Banana Pajamas Cake

My son's birthday is on boxing day and we usually celebrate his birthday on Christmas Eve with logcake as his birthday cake.  But this year, I decided to bake a special cake for him.  Initially I thought of just baking a normal quick and easy chocolate cake (like last  year) or go down to the bakery to buy him a cake...but guilt got the better of me.  Even though I am not certain if he knows what or when his birthday is (and he is still rather confused as to how old he actually is), I should still make him feel special by baking one of his favorite character cakes.   I figured Banana Pajamas is probably quite appropriate because whenever you ask him to sing a Birthday Song, he would sing it as "...Happy Birthday B1 & B2.." and not his name or any other person's name...because he is replaying this episode of Banana Pajamas in his mind - of them celebrating their birthday with Morgan, Lulu & Amy with a cake, munchy honey cakes and yellow jelly.. 

This design is taken from Debbie Brown's book. Of course her Banana Pajamas character cake is way way way better than this.  That's because i didn't follow her instructions and I used my own cake base and thus resulted in a not-so-great Banana Pajamas. But inspiration and design is from Debbie Brown.  

Again, i couldn't decide which photo i like better, thus posted up both of them.   Since this cake wasn't exactly planned for and last minute i rushed through, i felt that i didn't really do a very good job in carving or fondant work..but at least they still look like Banana Pajamas since my son is able to identify them..and he seems pretty happy when i completed it.  We have yet to cut the cake, so not sure if he will be upset if we cut it tonight though..

Happy 18th Birthday to my son Joel! Yes, he is 18 already and i can't believe it....i  keep forgetting at times and still sees him as my little boy..  

Updates: [He didn't want to cut the cake at all...probably he doesn't sees it as a cake and doesn't want to destroy it........hmm..maybe i should just bake him a plain cake next time so at least he knows a cake is a cake..hahaha]. 

Wedding Macarons

Thank you all for your lovely comments on my earlier post re the wedding cookies i made for my friend.  All of you are always so encouraging and kind with your words.  Thanks! :D   Without further ado, here's the second installment of the wedding cookies..this time round in the form of macarons.  Macarons are also cookies correct?  Not so sure..but i think so.  As my friend's wedding theme is pink, so pink and white macarons (white looking more like champagne color actually) it is.. I hunted for THE cute ribbon for the longest time and managed to find the one that i like but it's sooo expensive...what to do, i needed to have that ribbon to complete the entire look for the macaron-lollipops, so not much of a choice. 

Tying the ribbons was hard work..believe me..trying to get those little dots facing the correct way was a pain..i actually took 1 hour just to bag and tie 35 of them!  Thankfully only 35 of them in lollipops..the balance 100+ are just normal macarons...*phew*..

I set these up for my amateurish photoshoot..hahaha.  I can't decide if i like the dark background better or the white one. So i posted both here. As you can see, my Macdonald's coke glasses are in action again. Sorry folks, i really don't have any vase or nice flower pots or proper glasses at all.. i only have these free coke glasses..and i have a LOT..yup..i spend every weekend at Macdonalds because that is my son's favorite place.  

In case you all wondering, i baked the shells before i left for my hols to Japan.  I must say macaron freezes very well.  Thus, I just spend the whole of last night after work filling them.  Otherwise, i don't think i can do all 140+ macarons in just a night...and find time to take photos.. :D 

I'm pretty pleased with how my macarons turned out..so sweet and pretty in pink and white.  :D   The pink ones are strawberry macarons filled with strawberry jelly and buttercream. The white ones are rum and raisin macarons filled with "rum-mish" raisin jam and rum buttercream.  Both flavors are the Bride's favorite! :D 

Merry Christmas everyone! :D

Wedding Favor Cookies

Just got back from my hols on Friday and had to rush through my friend's order for wedding favor cookies, so i didn't have much time to comment on blogs or to catch up quite as quickly. I surprise myself sometimes - I managed to bake 120+ cookies on Saturday and then ice them all the very next day.  Oh..as usual, my husband is always at my back nagging as to what time i'm finishing and it's late etc, so i had to ignore him after a while...

