Creams

Buttercream #1:
2 cups Crisco (shortening)
2 T sweet condensed milk
1 T rum (to taste)
Cream Crisco with mixer.  Add condensed milk and rum.

Buttercream #2:
1 cups Crisco.  Can be substitute with 1/2 cup Crisco and 1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners sugar
1 t vanilla, or other flavor such as almond or butter.
2 T water, or corn syrup, or milk - optional.  If you like it stiff, don't add.
Cream Crisco with mixer.  Add confectioner sugar.  One cup at a time.  Add flavor.  If you like the consistency don't add water

Whipped Cream:
1.5 cups heavy whipping cream
6-7 T confectioner sugar
1 t vanilla
Beat whipping cream with mixer until foamy.  Add confectioner sugar and vanilla.  Beat until stiff.

Rum balls

My rum balls are basically left over of cake from cake pops and black forest.

This was my favorite goodies when I was teenager.  The original recipe calls for Marie wafer which is already good to eat by itself so it rarely made it into rum balls.

Original recipe:
3 packs of Marie wafers - crushed with blender
1/2 can sweetened condensed milk. 
rum to flavor
confectioner sugar to coat

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together.
Make balls.  If dough is not sticky/thicken enough to form balls, add confectioner sugar.
Roll in confectioner sugar

note: You can add peanuts, almonds, pecans etc if you want.
If powdered sugar coated rum balls are to plain for you, you may dip them into candy coating to make more attractive designs.

These are the TWIST I make:
Substitute Marie wafer with any wafer cookies, or left over cake (crumb cake)
Substitute condensed milk with corn syrup.

Battle of cake pops vs. rum balls

Modern Black Forest

The past two weeks was hectic for me. I had multiple deadlines to meet before the Christmas week. I was happy to finish the Christmas Carol cake pops, made cake pop sample for wedding and also made about 20 Black Forest cakes.

Two cherries with white mini sprinkles on chocolate ganache

An Affair to Remember

I have been MIA (missing in action) from blogging for awhile.  I have made so many goodies lately from wedding to Christmas themes.

I am presenting to you the non-Christmas goodies.
Please welcome ladies and gentlemen... the Lovely Newly Wed.  Tada ... drum roll, drum roll

Meatball soup

This week I don't bake at all, instead I cook.  I was planning to make Albondigas soup with a touch of Asian flavor.

Albondigas soup is a Mexican cuisine.  It consists of meatballs and assorted veggies.  What a perfect dish for fall weather.  The soup has similar taste to Asian soup, except the soup has no veggies and is eaten with noodle.

Tempura crunch

So many times I followed instruction in the back of Tempura mix but failed to make the tempura to look like the one in the Japanese restaurant.

Til one day I got the 'secret' from a friend of mine who works at ------ restaurant :)

Here's how:

look at those crunches

Red, yellow and blue

a little sweetness that brightened some people's life ...

hydrangea

Trick or Treat ? Happy Halloween from my little sweet chickie

 

Trick or Treat ? what a TRICKY TREAT

Quack...quack..... hmm what sound is that?

With no further explanation, let me introduce to you my new creations...

Trick or Treat ? I pick treat anytime

When I think of Halloween, I am thinking kids, fun, scary or cute costumes, decorations and off course yummy treats.  I would take one if they are not displayed in container with battery operated hand.  You know what I am talking about?

This year, I am not carving a pumpkin, so I make pumpkin cake-pops instead.

cute Halloween faces

Traditional sesame seed rice balls - revisiting (recipe 1)

In my previous article, I showed you this traditional dessert from Indonesia.  They are called Onde-Onde (pronounce: on-de  as desktop).  They are fried rice ball, covered by sesame seeds and stuffed with mung bean.
I found a good recipe :) you might wanna try.

giving Thanks is sweet

Thanksgiving is around the corner so I was eager to make a cake-pop display with Thanksgiving theme.

