UPH Festival

hello... i apologize for my absence for such a long time. many things happened and so little word could express. i still bake and took pictures but mostly uploaded in my flickr and my facebook since it's the easiest way to post pictures, a.k.a no naration needed :)
Universitas Pelita Harapan (UPH) is holding its annual festival as a welcoming party for newcomers and college student who will continue to university. this year i take part and open a cupcake booth mainly to see whether people in Indonesia is fond of cupcakes.

the result turns out good. i sold more than 250 cupcakes during 6days of festival and received several orders. unfortunately i can't take many picture since i have to bake cupcakes everyday and run back and forth between UPH and home.

thanks to my mom who help me sell the cupcakes. good job mom.

my brochure. simple design for my future shop, still under renovation. will get back to you soon...

Christmas 2010

we are going to my husband hometown this week so i've finished my christmas baking earlier. I had to bake gingerbread and cupcakes to deliver a week before christmas.



I baked 1.5 recipe of gingerbread recipe from BBC Good Food, cut out 20 star shaped cookies using Wilton cookie tree cutter, pipe some sugar glaze ornaments, stacked them to form a christmas tree and then top with a fondant white star. I also baked 4 gingerbreadman out of the left over batter and ice them with white fondant.

Then I made 50 chocolate cupcakes, top half of them with Karen Davies snowman fondant. I really love KD's moulds, they are so cute and very easy to use.

And I put fondant trees for the other half. I spread different shape and tone of blue fondant ball over a rolled out white fondant, then cut out triangles, insert a toothpick and let them overnight. Finish the cupcakes with a buttercream swirl and insert a tree, then I have a simply stunning christmas tree cupcakes.

17th Anniversary Cake

my husband cousin asked me to bake her a chocolate cake for her 17th wedding anniversary. she said a small cake is enough since there isn't any celebration held on that day.
i was waiting for a chance to utilize a supercute chocolate ribbon i found in a wrapping the other day, so shortly i came out with a cute design to match, it is my favourite cute teddy bears!
you can see the ribbon wrappin the bottom side of the cake in the above picture, very cute isn't it?

this time i prepare a ganache rather than buttercream because i want to learn how to cover a fondant cake with sharp edge. after finished ganaching, i found that it has a more natural look and color so i decided not to cover the cake with fondant.

i hope everybody will enjoy the cake and did not notice the strange "a".... hahaha...

Barbie Cake

my first attempt for doll cake. not easy. i've designed a princess ball gown but i can't make a perfect gown. i can't roll a big enough circle fondant for the gown pattern and the fondant is too soft to handle. after several times of trying, i gave up and start a new gown design, patch work gown. i made her gown strip by strip then cover the back of the gown with a piece of square fondant.

actually square fondant is not right to make a gown, i can't fit the waist, there's too much fondant excess so i had to turn it into some kind of big bow. finish the touch by using small white fondant flowers and silver pearls.

look very find indeed, but if you can put off her gown, you will see her messy "underwear", haha...

these are the cupcakes with barbie card toppers and fondant name tag. cupcakes are vanilla buttercake and barbie gown is chocolate mud cake.

Naughty Kids Cupcakes & Transformers Cake

November is coming again, Ruben is 5 now. recently i don't really have mood in baking, but i don't intend to order cake for my own child's birthday. so, show must go on, since we only celebrate at school, i decide to make PC naughty kids cupcakes for Ruben's classmates. look easy but really take times, 30 faces done in 2 days! what a slug.

i love blonde & red hair :)

actually Ben asked for an Optimus Prime cake for his birthday but i don't think i can build a truck out of a cake, so i decide to make Autobot logo puzzle cake instead of carving a truck, hehe... and i use golden yellow to resemble Bumblebee instead of Prime because i really can't apply red & blue for a cake.
although it's very simple but i made it with all my heart.

happy birthday my son...

White Teddy Bear Birthday Cake

Gwen's first birthday. I've prepared everything 2 weeks before the party. we will throw a small lunch gathering for family member around LK only. I made 2 tier birthday cake, base is real mud cake, upper tier is dummy, 1 dozen of cupcakes & 1 dozen of cookies. since i only could bake on weekend, i could only do small batch and should follow a tight schedule. as an amateur, quite stressful, i might say.

and i'm exploring my new eos 500D, turn out very difficult to set the perfect aperture, shutter speed & exposure, especially shooting indoors. these photos are not through digital imaging, only resized.

it's lucky Gwen's birthday is fall on Tuesday and its Nyepi holiday, so i take a day leave on Monday to finish everything. the lunch itself turn out satisfying altought we argue for another cheaper but delicious chinese restaurant. but too bad the birthday girl is not well... Gwen has a cold 1 day before and become cranky. she cried alot during the lunch. poor Gwen... hope the next will be more cheerful for her...

