My Sweethearts Bakery- Sydney

Different coloured backgrounds

2011-01-15T01:28:00.000-08:00

Which one is your favorite background?

I personally like the pink one as it brings out the pink and fushia blossoms.

Let me know what you all think ;)

I like how these bride and groom are smiling and dancing together on top of their cake.

It reminds me of the first waltz dance for bride and grooms.

What a good way to start your wedding with joy and laughters

Teddy Bride and Groom

2011-01-08T04:27:00.000-08:00

How's everyone with their new year?

I hope it's all well with loads of new resolutions and hope.

Just a little sneak peak of this week's model cake for 2011.

I would call it cute and simple. Works with the colour green and for those of you who like/love teddies, this is YOUR cake.

I actually have a client who came for a consultation and fell in love with it.

And of course they chose this as their design with a little twist. Their wedding will be in February so stay tune to see what their's will look like!

Till then, I will post the full picture of this cake in the next couple of days. Hope you all like it!

Happy New Year 2011!!

2010-12-31T23:16:00.000-08:00

Here's to a new year~!

*CHEERS*

Just to wrap it up from 2010, I would like to wish everyone a HUG

THANK YOU for making things possible for My Sweethearts Bakery. I absolutely loved every moment working with all our clients, guest and fans. For the new year, we hope to be able to interact more with our fans and readers. So stay tune for the upcoming new model cakes for 2011 and more dessert recipes.

Introducing my newest collecting for 2011.

Teal Tiffany Baby

Sneak Peak of my next model cake

2010-12-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

Want to know what our next project?

It's sneak peak time! We are into teal this time. Personally, I call it Tiffany blue.

Sweet and lovely

Model Black and White Beauty 2011

2010-12-17T22:32:00.000-08:00

Here's my first release of model cakes for 2011

Introducing the full image of black and white beauty. Specially designed for those of you who likes swirls and pipping :)

Hiatus? Not! I'm back!

2010-12-16T20:32:00.000-08:00

I swear I was busy a couple of weeks ago and now since its closer to Christmas I've decided to take a little break to blog a little.

Just a couple of new updates.

1. I bought a new website!! YAY!!

My current flash site has been bothering me/driving my crazy. It's like his/her has its own character. Sometimes it loads and sometimes it just doesnt!

Argh. And I've always wanted a html so I bought one that has both! Perfect.

What's left is to fill it up with pictures and let it go LIVE!

Well, not so soon yet, most likely sometime next year in JAN 2011. Hopefully!

*fingers cross*

To complete my new site, I've also made a new couple of new model cakes. As you all know, since my last move, I had to throw away all my past model cakes. Mostly dues to them being covered with loads of dust, fading and yada yada yada so I guess its just another excuse for me to make more model cakes. It's fun being able to just randomly choose the colour I like for the day and putting random things together. This time I made no research, had no sketch and just made things that came to my mind. Cool yea? I call it my Random Creativity time :p

Here's a little sneak peak of one of them. I call it the Black and White Beauty. It isn't quite complete yet, still missing something but I might just leave it cause if I do add something, it might not fit into my new shelf!

Speaking of shelves, yes I made a new cake shelf. So exciting! It isn't the best furniture in the house but I'm proud cause I made everything myself. When I get a chance to snap a picture I will upload it!

Baby Shower in the theme of OWLS

2010-11-19T00:25:00.000-08:00

Last week, a really lovely client (baby's father) ordered a cake to welcome his newborn and his wife's. It was not exactly a party or a baby shower but his main purpose was "my wife just loves cake".

awwwwwwwwwwwwwww

Isn't he the best husband and father?

He wanted something in the theme of owls so I created this design to help him celebrate the home coming of his newborn and wife.

Congratulation Michael and Jenny!

and Welcome baby Charlie!

Wedding Cake in The Pontoon Ship Cruise

2010-11-14T00:02:00.000-08:00

My tallest cake so far :)

It is actually 9 tiers tall which equates to 30inches tall!! 3 single tiers and 3 double stacked tiers.

I did have some troubles trying to fit into the car but fortunately (THANK GOD!) we manage to somehow fit this in the car.

The bride and groom had their wedding at The Pontoon, which is a ship cruise. No idea where it cruises to but I presume around Sydney Harbour. I've been on shipping cruises before but first time on a ship just specifically for an event/dining. Pretty amazing experience I would say. It's just absolutely beautiful with the harbour view and city night lights surrounding the ship. Pity that I don't have a good night shot but here's a couple I took of the ship in the day.

Enjoy!

Menu of the day

The back view of the cake

Custom cakes or a Copy cake?

2010-10-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

Most of the time, brides don't want custom designed cakes, as they feel that they cannot picture how it would look or if it will turn out good. They rather choose something that they have seen.

My advise would be if you are already paying for the cake, might as well make it yours! As long as you get the colour combination right, the cake would look perfect and on top of it, it is a design that will match your theme and something you will say, its mine and no one else has it.

Perhaps, try getting inspirations from websites or pictures that will aspires you and get bits that you like and match them. This will definitely help with the designing process. Even if you really like a cake design, choose it and then change some bits of the cake. Fro colours m colours to choice of ribbon types to type of flowers will make a huge impact on your cake and make it yours. These little things are just to cater and theme it with your wedding theme. In actual sense, you still will get the design that you wanted but with a little tweak in the, figurings or what not will make the difference.

