{Birthday Special} LEGO Cupcakes for my Little Boy!

Aren't these little LEGO Cuppies looking oh-so-cute? Custom designed for my little boy to celebrate his birthday with the classmates.

This special Yellow Lego Man is for my handsome who is turning 6.

Special mix of pastel green & yellow butter cream.

Some Lego girls too for the little girls in his class.

The bare Lego figurines before I painted the facial expressions.

I shape them using these mould I got during a group buy and let the fondant get harden in the fridge compartment for 30 minutes before removing them.

Painted by hand..

Then I added my sugar-reduced butter cream.. you may get the recipe for the butter cream icing here.

Finished them off with LEGO man or Lego block topping. Which is your favorite? Mine is definitely the Bruce Lee look-alike (the yellow Lego man). 

These little cuppies are really easy to make once you make friends with fondant icing.

Instead of party bags which often contain candies or unnecessary gift, I prepared these pencil cases with custom print message, "Ethan is 6!". Simple preparation, nothing lavish or OTT.

I showed my little boy the cuppies in the morning. Him and the little sister were super excited and requested to have one each. Luckily I have prepared extra so they happily munched off their Lego cupcakes while on the way to school. Best reward for a night of hardwork = their happy smiles and hugs. :)

Happy birthday my little E.
Be brave. 
Be happy. 
Be curious. 
Just be yourself.

Love you always, mommy. ❤️



Pss.. need more idea on cake decoration? Why not check out the following:
Special Lego Cake
Sweetheart and Ballerina Cuppies
Rainbow Cake
Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones

{Birthday Special} The Lego Cake!

It's January 2015, which marks my 6th year of motherhood. This time 6 years ago I was heavily pregnant with a huge belly, counting days for my baby boy to pop up. How time flies.

Anyway, my eldest is turning 6 and I decided to make him a themed birthday cake with his favorite toy of all time... LEGO! He started with Duplo when he was 1yo and moved to Lego and finally addicted to Lego Technical now, I couldn't think of a theme better than Lego. 

It's a simple Madeira cake (essentially a moist lemon butter cake) molded into a Lego island, with captain E in the center. 

The happy Lego man. I molded the figurine by hand and used a spaghetti to hold the body parts in place, then painted the face with a brush and "super black" fondant coloring. I tried using Lego man jelly mold but the icing cracked. Lucky my handmade Lego man fondant figurine turned out ok.

I made these Lego blocks and figurine a day earlier so they will be dry and firm for assembling. I was playing with different arrangement possibilities on a baking sheet. You see, I made these blocks not knowing how the final cake design would be, so I needed to figure it out and I was finally satisfied with this rainbow color steps.

Preparing to ice the cake with my homemade buttercream and the basic gears. You may get the buttercream icing recipe Here. It's my failed-proof recipe.

The iced cake smoothen with a palette knife. This step is essential to ensure a smooth surface to lay the fondant on. I let it set in the fridge for about half an hour while I work on the fondant layer.

The fondant layer for the cake top layer using "avocado" green. I like my new rolling pin which is non sticky, designed for fondant decoration.

All packed in box, ready to go!

Fondant cake decoration really requires lots of practice and tools. I would suggest you take up a proper course if you want to start fondant decoration at home. As for me, I had many rounds of trials and errors and some good friends who had shared useful tips with me, for that I am gladful and hopefully I can continue to design more birthday cakes for myduo every year till they finally grow bored of it. :)

That's it, I gotta go as the birthday party is about to start soon. My handsome Lego fan is waiting.

Ciao!

{Birthday Special} Sweetheart Cuppies of my Sweetheatt

Finally, I attempted cupcake deco with buttercream after many moons. I have never liked buttercream as I find it too sweet and too rich, bad for my weight control and also against my wish to allow the Little Ones to have so much sugar intake. However, since they are both above 2yo now I am ready to get loosen up.

As my little bunny's birthday is coming up soon, and I have already got her birthday dress ready, I decided to try out some cupcake decorating today, with homemade buttercream. Ah,  they turned out beautiful, don't they? :)

Cuppies design by PH @ food4littleones

My little handsome were so excited when the cuppies were done, kept asking if he can bring them to the school tomorrow, "they are so cute, Mommy, how did you learn to make all these?". Awww.. worth the effort to just hear him saying these. Yes, I'm a shallow mom. ;-)

Love this Ballerina Cuppie using Eccentric pink coloring, I am going to make a few of them in different shade of pinks. They are easier than it seems when crafted with fondant. I used letter "V" for the bodice and cut out a circle using the kid's cup, then created some ripples with the help of a toothpick. Join both piece with some sugar water and ta-da, the ballerina cuppie is ready!

Ballerina Cuppie

The Heart of the Ocean, another of my favorite. The contrast of the color turned out exactly as I expected. I used Navy Blue color for the ocean effect and Drop Flower tip.

