I lost my Camera

=(

The title is quite self explanatory . I have lost my camera, and i wont be able to post for a while now until i get a new cam.

Well, see you guys soon!

Bobby

Mom's Birthday

It was Mom's birthday =D And i made her a cake. It was a simple, easy to decorate cake but looks quite nice i think :D Everyone can do it.

Well i'll share briefly how to make the cake =D But u'll have to email me for recipes if u want.

First, i prepared two orange cakes (my mom's favorite recipe). I made two because i want to stack them up so that they become one tall cake. And tall cakes are easier to decorate and look nicer =)

Then, i coat the cake with a layer of apricot glaze, to seal the cake and to minimize loose crumbs.

After that, make a marzipan =D Roll it out, cover the cake, and make sure it looks neat and nice. Cut off the excess. And it becomes like this.


My cake covered with marzipan. Marzipan is to seal in the moisture of the cake, so that it doesnt destroy ur fondant icing! U dont want ur fondant to be wet >.< It's totally annoying. Also, it helps to make sure the fondant shows the color that u want it to show. Coz the color of the cake can affect how the color of the fondant looks like. So the marzipan sort of neutralizes the color. Next, roll out a fondant (which is also called sugar paste, you can make your own, or just buy from bakery supplies shops. They have those ready to roll sugar icing, which is much more convenient) =D Cover the cake, neaten the edges and u're already half way there. I'm sorry i was too indulged in the process and forgot to take pictures!
Well anyway, after you cover your cake with fondant, you can decorate it however you want with sugar paste, gum paste (flowers etc). There're plenty of good websites and books out there. You can try googling for nice cake decorating ideas.

I decorated mine with small cut patterns of flowers, leaves, butterfly and birds =) And also a ribbon tied around the cake to make it look more elegant. Well, the idea of this cake was supposed to be a Hat for a lady =D (My mom Haha. Btw she turns 50! And she looks 35 dont u think? Except the white hair :p)

Here's how my cake turned out to be. Or rather, my mom's cake =D
















We then brought the cake over to my grandparents' place, which was 2 blocks away. And had a good celebration =D


The kids were thrilled to see the cake, and couldnt stop playing with the cake stand, spinning the cake round and round =D And the adults loved the cake, it wasnt too sweet, coz i didnt want to apply too thick the layers of icing. And i reduced the sugar in the orange cake. Always remember to reduce sugar in your cake if u want to apply icing, if u're health conscious, that is =D




Here's a vid when my mom cut the cake =D



That's all for this post!

If you have any enquiries, (recipes, methods, ideas, etc) feel free to email me!
mc2_90@hotmail.com

Cheers
Bobby

Announcement!

Hi all! It's been long since i last wrote! ToOo long >.<

I just want to inform that i will not be selling cookies anymore because college work has really got into me. I'm constantly busy with assignments after assignments. I simply have no time now >.<

Well I will keep on writing! =D Not just bout cookies but other pastries and desserts as well =D

Keep em comments coming! =D

Cheers
Bobby


p.s. You might notice some really weird sentences in my previous posts. That's coz i only deleted the lines with the prices, not all the "selling lines". xD

Talk About New Year Frenzy!

Every this time of the year, my house will turn into a mini cookie factory. The kitchen's light remain on at late hours, the sound of the mixer incorporating ingredients to be made into cookies we alllll love, and the aroma of freshly baked cookies churning out of the oven, filling the entire house with saliva triggering scent(i think this should be used in aromatherapy! it makes you happy! good for stress relief!!); all these become familiarized with my home =D To me, it's heaven =)

There seem to be no limits of how many cookies I make. I just keep making and making and making until suddenly i see a whole stack of cookie jars in the kitchen and come to light that there are too many!! And it all ends up with an "Oops." escaping my mouth while i was still in shock, and maybe even a tad bit of guilt! Hehe

Maybe it's because these are all new to me. And I want to learn, learn, learn and practice, practice, practice until I perfect, perfect, perfect them! =D

I got my hands on Dragon cookies first! Check out the pictures!