Here's a little inspiration board that I've picked out from the website Style Me Pretty. They are absolutely gorgeous and inspiring when it comes to weddings.

Do you have a favorite wedding colour?

2010-10-25T21:38:00.000-07:00

When we think about weddings, what colours come to mind? Our course the pinks, whites, greens and the all time favorite black and white. I think recently, there's been an increase in weddings that chooses black and white as their theme colour.

Don't get me wrong, I do like this colour, in fact in the last few months, I've been asked numerous times by many clients to recreate this black and white themed cake.

I'm glad recently my client approached me and wanted something similar but wants to add a little off herself in the cake. Her theme was traveling with birds and bird cages as their table placements. Her colours was black but instead of using white, she choose to use ivory which I think matches really well with black. Here's the cake of the week. Enjoy :)

All about girls

2010-10-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

First let me do a long........................... PHEW! *wipes my sweat*

It has been such a hectic month with heaps of girl cakes and the colour pink! I don't usually fancy the colour pink as my wardrobe or my choice of colour but I certainly do like working with pink in cakes. It does somehow do a magic touch, especially to girls cakes. Perhaps it brings out the cute and lovely side of things.

This cake would be one of my favorites. My client wanted to incorporate cherry blossom into her little girls christening. Perhaps the picture doesn't do the cake much justice but it does go well together doesn't it?

Another pink with butterflies for a little girl's christening. This would be my 4th time doing the same design but in different shades of pink. Its a rather simple design but it just looks so pretty and lovely!

This is a 2D tree cake. Inspired by the website Belle and Boo. Really like the colours and the tree. I was amazed myself on how well the tree looks and the colours.

Ordered by a guy who wanted to surprise his girlfriend for her birthday. They were here in Sydney for the weekend and he wanted something special for her. Her favorite colour was purple and favorite flowers were frangipanis so therefore, a present box cake would be perfect!

They really liked it and he sent me a text days later "Hi Lilia,

I bought a cake off you last week. Just wanted to pass on my thanks on the cake. It was fantastic and really tasty!"

It feels so lovely hearing from clients!

Garden inspired madhatter for a girl's 5th birthday. Her mother also wanted to have a teapot and teacup incorporated into her cake. Perhaps, that is why it reminds me of Alice in Wonderland :)

60th Madhatter Cake

Updates

2010-09-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I last blogged. Past few months has just been CRAZY hectic!

Just a little update, I'm all done with uni! I am now an official graduate with a bachelors degree.

What a fancy feeling but in actual fact, I don't think it means anything at all. Oh well, this is just fantastic and it also means that I can spend more time baking and decorating and move a step further in life.

At the moment, I'm fully focusing on running My Sweethearts Bakery and dealing with lots of admin side of MSB. Besides all the admin crap, I'm just itching to make more models cakes right now as my past model cakes have been thrown away due to my recent move. I'm gathering ideas, colors, designs, themes and a million other things. My brain is full with designs. Kinda crazy but I LOVE IT!

I've just started teaching as well. I'm currently teaching at Couture Cake Classes, with two other fantastic decorators , Sharon from Sharon Wee and Louise from Cupcakes For Poppy. All has been going well and we have been getting overwhelmed responses from the classes. The site if not up yet but once it is up i'll be sure to post a link here.

I will also resume in posting recipes on this blog. My next mission is to work on macaroons. I've been longing to do some now but just time got in the way. However I do need a electronic scale machine and a pastry mat before I start. Apparently, those are a must buy for macaroon making. I guess I have to spend a little to get that macaroon of mine :)

This week, I will be spending my time making cookies for a christening and it is look so cute!

Also, here's what I did last week.

Precious puppies and bunnies for a little girls birthday. I hope she enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed creating them.

Mcdonald's Meal Cake

2010-08-16T05:32:00.000-07:00

BLACK AND WHITE WEDDING CAKE

2010-07-12T07:35:00.000-07:00

Boy Christening Cake

2010-07-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Hungry Caterpillar 1st Birthday Cake

2010-07-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

Handbag Luggage Cake

2010-07-12T07:32:00.001-07:00

SAFARI BIRTHDAY CAKE

2010-07-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

Brushed Piping Cake

2010-07-03T05:58:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas Themed 21st Cake

2010-07-03T05:54:00.000-07:00

Blue Christening Cake with Baby Block Names

2010-06-12T07:15:00.000-07:00

VERSION 1

VERSION 2

VERSION 3

Pink+Brown Christening Cupcake

2010-06-12T07:10:00.000-07:00

16th Birthday Princess Frog Theme Cupcakes and Cookie

2010-06-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

18th Birthday Blue Silver Polka Dots Cake and Cupcake

2010-06-12T06:52:00.000-07:00

Princess Butterfly Cake

2010-05-21T04:57:00.000-07:00

Blue baby boy christening cake and cookies

2010-05-21T04:18:00.000-07:00

EDIBLE IMAGE PHOTO CAKE

2010-05-21T04:17:00.000-07:00

3D Frog Themed Birthday Cake

2010-05-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

Made this cake in collaboration with My Sweethearts Bakery and Sharon from Sharon Wee Creations.

