Bumblebee (Transformer) Cake

A called me last week for an order for a car cake, for Ian's birthday today. Initially I thought it was a car cake like what we did last month. On Monday morning, she brought me a model car of Bumblebee, the character in the Transformer movie.

We crafted the shape of the car out of two large cakes, based on the model we had on hand. Like the car cake, it took me some time to pipe the entire car.

This cake was meant to be a surprise for Ian . He had the cake cutting in school today. Accordingly to mummy, he was a proud little boy today !






He's also having some cupcakes over a family dinner tonight.

Cakes (20/7 - 26/7)

Few of the cakes done last week.

Racing horse image on a cake, for a horse loving 60 year-old dad.


Pool table on a cake

The cute Baby Milo !

Berry Pie

My sweet tooth is aching again this morning. This time I wanted something not so sweet yet easy to prepare & bake. I happened to be browsing through Alex Goh's Irresistible Pastry & his berry pie caught my eyes.

I remembered there's still a portion of sweet pastry in the freezer. So I decided I could whip up a berry pie since there's frozen berries in the freezer too.

Sweet Pastry Recipe :

70g Icing sugar
150g Butter
1 Egg
260g Flour
1 Tbsp Milk powder

Mix icing sugar & butter till well combined, add in egg & cream till smooth.
Add flour & milk powder, mix till well blended. Refrigerate for 30 mins or till firm.

*The weight of the pastry is 540g.

Berry Pie :

300g Sweet pastry

Filling :

600g Berries
80g Sugar
2 Tbsp Corn flour
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Grated zest of 1 lemon

Toss the berries with sugar, cornflour, lemon juice & zest together in a bowl till well combined. Pour them into pie dish & egg wash the edges. Roll out pastry between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 3-mm thickness. Cover the pie dush with the pastry. Press the sides with fork & trim the excess. Brush the top with egg wash.
Bake at preheated oven of 200C for 35 mins or until golden brown.


The yummy berries in my ramekin, before baking.

Yummy berry pie, half gone, perfect with coffee !



As I only have 180g of sweet pastry left in the freezer, I had to make it into 3 small pies in my ramekins. For 180g of sweet pastry, I used 3 ramekins, 2 of 1/2 cup capacity & 1 of 3/4 capacity.
As for the filling, I halved it. A combination of strawberries & blueberries have been used for the pie filling.
This pie is not at all sweet & over filling since there's only pastry on top. This recipe is a real keeper, am going to be baking this very often as everyone loves it.

Baked Cha Shao

I hardly buy or cook pork. But when I do, it's usually well marinated before cooking, be it stewing or baking. Another of our favourite will be tonkatsu, I'll always prepare a batch of these & freeze them. Besides ribs, the only part we eat is the tenderloin.

Frankly, I enjoy watching people indulge in their belly pork, especially samgyeopsal (grilled belly pork) in Korean restaurants. But still, I rather stick to my tenderloin.

Since the girls are on their long summer holiday break, I have more time to really bake & cook, yes baking still comes first !
The girls, especially JF, likes cha shao a lot. She'll always ask for cha shao to be on her kon lau mee on Sunday breakfast.

I got this baked cha shao recipe from a friend's house in Labuan. I remembered about 8 years ago when we stayed there while hubby had a RC car competiton, I was so bored so I went through all the books I could find in the house & copied recipe after recipe, manually.
This is from one of the Chinese book, not sure who's the author :

Ingredients :

600g Pork, cut into 1/2 " strips
3 Tbsp Honey

Marinate :

2 Tbsp Oyster
1 Tbsp Dark soya sauce
1 Tbsp Shao Tsin wine
1 Tbsp each Garlic, Shallot, Bean Sauce (minced)
1 Tsp each Sesame oil, ginger juice
3 Tbsp Sugar

Combine all marinate ingredients in a large bowl, add meat & mix well, cover bowl & leave to marinate overnight in the fridge.

Drain marinate, place meat on grilling rack, grill at 210C for 15 mins. Turn meat over & grill for another 7 mins. Remove meat & brush all over with honey, grill for another 5 mins till golden brown.

I usually cook the marinate till boiling & sieve it as sauce for the cha shao. Just serve it with plain rice & some steamed vege.



