Toy Story Cupcakes

Just before the year ends, I thought I share this toy story cupcakes that I made for order for my friend, Adina. If you have been following me from last year, you may remember that I made the birthday cake for her son, Lachlan's 1st birthday cake. They had small birthday celebration in his prep before they went back to Indonesia for holiday.  Last year, Lachlan was a big fan of winnie the pooh but this year, he's into Toy story especially Buzz Lightyear. As there are quite many characters in Toy story, it's perfect to make different kind of character for each cupcake.

The base flavour of the cupcake is Milo Cupcake with Vanilla Frosting and desiccated coconut. They are one of my favourite base flavour for the cupcake. Who doesn't love Milo cupcake? Even I'm as an adult still love Milo, lot and lots of Milo. Okay, enough said.. Let me share some recipes for Milo Cupcake. Last but not least, Happy 2nd Birthday Lachlan and Happy New Year 2012 for all of you..

Milo Cupcake

(Makes 12 Cupcakes)

Ingredients

100g Plain Flour

20g Cocoa Powder

100g Milo

140g Caster Sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

40g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

120ml Whole Milk

1 Egg

1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Method

1. Preheat Oven to 170ºC. Put the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, milo, baking powder, salt and butter in a mixer with paddle attachment. Beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined.

2. Whisk the milk, egg and vanilla extract together then slowly pour about half into the flour mixture, beat to combine and turn the mixer up to high speed to get rid of any lumps.

3. Turn the mixer down to a slower speed and slowly pour in the remaining milk mixture. Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.

4. Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Vanilla Frosting


Ingredients

250g Icing Sugar, sifted

80 g Unsalted Butter, at room temperature

25ml Whole milk

Few drops of Vanilla Extract

Desiccated Coconut

Green and Pink Food Colouring

Method

1. Beat the icing sugar and butter together in electric mixer on medium-slow speed until mixture comes together and is well mixed.

2. Turn the mixer down to slow speed. Combine the milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl, then add to the butter mixture a couple of tablespoon at a time.  

3. Once the the milk has been incorporated, turn the mixer up to high speed. Continue beating until the frosting is light and fluffy, at least 5 minutes. The longer the frosting is beaten, the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

Assembling the  Toy Story Cupcake




1. Divide the desiccated coconut into 2 bowls, dyed coconut into green colouring on 1st bowl and pink colouring on 2nd bowl.

2.Using an ice cream scoop full of frosting to get the right shaped and then dipped in coconut. Press the coconut on and tidy up the shape. 

3. Place each toy story characters on top of the cupcake. 

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lachlan!

Christmas Butterscotch Madeleine

As we are still celebrating festive season, let me share another christmas treats which I gave to my colleagues this year. If you have been following me since beginning, you may remember Lemon Curd Melting Moments from last year christmas treats. This year I was thinking to make something different and I had so many christmas ideas but at the end, I ended up with something simple, yet very christmassy. Well, simple is more.  I have to admit that I love sprinkles, they really do wonders and gives a wow factor on the final product.

I have the madeleine tray since mid this year. As I have been busy doing cake and cupcake orders, I just didn't have time to use them. I used the butterscotch madeleine recipe from Bills Basic by Bill Granger. They are very simple to make and turned out very light and spongy. Once they are cooled, I dipped each madeleine into White Candy Melts and colourful christmas sprinkle and leave them on the baking tray until dry. If you don't have white candy melts available, you can also use white chocolate compound and put them in the microwave for few seconds until they are melted.

I had a really fun time making this christmas madeleine. It was always a great feeling when receiving great feedback from colleagues.  Once again, Merry Christmas and hope you have a wonderful time with your loved ones..

Butterscotch Madeleines
(Adapted from Bills Basic by Bill Granger)

Ingredients

100g Unsalted Butter

2 tablespoon Golden Syrup

2 Eggs

60g Caster Sugar

75g Plain Flour, Sifted

1 teaspoon Baking Powder

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170° C. Grease a madeleine tray and dust with flour, shaking off the excess.

2. Melt the butter in a small pan. Remove from the heat, stir in the syrup and leave to cool.

3. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs, sugar and a pinch of salt until pale and fluffy. Add the flour, baking powder and syrup mixture and fold everything together.

4. Spoon the mixture into the madeleine tray and bake for about 8-10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

To decorate

Christmas Sprinkle or other colourful Sprinkles

White Candy Melt from Wilton or White Chocolate Compound

Method

Melt the candy Melt or White Chocolate Compound on the microwave for few seconds until melt but not overly burn. Dipped each madeleine into the melted white chocolate and then into the sprinkles. Leave them on the baking tray to dry.  Once they are ready, put them in the bag and wrap them with christmas ribbon and lovely christmas cards made by my hubby.

Ta-da.. There they are.. Christmas Butterscotch Madeleine... 

Christmas Themed Cake

Merry Christmas Everyone! Although I wish for snow and white christmas but it is so impossible here in Australia. Oh well, I have to wait another month when we visit USA and think that it's still christmas.. I really miss christmas being around with the family and it's sometimes hard when it's only two of us here (me and hubby). Therefore, our close friends here is our surrogate family..

