Birthday Cake

Yet another Frozen birthday cake.
Nope not complaining, in fact it is pretty easy compared to the ones using gum paste or fondant.
I mean sure it looks good and everything but eating it... ummm??
I like the edible images, limited sometimes but it works for me.

Never mind, each to their own taste and preferences.

As requested, the icing is buttercream, and baby pink. Although I noticed most Frozen cakes are either pale blue or white - snow or maybe to resemble ice??
No matter, I do as I am told LOL so pink it was, after all the birthday cake was for a cute little girl.

For the decoration, I piped pink stars at the border and topped them with colourful silver, gold, pink and blue balls. For the rest of the cake I used sugar craft (not made by me, but bought at Bakewell) butterflies, colourful chocolate sprinkles and of course the cast of the famous Disney animation - Frozen.

The  cake itself was chocolate sponge cake, again by request. It was a four layered cake, (2 recipes of said cake) using square shallow 12x12 in cake pan. I trimmed the edges slightly to fit the 11x11 in cake board.

Happy Birthday Putri!!

Birthday Cakes!

If only the month of June was like the rest of the year...
Hah! I wish.
For this month I baked 3 birthday cakes, yep even for me that's quite a record and achievement.
I enjoyed it but wished I had more time for the Ben 10 cake. It was a rather last minute thingy... but I was told the birthday boy loved it and had a good time. He is only 7 and perhaps not quite aware of how horribly made the cake actually was!!

The first was a (another) Black Forest Cake, a birthday cake for my mum.
I made her one last year and thought that maybe this year mum wanted another cake or not at all...
She has her times when she'll just devour cake and there are times when she won't even look at one.

So another Black Forest it was and not it wasn't a surprise cake affair as we went shopping for the ingredients together! She kept saying "make it nicely" "make it properly" each time she entered the kitchen when I was baking the cake. Talk about pressure ~ but Thank God the cake came out well, in fact very well! Mum loved it so much that she ate quite a lot, more than her usual 'one small piece'.

Next was a Frozen Birthday cake for my lovely beloved niece who turned 5! Oh how time flies and she has definitely grown! The frosting was fresh cream, with a light hint of pink and edible pics of her favourite character of the Disney animation.
Yep, she enjoyed the cake I think but I believe she enjoyed eating Elsa and Anna more!!

 Ben 10 was almost similar but I used green instead and M & M for deco to go with the edible hero.
Like I said, I wished I had more time and would have decorated the cake much more.

All three cakes were chocolate sponges.
Recipe as below:

Chocolate Sponge
source : I can't remember

Ingredients
5 eggs (I reduced it to 4 as I used Gred A eggs)
170g castor sugar
1 tsp heap ovalette
100g Super Fine Flour (All purpose also can but SFF is better)
1 tsp (heap) baking powder
40g / 1 1/2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
70g oil (corn or any vegetable oil also can)

Method
In a bowl using hand mixer beat eggs, sugar and ovalette until light and fluffy.
Gradually add in the flour and cocoa powder, (I did three times) and continue beating at low speed.
When just combined, drizzle in the oil, beating briefly only.
Next, using a large spatula slowly fold the mixture and carefully not to knock out the air.

Pour the batter into prepared greased and lined cake tins. For the Black Forest I used 3, 22 cm cake tins to get three layers. For the Frozen and Ben 10 I only used 2.

Bake at 160 for 15 min. or until cook. Careful not to over cook the sponges or you'll have a very dry cake.


Happy Baking.

Busy holiday weekend

Last weekend was another of those long weekend that simply stretches!
I personally love them but at the same time it does put a dent on daily activities like paying bills, yep I still do it the old fashion way, take a number and patiently wait my turn at the post office.
And of course the normally congested road, the infamous KL traffic is even more so.
I wonder why, after all the traffic reports on the radio say that the highways are equally congested, some several kilometers long. A few years back when ever there is a public holiday or eve of such an event its practically smooth sailing in the capital.
But now it a queue here, a traffic jam there and I'm not just talking about cars. Unfortunately the population of our dear city has grown so much, mostly with foreigners. Oh well, that's another story and I don't think this is where I ought to venture.
Back to my precious cakes!
I have NOT been updating my blog! Good grief does anyone even care? LOL
I planned on adding several more recipes for my own use of course but just haven't gotten around to it.
My other project of transferring old recipes from my battered book to a brand new one pun hasn't taken off either and all the while I keep finding and trying out new recipes and simply jotting them down in another book or pieces of paper!