Sweet 16 Birthday Cake

2010-05-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

SYDNEY ROYAL EASTER SHOW CAKE COMPETITION 2010

2010-04-29T08:34:00.000-07:00

BABY GIRL FULL MONTH CAKE

2010-04-29T08:33:00.000-07:00

Butterfly Girl Christening Cake

2010-04-29T08:32:00.001-07:00

BABY SHOWER GIRL COOKIE FAVORS

2010-04-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

GIRL BABY SHOWER CAKE

2010-04-29T08:16:00.000-07:00

Bob the Builder Cake

2010-04-08T02:05:00.000-07:00

Dog Theme 21st Birthday cake

2010-03-30T00:56:00.000-07:00

Hawaiian 50TH Birthday Cake

2010-03-27T00:15:00.000-07:00

21st Black and pink Birthday Cake

2010-03-27T00:10:00.000-07:00

Beach Theme Wedding Cake and Cupcakes

2010-03-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

Mexican Theme Birthday Cake

2010-03-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

40TH Topsy Turvy mad hatter birthday Cake

2010-03-26T07:17:00.000-07:00

Christening Cake + 21st Cake + Masquerade Cake

2010-03-13T02:26:00.000-08:00

This weeks creations.

Blue baby boy christening

2010-03-04T06:29:00.000-08:00

A recreation of my first cake.

Spiderman Cake

2010-02-22T03:45:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I've decided from now on, i will be only posting updates from My Sweethearts Bakery. Therefor, I will not be posting anymore recipes or any of my baking creations. Perhaps in the near future , i might create a blog just for my desserts. Till then, this will be the main blog site for the updates of My Sweethearts Bakery.

Thank you everyone for the support!

Last week's creation

Valentines Day and CNY 2010

2010-02-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

Here's what i did for my Valentine :)

Berries Milk Custard

Matcha aka Green Tea Shortbread Cookies

A Vanilla Cream Cake for my dearest relatives

All dessert courtesy of this recipe bible.

Note: Recipes are also tweaked to my taste and ingredients used differ from book

A toast to Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year

Christening Baby Figuring

2010-02-02T21:31:00.000-08:00

Introducing my newest edition to the sugar family!

Design inspired by Sweet Tiers

Review of Year 2009

2010-01-30T05:03:00.000-08:00

Year 2009 was really good. My Sweethearts Bakery has expanded heaps and we are now on our new journey of 2010. A whole new year of cakes and orders. I really thank everyone for your support and help along my journey.

Here's a little collage i made of my favorite collection from My Sweethearts Bakery in 2009

Adventures of my little pup and cake.

2010-01-29T05:11:00.000-08:00

This was taken ages ago but i think it has a really cute story line with pictures in it :)

Let me explain~

If you guys don't know yet, this is my precious buddy/dog/baby....CHICO

And i think he's got his eyes set on something

See that cake? and a glimpse of his head? Yea.. thats what he was eyeing on. Let's get a clearer view shall we?

There. We have a full shot of his in the background just staring at, not me, but the cake. He was then, about a couple of feet away.

Yoong decided to cut the cake. And Chico saw it

Here's the next shot. Chico is now much closer to the cake table and he's got his EYES GLUED to the CAKE ... hehehehehe... what can i say about my dog?

Curiosity little Chico

There. a decadent slice of pure/hot/fresh Madeira cake. This cake was super yummy!! Not to mentioned i spent about $15 on a very expensive butter to bake it. I know, a little crazy for just butter but hey! who's up for a Madeira? :0

The little curious culprit who would jump up the table is if i wasn't looking

Here's the bandit. My dearest beloved cake lover doggie

Maroon Red and Gold Wedding Cake

2010-01-25T17:21:00.000-08:00

I would like to present to you my this week's creation of maroon red and gold wedding cake. The toppers were supplied by the couple themselves. The silver Chinese topper took my heart away. If i am not mistaken. it means happiness and it is a tradition for most Chinese custom to have this Chinese word hanging around somewhere in the house or even at receptions.

I'm back for the year!!

2010-01-10T06:48:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone!!

I'm now back in Sydney trying to climatize myself to the time difference and weather. For all of you who don't know, i was away for the last month in Singapore, Malaysia and Japan. It was one word A-W-E-S-O-M-E!

i really should do this more often . :)

Several months ago, i was asked by a dear friend to make her wedding cake. Today was the day.

I am so happy to be able to share this day with her and also be making her wedding cake!

This is my first time that i've actually made a wedding cake and attended the reception as well. I must say that i am proud and thankful to hear all the lovely comments of the cakes and cookies.

This makes me feel like floating on cloud 9 :)

Their theme was sunshine yellow and white and the bride instantly fell in love with one of my previous display cakes from this post spring/summer. They also chose some vanilla sugar cookies as their placement cards on the dining tables. It was a lovely idea and it totally matched the theme.

The Bride

The Groom

Placement cookie for the bridal table

Placement cookie for guest

Here's a placement cookie for unexpected guest

The table view of the placement cookies

My very own placement cookie!

The cake and cupcake tier

The bride and groom cutting the mini cake

Here are more cupcakes in boxes ready to be taken home by each guest

I love how each boxes has a little window for a peek look of what's inside.

