Can't wait to blog about!

It's something in the mailbox that the chief baker has been eagerly waiting for, with no clue as to what's to be expected. And the sender is a cousin-in-law (chief baker's hubby's maternal cousin) who shares the same interest in baking and is exceptionally talented in her creations! At every family gathering, be it birthday celebrations or special occasions, this cousin never fails to whip up the birthday cake/ dessert-of-the-day, and there is never a time where the dessert is repeated! I've always looked forward to savouring the cake, and aspire that one day I can make cakes as good!

So what came in the mailbox, you asked? A cupcake wristlet in the chief baker's favourite colour!


And 3 different cupcake recipes! Here comes more experiments with new cupcake flavours!

Resurrection Sunday cupcakes

Mummy Landy organised an egg hunt on Resurrection Sunday for her kids and friends. And what better way to celebrate a successful egg hunt than with cupcakes!

16 regular chocolatey and 30 mini-me's (not pictured)

On the other hand, the chief baker baked cheese brownies for her church's sunday school kids party. (I have no idea how best to take a picture of this brownie except from the top, and it looks awful! The brownies taste great though..)

Homemade kaya

New experiment with the breadmaker! The breadmaker comes with a jam making function, but instead of making jam, I made kaya, a custard-like spread made of coconut milk, eggs, sugar and pandan leaves. Making kaya became so easy peasy, just throw everything in and set to jam function, and voila! Homemade kaya in an hour's time! This can also be made bain-marie style, but that would take a good 4 hours! The good thing about homemade spreads for bread? I get to control what and how much goes into the stuff.

I did a taste test, and the light hint of coconut milk and aromatic fragrance of pandan leaves left me feeling like I just tasted a little of heaven! Needless to say, the bread below is homemade too.

The chief baker has a new toy!

Yes! It's a breadmaker! Been thinking of getting one since our man-of-the-house loves eating bread. And this is my 1st loaf of bread made. The crust is way too hard for a normal loaf of bread, but I can just imagine this texture with some nuts and fruit! Not too bad for a 1st timer, and crust aside, the insides are really soft... Here comes more experiments with different recipes!

Our 4th wedding anniversary

It feels like time has been passing real fast this 1 year. It seems like not too long ago, I was blogging about how we spent our 3rd wedding anniversary, now we're into our 4th year of marriage! What did we do this year?

Because the chief baker was busy studying for her exam, There was no big hoohaa on the actual day. We just had a simple celebration with strawberries and wine. Oh! and a little choc cake too (not in time to take pictures cos the chief baker wolved it down...)

The actual celebration came after her exam. And chief baker was kept in suspense all throughout her revision, as the mister said, "Take 2 days leave. We're going somewhere to celebrate."

So the missus asked. "Where to?" And all the man of the house said was, "Secret. Just pack some clothes and bring your passport on that day."

Boy was the chief baker kept in suspense! Despite umpteen efforts to bribe/trick/coerce the mister for a small clue, he sure was tight-lipped about it...

It turned out that we were not going overseas at all! Instead, mister booked a 1 night stay in Ritz Carlton Hotel, a renowned hotel with world class service.

View of the bathroom

The room proper

View from the room

After a quick orientation of the room, we had some afternoon tea

And then the doorbell rang. We were pleasantly surprised that the staff sent up a complimentary cake. We only briefly mentioned to the reception staff that we were here to celebrate our anniversary and they took note of such minute details. It's no wonder they're known for their world class service!

Night came after a shopping spree at the nearby shopping centre, and we had some light snacks before heading for bed.

Before we know it, it's morning! And what better way to start the day with a morning devotion and a cuppa...

And that was how we celebrated our 4th year of marriage. Thank you to my dear mister, who planned such a wonderful short but well spent 'getaway'!

Exam's stressing the chief baker out...

Why no posts from the chief baker, you say? Well, she's been pretty up to her neck recently with an exam coming up. Don't ask me why, but the place I work at requires us to take exams every so often. Boy it sure is stressful, considering the fact that I've stopped studying for such a long period of time. You know what they say about breaking the momentum and all..

These were stuff I baked a while ago, but didn't have time to post..

For the end of an internship at Deloitte

For a friend's wedding, I think..

(so much head knowledge that the chief baker has forgotten)

Brownies!

A school project

A friend who's studying in Temasek Polytechnic approached the chief baker, asking for a small favour. She has a project on hand, and her group is required to look for a business owner, interview him/her, and come up with a marketing strategy for the business.

Look at what the group came up with for Cupcake Culture!

Packaging and logo on box

Namecard design

über cool!

Meaning of über (Taken from the urban dictionary):
1. pronounced as 'ubber' (correction: pronounced as 'oober', as corrected by a german student. Oops!)
2. german word for "above" or "over" (correct spelling "über")
3. used as a substitute for "really" or "very" etc.

An early valentine's day order! From a regular customer who ordered these for her guy. I was horrified when she requested for guitars and roses. If you don't already know, I'm utterly hopeless with freehand sugar paste modelling! In the end, she was so sweet to suggest that her love is also a bike fanatic. So there goes the chief baker frantically looking for bikes for her cupcakes... With jittery hands and her heart in her mouth, the chief baker decorated the batch of cupcakes, constantly visualising how roses and bikes would go together... The results?? über cool!

20 regular chocolatey chocolate

Clowns!

Ordered by friends for their buddy's hatch day...

Blog Flood!

It's a day of food, food and more food! The youths in our church came over for a pot blessing last Saturday. What's served on the dining table you asked? Loads!! We've got green curry, pizza, chicken wings, pasta and the chief baker's signature stewed beef and Jamie Oliver style roast chicken. No pics of the food, but hey! Cupcakes were in the making as the girls baked a batch of them and decorated to their heart's content.. Just look at how creative Sus and Cass can be:

These were objects of photography on that day!

My favourite pic of them all...

Proud to be part of it...

A couple that is so close to my heart decided to spend the rest of their lives together and tied the knot on 10th Jan 2009. No words can express the joy that fills my heart as I see the bride walk down the aisle while the groom sings of his love for her. They say wedding is but for a day, but a marriage is a lifetime. And I can attest to it.

Dear NelGin, as you walk this path together, may you find joy in each other, a confidante in your wife, and a head of the household in your husband...

400 mini-me's for the big day.

Photos courtesy from our photographer friend, Heng Kah! Just look at the outstanding quality of the shots!

The story of 3 girly beans & a day of fun...

It was the Saturday before Children's Day! And 3 girly beans decided to make cupcakes for a children's home! So the 3 met at the chief baker's home for a morning of fun and adventure!

First, they had to make the cupcakes. So the trio huffed and puffed as they whipped and mixed:

The cocoa

The eggs

And not to forget the milk!

And finally the cupcake batter was done! So into the liners went the batter, each a scoop, not too much and not too full:
The chief baker's favourite batter scoop

And then into the oven they all went:

And while the cupcakes doubled in size, the girly beans made the buttercream nice:

"A little of blue", said Suzy Poo. So a little went into the buttercream pool:

"Too little!" said the other, so more went into the butter:

"Nice!" said the third, so that made the colour:

And so it was with the other 2 colours:

With the buttercream ready, the bags were filled:

And so were the sprinklers all ready for use:

"The chocolate curls!" yelled the chief baker. And so they were also put to use:

The cupcakes are ready, and the girls' hands are steady:

So a piping bag each and voila! Wonders were created as each hand rotated:





And out came boxes of cupcakes with love!

And so was the story of 3 girly beans, 1 a chief baker and 2 wannabes!

Aside to Suzy Poo and Claude: Thank you girls for the wonderful time!