Cup cake decor

I have been longing to learn cup cake decoration for a long time. Finally my doa was answered when Yan came to Birmingham. Yan is good at cup cake decor and she had agreed to show me the basic of icing decor. Thanks Yan for the free lesson. I know we had to pay a hefty sum for cup cake decor classes in Malaya.

Here is my first roses on the cup cakes. Not bad uhh?? Cam ni boleh ambil order la pulak..hehe..

Need to order Wilton icing nozzle next.

Basic Butter Cream Icing

250 g butter

250 g vegetable fat/ TREX

5-10 cups of icing sugar (depending on how sweet you want the icing to be)

Method:

1. Whisk the butter till fluffy, add the veg fat.

2. Whisk for about 5-10 min.

3. Add the icing sugar bit by bit.

4. Divide into several bowls and add the desired colourings.

Banana Walnut Cake

Last Friday we had two more guests cum relatives from Malaysia. Mr. Dentist called at 2.30 pm while I was in the lab, cracking on my Western blots which had been such a pain to get them working.

'Let's go to down to Gatwick Airport to fetch Awang and Nani. They are arriving tonight at 8 pm', said Mr Dentist.

'What? Now? No, I need to finish my work first, let's go around 5 pm.' I bargained.

' Okay, we'll go to Abe Yoh's house first to send Skin's baby cot and after dinner we'll push off to Gatwick', said Mr Dentist.

So we met Awang and Nani at 9.30 pm at Gatwick and drove them back to Birm. Stopped at one of the services to fill some petrol and at Mac D to get some fries and coffee. Arrived in Birm at 1.30 am. Wan had prepared delicious fried rice with coriander fried chicken.

Saturday morning, brought our guests to Middleton Carboot and then to Maisarah and Amir's Hari Anugerah Sekolah Malaysia Birmingham. They had invited Ustaz Erfino Johari, the MSD officer to give a talk on Educating Children In Islam. An excellent talk indeed. Wished I had recorded his talk on Do's and Don'ts in upbringing the children based on Tarbiyatul Aulad Series.

After lunch, hurriedly drove back home to send the kids and then rushed to Portmeirion, Stoke to beat the closing time. Portmeirion was 400 pounds richer today from our shopping.

Sunday 26th July 2009, another carboot day at Redditch and Studley. Redditch stuffs were of good quality. It was really worth it. Awang got himself a pair of Timberland shoes just for £5, sling bag, shirts and Nani got an exclusive jacket just for £3.

Studley carboot wasn't that huge that day but still finished £20 from my pocket. From the vege and fruit stall, Wan, Nani and myself bought 2 kgs of over ripe banana each, not knowing that each one of us had already bought similar packets of bananas. We ended up having 6 kgs of bananas at home today. So Wan made banana balls (cekodok) and I made banana cake.

Here is the recipe. It always turn out nice especially when biting the crunchy walnuts within.

Banana Walnut Cake

3 ripe bananas- mashed
1/2 cup of sugar
1/3 cup of brown sugar
2 cups of flour/ self raising flour
3/4 cup of vegetable/ corn oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 cup of roasted walnut- chopped
3 eggs
1/2 tsp salt

Methods:
1. Beat sugar and eggs till fluffy. Add oil, mashed bananas.
2. Fold in the flour (already sieved with baking powder and sodium bicarbonate)
3. Add the chopped roasted walnut.
4. Pour in a greased baking tray.
5. Bake for 45 minutes at 170 C.

Soft Cotton Japanese Cheese Cake again

Today, demonstrated this cheese cake to my mum in law. I know she just loves cheese cakes. Easy peasy, lemon squizy Maisarah said and yummy too. It took only a couple of hours for the whole cake to disappear from the baking tray.

Here is the recipe:

250 g Philadelphia cream cheese (now on sale at Sainsbury's for 75 p per tub of 300g)

1/2 cup of milk

1/2 cup of sugar

2 tbs butter

3 eggs (separate the egg white)

1 tbs lemon juice

1 tbs cornflour

4 tbs self raising flour

1 tsp cream of tartar(tak taruk sebab tak dak)

For the icing:

4 tbs icing sugar

1 tbs cream cheese

2 tbs butter- mix all these ingredients well

* To make it less moist and more spongy, U can increase the flour and reduce the cheese.

Methods:
1. Melt in a double boiler the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and milk. Let it cool and add egg yelow.

2. Add cornflour and SR flour in the cheesy mix.

3. Whisk egg whites till it forms a soft peak/ stiff , add sugar bit by bit, then fold it gently into the cheese mixture.