First, I started with Turkey.  It is not a Thanksgiving without a Turkey, isn't it?

pretty good for a first timer, huh? Oops, I forgot to put the legs

I got confident by then :)

8 different Turkeys, which one is your favorite?

Tres Leches with tropical surprises

Last week I threw a little get-together party at the park.  I cooked 5 authentic Indonesian dishes: Paradise salad with peanut sauce and topped with prawn crackers, Spicy beef in coconut gravy, yellow rice, fried scrambled eggs and Sweet spicy BBQ chicken.  It was a lot of work but well-worth it.  When it come to dessert, I couldn't decide what to make.  So many choices to choose from.   At last, I decided to make 'Tropicana Tres Leches' on the go.  I modified the original recipe as always to make it more island flavor.

Barnyard Bash

... birthday in a HOT AIR ballon.

My daughter is 6 month old today, I already plan for her 1st Birthday.  She likes looking at the picture of a cow with a red barn behind her rocking chair.  I know that would be perfect theme for her 1st birthday.  Instead of the a bunch of animals having a blast in a barn, I want to take them up for a hot air balloon ride.  Here is sketch her birthday cake.

 Feel free to make this cake before I do, but don't forget to send me some pictures.  I would like to know how you interpret my sketch.

To make this HOT AIR balloon cake assembly, you'll need:

Fantastic cupcake wrappers

A while ago, I was browsing the internet and found a website featuring incredibly cute cupcake wrappers.  I wanted to buy some but the shipping cost was pricey.  I wonder if I can make it myself with the help of cricut machine.  Unfortunately my computer crashed and I lost my cricut software.

Flower blooming cupcakes

This is a low calorie version of cupcake. No oil or butter needed.  Originally this cupcake is called Roti Kukus, or Bolu Kukus. ' Roti' means bread, 'kukus' means steam.  so, Instead of baking it, you steam it.

It is very easy and economical to make but lots of people fail to make the cupcakes bloom, including me :)  The cause of failure is not in the recipe, but during the steaming.

The cupcake should bloom bigger :) see TIPS below

Perfect bloom

Here's how to make it.

Beat together with mixer:
3 egg yolks
1 egg white
1 C sugar
1/2 t vanilla crystals or flavor

Add and fold:
1/2 C flour, 1/4 C coconut water, sprite or soda water.

Add and fold:
1/2 C flour, 1/4 C coconut water, sprite or soda water.

Add and fold:
1/2 C flour

Divide dough into 'x' parts. (X denotes number of color)
In my case I make 2 colors; white, green and pink.

Add food coloring on each part.

Line cup or bowl with wax paper. Pour each color dough about 2/3 of the mold height.

These are the original cupcake mold.

Steam for 25 minutes.  No peeking please.  Your cupcakes might not bloom once the water gets into the cake.

TIPS:

• DO NOT open your steamer while steaming. Water drops can ruin your cupcake. Your cupcake might not bloom.
• Make sure your cupcakes have enough room to bloom.  My wrappers were too short for the mold, therefore when the cupcakes didn't bloom big coz. there was not enough room to bloom.

I put wet paper towel around the steamer to prevent water drips.

Cake parade

a new concept of birthday cake

• no serveware
• no serving
• perfect individual portion for kid
• no hungry kids waiting for their cakes
• go green

just need some birthday candles

What do you think?  I love the vibrant colors.   Now that I think about it, they look like Thanksgiving Macy's Parade.

Here are more close up pictures ...

Mickey and Minnie

Bumble Bees

Like my sign?  Bee the first to Try

Toy story character was there too.

Ooooh I just want to grab one right now.

Imagine if this is a birthday cake ... all the kids and grab one and take picture while holding their cake pop, how fun can that be :)

Cake under 5 minutes. I call it 'Instant' cake

If you are craving for sweet close to midnight, try this recipe.

recipe for quick cake

The star, plus and minus sign are my sign to cut down steps :)
Ingredients with star are supposed to be mix together first.
Then, add ingredients with plus sign.
Last, add ingredient with minus sign.
Mix everything in a microwaveable mug.  2 t cocoa can be replaced with other flavors you like.  Cook in microwave for 3 minutes.