Happy Birthday my dear Gwen...

Christmas Purple Potatoe Cupcakes

i bought a lot of sweet purple potatoes from my trip to Lembang this early December. in bahasa it called "ubi ungu". people usually steam/bake and eat them directly like steam/baked potatoes. it tastes sweet and smells very good. it has a deep purple color that no food coloring is needed when added in a cake recipe.

this is originally a Pumpkin Cupcake recipe i took from joyofbaking.com, simply switch the pumpkin puree with purple potatoe puree. when baked, the color turn to greenish in the inside, not as good as the top. maybe some chemical reaction to baking soda? not got it...

despite the color, it turn out a very delicious and moist muffin. i recommend to skip the cinnamon when using purple potatoes so its original taste and smell could come out. really a good recipe, i definitely will make another batch next time.

add a little fondant trees & snowflakes... merry christmas everyone...

Bali... where sun always shines...

Jimbaran beach

Pura Uluwatu

Kokonut suites Seminyak

Amphithreatre Garuda Wisnu Kencana

Red tree at Uluwatu pathway

we took early vacation to Bali last week and spent 5days there. the sun is too strong for December, no rain at all.

we lodged in Tune hotel Kuta for the first 2 nights and spent the rest in Kokonut suites Seminyak.

Tune is a budget hotel, everything is new and clean and stylish but very tiny, no space for extra luggages. it cost around US$ 20/night for bed only. only suitable for backpackers or couples who need hotel for a good night sleep and bath.

Kokonut suites is quite opposite. we rent a 2-bedrooms villa with dining & living room. very clean, cozy & quite luxury. it has a swimming pool (that become our private pool on this low season), small gym & cafe, and the services are very good. it cost around US$ 125/night include 2 pax of nice breakfast.

after 2days exploring Bali under the sun, a lot of walking & sweating, i found myself very exhausted, so it's really nice to have a break in a cozy villa, 1 or 2 nights is enough to recharge the energy.

actually 5days is never enough in Bali, there are many scenes i'd love to shoot, i promise someday after i get my dream canon EOS 7D, i will go back alone, travel light and shoot pictures as much as i like...

Ben 10 cake for birthday boy

Ben 10 recently become very famous among kids, included my 4 years old. i found this model in nina pierre's blog which original source from www.thecelebrationcake.co.uk. i think this model is more simple than to create the 10 aliens figurines :)

i never craft before and i know i'm not good at all in crafting, so this is a trial project, i hope i can explain the steps clearly.

first, prepare a egg shape of fondant for ben's face (mine is less chubby). cut 2 olive shapes of white fondant and place on for his eyes, round 2 green tiny balls and flatten them on the white
olive for his retina, repeat for 2 tiny black balls and 2 tinier light green balls for shiny effects. then shape 2 small sausages to resemble his eyebrows and place above each eyes.

second, prepare a small pyramid shape of fondant for his nose, use small bone tool to smooth the edge (my pyramid is too big).

third, prepare a small sausage shape and curl it to resemble the ear, using bone tool to smooth and indent the hole
fourth, using a small oval cookie cutter, indent his smile

fifth, cut various shape of triangle to make his hair

it's a little bit difficult to make the omnitrix since it should be small size, so i don't make too much details. and i found that black fondant is really sticky and difficult to work with.

i love this yellow :)

Birthday Mini Cake

Another year gone by... time is moving so fast and it's my birthday again. 33 years old now, i hope i am getting wiser in living my life. recently i really can't catch up with baking and i missed last birthday bake due to pregnancy blues. So from now on i promise to myself at least one cake a year is a must, especially one my birthday.

this is a mini cake made from round chocolate sponge cake and fondant cover. i will try to write the method here, hope you can understand.

- bake a sheet of your favourite chocolate sponge cake

- cut 3 sponge cake with round cookie cutter diameter 8cm

- stack them together with buttercream to resemble a tube around 12cm high

- cut a circle using round cutter to fit the top of the cake

- use a textured rolling pin and roll ivory fondant

- measure a piece of fondant as same height & round of the cake for covering the side of the cake

- divide into 4 equal pieces and leave them for a while

- place them one by one to the side of the cake and smooth with your hand

- finish by attaching daisies, ribbon and number (all of them are made by using fondant cutter)

it's a bit diffcult to make it perfect, since the fondant is very soft to stand upright, and the texture is easily flatten when pressed too much. and it should be eaten soon cos' i notice the cake begin to swing to one side on the 3rd day :)