Little Bowl

Here’s to a great year ahead! Cheers everyone!

brrrrrrr…it’s really cold outside!

Bear Cupcakes

Almond Cupcakes

The Big 60 Cupcakes

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Black Sesame Cupcakes & Earl Grey Cupcakes

*Note that this post was actually written a few days before Christmas*

Tra la la la la..la la la la…

Everywhere I go now it’s all about Christmas  and although I don’t actually celebrate it, I do love the idea of this time to be the time where you get to be with your family, giving presents and just being happy (& jolly), and thankful for what you have..which is very much like celebrating  Eidul Fitri back home

So on the note of it being Christmas in a week or so, I ‘d like to dedicate this post entirely to Christmas.

Well, let’s start off with practically the BIGGEST cupcake order I’ve had so far. And it was for my dear friend’s husband’s Xmas party.

He was so kind to be ordering 14 packs of a dozen which tallied up to 168 cupcakes all together!

Anyways, yes..so I was so, so, so ,so excited about making this order cause it was MY FIRST TIME making such great amount of cupcakes ever since I started this whole “cupcake-craze” thing.

He told me about it about a month prior to the event, so I had quite some time to prepare. I browsed and  browsed and  browsed, endlessly, on Christmas Cupcakes on Google, Flickr, Yahoo..you name it. Just so that I can be sure what I want my cupcakes to look like.

So, fast forward to about a week before shipping those babies of to Tokyo (yup, I sent them all the way to Tokyo), I was listing down all the stuff I needed, boxes, stickers, wrappers, name cards..bla bla bla. Luckily, I made the decorations a week before that so, I was pretty much set.

Then came THE DAY – the BAKING DAY. There I was, in the kitchen, baking loads and loads of cupcakes, and I was grateful that my small but very reliable oven didn’t give up on me. I finished baking the cupcakes that night. And went on to the decorations the next morning.

Initially, I had already sent a sample pack to him, to ask him which flavor he’d like to have for the party. The prototype pack was this:

There were 6 different flavors, with each having it’s own different frosting on top. Starting from the top left:

*Matcha Cupcake, Azuki Filling with White & Chocolate Ganache & Almond Flakes
*Matcha Cupcake, Azuki Filling with Lemon Cream Cheese frosting
*Vanilla Cupcake with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream, Macadamia nuts and shredded coconut
*Vanilla Cupcake, Raspberry Filling with White choc. Ganache & Almond Praline
*Chocolate Cupcake, Raspberry Filling with Chocolate Ganache
*Chocolate Cupcake with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream
*Gingerbread Cupcake with White Chocolate Ganache
*Gingerbread Cupcake with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream & Caramel Swirl
*Pumpkin Cupcake, Pumpkin Filling with Vanilla Bean Whipped Cream & Walnut Praline
*Pumpkin Cupcake, Pumpkin Filling with Maple Cream Cheese & WAlnut Praline
*Red Velvet Cupcake with Lemon Cream Cheese
*Red Velvet Cupcake, Raspberry Filling with White Chocolate Ganache & Vanilla Salt

He wrote back saying they loved them all and wouldn’t mind having these at the party. So there you go..I was then officially making 12 different cupcakes for the party

On baking day, I pretty much tested my oven to it’s limit as it was forced to work for almost 10 hours straight. The outcome? Close to 200 cupcakes were baked and cooled in my kitchen.

The next day I spent decorating and packing those cupcakes, with a help from a good friend. 7 packs went into one big box, and 2 boxes were later sent off to Tokyo.

These were the cupcakes that went in the boxes. All of them had pretty much the same decorations. I thought the color’s could’ve been a bit more organized, though.

The next day after sending these babies off, I got a message from my customer that I had sent the cupcakes a day early! *super gasp*
But Japan’s delivery service being great as it is, kept them for another day and sent them to my customer the following day *phewwww*

I later on received another message from my customer saying that everyone loved the cupcakes. Yatta!! Although I was really curious how the cupcakes turned out by the time they reached my customer, I’m glad that they liked all of it.

And least to say, this was truly an experience that I have learnt a lot from.

友達の旦那さんのクリスマスパーティーのためにはじめて大きな注文が入りました。こんな量は初めてで、不安を抱えながら、楽しく作っていました。注文したものは写真のようなもので、全部170個ぐらいでした。

各カップケーキの上にクリスマスの飾りを飾り付け(もちろん食べられる飾りです）、12種類のカップケーキを一パックに入れました。デコレーションやパッキングをしたあとで、東京に発送しました。

数日後買っていただいたお客さんから喜びの言葉が届きました。

正直、少しホッとしました。

とてもいい経験になって、将来にもこういう機会があったらまたぜひチャレンジをしたいと思っています。

2ND NOTE: More on Christmas cupcakes coming along so stay tune!

Here are some old recipes that I posted at my previous photo-foodblog; Zairul & Zack’s Fotopages. I decided that I better transfer the recipes I’ve written there before something happens to Fotopages and all of it goes kaappooofff!

Almond Sandies, originaly taken from AllRecipes, Pecan Sandies.

Ingredients:
100 g margarine/butter , softened
80 ml vegetable oil ( I used canola oil )
50 g white sugar
50g brown sugar
50 g confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 egg
3 ml vanilla extract
250 g all-purpose flour
2 g baking soda
2 g cream of tartar
3 g salt
70 g sliced almonds
* 50 g white sugar for decoration

How to make:
1. Cream together margarine/butter, oil and sugar until smooth. Add in egg and vanilla essence.
2. Sift together dry ingredients and then add to the cream mixture. Mix well and add in the almond slices.
3. Roll dough into balls, and place on baking sheets. Sprinkle the sugars on top of the cookies and bake in a preheated oven of 190 deg for 10-15minutes.

Easy! And not to forget, delicious too!

AND, after that I made another dessert, which was a Panna Cotta, a milk-pudding served with fruit compote..

Quote:
Panna cotta is an Italian phrase, literally translating to “cooked cream”. Generally refers to a creamy, set Italian dessert from the Northern Italian region of Piedmont. It is not generally known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but some theories estimate that cream (for which this region is famous) was historically eaten plain or sweetened with fruit. After years this treat evolved into what is now a gelatin-thickened custard, flavored with vanilla, fruit, or spices and served chilled. -source: Wikipedia- Panna Cotta

I found the recipe after browsing thru some cooking websites and this is the one I used, with a little bit of  altering done to it.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
1 cup whipping cream ( I used low fat )
2 cups whole milk
2 tbsp gelatin ( I brought some from Msia nak ganti with agar2 oso can but make it 1 tbsp more)
1 cup white sugar
vanilla beans ( kalau ada )
or
a few drops of vanilla essence

How to make:
1. Dissolve the gelatin with 1/4 cup of water. Meanwhile in a pot, add together whipping cream ( liquid ) or u can use heavy cream/fresh cream, whole milk, sugar and vanilla.
2. Bring to a boil but be careful not to let it spill. Add in the dissolved gelatin and reduce the heat to medium. Boil for another 3-5minutes.
3. Strain over strainer and pour into pudding cups, glass. Chill in the freezer.
4. For fruit compote: You can use fresh fruits or frozen ones. I used frozen raspberries & blueberries, crush with some sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of water. You can also puree the fruits or eat it as whole, according to ur own taste buds la kan

This is by far the EASIEST dessert I have ever made! And the taste is very delicate, smooth and delicious. Easy to make, takes less than 5 things to make it, serves well and best of all, the taste is never a dissapointment! Recommended for those emergency nights of wanting to come up with a great dessert but don’t have the time to make a fancy one.  A 5-star recipe indeed.

<original post can be found here>