Nicholas' Elmo Birthday Cake

My only 2nd attempt in assembling a birthday cake.
Nico is a big fan of Sesame Street's Elmo, he would say "Emmo! Emmo!" each time he watch his favourite character on TV. So with helps from my sister and my assistant, we made this Elmo birthday cake for Nicholas' 2nd party in Bandung with our relatives and friends.

The cake was classic vanilla sponge cake, with cheese whipped cream filling as per Nico's Papa request, and covered with whipped cream and buttercream for Elmo's face, and some strawberries on the side. Just before the candle blowing, Cia helped me putting on some star trimmits on the cream.


The fur on Elmo's face was done with the help of 'grass' piping tip, and the eyes were melted chocolate. Lettering was made of fondant, an unwise choice to match with whipped cream as fondant can not stay well with the condensation on the chilled cake so it became runny and I have to support it with toothpick.

Baby Ayla Cuppies

Only last week we had a chance to visit my best friend Leila & Kus who had their first baby 2 months ago. A cute chubby baby Ayla!

Brought them a box of cuppies with soft salmon colour whipped cream, the cake was again chocolate mud cake as Leila loves dark chocolate. The writing was made of melted dark chocolate, a small baby face made of fondant, and some heart trimmits to make them a bit prettier.

Doraemon Cuppies

I met Santy years yearrrrss ago , I really meant something about 30 YEARS ago when we both went to the same ballet school. Met her again in the same English course classes, then in High School when she moved from her all girls school to a co-ed St. Aloysius.

Found out just a few months ago that she also bakes & cook, then she found out I also bake. Santy ordered these few cupcakes for the kids to try at home, she wants Doraemon theme. Sounds rather challenging so I agreed, on the base of making the faces only.


So I made the Doraemon faces out of fondant, then painted the whiskers and eyes with melted chocolate. Wasn't a too big fan of Doraemon myself, but I think they're rather cute!

Butterfly Cuppies for Manjit

Amie contacted me on Sunday noon, wanting some cuppies for her ex boss, Manjit who had her birthday fall this August. Understand that this was a quite short notice order, Amie leave it up to me to think of the appropriate idea for decoration, as long as it's choc mud cuppies, the same one Reny sent her for her birthday last month.


Had been wanting to create these chocolate butterflies for sometime, I felt this would be a great chance to give it a try. With dark chocolate for outline and green mint chocolate for colour and crystal sugar sprinkled, this is what I come up with.



Fondant orange roses and butterflies on choc mud cuppies topped with whipped cream so the taste would be intense in the inside but light on the outside, and I think the mint flavor on the butterflies would compliment the chocolate taste of cake.

Hope Manjit likes them, and hope Amie is happy with the idea!

Nico's 2nd Birthday

Thinking of what to do on Nico's birthday this year has had me going for weeks.
August 20th, 2008, he turned 2.

Finally got to bake him a cake to celebrate with his classmates, and some cuppies from them to take home.
All cake was Choc Mud Cake, covered with whipped cream.


The theme is Little Einstein, one of Nico's favourite TV show, which was chosen after a lengthy discussion between two kids and their Mum. (Nico was wanting Mickey Mouse but he had it last year!). At the end, he was squeaking with glee when he saw the edible, so I believe Little Einstein was the right choice. Thanks to Ina Larizz for making it happen.



The cuppies has Little Eisnteins and Pocoyo and it came in a single cuppie bubble container for friends to take home. They were again topped with whipped cream, and sparkled by some star trimmits, which was a gift from Natalia - thanks!



More cuppies for neighbour friends, and some strawberried ones for the mothers.

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!

Oom Budhi's Lucky Birthday Cuppie

Some choc mud cuppies for the best of luck on my favorite uncle: Oom Budhi on his birthday. I spent a lot of time in his house during my college years, spared me his roof during my internship, and he was a witness on my wedding day.

However, everything about his birthday this year was so auspicious!
It falls on the 8th of the 8th month two thousand 8.
So I baked him 9 cuppies for extraluck. And guess what. When I broke open one of the egg, it has twin yolks in it!! This was my 2nd twin yolk egg, my first one was long time ago when I was a kid.


Topped with some smooth ganache, I put some oranges to enlighten the choc and bring some freshness to the whole taste. An auspicious fruit in Chinese symbols. The word for tangerine having the same sound as "luck" in Chinese, and the word for orange having the same sound as "wealth".


