Fire Theme Cupcakes

Here are the pictures of the cupcakes I made for the recent customers. 

The flame cupcakes. 

The fireman hose cupcakes. 

    

Cupcakes in the boxes ready for pick up. 

Cream Firemen Hose Cupcakes

As I received an order of fireman hose cupcakes, I have been trying to make cupcakes with hoses in fondant and hoses in cream. 

I found that hoses made in fondant looked better but since the customer wanted them to be cream hoses, I continued trying my best to make nicer hoses in cream. 

I had tried out many brands of red colouring and even did some experiments on the 'soaking' time with those colourings. Finally I got the color I wanted and the hoses looked much better. 

May I present to you my 'fireman hose' cupcakes! 

I am thankful for the opportunity in making these cakes. 

Red Red Red

I got an order to make fireman hose cupcakes and I have decided to make red hoses as the other design is yellow flame. 

So I thought red hoses should look better if  two types of cakes are put side by side on the same cup cake stand. 

I have never thought that getting a true red butter cream is something not so straightforward. I first tinted some cream with Chefmaster Christmas Red and I found that the color didn't turn out to be red, but pink instead. I got panic and added in some orange powder, thinking that it might help to make it vibrant and more fire engine like. No, it didn't turn out to be what I wanted. Instead, the color, though became more intense, looked very old and boring. Yucks!!

I then came out with a brilliant idea- drove to a 24hour sundry shop nearby and got a small bottle of red colouring powder. I got even shocked. The anticipated red turn out to be light purple! 

That night, I was pretty unhappy but still continued piping. The end result was quite lousy as the color was not vibrant. 

The next day, I decided to do a color test. The Chefmaster colouring still couldn't  meet my requirement. It was still pink. 

I did another experiment with the red colouring powder I bought from the sundry shop the other day. The colour was still purple. 

Then I look up at the internet. I googled about it and found that I wasn't alone in the journey of getting the vibrant red butter cream. 

I read about some comments. One of them actually says that the colouring will get more vivid after some time. So just put some colouring and let the color sit. If the shade still isn't up to what we are looking for, then only should we add in some more colouring. 

The next thing I read about was about the brand of colouring. I found that many people actually prefer Americolor than Wilton or any other brand. Besides, I have also watched someone making a cake with many vibrant colours in YouTube that uses Americolor. 

These had helped me making my decision to look for 'Super Red' by Americolor. I bought it and started tinting some cream with it. I also made sure to leave the red cream for a while before adding additional dye. Yes, the result was stunning. The red was exactly what I was looking for and the colour actually intensified and became vibrant. 

The experiment in tinting butter cream. Picture was taken indoor at the same place and with the same lighting.

I hope this post is helpful to you. Thank you. 

Seaweed Soy Floss

Have you heard about the seaweed soy floss? Can you imagine that soy bean can be made into floss? Well, at least for me, I haven't until I tried on this. 

It doesn't cost that much. It's only about RM14 for a packet of 250g. The beans used are organic, non-GMO. 

The texture is light and crunchy. It tastes just like the normal chicken or pork floss, but with bean smell.

The floss also comes with seaweed stripes, which I think complements quite well with the soy bean floss. 

This floss is imported from Taiwan and can be eaten with porridge, bread, sandwiches, sushi and rice, just to babe a few. 

I think this floss isn't bad at all. For those vegetarian out there, this is something you must try! 

Pot Bless During UPSR

'Makan time' (eating time) is a happy time. 

Today, my colleagues and I had a pot bless time in the office. There were many types of good food prepared by the us. 

I lined up quickly and got myself a bowl of bak kut teh soup (herbal tea pork ribs soup). Uh! The soup smells delicious and it has the sweetness of the pork. The meat was sweet and tender too. 

Some of the food prepared by the colleagues

Food I prepared

Skewered cherry tomatos, quill eggs and cucumbers

Somebody was doing a demo on bread and pizza making. The smell of the garlic bread filled the air. Personally, I don't like the smell of it especially in the office. 

Time actually flies quite slowly after eating time especially there isn't a class for anyone of us today. 

Making Sample Cupcakes

Arrgghh! I really was so tired. 

Since accepting an order for cupcakes from Kevin's friend , I thought I should practise doing the decoration of the cupcakes. So I baked a dozen of lemon cupcakes and tried piping. 

Lemon butter cupcakes

The flame icing was pretty easy to make and it looked nice too. The topper was made of fondant. It takes some time but the effect was nice. 

However, the design of a fireman hose was a little bit tricky. First, the hose was too plain as it was. Second, the shape of a hose is snake-like. That's why, I tried on a few orientations of the hose, and I still didn't like it. 

Well I will try again today. 

Dragonfruit Jelly Mooncake

Kevin came back telling me that he tried on a dragonfruit jelly Mooncake and he loved it. So I thought I would just give it a try. 

This is how I made my dragonfruit jelly mooncakes. 

Purée 

Dice half a dragonfruit and put them into a hand press. Press out the purée. 

Filling

1 teaspoon jelly powder

400ml water

2 tablespoon condensed milk

80g dragonfruit purée

1) Mix everything together except the dragonfruit purée in s sauce pan. 

2) Bring mixture to boil then add the purée. (This should bring mixture slightly below boiling point)

3) Turn off fire and let cool a little before pouring it into small cupcake cups. 

4) Let it cured then remove the filling. 

Skin

10g jelly powder

4 tbsp sugar

700ml water

80g dragonfruit purée 

1) Mix everything except the purée in a saucepan. 

2) Bring mixture to boil, then put in the purée. 

3) Let boil and turn off the fire. 

Assemble

1) Pour the skin mixture in the the mould about 1/2 cm. 

2) Place filling at the centre. 

3) Pour the remaining skin mixture into the cavity till full. 

4) Let it cure. 

5) Chill the jelly mooncakes in the fridge before serving.