Heart of the Ocean Cuppie

The Sweetheart Cuppies Trio for my little girl.. My duo absolutely love the sprinkles and little hearts. In fact 2 of these were gone right after my photo-shoot. I had to constantly keep an eye on my little girl as she had been eyeing on the ballerina cuppie the whole time! 

Sweetheart Cuppies Trio, in Eccentric Pink

The Little Fish & Little Star Cuppies, easy peasy deco using fondant but huge on cuteness effect. I'm not quite satisfied with the yellow color, so will have to fine-tune these later. All these are fondant cut out using cookie cutters.

Little Fish & Star Cuppies

Lovely cuppies, which are your favourites?

I have yet to finalise which designs to used for my little C's birthday party, but the ballerina is definite in my pick! ❤️

Almost forgotten. For anyone interested to try out some homemade buttercream, here's the simple recipe I used  from "Fabulous Party Cakes and Cupcakes", I got this book from Times book store quite some times back. I have reduced the amount of sugar used by 50% and it turned out just nice.

Simple Buttercream Recipe

• 250g unsalted butter (room temperature)

• 250g icing sugar (original recipe used 500g)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon hot water 

To make, just soften the butter in the mixer on medium speed for about 3 minute - until it is soft and creamy, then add the rest of the ingredients and mix on high speed to 5-10min until the texture turns pale white and really smooth. Your buttercream is ready!

This is enough to decorate the 12 -14 medium size cupcakes depending on your design. In my case, I still have some left over after decorating the 16 cuppies.

If there is any leftover, just store them in airtight container or cover with cling foam and place in fridge (good to keep up to a week) or freezer compartment (up to a month)

Happy cake decorating!  ❤️

15 minutes Yule Log Cake (the short cut way!)

I have always love the Yule Log cake since I first saw it in the hotel's Christmas  display when I was a kid. Kind of like a love at first sight :) And of course, gingerbread house too. They were my childhood dream for Christmas celebration.

Yule log cake is a traditional dessert near  Christmas originated from the European countries. It's basically a sponge cake rolled into Swiss roll with buttercream filling and decorated to look like a wood log (hence the name), and with powdered sugar as snow.

For this year, I decided to make a simple Yule Log cake using the cheat way; I admit I was too lazy to bake now that I have resumed work and this month was a month of Christmas crafting. You may head over to Fun With Little Ones to see what I have been busy crafting at night. :)

Anyway, back to the Yule Log Cake. I took a short cut by using store made marble Swiss roll and the left over royal icing that I made for Christmas cookies deco last week. I kept them sealed in the fridge so still taste good and fresh after a week.

Little one helped to put on the naughty santas and snow.

Ingredients:

1 foot long swill roll cake, any flavor if your choice

1/2 cup of royal icing (approximately 120gram). Use store made or wipe up your own with this recipe from Bake at 350.

2 table spoon of icing sugar / Powdered sugar 

The Making:

1. Get ready the cake, fill the  piping gun / piping bag with white royal icing.

2. Squeeze straight rows of the royal icing horizontally across the cake in a slow and steady motion, make sure the cake is fully covered. For the side, use a spatula to help spread the icing evenly.

3. Using a fork, lightly drag lines on top of the royal icing to create wood like texture. Let the log rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes before start decorating. 

4. Decorate the cake with snowman, Santa clause, mistletoes, meringue mushrooms etc, then sprinkle some icing sugar on top with a sieve to create the snow effect.

That's it, you have a nice winter Yule log cake ready for your party! Isn't it simple? ;)

I would recommend to keep it refrigerated for at least an hour before serving, to help the royal icing settles.

After decorating the cake, I used the remaining royal icing to make more Christmas cookies. I did much better this time with the outlining, didn't I?

The freshly baked sugar cookies. Tasted good on its own.

My favorite Christmas trees

The classic gingerbread man

And some colorful stars and hearts.

This shall make a very merry Christmas party for us. 

Fancy to make some Christmas cookies too? Read on more on my earlier post here.

Or the tutorial for the royal icing by Bake at 350 who shared so many recipes and tutorials!

Merry Christmas to you & your family!

Simple Moist Chocolate Cake (and decoration tips!)

As promised, this is the recipe I used for baking the birthday cake for my little bunny who turned 2 recently. I know this is 2 weeks late, but it is better late than never, right? *wink*  

Decorated with the rainbow, clouds and figurines depicting my duo, this cake was a hit for all the kids and parents too.



You may read on more about the birthday and the Rainbow theme deco I prepared for the special day here - Little Bunny Turned 2!

Anyway, let's focus on the cake. The recipe was adopted from Joy of Baking using their Simple Chocolate Cake recipe, I made some modifications so it is less sweet to compensate for the sweetness of the fondant icing. 



Preparation time: 15 min
Baking time: 30 min
Serving for: 2 x 9" round cake 


Ingredients:
Dry Ingredients
300g granulated white sugar  (reduced from original 400g)
245g all-purpose flour, sifted.
75g unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Van Houtton cocoa powder)  
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Wet Ingredients 
2 large eggs (size A)
240 ml warm water 
240 ml fresh milk (full cream or low fat milk alright)
120 ml vegetable / sunflowers oil
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
 2 table spoons of strawberry chocolate chips for mixed flavor


The Making:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F  and place oven rack in the center of the oven. Brush the bottom and side of the pans with the butter or cooking oil. You may add a layer of baking sheet at the bottom of the pans to ensure easier removal later.  

