Rose Cuppies for Borra

Baked some cuppies for our neighbour Borra & Budjana who just had their 2nd son born last week, these ones are vanilla with choc chips.


Decorated them with poured fondant and rolled fondant for the roses & leaves, all in white and pastel colours. Sprinkled them with sugar crystals given by Frida for sparkly effects.


When my fingers got numb from rolling too many of these petite flowers I decided to make bigger single rose ones instead of stacking them together as a bouquet.
Borra called later to said thank you for 'the really tasty cakes'.
Hope Deva like them too!

Emoticon Cuppies for NCC MURI

This year is NCC's second attempt to break Indonesian Museum of Record (MURI), and the goal is to gather 100 NCC members to decorate 2008 pieces of cupcakes. The event was held last Saturday, 21st June, 2008 and took place at Pasaraya Grande, Jakarta.
Click here for more details.

We were given only 1 hour to finish 20 cuppies, and my theme was YM Emoticons.
The collection on this photo is not complete as some of them were sold and given to friends after the event.


Thanking my friend Frida who gave me the sugar sprinkles, I finally get some use of it.
And thanks to tante Ayin for babysitting the kids while the mummy was busy with buttercream and new friends :)

Cheese & Smoked Beef Muffin

An early Sunday morning project that has been in my wait list for quite some time.
It's the basic muffin recipe and tried to modify it according to what I have in my fridge.
Hey! We got lots of cheddar cheese and some smoked beef! Our favourite things! Yummos!!

The ingredients:

• 50 gr butter salted
• 75 gr margarine
• 50 gr sugar
• 2 eggs
• 50 ml fresh milk
• 200 gr plain flour
• 1 ts baking powder
• 1/2 ts baking soda
• 100 gr cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes
• 50 gr smoked beef / chicken / bacon, cut into small pieces
  

Preheat the oven in 180C
Warm the milk and melts the butter and margarine in milk
Whisk eggs and sugar, add in milk mixture.
Add flour, BP and BS, stir well with spatula
Don't overmix!
Put the batter in nonstick muffin tray, lay cheese cubes and sliced smoked beef in between the batter.
( you can lay papercups if you like )
Bake in 180C for 20-25 minutes.

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!

Puff Pastry Sticks

Easily made by cutting the frozen puff pastry dough into 1 cm wide strips, brush a loosely beaten egg on top of them, and sprinkle whatever topping you like!
Parmesan cheese is a must if you are making this savory snack, so I used white sesame seeds & grated parmesan cheese on some of the strips, and oregano & chili powder & black sesame seeds & more parmesan cheese on the rest.


Put the strips on a greased baking tin and bake in moderate-high oven (180-200C ) for about 20 minutes.
Let them cool completely before you store them in an airtight container, but I bet they'll all be gone before they even have a chance to get soggy!

Apple Roll

I had some extra filling from the Apple Turnover recipe, and had bought some frozen springroll wrap, so here are what we had for Saturday morning munchies, yummy!
The cinnamon flavour was a knock out and the crispy thin wrap was the crunchiest thing.
Mindy you, they don't come in an exact same size as it took another level of crafting skill, heehee!

Buttercake Cupcake

My second attempt on the simplest buttercake recipe from NCC website, using the muffin tray I bought last month from Edi Majestik. Glad I get this nonstick tray which makes things a lot easier, no need to grease the tray and the cuppies were still able to pop out easily.


Apparently I have to set the temperature lower than what the recipe suggested. This way the cuppies managed to maintain their slightly rounded surface and reached a golden yellowish colour on the top without getting the bottom burned. Yeah! (Otherwise the bottom will already be brown while the top is still pale and sticky - like my first trial.)


Either way Cia always savors them with gusto! * i looovvee cupcake...* (Icho doesn't like cuppies.)

Apple Turnover

A simple healthy tasty afternoon snack, something we missed from the McDonald's (they call their's 'apple pie') so sometimes I made this apple turnover simply by wrapping the filling in frozen springroll wrap and quickly deep fried them. Looove the thin crispy wrap!
This is my first time making it using the frozen puff pastry, a healthier choice I suppose as we get to minimize the cooking oil use and only need to bake them instead.


The outcome turned out great. The husband kept popping the little pillows into his mouth and not to forget his first comment when he saw them getting out of the oven: "how can they turned out so pretty!" (heeheehee!)

What's inside this pretty babe:


Here's the recipe:

• 3 green apples (Malang / Granny Smith) make sure they are not too ripe.
• 75 gr sugar
• 2 tbs margarine
• 2 cm cinnamon stick
• 25 gr raisins
• 50 ml water
• 1 egg to brush the pastry top
• pinch of salt

Peel and slice the apples thinly.
Melt the margarine in a pan, put in the apples, raisins, cinnamon, and salt.
Stir until the apples turn golden yellowish, the add in water, and continue cooking until it becomes thick. Cool down.
Roll the puff pastry dough thinly (2-3mm) and cut the in shapes you like. (I make squares).
Get a piece of pastry, put in the filling, cover it with another piece of pastry, press the edges with fork to close them tightly.
Brush it with loosely beaten egg, bake in slightly greased pan, moderate heat (180-200 Celcius degree) for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

OR, simply wrap the filling in thawed frozen springroll wrap, and deep fried until golden brown.

Easy peasy!

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!)