I made this christmas themed cake for my husband's long time client as a a gift.  My first idea in my head making this cake was actually totally different on how the cake turned out at the end. To be honest, I was almost gave up on the cake as it was a terrible covering a cake with fondant on humid hot weather but luckily hubby came up with different idea. Ohh.. Thank god for that.. How lucky I am to have him on my back as always who never give up on me.. 

The flavour base of this cake is Caramel Mud Cake with Caramel frosting. I made the holly leaf the day before and placed them in the apple tray to give the effect on the shape when they dry. I am very happy that hubby's client loves the cake very much and I received a great feedback from them. Meanwhile, I would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and Thank you for all your support for this year. Looking forward for another interesting sweet year of 2012.


Christmas Themed Cake

Caramel Mud Cake

(I made 2 batches for this cake)

Ingredients

250g Unsalted Butter

200g White Chocolate

450g Brown Sugar

375ml Water

300g Plain Flour

100g Self Raising Flour

1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3 Eggs, beaten lightly

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease 20cm cake pan.  Line base and side with baking paper, extending paper 5cm above edge of the pan.

2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar and the water in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat until mixture is smooth. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, cool 15 minutes. Whisk in flours, then essence and eggs.

3. Pour mixture into prepared pan, bake for about 1 hour and 30 minutes or until skewer poked in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave the cake in the pan until cool. 

Caramel Frosting

Ingredients

125g Butter, chopped

200g Brown Sugar

80ml Milk

250g Icing Sugar 

Method

Melt butter in a saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and milk, bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, simmer and uncovered 3 minutes to cool. Gradually stir in the icing sugar until frosting is spreadable consistency.

How to assemble

1. I cut each cake into two layers and spread them with caramel frosting. 

2. Ganache the cake with dark chocolate ganache. You can find the recipe here

3. Cover the cake with fondant and decorate with holly leaf and some pearl sprinkles.

Large Sugar Flowers

Recently, I enrolled the Large Sugar Flower Class with Handi Mulyana at The Cake School. Handi is awarded for cake decorator of the year 2011 and known for his outstanding quality for his sculpted cake. Handi is actually based in Sydney and I missed his classes when he was in Melbourne back in August as most of his classes were fully booked. So, I've been waiting for his next visit to Melbourne. Fortunately, The Cake School, that just recently open in Ringwood, Melbourne invited Handi Mulyana as a guest teacher. My dream comes true!

For the past 3 months, Hubby has asked me many times on what I really wanted for my 30th birthday present. I know, I know.. my birthday was actually 2 months ago and I keep changing my mind every time hubby asked me those questions. When I found out that Handi was coming to Melbourne, I finally made up my mind and Hubby bought me "Large Sugar flower classes with Handi Mulyana" as a birthday present and early christmas present. It is a great investment for my cake decorating knowledge after all.  At the end of the day, If I want to learn some techniques and tips about the cake decorating world, I should learn from the best and Handi is proven to be one of the them!

For 2 days classes, we learned on how to make Large Open Peony Rose, Classic Roses and Large Magnolia and some hydrangeas. I'm really glad that I took this class as I never make sugar flowers before and I need to learn this for making wedding cake next month. I have lots of room for improvement but I guess for my first attempt making sugar flowers, they are not that bad and even Handi mentioned to me at the end of the class. Hubby and friends are also quite impressed on my flowers turned out. At the moment, I have started making few sugar flowers at home to practice and It is becoming addictive hobby now.

I can not rate Handi high enough as a teacher, He is an amazing and fun teacher and learned a lot from him. I guess this is not going to be the last class that I'm going to have with Handi Mulyana and The Cake School, there will be more to come.  Last but not least, Thanks to Hubby for a great birthday and Christmas present!

Boobs Cake

Beware children.. It's an adult only cake..:)

First of all, I apologise for missing last week. I had the busy week with cake/ cupcake orders. Great to be back again..

I made this cake for my colleague who recently resigned and he's a also a very good friend of mine.He decided to open his own business in Mornington area. It was quite sad that he had to leave the company but I guess people move on at some point and they had to do what they have been dreaming to do for such a long period of time. I admired for his decision, I hope that I have the guts to do the same thing one day.. However, I was browsing for farewell gift for him and thought making a boobs cake would be a great idea.. He really loved them and can not stop laughing when I presented the gift to him..

I used Sports Ball Pan by Wilton to make the boobs and used the fondant to finish off the cake. The base flavour of the cake is the mud cake. You can find the recipe here. 

Also for anyone in Melbourne, interested in custom cake/ dessert order for birthday, wedding or other special occasion, please contact me on flamingpot10@gmail.com 

Just to share my little excitement and a hint as well.. I am making first wedding cake order in January 2012.. I can not wait to start and of course will share more info on this blog...

Last but not least, Bon Voyage, Gary.. I really wish you all the best for the new journey...