Pies & Tarts; Tea Party Ready!

Went to another class at @Sweetnesssg. Even had a Tea Party at the end. (Harrods’ Toffee Tea taste superb!)

Here we have Apple Crumble Pie and Lime Meringue Pie. I was told that the Lime Meringue Pie need an acquired taste. As I am not a fan of sour food, it came as a surprise that I actually like them. Weird!

Decadent Chocolate Tart. Apparently I belong to the can’t-appreciate-the salt group. Heh not atas enough! haha. Of course, need to used the rich expensive chocolate for this tart.

Kak Aidah gave a demo on how to bake this delicious Chicken Portobello Quiche. My favourite of all!! Brought few slices home and Mama love it so much till she bought the ingredients few days later.

My first Quiche! Baked it small and cute. Recipe is easy to follow thankfully. Or else this D7 F&N student would fail terribly.

Also attempted the Chocolate Tarts! My nephews love them so much. Which kid doesn’t anyway! Kids and Chocolate! (Adults and Chocolate too :P)

Yesterday, I baked my 3rd batch of Quiche. Abah ate 5 pieces so far. 3 at one go. Probably cause there is no food available since Mama and Adik went KL haha! I also made Lemon Meringue Tart. Substituted lime to lemon and omg so nice! Love it so much (a bit thick skinned here praising my bakes) but I need more willing food testers. Shall wait for them to reach home tonight to try and comment!

First Wedding Cake!

Alhamdulillah, my cake stood strong all the way throughout the reception! Was so nervous you can’t imagine how worried I was for the past few weeks. Had started with the rice paper flowers 2 weeks ahead. Making them in red, yellow and green as requested by the bride earlier. Made the 2nd tier two days before the reception. This was a dummy cake. Making a sparkly, sequin-y middle cake. Prettified my flowers with edible beads and silver sparkly dust.

First tier up. I had some issues with my first tier. It was so much easier to put fondant on a dummy cake then on a real cake. I did this two days before reception. My fondant sort of break apart at the back. (I took picture of the good side of course!) I googled and learn how to glue back the fondant but it resulted in a wet fondant cake. Was so stressed up cause I can’t possibly ruin a wedding!

So I changed my plan and made more flowers to cover the whole cake. Found out that I did not knead my fondant enough for first tier. Second tier was easy cause the fondant was still fresh out. (Yes, I made the fondant myself!!) Had covered the first tier hours later hence the crack, elephant skin, etc. Learnt from mistakes and knead like crazy for the third tier. It was so much better!

Not so bad for first wedding cake right?! Hehe. Tried my best to put in what I learnt into the cakes. The making of fondant, the sequins and the rice paper flowers! Now I know why people charge so much for a wedding cake. It is so tiring, back-breaking, feet swollen-ing, head banging experience ever. I don’t know how the bakers do it on a weekly basis.

And!! My mum and I decided on a dessert table project! That was why I was so stressed out! Rent out the beautiful cake stands from CAKELAB by Maryam Dzinnira. 🙂 We managed to mass produce cream puffs, eclairs, tapak kuda, kek lapis nutella, congo bars, Victoria Sandwich slices and kuih bakar berlauk. My elder sister made awesome dadih to add on. One of the aunties gave delicious brownies for more variety. There’s kek lapis rainbow and what’s not to add into the dessert table. Our first dessert table project and first wedding cake ever. So glad everything went well! 😀

Cake Classes Part II

Continuation to my initial Cake Classes post, I went to two more exciting decorating classes from byBellaCupcakes.

Temari; cute spherical cakes. Bigger version of cake pops without the stick.

 

And rice paper / wafer flower. So unique!

“Spoilt for choice” right now. What to do for my cousin’s wedding cake?!?

Cake Classes

It’s been ages. I’ve been very busy with work and weekend classes. Managed to insert cake classes in between for the past few months. Trying to have a decorating crash course cause the genius me had hastily volunteered to bake my cousin’s wedding cake this December. I know right! What was I thinking! I had volunteered to pay for it but my aunt and cousin insisted on me baking it instead. I’m okay with birthday cakes but wedding cake is a big deal! So many what-ifs in my head now. (What if the cake break apart, what if the buttercream/fondant melt, what if everything fall apart, etc.)