2. In a large bowl (make sure it's dry), mix all dry ingredient using a spatula .

3. In another large bowl, beat the eggs till fluffy then whisk together with all the remaining wet ingredients. Gradually add the dry mixture into the wet mixture until it's well combined (should be smooth and not lumpy).

4. Evenly divide the batter between the two pans and bake for about 27 - 32 minutes until fully risen. Insert a toothpick or cake tester into the center of the cake, it should come out clean. Otherwise just continue to bake for another 3 - 5 minutes.

5. Remove the pan and let the cake cool completely on the rack before start decorating.

You may noticed both my cakes are of different sizes. Well, I intend to make a 2 layer cake at first but eventually changed my mind and created 2 separate cakes instead. So 1 layer or 2 layers? Depends on number of guests really. The 9" cake was just nice to serve my 20+ guests where 1/3 of them are kids under 5yo.

This cake can be pre-baked and keep in fridge up to 3 days (could be more but may not taste fresh anymore)

Beginner's Tips for Fondant Decoration..

I am not expert in cake decoration with fondant, this is my 3rd attempts in fact. However some tips for beginner like me:

• Keep the cake  in the fridge for at least 1 hour before starting the decoration.
• While you may make your own fondant with icing sugar, using ready to roll fondant allows better chance of success. Just buy white fondant and mix the color yourself. 
• You would need a cake turner and bread knife to cut off the top layer to achieve an even surface. The remaining crumbs can be eaten as-is (yummy!) or used for making cake pops.
• The decorated cake should be kept in a dry and cool place (air-conditioned room is ideal) to avoid the fondant from melting. 
• Ideally the fondant decoration shall be done same day or 1 day before serving.
• If the fondant get too sticky when rolling, just sprinkle some corn starch over it and it shall be fine.

Overall I spent about 4 hours on the cake decoration (span across 2 days) and a main bulk of it was due to the details involved in making the figurines. No wonder a professionally made fondant cakes don't come cheap, a lot of effort & time required!

That's all folks, feel free to share the picture of the cake you make too for exchange of ideas ;) 

Cupcakes in Ice Cream Cones 冰筒小蛋糕

I'll be attending a small potluck party with my duo, so was scratching my head on what to prepare, something that will be different from the usual party food and yet not too time consuming.

So I flipped through my recipe books for idea and found a particular one that is easy to make but with stunning result.

The outcome - cupcakes in ice cream cones, in chocolate and vanilla flavor.

Ice Creams in a Box

"Chocolate ice cream"

"Vanilla ice cream" with heart sprinkles

Interested to make some too? Just read on..


Preparation Time: 30min
Cooking Time: 25min
Decoration Time: 10min
Serving for: 12 cupcakes
Utensil / Tools needed: Mixer, 12 hold cupcake tin, spatula, measuring cups

Ingredients:
Refer to the my orange chocolate marble cake recipe here
12 flat bottom ice cream cones

For decoration:
- 500gm butter cream
- 2 table spoons cocoa powder
- Mixture of sprinkles, chocolate chips and pearl balls for topping

Alternatively, you can prepare DIY Butter Cream (mixer required):
- 300gm icing sugar (original recipe calls for 500gm but that's really too sweet)
- 250gm unsalted butter, soften to room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1 teaspoon warm water (optional)


Recipe for butter cream modified from "Fabulous Party Cakes & Cupcakes".



Step-by-Step Guides:

1. Preheat oven to 150c.

2. Scoop 2 spoonful of batter into ice cream cone or until 2/3 full, place them into cupcake holder tin and bake for 25min in the medium rack or until fully rise. Prepare buttercream while waiting the cakes to be ready.

3. If you choose to DIY, whisk butter and sugar together in a clean bowl until fluffy, then add the vanilla essence and water (add water if the mixture is too thick). Whisk on medium speed until you get a creamy white texture.

4. Scoop few spoonful of the buttercream into a separate bowl and mix evenly with the cocoa powder - now you get chocolate flavored buttercream.

5. Let the cupcakes cold on a rack. Start decorating the cupcakes by spreading a generous layer of buttercream, then sprinkle with chocolate chips, rice sprinkles or pearl balls. Let the cream hardened (preferably Aircond room in you live in hot climate like me) before serving them.

That's it, your cupcakes in ice cream cones are ready, now go and impress your friends and family! ;)

A week later, I made these bunch of birthday cupcakes for grandpa's birthday. Same ingredients, same method, different presentation. The only extra is some fondant and modelling tools.

Note:
Since the buttercream topping is rather sweet, I would suggest not to make this on regular basis, too much sugar may cause a child to be hyper active.

Unfinished buttercream can be kept in box and stored in fridge up to a week.