirt cakes. This is my first attempt at a shirt cake and although I feel that the it did manage to look like a shirt cake, it was badly done. especially the collar part as my fondant just started working up. I had to piece the collar up like a puzzle and make do without a piece of paper with the actual picture to help me through. :( Do leave me comments on your thoughts and what could have been done to make it better.

Till' my next Kitchen Adventure, God Bless!

Happy Birthday, Girl!

2008-10-28T10:39:00.005+08:00

Anna's sister had her birthday 2 weeks ago but somehow only now Anna decided to get her a birthday cake. :p

She decided on cupcakes finally instead of petit fours and she wanted something special and pretty. I knew she likes something unusual so I gave her a garden theme. Her sister's favourite colours would be pink so we alternated the pink with dark choc frosting and I placed fondant accents on the cupcakes. Some had cute flowers, some had little bumble bees and others had dragon flies and butterflies. Here are the pictures. :)

She was so happy with it being plain as well after she saw how pretty the plain swirls were.

But ofcuz after we laid on the pretty little insects - she couldnt have wanted it any other way.

Top view of the final product.

The garden theme came out pretty succesful. Well, till' my next Kitchen Adventure, God Bless!

Cutest Doggie Cuppies!

2008-10-28T10:20:00.005+08:00

Back from a long weekend off due to the Deepavali season, so I have not had the chance to blog on my latest creations. Well here is one. I thought it is a must to put this pics up because I felt personally it was one of my best so far.

Shanee's manager wanted cupcakes and she gave me this design she took off the internet. I took that and being a newbie, it was rather brave of me to take on the challenge. But nevermind that, I got home and got started. ;)

Here's the outcome :)

What did I tell ya'?? Pretty cute eh?

Till my next Kitchen Adventure. :)))

God Bless.

Happy Birthday Shaalen!

2008-10-23T12:16:00.004+08:00

Shanee's little niece turned one yesterday and I was asked to bake a cake. It was my first time baking a cake for a little baby so I gave the birthday girls mum a few pics which I thought would be pretty and fitting enough for a 1 year old girl. One was finaly selected and I got to work on it - the downside to all this is, I had ONE day! That means after work if I start - I would basically have less then 10 hours to work on it. So I decided to get a move on the cake soonest possible and as soon as I reached home I started on the batter. They wanted a rich butter cake so out came my mother's family recipe that has been past down generation to generation. I wonder if my daughter or son plan on being a pastry chef or will this butter cake recipe die with me? hmm.. 'cake' for thought. :)

Anyways back to my current story.

While the cake baked, I made my marshmallow fondant and started working on the flower petals. I did not have the exact molds so I pressed the fondant into my tart mould and as soon as I got the flower print, I hand molded them to make it look real enough. As for the darker pink flowers, I took some fondant and made tiny circles then placed them on my sponge and with the back of my spoon, I pressed it down to get that lovely petal effect. I put those together and filled the center with a lighter pink flower made from round balls and I then placed a little green ball in the center.

The topper was actually a ladybug - but it does not really look like your regular garden ladybug. It looked like an animated little bug you would find in your Play House Disney cartoons! But I found it soo cute anyway! I made the feet into a long snack that was about 1.5 cm thick and cut 4 even sizes of about 2 inches long. I placed them together and draped a 2" round sheet (light pink fondant) on it to form a shell. Then with the darker pink, I made small round shapes and placed it on the shell. The head was made from a green ball and I made the eyes and the mouth and stuck it into the body with 2 toothpicks. as for the antenna I took smaller slivers from the tooth pick, wrapped it in white fondant and stuck it on.

Her name was placed on individual hearts and lined up in front of the cake. 'Happy Birthday' was written on the cake board around the sides in pink.

By the time I draped the cake with the fondant and started decorating it, it was 5.15am! TIRED but very satisfied, I said a little prayer, blessed the cake and blessed the little birthday girl and into the cake box it went. The next day I delivered it and I hope everyone was happy with it! :)

Till' my next kitchen adventure, God bless.