4. Bake for 45 min at 160 C in a waterbath (au bain marie).

5. Allow it to cool before putting the icing on.

Moist chocolate cake/ muffin

MOIST CHOCOLATE CAKE (from Mamafami's fp)

Ingredients :

250 g butter

2 cups castor sugar

2 3/4 cups flour

4 eggs

1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

1 cup cocoa powder (I add 1/2 cup cocoa powder, 1/2 cup milo + 1 tbs nescafe)

1 1/2 cup warm water to mix with cocoa powder

Chocolate coating

1/2 can condensed milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 tbs melted butter/ corn oil

Method :

1. Mix cocoa powder with water and set aside.

2. Sift flour and bicarbonate of soda 3 times and set aside.

3. Cream butter and sugar.

4. Beat egg till fluffy.

5. Pour the eggs into the creamed mixture a bit at a time.

6. Add in vanilla essence.

7. Fold in the sifted dry ingredients into the mixture.

8. Pour in the cocoa mixture and keep folding.

9. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or till done.

10. Allow the cake to cool before applying the chocolate coating.

Pandan soft cotton cheese cake

The recipe is similar to my previous entry of Japanese soft cotton cheese, just add the pandan juice, that's all.

250 g Philadelphia cream cheese (ASDA sale £1/ box of 250g)
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
4 tbs butter
4 eggs (separate the egg white)
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs cornflour
4 tbs self raising flour
1 tsp cream of tartar(tak taruk sebab tak dak)
3 tbs of pandan extract/ pandan emulco (maybe 1 tbs je kot)

Methods:

1. Melt in a double boiler the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice, pandan juice and 2 tsp of green colouring and milk. Let it cool.
2. Add egg yellow, cornflour and SR flour in the cheesy mix.
3. Whisk egg whites till it forms a soft peak/ stiff (tonggeng tak tumpah), add sugar bit by bit, then add to the above mixture.
4. Bake for 1 hour at 160 C in a waterbath (au bain marie).

Mama's first kek lapis

The idea of baking a 'kek lapis' had been toying in my mind for quite sometime. But the fact that it needs 25 eggs for a cake makes me shiver. Can't help but calculating the amount of cholesterol in it. Got this recipe from Kak Pah Sherry of Sheffield which uses only 7 eggs instead. So tried it yesterday and reduced the sugar. Alhamdulillah, my first attempt of baking a layered cake was fruitful. Brought some for my labmates, complimented by everybody including Paul, my lovely and ever supportive and understanding supervisor. Paul said after returning from his trip to Msia last 2 weeks. ' Mai, your country is so beautiful, nice people, nice food, Malaysian food is the best food ever. What are you doing here Mai?' Dalam hati jawab 'PhD, Paul'.

Kek Lapis Seroja

450 g low fat butter

150 g caster sugar

300 g superfine flour (I use MacDouglas sebab malas nak sieve)

7 eggs

1tsp baking powder

1 tsp sodium bicarbonate

1 tsp vanilla

4 tbs horlicks

1/2 can condensed milk

2 tbs cocoa powder

pandan flavour/ pandan juice

1 cup of mixed fruits (ikut suka)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C ( Top fire only). Beat butter and sugar till fluffy and add eggs one by one. Then add flour, horlicks, vanilla, condensed milk.

2. Divide the batter into 3- add cocoa powder in one, pandan flavour in another and one is plain.

3. Grease the cake tin. Start layering with 3 tbs of chocolate batter 1st. Bake for 3 minutes.

4. Layer with green batter, bake for 3 min, then layer with plain batter and sprinkle the mixed fruits and bake for 3 min (3 tbs each layer). Reduce the oven temp after 1 hr to avoid cake from becoming too dry.

5. Continue till all the batter is finished. Wrap the tin with an aluminium foil(optional) and bake for another 15 minutes (top and bottom fire). Done.

Snow blast

Starting from Monday Britain had a snow blast which lasted 5 days already. Roads were icy and treacherous. The kids were off school on Wednesday as a result I had to take leave and work from home. Somehow working from home turned out to be baking, cooking, washing and cleaning which left me with a backache by night time. Anyway the kids loved the cotton cheese cake I baked them yesterday morning. Aiman said to Amir, 'I don't think mum baked this because it's so yummy, she must have bought it!'. What a downgrading statement! You think yr mum can't bake aah??? Anyway here is the recipe in case you want yr wife to make this cheese cake for you in future Aiman..ha..ha...


Japanese cotton cheese cake

250 g Philadelphia cream cheese (ASDA sale £1/ box of 250g), borong banyak2 masa sale..
1 cup of milk
1 cup of sugar
4 tbs butter
4 eggs (separate the egg white)
1 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs cornflour
4 tbs self raising flour
1 tsp cream of tartar(tak taruk sebab tak dak)

Methods:

1. Melt in a double boiler the cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and milk. Let it cool.
2. Add cornflour and SR flour in the cheesy mix.
3. Whisk egg whites till it forms a soft peak/ stiff (tonggeng tak tumpah), add sugar bit by bit, then add to the above mixture.
4. Bake for 1 hour at 160 C in a waterbath (au bain marie).

Easy peasy..ni Aiman pun boleh buat, come on Reena try la..can post some to Birm.He..he..