Hopefully everybody like the little treats of abundance luck and wealth!

Macaroni Schotel

I'm ever so happy with non stick my muffin tray, the best thing in mykitchen I purchased under Rp.20 thousand. Now I can bake my family recipe of Macaroni Schotel in it. Soo handy!


Boiled the pasta, drained them, and soaked them in generous amount of milk , cheese, and eggs and scattered some smoked beef or whatever meat you like, and divided evenly between the the molded cups. Baked in 180-200C for 20 minutes. Used to need 45 minutes or more in larger pyrex dish. Popped out so easily from the mold without greasing. Saves time, enery, and no need of cutting evenly between your guests.


I LOVE my non stick muffin tray!!

Melt in Your Mouth for Fanny

So lousy of me, I didn't know that our neighbour and a dear friend, Fanny had her birthday some weeks ago. Promised her a belated birthday cake to make it up. She said not to give her any pretty cake because she'd feel sorry to eat it, instead just give her any 'reject' cake - that's her exact word!

Had a free time this Saturday morning and wondered if there's any new recipe to try. Remembered this 'Melt in Your Mouth Choc Cake' I saw on Chocolate & Zucchini, which is a blog written by Clotilde Dusoulier. Think that this is the right time to try it and to fulfill my promise to Fanny, forget about the 'reject' cake, here's something specially made for you!


The very dense, dark, richly chocolatey and buttery (hey! 200gr butter, 200gr choc, 200gr sugar and only 20gr flour!!) heart shaped cake should taste heavenly with fresh whipped French cream, sprinkled with 100&1000's.
Surely look festive and merry for a belated birthday dessert :)


And I'm glad I used the colourful heart trimmits, Aska had a good time picking up the 'hati yang kelir-kelir' while Mami Fanny enjoyed the cake...

ChocMud Cuppies for Amy

It was Wednesday, our 2nd day at Anyer when I found a text message from my sister, asking if it's too late to ask me to bake some cuppies for her goodfriend Amy's birthday on Friday.
Baking won't take long but me on my holiday mood couldn't work my brain out to get an brilliant idea for the decoration. I told Reny I'll get back to her by Thursday night, whether I could get the cuppies done - or not, when I'm back from our first beach family holiday.

I know I have all the ingredients ready at home, so once we get back and after I bathed the kids, I started working on the kitchen. Were not sure what kind of cake Amy likes, but I decided to treat her with the juiciest choc cake I think no one insane enough to resist :)

Not much on the decoration, was thinking about making some fondant figurines but afraid of running out of energy and time to dry them up, so I picked some Arnott's Tiny Teddy and sprinkle some hearts trimmits as token of love from a good friend, and line the edges with sugar crystals for festive effects.


So glad to hear back from Reny that Amy called and told her she liked the cuppies, she tought they were so cute she display the box on her desk for everyone to see. Then she finally ate them and share them with her colleagues, and said the cuppies were sooo chocolatey and melted in the mouth. they finished them all and forgot to spare one for Amy's husband *oops!!*

Cookies to Welcome Fakhri!

Winda called me a few months ago with some inquiries on lolly cookies she saw when she visited Baby Adia. She called me again on a late Sunday afternoon, and ordered these lolly cookies to welcome her newborn baby boy, Fakhri. The cookies are for guests to take home as thank you gift, therefore Winda wants Fakhri's name written on them.


I jumped off my seat and run to the kitchen right away as Fakhri was born that morning, so his mum would need the cookies right away! Plus the fact that my family & I were going to go out of town on Tuesday morning, I would need to finish the cookies for Monday delivery.

Gathered the ingredients and utensils while my kids were napping, I worked on the dough and icing, and only stopped for a quick shower and dinner. Luckily my Mum stayed over before our vacation, she helped me taking care of the kids so I could finish the whole 30 cookies right on time to tuck them in their beds. Thanks Mum!!

Started decorating them overnight and only finished at about 2 in the morning, I couldn't do a fancier style (sorry Winda...) and got them all packed and ready by 3 a.m.


Got the cookie jars just before I drove to the hospital, and even wrap and tied the cookie bouquets in front of the new proud parents of beautiful baby Fakhri.
I hope Winda & Agus like the cookies despite the time constrained creation.
Welcome Baby Fakhri!