Cookies for Naima

Some very girlie set of cupcakes and cookies for Naima ...

Car Cookies & Cupcakes for Nick's 2nd Bday

I got an email from Phoenix the other day, wanting to know if I can do some car theme cookies & cupcakes for Nicklaus, her son's 2nd birthday. Phoenix showed me a reference for the car toppers, they were made of fondant, and I think I could do those.
However, it was the cookies I was worry about, as I don't have car cookies cutter, and having asked around, the shape I could get was only the truck shape.

At the end, I didn't get to do the fondant car toppers as I need to get out of town a couple of days before Nick's birthday party, but the cookies were well done, thanks to Nico's t'shirt where I got the car pattern from. Having the handmade pattern cut out on cardboard, I knife traced through the dough for the specific car shape.

I am loving the beetle cars, they come in bright colours and Phoenix told me the cookies were a hit!



Several days later Phoenix text message me, for another batch of the same car cookies, some on sticks, and some cupcakes for Nick to share at school.

The cuppies were individually packed in clear plastic packaging, topper with whipped cream and matching car toppers made of coloured chocolates.

ps. I'll upload teh cuppies photos once transferred from the cam.

Christmas Cookies

Some Xmas themed cookies to share with her colleagues and relatives, Grace ordered several dozen of them.
All individually wrap in clear plastic boxes, assorted shapes in vanilla butter and chocolate flavor, and finished with gold ribbon for extra special feel.

Sagu Keju

Turned out quite nicely, it's my 1st time Sagu Keju.
I used Parmesan Cheese instead of Edam, my uncle and aunty likes it, and Papa Cia finished the whole box of it :)
I think I might do the next batch with Cheddar.

Happy Independence Day Cookies

The 63rd Indonesia Independence Anniversary is coming, a friend ordered some cookies for her Mum to take to her office to celebrate the upcoming event. They had to be in red & white, the colours of Indonesian flag.


Only have two colours to play with, I decided to toy with the pattern, using the mighty toothpick to tweak the icing and create different style from my usual ones.


I wished I could've done the red colour better, but I promised Mia's Mum I'll do a perfect red for Xmas. Promised. Merdeka euy!

Famous-Amosy Wannabe

Been googling for Famous Amos cookie recipe when I stumbled over to several blogs, one of them is fellow Indonesia baker now living in Melbourne, Regina.
She quoted the recipe which claimed itself as the original recipe, however I was more interested in the piece that she modified.

Got all the stuff together including the very tempting Semi Sweet Hershey Choc Chip. Alas! Only to found out my grinder was broken and it was too late to cancel this project that has been on my wish list for weeks, so I just ground the oatmeals manually using Indonesian traditional stone mortar & pestle!!
That saved me a few bucks off gym admission and in return here comes the yummy morsel of snack I've ever made! Yihaaa....


It has all the goodness of dark cooking choc, our treasured Hershey's Choc Chip, almond, and butter. Yummo yummo!

Jonathan Birthday Lolly Cookies

Nathan loves cars.
Auntie Reny wants to surprise him by ordering car shaped cookies for his birthday.
The cookie makes said, she'll find a car shaped cookie cutter. Or better use Cars edible image for perfect car pictures, as the cookie maker felt unsure about drawing cars :)
Luckily Auntie Reny agreed.


with just a little bit of re-editing, the Cars images comes very nicely from Oishii Cake - thanks Yani! So now Nathan can have some nice chocolate and vanilla lolly cookies to share with his schoolmates and cousins on his 4th birthday!


ps. Thank you Papa Cia for helping with the pots, and than you kids for not messing with the cookies during the photo session by the window this morning! Heehee.

Elmo's Birthday Cookies

Ben10 is Elmo's favourite character, so his mum, Onin ordered some of these cookies for Elmo's 8th birthday.


They came in 7cm diametered circle shape, 3 cookies in each pack.
I made more chocolate cookie chips than vanilla ones, as requested by the client (Onin loves choc cookies heehee).
I got the edible images from Oishii Cake and was very happy with Yani's service :)

Elmo, hope you have a wonderful birthday (now that it's school holiday already!) and hope you like the cookies, too!

Teddy Bear Parade

Look, Mummum, Teddy Bears! <-- Cia's comments. Then she lent me her hands to hold the teddy when I tried to take its picture. And a very cooperative hand talent she was, too. In the mood for more teddies, all couples are in matching outfit, ready to go for a dance party!


Also available in cocoa flavour. With or without the belly buttons :)

Boys and Girls

Got me a some new cutters, and a chance to try them came as soon as my neighbour Dian requested me to bake her sons a few pieces of butter cookies. Then got more order from Noni, some butter cookies on stick for her daughter Emma and her friends.


So here are some girlie butterflies and girl shaped cookies for the girl, and some teddies for the boys.
(Dian messaged me right away, saying that her boys were so excited to see their favourite cookie in different fun shapes. I guess I was as happy as her boys, too!)

Mum's 60th Birthday

It's our Mum's 60th birthday in May this year, so my sister and I decided to throw her a surprise dinner party and invited our family and relatives, plus a few of her best friends to her favourite cafe in Bandung.
As our Mum loves flowers, I made about 100 cookies with flowery themes, all in sort of colours and shapes as a thank you gift for the guests.


Simple heart patterned ones,


And plenty of free hand flowers ...

Adia : Welcome Baby Girl!

It was around the 3rd week of April. I got a text message from Onin , she wants 20 pieces of lolly cookies to welcome her niece who was due to be born around May 8th - 10th.
The theme is Baby Girl, so I did some samples and emailed them to my first official client.