My friend's wedding theme is pink, so all the cookies have to be in pink.   Cookies were made in 4 different flavors..and i used different recipe for each flavor (I like to try new recipes...i get bored easily...so i don't always stick to a particular recipe).  They all turned out quite yummy and sweet. :)

Wedding Favors: 喜喜 Heart Cookies

Wedding Favors: Lace Heart Cookies

Wedding Favors: Mini 'Love' Heart Cookies

Mini Cupcake Cookies

Snowflake Cookies

Candy Wrapper Cookies

The candy wrappers cookies imo weren't very well piped as i was rushing through and felt that my piping wasn't as delicate as i would like..plus my arm and hand were tired after icing 120+ cookies.   As you can see, i did the heart shaped cookies first and the rest later..  My friend's wedding is on Christmas Eve, so i added the snowflakes there so she can put on her dessert table.   

So here ends the part 1 of the wedding cookies...i'm working on part 2 tonight....hopefully I get them out on time as per my schedule..

Baby and Laces Cookies

We had long weekend holiday and I thought I had ample time to bake the cakes for ABC, HCB and cookies for my friend.  However, my daughter had a minor 'accident'  - she cut her finger (quite badly!) while doing her project and i had to rush her to a 24-hr clinic at night.  The doctor attending said it was minor and didn't give us anything and told us just to monitor. He didn't even have bandages in his clinic to dress up the wound and told me to go to the nearest pharmacy to buy and dress it up on  my own.  The next day, the cut on my daughter's finger was still red and bleeding, so i rushed her down to A&E and the doctor opened up the wound, examined it and said cut was quite deep and needed stitches!!  I can't believe that the earlier doctor just brushed it off so lightly.  

After all the worrying and rushing to the doctors, my baking plan went awry.  I didn't have time to bake anything.  However, i need to ice the cookies i've baked on Thursday...as I know i will be occupied the week later.

Hence decorated these baby shower cookies & lace cookies from Sunday night & over the next 2 nights till very late (or shall i say early morning..lol!). As usual, my husband nagged at me constantly (every 30mins interval after 10pm) if i'm done as it's getting late, that i needed to get to work the next day...otherwise, i will not have enough sleep and can't concentrate at work..and bad for my health..blah..blah..blah...

Baby Shower Cookies

Made these baby shower cookies for a friend. Her sister will be having a baby soon and because of some very Chinese tradition, she can't see her sister or baby till a month later after baby is born . I thought if my friend could give her sister some pretty cookies, that would be nice.  

Heart-Shape Lace Cookies

Round-Shape Lace Cookies

These heart & round lace cookies are just my "practice-to-pipe" cookies.  Saw some lovely lace cookies by my 2 flickr pals (Rosey Sugar & Jill Sugar) and thought i'll give it a go. Of course mine is no where near their standard..theirs are perfect and their piping always so delicate and pretty - I adore their work! I needed to practice piping round, so i made lots of round cookies.  However, i didn't really do a very good job..my round outline turned out quite terrible..some jagged edges, some diamond shape, some oval..some just out of shape round.. These above that you see are the 6 best rounds that i've done! LOL!  Gotta practice more! 

Halloween: Cookies & Marzipan Finger Cupcakes (guest-post @ PinkLittleCakes)

Thank you Kathia for inviting me to guest post! :D

Hi! I'm Faithy! I have no idea what Halloween is since we don't really celebrate here in Singapore.  So when Kathia of Pink Little Cakes asked me if i would like to guest post in her Halloween series, i figured it would be fun and agreed.  How difficult would it be since I've seen gift shops selling halloween related stuff etc...?

I thought for a really really long time (almost a month since i opted to be the last in line ...) and couldn't come up with any ideas at all! Everyday I would read all these wonderful creations that other awesome guest-bloggers were creating. And as the date for my posting came nearer, i panicked!  So on Sat evening....so i rushed out to the shop and bought some halloween cutters and made these cookies....

However, because of my bad time management and no planning, I rushed through to ice these cookies on Sunday. My husband was nagging at me all the time to finish up quickly cos it was past midnight and I needed to get up early for work the next day.  Hence, I felt I didn't do a good job with these cookies.  

