Thomas 3D Cake ordered by Pn. Fiza of Bkt Antarabangsa

It was a Thomas 3D Cake marathon weekend. I almost immediately started with Fiza's order after delivering Sue Ann's cake. Fiza ordered this Thomas 3D cake to surprise her elder son Hadif, a big fan of Thomas, who had just turned 5. The cake was especially ordered for his birthday celebration at his kindie on Monday. Fiza came on Sunday evening as promised to pickup the cake. I hope Hadif had an unforgettable birthday celebration, wish I could see his face when he saw the cake! :D

Thomas 3D Cake ordered by Mrs Sue Ann of PJ

Had the utmost pleasure of doing business with Sue Ann. She's such a lovely softspoken young mom of two. She ordered this Thomas cake for her younger son Wayne's 2nd birthday party. As per my previous Thomas 3D cakes, the cake is choc moist cake (although it can be done with any flavoured butter cakes, everybody seem to prefer choc moist), decorated with buttercream icing with the custom handmade fondant face.

Sue Ann wasn't fussy at all, the deal was closed in no time. We met at the promised pickup point, a landmark near my house. 2 days later I received  text message from Sue Ann, which made me euphorically happy that said,"Hi GG, the Thomas cake was a great hit. Passed on your contact. :) Sue Ann". Thanks for the order Sue Ann, it was really lovely to meet your mom and you.

Nephew Farhan's Calla Lily 2-Tier Wedding Reception Cake

My SIL called to order this wedding cake one month prior to the reception date. When I asked how she would want the cake to be, Yong (my SIL) told me that she would like a 2-tier square cake decorated with lilies in white and hints of champagne. The top tier would be carrot cake, and the bottom choc moist.

Since this was a big project for me to do alone, I asked if my sis Elin (proprietress to Elin Homebake) to help. The calla lilies were storebought, due to the unpredictable weather, wouldn't want the lilies to wilt before the big event. The filler flowers however were handmade by our "flower apprentice", my aunt Makcik (Siti Norbaya Manaf) and Superbibik.

Baked 3 layers of 12" choc moist and 3 layers of 8" carrot cakes for the project, decided to bake 3 layers for each tier because I wanted the cake to be tall enough eventhough it was only a 2-tier cake. Thought it would look proportionate to the happy couple too, for photography during the cake cutting ceremony. I decided to do a stacked tier cake instead of using pillars. We used light cream fondant to cover both the cakes, trimmed them with white royal icing. To add some texture, we decided to pipe dots around the sides of the cakes. Finally, the flowers were arranged and as the finishing touch, we added a champagne coloured sheer organza ribbon and fashioned it to cascade softly down the cake.

All in all we estimated the cake to weigh a whopping 13kg. We had to get my husband Sham's help to move the cake about for photography and transporting.

I was glad that Yong was happy when she saw the cake the next day. Although it took long hours to finish the cake, I enjoyed doing it in the company of my sister and Makcik. Due to my "delicate" condition, Elin stepped in and did most of the hardwork such as rolling out the fondant. We finally  finished at almost 4am. Had a nice warm shower and practically crawled into bed (think of Ju-On, the Japanese horror movie. Haha!). I slept ever so soundly that night knowing that we made a good cake for Yong.

Steamed Caramel Puddings for Yong of Wangsa Maju

These have been my favourite puddings for as long as I can remember. When I was smaller, my aunt Mak Ndak used to be the sifu of caramel pudding in our family. She makes the baked (bain marie) version in large ovenproof dishes, which were very fragrant and firm after being kept overnight in the fridge, and finally served turned upside down on a platter and decorated with canned peaches or fruits. I remember she once made this pudding in a fish mould for my youngest uncle's hantaran nikah. It was lovely indeed, I'd never seen anyone made this pudding in a patterned mould before.

My first experience with caramel pudding was a disaster. Haha! I cooked it bain marie, the traditional way, but wasn't sure how to check if it's cooked or not. I was a teenager of 14 - 15 years then. As with cakes, I waited for it to firm up, and of course it didn't because of the caramel syrup at the bottom. I waited and waited way past the required baking time, but it was still wobbly. In the end I nervously took it out and found the top layer had gotten tough as leather! My parents, being parents, tasted it with lots of comments on the side. It didn't deter me, I tried again and again until I finally got the mojo. Apparently, for each mix you will only have to bake for a specified amount of time, depending on how thick the container is.

As the old Malay saying goes, menuntut ilmu biar sampai ke negeri China. I am always on the lookout for tips and tricks to improve my culinary skills. One fine day I met this fine lady, who was my ex senior's (from ITM) best friend at an entrepreneurship course which we both attended. We clicked as soon as we met. She was the one who introduced me to the steamed method, telling me that she makes the puddings in small containers and sells them in her office, they're always a hit with her colleagues. Since then I have never turned back. I've sold thousands of pieces for as far as I can remember. For weddings, kenduris, open houses, parties and even for my office's family day sale.

Yong is my SIL's cousin. She has an event organizing company and sometimes orders from GG Home Biz for her events. This time round it's 100 pcs of caramel puddings. Made them with bibik last night, on my once double but now single stove ( gosh, I really need to go shop for a new one!). Finished making them in almost 3 hours.

I'm selling these silky puddings at RM1 per 4oz container, with minimum order of 20 pcs. Don't forget, please sms or call me to order. Don't order on this blog as I am not able to check it as often as I'd like to.

Ahhh... Parental duty a-calling, as I was typing this my little ones just kept on coming with their chatterings and bickerings. Those two just couldn't see eye to eye! Well, couldn't blame them, I went through the same phase myself when I was younger. I thought my younger siblings were such pests, but now we're older and wiser, we'd stand by each other no matter what comes. So my friends, with this I take my bow, til we meet again, have a pleasant holiday to all!

Orange Oil Cake

Gosh! This was such an easy recipe I just had to share it! I was browsing the net for new lauk-pauk dishes and stumbled upon it. Once I had seen Nigella baked a mandarin orange cake on one of her cooking programs. I was really curious on how it would taste because she "blitzed" 2 whole mandarins with peels and all with the rest of the ingredients. Copied the recipe but unfortunately had somehow misplaced it before I could experiment with it. 

I was excited to find a somewhat similar recipe online. Remembering that I had an orange or two stashed somewhere in the fridge, I immediately went to work, with some modifications. The rest of the ingredients are just very basic. I think some of you who are busy working moms can whip this up in a jiffy, it took me just 15 mins to mix and approximately one hour to bake. Can you believe it?

Here's the recipe, my modified version:

Blend until smooth and well incorporated:

1 med size orange (Sunkist/ Navel) - cut and cored, with peel.

1.5 cups caster sugar

0.25 tsp salt

1 cup vegetable oil or cooking oil

3 eggs

Sift:

2 cups all purpose flour (tepung gandum)

1 tbsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degree Celsius, grease and line a 7" square or round baking tin.

Pour the blended mixture in a large bowl, fold in sifted flour with a spatula until just incorporated.

Pour in prepared tin and bake for approximately 1 hour or until skewer comes out clean.

Do try this recipe, you wouldn't believe how easy it is!

Baked this in a square tin especially for my cousin Madzli.