We couldn't finish the cha shao in one meal. So I chopped up the remaining, with an onion, 4 beaten eggs, one huge bunch of spring onion & cooked rice, we've got ourselves fried rice for dinner that night.

Winnie The Pooh Cake

I bought the girls a copy of the KIS joke book & they're always telling me jokes contributed by little kids from the school.

One joke from it : Why does Tigger look into the toilet ?

To look for Pooh

I think this is quite funny !!

This Winnie The Pooh & Piglet cake was baked for 3 year old Joey, who simply adores Pooh & the gang.

Now, another quote form the joke book :

A man lives in a single storey house. Everything in his house is pink, the door is pink, the bed is pink, the lamp is pink, the kitchen is pink, even the computer is pink. What colour are the stairs ?

Barbeque Ribs

This has been our favourite rib recipe ever since I tried it for the first time 2 years ago.

Each time we have cravings for Tony Roma's, I'll cook this, with a side dish of coleslaw.

Recipe is adapted from allrecipes.com :

4 Pounds Pork spareribs
1 Cup Brown sugar
1/4 Cup Ketchup
1/4 Cup Soya sauce
1/4 Cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 Cup Rum
1/2 Cup Chilli sauce
2 Cloves garlic, crushed
1 Tsp Dry mustard

Preheat oven to 175C. Cut spareribs into serving size portions, wrap in double thickness of foil, bake for 1 1/2 hours. Unwrap & drain drippings. Place ribs in a large roasting pan.

In a bowl, mix together brown sugar, ketchup, soya sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rum, chilli sauce, garlic & mustard. Coat ribs with sauce & marinate at room temperature for 1 hour or refrigerate overnight.

Preheat grill for medium heat. Place ribs on grill & cook for 30mins, basting with marinate.

* I usually place the ribs & marinade in a large zip-lock bag, leave it in the fridge overnight. I baked them in an 220C preheated oven for 30 mins. I left out the chilli sauce & add a dash of black pepper, for the girls.

Cakes (6/7 - 12/7)

Sexy Trunk Cake !

M wanted a funny cake for her friend's birthday last Saturday.

She liked the bikini cake that we made for Bev, but to turn it into a sexy trunk cake for her male friend ! Her requirements : hairy & muscular chest, six pack abs, tanned body, white trunk (with a bulge !!) & of course our little friend, the red crabbie !!

Japanese Sponge Cake (Kasutera)

I recalled many months ago I was trying out recipe after recipe to get the perfect honey cake that's so popular in Taiwan. Their version is baked in a wooden frame, so aromatic, with the addition of their famous Longan honey.

Many of their recipes use SP cake emulsifier, which is supposed to help shorten the whipping time & increase the shape stability for the batter. This is a no-no for me, thats why my honey cake always end up with different texture. Few weeks ago, while I was browsing through my recipe books on Japanese cooking, I found a sponge cake recipe using honey.

This recipe uses no oil, quite similar to the Taiwanese version so I decided to give it a try.

Ingredients :

5 Large eggs
150g Caster sugar
60ml Honey
3/4 tsp Baking powder
90g Plain flour

Grease & flour a 9" square cake tin. Preheat oven to 180C.

In a mixer bowl, beat the eggs until frothy, then gradually beat in the sugar & honey. Continue beating until the mixture is thick & pale & the beaters leave a ribbon trail, about 12 mins.

Sift the baking powder & flour together, then sift them into the bowl.

Gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture until just combined, then carefully pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin.

Bake for 30 mins or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Unmould the cake, transfer to a wire rack & leave to cool completely.

* This cake will shrink upon cooling. I'm not sure if it's meant to be this way. Just cut the sides away like I did, u still get to enjoy your honey sponge ! This is a very delicate batter, so be gently when folding in the flour.
This is a very light & aromatic honey sponge cake. I baked it 4 days in a row on that week after I succeeded in the first attempt.

Corset Corset !

photos courtesy of Gin


These corset themed cake & cupcakes were baked for Gin's hubby's birthday on Monday.

She wanted some 'naughty' cupcakes, so based on her idea, we baked her these, together with the lacy cake.