2008-10-23T10:51:00.005+08:00

I am packed this whole two weeks of October with orders and in all the midst of baking and baking and more baking i get a phone call from Malkit asking me to come over to her place because the whole family including my mum (who i have not seen for 2 weeks straight by the way) is in kl. So i told her to give me some time to finish up my baking and i'l try be there soonest. while baking i had extra cupcakes then what i initially prepared for so i decided to make some lovely designs for them as a little gift for when i visit them later in the day (actually i wanted to add on more variations to my cupcake designs.. hehe).

i decided to make something pretty and i knew my litle nephew would want something fun so i decided to make a few fun ones and some pretty ones which the ladies would appreciate.

here are some of the designs i made.

Cute little elmos and cookie monsters

Could you tell me how to get... how to get to Sesame Street? :)

Elmo!

My nephew was excited but it was the father that could not contain the joy when he saw these fellars!

Something for halloween?

Simple butter creme design.

Something prettier for the ladies. The flowers were made with marshmallow fondant.

Here are the flower cupcakes and the simple and classic yellow swirl cuppie with colourful sprinkles (far right) all lined up in a row.

Till' my next kitchen adventure! God bless!

Red and Pink Cupcakes

2008-10-17T09:57:00.005+08:00

A regular customer of mine had messaged me on FB with a request of 16 cupcakes and she wanted a simple design for her cupcakes. So I set out to thinking for 'simple' ideas and simple should be easy right? But no - I just could not find anything in my overloaded brain that was simple enough! So I got on facebook and she had given me an idea of what she liked from my FB 'Cupcake Craze' album. Simple plain red and hot pink cupcakes with a little white flower in the middle. So red and Hot pink it was!

You'd think simple design with a simple enough cupcake recipe - it should all go smooth and well and easy right? Not exactly - my first batch was a flop! It wasn't because I got my recipe wrong or anything but halfway through baking - the hubby calls and says he is stranded with no transportation home! What do I do? Leave the house with the cupcakes unattended! Yes! Yes! I know! Careless and rresponsible but honestly - there was a timer and everything and I really could not wait till' it was done before I fetched him cuz' that would take tooooooo long. So I set the timer at roughly 15 mins and left the house (I thought 15 mins was enough because the cupcakes were in individual cups and not a whole cake tin so I did not want to risk burning them by setting a longer time!).

Wen I came back - my dark rich choc moist cupcakes were 'screwed'! It had sunken into the bottom because the cooking process of 15 mins were not enough and so when I tried to rebake it - it just did not work out right. Well, what else was left for the poor darlings but the 'trash can fate'... "NOOOO! Not the trash can fate!!!" screamed the actually rather guilty-instead-of-sincerely-concerned hubby. I looked at my cuppies and said a little apology under my breath and goodbye it was.

Out came the butter, sugar, flour, cocoa, eggs and the rest and another batch was whipped up in under 10 mins. This time I made sure it went right. And the results - satisfyingly good. :)

Till my next Kitchen adventure - God bless. :)

Kamasutra Cupcakes :)

2008-10-17T09:30:00.006+08:00

Who said the 'Kamasutra' could only be expressed in the bedroom? :) Here are some cupcakes I made a while back with 'Kamasutra' positions on it. Had not had the time to post it up so here's a whole blog on em'!

As usual, I needed to consult my friends for ideas and 2 ideas came about in our discussions - Roadsigns and 'Kamasutra' positions. Both were fairly good ideas but roadsigns would mean that I will need to work with fondant again and I really just wanted a simpler option like a plain coloured butter cream icing. So in the end I decided to go with the Kamasutra positions.

These cupcakes I felt were a real charmer especially when bought for the hubby or wifey that has been away for far too long on a business trip - or it can just simply be a dessert with a touch of humour for that kinky best friend of yours. Well whaetver the occasion, enjoy! :p

Positions (Clockwise): Vienese Oyster, Lovers wrap, Sixty nine and Butterfly

Positions (Clockwise): Blow job, Reverse cowgirl, Doggie and Wheel Barrow

This was the simplest to do - haha.

Another type of position.

The famous butterfly position.

Doggie Style

Reverse Cowgirl move

I dunno why but some of my cupcakes were acting up so this one went out of shape. This is actually more famously know as the 'Superman' position after that song by Soulja Boy.

All in all there were 9 positions. There's more but I only baked 9 cuppies because they were just samples to design for my portfolio. Didn't want to waste a big batch. :)

Till my next kitchen adventure, take care and God bless!