ON HOLIDAY

2009-12-06T06:44:00.000-08:00

Holiday Destination

Singapore - Kuala Lumpur - Japan - Kuala Lumpur -Melbourne -Sydney

Hello all!

I am currently away on holiday for the next 5 weeks and will resume blogging in January 2010.

Here are some pictures of my trip and i shall see you all in the new years!

Merry Early Christmas and a happy NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas Lightings in Singapore

Blog Abandoned?

2009-11-20T01:18:00.001-08:00

OF COURSE NOT!

Just a few slight hiccups/exams in my life and now i'm back in the kitchen. Hehe

Since Christmas is literally less than a month away. I've decided to do something special for our family and friends since i will not be around!
For those of you that do not know, i'm off for a month in Malaysia and Japan! Yay for me. I still can't believe that i'm actually travelling out of usual Australia-Malaysia trip. I reckon Japan would be awesome (minus the language barrier and minus the really really cold snowy weather)

I made some Christmas Vanilla Cookies, decorated them and placed them in my AWESOME! cookie jar that i found of IKEA for $4.99 each! What a bargain huh?
Well, to me, the jars are just irresistable, and when i saw them on the catalogue, i just couldnt help but went straight to IKEA and bought like 2 dozens.

Here's a little tutorial on how to prepare the jars.

Materials:-
1. A medium size cookie jar (like mine)
2. Red and Green satin ribbons
3. Vanilla Sugar Cookies
4. Some colour tissue paper

5. Christmas cookie Tags/labels

6. Craft glue

You can download my cookie labels which i print an A4 size mailing labels. Another option is to have them printed on thick colour paper and punch a hole at the top to put through your ribbons. (Its like a christmas ornament :)

DOWNLOAD LABELS HERE

Here's my favorite jar i bought. Clean it throughly and soak it in hot water if necessary to remove any labels on the jar.

Measure your ribbons to the waist of the jar. Squeeze some craft glue on the ribbons and immediately wrap them around the jar

See these labels? I made them myself! I'm so proud. I love how they are round. I use as extra large round hole puncher (you can get them at any craft stores) to get the shape. Imagine trying to cut like 30 little circle with a scissors! NOOOOO

Use the label as a front cover for where the ribbon starts and ends. If your ribbon keeps falling off, try using a large rubber band to secure the ribbons and the labels. Like this

Leave the jar for about 10 minutes and there go you! A jar ready to be filled be sugar cookies (yum yum yum) *The coloured tissued papers are to fill the top of the jar later.

Now to the section of Decorated Sugar Cookies. I cannot technically post the recipe here but if you want, you can definitely make ginger cookies or butter cookies.

Here are my freshly baked sugar cookies

Here's a whole heap of sugar cookies waiting to be decorated!

Half decorated ones. Don't you just love the christmas tree?

I use flooding icing to do the decorations. Basically its just 1 egg white and about 2-3 cups of sifted icing sugar (flooding icing is very watery royal icing and if your mixture is too thick, add a couple of droplets of water till it goes watery. And if the mixture is too watery, add more icing sugar.

Remember to add you favorite color to it too!

I went with red, green, white and yellow. Very Christmas-sy!

The pile of decorated cookies

Lastly fill the jars up with the cookies and add some colour tissue papers at the top to make it look extra pretty.

FINALLY, MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Hope you guys will have a good one this year and not to forget

AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Chocolate Rum Wedding Cake with Roses

2009-10-25T06:10:00.000-07:00

Yes you got that right!

Chocolate Rum.........

More like fresh Bundaberg Rum..........

and sinfully chocolate

With decorations of sugar red and beige roses.

One of my chocolate slabs broke on the way to the reception venue. :(

Lesson learnt: Make more spares and finish the slabs at the venue!

Fluffy Blue Marshmallow Recipe

2009-10-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

Makes about 96 1-inch

(*recipe from Smitten Kitchen)

This is my first time making these marshmallow and the results are G-R-E-A-T and Y-U-M-M-Y!!

Go ahead and try it and no baking is required!

About 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
3 1/2 envelopes (2 tablespoons plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) unflavored gelatin
1 cup cold water, divided
2 cups granulated sugar (cane sugar worked just fine)
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large egg whites or reconstituted powdered egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla (alternately: 1/2 of a scraped vanilla bean, 2 teaspoons almond or mint extract or maybe even some food coloring for tinting)

Oil bottom and sides of a 13- by 9- by 2-inch rectangular metal baking pan and dust bottom and sides with some confectioners’ sugar.

In bowl of a standing electric mixer or in a large bowl sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cold cold water, and let stand to soften.

In a 3-quart heavy saucepan cook granulated sugar, corn syrup, second 1/2 cup of cold water, and salt over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until sugar is dissolved. Increase heat to moderate and boil mixture, without stirring, until a candy or digital thermometer registers 240°F, about 12 minutes. Remove pan from heat and pour sugar mixture over gelatin mixture, stirring until gelatin is dissolved.

With standing or a hand-held electric mixer beat mixture on high speed until white, thick, and nearly tripled in volume, about six minutes if using standing mixer or about 10 minutes if using hand-held mixer. (Some reviewers felt this took even longer with a hand mixer, but still eventually whipped up nicely.)

