Dear Aunty Irene

“Only an Aunt can give hugs like a mother, can keep secrets like a sister,
and share love like a friend.”~ Spanish Proverb

Aunty Irene turns 70 this year. She's the sweetest aunt anyone could ask for. She's actually my husband's aunt (so I guess I am related to her now by marriage hehe).
She sends cards (yes, physical cards via snail mail) just to say thanks, or just to drop a note to say hi.

Her daughters (B&B), decided to do something special for her this year. See, Aunty Irene is part of a nearly '8 is enough' family. She has 2 brothers (my Father In Law inclusive) and 4 sisters. The thing is, all her sisters got married to non-Malaysians and are scattered across Australia, Italy and France.

This year.. the WHOLE gang decided to get together to SURPRISE her. It took B&B nearly 1 year to get all the logistics. I of course offered what I think I can do best.... the cake :)

I wanted the cake to be special (just like Aunty Irene) and just as sweet. So this is what I came up with.

The top layer was Chocolate butter cake with chocolate cream. The bottom layer, Lemon butter cake with lemon curd filling. The whole presentation was covered with fondant with royal icing flowers.

I am so glad that the cake was a hit! An uncle from Australia who's NOT a cake person came up to me and told me he LOVED the lemon cake. *phew*

Happy Birthday Aunty Irene :)

Fit for a princess

My cousin turned 6 last weekend. Instead of cracking my head for a gift.. I offered to bake a cake (naturally). Her request was .... a pink castle, with lots of flowers..

Immediate thought.. should I have just cracked my head for a gift? HAHAHAHA..
Anyway, I must admit I was excited of the challenge. Or maybe it was the little girl in me who got excited.. :)

Three cakes, and 5 hours later... tada!

The pink castle for Megan

M - For Megan, naturally...

Knock Knock.. is there a princess inside there?

Oh there was a lil' duck pond behind the castle too :)
(made with royal icing)

Cake : Buttercake with strawberry swirls .. totally yum!

Frosting : Strawberry jam

Decoration : Fondant, royal icing

p/s : We bought candles from Tesco in the shape of horses (didn't manage to take pics though).. and just before the ceremony, Megan gets to place the horses on the castle.. it was so adorable.

Ice Cream or Cupcake?

This was inspired by my dear friend Babe. She in turn was inspired by Chef Michael Smith (from Chef at Home and Chef at Large). It's such a novel idea and an interesting twist to a cupcake.

The interesting thing about this cupcake recipe is that it contains NO FLOUR. Yup.. hehe.. not exactly living up to my blog's name (Floury Moments). Thus the final product is a very fudgy, chocolaty cupcake. Because I used dark chocolate, it has a bit of a bitter taste to it as well.. hehe all good if you are not into super sweet chocs.

Though having said that, the marshmallow frosting was completely new for me too.. and it was DIVINE!.. I didn't manage to get it up to stiff peak as the recipe called for (but can somebody tell me how many gm is 4 packs of gelatin!?!). I cheated and popped my frosting into the freezer a couple of minutes between whips :P .. it did come to thick ribbon consistency.. thus the shape didn't retain when it was piped onto the cones.

Transporting these babies requires science!! hehe ... I had to resort to using my aluminium cupcake cups to stabilise them.

Doesn't it look sweet?

This batch of cupcakes were made for my bake buddy, Bea. She's such a talented baker.. Now that she's focusing on her thriving home baked cakes business.. I wish her ALL the best.. and I'm sure she's on the sweet path to success :)

Sugar and Spice and Everything nice

Turning 21 is such a special time, and a WONDERFUL excuse to have an extra special cake. The first 21st birthday cake I made was in May. This time, I received an order from the same family, for ANOTHER 21st birthday cake :)



The cake's for a girl named Susha, who loves the color white. Loves ribbons. Loves cute things. Loves flowers.



When I heard that, I thought "This'll be a snap!"... boy was I wrong... I spent nearly a whole week thinking of how I'll incorporate all those onto a cake. *bites nails*... I hope I managed to... why don't you tell me?

Can I offer you a flower?

The key is being hidden by the bunny

All packed up and ready to go :)

Cuppycake

You're my hunny bunch,

Sugar-plum,

Pump-i-umpi-umpkin.

You're my sweetie pie.

You're my cuppycake,

Gumdrops,

Snoogums poogums,

You're the apple of my eye.

And I love you so,
And I want you to know
That I'll always be right here.

And I love to bake these cupcakes for you
Because you are so dear :)

Cake : Butter cupcakes
Topping : Lemon buttercream
Deco : Marshmallow fondant

Let's 'crack' a joke

I've been told that I have a unique sense of humour. I hope that's usually meant as a compliment. :) However, as they say, birds of a feather flocks together. Friend's that I'm closer with are usually also like minded (humour wise).



Take for example today... a couple of us (S, J and I) decided to celebrate H's birthday. I naturally volunteered to make him a cake. Seeing that H is a 'him', I suggested a boob cake. Apparently that's not funny enough... so S came up with the idea of the following cake...

H... this is for cracking all those 'wise arse' jokes you always do..

Handcuffs were my idea.. heheh... to erm.. enhance certain role play LOL

Grrr... happy birthday!

Hope H likes it.

Cake : Basic Butter Cake
Filling : Basic Butter Cream with a hint of Tia Maria
Deco : Marshmallow fondant

WIP: A cake for beloved daddy

Migrating to a different country, I feel, takes a lot of courage. I don't think I would be able to do it. I'ld miss my family too much :P

Maybe that's why a friend of mine ordered a cake all the way from NZ. It's specially for her dad who's here in M'sia. Since, her daughter has become the apple of everyone's eyes :), she's naturally the topper inspiration.

Mummy asking little girl to pass the gift to granddad

Granddad with the gift. He's kneeling.

View of little girl with present.

The full composition.
(Figurines are dusted with corn flour to prevent sticking)

Cake will follow later this week ;)

Figurines : Marshmallow fondant