Emoticons??? Or cupcakes?

2008-10-16T13:26:00.004+08:00

I had a bad day at the office and my tummy cramps were not helping the situation! My boss was really laying it hard on me and I needed to de-stress - unlike many who would prefer a good massage or facial - I needed to bake! Chatting with my cousin, we went thru ideas for my bake-my-stress-away mission and after a lot of discussions and some random but extremely wild ideas thrown out by my cousin, we both decided on emoticon cuppies. What better way to express my current situation and how I feel about it all. So I waited till the clock struck 6pm - and I CIOWED! Hit the road! SPED home! :p

Once at home - although still in a whole lot of pain, I mixed the cake batter and baked my cupcakes. Took out my marshmallow fondant - looked at my sheet to guide me on the facial expressions and started working hard on it. I was in really alot of pain this time and my cramps were hurting my feet and legs so I sat down while the hubby passed me everything I needed. He really is a darling... at times. :P :p :P!! Kidding - kidding! :)

Once the cuppies were baked, I allowed them to cool down and then I layered a thing layer of butter cream and draped the face over the cakes. Here's the end results.

After it was over, I took a nice long hot shower - and I was once again, stress-free! Sigh - it works all the time. :)

Polka Polka

2008-10-16T13:16:00.006+08:00

Polka dots are always a hit! I was bored at home - and I thought why not make a polka dotted cake. Here are the pics of my simple 9" sheet cake. I decided on a simple plain butter cake and with Anna my cousin in mind (she is a polka dot freak!) I set to work.

Orange and pink makes a good combination.

Top View

A slice of cake.

Another angle of the cake.

I did really cute cupcakes too - but that'l be another posting. Please feel free to leave a comment ya? :)

Clam Shell Birthday Cake

2008-10-16T12:05:00.004+08:00

I have been so busy with the baking lately that I have not had the time to create a blog. Well, about time I did then don't you think? :)

Last week, my godsister messaged me on Msn and she said she had seen the cakes I had posted on FB and she thought it be great to have me design a cake for her good friends birthday party. So I said, "Hey babe, I'm no pro but I'll see what I can do. Got a pic?" (its sort of like my verbal disclaimer so ppl know im not some big shot pro like Tracey from Something Special). So she passed me the visual and when I saw it I thought ...... can I? This is really difficult and the design part is up to me so thats even worse because my brother is the artist in the family - not me! But hey, if I don't dive in and start on these novelties, I would lose out alot on those happy faces when they see the outcome of the product. So I plucked up enough courage and I replied "Yeah sure! Of cause I can." Later, I smaked my forehead real hard! LOL.

To cut a long story short, I got to work. I thought of what would be best and how do I arrange it out and I finally decided to work with yellow and orange fondant for shells. I took out my Shell moulds (thanks to Shanee who got it for me for my birthday!) and I started moulding. I put a white pearl in the center and it some how did not have that 'wow' factor I was looking for so I had a yellow pearl for my orange shells and I alternated the same with my yellow shells. They looked cute, so I put those aside and I started on the main clamp. This was difficult as I had to hand sculpt it and its difficult to do that in a country thats known for its HUMIDITY (It is difficult to work with fondant under humid conditions)! So I sat under the aircond directly and some how I managed to pull through - barely perfect but it looked like a clam alright. I allowed that to sit and dry and I helped it stay held up with a pearl that had both the orange and yellow tones in it. That should make for a striking look I thought to my self. Well, pretty satisfied, I let those sit in the fridge to harden.

Next on the list was baking the cake. I needed to make my special choc moist cake so I set to doing that immediately. The cake was fairly large and the one batch I made had fit the entire 13" round cake tin perfectly (usualy this one batch can fit into a 9" square tin and a 6.5" round tin). No worries there, done and baked, I took it out, let it cool down and then started frosting it. I just did a basic crumb coat - which reminds me, I NEED TO GET A TURN TABLE! It was so difficult geting the frosting around the edges without having those lil turntables. After the first thin layer, I put the cake into the fridge to chill..... and I SLEPT - it was nearly 2am and I had work the next day at 8am!