In separate medium bowl with cleaned beaters beat egg whites (or reconstituted powdered whites) until they just hold stiff peaks. Beat whites and vanilla (or your choice of flavoring) into sugar mixture until just combined. Pour mixture into baking pan and don’t fret if you don’t get it all out (learning from my mess of a first round). Sift 1/4 cup confectioners sugar evenly over top. Chill marshmallow, uncovered, until firm, at least three hours, and up to one day.

Run a thin knife around edges of pan and invert pan onto a large cutting board. Lifting up one corner of inverted pan, with fingers loosen marshmallow and ease onto cutting board. With a large knife trim edges of marshmallow and cut marshmallow into roughly one-inch cubes. (An oiled pizza cutter works well here too.) Sift remaining confectioners’ sugar back into your now-empty baking pan, and roll the marshmallows through it, on all six sides, before shaking off the excess and packing them away.

Do ahead: Marshmallows keep in an airtight container at cool room temperature 1 week.

Here is the end result pics

Yellow Buttercream Cupcake

2009-10-14T04:41:00.000-07:00

Since i do have some time today (being sick), i've decided to post another random post to catch up on what i've missed all these months.

I made these buttercream cupcakes ages ago, just didn't have time to update them on my blog :p

These cupcakes were for a dessert table i was planning with Sharon. We will be launching something new pretty soon, probably early next year we will announce the good news but till then enjoy some pictures of these yummy buttercream cupcakes i made.

Love ya all xoxoxo!

Engagement Cupcakes

2009-10-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Royce and Fiona held their engagement party last weekend and i'm glad to say that i was appointed to be their cupcake baker :)

Fiona chose to have red velvet, chocolate and baby vanilla cuppies. They expected about 500 guest so we allocated to have 150 large chocolate cupcake, 150 large red velvet cupcake and 200 mini baby cakes. Instead, i think i over baked the mini cupcakes and ended up using a whole pack of 500 mini cupcake liners. I guess we had 500 mini cupcakes?

Of course i did not make all these cuppies by myself, it was with the help of Royce and Fiona's and her brothers and sisters.

Here are some freshly baked cuppies shot

Vanilla Baby Cakes

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Chocolate Cupcakes

The final shots of the decorated cupcake, dessert table and venue

Fiona's sister, Melinda made this wonderful photo album of Fi and Royce as their guest book.

Updates: I am now back in Sydney down with a horrible flu. Not to worry, it's not swine flu. :)

But this flu is making my work load pile up.

Sigh, looks like i need a secretary soon to help to catch up with all my blogging

Pink Cake with alphabet baby blocks

2009-09-27T03:44:00.000-07:00

HELLO HELLO!

I'm glad to be back in the blogging world.

I'm now officially on my one week holiday!! Yippie yippie

*jumps for joy*

I will now dedicate myself to a whole week of baking and decorating! so beware and i shall be posting some of my new recipe adventure :)

Remember my post back in April? Baby Alexis is now turning one! I was given the pleasure to make her christening cake back in April and now I'm once again been given the pleasure to make her 1st birthday cake.

Here's some picture of the finished product.

Note: baby blocks are made of little cakes too. YUM!

AGBAY CAKE LEVELER

2009-09-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

*amazed*

I bought myself a new caking toy! and it's finally here!

This has been on my "want" list for a loooong time. Even before my wants for my SLR and my Kitchen Aid but it's the fact that, i have to import it from the US, that's been stopping me from making this purchase. (the exchange rate, the shipping cost)

Recently I've been having bad luck with my cake cutting skills and that caused more cake wastage for me. Also NO more buying expensive serrated knife that doesn't work and yada yada yada. So i've decided to break the bank. :)

Now that this little baby is here, I'm saved!

Here a little story about me, manuals and AGBAY

KNIFE CHECKED!

METAL BAR CHECKED!

MEASURING STAND CHECKED!

RECEIPT CHECKED!

MANUAL CHECK!

ok, now to put them all into one piece. I presume this goes here, that goes there, tighten the screws and WOALAH!

errrrr. This doesn't look right *scratches my head*

See how the knife is at the bottom and the metal bar is at the top?

Mine turned out the other way around ???

OH NO!

Now, for manual rescue. I briefly looked at the manual pictures (i hate reading manuals) and thought to myself, why do i have a funny feeling about this? At that time, i still did not realize that it was the other way around.

When it came to cutting the cake with the AGBAY, i was like "How on earth can i cut the cake with that metal bar at the bottom???"

So then, i decided to youtube "How to cut a cake using AGBAY"

AHA!

I then realize silly me fixing it upside down :p

Now, its all good and i tried it today and my my it does work wonders!

Today's mission: Happy me, leveled cake, money well spend on AGBAY!

Updates with a black and white wedding cake

2009-09-14T03:24:00.000-07:00

Hello Dearest Readers!

I'm so sorry for the lack of posting. Things are just getting out of hands and now Christmas is just around the corner!!

