10 Things We Did Last Month

1. The Raya Mood. We have been feasting our heart out during the long Raya celebration. That is obviously one main reason why we love this country; the food was great , whether in terms of its colors or flavor, and phenomenally diversified. Since we have been going crazy over the food sold in the bazaar, it was a very wise decision for us to get a snap out of it. The bazaar that we went into were crowded with hungry people and fatty food.


2. Experimenting An Upside-Down Cake. We were curious. Thus, here goes the experiment of the Caramel Hazelnut Cake. It was infamously known as the Upside-Down Caramel Hazelnut Cake as the baked cake will then be turn over from a pan and be eaten upside down. We would love to have a Pineapple Upside-Down Cake, but the helpers insist that hazelnut will taste slightly better. Here goes the one with Hazelnut.

It was moist, airy and not to forget, nutty.

The caramel and hazelnut topping set into the base of the pan, right before the batter goes in.

We were sure that the hazelnuts were insufficient in amount. Oh well, the caramel takes the lead though.

A dollop of vanilla whipping cream infused with frangelico will be perfect for this upside-down cake.

3. Indulging In Lemon Meringue Tarts. Tarts are troublesome, unlike cupcakes. The tarts were made and cooled, coming down to the fillings whereby cooking on the stove were a part of it. The consistency and liquidity of the filling will resemble of the taste and the texture of what a lemon curd should be. Zesting the lemon zest with a small serrated knife is painstaking as thin and fine zest were needed. After spooning the fillings into the baked tarts, the egg whites were whisked together with some caster sugar to form cups of meringue. The meringue were then spooned onto the tart and a swirled effect were quickly done before popping them back into the preheated oven.

The tarts were filled with home-made lemon curd

The end result of our lemon meringue tarts. Swirls is way prettier than spikes. =)

The lemon curd was smooth and might be too watery for our liking. Blame the omission of teaspoonfuls of cornflour. Best eaten the day it was made as leftover tarts turned out to be soggy while the meringue will be less fluffy and airy.

4. Calvin's Birthday Cupcakes. We were invited over his crib for his 20th birthday, and thus goes the night of baking mini cupcakes. We tried to put in fillings by using the cone method. And voila, successfully done though cutting off the top of these mini's requires meticulous skills. Thanks to Molly, things were pretty quickly done. Compared to the cupcakes we have now, we bet that Calv's cupcakes are wickedly sweet! Millions of apologies. Oh yea, your pooch was fluffy and gorgeous. X)

Mini cupcakes filled with blueberry filling with the cone method

Main favs with less powdered sugar

Frosted cupcakes; readily to be packed into cake boxes

From the first row to the last; Chocolate Ganache & Choc Bars Cupcakes, Coffee Cupcakes, Strawberry Cupcakes, Peanut Butter & Choc Cupcakes, Blueberry Cupcakes.

5. Galdon Gan & Rachel Koh's Cupcakes. One box were presented to Galdon while the other were given to our lovey dovey kickass joker; Rachel Koh. The cupcakes were only taken the day after it was made. Some of the frosting has melted. We know, we know. Some look ooey goey and not that pretty. We are dogdamn sorry. We'll promise to get you guys pretty cupcakes the next time we see you. (*Fingers crossed*)



6. Buttday Celebration With Mandy. It was fun. A get-together with people whom we care about is down right fun and cozy. The actual cake was a Durian Mousse Cake. Unfortunately, there were none of them. Blame the season. The weather. One biggaboo Black & White Chocolate Nut Cake were given to her. We had not have any chance to grab a bite out of the cake though since we've been fed fully with grilled meats and seafoods. =)

The vanilla sponges were filled with white chocolate and dark chocolate mousse.

It was then coated with chocolate ganache and buttercream rosettes. Last but not least, toasted almond flakes and whole walnuts.

Voila!

The piping were badly done - as usual. May she love what Molly and both of us had done. =)

7. Kids College Cupcakes. We sounded THAT old. We preferred calling our brothers (rivals of the throne) as kids more than any other names. So, in the reality world, we're THIS young. Back to the cupcakes, the kids were going to have a get-together in the college and requested a few boxes of chocolate cupcakes. We wondered and suggests them to dine in a fine dining cum mamak stall, they insisted to bring their fellow friends the cupcakes. It was weird, till we found out one day, from one of their MSN message, written; "10s 4 ur cupcakes. It taste nice n now we know u r a good baker. I luv d cream. Miss u." Oh doggy.