The next day,I rushed back from the office and started immediaty on the cake. I needed to deliver it to the club at about 11pm and I had barely 1 1/2 hours to work on the cake (the jam in KL is horrible! It really really is getting worse!). I took my cake out, whipped up some fresh butter cream and I spreaded another layer onto the cake evenly. Back into the fridge it went to chill for a bit. Then it was time to work the marshmallow fondant. I decided in my head to cover the cake in white fondant and place the shells on it. But it looked plain in my imagination, so I decided to make blue waves to cover the sides for that extra colour. I rolled out a big sheet of white marshmallow fondant and I took my cake out from the fridge, smoothen out the edges, and draped my white marshmallow fondant onto the cake. Covered it as neatly as possible and since I did'nt have the fondant smoother thinghy's, I used my spatula instead. Once I was happy with that, I took the remaining white fondant and coloured it blue. I rolled it into a long snake and flattened it then tried my best to make the waves - and then I covered the sides with it gently trying my best not to break it as it was really really soft despite my aircond and fan running at full blast!

Once that was done, I placed my little clams on the cake and I sprinkled ground almonds on top to resemble sand. With blue icing I wrote "HAPPY BDAY LALA LIAW" and the cake was done. Or was it? It looked good but I thought something was missing. What could I add to make it even nicer - pearls? Could I maybe add in some pearls around the edges of the cake? Hmmmm... I stopped thinkin too much due to lack of time and the humidity problem, and I finally decided to roll out tiny pearls with my remaining orange and yellow fondant. Then I lined them up at the bottom of the cake - and yay! I was satisfied - partly, for it was not my satisfaction that I was in search off, it was the customer! So I prayed a silent prayer. Blessed the cake and into the box it went.

The very next day, I got another message on Msn. "Anne! The cake was awesome!!!!! Damn cun! And it was yummy!" I breath a sigh of relieve. I was so excited she was excited. My first fondant cake was a hit and now im FULLY satisfied. :)

Pics of the final outcome.

I had to take the pic with my mobile fon so its not so clear. You can see that the cracks were slowly starting to form - that was due to the temprature change and the fondant was between drying up and melting. If this happens to your fondant, just rub a little bit of shortening on it to hold it together then slowly smoothen it out. At the bottom, I lined the pearls around the edges.

The tiny clams. I took a paint brush and lightly brushed on some colour for the effect.

The sand is made from ground almonds. I just sprinkled some around the clam shells.

So all in all, it was good. Everyone loved it and I was glad they enjoyed it!

~A Bouquet of Cupcakes~

2008-08-29T10:22:00.008+08:00

When people are in love, they buy flowers. When they have a friend who is not feeling well, they buy flowers. When its a special occasion, they buy flowers... where am I going with this? Wait for it.... ok, here goes -- Why buy a bouquet of flowers when you can present them with a bouquet of CUPCAKES!? Okie Okie, so you are still very confused. Then why don't I allow the pictures to do the talking?

Two toned Pink Carnation

Pretty Cupcakes all in a row

More shapes and colours..

A box of 6 'flowers' are RM 25 - colours are of your choice.

A box of 9 'flowers' are RM 38 - Colours of your choice.

There are three different flower patterns to choose from - Carnation, Begonia and Buttercup. Flavour of cakes are - Dark Moist Choc and Butter.

Do email me at a.manuel86@gmail.com for more information or to place your orders.

Till my next post - Take care and God Bless and HAPPY MERDEKA MALAYSIA!

Choc covered plush puffs!

2008-08-29T09:59:00.004+08:00

What better way to eat marshmallow then to have it fully covered in a nice thick coat of CHOCOLATE. Mmmm.. Yummzers! The pics show that I still have a lot to work on in terms of the presentation of the product but it all goes into the tummy and is YUMMY! Thats what matters? Isn't it? ... Err.. guys? C'mon, agree with me here! :p

A nice thick piece of Marshmallow skewered onto a stick.

A piece I dipped into the chocolate to test run before i covered the sticks.

Another angle :))

Tadaaa! Chocolate Marshmallow Popsicles!

These have colourful sprinkles on it but I did not get to take any pictures. Each stick is sold for RM3.50. There is a 10% discount if more than 25 sticks are ordered.

Enjoy and till my next posting, take care and God bless.

