Monday, December 31, 2007

December Roundup - An Old Post To Date

We love December. Yes, we always do. Xmas, birthdays and long holidays, tell us, who doesn't? We were happy to find out that close friends were here to support us - financially. That's what we get when cupcakes and cakes orders flows in. The money were well spent though (and all gone, ahem) ! We've added a new book into our baking bookshelf; Pierre Herme's and Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Desserts, the book that we were dying to have since bumping into one through online. And we thought we would never ever lay our sweaty hands (and paws) on it since we've been asking about it from major bookstores. Lady luck was with us, we found the one and only piece in Border's after many trips to the other bookstores. Overjoyed. The book was great indeed. =)


1. Cupcake and cake orders. The money flowed in from orders; chocolate cupcakes and a key-shaped durian layer cake from Mandy. The cupcakes were plain Janes. Moist chocolate cupcakes filled with peppermint ganache and topped with simple buttercream flavored vanilla. The other batch were banana cupcakes filled with chunky banana fillings and topped off with the same buttercream as well. See the wordings? It was a painstaking session. Fatass piping skills were pretty - pretty bad.


On the same day itself, Mandy requested for a custom made cake; a key-shaped durian layer cake. Durians. We got to know that the week itself was not the peak season of durians, hence, ended up spending ka-chings from our latest paycheck. There were 4 vanilla sponge layers encased with 3 layers of durian cream. The durian cream were as smooth as what we have expected it to be, thanks to us, we've squash the durian pulps profusely for half an hour with our sweaty palms (or paws). Highly exaggerated...


The cake were then covered with unsweetened whipped cream and white chocolate shavings. And the number 2 and 1, made out of dark chocolate were placed on the top of the cake. The feedback of the cake were somehow better than the cupcakes, ahem. They love the durian baby. Yay!


2. Our first ice cream maker! We wanted a bread machine at first but Pa insisted to get the ice cream maker since ice cream make a better spoon-licking dessert where one can easily indulge in; compared to bread which needed loads of the ever rising cost of hi-protein flour. And a big thankyou to our fav man of the year, Pa, for the ice cream maker. =)


3. Baby Glider. On the same week itself, Pa
got Kidd a baby glider. To be precise, a sugar glider. He even has his own retro pouch as his bed. A tiny velvet cloth, as his blanket to keep him warm and fuzzy. He was real cute and macho at times. And he loves marking his own territories, like how poochies mark them. Sweetest rodent we've ever seen. Unsurprisingly, he do glide! And the maintenance were pretty costly since he hates starchy fruits like bananas, apples etc; speaking of pureed fruit as heavy meals and honey as desserts. (*Grin*)


4. Cryshelle's 20th. A big thankyou to Crystal for what she had done. The night itself were great, including the girls who made the night even better; our besties Cryssie herself, Molly, Claudia and Cath! Cryssie were stunning. (*Nose Bleeds*) It was a fun and we were all happpppppyyy. =) Cryssie were celebrating her buttday on the night too!


We got her a white chocolate cake filled with roasted macadamia nuts on the other morning. Three layers of vanilla sponge filled with two layers of velvety white chocolate mousse and roasted macadamias. It was then frosted with whipped cream by Fatass Mich. There were flaws! Fine lines and tracks can be easily identified, though the process of smoothing the lines were done. It was then topped of with molded white chocolate flowers, which was pretty fun to mould if it's compared to mini roses. Happy Buttday Cryssie! We lap you!! =)


5. Churn baby, churn! Pistachio and chocolate mint ice cream came into our mind. We followed everything from the instruction book, only a few additions were made. A hint of light green coloring, generous amount of chopped dark chocolate and pistachio nuts, followed by a scalded milk boiled with a few sprigs of mint leaves. It was then topped off with a dollop of mint ganache and roughly chopped pistachio nuts. The ice cream turned out to be real yummy though it's not as creamy as we wanted. The ice cream maker was nonetheless a good churner. =)


6. Kids Give-Out. Kidd requested some cupcakes for his fellow friends. Since there's a need for us to walloped most of the ingredients from the refrigerator, we agreed to get these kids some cuppies for free. Like they say, sharing is caring, ahem. The cupcakes were chocolate mint cupcakes. The one with white chocolate curls were filled with chocolate ganache and topped with easily spreadable chocolate ganache. The other batch were frosted with swirls made out of chocolate whipped cream and lastly topped off with a peppermint stick. And we were real glad to know that the kids love these babies. =)




Friday, December 21, 2007

The Baking Month

It's been weeks since the last time we've updated our blog. We've been spending loads of our time, trying fattening baked goods and putting more pounds than usual. The horrifying outcome; Fatass have a big fat chubby face now, and aged pretty quick, thanks to her owl-lifestyle.


As we've been working hard on fusing new flavors for our cupcakes and beefsticks, we were glad that there have been orders, though it doesn't exceed 100 for each order. It was fun. Rushing for orders, choosing the right design and carriage for the cupcakes, and having sleepless nights. It is stressful. But it was worth it, since the payoff was satisfying - payoff; in terms of good reviews and ahem, ka-ching's. The first batch went down to Phoebe's corporate get-together.


