Nice simple cakes

I've been slightly under the weather these couple of days so have been slacking with cake photo uploading. Anyway, here are some simple orders I took during the week.

[Dark Temptation for Edah]

Dark Temptation is an absolutely rich and moist chocolate cake made with real good quality chocolate with a generous spread of chocolate ganache filling between cake layers and then covered with more ganache all over! A must-try for those chocolate sinners!

[Caramel Apple Cheesecake for Sara]

A plain cheesecake sitting on a lemon sponge base and top with fresh apple pie filling. It's then drizzled/top with a generous amount of caramel sauce and more fresh apples!!

Toblerone Dark Temptation

The Toblerone Dark Temptation is another version of my existing Dark Temptation cake except that it contains bars and bars and bars and bars...of Toblerone both in the cake and ganache! This cake has a generous amount of Toblerone ganache between the layers of Toblerone sponge cake plus more all over!

I've just finished experimenting on a Toblerone chocolate cake this morning with success =) Kim had the first bite and our little Emille got very excited just by the sight of it! I'll bake a proper one for Kak Hawa tonight perhaps. I reduced a lot on the sugar department as I know that our families are not huge fans of sweet sugary stuff. The Toblerone cake is as usual, very moist, loaded with bars of Toblerone chocolate in the cake itself and in the ganache. One would think that it might be overly sweet but its not. Just nice and dark =) I shall call it the Toblerone Dark Temptation. Enjoy drooling =)

[please excuse my lack of tidiness. I simply couldn't wait to put a slice in my mouth!]

[The Toblerone Dark Temptation has layers of Toblerone ganache in it with more Toblerone ganache all over!]

I discovered the best time to eat it was after it was freshly coated with ganache with just about 15 minutes of chilling in the fridge. The ganache consistency is perfect and the cake is still nice and soft =) Of course, I would always advise friends to bring it down to room temperature or let it sit in on your kitchen counter for about 10-15 minutes before eating the cake. This way, both cake and ganache would have soften a bit.

Aliah's Sister's Chocolate Orange Volcano Birthday Cake

A birthday cake for Aliah's sister - Chocolate Orange Volcano

[mini accessories]

[Jay's Mint Slices ordered by Ayu...I may need to reduce the amount of sugar in the Mint Slices]

Baby Alya's Choc Cheese Wave Birthday Cake

This is a Grand (2kg) Choc Cheese Wave Birthday Cake for a two-year old Alya. I covered it with chocolate buttercream and decorated with lots sugar flowers + Apek the monkey & Miss Elephant. Enjoy!

[Chocolate Buttercream iced Wave]

[Apek the monkey]

[Miss Elephant]

Dark Temptation Engagement Cake

Dark Temptation is an absolutely rich and moist chocolate cake made with real good quality chocolate with a generous spread of chocolate ganache filling between cake layers and then covered with more ganache all over! A must-try for those chocolate sinners!

I've just completed a 2kg Dark Temptation Engagement cake between Fara's friend, Suriyani & Ahmad Salleh. The theme was white & purple, so I iced the chocolate ganache covered cake with softly whipped Vanilla cream. As written in my previous blog, I started making/drying the royal icing Violets & Purple Blossoms since Monday. It was definitely enjoyable especially once I was able to successfully remove them from their parchment backing. Here are some photos of the cake and I do hope both bride and groom to be and their families enjoy the cake =)

[Fresh Vanilla Cream frosted Dark Temptation chilling in my fridge]

[the engagement cake decorated with Royal Icing flowers and buttercream leaves]

Caledonia offers the Dark Temptation at RM80 for a 8" - 1.3kg cake. Please inquire for other sizes.