The next day, I thought about it again and decided that maybe i should make cupcakes! With the halloween theme, I'll make marizpan finger toppers for the cupcakes!  These, i thought to myself, would be soo cool!!   So, right after I came home from work, i sat down to mould these finger toppers with marzipan..   But while making these fingers from mazipan, i was quite disturbed and frightened..cos they began to look more and more realistic to me.  I wasn't sure at this point if i wanted to use them as cupcake toppers so i just took some photos of them as 'lollipops'.  

My husband came home, saw these and said i should cut off the stem to make them look more realistic - and he added that if i wanted to do something like that, i should make them look as realistic as possible. With his advice, I cut off the stem and they ended up looking even more frightening and morbid..!?!  I took these photos really quickly....as I was felt rather gross out...lol! 

Creepy isn't it?  Well, as i was saying, i was pretty disturbed, so i packed these fingers into a box and brought it with me to work the next day. I showed everyone who came to my office to see what they had to say about the fingers. Most took it as a matter of fact and didn't seem very disgusted or shocked.  Some even encouraged me to use it as toppers for my cupcakes..saying they don't mind eating the cupcakes even with these fingers on it. They thought it would be fun and in line with the halloween theme.  I was encouraged....but wasn't totally convinced.  Took me 2 days to think about it and the fingers sat in my office for 2 days before i had the courage to bring them back home again..hahaha...

Finally I made chocolate cupcakes with frosting and placed the marizpan fingers on each cupcake. So I ended up with these....

If you want the "shock" factor for your halloween party, i think these marzipan fingers are the way to go... definitely be the talk of the party!   :S

Finally, i'm sharing with you the recipe to chocolate cupcake (as seen in the photos above). It's very light, soft and moist just like what the book said it would be.  However, I didn't find it as chocolatey as i would like though..

Chocolate Sour Cream Cupcake 
adapted from the book Cupcakes! by Elinor Klivans


Ingredients:-
3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
1 cup unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk


1. Preheat oven to 180c.
2. Melt the chocolate in microwave.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl and set aside
4. Beat the butter and sugar until fluffy about 2 mins using electric mixer
5. On low speed, mix in the melted chocolate. Scrape side of the bowl.
6. On medium speed, add eggs one at a time until each is blended into batter
7. Add vanilla and beat until mixture looks creamy, about 1 min
8. Mix in sour cream until no white streaks
9. On low speed, add half flour mixture, mixing to incorporate it. Mix in water, then mix in the remaining flour mixture until it is incorporated and the batter looks smooth.  
10. Spoon the mixture into cupcake cups and bake for 15-20mins (depending on size of the cup).

Cats Cookies

This design is taken from this book "Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits" which i bought recently. I had limited time after work to pipe these, i used parchment cone only instead of the usual bag & tip, so less washing up to do ..:)

The ball of yarns, i wanted messy yarn balls (to be different from the book) but in the end they looked more like Cha-Soba (green tea noodles) ...LOL!  

Initially i wanted to make halloween cookies but somehow ended with these because i fell in love the design after seeing them in the book. Perhaps i just don't get the halloween thing since we don't celebrate here at all. We have the Chinese 7th-month "Ghost month" which is like the equivalent of halloween i think.  Back to the drawing board..hahaha...

Flora Painted Cake

This is just a practice (to-paint) cake and for nobody in mind...as i'm typing this, this cake is still in the fridge untouched..lol!   I had major fondant issues with this cake and the fondant kept tearing...bugs me to see tears/crack lines on the fondant. Strange.. i could only blame it on the weather and for me not turning on the air conditioning.   

I painted this free-hand and it's my first time painting directly on the fondant cake.  It feels different and not like the usual painting on paper..:S.  Definitely more room (lots in fact!) for improvement for sure! I need to find the right consistency for the paint - food colors i meant.  **The flower pattern that i've painted is made with reference to Donna Dewberry's paint work in her book.** 

I've been slacking in commenting on my blogger friends' blog posts (you all know who you are..:D..but i do try to catch up whenever i can..)..because i have been busy with translating Pierre Hermé's Macaron book to English with the help of google translate..lol! Yup..here it is...

