Christmas cupcakes

Was scheduled to teach Christmas cupcakes last week. Got the course outline back in early October. I was so eager to start working on them as I did not have any classes. But surprisingly, I only managed to try out just 2 weeks before the class. Made some other designs based on the usual things associated with Christmas.

The week before class, Agnes asked me to bake for her some cupcakes to treat her Christian colleagues. Her request was very timely as it gave me the opportunity for more practise. She wanted something nice looking, lots of green and red to represent Christmas. So I made these for her, some designs were from course outline while others are not.



Still had some other designs like ginger bread man, dove and bell, from my cutter set which I have not used. I found that changing the fondant topping to red makes the set looks a lot better, more Christmas like.

This little snowman was initially made of fondant but could not hold due to the humidity. Had to use half gumpaste to make it stay upright.



These are the cupcakes all packed into the box.




Bought these boxes from Jakarta at a very reasonable price. Hope to get some more of these boxes on my next trip :)

Carol and Edmund's wedding

When Carol told me that she was getting married, I offered to make her cupcakes for her reception in church. Lilac and silver was her theme colour. Not surprise since lilac has always been Carol's favourite colour.

When I saw the invitation card, I knew what I was going to make. Instead of just lilac and silver, I added white to balance the colour. Here's what I made for her.

Carol like the idea that the cupcakes would have hers and Edmund's initial.

Have not invested in a proper stand to display the cupcakes. So I used this stand which I bought some time ago. Could not fit all of them on the stand though.

At the reception, I spent more time observing her guests instead of eating my food. Was curious to know what they think of the cupcakes. I was very happy to I see the cupcakes disappearing from the stand one by one and seeing them eaten by the young and the old alike.

After returning from her honeymoon, Carol called to thanked me again for the cupcakes and told me that her professional photographer took many pictures of the cupcakes. And they really look nice according to her. Have not seen them yet. Hope to get a copy from Carol soon.

Yellow Swirl Cupcakes

My ex-boss called up on Sunday to ask if I could make her some cupcakes on Wednesday morning. My initial reaction was to reject it as there wasn't enough time to make them because I will be working on Monday and Tuesday. The other part of me said, "Take it. You'll find the time to do it even if you have to stay up the whole night".

Got home early on Tuesday as traffic was a breeze. So I made these for her. Made some royal icing blossom and swirl flowers earlier and used them to decorate the cupcakes. Didnt have to stay up late all.

Ex-boss wanted something simple that look nice for her to bring to her ex-boss' house for raya. She specifically requested for it to be packed nicely and look presentable. So I got out my window boxes which I bought much earlier. Hoarding these boxes and tools does have its advantages. At least I don't have to go scrambling looking for them when needed. Used green ribbon to tie up the box. Forgot to take a picture of that!

Cheyne's Full Moon

Hong Ling and I have been friends since we were in MU. We got to know each other during orientation and later became housemates. After graduation, she moved back to Klang and commutes to KL on a daily basis. It was only when she was taking her CPA exams that she moved back to PJ and we became roommates. That was also the time when I first got my car. Didn't have the confidence to drive to work given the traffic condition in KL city. I wanted someone to sit next to me until I got use to KL traffic and she was the only one who was willing and brave enough to do that. I still remember that we used to leave for work at 6.30am and leave office after 8pm when there was less traffic. We've been through a lot together as roommates until just before her wedding. And we've been keeping in touch all these years.

Visited Hong Ling recently when she had her 3rd baby. Made the cupcakes for her on my second visit to her place. The fruit flan was requested by her husband to be serve as dessert for the full moon dinner. Made some for them sometime back and he liked them very much, hence requested for that as dessert instead of what the restaurant serves.

Moving on

I am switching jobs… AGAIN?… that's the reaction that I got from quite a number of friends. Going back to the very hectic investment banking department in another bank. It’s not that I’ve picked up this bad habit of job hopping, I just can’t find satisfaction doing compliance work! Nobody really cares about compliance even though it is so so important in this line. I will miss the fact that my work ends at 6 and I’m home around 7-ish. No late nights. Have also got very good colleagues. Going to miss them… especially my “neighbours”. What to do, gotta move on…. Can still date them in Pavillion next time :). Hopefully, I can still find time to bake after starting at the new place.

My long time friend, Shiet, is also moving on…. on a much bigger scale, though. She’s migrating to Perth. A lot of people have migrated, don’t blame them given the current scenario. Some time early this year, I had this thought of migrating too. Don’t know why. Maybe the boredom from mundane office work was getting into me then. But don’t know where to go. I like to travel but the thought of packing my bags to go and live in another country for good seems quite scary, not that I have a lot to pack! Well, I guess I shall just stick to traveling for now.

Well, Shiet’s moving on, gave us another excuse to indulge ourselves. This time we met at Tony Roma’s. Organising these get-togethers is getting tougher by the day as some refuse to respond and yet want to be choosy…. sigh…. pregnant woman.... they always get away with anything!! Anyway, I made these at the request of TTH. Hope that they will like them.

