Decorated cookies, a cake and cake balls

For the past 2 days, I spent about 4 hours baking, 10 hours decorating, 2 hours packaging (and a couple of hours cleaning and washing up) some 85 cookies that were made for a small boy who was celebrating his 4th birthday.

His mother liked the "Eat Me" cookies that I made and displayed on my site and requested for that design. Other than that, I was at a mental block on what design to do for some square-shaped cookies which she gave me the free-rein to design whatever way I wanted. Oh and by the way, I had no idea that the phrase "Eat Me" is actually part of Alice in Wonderland! When I wrote the words on the cookies, it was just an impromptu idea.

Anyway, I had no clue what would excite a 4-year boy and his friends, whom I presume are about the same age. In the end, I drew a rainbow on each of the cookies. It wasn't a task that could be quickly done as the lines had to be drawn one by one. I was quite pleased with the cheerful colours at the end. I hope they had a great party and I hope they loved the cookies.

Some time back, I made some cake balls for a guy who wanted to surprise his girlfriend (or probably wife). This guy tried to place an order for Valentine's Day but it happened to be Chinese New Year on the same day and I couldn't find the time to do his order, so I had to reject him.

To my pleasant surprise, he tried to place an order again in March, this time for his anniversary. Since I knew it was for his anniversary and it was going to be a surprise, I tried to make it prettier by lining the box with pink paper and tying the box with my nicer and more expensive ribbon. I can't believe that I actually forgot to take a picture of how the box looked like, and I contemplated on whether to blog about it or not because I am not pleased with the pictures I took of the cake balls.

What made me finally decided to blog about it is that this guy wrote back to me that they loved the cake balls. In fact, he wanted to order them again yesterday, but I could not do it because my time was spent on the cookies. What a waste, I wish he would have some party again so that I can make more cake balls for him.

A few weeks ago, I made a birthday cake for a sweet little girl. Her mother initially requested for a sponge cake with chocolate buttercream. After more discussions, she told me her daughter is "a chocolate freak". In the end, I made her a chocolate fudge cake, covered with chocolate ganache made with Varlhona chocolate. It sounds like a lot of chocolate but trust me, it was not overpowering nor too rich. The cake, when refrigerated, tasted like really good and the ganache complemented it perfectly. I decided not to make the cake look complicated, so I only piped the borders and 2 clowns.

Her mother also requested for some cake pops, which I stuck them into styrofoam stands beside the cake.

I always try to imagine my customers having a blast at their parties and I hope whatever I do added to the mood of the occasion. I always cross my fingers that when they open the box, it will be with a pleasant WOW. It really makes me happy to know that people actually like what I do.

Meantime, here are the cake ball pictures that I am not so pleased with, because they were taken at night and I had to use flash instead of natural light.

Hope you are having a great weekend!

C is for Chocolate Chip Cookie

C is for Cookie.

Nope. C is for Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Now I am baffled. I look at the picture of the stack of chocolate chip cookie at the top of my blog header and I remember I blogged about them quite a long time back, in fact more than a year back. Now I cannot find the post. I probably dreamt I blogged about it then.

On second thoughts, perhaps I really did not blog about it..since that was using the Nestle Toll House recipe which can be found almost everywhere and since it was the crunchy type which is not really my preferred type of cookie. But oh well, I shall include it in my recipe blog over here, just in case I need it someday. *gasp! I looked through all my old posts and saw that I did want to blog about it...it is still in draft mode, since 10 November 2008!*

Now, the important part of this post is here. Haha, I see your eyes following the underlined words. 

Somebody made an enquiry about ordering a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies the other day. Honestly, it had been a long time since I last ate a choc chip cookie and I almost forgot how the ones at famous chains like Famous Amos and Mrs Fields taste like. And it has also been a long time since I made drop cookies. 

To refresh my memory (and to check out their pricing), I deliberately drove to buy 3 cookies while I was out running some errands. At the same time, I already had on hand, a recipe I found, which look really good.

I took a bite of the choc chip cookie...and I wondered why, I raved and craved for those cookies 15 years ago. Perhaps they tasted really nice 15 years ago? Perhaps my hands were smaller  back then and the cookies looked tastier and bigger in my hands? Fast forward to 15 years later, I took a bite and did not feel the wow factor anymore. In fact, I feel it was rather overpriced (yes, I get more stingy the older I get) and actually the older-me now prefers Subway's chewy cookies. 

Before I had time to debate with people on whose cookies are better, I tried the recipe I found and made some little adjustments as I went along. Each cookie came out nicely rounded. They looked slightly puffed when baked but will be fine when they are cooled.

This recipe is supposed to be called a copycat of a famous chocolate chip cookie. But when I took a bite of this, and took a bite of the real Mrs Fields cookie I had, I prefer this. But really, everyone has different preferences, to each his own.