I'm so excited cause I'M GOING MALAYSIA AND JAPAN!

yay!

so My Sweethearts Bakery will be taking a break from Nov 2009- middle of Jan 2010. I just can't wait :)

This cake is themed on hearts with the colors black and white. The design was supplied by the bride herself. Each tier consist of different cake flavors, mud choc, mud white choc and butter vanilla cake. She also have cupcakes to compliment with the cake but unfortunately i do not have any pictures of them. Perhaps, later i will contact the bride to see if i could get some better pictures of the cakes and a testimonial from her :)

UPDATES* I am starting a something new in compliment with Sharon Wee Creations and My Sweethearts Bakery. I cannot reveal what it is and the pictures now, but it will be up and running by Feb 2010. I'm so excited to be able to work once again with Sharon and this will be our ongoing event. Wish us luck! and i shall post them next year. Till then, i will try to post updates as often as possible.

Strawberry Table Placement

2009-09-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Love Strawberries?

me me me!! *hands waving high*

It's now the season for Strawberries! Our supermarkets are absolutely flooded with them and OH they are so yummy!!!

Remember my post on cake pops?

Yes H had some glasses lying around from a friend's wedding, so we decided not to waste resources and make use of those glasses. Pretty good huh? I like it and best of all is that the guest at the table can each get a strawberry. YUM!

I hope H likes this *fingers cross!*

Sugar Purple Orchid with white drapes wedding cake

2009-09-06T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here's my latest cake creation. The bride and groom are so friendly and lovely to work with! They picked red velvet with cream cheese frosting as their top tier, white chocolate mud as the middle and of course my favorite chocolate mud cake as the biggest bottom tier :)

This design was picked by the bride and she is a purple lover so we went with purple orchids and white drapes.

I didn't have enough time to take a good picture of this cake but i've requested some pictures of the wedding from the bride and groom. Will post them up once they get back from their honeymoon!

ps: my music on this site doesn't work anymore BOOHOO!!! anyone has any ideas how to fix it or any sites that provide music for bloggers?

Vanilla Cake Recipe

2009-08-29T20:27:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite vanilla cake recipe and it is just so easy! I forgot where this recipe came from but i've always had this ever since i started my love for baking. This recipe will go very well with vanilla frosting or white chocolate ganache :)

INGREDIENTS

2 CUPS SUGAR

4 EGGS

2 1/2 CUPS PLAIN FLOUR

1 CUP MILK

3/4 CUP VEGETABLE OIL

2 1/4 TEASPOON BAKING POWDER

1 TEASPOON VANILLA ESSENCE

(Serving Size : 7)

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 C). Line two 8" pan with baking paper and grease the paper and the sides of the pan as well.

2. In mixing bowl, beat sugar and eggs together until slightly thickened (about 1 min)

3. Add flour, milk, oil and baking powder and beat for another minute until batter is smooth and creamy. (note: Don't over beat)

4. Pour batter into the prepared pans.

5. Bake in preheated oven for 30-40 min or until the tops are golden. Try using a toothpick or knife to poke the centre layer comes out clean.

6. Remove from pans and let cool completely on rack before covering with frosting.

This is best with plain vanilla frosting or white chocolate ganache :)

Good Luck!

Peach Creme Caramel Recipe

2009-08-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

First, my apologies for the long pause in updates... I've been so busy (mostly been sick). Not to worry, it wasn't Swine flu but rather a tender infection in my ear :( BOOHOO!!

BUT BUT i'm all better now! Second so i'm back into the kitchen to whip something up with my yellow kitchen aid :p

Introducing my very first attempt of Peach Creme Caramel.....

Although this may take a whole heap of egg yolks and whipping but i guarantee you that it's all the worth it once it done. I myself is a creme pudding addict and i absolutely love this recipe!

Caramel

(Recipe by Aran @ Cannelle- Vanille)

250 grams sugar

60 grams water

Have an ice bath ready.

Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan and cook until a medium amber caramel forms. Immediately shock the pan in ice water to stop the cooking process.

Pour the caramel amongst six jars. Let the caramel cool and harden before proceeding.

Peach Custard

Note: If peaches are very ripe and juicy, they should be slightly cooked first to eliminate some of the extra water, otherwise the custard might turn too watery.

500 ml heavy cream

500 ml whole milk

200 grams sugar

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped

3 eggs

5 egg yolks

3-4 peaches, peeled and diced into small pieces

Place the heavy cream, milk, half of the sugar and vanilla bean in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and rest of the sugar. Temper the hot milk mixture into the eggs while whisking. Strain the custard through a fine sieve and let it cool in an ice bath slightly.

Divide the diced peaches amongst the jars and pour the custard over them. The fruit will rise to the top and that is ok.

Place the jars in a water bath and bake at 300F for about 30-40 minutes or until the center is set. Let them cool completely before serving.

Safari Cake

2009-08-17T20:05:00.000-07:00

Introducing the SAFARI Paradise!

This time its for a 1 year old boy birthday and he absolutely loves animals.

This design was specially picked by his parents from Pink Cake Box.

Black and White Wedding Model Cake

2009-08-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

I've been spending so much time working on model cake and i think this will be the last for another few months or so. I once saw this design online white searching for inspirations and i really wants to thank the person who made this design. If I'm not mistaken, i found the picture on Style Me Pretty.

I will now be working more on dessert tables and hopefully this weekend i will be able to finish my first project! Wish me luck :)

Change of blog domain

2009-08-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hello my sweethearts!