Used Magnolia's vanilla cupcake recipe (reduced sugar version) to make these. Here's how they look before frosting.

I like these two the most.

Cupcakes - Thank You

Khizam's wife gave birth to a baby boy recently and we presented him a gift voucher as we couldn't decide what to get for him. This is his 3rd child, hence he would already have all the new things he needed.





He asked me to bake these cupcakes to give to everyone in the office as a token of appreciation for the gift. This will be a surprise for all in the office.

All he wanted as to have 2 cupcakes for each one with "Thank" and "You" written on the cupcakes. As for the design and colours, he left it all to me.

So this is what I came up with.

Will be bringing them to the office tomorrow. Hope that they will like them.

Cake Order from office

My colleague ordered this cupcakes for her boyfriend’s 27th birthday. She specifically requested for purple swirls with silver decorations. At their party, each one of them ate 2 pieces. Am glad that they liked the cupcakes.

Here’s another order from the office.

In my current office, we always buy a cake from Secret Recipe across the road to celebrate the birthdays of my office mates. My boss had said many times that the next cake will be made by me. I agreed provided the cake is delivered on a Monday so that I have enough time to bake on Sunday. This order was initially for a Monday but was postponed to Thurs as one of the birthday girls was on leave.

Bake the cake after I got home from work. Could only start decorating the cake after the cake has completely cooled and slept at 1am that night! Turned out that they like the cake very much both in terms of look and taste.

Another colleague has place an order for cupcakes …. Will update once done.

Strawberry Cupcakes

Watching Martha Stewart’s show on NTV7 every morning was a daily routine that I miss since going back to full time work. Always look forward to the baking sessions that she has, there’s always some new tips for me. Don’t surf her website often as it always take ages to download using my dial up connection.

Visited her website recently when I was bored at work and found Sprinkles' Strawberry Cupcake recipe. I read in this blog that Cupcake Chic at The Curve copied Sprinkle’s concept in its entirety.

Tried the recipes with only half of the amount of sugar stated in the recipe and used IXL strawberry jam instead of fresh strawberries. This is how it turned out.






Still find the taste a bit on the sweeter side. Decorated them with some royal icing flowers and gave them away to Kat for her birthday. Here’s the decorated picture.

CNY Charity Sale

A friend of mine wanted to do a good deed by donating some cakes to a charity sale held just after CNY. It was also a good opportunity for me to practice. So we decided to make 30 butter cake loafs and 100 cupcakes to sell. For 4 consecutive nights after work, we baked and baked and decorated the cupcakes on the day of delivery.

This is the first time that I had baked so much! I thought that my supply of baking ingredients was sufficient. It was only after the 2nd or 3rd night that I realized I had underestimated some of the supplies. First, we ran out of milk, then it was sugar! And on the day of delivery, we found out that we had miscalculated the number of boxes that we need!. So, off I go again to buy the boxes from a nearby baking supplies shop, knowing that I had to pay more at this shop. Really didn’t have any choice. At the shop, there were only a few boxes left on the shelf and I thought, “oh….no, do I really need to go all the way to Puchong with the jam on a Saturday afternoon?” Luckily, the sales assistant found a stack of them on the floor still unopened. What a relief….

The charity sale is an annual event by the organizers but some how I thought they could still do a lot better. I was supposed to help my friend deliver the cakes and then go home to clean up the mess at home as the organizers have agreed to provide volunteers to man the stall. Unfortunately, no one came and I became the reluctant ”volunteer”.

This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I had the opportunity to see and hear the comments of the visitors to the sale. The loaf butter cake was sold out within the 1st 2 hours. We actually reduced the price because another friend commented that the price was too high. I guess it was the mentality of the people from that area. They are so used to buying a loaf of butter cake costing around RM4 only from the hypermarket . Many were curious to see the cute little cupcakes but were not willing to pay for them. Some even asked us, if they were real cake! Anyway, we managed to sell every thing by 8pm. Thank God!

I am grateful to this couple who bought 14 boxes from us and this other young lady who bought 12 boxes! This young lady was so cute… she liked the cupcakes so much that every time she comes by our stall, she will buy a few boxes…..

Flower cupcakes

Decorating cupcakes can be really fun and interesting. There is so much that you can do with cupcakes. It all depends on your creativity. Honestly, I think the sky is the limit when it comes to decorating cupcakes.

I was asked if I could make cupcakes based on a photo given by a friend. The cupcakes in the photo looked pretty and seemed easy to make. So I baked some chocolate cupcakes and tried to decorate in a similar manner. I used all the different types of cutters that I have and couldn’t make them the same. But then… mine turned out pretty too. Not bad ya, coming from someone who’s always been thinking within the box. (giving myself a pat on my shoulder).