Gifts from Australia

2 of my sis arrived from Brissie yesterday... and look what they brought me!!!

Can you guess what this is?

And this?

and thisss??

and..and..and thisssss???

All those candy making stuff that I have problem sourcing locally!
(food markers, candy colouring, candy melts & lollipop sticks!)

THANKS A MILLION SIS!!!

SDI Exam Day

Good luck to all!

Old Macdonald Has a Farm... E.I.E.I.O

Well Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a pig
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a cow
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a dog
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

***

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O
And on his farm he has a horse
E I E I O

Old Macdonald has a farm
E I E I O

Thanks to Bakerella and Cake Pops Galore for the inspiration!

I *Heart* Cupcake Pops

Once you start you can't stop - I meant the process of course ;)

Thanks Bakerella!

Bakin' with Aunty Lyne

Lyne came over to my place today to make cake pops! Thank's to Bakerella for her inspirations, we were quite successful in our pursuit this afternoon :)

Before Lyne arrived, I managed to put the chocolate cake batter in the oven. Decided that it was best that I use a ready cake mix I bought from the supermarket to save the hassle. After all, it's the decorating part that was more fun *grin* While waiting for the cake to bake and cool down, Lyne searched the internet for ideas of cake pops that we could make, while I prepared lunch. And it wasn't long before our cake was ready:

Fresh from the oven, smells good!

Dry cake crumbles

After crumbling the cake (it was really dry by the way - wonder why it was called super moist cake on the box), it was time to add in the butter cream cheese frosting (I'll put the recipe at the end of this post). I put in a little at a time, careful not to overdo it, and stop the moment it was possible to shape and mould the cakes into the shapes that we want.

Adding butter cream cheese frosting, a little at a time

We started by churning out golf ball sizes, and then various other shapes, such as pumpkin, bells, cubes and egg shapes, trying to keep them as even sized as possible.

Ready to go into the fridge

We only managed to get about 27 mini cakes out of the crumbled cake, we probably could get even more if we make them a little smaller. But the lollipop sticks I bought from ICCA was quite long (6") so it may look a little imbalance if the cakes were small. The size that we made were just perfect for the sticks.

White chocolate coated ghost cake pops

We just couldn't wait to dip those balls into the chocolate coating! As soon as we finished lunch we took out several bowls and melted some white chocolate in the microwave. I also tried to use Candy Melts by Wilton, but it was just too thick to coat the cakes evenly. I had to add some vegetable shortening to thin it a little, but then I realised that it took a longer time to harden if shortening was added. Still found that white baking chocolate was best in this case. I also used some gel food colouring (you'll need oil based food colouring to colour your chocolates).

Our first attempt at cake pops - successful!

Seriously we were both laughing so much and squealing with excitement each time the cake pop turn out just right! At first we tried to use some food markers to draw faces on them, but it was hopeless. In the end we just used some dark chocolate as a replacement. Works out great!

Cake pops for Lyne to bring home

I think we spent close to 5 hours (including waiting & lunch time) to complete about 14 cake pops. Yes, I know its pretty slow, but this was an experimental session, and so we made a lot of mistakes and that took up some of our time. But we learnt a lot of valuable techniques, definitely. The next time it won't take so long!

What do you do with a mummy so cute? Eat it of course!

Lyne didn't want to take too many home, and it was impossible for me to eat 10 of them! Plus I didn't know how long these babies would last. So I gave them all to my neighbour's kids who were just two doors away and happened to be playing outside at that moment :)

The last 2 cake pops - for my breakfast tomorrow!

I still have some cakes in the fridge, waiting for me to decorate them. I'll try to mix some orange colour tomorrow and see if I could make pumpkins out of them. Here's the recipe to the butter cream cheese frosting:

Ingredients

200 gms icing sugar

100 gms butter

200 gms cream cheese

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

BEAT the softened cream cheese and butter together and slowly add in the icing sugar and mix until light and fluffy. I only used about 1/2 of this portion in my cake crumbs, you may need more or less depending on your cake size. The original recipe in Martha Stewart's website calls for more sugar, but I didn't have that much left in my pantry (thank goodness), and still it came out just nice and not too sweet. Adjust the recipe to your liking.

As for the coating, I simply used white chocolate with some oil based food colouring. Becareful not to accidentally mix water into your chocolate (especially if you are using a baine marie). Other materials I used include mini M&Ms, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips and coloured sprinkles. You are free to use whatever you need, you are only limited by your imagination!

Too Early for Halloween?

Couldn't make up my mind if I should post this in craftee guiri or here... but I thought its better to put it here since this poor bloggie has been quite lonely ever since bloggie no. 2 was out.