I know this is last minute but i've finally been able to change my domain name from www.mysweetheartsbakeryblog.blogspot.com to www.mysweetheartsbakery.blogspot.com

SORRY! for any inconvinienve cause :)

Pink Tulips and Gerberas Hand Held Bouquet

2009-08-09T06:39:00.000-07:00

I've been getting into flowers lately :)

This time i tried putting what i learnt at Pearsons into practice. I couldn't help wait till Floristry Wednesday to post this up :p

My favorite look of this bouquet is how pink ribbon ties around the stem of the flowers. Don't you think its a pretty good first try for an amateur florist??

BABY SHOWER 2

2009-08-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

This time its for a coming baby girl!!

RSPCA CUPCAKE UPDATE

2009-08-04T18:46:00.000-07:00

ATTENTION FOR SOME ANIMAL CUTE-NESS!

Can you resist me?

and me?

and more

more more and MORE~!

It's the never ending line of animals

Now, here comes the cupcakes and animal toppers. There are about 300 of these that we (Me and Jan) made for RSPCA cupcake day.

*Finger's Cross* that the media people will like it!

Rabbit says: please buy me and save the puppies? I've give you this rose in return

Cupcakes boxed up all ready to go

Visit here at the RSPCA CUPCAKE website to vote for my cupcakes!

(it may not be up yet so please wait a few more hours and below will be the picture to look for an vote!)

Thanks :)

Result for Apron Giveaway!

2009-08-01T06:09:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Kelly!

You are lucky winner no 4!

I will be sending you an email shortly :)

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-08-01 13:08:42 UTC

Model Green Wedding Cake Part3

2009-08-01T00:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello and i welcome you to the new sites of My Sweethearts Bakery.

What do you guys think of it??

www.sweetheartsbakery.com will be an official site to get to both site and blog.

And introducing ..................

My newest model cake creation!

I absolutely love this color and design. It's my favorite!

Stay tune, more model cakes coming!

RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY!

2009-07-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

Yes! I am participating in this year's RSPCA CUPCAKE DAY! YAY!

About 3 weeks ago or so, i was contacted by Kye, Corporate Partnerships Manager of RSPCA NSW, to see if i was interested in making cupcakes for their VIP RSPCA event. It was so bizarre because before receiving Kye's email i was meant to contact RSPCA to see if i could offer some help but that email ended up in my gmail draft unfinished. Somehow Kye managed to grab hold of my contact somewhere online and contacted me for this. I'm sooooooooooo excited yet still surprised on how coincident the whole email thingie is.........

The VIP's i mentioned is referring to the media in SYDNEY (eg: Yahoo7, NineMSN etc etc) and hopefully the media will make a little coverage about My Sweethearts Bakery.

This time i'm not alone! I will be joining with Sharon Wee Creations to help in this event :)

Before all the email incident with RSPCA, i actually contacted Sharon to ask if she would like to join with me in this RSPCA cupcake day. She was very interested and we both thought two pair or hands are better than one pair.

That's what brought us two together and we started chatting and found out that we both had similar pathways in this baking industry. I must say that i'm happy to find myself a baking buddy and the best thing is she lives not far from me and in SYDNEY!! We now share our trade secrets and also the juicy gossips about the latest baking tips :p

Can't wait to work with her in this RSPCA event and i will be posting the pictures once the cupcakes are done! so stay tune and keep and eye out for my cupcakes! and help us support RSPCA cupcake day~

Some picture of the pups that will be on the cupcakes

Model Pink Wedding Cake Part2

2009-07-24T05:11:00.000-07:00

All about

..........................pink......................

Here's my next batch of model cakes for my new website!

I wanted something lovely and sweet for the brides to choose from so i went with this idea. The inspiration pretty much came from a couple of cake pictures i saw on flickr (i can't remember who and which site) but i'd just like to give credits them for the wonderful inspirations.

Stay tune! More model cakes to come :)

green's my next color~

Enter and win a giveaway!

2009-07-22T08:12:00.000-07:00

Its time for a giveaway!

(open to all international readers too!)

Enter for a chance to win these items, apron and pot holder, with cute little cupcake prints on them. They are so to die for and a must in your kitchen household.

Leave a comment on this post. Tell me what brings to you this blog and how you found out about it. If you want, you could add a brief intro about you and where you are from. (i am curious to know more about my readers and where they are from or how did they come across this blog. From another website? Stumbled upon it? Oh yes, i just love reading commeeeennnnnnts )
The draw date will be on 1st August 2009 and winner will be announced at 10pm EST
In your comments, please also leave your email or blog link so i can contact you if you win.
One winner will be chosen using the Random.org integer generator and your integer is the rank of your comment

GOOD LUCK!! and start leaving me comments!

Floristry Wednesdays

2009-07-21T08:23:00.000-07:00

For the next two weeks, i will be naming my 'Wordless Wednesdays' to 'Floristry Wednesdays'.

I'm currently taking a short floristry class at Pearsons. The classes are so much fun! I just have to post some pictures up and boast about them ;p

Contemporary Style Vase Arrangement

Purple Rose Medival

Flower Brooch

I can't wait for my next class!!!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate Cake for Chocoholic Sunday

2009-07-18T20:52:00.000-07:00

Today is my day to enjoy and be a chocoholic freak!

