D e l i s i o u c i t y

I was browsing through some pictures and realized these were buried deep in the electronic fibres of my computer system that I had forgotten all about them! These cookies were made for last year’s Eid celebrations. That’s 2009. Depending on one’s views of time and general blogging practice/etiquette, that’s either donkey years or a blink of an eye. Regardless, I made these sugar cookies for my family to enjoy on the first day of Raya – which came along with that much awaited green packet (well, for the kids at least).

It’s nice that these pictures have resurfaced, because at the time of making them, I was going through plenty of mixed feelings of joy and sadness. It goes without saying that leaving home for a foreign country to continue studies at the dawn of my twenties  was one of the biggest decisions to make in my life. Since then I’ve gone through quite a lot, as travel and separation from loved ones does to a person. And I must say that these cookies somewhat give me a good point of reference to go full circle & rethink about my life the past year. Funny how food can do that to you sometimes. Or pictures for that matter.

Anyway, I haven’t been very good at updating this website since I left for UK… and there’s so much to say in my defense for that (cheapshot, I know). I’ve got a bunch of drafts and unedited pictures lining up in my dashboard – that when I think about them, it makes me crazy. But perhaps the past year I’ve finally managed to learn how to prioritize…. ah but who am I kidding! I guess hobbies like photography, baking and writing a blog – are only fun when you have time for them. Nonetheless, I hope not to get wiped out from the surface of this blogosphere permanently!

I’ll bid adieu for now with big cookie hugs to you, and wish you a fantastic time with your family and loved ones celebrating this blessed month of Syawal! Meanwhile I’m doing my best to enjoy being back home in Brunei before I get back to my thesis again. .. and probably worst still, cold weathers!

Maaf zahir batin, my dear readers!

As much as cupcakes are making such a huge impact onto the world of food today (note sites such as Cupcakes Take the Cake, and Iron Cupcake competitions), nothing seems to surpass the impact that my husband has on me when it comes to football. Let’s just put it this way: I used to own a few Manchester United clothing and was politely asked to throw them out. Subsequently I was supplied with some Liverpool FC frock ^_^ But don’t you be judging us! I think it’s somewhat endearing. I mean, how many of you out there can even dare to hum the melodies of ‘Glory Glory..’ in a house where you were cajoled to swear allegiance to the one and only football club that promises you’d ‘never walk alone’, without getting the pouty, hurt puppy look?!

That’s right. In a world where football club rivalry runs rampant, a divided household is not a happy home ;p So I’m afraid that I have succumbed to the euphoria of football fanaticism. No wait, that’s quite an exaggeration. Let’s just say I support him wholeheartedly and his *ehem* team, albeit from the sidelines. Fair enough? Football fans, and perhaps especially LFC fans, are a hard-core bunch… and I’m probably not wrong to say so. Who else would you see standing tall in silence, giving a respectful military salute to these cupcakes, for God’s sakes? It was hilarious to see husby like that, and I am not sure where the whole sense of allegiance, loyalty, and ultimately, love,  for a football club millions of miles away comes from. Any sociological theory taught by my lecturers on this, I most certainly have forgotten.

Anyhow, I quite enjoyed making the fondant toppers on Liverpool FC that you see here. It was the most fun because I had my husband fully on board, cheering on while I painfully roll and knead the fondants, carefully shaping them into these tiny pieces of edible artwork. Such memories. hehe.

I also found out later on that the family who ordered these had a fantastical party of the red-and-white-theme strain. I want, I want! It is so nice to view their pictures on FaceBook and how everyone is dressed in those colours, and the kids having a cake-eating competition with their hands behind their backs ^_^. They had two cakes, one done by myself and the other by the very talented Candy Chan (who does the most amazing, precise wee details on fondants). It was very funny too as we both found out that our fondant cupcake toppers looked so much alike! And we didn’t even know we were both doing the same project for the same family. Haha.

The jersey-shaped cake turned out shorter than I had conceptualized, boo on that. But it worked nonetheless. Maybe it’ll win something in a tiny-T-shirt contest. Insides Rich Chocolate cake with ganache and Valrhona pearls. Oh yes, the cupcakes are my apparently bestselling Fudgey Walnut Brownie Cupcakes, which is receiving a couple more repeat orders from this family ^_^ Jazakallahu Khairan!