Double Twilight-Tania-Bites episode

I baked about 2kg (as usual, I forgot to weigh!) worth of Twilight Bites for my gonggok friend Tania. It's basically my Choc Cheese Wave without the 'Cheese Wave'. Yes, it's a chocolate cake Tania style i.e. Twilight Bites as I like to call it (the Twilight-craze was booming the first time I baked this cake, hence the name). See, the last time I baked for my gonggok friend, the whole cake only lasted her a good 3 days!!!!! I cut them up into little molex (petite bite-sizes) and had 2 containers full. So this time, I decided to bake double and lump everything into an 11x11 inch tin. The mistake this time was to use the 11x11 inch tin to bake the T. Bites. When I turned the cake out, the bottom looked slightly soggy. So i knew that water had seeped in through the bottom sides of the tin. So next time, I'll use two 9x9 inch tins (they're better tins compared to the 11") instead of one big one. Plus the smaller tins gave me more molex Twilight Bites =)

[lets see how long this lasts Tania...last time round (3 days) was only 2 of the smaller containers]

[this actually makes a quite yummy chocolate cake especially when frosted with chocolate fudge! I'll experiment when I have less cakes to bake/decorate]

...let the Twilight Bites marathon begin!...

Dark Temptation Birthday Cake

Dark Temptation is an absolutely rich and moist chocolate cake made with real good quality chocolate with a generous spread of chocolate ganache filling between cake layers and then covered with more ganache all over! A must-try for those chocolate sinners!

A 1.3kg Dark Temptation ordered by Kim for her 2-year old nephew, Cheng-Cheng, and sister, Joanne. I took my time making the clown, being very careful not to let myself feel dizzy. I feel perfectly fine =) Enjoy the photos!







P/s Kim and family, I hope you'll enjoy the cake! Bon apetit!

Caledonia offers the Dark Temptation at RM80 for a 8" - 1.3kg cake. The taste is worth the price, Trust me!

Strictly-No-Icing Choc Cheese Wave Birthday Cake

This was Reen's order as a gift for a friend on her birthday. She particularly insisted that she didn't want any icing at all. Just the writing, plus I thought of adding some tiny flowers just to soften the bareness.




Caledonia offers the Wave in two sizes. Grand (2kg) for RM80 and Petite (950g) for RM55. Caledonia's BEST SELLER by far!

Aliah's Choc Cheese Wave Birthday Cake gift

This is my proudly produced Choc Cheese Wave birthday cake for Aliah's special someone. Everything was decided (type of cake, by Aliah)/bought cake supplies/baked/decorated/delivered (11km away) within 8 hours! I started as early as 9am and was done by 4.30pm the same day. I suddenly realised something, I think when I don't give too much thought about the decoration, then will it be produced nicely. Yes, I ALWAYS over-think things and keep changing them at the 11th hour.

This cake was ordered by my sister's friend, Aliah, who is in Leeds with Mimi (my sister), for someone who means a lot to her. Aliah gave me one single clue "lovey-dovey". So I decided to play around with those sugar hearts and coincidentally found a suitable butterfly to go with the cake. The cake is iced with yummy softly whipped Vanilla cream all over. I was glad that Emille (my mischievous 2 yr old daughter) was asleep throughtout the entire duration I was decorating the cake. Suddenly having a random object thrown onto an iced cake would set me on flames! (yes it HAS happened before!)

I managed to deliver the cake without problems and reached home as a happy baker =) Aliah, if you're reading this, I hope you like the cake presentation as much as his Mum does =) Enjoy!

My revised Choc Cheese Wave birthday cake

Choc Cheese Wave consists of a centre layer creamy cheesecake, sandwiched with two layers of melt in the mouth chocolate brownie-cake

I woke up at 6.20am this morning with my full intention of demolishing the decor of Wani's husband's birthday cake as in my previous blog. I looked at the cake and thought "I wouldn't be happy to receive this as my birthday cake!", hence carefully lifting all the white chocolate patterns/writing on the cake.

I stuck to the hearts-idea since Valentine's day is less than 2 weeks away. I obviously could not remove the large candles off the cake without cracking the Wave, so working around them, I carefully drew mini hearts with white chocolate, close to each other, to fill up the entire cake surface. I was done at about 8am with the dark cholate writing to finish off with. I then decided to outline the text with micro bead-sprinklers to make the dark chocolate writing stand out...that took me a good 2.5 hours. My neck took the strain the most. But at least I was happy enough to pass the cake on to Wani, so it's worth it.

