~A Bouquet of Cupcakes~

When people are in love, they buy flowers. When they have a friend who is not feeling well, they buy flowers. When its a special occasion, they buy flowers... where am I going with this? Wait for it.... ok, here goes -- Why buy a bouquet of flowers when you can present them with a bouquet of CUPCAKES!? Okie Okie, so you are still very confused. Then why don't I allow the pictures to do the talking?

Two toned Pink Carnation

Pretty Cupcakes all in a row

More shapes and colours..

A box of 6 'flowers' are RM 25 - colours are of your choice.

A box of 9 'flowers' are RM 38 - Colours of your choice.

There are three different flower patterns to choose from - Carnation, Begonia and Buttercup. Flavour of cakes are - Dark Moist Choc and Butter.

Do email me at a.manuel86@gmail.com for more information or to place your orders.

Till my next post - Take care and God Bless and HAPPY MERDEKA MALAYSIA!

Choc covered plush puffs!

What better way to eat marshmallow then to have it fully covered in a nice thick coat of CHOCOLATE. Mmmm.. Yummzers! The pics show that I still have a lot to work on in terms of the presentation of the product but it all goes into the tummy and is YUMMY! Thats what matters? Isn't it? ... Err.. guys? C'mon, agree with me here! :p


A nice thick piece of Marshmallow skewered onto a stick.




A piece I dipped into the chocolate to test run before i covered the sticks.


Another angle :))



Tadaaa! Chocolate Marshmallow Popsicles!

These have colourful sprinkles on it but I did not get to take any pictures. Each stick is sold for RM3.50. There is a 10% discount if more than 25 sticks are ordered.

Enjoy and till my next posting, take care and God bless.

..Chewy, yummy Goodness..

Wherever you are... whichever country you reside in, we all have fond childhood memories with, TAFFY. Chewy texture, fruity flavoured and extremely yummy, its no wonder we crave to have some every now and then. I remember when I was 6 years old, I was at my cousins house in Shah Alam and we were both given some taffy. Being the excited, greedy little pig that I was (or should i say 'am'), I stuffed everything into my mouth and Lo and Behold - I got SICK. Yup, I threw up, Had tummy problems and eventually was banned from eating candies for a rather long time! But still, it hasnt stopped me, and now that I am much much older to make my own decisons (in this case, unbanning me from being banned), I decided to make my own taffy! My own! I can make it at anytime and when ever I feel like having some yummy chewy goodness! LOL.

Anyway, that is just what I did (I had RM15 worth of Taffies ordered) and in fact I feel its yummier than the factory made ones, but then again, I could just be really biased. :p

Pictures, pictures, pictures. :)

This is the Orange flavoured taffy that I just started to pull. When you make taffy, it has to be pulled and stretched. This is often the best part of making Taffy - the worst is washing up! :) Back then (early 50s), there used to be taffy-pull parties where teenagers would gather in someones house, and make taffy. When it is ready to be stretched and pulled, they will get into groups of two, usually male and female, and start pulling and stretching. They will then shape it and either present it to their partners or take it home as party favours. This house parties was a favourite form of entertainment. (They had no TV back then! Give them a break guys!)

Mango flavoured.. hehe. I just love the way it looks, feel and smells.. I was so tempted to just pop the whole thing in my mouth.. but then flashbacks of when I was 6 yrs old came to mind and I made a smart choice by deciding against it. :)

When it has been pulled till the colour changes to a nice opaque colour and the texture gets firmer and harder, the taffy is ready to be rolled into long ropes and snipped into bite sized bits.

I could not find any wax paper, so I wrapped it in my baking sheet. Which worked just fine. These taffies have a tendency to stick to just about anything, so the best thing to do is wrap them up in either wax paper or baking sheets as its the only thing they don't stick to.

I decided to be creative. So I created my own fusion of flavour and here is a nice long rope of Mango and Orange Twist... I call it 'Tequila Sunrise'. (What? I think its original! ;P)

Hubby came home, and could not stop popping this delightful treat into his mouth! I had to literally 'pull' him away!

These taffies are sold for RM5 for single flavours (120g) and RM8 for fusion flavours (120g)

Flavours available;

Single flavours - Mango, Orange, Strawberry, Grape, Pineapple, Banana, Lemon, Blueberry*, Watermelon*, Cherry*, Raspberry*

* Flavours subject to availabilty

Fusion Flavours - Tequila Sunrise (Mango/Orange), Malibu (Pineapple/Mango), Pink Lady (Orange/Watermelon/Lemon), Blue Hawaii (Grape/Blueberry/Orange), Bananarita (Bananna/Pineapple/Strawberry)

**Orders must be made 1 week in advance. No delivery. For more details, you can email me at a.manuel86@gmail.com.

Next up is going to be my Marshmallow Fudge Popsicles - Do stay tuned for that. Till then, take care and God bless!