Do you like my sign language?  I am not good at reading directions so I come up with the signs.

Anxiously waiting for my cake.

1.22 minutes to go ...  hungryyyy

Finally,

Here's the sneak peak of my 'Mug' cake.

My upside down 'Mug' cake is ready to be eaten.

Cake pop Starter Kit

Here are the basic items you need to start a Cake Pop or Cupcake Bite.  I know some of you maybe hesitate to try making it yourself because of the materials involved.  Some craft stores out there do not carry some of the items needed.  Just to test the water you might be interested in getting this 'Starter Kit'.

The 'Starter Kit' consists of :

• paramount crystals: a pinch
• edible add-ons : 12 pinches of mini white pearls and assorted color M&M's
• edible ink pen: black color
• cookie cutter: flower shape
• lollipop sticks: 12 - 4" sticks
• candy mold: 1 sheet
• toothpicks: 3 picks
• wax paper: about 2' long
• mini cupcakes wraps: 12 wraps
• candy decorative plastic bags: 2 bags
• pre-cut tag designs: assorted patterns, 12 pieces

Price: $ 15 plus $ 5 shipping fee.  (Ship within the US only).

If you would like to order, please email me at sannytcontact@gmail.com or call 909.263.2208. Pay by Paypal only.

Love is in the air

It is not Valentine's day yet but someone just want a small simple cupcake to express his genuine feeling.  Although these cupcakes are no fancy but for sure they'll bring smile to whoever receive them.

I wonder who's the lucky one ...

...something borrowed

A friend of mine sent a bunch of cupcakes picture for my next project inspiration.  I found some I like and will make in near future.

Here are some...maybe you'll get inspired too.

 I might make this for Christmas.  Looks like a Christmas present if I change the color.

St. Patricks day?  A pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

How about this for Cowboy's theme?  I believe it is Saguaro cactus... (if my horticulture teacher see this, he'll be proud of me...it has been 15 something years and I still remember my plant's name)

I love the teal / aqua / turquoise color with combination of dark chocolate.  Very pretty.  I wish one day I get that much cupcakes order.

These ones are just too cute.  So cute that I wanna keep them all.

Find your favorite so far?

More pictures ...

Dunno what these ones are?  Any guess?

How cool is this one: Fancy rainbow.  I wonder how to make it.  Do you know?

I just throw this picture because the bear is so adorable... makes me want to cuddle with him, her, or it?

so are you inspired yet?

Ortensia ... Hydrangea...what's the different?

Hydrangea is one of my favorite flower to use in the flower arrangement.  It is big and pretty.  However it is easily wilt.  a little secret I learned from experience is if you soak the flower petals in the water, the flower will plump again.

Hydrangea comes im many color white, green, pink, magenta, blue and purple.  My favorite one is purple with blue.  It is very hard to get this color in nature unless there is high calcium level in the soil.  Anyway enough of gardening lecture here.

Now back to cake ...

I made this with tip 2D.  Very easy to make but the impact is very sophisticated. 

I also made this using marshmallow as the base.

What do you think?  Do you like it?  I hope you do.

i-NNOUNCE

so embarrass to post this :(  promise me you are not gonna make fun of this.  This is a BITTER SWEET moment for me.  Believe it or not, I struggled to make this cake last February.   O boy...

It has been 7 months and I make better cakes now...Yippie.  Any guess what this iPod cake for?

iPod cake with the headbuds

I made this cake to announce my baby gender.  No one seemed to get it though...  I don't blame them for not taking the time to stare at this, nor read the message.

 Look the way I present them..... yuckkk.  But you get my point right?  This was a good way to break the happy news, or just simply to tell others how you feel.

Make your version and share the story with me.