Vegan Chocolate Cake, waiting to be frosted

Marble Orange Cupcake

Chocolate Ganache Cake With White Choc Flakes

Chocolate With Chocolate Ganache And Choc Bar

Marble Orange Cupcake With White Chocolate And Orange Segments Frosting

The overall chocolate collection

8. Munka's Buttday Celebration. The cake were bought as we were real busy that week. Keng throw a surprise party to Munka. And here goes the shots of happy people chilling in a dark, gloomy and secluded room. May you get the best MS with fuzziest chest in the world! X)

Smile for the camehhhrahh

"I wish that I'll be having the fuzziest MS in the world" =P

Munka =)

9. Playing with the Baker Barks Bakerie logo. It was time-wasting since we've already decided to dump them into the recycle bin. Brainstorming for the right logo was in fact tiresome and bothersome. We'll try, we'll try.



10. Playing with Le Bakerie's logo. We guess we better lay off our hands from the computer. The second design and background layout to be dump into the recycle bin. There'll be third, there'll be... Years to come.

Missing Missy

In loving memory; dear Missy,
Do rest in peace,
That's the last word,
Which each of us uttered,
On the noon of October 18th,
The family greatly misses you,
Reminiscing the fond memories,
That you've given to us,
Treasuring the losses,
We do love everything about you,
You've been here since we're walking toddlers,
Watching us grow,
You are more than just a pooch,
More than a buddy to jog with,
More than a guard woman,
More than one who obeys orders,
More than one who shares our love,
More than what we need in a pooch,
You are simply one of us,
One strong family we are.

Exclusively Made For The One In UK

Once, they were all young, innocent and naughty or shall I add in - horny, schoolchildren. The one who invented the new child's play from the very widely-played Mahjong game. Little did we know that the rectangular erasers which had colored country's flag printed on its surface can do so much; from entertaining to earning some side income of a ringgit a week. We do not really gamble though. It was played for the sake of filling breaks and having a good time with the creative minds. Those were the good old days.

Sugarpastes; roses which had yet to blossom.

Remembering those faces which resembles enthusiast and happy elf? That's the faces that one will catch to see once those dainty clean erasers were poured out from that good old plastic bag. Ahh, speaking of entertainment and enlightenment.

The left wing sugarpastes.

Until now, the inventor was no where to be found. It's more like a collaborated team who had invented this game, which I appreciated a lot more. An effort of a team cant beat an effort of an individual. I don't quite remember how it was played, but then, I love them more then the actual Mahjongs do. One simple reason; I know nothing about those Jongs.

The right wing sugarpastes.

Thinking and looking aback, the girls were great. Starting of with thirteen of them, as years goes, many of them are now in somewhere far, studying abroad. Esther, Joling and now, Yvonne. Yvonne, who's now currently burning the midnight oil, having a good cup of latte' while flipping the law book is in UK. That's real far. And we hope that she'll be doing great there. She will. Definitely will be. ;)

The star-shaped sugarpastes, which reminds us of Vincent's song 'Starry starry night' and the phrase, 'Reach for the stars'.

As for our favorite bluryone Yvonne, we; inclusive of Molly got her batches of cupcakes before her headings to the new surroundings in UK. Before anything was done, the idea for her cupcakes were brainstormed and drafted. The ideas consists of having the sugarpaste as its topping. Hence, we made and molded the sugarpaste before the day of her gathering. We came up with brilliant but complicated designs. The sugarpaste of white rose buds were made. It's more clean cut and less messy. Then, the other design for the related batches of cupcakes does also includes the very well-known phrase; "Reach For The Stars" whereby stars and the wings were molded. Molding the wings were tough, as there's two parts; the left and the right wings. They differs though.


For the first cupcake, we topped the vanilla cupcakes with pure vanilla buttercream. The buttercream swirl stayed put till the last bite. Creamy and not as tough as we have expected. By then, we topped it with a star-shaped yellow sugarpaste and a pair of white wings.


The outcome of the entire cupcake were as cute as Whisky's butt. It was real cute and looks fragile. The tryouts left for us were staying where it was, because it was way too cute to be eaten. Hence, we've been taking many shots of this pretty little cupcake in many different angles.


We really can't resist snapping these C-grade babies. From sideways to front view. We wouldn't get as bored as that. It was fun though.


At one point, it reminds me of Frank Sinatra's song; Fly Me To The Moon. Flap those wings, baby.


They even looked good though pairing up with toilet rolls. Kill us.


These babies were designed with the theme reach for the stars. As Yvonne's going to further her studies in UK, it's obvious that the cupcakes were speaking for the both of us; congratulating her for being able to strive for what she had wanted for.