 

  

If you would like to try these cookies, here is the recipe. Remember to use good chocolate and good vanilla, they make all the difference!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas to all of you!! I hope you had a very good time partying and feasting on Christmas goodies!

I have not been in hiatus the past month. I was just very busy baking! This is the first time I tried accepting orders for some of my bakes, so it was a little overwhelming for me. Unfortunately, my joints got swollen about a week before Christmas (not due to overbaking, but a viral infection), so I baked less than I would love to.

Christmas does not seem quite complete without some decorated cookies. So, this year, just like the previous years, I made some cookies. Believe it or not, I never made gingerbread man shaped cookies the past years. The past years, I made them in star and christmas tree shapes. This year, I bought a set of Wilton gingerbread man cookie cutters and had them in various sizes and this is how they look like. Those on sticks were for the children.

I made some snowflake ones and decorated them with fondant and royal icing and added some names behind to personalise them and boy, was that time consuming!

To make these decorated cookies, you can use any shortbread cookie recipe (I like the one from Joy of Baking). They are very delicious, however, they can be too delicate and crumble easily, especially during transporting. Therefore, most of the time, if I were to decorate them, I would make these for my own consumption only.

Sugar cookies are also perfect for decoration and does not crumble as easily as shortbread. They hold up pretty well and when baked, retain their shapes and will not puff up much. I have a recipe which I tweaked myself and it is here.

I was also supposed to make log cakes for 2 of my friends. Due to the doctor's advice to rest and avoid overexerting my hands in the meantime, I could not make them. The christmas themed boxes and cake decorations figurines are all kept unused. Guess I have to keep them for a year! I am rather disappointed, because I myself would love to eat a slice of the cake, but well perhaps things all happen for a reason.

Recently, we added a (power) blender to our kitchen inventory because the Signifant Other wants to make some smoothie. So we bought one, which according to the salesperson, has the most powerful and sharpest blade in the market. Ok. The next time this laptop crashes on me, I'm gonna throw it into the blender.

I was excited that we can make soy milk with it. Alright, it's not new, but it is to me! The pack of soy beans I have finally can be put into use. For every 125g of beans, I need to add 1 litre of water. I happily told dear that we do not have to buy soy milk anymore. It is so cheap to make our own and 500g of beans only cost a dollar. Which means for 40 cents, we can make 1 litre of soy milk. Right? Wrong.

I only ended up with 2 glasses of soy milk. The rest of the liquid just went to blending and ended up with the residue. Perhaps I did not sieve thoroughly too. In any case, I happily gulped down the soy milk, the smell of the beans and the goodness is irresistable. Those that we buy are really no where near. I'll make a second attempt soon and try to squeeze more out of my 1 litre of water.

In the afternoon, we went to watch THIS IS IT - the latest Michael Jackson movie which opens in cinemas yesterday and we had bought the tickets as soon as ticket bookings were open a few weeks ago. It shows clips from his latest rehearsals before he passed away. I had wanted to watch the very first screening but I had my cake decoration class, but that doesn't matter. Go and watch guys. It was just like watching his concert. I remember earlier this year, when I heard that MJ is making a world tour, I told dear we had to go and watch no matter how expensive the tickets are. His Thriller and Billy Jean acts never fail to impress me, and of course the rest of the songs too. His movements are so crisp and sharp, yet so fluid, it's simply perfection in caps. I had the urge to go pick up some hip hop moves after watching the show, but I shall stick to my pilates class first. All the dancers go through pilates too anyway :p 

I remember a cookie I made. It wasn't initially made with MJ in mind. I was thinking of the intials of my friend and her hubby. But after watching the show yesterday, I was a little filled with sadness and nostalgia. It's hard to believe that he is history already. MJ, this is for you. With love.

Peanut Cookies

Chinese New Year is coming, and I am planning to make some stuff for relatives and friends. I had some time the other night, and decided to bake some peanut cookies, which turned out to be really easy.

I made them into small little mouth-sized oval-shaped balls, which looks more like the "stepped-on tortoises" in Super Mario's game.

My colleagues who tested them complimented on the taste and fragrance of the cookies. I sure will be making them again.

Try them here!

Double chocolate chip cookies

I was wanting to buy bananas today to bake a banana bread for the banana bread bake off organised by Not Quite Nigella. Can you believe it, I cannot find any ripe bananas!! Have all the monkeys gotten them? Haha.

In the end, I decided to make something chocolatey. I seem to be in a chocolatey mood. I just bought a pack of M&M to snack on in the office today, and I am not usually a snack person, though chocolate is my weakness. I took out my Donna Hays recipe book and chose the double chocolate chip cookie.

