Happy 10th Birthday Bri!

Bri turned 10 on 17th December. While mum baked the cake and slapped the chocolate frosting on it, Bri designed and decorated her own cake. An amazing 10 year old, don't you think?

The Making of Bri's Birthday Cake

Here's where it all began ... As you can see, her cake is made of Chocolate Brownies. We had to bake two of them. One square for the "1" and a round one for the "0". With a donut cutter and a knife, I had to create a hole in the middle of the round Chocolate Brownie cake. It wasn't easy as the chocolate chips got in the way of the cutting. There was a near landslide around the hole (if you can spot it), but as you will see later, the icing saved the day.
See how the chocolate frosting concealed the landslide?
Bri then added the pretty flowers and butterflies around the number "10" - thanks to Kai Qi ;-)
If you're wondering what those long sticks are doing in her cake, they are the birthday candles, except that they are like sparklers. Yes, they light up like sparklers. Quite exciting to watch as you sing, "happy birthday to you ..."

These are what's left of the sparkler birthday candles ;-)

The Making of Brownie Cupcakes in Photo

Melt the chopped butter and unsweetened chocolate in a metal bowl over a simmering pot of water. Stir until all are dissolved.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Sift the flour into the mixture. Well, you don't have to sift it but be prepared to spend a good 20 minutes just squashing away flour lumps! speaking from experience ...
We have found that the least painful way of getting the batter into those pretty cases with the least splatter is to use a humble jug to pour them in.
Fill the cupcake cases three quarters from the base. This way, you get a bit of space on top for the frosting. Now, wasn't that simple?

Rara's Birthday (cup)Cake

Someone said you could play Boggle with these cupcakes ;-)
This was how they looked like before they were frosted with a layer of chocolate icing.

Apple Strudel with Too Much Apples

This was how the first batch of Apple Strudel Muffins turned out.
Lesson learned: when the recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of chopped green apples, add 1 1/2 cups of green apples. Eat up the rest ... or else they will turn out like these....
or these ... and spend some time scraping off the "overflow" from the muffin cup to the baking tray :-(

Anyway, they tasted as great as the first batch ... and all the best to Bri's golf tournament tomorrow and Friday! p.s. drop some crumbs for the starving ants on the golf course ;-)

Gingerbread aka Orange Man

This is a yummy Orange Cake recipe that ma baked in a gingerbread man cake pan. She had to slice off the bulging tummy (see ealier post). Thanks to Mr Poh for taking the photo.

Mama's Birthday

I volunteered to stay at home alone when I was supposed to go to church today because it's mama's 44th birthday today. When I was at home I baked a cake for her. It took me quite a long time. This picture was taken after i put the icing and the candle on.
This is how it looked before i put the icing and the candle on. You do not want to see how I made it.

The Winning Orange Cake

Selamat Hari Raya, Suhaila! Thanks for the lovely photo ;-)
An overweight (see the bulge in the middle?) orange-bread man! Lesson learned here: never fill a cake pan more than 3/4 full. It looked a lot better after Ma decorated it. But she can't find the photo for nuts, and she's given the cake away ;-(

The same cake in a different pan: Orange Cake - tastes nicer than it looks. Ma got this recipe from a magazine when we were in Australia. A reader sent it in and she won an electric kettle for this recipe!

Total Faliure

First, mix oil, milk, egg and mashed banana.

Next, get another bowl for some flour.

Then, mix them altogether.

After that, pour them into a heart shape silicon mould.

This is what it looks like after it came out of the oven.

This is the only one that looks okay to be a heart.

New Bakeware

Don't you just love this heart shaped mini cake pan?
Unfrosted chocolate brownie cake. Can you see the choc chips staring at you?
Blueberry Muffins

Believe me, it's not about these blueberry muffins. Ma just got these new silicone bakeware from her sister, Jean. She lives in Florida, but gave her the freedom (and the $) to shop for her birthday present. Check out other cool baking stuff from http:\\www.kitchencapers.net

The Making of Cinnamon Rolls

This isn't really the first step to making cinnamon rolls ... but i wasn't quick enough to take pictures before this part.
Roll out the dough with a rolling pin...
That brown stuff is the cinnamon and brown sugar that you spread all over the dough.

The Making of the Cinnamon Rolls (Part 2)

The flat piece of dough is now rolled into a snake-like shape.

See what I mean?
It's time to cut the snake up ... into cinnamon rolls!

Ma and Pa's Creation

It always takes a little convincing for our friends to believe that my dad can actually make cinnamon rolls. Yup, he's the "hands" behind all these rollin' - my mum just measures the ingredients and with a little help from Kitchen Aid, the dough is ready for Pa to make these yummy rolls!

∂oggies everywhere

Our first batch of doggie cookies. This recipe is an original creation of Irene Yip, the owner of Chef Secrets http://chefsecrets.tripod.com/ (thanks for the info, Gina!)

This is the only doggie that Bri added a body to. Scroll down to see how the heads are made.

The Making of Doggie Cookies

We're skipping the boring part when you cream the Horlicks with the butter and stuff. But once you have the cookie dough, here's what you do. First, you hide 3 (sometimes 4) chocolate chips inside the cookie dough.
...then you roll them into innocent looking balls like these!
Look, Ma - i got ears!

Now, i can see you ...

Add the final touch and you have a cute lil doggie cookie!

Fun Cookies

Jaundiced looking cookies ... scroll down and see what difference decorations make!
Cookie cutters are fun to use ... see?
We like to make cookies of different shapes. The fun part is really the decorations ;-)


Today we baked 48 horlicks doggies. This is one of the 48 Horlicks Doggies Cookie that came out of the oven today. Believe me, they don't look like each other! We found this recipe in http://happyhomebaking.blogspot.com/2007/01/horlicks-doggie-cookies.html