Cookies and Cream Cupcake

Looks familiar?

This is a recipe from Martha Stewart's Cupcakes. I guess bakers who has got this book will also be inclined to take a picture like this hehe... When I saw the picture in the book, I've decided to use a white paper cup instead of my usual silver/ gold paper cup so that I can take a picture like this too :).


This is a baked cream cheese cupcake with, well as the name has suggested, cookies. The cream is contributed by the Oreos cookies as well. If you like chocolate cookies and cream cheese, this will be one of your favorite, guarantee!

I made these for my cousin sister, Madalyn's birthday. Her zodiac is goat, so I've been making her little lamb decoration since her birthday 3 years ago. Actually the year before last year was a 2D lamb, which was really funny and entertaining. I was in a hurry to send the cupcakes over for the birthday do, so didn't really take pictures of the decorations. I might post up one that I managed to take on Facebook - for laugh! It's really funny haha...

The base of the cupcake is a whole pieces of Oreo cookie, it is topped with cream cheese that was filled with chopped Oreos. The original recipe was not paired with any topping/ icing - it doesn't need one! Very nice on its own. I've added some fresh cream and marshmallow to create the white little lamb.

ps. for recipe google Martha Stawart's Cookies and Cream recipe you get about 63,100,000 recommended links. :)

Bacon Lasagna

Wanted to make something for dinner and thought of trying out making lasagna with bacon instead of minced meat.

I liked the "smokey" taste a lot, but like sis said, there wasn't enough "substance", so I shall try adding some minced meat together with the bacon the next time.

Happy 8th Birthday FF Maxis!

8 years old already? Happy birthday Fitness First Maxis!

The cake order arrangement was by Nick and the theme is "green". So I thought of garden, plants, mother nature... I have been wanting to do some vegetable patches, thought the idea is just so cute. But since this is a chilled cake, I have to settle with a non fondant design, therefore flower beds instead.

Chose four colours (randomly!) and made them into four flower patches.

Put up some sign posts as "names" (also chosen randomly! Haha...) of the flowers.

Maybe I should have named this "RPM" instead, hehe...

The yellow sugar flowers were my favorite, so sunshine and cheerful :)

The "fence" were made of chocolate sticks, I've got mint chocolate sticks, orange ones and some dark chocolate sticks.

Made some path ways around the flower patches with chocolate "stones" at the side of the path and almond and toffee crunch (which I don't think is crunchy anymore by now) as gravel.

I felt like I want to go down onto the cake for a walk when I've finished constructed the walking path :)

The flower beds were planted on a White Chocolate Lychee Cheesecake covered in fresh cream lawn.

And...two more boxes of cupcakes, mixed flavours...

Saved the ladybirds for the cupcakes together with the green butterflies (non edible).

Hope the celebration is a blast! Workout hard so that we can feast without guilt! ;)

Mouse on Cake

I got a call from Kim last week - I have not met Kim for about 14 years! We were college mates when we were in our final year degree in England. She used to stay in Kuantan, so although we are both in Malaysia, we have not met since then (except for one brief time after that, as reminded by Kim just now). Kim has later moved to KL but I guess I am just such a lazy person, didn't make more effort to meet up - up until today when Kim collected this cake she requested.

This is for her daughter's 6th birthday celebration, she wanted a Minnie Mouse to start...

Later added Mickey too. And they are to be in a garden.

The request for ladybirds, butterflies and birds came in later but unfortunately, I don't have time to make them all. So I told Kim I'm sure I'll be able to make a few ladybirds, but I'll have to use non edible butterflies.

I tried not to make the mouse (or any figurine if I can) with any sticks inserted. Especially if they are for kids and will potentially be eaten, they might forget and bite onto the sticks... So this pair was put under "observations" for about 3 days. Minnie was reconstructed once, and Mickey had another new head after the first... haha...