Yes I did start with the weekend, and I have a fabulous one. I admit it was rather hectic and stressful but I enjoyed baking and made some money too! Now who can say no to that?
We didn't go anywhere but stayed close to home, went shopping at KWC and watched some wuxia films on TV.
Alhamdullilah for the rezeki God has bestowed onto me.

Thank you very much to dear friends who ordered and still enjoyed my baking. I sincerely hoped they had a good weekend holiday as well.

Afni, ordered a moist chocolate cake, a Victoria sandwich cake and cream puffs.
She requested that both cakes were baked in squared tins.

As decoration and a different twist from the norm, I crushed Cadbury Crunchie and sprinkling it on top of the chocolate cake's melted chocolate top. I froze the chocolate bar and smashed it with my rolling pin.

A dusting of icing sugar was enough for the Victoria Sandwich Cake but I piped a few lines of butter cream across the cake and stuck some fresh strawberries.
The cream puff well, remain as they were! The creamy custard filling justified everything else.



In addition to that there was also orders for birthday cakes!
Thanks to Suzila who wanted a marble cake with butter cream icing for her dad.

Another friend also celebrated his birthday that week, Happy Birthday Koko, many happy returns for the day! I hope he enjoyed the butter cake with chocolate cream icing.

If interested, recipes for each can be found in the blog.

Happy Baking.

Birthday Cake

Marble Cake Birthday Cake, with Butter Cream.

Red Velvet Birthday Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.

Marble Cake - Again!

A friend's birthday was last week, but didn't have time to make a cake on that special day.
So instead I made one a belated one.
I baked marble cake, and used butter cream for the topping.

Marble Butter Cake
source: QL Kitchen

Ingredient
225g butter
225g sugar
225g self raising flour
4 eggs
6 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla

Method
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in vanilla and the eggs one at a time, beat well.
Alternate 3 Tbsp milk and flour into the mixture.
Divide the batter into 2.
Leave one plain while the other add the cocoa powder and 3 Tbsp of milk.
Mix well to combine.

In a lined and greased cake tin or loaf pan, spoon in the mixture accordingly,
you can either put four small dollop of batter in the tin or
layer it, two spoon full of each batter at a time.
Either way the cake looks good.
Use a bamboo skewer and zig zag a pattern before baking.
Bake at 180 C for 1 hour.

Once cake is cool, you can either leave it as it is or spread the icing.

Butter cream icing.

Ingredients
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar
2 Tbsp of condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla.
 Food colouring.


In a clean bowl, cream the butter and shortening until turns light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla.
In two batches, add the icing sugar into the butter mixture.
Once well mix, add the remaining icing sugar, continue beating,
The mixture is smooth and spreadable.

Spread onto cake and decorate as you like.
Happy Baking.

Doraemon!

Birthday Cake

A friend asked if I could bake a birthday cake for her son's first birthday... cute! First birthdays are important even if the birthday person isn't quite aware of what exactly is happening or who are all those people...!!

The mum wanted it to be Doraemon as that is his favourite cartoon character.
So off I went looking high and low of the said cat's edible icing sheet, but sadly after visiting 4 shops, Doraemon was no where in sight!
Eventually we settled for figurines of the blue cat made of sugar and some plastic toys.

For this cake I baked a Victoria Sandwich, chocolate and vanilla with butter cream topping.
As she didn't want a lot of cream, I covered the sides lightly with some butter cream before propping up bars of Kitkat that look like fences. For a festive touch I added some colourful lollipops.

Applying the fences a.k.a kitkat takes a lot of patience and a bit of icing.
Patience, so that the bars don't break as you are unwrapping them.
Icing, works like glue to stick to the cake. When done, gently press the bars to the cake and put it in the fridge to set. Same goes for the cats, a bit of icing at the bottom of eat figurines, helps them stick better.
I piped some rosette at the edge between the cake and kitkat bars, to close some gaps.
If you like, tie a colourful ribbon around the chocolate bars with a big bow right at the front.