Onin likes the comical expressions and pastels colours on the samples, and asked me to eliminates the bright colours. Agreed that it was a good idea, I was planning to do the shopping on May 2nd and get ready just in case Baby Adia decides to welcome herself to the world earlier than her parents had expected.
She did!
May 1st, early morning, got another text message from Onin: "I got a new niece, born 6.15 this morning!"

So there went a bit of chaos in my kitchen, sent my assistant to complete my shopping list at the nearby market, baked the cookies in 2 flavours, vanilla butter and chocolate, and I was ready to work with the icing by the time my kids hit their bed for afternoon nap.

It started to get disorganised when I found out that the icing looked funny. Turned out it was donut icing that the seller gave to me instead of icing sugar, so I had to make another batch in 6 different colours. Managed to draw on about 8 cookies, put them back in the oven to dry the icing and this time they all went lumpy and sticky!

I had lost 5 hours due to this icing problem and was to lose several more as I have to bake more cookies to make up the ones that I can't use, not to mention re-doing the icing, and still haven't done any of the decoration.

Despite of the stress, the long hours, and lesson learned the hard way, I am thankful for my husband's full support - he stayed up with me all night, helped me with the labels, served me the fries and burger :)

In the end, the cookies turned out nice and dainty and all finished on time to be handed to a happy customer the next morning.


Welcome Baby Adia ! Thank you Onin for the opportunity given to me, and thank you Adri for your love and support!

Cia's Cookies : a Tribute to My Family

I'm happy to announce that starting May 1, 2008, my kitchen is officially named Cia's Cookies!

Thanks to my very supportive husband, who happily helped me develop the logo (and printed and cut them, too) and the helping 'stir mama, stir!' hands of Cia who always wants to join me during the 'bikin-bikin kue' time, and the understanding mind of Nico ('nanti dulu mama lagi repot!') who patiently waited by his chair and tv, now Cia's Cookies is taking order. (and also thanks Lasmi for helping me clean up the messy kitchen!)

These all started a few weeks ago as Onin, a long time friend, tried my cookies from Cia's birthday. Apparently her kids loved them that she requested me to bake some lollipop cookies as a gift for her sister in law who was due to give birth to a baby girl soon.

Full story on the next post.

Cookies for Kendra's 2nd Bday

These 10 lollipop cookies were made as a gift for Kendra's 2nd birthday, April 26th 2008. Ladybug theme was taken from Kendra's goodie bag tag, and some bees were added, too.


Turn out that decorating chocolate cookies was more difficult than butter ones as the colours have to be chosen correctly so they won't clash with the background nor look awkward.


Haven't ask what Kendra think of the cookies, but her Mum was surely excited enough to try one of it before giving them away to Kendra's cousins at the party!

Cia's Birthday Cookies

Pictures by Indigosix Photography (friendster: indigosix photography).

Cia, these were for your 3rd birthday party goodie bag @ school last Wednesday.

You said the cookies were pretty and 'enyaaak!' so hope your friends love them, too!

Thanks Angelia n friends who make these cookies look like real treasures!

The not so pro photo, the goodies packed and ready to be given away the next morning...


The whole fifty pieces of them!

Cookie Decorating Class

Felt the need to learn the tip n tricks on how to bake and decorate my cookies so they could look like pro's, I went to Bu Fatmah's course at NCC's hq last Sunday, made an few new friends, learned the tricks, and on top of that got to try the tastiest Soto Mie ever! (that's what you called the BIG plus, heehee)

Cocoa & Peanut Cookie

The ingredients are super simple yet the taste lingers longer than my cookie jar could hold!

Original recipe by Ailsa Bernhardt :

• 3/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 1/2 cup self raising flour
• 1 cup raw peanut
  
• 125 gr margarine, melted
  
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

(1 cup self raising flour can be substituted by 1 cup plain flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/4 tsp baking soda)

Modified by Cindy :

• 150 gr caster / icing sugar
• 180 gr plain flour
• 120 gr raw peanut
• 125 gr margarine, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 11/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• pinch of salt
  

Beat caster sugar and egg until mixed well, mixer on high speed, then add chopped peanuts and vanilla.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa together, and add to egg mixture.

You will need to reduce the mixer speed to slow as the mixture could get very sticky.

Add the melted margarine, bring the mixer speed to normal / high until all mixed well.

Spoon the mixture on to slightly greased tray.

Cook in preheated oven in moderate / 180C for about 20 minutes.

Let's get started!

Akhirnya,... kesampaian juga coba-coba bikin blog sendiri setelah sekian lama ada keinginan tapi kurang kemauan :P . Mudah2an bisa jadi inspirasi buat yang baca dan kenang2an buat Cia & Nico saat mereka besar nanti.

Kegiatan masak-memasak dan crafting sebenarnya sudah saya gemari sejak kecil. Yang sempat nyoba berbagai resep dessert dan masakan, punya buku catatan resep sendiri sejak kelas 4 SD, sok bikin2 dan masak2 sama temen2 tetangga sampe dapur lengket dan kompor minyak tanah mampet keguyur adonan puding... sempet juga jualan coklat hasil mewarnai dan nyetak sendiri (SMA nih), lalu trima pesanan puluhan loyang puding buat natal (udah kuliah), sampe akhirnya gantung centong gara2 kesibukan kerja lalu punya anak...

Gara-gara nemu satu resep tua yang saya dapat dari Ailsa Bernhardt, my host mum di Sydney selama tahun 1988 (bener kan, udah tua?!) dan kesian liat oven nganggur di dapur, timbullah kembali minat untuk menekuni kegiatan masak-memasak yang lebih dari sekedar membuat lauk buat temen makan nasi hari ini.

Resep tua Cocoa & Nut Cookies tersebut masih terbayang betul rasanya di lidahku meski sudah lewat 20 tahun yang lalu saya makan kukis ini! (hey... ternyata setelah dicoba, Cia, Nico, & papanya juga sukaa!)