After being busy for the last 24 hours, I only managed to check my mail tonight after I got back from spending time with my Dad in Parkroyal Hotel. I received a birthday cake order for tomorrow, 5th February, from my sister's, Mimi's, friend. I might be able to just squeeze baking & decorating the cake tomorrow and get it delivered the end of the day. It all depends on which cake the person orders. Let's just hope that I get enough time to think & dream of the decoration since I'm the most undecisive baker who exists on planet Earth when it comes to decorating! I'll update on that after it's over and done with! For the time being, here's my revised 4th February 2009 birthday cake for Wani's husband, Chor.



Caledonia offers the Wave in two sizes. Grand (2kg) for RM80 and Petite (950g) for RM55. Caledonia's BEST SELLER by far!

Choc Cheese Wave

[a petite - 950g Choc Cheese Wave consisting of a centre layer of creamy cheesecake, sandwiched with two layers of melt in the mouth chocolate brownie-cake ]

I just finished decorating Wani's cake for her husband's 30th birthday. She ordered a petite Choc Cheese Wave cake with the writing "Happy 30th Birthday Chor". My initial plan was to cover the cake in dark chocolate ganache and drizzle white chocolate over. However, after I turned the cake out of its tin last night, I decided to leave the cake bare for a change - no ganache, just to give the cake more character as the chocolate and cheese layers are visible. So I marked overlapping heart shapes using a cookie cutter around the cake edges and traced them with melted white chocolate. The writing was meant to be RED but I forgot that WHITE (from the white chocolate) + RED = PINK. So I had to make do. I finished the cake off by tying a black and white ribbon around the cake and stuck two huge number '3' and '0' candles. I hope Wani & her husband like the cake.

Caledonia offers the Wave in two sizes. Grand (2kg) for RM80 and Petite (950g) for RM55. Caledonia's BEST SELLER by far!

Mini Fudge-Chip Brownies

I experimented on some fudgy brownies today, which I called my Mini Fudge-Chip Brownies. Bursting with the richness of dark chocolate with additional milk-chocolate chips in them plus more scattered on top. Delicious! Only complaint was that it was too sweet!! I didn't realise those chocolate chips were made from milk chocolate! For some weird reason, I assumed they were bitter-sweet ones. O well, I'll just have to reduce the amount of sugar I put in them next time =)

[One tray (7"x10") of Mini Fudge-Chip Brownies yields about 48 pieces of 1"x1" (approx.) squares]



Caledonia offers the Mini Fudge-Chip Brownies at RM40 for 600g/48 pieces of 1"x1" squares

M&Ms Temptation

I have a dear friend who is besotted/addicted or much simpler, just cannot see a packet of M&Ms without making her eyes bulge, gasp, and ending up with a satisfying smile on her face as if her life's goals have been wonderfully achieved =) That would be Jay, my psycho-Roxy-M&M-yoga instructor-friend who once upset her tummy by popping in a whole extra-jumbo-sized packet of Christmas' Limited Edition M&M in one go LOL!

So this M&Ms Tempatation (based on my Dark Temptation), as I call it, was created specially for Jay, by adding half a packet of crushed peanut M&Ms with the other half arranged around the cake and absent-mindedly dotted on it, hence the I-don't-quite-get-the-smiley-face on the cake according to Kim. This cake is loaded with chocolate, definitely not for the faint hearts! - extra amount of chocolate in the genoise, double portions of chocolate ganache between each three layers of sponge plus more chocolate ganache poured over the cake. Unbelievably, Jay still wanted to eat the cake with chocolate chip ice-cream!

The amount of M&Ms in the cake is nothing compared to her extra jumbo sized packet but I couldn't help but write the message "Dear Jay, please do NOT consume in one sitting". She ate half of the 1.2kg cake yesterday and that the remaining half will be gone today. I'll wait and see if she asks for emergency MC from work. Bet all the members will be anxious thinking that she's left mYoga again!

New Year's Eve Projects 2

These were the cakes/pastries I made for our new year's eve BBQ dinner =)

Kims calls them the inside-out profiteroles. I didn't have the correct flour, hence the not so puffed up profiteroles. Nevertheless, they disappeared in the fridge! I didn't get the chance to take them out!

This was Hidayah's birthday cake. It hasn't got a name yet. But it's basically the Dark Temptation with an extra layer of dark chocolate mousse in between sponges. Beautiful!