..Chewy, yummy Goodness..

2008-08-28T11:04:00.010+08:00

Wherever you are... whichever country you reside in, we all have fond childhood memories with, TAFFY. Chewy texture, fruity flavoured and extremely yummy, its no wonder we crave to have some every now and then. I remember when I was 6 years old, I was at my cousins house in Shah Alam and we were both given some taffy. Being the excited, greedy little pig that I was (or should i say 'am'), I stuffed everything into my mouth and Lo and Behold - I got SICK. Yup, I threw up, Had tummy problems and eventually was banned from eating candies for a rather long time! But still, it hasnt stopped me, and now that I am much much older to make my own decisons (in this case, unbanning me from being banned), I decided to make my own taffy! My own! I can make it at anytime and when ever I feel like having some yummy chewy goodness! LOL.

Anyway, that is just what I did (I had RM15 worth of Taffies ordered) and in fact I feel its yummier than the factory made ones, but then again, I could just be really biased. :p

Pictures, pictures, pictures. :)

This is the Orange flavoured taffy that I just started to pull. When you make taffy, it has to be pulled and stretched. This is often the best part of making Taffy - the worst is washing up! :) Back then (early 50s), there used to be taffy-pull parties where teenagers would gather in someones house, and make taffy. When it is ready to be stretched and pulled, they will get into groups of two, usually male and female, and start pulling and stretching. They will then shape it and either present it to their partners or take it home as party favours. This house parties was a favourite form of entertainment. (They had no TV back then! Give them a break guys!)

Mango flavoured.. hehe. I just love the way it looks, feel and smells.. I was so tempted to just pop the whole thing in my mouth.. but then flashbacks of when I was 6 yrs old came to mind and I made a smart choice by deciding against it. :)

When it has been pulled till the colour changes to a nice opaque colour and the texture gets firmer and harder, the taffy is ready to be rolled into long ropes and snipped into bite sized bits.

I could not find any wax paper, so I wrapped it in my baking sheet. Which worked just fine. These taffies have a tendency to stick to just about anything, so the best thing to do is wrap them up in either wax paper or baking sheets as its the only thing they don't stick to.

I decided to be creative. So I created my own fusion of flavour and here is a nice long rope of Mango and Orange Twist... I call it 'Tequila Sunrise'. (What? I think its original! ;P)

Hubby came home, and could not stop popping this delightful treat into his mouth! I had to literally 'pull' him away!

These taffies are sold for RM5 for single flavours (120g) and RM8 for fusion flavours (120g)

Flavours available;

Single flavours - Mango, Orange, Strawberry, Grape, Pineapple, Banana, Lemon, Blueberry*, Watermelon*, Cherry*, Raspberry*

* Flavours subject to availabilty

Fusion Flavours - Tequila Sunrise (Mango/Orange), Malibu (Pineapple/Mango), Pink Lady (Orange/Watermelon/Lemon), Blue Hawaii (Grape/Blueberry/Orange), Bananarita (Bananna/Pineapple/Strawberry)

**Orders must be made 1 week in advance. No delivery. For more details, you can email me at a.manuel86@gmail.com.

Next up is going to be my Marshmallow Fudge Popsicles - Do stay tuned for that. Till then, take care and God bless!

~CupCakeCrazy~

2008-08-25T11:15:00.006+08:00

Lately cupcakes have been a craze and I can't help but get in on the excitement. Personally, I always found cupcakes better than a slice of cake. Cute little fellars, with pretty colorful tops and just the right amount of cake, how can you resist such yumminess? Eating them is one thing, baking them is another? So, since I am forever and ever summoned to make my dark moist choc cake, I thought 'HEY! Why not make this into cupcakes?’ The idea had sprouted last Sat and I started out with my preparations. Out came the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, cocoa and this time, I thought I was going to add some extra chocolate to make it even more moist so out came the cooking chocolate, pounded in a thick plastic bag till it became small pieces yet chunky enough that it made slight lumps in the batter. After the batter was ready, I added the chunky cooking choc and filled up my cupcake cups! Pictures anyone? :p

Cupcake batter in cupcake cups :)

Baking in the oven...

Dark and moist insides.. mmmmm Yumz!