The original plan was to have the mouse sitting on a piece of "wood" (made of sponge finger covered with fondant), but their final height was about 0.3cm too tall, so I had to put them sitting on the "lawn" instead. That's why the shoes are quite detailed because they were supposed to be facing up - Minnie's shoes are with ribbons and heels!

Due to this change of plans, the leg directions had to be readjusted, and I had to alter Minnie's skirt a bit. The result was Minnie wasn't really sitting straight enough and tend to lean backwards, had her sitting posture fixed with some chocolate stones underneath her butt. And so, that piece of wood came in handy too at the end. Heee... Still, as a double assurance I told Kim to check Minnie out and give her a push before she present this to the children. And finger cross no heads will fall off! (Cake decorator's phobia!)

Wanted to put more butterflies so that the cake looks cheerful, but I think this is a bit much already. So settled with a pair only.

I know, the wordings is a bit crooked, next time must create a smoother lawn for writing messages. :)

Mickey and Minnie are sitting on a moist chocolate cake filled and covered with milk chocolate. (Just in case you are wondering why that colour for milk chocolate, it has added colouring and a bit of coffee to darken the colour)

Glaced Cherry Butter Cake

This one was actually a rum and raisin cake, but since this was baked for Chinese New Year after dinner dessert, I'd decided to add some glaced cherries to make it more CNY-looking.

Nothing much to say about this post, I actually just want to build up my cake counter list and also this was the only one where I can show you the inside of the cake since this was for own consumption.

Moussaka - the "healthy" version

Moussaka is a classic Greek dish. Many said that it's actually an Arab dish but the Greek just claimed it as their own.

Anyways, traditionally, moussaka consists layers of juicy meats (normally lamb I heard) and aubergine in herby sauce, topped with a white sauce - cheesy bechamel sauce topping, quote magazine. I happened to come across this "healthier" version of this dish and decided to put this into making under my savoury test kitchen project.



So, the difference is I've used chicken meat instead of lamb (or low fat beef as called by this recipe in magazine); oven baked the aubergines with just a brush of oil instead of sauteed or deep fried aubergines; the white sauce was made of low fat yogurt instead of milk. The cheese is still there but I don't think the amount is considered "fattening" ^_^.


The aubergines were layered in between the meat that was cooked in a convenient tomato sauce, oregano, cinnamon, all spice... omitted the parsley. Actually couldn't get parsley when I shopped for ingredients. I think will add that in the next time, or perhaps can try using bay leaves. Finally topped with the white sauce then oven baked till slightly golden and bubbling. I think it can be browned slightly more. I was rather hungry, so didn't want to wait :p. Prepared this in cute little casseroles instead of in a big dish

That was last night's dinner, with mixed green salad prepared by sis.

Fresh Cream Fruit Cake

Nice or not this picture? Taken at Delicious, the restaurant we went to celebrate this belated birthday dinner. I was sitting at the end of the table where there was this spot with really good lighting, like studio shot. :)


Yeah, haha... this is the second belated birthday cake by TeaRoom for CS. There are two groups of friends, so two times celebration. And it is actually quite out of the norm for this cake to be non chocolate. In fact the spec was non chocolate and non cheese, something light and healthy. So I'd made fresh cream fruit cake - sponge cake layered with fresh cream and fruits. This one had a layer of mandarin oranges (from the can, those nicely peeled ones) and a layer of longan (something following through the CNY mood) with fresh cream. Covered with fresh cream and topped with more fruits.

Centre piece was a KFC TTB, for a KFC lover. And yeah, we should have gone to KFC for dinner ;). But if you plan to order this cake, fondant toppers and decorations are actually not advisable. I have one for this cake just because I was bringing this cake to dinner and I'd only place TTB on the cake just before I went to the restaurant. TTB was already "sweating" when I remove him from the cake. Unless the fondant topper is not going to be left on the cake for too long, then it is okay to request for one.

Cake at crime scene.

Left over, I think we would have finished this if there were another 3 people or so, or more of us having second helpings. :)