This is the Cheese Fluff made into another birthday cake for Bang Bad's son. It's a sponge-cheese cake, with a soft, creamy melt-in-the-mouth texture.

The Dark Temptation

[10-year old Birthday Boy, Kimin]

[Before]

[a few minutes later!]

This is a continuation of my previous post (Sinful Chocolate Cake). We went to the party and had a slice of the cake to share between us. It was an absolute divine! One adjustment applied. I will try to slice across the cake in 3, instead of 2, to have more chocolate ganache between the cake layers. In terms of taste/richness/moisture - perfect. Kim especially loved the hint of dark chocolate in the cake.

The stabilised whipped cream borders i made were perhaps slightly overly whipped. I dunno. I initially wanted to do a leaf border but the leaves wouldn't come out pointed. It had a blunt-broken tip =( So I went for a shell border at the bottom and a star bottom on top. I will have to experiment more with piping whipped cream since that might be my favourite in terms of taste. Buttercream is just too sweet! Fondant is absolutely disgusting! Royal icing? No no! Marzipan? ahahha yuck! I think it'll have to be chocolate ganache and whipped cream it is =)

And the name of the cake - Dark Temptation sold at RM80 for a 8" - 1.3kg cake. The taste is worth the price, Trust me!

Description: An absolutely rich and moist chocolate cake with generous good-quality dark chocolate ganache filling between layers and then covered with more ganache all over! A must-try for those chocolate sinners!

Sinful Chocolate Cake

I've finally finished baking my 2nd birthday cake today. The chocolate cake has been trimmed, cut into half, sandwiched with dark-chocolate ganache, and topped off with more ganache. A friend, Wani, ordered a chocolate birthday cake this morning for his 10-year old brother, Kimin, for tomorrow afternoon. I initially panicked coz I thought Wani wanted the Velvet, as it might be a tight squeeze for me to get the cake prepared on top of completing other orders. How relieved was I when she mentioned the Chocolate Orange Volcano with a twist. She wanted the Volcano without the orange, and not to look like a volcano. Basically she wanted a simple chocolate cake =) So I gave her a rough price of RM80 for a 1.2kg chocolate cake. That included candles & knife, deco, and delivery (since we're also invited to the party).

Talking about candles, I bought 10 'Magic Relightable Candles' from Bake With Yen, without thinking much of the name of the candles. Afterall, candles are candles. It was when I reached home that I suddenly realised that those candles might not be suitable for birthdays as they automatically relight themselves after being blown out! The only way of putting out the flame is by dipping the candles in water! *DUH* - slaps herself on the forehead! I'll have to see if Cold Storage, next door, has NORMAL candles. Most shops are closed during Christmas. If not, poor Kimin will just have to make do with those magic candles! You never know, the kids might get excited over it! hehehe

Going back to the cake, I baked the chocolate cake more or less like how I would bake a Volcano with a few alterations so that it wouldn't form a 'crater'. I would imagine it to have the same richness of the Volcano, if not, more. It was my 1st experience playing with Ganache. Well, actually my 2nd, but 1st on a cake. The last time I made chocolate ganache was when I made Valentine Praline Truffles for Kim in Bristol. I made sure I used good quality chocolate as well as good quality cream. I must admit that it was rather messy trying to smoothen out small bare patches at the sides of the cake while turning and making sure my wire rack and cake doesn't topple onto the roasting tin I used to catch the drippings.

When I was assembling the cake, I had my mum-in-law as my 1st audience, followed by my sister-in-law, Hidayah, and Kim's aunt. I'm the type of person who gets nervous when being observed where things may highly likely turn out wrong!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to bringing the cake over to Wani's house in Putrajaya. I'll probably also have a slice of my own cake (how weird, especially in public!) to taste the goodness (or not) of it. If it turns out good, it'll be added to the menu =) Talking of which, I need to come up with a name. I like the word 'Sin' to be in it as the amount of good quality chocolate is sinfully generous. Kimin Chocolate Sin? Sinful Chocolate? Any suggestions?


[please excuse my poor whipped cream writing. That was my 1st writing-on-a-cake attempt!]