Boo!

Last Saturday Nanci organized a small gathering at her place with a few members from the belly dance tribe and 2 from the yoga tribe :) It took me almost an hour to find her apartment - I'm completely hopeless when it comes to looking for places other than in Cheras :P

When I arrived, several of them were already busy in the kitchen preparing some ayurvedic food for all of us to munch on before we work on our belts and tassels. And I did help too! To eat of course! :P The yoghurt mushroom was a favourite among all of us...mmm.. I'm drooling just talking about it.

As soon as our tummies were satisfied, we took out the belts and yarns and embellishments and we discusses on ways that we could decorate our belts. While we were busy spinning our yarns on the DVD boxes, Nanci demonstrated to Deda how to make her very own tassel, which she in turn help the rest to make theirs :)

Deda helping Nikki to make her tassel

We spent several hours just making tassels, and eating and chatting. Some of us even attempted to pat Kitty, Nanci's very shy cat. And I only managed to complete about 4 tassels, all ended up at different thickness (that shows how much woman's instincts I have). I took them home that night to make some adjustments, and then I realised that one of them was of a different shade of red. And so what did I do with that odd red? Googly eyes and hat, and voila! *grin*

Our very first tassel! (Mine's not trimmed yet)

I probably have to finish up my belt at home on my own. But first I'll have to clean off that dust on my mom's sewing machine... and trying to figure out how to use it properly. I'll post the finished belt in craftee guiri! Stay tuned!

What have I been up to?

Just the other day my sis said that I've been very quiet with my blog lately. I must admit she's right. I could only blame laziness, procrastination and lack of inspiration for the silence. Somehow I wasn't in quite a mood to update anything. Why? Is it because I've nothing interesting to write about? Not really. Well, here's a quick summary:

1) A friend of Joyce's who owns Indulgence @ Tropicana City Mall asked if she could get her students to perform at their opening ceremony. Initially I thought it falls exactly on my mom's birthday, so I didn't agree to go. And I was roped in just the day before after realising the miscommunication! I simply didn't know any of the steps except for the primera copla of the Sevillana, but I participated anyway. Just hid myself in between the rest who were more well-versed with the steps but it's tough since I'm quite tall! :P Made quite a lot of mistakes throughout, but who cares? We had a great time! :)

Arte Flamenco students @ Indulgence, Tropicana City Mall

2) I took up swing dance classes with Ming from KLSwing. And coincidentally, just after 4 classes, Matt Bedell from NY happened to be in town and KLSwing organized a welcome party - the Matt Hatter's Tea Party @ Urban Attic. It was a blast! Both TW and I went as poker cards, while we also had Alice, sexy cats, cute bunnies and queens who could schwinggg! Check out their photos here!

3) While SS was back in KL sometime in July, we went for a cake decorating class at ICCA. It was supposed to be a 3 hours session but we end up spending close to 5 hours at the center! Both of us brought home 4 cakes each decorated with fondant. Haha... when we asked the rest of the family members to guess who decorated what... they immediately pointed out the correct ones! Wanna know why? :P

Mini wedding cake decorating class @ ICCA

4) Salsa Party @ Urban Attic was just last Friday. Organized by Niels and DJ Vicente from a Cuban band named Habana Revolution, it was a hot latin night. Lucky for me I managed to get TW to do a few merengues and simple salsa with me too. Thanks to the all supporting & encouraging friends out there :)

5) And since I'm so obsessed with dancing, I took up belly dance too *grin*! Nanci Traynor, who also teaches yoga is now conducting Tribal Belly Dance class at KLPAC. I really enjoy attending her class, and so eventhough I live miles and miles away from the studio, I didn't mind travelling there every Saturday during the busiest time of the day. It's a good thing that she always start the class with a Savasana pose first :D

6) I finally found the heart to throw away my collection of miniature bottles. They are at least 15-20 years old, probably even more, and some of the contents have already turned into a different colour, leaked out or simply deteriorated. Instead of continuing to keep them and add to my already unbelievable amount of collector's trash, I've decided to just keep photos of them instead.

A small sampling of my miniature bottles/samples collections

6) I completed my very first oil painting(s)! Hehe.. nothing complex... in fact I believe a 10 year old could come up with something better. Still, I'm proud of myself :) Details here.

7) My new blog, craftee guiri was launched sometime last month. It's dedicated to all my crafty moments and my passion for DIY gifts. I thought it was best to have a focused craft blog rather than cramping everything in here. Now you know why I've been so quiet :P I can't split myself into 2~!

OH dear...and I still haven't updated anything about my last Europe trip yet. Bummer.