To everyone else, here, have some balls and you’ll find that you’ll never walk alone *koff koff*:

[Eye roll]

xoxo
nix

I think I’m getting the hang of sugar-craft. Sugarpaste (or fondant, or whatever it is you call it in your country), is nothing short of the fun you get from playing with play-doh. But after a million pieces of  tiny, petite, germ-sized pea of a paste, it is safe to say that I am officially needing some good amount of R&R. That however, is nowhere down the horizon: it looks like I’ve been barraged by a stampede of orders. Which, and please don’t get me wrong, I am very thankful for ^_^. This has been one hobby that has exhumed a long dormant desire to vent out my creativity through any conduit possible. One that’s also left a big gaping hole in my purse, no less

But let’s not get too hung up on words today, shall we? I just want to showcase to you a few of the recent sugar craft  designs that I’ve managed to make the past weeks. Enjoy!

First off, He Who Lives In a Pineapple, Under the Sea.

As annoying as he is, tell me who doesn’t love this geeky piece of square sponge who couldn’t seem to pass his driving test?! (or maybe he eventually did. I have not watched him for a while). I wish I had come up with him holding his spatula though! Or a crabby patty on one hand. Ahh, the prospects.

Insides of the cake is a Rich Dark Chocolate Cake with a thick layer of Ganache filling. No, not a sponge cake. *ehem* doo be doo….

Close up, gap between the teeth and all. You can easily make the tongue by using a heart-shaped cookie cutter and chopping off the bottom part according to the shape of the ‘mouth’. Not too difficult if I must say, but just a bit of detail to tolerate with. And this cake came with a set of cupcakes, simplified, because I under-estimated the amount of time to finish the main cake. Simplified means that Spongebob has lost his eyelashes. tsk tsk.

It would’ve been better to use 3D fondant toppers instead, but that would need a lot more time to make.. Since this was a rush order to begin with (remind me to never again!!) What is the cost of these, I hear you say? The answer is: one sleepless night. And the next day I had an important appointment at work too! hehe. The secret lies in the coffee brew ;p

Next, Spiderman. Yes, stark contrast indeed.

I only have one photo of this cake because it was my second night in a week that I had no sleep at all. So I was pretty much useless with the camera by dawn (when the photo was taken). Loads of improvements to this one cake too! In principle it appeared easily executable, but in actual fact it took me an hour just to enrobe the cake!! The reason is because the cake is quite ‘tall’ or rather thick, and had an oval-ish shape. The kneading of the fondant alone took me almost an hour… and rolling it to the right size and thickness was no stroll along the park. At last it was done; though it took two layers as  I needed to cover some holes on the fondant which was a result of thinning and pulling. Boo you gravity! I also wish that the web effect was tidier.

The same order included a selection of sugar cookies: Elmos, Cookie Monsters, and Duckies. Pardon the bad lighting. Dawn was still dark; and I hate camera flashes.

Then, for the next day (yes! I made these after the ‘important appointment at work’!!) , I made simple 2D fondant toppers for some Nutella-filled cupcakes with cinnamon buttercream (which incidentally tasted very interesting). The birthday girl is a cute little toddler called Iman who is , not incidentally, my niece ^_^

Phew! And here are some more from an order made by a young mommy who is so very proud of her very talented son named Kliff. Hope you liked them Kliff! He’s into hip-hop (and has won dance competitions, at only 8 when he did!). His mum was very excited and said the fondant figurine looks just like him ^_^ Cheers Lisa!

In the lineup are his favourites: Converse shoes (well ok, ONE shoe), Transformers (I opted to make Optimus Prime), Goku the dood from Dragonball (I found out he’s got a monkey tail!), and a few hip-hop fashion and breakdance items (Nike wrist bands, breakdancer silhoutte strutting his stuff, Kliff himself in his hoodie and backpack, the infamous rock hand gesture, a radio, and a cap:

Close ups, the Converse shoe:

It took me a looooonggg time to finish this shoe, but it was so worth it ^_^ The details were insane. And the interesting part is that you can actually eat it in one bite! (Though I’d probably be sobbing in the corner if you did).

Here’s another one that tested my patience to the max, yo:

But not as bad as this one!! I know it looks simple and it’s not even 3D, but OMG it took me an hour an a half in finally making the most precise version seen here. Free hand too, as tracing was out of the picture because Optimus Prime here is very small. Ouh, say about less than the size of a 50 cent coin. Crazy, much? @_@

And the other toppers, close up:

And I have some more photos but I think I’ll stop here as this post has gotten pretty long! Till then.

I know, I know… my last post was yonks ago. I have very good reasons for what people in the “industry” call ‘being on hiatus’. But I won’t bore you with them! I’m just glad to be back, and with loads of updates too ^_^ I’m starting with this one; a set of cupcakes with a graduation theme which I made for one of my friends (thanks doll!). She had ordered a cupcake each for all of her coursemates studying at our main university, who sat for their final final exams and now ready to get back to work as teachers. Don’t you just envy them?! They get to graduate a second time!