Don't ask me why I bought this since it is in French and I don't read or write or speak French. I suppose this is THE Pierre Hermé Macaron book and it was sitting on the bookshelf staring at me..so how can i not buy it?! LOL!  So far, i've translated 20 initial pictorial pages and google translate has been doing a very good job for me. LOL!  I can safely say i can now understand the ingredients listed in French in this book.  :D

Daniel's Cake

My friend wanted all her husband's favourite things to be incorporated in the cake and wanted them in 3D. I was quite happy with the cake until delivery time. Because the cake structure for the golf bag wasn't strong enough, and while carrying down the stairs and in the car, the structure moved and caused the bottom tier of the cake to crack and break...so the entire cake sank 3 inches to the bottom. Thank God that the fondant didn't crack that badly and i was able to patch up a bit. But the cake ended up looking like saggy old bag with a heavy bottom. I was sooo upset and disappointed with myself for not going with my instincts that the structure wasn't strong enough.  I told my husband 5 times that I think the rod isn't strong enough but he kept saying it is OK and reassured me that it will be alright. True enough, my worse fears happened right before my eyes, the cake cracked and moved.. my heart sank  and i almost cried.

My friend was very nice about it and comforted me and she just called to tell me that nobody at the party noticed the golfbag cake sagged until she mentioned it. But honestly, I'm still feeling quite lousy about it.  My heart ached further when I saw the after party photo of the sagging cake and tilting to one side.  I think I'll need some time to recover.. 

Everything is made with edible material. The golf bag, notebook, and keyboard all are made of cake, sushi is made with cakeballs, xrays are handpainted gelatine sheets and the rest of the stuff made with gumpaste and RKT.

Side View of the cake

details of the cake

details of the caviar, bellini with caviar, sushi

details of the sugar rose, golf clubs

Lesson learnt:  Trust my own instinct and always insist on a stronger structure when everyone else say otherwise...cos only I know how my cake is going to turn out... I think I should learn how to do carpentry work too instead of relying on others.... lol!

I planned to bake this week's HCB cake but i think now i'm too sad & disappointed to want to bake anything after my golfbag cake sank... 

Food (Frederick) Cake

This is what i have been doing and preparing hence unable to bake my weekly HCB assignments...getting all the gumpaste ready to harden and dry..which takes longer to dry in our climate. 

I've been asked by my friend to make a cake for her nephew's 21st birthday and she told me that he loves food. Hence it's all about food.  My friend said i have include pocky, lobster, sushi and an assortment of other food if possible. 

Everything is made from edible material, including the disposal box, sauce containers, green leaves.  Pocky and Chicken Nugget is hand-painted.  I was looking for sodium alginate to make fish roe or shall i say juice caviar..trying my hand in molecular gastronomy or trying to copy Heston Blumenthal..hahaha.. but i couldn't find such chemicals here..(even normal antibiotics are not allowed to be bought over the counter unless with doctor's certification..see..how to buy chemicals?!). Thus, i had to crack my head and used a more economy way of making tiny gummy balls instead. :D

The cake almost left me in tears..don't know why the cake kept breaking up and i couldn't get the pocky cake to stand upright...thankfully i had extra cake and remade it again..but had to make it bigger than what i had planned in order for it to be sturdy enough to stand.

Thank God everything turned out well in the end. I did pray very hard. :D  And God gave me a verse in Philippians 4:6-7.  "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. "

Cow Cake

Are you thinking what i am thinking?  The cow looks like a cross breed between a cow and a pig right? LOL!  