The classic cupcake - white icing with a single red cherry to top it off. Cupcake price is standard and are going for RM2.80 per piece.

Since we were still hyped with the whole Cancer event - Oscar Red Prom Night - this was dedicated especially to the organisers.

How much better can the combination get? M&Ms + Luscious Choc Cupcake = Bliss

Promotion price : Buy 6 for RM16.50 only (standard size)

A box of 16 cupcakes : RM 44.00

If anyone is interested, do let me know a week in advance. Custom made cupcakes are also available should there be a fav flavor or a particular colour for a themed party - afterall, anything is possible with CUPCAKES!

Till' my next bitelicious post, take care and God Bless!

Its a "sweet sweet" world!

2008-08-25T10:35:00.006+08:00

IM BACK! Last Wednesday, I got a call from a good friend of mine looking for 300 lollies for a cancer event. Since I only had a day to work on it, I could not give her custom made lollies with special writings on it - also because it was too late to buy the moulds (she wanted the cancer ribbon shape). So I could only give her normal round or square shaped sweets. Since she requested red, I decided to make a pretty red strawberry flavored sweet which I presented in tiny gold cupcake holders. Here are some pictures;

The tiny cupcake holders.. I found them so cute and VERY cheap. I got about 800 pieces for a mere RM5. :0

The picture is a little blur as I had to take it with my hand phone. What you see in there is a round droplet (hardened of cause!) wrapped in cling wrap and placed in the cupcake holder. I thought it was very pretty so I left it be.

Here is a picture of two round shaped and two rectangular shaped sweets. Each sweet cost RM0.35 cents.

If anyone is interested in ordering some homemade candies, do leave me a comment and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible. I make hard candies, taffies’, lollipops and marshmallows for events as well as children birthday parties/house parties/etc. Pricing varies according to customizations.

Till my next scrumptious posting, God Bless and take care!

My Macaron Attempts...

2008-08-15T15:11:00.010+08:00

Macarons! Macarons! Macarons! Oh-kay.. so i gave it a try! I read blogs after blogs and I thought, well, easy. No worries. So I tried. Got the eggs ready. Made sure there was no yolk in it, clean, left out for a few days to mature, and stored in a airtight tupperware at room temprature. Then i bought ground almonds and confectioners sugar. So far so good. So i start... and its ... A FLOP! Nothing worked out. Too watery - not 'magma'-like - ground almonds were not smooth enuf - cracks - no feet - DISASTER! I cried. Time to put the spatula down and throw the apron in the washing machine.... after all, theres always next weekend. :)

So the next weekend came by and this was going to be my second attempt. This time I decided to try taking pictures. After my first failure, I thought I'll read up more on the possible things I did that could have gone wrong - and therefore, I decided this time to leave my eggs out even longer, less folds to the mixture (and that too rather gently), sieve through the almonds for a finer result and finally, use pure icing sugar rather than confectioners. This is due to the regular confectioners sugar having 2% of cornstarch and therefore there might be a risk of it being too dry which leads to cracks and little pointed domes.

I took out my 'mature' egg whites, put it in the hand mixer and added some sugar, mix! mix! mix! till, I had a meringue. This was also a problem I faced initially as it was my first time making a meringue and with macarons, you cannot make the meringue too stiff, and it cant be too soft either (which was my mistake during the first attempt - too soft). So with some tips from Tartlette (she makes the most amazing cute perfect lil' macarons), I set out using her rule of thumb, 'If the meringue is turned upside down and it defies gravity, its good to go!' :)

Here are some pictures I took;

1.

Ground almonds. This is before it is processed, so you can see that it is not so fine.

2.
Egg whites - I left these out for 4 full days. I did not put it in the fridge. So it was at room temprature all the way.

3.
Pure icing sugar.. I could not find any confectioner sugar that was pure in the supermarket or the baking store - even specialty stores do not have PURE icing sugar, so I made my own. I am surprised it became so fine - which is GOOD. I took granulated sugar and processed it. :)

4.
After I mixed everything together, I piped it out on a baking sheet, and tried to get it as round and even as possible. I left this out to stand for about an hour so a shell would be formed and Tartlette had said that this would help with less cracks, domes and it would give you the cute frilly feet.