Well, not till September at least! Anyway, beneath all that fondant are the latest addition to my repertoire: Double Chocolate Fudgey Walnut Brownie cupcakes.

Just as it sounds, it’s a cupcake version of a brownie. Flaky and crusty on the top, fudgey and extremely gooey on the inside. It’s an absolutely decadent recipe that I adapted from Julia Child, but added significantly more chocolate (boo ya!) which is inserted in the middle of each cupcake to create a filling that melts as it bakes in the oven or when you reheat in the microwave. Yes, quite lava-cake like to be honest. Studded with walnuts generously strewn about in each brownie, and topped with a whipped ganache, this cupcake is easily worth ‘one hundred million calories*’.

I kid you not.

*said in the tone of Adam Sandler, Bedtime Stories*

For a simpler, lesser-calorie version (and also cheaper by the dozen!), I’ve now reduced the chocolate content and cut down on the walnuts (which are quite expensive and made the first version too costly to sell.. though I did manage to get a few orders). You may find this simplified version listed in The Cupcake Menu link on the sidebar ^_^

Happy eating!

I had been making an awful lot of children birthday party cakes and favours lately that I missed out on posting a couple of them here. This short post is all I can muster at the moment, so enjoy!

Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing for Aedan’s yacht club pool party guests:

These are bespoke items: hand crafted, custome-made, colour-coordinated, individually wrapped and heat-sealed. The level of customisation ensures Delisioucity’s clients receive premium quality products made out of passion and taste.
(Well ok, I tried very hard to make each one as perfect as possible!)

Amir’s brownie cupcakes. His family aren’t big fans of desserts or sweet things, so I settled on brownies (they’re a rather one-off consumption kind of thing) and the toppers are removable, bien sur! They had a proper ice-cream cake for everyone else too, so the 6 pieces were just right for themselves, post-partee.

I’m liking how Marie Elefantey is turning up to be quite a pseudo-mascot for delisioucity. (hehe)

My niece Batrisyia loves green so much and wanted this ladybug cake made for her birthday party. The inside is a carved Rich Dark Chocolate Cake layered with Belgian Chocolate Ganache and frosted with Vanilla Italian Meringue Buttercream. Fondant covered, and decorated with fondant pearls. I thought the pale, pastel green makes it look sweet rather than alarmingly alien and unpalatable. But I don’t really know anyone who eats fondant covers or decors, really :p

Having said that, why do we bother with decorations in the first place? Most people just peel the fondant off and eat the cake. But cupcakes I suppose have come a long way… the amount of fancy designs that you can afford makes them a great gift item(s). And the added perk is the fact that the edible, yet uneaten, fondant toppers can be kept for a long time, so they can be picked off the cupcakes and be kept as a memento  As long as they’re away from too much sunlight, the colours will also fade slower.

The insides are made of Almond and Lyle’s Maple Golden Syrup Cupcakes, and frosted with whipped chocolate ganache. It’s a pretty nice combination, and one of the new recipes that I’m experimenting with.

Backbreaking work, these fondants @_@

April is officially making my fingers cramped. This month, I’ve made birthday cakes for my brother, my best friend, my niece, cupcakes for my nephew, entremet for myself (auto-post will be up!), and some more coming up for my cousin’s son. Oh did I also forget to mention? I am also making macarons for Senor Pablo’s charity do, the Foodie Bloggers event next Sunday (26th Avril). So if you’ve been wanting to make an intellectual and palatial comparison between my macarons and those of *koff* Fleur de Lys (the only ‘other’ macaron that you can possibly find in Brunei), do ask Pablo how you can attend the event

You know when I went to Hua Ho to get this Barbie doll, I did NOT anticipate to stay at the toys section for half an hour. Care to consider the very phrase “like a kid in a candy store”? The truth of the matter is that I used to play all things Barbie when I was small; I used to dress her up and I used to have her kitchen set and some other. Non of my sisters played with Barbie… but then I am the youngest and most possibly the loneliest as everybody grew up and left home. Poor sod I was! haha… (long sigh). Anyhoo. Yes, it was quite fun being there, browsing about the different types and looks that Barbie could possibly be. She has absolutely changed I tell you, never have I seen so many different Barbie faces, and some were actually quite fugly to be honest! Anyway, I settled for the ‘kinder’, prettier one for my niece. Don’t want her getting nightmares now do we Barbie plays leading roles in several animated films, I’ve come to understand. And one of them is this one: she plays Odette, the girl who was cursed to become a swan, falls in love with a prince (hah!), somehow got turned back to a human/doll, married, and lived happily ever after. Or so that’s what I think anyway. Maybe I’m wrong but they all have the same soppy storylines, oui ??