I want to thank my flickr pal,  [Schmish] for helping me with the cake structure. She was so sweet to draw out the cake structure for me so i can have a clearer idea what i should be doing for a 3D standing cow cake and she was also patient enough to entertain all my silly questions about DIY. I am really not a diy person and neither is my husband (20 years of marriage and i've never seen him hold a power tool before or a normal non-electric saw...) and i have absolutely no clue how to use a power tool either.  I showed my husband her drawing and he said he can do it. So, he helped me out with the cake structure, however, he insisted that the 'legs' shouldn't be that long cos cow doesn't have long legs and to trust his judgement... But just as i expected, the 'legs' he provided weren't long enough and i ended up with a short-legged cow..LOL! And the 'legs' were UNeven in length too!   I had to hide the legs (or pretend the legs to be covered with tall grass!).  With my not so great cake sculpting skill coupled with his less than satisfactory diy skill, my cow at certain angle looked like a pig!.  

Nevertheless,  I had fun making this cake...i had a lot of first time with this cake..lol! First time i made a structure for a cake, and first time used airbrush and first time i 'steamed' my cake.   Before i 'steamed' (like Cake Boss) my cake to give it a shine, the airbrushing looked better, but after i 'steamed' it, the airbrushing looked much darker..and quite patchy!  My lesson, never steam airbrush cakes until i have mastered the art of airbrushing first.  I know i'm suppose to practice on a piece of paper first but i didn't..i just went hands-on with it! :p    This is not a paying cake, so i get to 'experiment' right? 

Happy Birthday Hannah!  Hannah is born in the year of cow, hence she requested for a cow cake. :D  

Pixar UP Cake

No HCB bake this week cos my daughter and I don't really like coconut in cakes. *shrugs* Don't know why....just not too fond of it. But i like coconut in curry and some other local desserts though.  Also, i've been busy baking my daughter's belated birthday cake.  So here it is....

Made this UP Cake for my daughter's belated birthday celebration...a must after the UP Cookies..:) 

Up Cake: Front View

Hand molded Russell, Dug & Carl

Hand molded Kevin

Up Cake: Side View

Cake Flavor: Strawberry Cake w/ Strawberry buttercream & fresh strawberries filling

This strawberry cake is very easy to bake - quick and fast - so fast that it felt like it's made from cake box mix..the cake turned out beautifully but i have one complain though, the texture/crumbs is a bit rough imo. Not sure if it is because i'm spoilt after baking so often from Rose's HC book as all of her cakes, the texture is very soft and crumb is also very delicate that it melts in your mouth, so much so any cakes not up to par i just can taste it right away?  *shrugs* This cake is yummy except the texture just feels rough on my tongue. Other than that, the taste, flavor is great.   Have i become cake snob (besides chocolate snob..) too? *rolling eyes*

Recipe as requested by Hanaa:-

Strawberry Cake (by Michele Foster)


Oven Temp: 350f
Baking Time: 35mins


3 cups cake flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp strawberry gelatin
1 cup butter, soften
1-1/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract


Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and strawberry gelatin powder.  Add butter and 1 cup of buttermilk. Mix slowly until combined then beat at medium speed for 90 sec. Meanwhile mix eggs and vanilla & remaining buttermilk. Scrape down sides. Add to batter, mixing in two batches for about 20 secs each.  Pour into two 8" or one 9x13" pans.  Bake at 350f for 35mins. Cook for 10mins before turning into the cooling rack. Frost with your favorite buttercream after completely cooled.

Pixar UP Cookies

My daughter's birthday is coming up next week but she will be in away in Church camp and hence won't be celebrating with us. This is the first year she's away from home on her birthday. So i made her some birthday cookies of her fave cartoon characters for her to bring to camp.   I spent 2 days piping these...so tiring!!  My arm going to drop off already...  I thought i could finish in a day but i couldn't.. hence i didn't have time to bake this week's HCB assignment :(.

Overall, I'm happy with how the UP cookies turned out.  However, I still need to improve on the fine detail piping skill which i am lacking in (as what Chef Michel Roux Jr, judge of MasterChef-Pro always say "lacking the finesse...") I guess practice makes perfect but cooking decorating is extremely time consuming imo..and sometimes (actually, more like most of the time) i'm quite lazy to get my butt moving..:p ! 

Russell and his Wilderness Explorer, Grape Soda badges

Carl & his Home

Dug

Kevin

UP Cookies

Tiara cookies

Dress cookies

Cookies all packed and gift wrapped for my daughter