It was then arranged accordingly in a box. Normally, the box itself can carry 16 of those mini cupcakes. With the additional long-stretched wings, the numbers had reduced from 16 to 9. We've always been asking for opinion once the decors were nicely done. It seems lacking of something. Seems to be.


The kids preferred the cupcakes to be sprinkled with colorful sprinkles. Honestly speaking, these icing balls tasted not as good as we've thought. It was crunchy and we felt like munching on cracked egg shells. Oh boy.


If you ask us, we still prefer the one with no colorful sprinkles. With sprinkles, it looks more like, we don't know. Anyway, it still looked good and looked edible from the shot above. We were satisfied with the final product though we do not fancy the colorful sprinkles.


On christening these babies, we were out of great ideas. We'll go with Starry Starry Night Vanilla Cupcakes then. ;)


Starry, starry night. Paint your palette blue and grey, look out on a summer's day, With eyes that know the darkness in my soul. Shadows on the hills, sketch the trees and the daffodils, catch the breeze and the winter chills, in colors on the snowy linen land. =}


The other cupcake gift to be was a box of moist chocolate cupcakes with chocolate buttercream. The Chocolate And White Roses Cupcakes.


It was topped off with 3 roses rather than one as it looks better with 3 on it. The moist chocolate cake were best served cold and days later. We realized that most moist chocolate cakes taste better in that conditions. Hence, the chocolate cake were planned to make a day ahead before the vanilla cupcakes were made.


The cupcakes were delivered and presented to Yvonne on the her gathering itself. Hoping that she'll be in her best day everyday. Best regards woman! We know that you'll fit in there, perfectly. Hugs and kisses. ;)

Blueberry Buzz

We had a joyous blueberry moment last week. From buns to cupcakes, we've been experimenting blueberries and its preserves. We do prefer the preserves over the jam itself. First, we had the milk bun, or shall we say, Blueberry Milk Buns.


While awaiting for the bread dough's proofing time, the fillings were made. The fillings consists mainly of butter and milk powder, which smelt more like a vanilla pod rather than an infant's puke. (*Snorts*)


The fillings were used and divided accordingly. After wrapping up the filling with appropriate size of bread dough, it was then placed carefully onto a large baking tray for proofing once more.


Our favorite baking procedures of all then occurs, which is after the bread doughs have doubled in size; piping poolicious filling on the surface of the buns. We enjoy and love looking at the swirls. See, some poos are cute too. ;)


Next, the sweet and addictive blueberry jam on its top. It was piped out for the piping bag too. Lucky us for investing on stacks of disposable piping bag. And the last thing to do was popping them to the preheated oven.


Once baked and cooled on a wire rack, one can chow down these C-grade babies. The best part out of this bun was probably its milk based fillings, and oh boy, not the blueberry jams. The bread dough was pretty badly kneaded. And that is maybe why the bread had gone as hard as an artificial bone in days later. Well, no wastage. Let's play fetch and catch with the other poochies.


Some of the buns were sent to our loved ones. As for this month, we're working on fluffier buns. More experiments to come.


After the buns, dozens of vanilla cupcakes were baked. We ran out of ideas - in terms of the cupcakes flavors and toppings. Since we're in the heat of chowing carbs accompanied by blueberries, we bet that some blueberry jam slabbed on the top of the cupcakes will do just enough. Presenting the Blueberry And Chocolate Marshmallow Cupcakes.


We planned to cut the top a little and filled it with the fillings, too bad, it'll take time. Hence, we jumped onto the bandwagon and end up with the filler with a long rounded nozzle. The blueberry jam was then filled into the cupcakes.


Next, the purple buttercream were made. As we do not want much coloring paste to be infused into the buttercream, we add in sufficient amount of blueberry jam into it. Less icing sugar were used, as to fulfill Ma's wishes.


Then, sugar bug came to bit us in the arse. It's time to add some real rough purple colored sugars on the top.


As for the topping, we fully utilize the Blueberry chocolate coated marshmallows from Hershey's. Thumbs up for Ma, so happened that she bought packs of these!


We slice the marshmallows into two and top each of the cupcakes with a slice of it.


And we did slice the decorated final product; the cupcakes into two too. The main reason was to see how much filling can the long nozzle can filled the cavity of the cupcakes. Just a little. We'll try the cone method one fine day.


And the overall product was looking pretty. Taste wise, the blueberry flavor was not as strong as we have expected. We'll definitely scoop in the blueberry preserves - both; to fill or to be used as decors the next time.