~CupCakeCrazy~

Lately cupcakes have been a craze and I can't help but get in on the excitement. Personally, I always found cupcakes better than a slice of cake. Cute little fellars, with pretty colorful tops and just the right amount of cake, how can you resist such yumminess? Eating them is one thing, baking them is another? So, since I am forever and ever summoned to make my dark moist choc cake, I thought 'HEY! Why not make this into cupcakes?’ The idea had sprouted last Sat and I started out with my preparations. Out came the flour, butter, eggs, sugar, cocoa and this time, I thought I was going to add some extra chocolate to make it even more moist so out came the cooking chocolate, pounded in a thick plastic bag till it became small pieces yet chunky enough that it made slight lumps in the batter. After the batter was ready, I added the chunky cooking choc and filled up my cupcake cups! Pictures anyone? :p


Cupcake batter in cupcake cups :)

Baking in the oven...

Dark and moist insides.. mmmmm Yumz!

The classic cupcake - white icing with a single red cherry to top it off. Cupcake price is standard and are going for RM2.80 per piece.

Since we were still hyped with the whole Cancer event - Oscar Red Prom Night - this was dedicated especially to the organisers.

How much better can the combination get? M&Ms + Luscious Choc Cupcake = Bliss

Promotion price : Buy 6 for RM16.50 only (standard size)

A box of 16 cupcakes : RM 44.00

If anyone is interested, do let me know a week in advance. Custom made cupcakes are also available should there be a fav flavor or a particular colour for a themed party - afterall, anything is possible with CUPCAKES!

Till' my next bitelicious post, take care and God Bless!

Its a "sweet sweet" world!

IM BACK! Last Wednesday, I got a call from a good friend of mine looking for 300 lollies for a cancer event. Since I only had a day to work on it, I could not give her custom made lollies with special writings on it - also because it was too late to buy the moulds (she wanted the cancer ribbon shape). So I could only give her normal round or square shaped sweets. Since she requested red, I decided to make a pretty red strawberry flavored sweet which I presented in tiny gold cupcake holders. Here are some pictures;



The tiny cupcake holders.. I found them so cute and VERY cheap. I got about 800 pieces for a mere RM5. :0


The picture is a little blur as I had to take it with my hand phone. What you see in there is a round droplet (hardened of cause!) wrapped in cling wrap and placed in the cupcake holder. I thought it was very pretty so I left it be.





Here is a picture of two round shaped and two rectangular shaped sweets. Each sweet cost RM0.35 cents.

If anyone is interested in ordering some homemade candies, do leave me a comment and I will try my best to get back to you as soon as possible. I make hard candies, taffies’, lollipops and marshmallows for events as well as children birthday parties/house parties/etc. Pricing varies according to customizations.

Till my next scrumptious posting, God Bless and take care!

My Macaron Attempts...

Macarons! Macarons! Macarons! Oh-kay.. so i gave it a try! I read blogs after blogs and I thought, well, easy. No worries. So I tried. Got the eggs ready. Made sure there was no yolk in it, clean, left out for a few days to mature, and stored in a airtight tupperware at room temprature. Then i bought ground almonds and confectioners sugar. So far so good. So i start... and its ... A FLOP! Nothing worked out. Too watery - not 'magma'-like - ground almonds were not smooth enuf - cracks - no feet - DISASTER! I cried. Time to put the spatula down and throw the apron in the washing machine.... after all, theres always next weekend. :)

So the next weekend came by and this was going to be my second attempt. This time I decided to try taking pictures. After my first failure, I thought I'll read up more on the possible things I did that could have gone wrong - and therefore, I decided this time to leave my eggs out even longer, less folds to the mixture (and that too rather gently), sieve through the almonds for a finer result and finally, use pure icing sugar rather than confectioners. This is due to the regular confectioners sugar having 2% of cornstarch and therefore there might be a risk of it being too dry which leads to cracks and little pointed domes.

I took out my 'mature' egg whites, put it in the hand mixer and added some sugar, mix! mix! mix! till, I had a meringue. This was also a problem I faced initially as it was my first time making a meringue and with macarons, you cannot make the meringue too stiff, and it cant be too soft either (which was my mistake during the first attempt - too soft). So with some tips from Tartlette (she makes the most amazing cute perfect lil' macarons), I set out using her rule of thumb, 'If the meringue is turned upside down and it defies gravity, its good to go!' :)


Here are some pictures I took;

1.


Ground almonds. This is before it is processed, so you can see that it is not so fine.








2.
Egg whites - I left these out for 4 full days. I did not put it in the fridge. So it was at room temprature all the way.









