The spirit of giving...

HO HO HO!!!

Here's wishing everyone a Merry merry Christmas. And as we bid farewell to 2007, a Happy happy new year ahead. :)

I baked some cupcakes on Christmas day.

This time they are for my colleagues as a boxing day pressie. I couldn't give them any earlier as they were mostly on leave pre Christmas.

Baked 2 batches of cupcakes.
1st batch: Blueberry cupcakes.

2nd batch: super moist decadent chocolate cupcakes.

My buttercream icing: pink, lilac, yellow, peach, dew green, apple green.

Unleashing my creativity.. :)

All up I've made about 50 cupcakes.

You know how I always have a concern about transporting my cupcakes right? Well, I've thought of a way to bring them to work. I actually cut some art cards as insertions in the box. Ta dah!

Have a blessed Christmas peeps! Hallelujah!

Even crazier for cupcakes ;)

After my first trial with cupcake decoration 4 days ago, I felt as if I could do much better.

Not easily defeated, I went about buying ingredients for my next cupcake project.

I had no idea that the day would come so soon. Unexpectedly, I was free yesterday noon.
Initially, Shukz, Mich and I had plans to go for our usual lunch at La Bod. This time round, we wanted to go to the one in Pavilion.

Somehow, at the last minute, the bride to be couldn't make it as she got summoned to spend a day with her mum. Possibly to check on her wedding arrangements/preparation.

La di da..I was kinda thrilled to have the whole Sunday noon to myself :)

Question: What sorta cupcake designs do I like? And what sorta designs can I do?

*idea* I love those mini rosettes cupcakes..

To be honest, I had no idea how to pipe mini rosettes. I was only taught how to pipe - stars, wreaths, shells, leaves - during my Xmas cupcake deco class.

So i asked around and was told that I could use a star tip to pipe rosettes.

And it worked! woohoo :)


Pre-project : I practised piping to try if i could pipe rosettes. :)

This time round i bought chocolate flavoured cupcake mix.

i had 4 colours to play with - purple, pink, apple green, yellow.

My very first batch of sweet sweet roses..

The mini cupcakes..

The large cupcakes...

Rose Rose I love you...

I've packed everything in a box and will be bringing to the office to share with my colleagues.

My only concern is that I'll smudge them during transportation. :P

Crazy 4 cupcakes

I'm really really stressed out.

I'm so damn sick of covering ppl's asses.

I think I'm getting an allergy soon. Oh wait, it's here already, it's just that it's getting more serious.

I am allergic to "idiots at work". And like they say, "Working with idiots can kill you". I am.. literally dying..

Over and over, you've been doing this to me. Stop giving me last minute shits and expect me to cover up for you. And don't give me this, "You've got better English and you're the communication person, therefore please help us to write these....".

Hey, you mean, no one in your department can write ar? Can't they write and pass to me to vet through? Excuses excuses..tsk tsk.

And failure to plan on your part does not constitute urgency on my part! I am so tempted to tell this to your face. Cos you guys have been asking me to help out and finish stuff for you at the last minute. But it is never reciprocated when I requested for you to provide me with info so that I can do my press releases.

OK, enough ranting....

Let me talk about something I enjoy.

Anyway, I took the day off work on Wednesday, to chill and recollect myself. And as you would have known by now, I usually chill by doing things - be it cooking, baking, making some fancy jewelleries, arts n crafts, etc.

I decided to practice my piping skills. (remember i had difficulties piping correctly when I attended my cupcake deco class?).

Headed off to buy the ingredients - bought cupcake pre-mixed (orange and poppy seed - my favourite flavour), icing sugar, butter, chocolate + rainbow sprinkles, rainbow stars, sugar crystals, colourings + essences, etc. Those only cost me about RM43.

The real killer was actually the tools. I bought 2 tips (large star tip #21, and flower drop tip), cupcake cups of various sizes, cake boxes, piping bags, and couplers. Those sucked me dry by RM70.

Orange and poppy seeds cuppacakes! MMmm...

My very first creation. :P

I used this recipe to make the buttercream icing:
170g unsalted butter, 2 cups of icing sugar, a large pinch of salt, 1.5 tbs water or milk, 1/4 tsp vanilla essence.

Fold icing sugar into the butter and blend. Blend all ingredients at high speed. You may add colourings to play with colours.

Pipe using star tip #21

Added sugar crystals

I used the same tip to create a swirl.

Added some rainbow stars...

I baked some mini cuppacakes too.
Sorry about the flower, it looks pretty badly drawn. I used tip #3 to draw the flowers.
I ran some raspberry jam to make it more liquid. Then I glazed it on the cuppacakes.

The rest of the cupcakes...

This one was pretty sad..I smudged the cream while transferring. :p
Therefore, the ugly part is not shown here..

The larger cupcakes...

The bite size mini cupcakes...

My labour of love :)

Yups, to some of you, these are probably fugly... :P

Gimme a chance ppl, it's my first time :)

I've actually brought these back to my late grandma's house the next day for my lil cousins. We all went back to pray at pohpoh's tomb to mark her 100th day of departure. I brought two cupcakes and laid them on her tomb during prayer.

I miss her lots...and I pray that she's in a good place now.