Haha I call this picture the "Dragon Hatchery"

It's like little dragons forming in their incubator!

Lovely =D









Well this wasn't a very good shot. But it's how my cookies turn out to be!

I even put them in small cookie bags, just like the raisin oatmeals =D







And then I tried the oh-so-popular Pineapple Tarts. They turned out not so bad! - for a first timer

Beautiful picture! Maybe I should consider part time photography! =D hehe












I tried to take a wallpaper-worthy picture and it turned out like this







An idea of photography like that of the Dragon Hatchery.
Behold! "The Rise of the Pineapples" !









I put in more pineapple filling because i know people love them for it =D
By the way, the filling was homemade =D because i always believe homemade products are better, and healthier, than commercial goods as they use a lot of chemicals and preservatives in them!








Oh! I have got a VERY good butter cookies recipe courtesy of my aunt. But i don't have a lot of pictures of it right now. I'll post more of them soon when i get them! =D











In the end, my breakfast table become this!! My mom was like, "How am i supposed to have my breakfast now?!"












That's it for now! I took a break from "factory work" to write here! Well, I hope you all liked what you see =D

Yours truly,
Bobby

Choux SWAN-tilly

We had our pastry class last Friday afternoon. The head chef told us the dessert that we were supposed to prepare has already been done in advance, earlier that day. So, which means, we had nothing to do for class as everything has already been done! Such preposterousness!

So, we decided that the class must go on. Since the head chef will be busy with the preparation of a very important function to be held that night, we will have the pastry kitchen for our own for that day! We could do whatever we want!

As the syllabus stated we should be doing Choux Chantilly for that class. (Note: For those of you who have no idea what Choux Chantilly is, it's what you call Cream Puffs =D and it's pronounced as /shoo shawnteeyee/ It's a French word) =D

So that was what we did! =)

I have seen people making swans out of this pastry. So i reckoned i should give it a try. And oh my god it turned out BEAUTIFULLY! Check out the picture i took!















First attempt! Not so bad wasn't it? Hehe..

yours truly,
-=Bobby=-

First of the Year =D

Finally! After such long delays, i get the chance to bake the very first batch of cookies for the year 2008! =D

I was thinking of what to make, and couldn't drift me mind off the Raisin Oatmeals =D Simple, nice, and delicious - a classic of all times !

Ah... I still remember that day in college, we were having pastry class. Here's how the story goes.

Chef Patma, she was my favorite chef EVER! She's like an expert in all fields of pastry! From choux to genoise sponge cakes to decorating the most beautiful wedding cake in the country, maybe even the world =D Maybe i should include a blog about her someday =)

Anyway, back to the story, we have finished class, and there was plenty of time left. So, she decided maybe we should learn something, something extra-curricular =D She would teach us something out of the syllabus each time we work swiftly and complete our work fast.

And that was how and when i first learnt about this recipe - Raisin Oatmeals, probably the first kind of cookie I learnt in my life, actually. That's why it possess that special sentimental value for me =D On the plus note, it's delicious too!

Here's some pictures i took =D



Cookies fresh out of the oven. Grab them while they're hot!!



Cookies on a plate.



Various kinds of packaging for the cookies.



I thought about keeping my cookies in these kind of packages to have that young appeal that youngsters, and young-at-hearts alike, would certainly love =D They make excellent gifts for you friends, especially if you're in school/college.


-=Up close and personal=-

This should be my favorite picture by far. It entraps you in the cookie's world itself :D Surrounded by beautiful food, and tastyness felt in the air. Makes you feel like Hansel and Gretel eh? =P hehe

There cannot be a proper Chinese New Year celebration without countless types of cookies in jars like this in your house =D A perfect addition to your never-ending collections of cookies during Chinese New Year ;)

So that's about it for now. Well? Is that saliva drooling profusely from the edge of your lip?! xD

Here's my email address btw
mc2_90@hotmail.com

Just contact me should you have any inquiries. =)

Last, but certainly not least, here's wishing you a Very Happy Chinese New Year and Gong Xi Fa Cai! Have a prosperous year ahead of you =)

Cheers

Yours truly,
Bobby