3.
Pure icing sugar.. I could not find any confectioner sugar that was pure in the supermarket or the baking store - even specialty stores do not have PURE icing sugar, so I made my own. I am surprised it became so fine - which is GOOD. I took granulated sugar and processed it. :)

4.
After I mixed everything together, I piped it out on a baking sheet, and tried to get it as round and even as possible. I left this out to stand for about an hour so a shell would be formed and Tartlette had said that this would help with less cracks, domes and it would give you the cute frilly feet.

(Sorry i do not have the inbetweens as i was the only one in the kitchen.. and its difficult to mix, fold, turn AND take shots)

5.
AND PERFECT! The first batch i put in were great! They had feet, a nice hard shell and a nice chewy insides. The only problem is, it had burnt a little, although it did not have even the slightest tinge of burnt taste, the colour turned a dark peach rather than a bright pink. :(








6.
This is the finished product - Bittersweet chocolate ganache! I made the ganache with whipped cream and melted dark bitter cooking chocolate. It was yummy!

7.
A shot of the macaron with a half-eaten piece. I wanted to show the innards in this shot but it wasn't a good shot.

Oh-kay guys, so you thought, hey that was pretty good. A nice batch. YAY! But hold your horses.. I was in for a surprise. The same batch I piped out on the second tray went into the oven and this my friends, was the outcome;

1.
It went flat! It started baking and spreading and getting huge and FLAT!











2.
The end result! At that point, i did not know if i should have stuffed my head in that oven or not but it was so disheartening! How can one tray from the same batch turn out so well, and the next turned out HORRID!?










Chill.... Breath.... Wooooosah... Hmmm. It took a while to compose myself and I said, no can't be, i am gonna' have another go at this. So, i tried another batch. Everything went fine. I mixed, folded just right, meringue was not bad either, and this time i tried a nice blue. Baby Blue. :)


1.
The white part is what i thought would be pretty white swirls. Tartlette did this for a friends wedding and i thought I'd give it a go too... :) (Yes, yes, i know... for an amature, it was rather ambitious)










2.
In the oven it goes












3.
Waiting for the frilly feet to form... patiently.











4.
ALAS... NO FRILLY FEET! No cute shell! No NOTHING!













5.
Another disaster... sigh.














6.
Stacked up in a pile.. and it looks worse! Hehe














7.
A Very Bad Macaron!














And so, i gave up for the day. Threw my apron aside and decided to bake some cupcakes instead. :) But thats for another post.. As for the macarons, i'll just have to TRY AGAIN. ;)

Maca-what??

Never have I ever in all my experiences in the kitchen come across the most STUBBORN and fickle minded dessert... the Macaron. Yet, I am all the more determined to make it work. I need to have that perfect batch and I need it to be that perfect bite.. the one that makes every morsel of these tiny 'creatures' deserved. ~Sigh~

Before i get too much in detail, I must first explain what a macaron is. After all, I can’t be assuming that everyone knows what I am talking about! ;) The first time I came across the image of a macaron was when I googled 'macaroon'. I was searching for a simple recipe and a visual of the dessert when I came across pretty vivid colored sandwich like cookies. Curious to know more, I clicked on it and realized that there is SO much of difference in the two despite one having an extra 'o'. Macaroon is a coconut-ish chewy dessert while a macarOn is a burger like cookie that is made from confectioners’ sugar, almond flour and egg whites. This lil' fellars are so finicky that although it requires the tiniest amount of ingredients, they actually require a lot more focus and precision when actually producing it. Too much folds and it will end up with cracks, too little folds, and it may end up with little domes, worse still, NO feet! Feet, are the cute little frilly edges that surround it.

So what is so unique about these 'cookies'? That’s exactly where I’m heading to. The line that caught my eye was 'Macaron - is in the top ten list of things to experience when you go to PARIS.' I am thinking to myself at this point, what??? This tiny lil' .. pretty lil'... yummy-looking lil fellar is in the top ten list!? They have to be something to be in that list and so I read up more.. And more and more and that’s when I knew, I had to make these! I have to try baking it. Either that, or I have to FLY to PARIS and get to LADUREE and have a teeny bite (or A HUGE MOUTHFUL since I already spent hours and money just getting to the destination!). Well, okay, reality check, I’ll just need to stick to the baking option for now.

So is there a phrase to summarize these little delicacies? Hmmmm…

Let me try to summarize a macaron... (At least try my best summarizing it), "If pastries had a world of their own, Macarons would be the celebrities in it." So classy, so unique, and so Glam'. So Macaron.

*Pictures were taken of the web. Top visual is a pistachio macaron taken from www.colourlovers.com and the picture on the right is a chocolate macaron taken from bp1.blogger.com