Here is the end product, I left the front part empty for the candles.

Victoria Sandwich
source: my mum's recipe book

4 oz self raising flour (I used Blue Key)
1 tsp baking powder
3 oz castor sugar
2 medium size eggs
4 oz butter
* I doubled the recipe for this birthday cake.

Method:
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
Add in eggs one at a time, beat well.
Fold in flour in batches and mix well until batter is smooth.
**
Line and grease 2 baking tins.
Bake for about 25-30 min at 180 C.

Take cakes out of tins and cool on racks.
When cakes are still warm, spread jam on the surface of one cake (pick the bottom part of the cake, as it is easier to spread the jam) before topping it with the other cake.

** If you are doing the chocolate part, put aside half of the batter and add 1 Tbsp of cocoa. Mix well until all the batter is evenly mix, just use a wooden spoon or spatula. Pour batter into tin and bake.

For the butter cream
125g butter
70g shortening
80g icing sugar (please sift first)
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp condensed milk

In a bowl beat butter and shortening until light and fluffy,
then add the vanilla. Beat again.
Gradually add the icing sugar and continue beating until all the
sugar is finished. Lastly add in the condensed milk.
Mix well and it is ready to be used.

For colour, just add a few drops of your favorite colour. 

Happy Baking!

Birthday Cake

Recently I received an order for a birthday cake. It was for someone's 27th birthday, and the design and type of cake of were left up to me.
Hmm...It was kinda hard because a cake especially a birthday cake has to reflect a person's personality. I barely know having only met her three times with a few hellos and a casual word or two thrown in!
I pondered and thought for a bit, only a bit as I had tons of other things to do and decided that an Ombre Cake would suite the occasion best. As for the color scheme, I opted for something neutral - in between color... orange.
The recipe I posted before and is the very same one, only I changed the topping. No cream cheese since I wasn't sure if she liked it. Instead as the dirty icing I made a regular butter cream one and later the top was a fresh cream with orange juice, in following with the color!
I also used 3 larger cake tins, 22 cm so the cake was wider but thinner. I got four layers! Ha! Ha! A big achievement for me, as I previously made Ombre Cake with only 3 layers.

I hope Su had a fantastic birthday and enjoyed the cake too.

I was fortunate to be invited to the birthday party as I was curious to see how the cake turned out!

I even, after the candles were blown of course, volunteered to cut the cake!!

I managed to snapped pics of the cake and I thought it looked better then I expected!

                                                                                              

The recipe for the icing I made :
Buttercream Icing
3 cups sieved icing sugar (It was a little too sweet, so next time I have to lessen it a bit)
1 cup of butter (I added 1/3 cup of shortening to this)
1/3 cup of milk (it depends how stiff your icing is, so add milk accordingly until icing is spreadable)
1 tsp of vanilla

Method
Cream the butter and shortening (if adding) until smooth and creamy. Add in half the icing sugar first and continue beating. When fluffy add in the rest and beat until smooth. It is ready to be used.
Topped each layer with the cream and cover the rest of the cake with the remaining cream. Preferably chill the cake in the fridge before piping the fresh cream.


Fresh Cream Topping
300 ml non dairy whipping cream
I didn't put any sugar because this cream is already sweet, depending on the brand you might have to add a little bit of icing sugar.
1 tsp of vanilla
enough food colouring of your choice.

Method
Beat at low speed first, the cream then speed up until the cream is stiff. Add the vanilla and divide the whipped cream into 3 or 4 portions depending on your cake. Add just enough colouring to each and decorate your cake.

Happy Baking.

Birthday cake

I baked a rather belated birthday for a friend.
Hoped she enjoyed it!

This time I chose the Almond Butterscotch Cake. Unlike my first attempt, I added in more butterscotch into the fresh cream and less in the middle and it tasted ... according to reliable sources delicious! LOL, definitely a case of masuk bakul sendiri!!