Ladybug Cakes

Little Valdamae is such a lucky girl. For her first birthday celebration, she got lots & lots of ladybugs !!


A eggless buttercake covered with sugarpaste especially for Valdamae, who's allergic to egg.


Cake on cake - A big ladybug cake on a square chocolate cake


Chocolate cupcakes with more ladybugs on them....

Ladybug party !!



Valdamae's four year old brother, Nikita, also had his party on the same day. These chocolate cupcakes's theme was Naruto.

Cupcakes For San San

San San turns 3 year old !

Sweet little castle

Smiling butterfly

A fairy wand for her

Flowers of various sizes

Tiara & stars

Pandan Kaya Bread

This is one lovely loaf of bread that I baked for breakfast last week.
The aroma of the bread filled the kitchen while it was baking in the oven.

Original recipe was adapted from Alex Goh's The World Of Bread. I did some changes to the recipe though.

Recipe :
Those highlighted in red are what I've made changes to.

(A)
300g Bread flour
2 Tsp Instant yeast
45g Sugar (50g Gula Melaka)
1/2 Tsp salt (Omitted)
1/2 Tbsp Milk powder

(B)
30g Egg
60ml Coconut milk (60ml Whipping cream)
1/2 Tbsp Pandan juice
Few drops green colouring (1/2 Tbsp + 105ml Pandan juice, colour omitted)
105ml Water

(C)
20g Shortening (20g Butter)

(D)
130g Raisins (Omitted)

Topping :

30g Butter
30g Sugar (30g Gula Melaka)
60g Plain flour

Mix (A) till well blended. Add (B), mix to form a dough. Add (C), mix well till well blended. Let it ferment for 50-60 mins.

Mix butter & sugar of the topping ingredients till well combined, then add the plain flour & mix to form a crumb. Keep refrigerated.

Divide dough into 15g pieces & mould into balls. Place half the dough balls in a greased loaf tin (L20cm X W10cm X H8.5cm), then put with the remaining dough balls on top of them.

Leave to rise for 45mins, brush with egg wash & sprinkle with topping.

Bake at preheated oven of 175C for 25-30 mins.

* The loaf turned out to be darker as I've used Gula Melaka in place of the sugar. I've replaced the coconut milk with cream as I didn't have any. I thought raisins don't go with pandan so I omitted them. The loaf was not sweet but the aroma was fantastic, we loved the topping part, very crusty while still warm !

Seafood Pasta With White Wine Sauce

Lately, I've been craving for the yummy seafood pasta at Restaurant Ember back home.

I was at Dome for lunch last Sunday & on their menu I saw a seafood pasta, so very naturally I ordered it. I was shocked when the pasta arrived, drenched in what looked like a can of carnation creamer. It was totally different from the picture on the menu & I had it sent back to the kitchen !

I attempted my own version of seafood pasta for dinner on Tuesday. I wouldn't say it was really yummy, at least the ingredients used were of good quality & good enough to satisfy my cravings.

Recipe :

500g Dried pasta (I've used vermicelli)
500g Prawns (peeled & deveined) & fish fillets
250g Scallops
2 Tbsp Olive oil
50g Butter (I've used Lurpak)
6 Cloves garlic, minced
1 Red chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
1 1/2 Cup White wine
2 Tomatoes, chopped
Flat leaf parsley, chopped, to garnish
Salt & pepper to taste

1. Cook pasta accordingly to package instructions. Drain & set aside.

2. In a large pan, heat olive oil with half the butter till warm, add garlic & chilli, cook for a few mins till fragrant. Add prawns & fish to pan, cook for a few mins, remove from pan with a slotted spoon when they're almost cooked & set aside. Add white wine & bring to boil, reduce heat & let simmer till slightly thick, add the remaining butter. Return the prawns & fish to the pan, followed by scallops & chopped tomatoes, season with salt & pepper.

Toss cooked pasta through the sauce, sprinkle with chopped parsley & serve.

Basketball Themed Cake

A simple cake with basketball cut-outs made from sugar paste.

I've done a few in the past but didn't manage to take any pictures. There's the chance for me to do one today so better take the picture before I miss it again !

Alex's 2nd Birthday

This was done for 2 year old Alex.

A cute monkey with party hat & balloons. Hope Alex had a great party yesterday.

Sweet Girlish Cupcakes !

Cupcakes for Kelly's 19th birthday.


Another batch of cupcakes for her friend's birthday.

Happy Easter !!

Last week, a friend called to ask me if I could bake some Easter cookies for her & she brought me a very lovely Williams-Sonoma Easter cookie cutter set. After baking & decorating, the cookies are supposed to be interlocked & standing.

So we spent Good Friday baking & decorating the cookies. It was a lot of fun for both the kids & adults too. Hubby & I did the outline & flooding of the cookies, CJ was in-charge of checking if all the cookies were well flooded at every corner, also helping me with colouring the royal icing & washing up. She's a real helper in my bakery now :)

I followed the cookie recipe that's printed on the box & found the dough too soft so some of the baked & decorated cookie broke before I had the chance to assemble & take pictures of them. So I'm only left with these few cookies :


There's supposed to be a standing grass patch underneath the bunny so it could stand but it broke ! The girls had quite a few broken cookies this 2 days.



This duckling survived !

Standing Easter egg



Hot Cross Buns


We were out shopping & only got home when it was almost time for the KL F1 Grand Prix but the rain came at the wrong time so Astro's out. Instead of lazing around, I thought of bread making.

Since it's Easter, I decided on hot cross buns.

By the time the buns were done, it was about 6.30pm. We had a very late lunch at 3pm, so these buns were our light dinner. A very satisfying one, warm hot cross buns on a rainy Sunday evening......

* RECIPE FOR MY HOT CROSS BUNS *


400g High protein flour
100g Plain flour
6g Instant yeast
40g Sugar
52g Maple syrup (can be replaced with honey)
30g Egg yolk
170g Milk
72g Butter
6g Mixed spice
100g Sultanas

Flour paste :

1/2 cup flour
4 Tbsp water

Mix flour with water till a paste form, if too thick, just add a little more water.


1. Mix all ingredients, except butter & sultanas in a mixer with a dough hook on low speed until combined, add butter & continue to mix on medium speed for about 15 mins until dough is fully developed. Add sultanas.
Cover bowl & let rise in a warm place for 1 hr or until dough doubles in bulk.

2. Divide the dough into 48g portions & mould them round, place them onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, let proof for about 20 mins.
Place the flour paste in a piping bag, snip the corner off with scissors, pipe a cross on top of each bun.
3. Bake in a preheated oven of 190 degrees for 14-15 mins.


* This recipe yields 24 buns. Arrange buns in an order of 6x4 on a rectangle tray. I always bake my buns at the bottom rack for the first half of the baking time then rotate to the top rack after that for the top to brown. Once the buns are done, brush the top with sugar glaze while still hot.
I just make a simple glaze with about 2 Tbsp of sugar to 1 Tbsp of boiling water, stir till sugar is dissolved & brush on the buns.