FALL BLOSSOMS

What does these cupcakes remind you of?

If you answer that they *almost* look like the flowers in my blog background, then my friend, you're a winner!

The colour combination of autumny green and subtle pink is my inspiration for these cupcakes which I made for Kak Aiza's kenduri tahlil two Saturdays ago, but tried as I might, I still got a little off, didn't I? Made the colour a deep shade of maroon coz I want a colour that stand out (maroon is a gorgeous fall colour, dontcha think?) but I think I didn't get the shade of green that I planned. Mixed some yellow and green but too much yellow is seen here.

After a frantic search for the perfect box at a few baking supplies shops with Kak Aiza a few days before the event, I'm glad I found this lovely butterfly box at A to Z, the wedding supplies store in Seberang Jaya.

I had fun with my daughter when I was preparing the beautiful boxes for the cupcakes. I finished my baking project quite late, and woke up early to pack the cupcakes in the boxes. I also had to pack soe bahulus for my Mom coz coincidentally we were gonna have our own kenduri tahlil that morning.

I hope the guests appreciate my labour of love and would be gobsmacked at how delicious those lemony snickett's cupcakes are.

BANANARAMA

As a child, one of the sweetest baking memory I had is with my father. You see, my Abah LOVES everything bananas, and is very fond of my Mom's banana cake. I remember that I always helped Mom in the kitchen to make this particular banana cake that Abah loves. So one day, Abah came home early from work and asked me whether we have some cake at home. Mom was still at work and Abah was really craving for the banana cake and couldn't wait for Mom to come home.

So what did we do? We made the cake all by ourselves! Now, I was still a kid at the time, probably around 10 and my Abah isn't the kind of dad who knows his ways around the kitchen. I couldn't remember the exact recipe so we just kinda winged it, haha. Threw in a bunch of bananas, flour, sugar, eggs and milk into the oven, and whaddya know? The cake came out even better than Mom's!

We had quite a laugh over this, and Mom is always so 'bengang' when we remind her that Abah makes a better banana cake, even if it's just for that one time! Of course, we could never replicate the recipe, but the memory of it remains :)

Here's my banana cupcake - also made with the same 'just wing it' attitude.

Kept the recipe pretty simple. But the frosting is cream cheese, moderately so. Just a tiny hint of cheese. Topped with caramelized banana.

Very soft texture & very much bananary. I'm sure that's not even an actual word, but I've heard it being used before. On AFC I think, that makes it legit :D

WACKY WACKY

Kak Aiza called me early one morning with good news, she wanted to order 50 pieces of cupcakes for her daughter's pre-school jamuan raya, but the bad news was, she needed me to deliver them by night time.Yikes! Should be no sweat, if only I don't have to work that day. I would have to turn this order down if she wasn't my husband's childhood friend and a close family friend of my in-laws.

But, of course I couldn't say no to her. I suggested the paddle pop cupcakes, since it would take the least amount of time to make, and they were for kids anyways, who would appreciate those wacky colours.

I'm sorry, no matter how pretty you are, you're still 'over the top' and I still have to cut you off.

The cross section

Those colours were wacky alright, but not as wacky as how it looks in this picture. The colours in pictures uploaded through blogger/picasa these days seem a little off.

I got home at 6 pm and went straight to work in the kitchen. While baking these, something odd struck me. Usually a batch of vanilla cupcakes would be enough to fill 50 small size souffle cups, but this time, I got only 36. You bet I panicked. Further investigation showed that I got the wrong cups at the bakery supplies store earlier. You see, although I have some medium cups in stock, I was out of the small ones. So at the bakery supplies store, I asked the sales assistant to pack me some S size ones while I went to get other supplies. She mus have packed up the M sized ones for me instead.

So to make another dozen of cupcakes pronto, I made an easy chocolate cupcake recipe, the kind that doesn't need the use of a mixer. Phew! I finished around 9.30 pm, managed to take a shower and bundled Nunu and the precious cargo in the car by 10 pm. Fortunately, Kak Aiza 'tapau' us some mee rebus that she had prepared for us (we were supposed to be there around 8.30 pm!) and we only ate our dinner at 11 pm when we got home!

I found the candies in the freezer that I stashed away from Nunu. So I've found a perfect way to dispose them. I'm evil, don't you think? I don't care if other kids get hyper and cavities, as long as it's not my kid :D