It was really nice! Though I wish they were a bit more chewy than crispy. Instead of dark chocolate chunks, I added the remaining of my Hersheys chocolate chips into the final mixture. The kitchen was filled with the aroma of chocolate. The recipe says it makes 16 cookies. They must've been giantic ones, because I made more than 40 cookies, and they are already bigger than what I usually make.

I wish I am having these cookies with my husband, with a hot steaming cup of hot chocolate, while chatting into the night..

*pokes my dream bubbles* reality is....I have to go to bed now, and turn up for work tomorrow. But hey, tomorrow is Friday!! Yeah!

Maybe if I have the time over the weekend, I might still make it for the Bake Off!

Chocolate mania

Bought a new recipe book yesterday. Sometimes I wonder why there are still so many recipe books being sold, because everything can be found on the Internet. I contradict myself...haha..because I actually bought another recipe book when there was a 30% discount coupon I could cut from the Saturday newspapers and use at Borders.

Pictures, pictures! I am attracted to nice pictures of food. I would flip through the book. If it's one of those "500 recipes for everyday cooking" and there are no pictures, I would not even think of it.

I bought a book on wholly chocolate by Donna Hay. Looks fantastic and just makes me drool. Chocolate cakes, cupcakes, muffins, panna cotta, biscotti, brownies, cookies... The close-up shot of the double chocolate cookies with melting chocolate in the middle...heavenly! I wish I have a camera like this...and photography skills like this too. It makes the most normal food turn into heavenly tantalising craves. Soon, I shall try something from this book soon. Just wait for my pictures! :D

Christmas cookie project finale!

I'm glad Christmas is over!! Ok, maybe not, there are 12 days of Christmas.

My Christmas Cookie Project is finally over! I am glad to have receive positive and encouraging feedback about them.

Baking more than 100 of these cookies with my humbly small oven is no joke, and frosting them takes few hours! I remember consecutive days of rushing home from work and baking trays and trays of cookies...and then next night was long uninterrupted 4 hours of frosting. Phew, it was tiring, but the results made me very satisfied. Ok, I know, they can be better, and I will make them better next time!

Enough said, here are some pictures. I gave my godbro the first batch and he told me that maybe I could add more colours. So i did that for the second batch, but the colours are rather pastel, so they may not appear very obvious in the pictures. There's actually green, white, lilac and pink in the second batch of cookies. There are other few star-shaped personal favourites, but I was too tired to photograph them one by one..

first batch of cookies - Ribbon shaped

first batch of cookies being cooled

second batch - more colours added!

personal favourite - christmas tree!!

another personal favourite!

I really hope that the recipients enjoy the cookies as much as I do. Merry Christmas!!

Christmas cookie project - Phase 1

hi there!

my first batch of christmas cookies were out! they went to my godbrother, my cousins and my beloved aunt.

it took me a lot of time and effort to make them, and all i had was evenings after work. so there i was, baking batches and batches of cookies in my little oven, and making royal icing for the very first time in my life.

they may look more plain as compared to the ones made during the class i attended...because it really takes a lot to make more colours...not forgetting that i would then need more piping tips and bags and bags of coloured icing.

i am still happy that the result was what made me happy. i particularly like the green colour, which looks minty. my godbrother is really great to give me some feedback straightaway. i hereby pronounce him as my NUMBER 2 FAN (number one goes to Mr. D Chow, haha)!!!

Alright, no more nonsense now. i am still working on my Christmas Cookie Project Phase 2 and I only have 2 more days!!! Maybe I would go get more piping tips later. But first, more dough and more icing!

Yoohooo! Christmas cookie project in progress!

I'm back!! the past month was just....ermmmm...not so nice. there was abt 2 days without a computer (it felt like many months!) and days when my pc chose not to behave...and of course, days which i felt lazy to do anything.

from the past month till now, i did not bake anything! there was a lizard in the kitchen and i was too afraid to open the cabinets. i melted some chocolate and put them in molds though. But I did not take any photos nor written anything about them, because they are..well, nothing to shout about at the moment.

this week, i have started on my 'christmas cookie project'. my camera is not with me. I had taken some not so nice pictures with my handphone, but Blogger is refusing to cooperate with me right now, so the pictures shall come later! :D

2 successful bakes today!

i had 2 bakes today.

i made my banana muffins again...well, because i want to really test out my scanpan silicon muffin tray, since i have to change the temperature and timings a little, whenever I use this pan. The muffins turn out nicer than the last time i made them. I ate them when they were stiff warm, and it was good that the bananas were not too mashed up this time.

as if i had not gotten enough of my baking therapy, i made lemon cookies. I was actually practising what i would make for christmas. so i made just the cookies without the decoration. i am not sure whether the weather and humidity really plays such a significant role here, but i really had hoped that my kitchen was airconditioned, because i had to work very fast with the dough, or otherwise return it to the fridge very quickly.