The request was real simple; 50 cupcakes - chocolate cupcakes or anything that's tasty. Experiments and more white rodents to sacrificed. (*Devilish Grin*) The good part of it; Fatass would be able to fuse for new flavors to post it under our up-coming cake blog; Temptationz, which is now under construction. The sad part; there's none. =)


Speaking of new flavors, there were four. Sassy May Sesame (picture above); a moist devil's food cupcake with black sesame and white chocolate cream as filling. It was then frosted with dark chocolate ganache and covered with fine white chocolate shavings. Lastly, topped of with piece of chocolate, flavored; toasted black sesame.


The best of the four was Cashramel (picture above); a moist chocolate cupcake with cashewnut cream as filling. Topped off with home-cooked caramel frosting and ONE baby cashewnut. We were told that the office workers crave for this baby and it gone real fast compared to the others.


Next up; Rosie O' Pistachio (picture above). Fancy name, close to Rosie O' Donnell's. Formerly known as the rosewater and pistachio cupcake. A rosewater cupcake filled with generous amount of pistachio cream as filling, frosted with rosewater buttercream and pistachio bits. We should have work on this piece! A cute mini sugarpaste - red roses, will do just enough. Purrrfection! =)


Last piece to babble on, Pop-A-Mint (standing on the third row - horizontally); a moist vanilla cupcake with peppermint chocolate cream as filling, frosted with peppermint cream and topped of with dark chocolate curls. The cupcakes fit nicely into a big red box, real big. And delivered to the company on the next day. A great companion were there to lead the route to the KOM-PA-NIE; Molly. Thanks for that! Appreciate it very much! =)

Next up, cupcakes for a wed-dinner. For Ryo and Mizuki's wedding dinner. A big thankyou to O-man (you know who you are) for this! Appreciate the biz! =)


They were tryouts though, and the tryout's babies were the Banana Cupcakes above. The banana cupcakes were just fine, not as fluffy as we have expected, which calls for more sour cream for the next round. Filled with banana pastry cream and as for the frosting, it was pure buttercream topped off with slices of bananas and chocolate. This baby here doesn't make it to the tiers, blame the browned bananas. (*Grin*)


The other baby that weeps quite a lot for not making into the finals was S-berry Cupcake. It was a simple and moist vanilla cupcake filled with luscious strawberry jam cum puree, frosted with whipping cream and topped off with strawberry halves and chocolate curls. Molly and us do agree that the strawberry seems to be too huge for the cupcake itself. We did some work though, we search for tiny ones but to no avail. Sad case. Besides, the strawberries seems to rot a little, once left at room temperature. Blackened, rot - perhaps, blackened should be the proper word. =)


There were three others who made it though; Matcha Earl Grey Cupcakes, Banana Cream Cupcakes and Blueberry Bleu Cupcakes. Matcha Earl Grey Cupcakes were basically an idea of the bride to be. We personally love the combinations too - fusion of Western tea (Earl Grey) and Asian tea (Green Tea). The cupcake itself is an Earl Grey cupcake with a generous amount of dried fruits baked in with. The dried fruits were wickedly sweet though. It was then topped off with a green tea frosting and a white chocolate rose.


Thinking aback, the white chocolate roses were painfully moulded. Excruciatingly painful. Very very time consuming. We'll go for sugarpaste the next time though sugarpaste turn us off. (*Chuckles*)


As for the banana cream cuppy, it was a banana cupcake with banana pastry cream filling. It was frosted with unsweetened whipping cream and chocolate rose buds. It looked way too pure, and simple.


Hence, this calls for our fav garnish of all; peppermint leaves! It looked better though - at least it doesn't look like an unfinished cuppy.


Lastly, the Blueberry Bleu Cupcake. A moist vanilla cupcake with blueberry filling and whipping cream, topped off with three' blueberries, chocolate sticks and peppermint leaves - again.


We opted for blueberry fillings than blueberry jams as the filling itself contains real chunky blueberries.

As to end this part, wishing the couple a fun-filled happy years to come; Ryo and Miz. =)


The other order was actually a non-cupcake order, which put our frosting-with-spatula skills to test. It was a big cake; which resembles a PUG. A dog. No! A pug! Okay, maybe it doesn't really resembles a pug. But at least, it's a dog. =)


It was a chocolate cake with chocolate and banana cream. It was then frosted with banana cream, which is pale yellow and the sides were then covered with chocolate shavings - to hide the flaws. Ahem. Then, piping chocolate ganache begins. The kitchen were stained with fingerprints - chocolate. To finish it off, a white chocolate rose were adhered onto the dog's ears. The review we've gotten was the cake itself were prettily creamy. We'll work on that. We will... ;)


As for sleepless nights, it's time to take some doggy nap; recharge. We see no sun. =)