I have a big urge/desire/WANT! for a huge slice of chocolate cake. MMMMmmmmmMMMMMM

*salivating*

I thought i'd just post in some pictures of the cake i made :)

Chocolate for your eyes

Enjoy!

Tiramisu Cupcake testing!

2009-07-17T23:20:00.000-07:00

Heard about tiramisu cupcakes???

me: nope........... *long pause* maybe i should try them out since i've got mascarpone spare in the fridge. :)

I must say i need some practice in working with mascarpone and espresso. I think i either mistook a step or did too much beating on my icing. It was a little runny but it still was yummy-licious. *thumbs up*

I've decided to share the recipe with all my readers and do let me know how you go if you are giving this recipe a try! Good Luck!

Tiramisu Cupcakes (adapted from 'Baking: from my home to yours' Dorie Greenspan)

Ingredients

For cupcakes:-

2 cups of cake flour

2tsp baking powder

1/8 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

10 tbsp unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 large egg yolk

1 tsp vanilla essence

3/4 cup of buttermilk

For espresso extract

2 tbsp espresso powder

2 tbsp boiling water

For expresso syrup

1/2 water

1/3 cup sugar

1 tbsp kahlua

For frosting

230 gm of mascarpone (1 tub from for the grocer)

1/2 cup icing sugar (powder)

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tbsp Kahlua

1 cup cold cream

Instructions:-

(To make cuppies)

Preheat oven to 350F. Line cupcake liners

Sift cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside

In mixer, beat butter until creamy, then add sugar and mix. Add eggs one at a time (beat about 1 minute after each addition) Then add vanilla.

Gradually add flour and buttermilk (alternate!!!) starting and ending with flour mixture.

Fill cupcake liners and baker for 17-20 mins.

(To make espresso extract)

In small bowl, blend espresso powder and boiling water. Mix and set aside

(To make espresso syrup)

In small saucepan, heat water and sugar until sugar dissolves. Pour syrup into a bowl and stir in Kahlua. Set aside.

(To make frosting)

Combine mascarpone, sugar, vanilla and Kahlua in large bowl and whisk till smooth. Then in stand mixer, use whisk attachment, whip the cream until it hold stiff peaks.

Then use spatula to stir in 1/4 of whipped cream into the mascarpone mixture. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream with a soft touch. Lastly add espresso syrup to frosting to taste.

Lastly spread your frosting on the cupcakes and yummo-licious!

Spring/Summer Wedding Cake

2009-07-16T09:14:00.000-07:00

Introducing Sunshine! My newest cake model for the Spring/Summer edition.

I would highly recommend to couples looking for a spring and summery wedding.

more pictures here

Corset Bridal Shower

2009-07-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

When A first approached me to make this for her wedding cake, i was like yea, its easy, i can do this (although it's my first time making a corset cake) But during the process, i realized nooooooo, it was more challenging that i though. Not the decorating part but cake assembling part.

First was to get a pan big enough to bake a large sheet cake but somehow i couldn't find one that would satisfy the size i am after so i ended up baking 2 square 10 inches cake and put them together from there.

Second was to draw the outline of the corset onto the transfer paper. I kept getting either a too fat or too thin corset, nothing went the way i wanted it to be!

Lucky for me i had Jan over, i got her to do the drawing. She being the smart Jan that i always know used bowls to outline the perfect waistline for the corset! What a brilliant idea! (pats on Jan's shoulder) I wouldn't in a million years thought about that :P

Saved by Jan! We manage to get a perfect corset shape for tracing. One big fear down!

Next fear was the how am i going to transfer such a long cake (which has a seperation in the middle and covered with meringue buttercream) to the cake board without it falling apart and destroying the spread????

Cake bases!!!!

Yes, i used a really large 12" round cake base, chopped off the sides to fit the corset and TA-DAH! problem solved. I must take credit for the brilliant idea *giggles*

All fear down!! Lastly was the decorations. I must say that it went rather smoothly, after all i am a part time cake decorator righttt?? :p

Here's my final product! ( Special thanks to helper Jan again)

*Please excuse my bad photography, i haven't been having much luck with camera lighting recently.

Black and White Cake

2009-07-07T07:02:00.000-07:00

I call this a black and white beauty. The color reminds me very much of elegance and posh.

This cake and design took me and JN (my little Santa's helper) a good couple of hours trying to put the 3D flowers together. Our first batch of flowers failed miserably but luckily our 2nd attempt sustained. :P

Thanks to JN's delicate fingers , we manage to put the petals together without them falling apart. Every time i touch it, it just goes "YIKES!" I just had no luck with them.

Coming next will be a corset cake so wish me luck!

Cake design adapted from (real simple)

Gold and White Christening Cake

2009-07-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

The design of this cake was a sample picture provided by my client and she wanted something really grand for her son's christening. She also picked the colors white and gold to match the grand feel to it. T also requested for the toppers on top. I was more than delightful to hear that i was going to make more baby booties, rattle and dummies! They are just too cute!

Congartulations!!

2009-06-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

True Random Number Service

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2009-06-30 14:14:46 UTC