these are lemon cookies that i made, just like what was taught in the class. but the lemon flavour is not that strong...of course, the branded lemon essence used in class cost about 23 times more than the one i bought!!! today is the second time i make roll-out cookies, and my first successful attempt at it! you can imagine my excitement and satisfaction *grinning from ear to ear*

anyway, the comments today are very encouraging. all my guinea pigs were chomping happily. and i have decided i shall not bring any to share with my colleagues, like i used to do...because i need the muffins for my breakfast tomorrow...and also that...i really do like the taste of what i made today..hehe..

yeah!! :D

www.flickr.com More of sandyteo's photos tagged with cookie

Xmas cookie decoration

I went to Shermay's cooking school today for a cookie demo class (it is a DEMO class...all the cookies below are NOT made by me...not yet..). I had planned to go for this class since weeks ago, but had forgotten to register. On Fri, when I realised that the class was going to end today, I frantically called up and hoped that they could squeeze me in. Thankfully, they could.

It is not the cheapest demo class around, in fact it is pretty expensive...but you are assured you'll learn from the experts. I had met my objectives of wanting to learn about fondant, and royal icing, so at least I am not wasting my fees...hehe...but it was disappointing that we only got to take home 3 cookies after the class.

It was fascinating to see how the cookies turn out so pretty after some icing! And the uncreative me will find the suggested designs provided very useful indeed. I am already planning on what Xmas gifts I am going to give this year...hahaha

for your guys who will eventually get these from me...aren't you lucky??!! It's very time consuming and painstaking to come out with a batch of pretty cookies like these! So if you do get some of these, be thankful cos' it means you mean a lot to me! :D

Please pardon the blurred picture below, it is not doing any justice at all to the cookies. They are really beautiful and made in class by the chef. You can click on 'my baked stuff' at the side toolbar of this blog to see more (blurred) pictures... :p

what we get to bring home..

p.s. I finally get to go to Pantry Magic! I bought a small silicon spatula, which I found pretty useful after I went for the sponge cake class earlier on... :D It really makes me happy whenever I make new additions to my worktools!

more choc chip cookies!

more choc chip cookies! these are from the remaining dough which i chilled in the fridge...and of course, after being chilled, they are better than the ones i made on thursday. my chief guinea pig (aka my mum) took one immediately and said it was better :)

inclusive of the ones on thursday, the dough made 100+ cookies! so you see how much cookie shops are earning?

chocolate chip cookies

Thursdays and baking does not seem to ever go together. this evening, i had planned to come back on time to make some muffins or cupcakes for my friends when i meet them tomorrow.

As usual, when I plan something, it will actually go the other way. my work ended later than usual today and i got home only at 7.45pm. Frantic with the lack of time, and lack of milk in my fridge, i decided to find a recipe without milk, and it was cookies.

something however came over me, and made me want to put them on paper liners to bake instead. i seem to vaguely remember seeing an ex classmate do so, so as not to let the cookie spread out too much. But they ended up coming out with the lines of the paper liners, which cookies should not have. Moreover, i added less butter than called for, so the cookie is a bit too dry.

i rushed and rushed, because i had to shower (i was really stinky!) and had to make it in time for a flat-viewing appointment at 9.30pm.

the flat is nothing to shout about, and so are my cookies. this is one lesson i will learn. i have attempted to bake for my friends on a few thursday nights, and they always turn out wrong, because i do not have the mood to do so on thursdays, and i do not like to rush through the process which i enjoy.

this is not an excuse! i know it, because i have made nicer cookies than the ones i made tonight! And my mum agrees..

Peanut butter cookies

Today, I baked cookies instead of muffins. I baked peanut butter cookies. My sister is complaining that if this goes on every week, the whole family will get fat in no time. This was also what I warned dear last night, because if we have our own house in future, he will be promoted to my full-time guinea pig and likely to get fat. He is game for it, he wants to see if he will get fat or lose weight (means I am a bad cook and is starving him.. :p)

Back to the cookies. They do not turn out very crispy, just like the chocolate chip cookies I usually make. Well, but to be honest, I like chocolate chip cookies not to be too crispy. I like them to be more chewy. However, today's product is peanut butter cookie, which I had wished could turn out more crispy than they did.

The recipe only used 140g flour, and I spooned a small teaspoonful for each cookie. Still they turn out to be like the size of a butter cookie, those we buy in tins. I churned out about 60 cookies just by using that little flour.

It was not too bad, just that they are not crispy. That leaves to be improved. And since I am not perfectly pleased with them, I am not giving any away....and so that explains my own expanding waistline....

I now think that baking is a hobby which we should start when we are feeling skinniest. All the butter, shortening, testing of food is not going to aid any diet plans!