Fate introduced me to Kak Aidah from SweetnessSg and Kak Bella from byBellaCupcakes. So thankful to meet them!

SweetnessSg: Had previously went to their Pavlova and Meringue Workshop. Recently went for the Swiss Meringue Buttercream class. Really love the decorating parts but of course I’m just a beginner. Kak Aidah taught various ‘design’. So many options to choose from but I love love ruffles! Will need to practice like crazy! My hands were too shaky to pipe any decorations. Super nervous for nothing!

My Frozen inspired cake. hehe!

With ombre surprise (cause it’s pink inside!) inside:

byBellaCupcakes: I went to a total of 3 classes! Such a pity she’s leaving in November especially since I only know about her in late September.  Had super crash course in October. So worth it! I actually feel sad she’s leaving! Heh.

First class was sequins. I think I should have gone to basic class first. Had jumped straight to sequins. hehe but she kindly guided me throughout. I love fantasy flowers! So pretty on a cake.

Second class was on fondant. Making it from scratch. This should have been my first class though. My ribbons still look a bit awkward. But we were rushing to complete it due to time constraint on my part. Their class was on two tiers! She also included anemone and roses. I can make more flowers now! So many ideas for my cousin’s wedding cake! Now if only I can sketch out the ideas.. hehe. My sketches sucks.

I love all the classes. They are tiring because of the long hours (4-6hours) but so worthwhile. So sayang to cut after the long hours spent to make it but.. no choice right.

Now I just need to put in whatever I learned into the wedding cake. So worried!

Pavlova & Meringue

Finally! After such a long time! I went to a baking class again. Hehe. Went to a Pavlova and Meringue workshop last Monday.

Love love the happy colours and the pretty bakes!

Everything sound so easy! But egg whites have always been my frienemy. I had a hard time figuring it out during my macarons period. Haha. But I think I’ve got it now. I think. Class was conducted by Ms. @Sweetnesssg! 😁

Quwaidir’s 2nd Birthday

Quwaidir turned 2 a week ago! My nephews have all grown up to be funny toddlers now.

I was glad his birthday celebration was postponed to the weekend. That means I can finally decorate his cake!

Last year I was too caught up with month end till I could not even contribute anything.

When we asked him to choose his cake, he decided on mickey mouse, then angry bird, then guitar, minion was mentioned once, returned back to mickey mouse / angry bird, then piano. Fickle minded but since he repeated angry bird many times (I kind of psycho him to choose that), here it is:

Reminded me of pokeball with face. 😂

Dua & Donate

For those in Singapore. 😔🙏

Kuih Sarang Semut

My all time favourite eid kuih! Though the grating was super tiring cause I am a slow worker.

Anyway the ingredients:
250gm butter
200gm sugar powder/icing sugar
300gm plain flour
200gm custard flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Chocolate rice as ants

Standard procedures. Beat butter and sugar till they are totally mixed. Then add vanilla into the mixture. Lastly, add the dry ingredients slowly. You can mix the dry ingredients first also. Grate the dough into the papercups. Try not to scoop the grated dough cause it will stick and will not look nice! Sprinkle chocolate rice on top. Bake it and you are done! 👌

Darwish’s 3rd Birthday!

Edible print can save a life! Unlike his first and second birthday, I took an easier way out this time.

He still love his cake though! I’m hoping that my laziness will disappear and I will start baking soon!! Need to be prepared for Quwaidir’s 2nd birthday cake too. I did not have the time last year for his 1st birthday. Feel a little guilty.

Anyway Darwish’s 3rd cake was just a simple sponge cake with eclair nutella filling. Nutella makes everything taste so wonderful!

Nutella Cups

One of the bakes that I would definitely put under the FAIL category. I’m sure nothing is wrong with recipe I used. It was just me. The cookies were underbake-overbake, if there is such a thing. You know it’s underbake when you eat it then after sometime you decided to put it back in the oven (I know! I know! What was I thinking?!) and then it became overbaked cookies. Haha!

But as usual, with nutella everything will be slightly better right? 🙂 Will need to try again! But I have been very lazy lately. Hence the lack of bakes and updates.