The skirt is made from lemon Victoria sponge cake, and layered with Italian Meringue Buttercream. Barbie is donning a handmade fondant swan dress (ok I missed out on her sleeves), and piped with royal icing. Her clothes were packed in her original box, and yes, Barbie nowadays wears an undetachable pair of white knickers. Hoorah for that.

After attending a cousin’s wedding yesterday, it reminded me of my own  just a little over two years ago.  What can I say about the man who I can, at the very least, best describe as my best bud? He gives me such support that often I sit back and think, ‘can I not live on my own anymore?!’ or, ‘where’s that independent woman that I used to know?!’ That’s when red alert sirens go honking about in my head But for that matter also, I never fail to silently thank the Almighty for the love he gives me through my husband. Marriages are a true blessing; even in their darkest, more dramatic hues, they epitomize our will and ability to brave through any storm and emerge as wiser beings.  And for that we grow, we become sensitized to other people around us, and we offer our empathies to show that we too, can support. For the love and laughters that we all hope to last to eternity, a wedding truly only marks the beginning of a completely new and different life. Maybe it doesn’t for some, but it does beg the whole question of how much we reflect on each day, and to what extent our personal evaluations (Muhasabah) can come to any form of positive materialization. I do not think that there is such a thing as a perfect marriage or even a perfect couple, but I do believe that there are people who will go all their way out just to inch closer to that utopic notion. After all, perfection is only characterised and reserved for the eternal hereafter. And we strive to live for that.

This life, at least and so far for me, has been a sweet one, but never a life that is not punctuated with bits of drama You’d need that occassionally, I think. Let me indulge in a bit of metaphor: I like my omelletes with colourful tones of tomato, spinach, onion, cheese, mushroom… the works. You may call me a drama queen; and in fact at some point in the past, a colleague made sure she told my then future husband, that I was a lot to ‘maintain’. I wouldn’t so far as to go there, but I do know that some men enjoy ‘maintaining’ women. Whatever it is, and for whatever reason that that judgment was made pre-emptively  by an almost complete stranger to me, a marriage itself is often about maintenance work. You strive to uphold its  preciousness;  and I realise maybe that sentiment is a bit naive on my part. But when I silently watch my siblings’ marriages sometimes; the utter respect I pay to them who have lasted so long, is so tremendous that I can only hope to measure up. Let’s not even forget to mention our parents now, shall we? It is very possible that we learn from them, or from parents of others… of their mistakes and triumphs in many a challenge in life. Whether they faltered or not, I know that at least for my parents, they never lacked fogiveness and the hopes for better days. Marriage, my dear cousins and friends, is a little easier if both individuals make it that way And because we weren’t born with a “marriage manual” embedded in our heads, it also means that that new life after your wedding is all about learning, compromising and giving it your best shot. Cliche? I’d like to think not.

Anyhow, weddings are a downright joy and yesterday’s was no less. My cousin married a man from Tutong, a district in Brunei whose wedding culture is slightly more unique than others because of the feet-washing ceremony. It was quite exciting because this is the time when people who would pour water on the couples’ feet will hand some money to them. The amount received can be quite staggering at times ^_^  And whilst I was peering about amongst the many photographers trying to snap a decent picture of this ceremony, I got my shoes wet from stepping on the resulting splashes and puddles! No matter though, for the couple received quite a hefty amount yesterday despite being drenched on the feet I was happy for them (but felt quite small next to the heavy artilleries of the professional photographers!) haha.

I hear the bride absolutely loved the cake I made for them, and didn’t want to cut it. The cake itself was spot on with the colours of the dias, which was white with bits of green foliage (and golden hues). I especially enjoyed the fact that my intended lone red flowers on the top that was meant to represent the bride and groom became a literal manifestation as they were indeed wearing red/white. Although, I was told by the bride’s sister that the theme for the family was brown and cream for yesterday’s ceremony, but all I could dare to use was cream for the cake’s ribbon and flower centres. Perhaps I’d be more comfortable to marry pink with brown, like Peggy Porschen’s signature cakes; which is much to the effect of utter girlishness ^_^ I also wanted to try the stems-all-over effect, and boy did that take the whole night to make! Quite satisfying at the end though, especially when everyone liked the overall look

Have a great week ahead!

p/s. And thank you to my sisters who gave a lot of constructive criticisms and suggestions with regards to the colours and pricing of my cakes, which I will of course, take on board ^_^

xoxo
nikkita