(Sorry i do not have the inbetweens as i was the only one in the kitchen.. and its difficult to mix, fold, turn AND take shots)

5.
AND PERFECT! The first batch i put in were great! They had feet, a nice hard shell and a nice chewy insides. The only problem is, it had burnt a little, although it did not have even the slightest tinge of burnt taste, the colour turned a dark peach rather than a bright pink. :(

6.
This is the finished product - Bittersweet chocolate ganache! I made the ganache with whipped cream and melted dark bitter cooking chocolate. It was yummy!

7.
A shot of the macaron with a half-eaten piece. I wanted to show the innards in this shot but it wasn't a good shot.

Oh-kay guys, so you thought, hey that was pretty good. A nice batch. YAY! But hold your horses.. I was in for a surprise. The same batch I piped out on the second tray went into the oven and this my friends, was the outcome;

1.
It went flat! It started baking and spreading and getting huge and FLAT!

2.
The end result! At that point, i did not know if i should have stuffed my head in that oven or not but it was so disheartening! How can one tray from the same batch turn out so well, and the next turned out HORRID!?

Chill.... Breath.... Wooooosah... Hmmm. It took a while to compose myself and I said, no can't be, i am gonna' have another go at this. So, i tried another batch. Everything went fine. I mixed, folded just right, meringue was not bad either, and this time i tried a nice blue. Baby Blue. :)

1.
The white part is what i thought would be pretty white swirls. Tartlette did this for a friends wedding and i thought I'd give it a go too... :) (Yes, yes, i know... for an amature, it was rather ambitious)

2.
In the oven it goes

3.
Waiting for the frilly feet to form... patiently.

4.
ALAS... NO FRILLY FEET! No cute shell! No NOTHING!

5.
Another disaster... sigh.

6.
Stacked up in a pile.. and it looks worse! Hehe

7.
A Very Bad Macaron!

And so, i gave up for the day. Threw my apron aside and decided to bake some cupcakes instead. :) But thats for another post.. As for the macarons, i'll just have to TRY AGAIN. ;)

Maca-what??

2008-08-14T16:38:00.004+08:00

Never have I ever in all my experiences in the kitchen come across the most STUBBORN and fickle minded dessert... the Macaron. Yet, I am all the more determined to make it work. I need to have that perfect batch and I need it to be that perfect bite.. the one that makes every morsel of these tiny 'creatures' deserved. ~Sigh~

Before i get too much in detail, I must first explain what a macaron is. After all, I can’t be assuming that everyone knows what I am talking about! ;) The first time I came across the image of a macaron was when I googled 'macaroon'. I was searching for a simple recipe and a visual of the dessert when I came across pretty vivid colored sandwich like cookies. Curious to know more, I clicked on it and realized that there is SO much of difference in the two despite one having an extra 'o'. Macaroon is a coconut-ish chewy dessert while a macarOn is a burger like cookie that is made from confectioners’ sugar, almond flour and egg whites. This lil' fellars are so finicky that although it requires the tiniest amount of ingredients, they actually require a lot more focus and precision when actually producing it. Too much folds and it will end up with cracks, too little folds, and it may end up with little domes, worse still, NO feet! Feet, are the cute little frilly edges that surround it.

So what is so unique about these 'cookies'? That’s exactly where I’m heading to. The line that caught my eye was 'Macaron - is in the top ten list of things to experience when you go to PARIS.' I am thinking to myself at this point, what??? This tiny lil' .. pretty lil'... yummy-looking lil fellar is in the top ten list!? They have to be something to be in that list and so I read up more.. And more and more and that’s when I knew, I had to make these! I have to try baking it. Either that, or I have to FLY to PARIS and get to LADUREE and have a teeny bite (or A HUGE MOUTHFUL since I already spent hours and money just getting to the destination!). Well, okay, reality check, I’ll just need to stick to the baking option for now.

So is there a phrase to summarize these little delicacies? Hmmmm…

Let me try to summarize a macaron... (At least try my best summarizing it), "If pastries had a world of their own, Macarons would be the celebrities in it." So classy, so unique, and so Glam'. So Macaron.

*Pictures were taken of the web. Top visual is a pistachio macaron taken from www.colourlovers.com and the picture on the right is a chocolate macaron taken from bp1.blogger.com