Random Musings  

Posted by: Audrey in

Just felt like blogging a little after a long bout of not doing it....heh! Been a little okay, very busy with work and the 'activities' after work - mostly boot camp workouts outside. Boot camp was surprisingly fun and enjoyable...I think I'm going to miss it a little now that the sessions are done for the month (I bought vouchers for different 'camps'' promotions, so they're mostly one month sessions....cheaper than forking out hundreds for a month. The only catch is, the sessions ONLY last a month. *sigh*) Commitments at the moment are a little high, so I don't really have that much to spare....=( Not even for capoeira, which I'm missing also. *sigh* I'm regretting taking up that gym membership a little. Oh well, what's done is done right? I should be just getting back into the gym since I've already paying for it and all that. 

Ah yes, got into a little an accident right on the last day of February. Long story short, car skidded due to *ahem* the so-called slippery road, hit the car on my left, then spun a few times coming to a stop. After a while, because my car was still on the fast lane, an unsuspecting car came and hit the back of my car -_-" Blah blah blah (police report, towing, etc) the car was in the workshop for about 2 weeks and now I have my car back. Yay! The 2 weeks of taking public transport was a nightmare, to say the least....but it does make for fun amusement in people watching. Heh! The things I hear people say and see them do at the stations or in the train sometimes just cracks me up =)

Also got a few kinda big baking projects lined up...crossing my fingers that they turn out well, coz they really are quite big orders. When I'm done with it, will post up more photos...along with some other projects that I've done. It seems recently that I've been baking more cakes and pastries that I've forgotten how to make cupcakes and muffins. LOL! I shall 're-hone' those skills again this week...*crosses fingers*

Baking Overload...  

Posted by: Audrey in

Seems like I have a lot of backlogged posts, so I'm going to try to post then ASAP before I forget about it yet again. LOL! These projects were from February actually, but then I'd been so busy I forgot all about it till I came extra early to work today (long story...probably I'll be able to tell it in my next post! *wink*) So, be prepared for a long-winded photo post =P

We start off with some ombre cookies! Got the inspiration from Sweetsugarbelle (that girl has SOOO much talent, it's crazy!) Mine are nowhere near her standards, but I do love the execution....so fun!


And I tried to play with edible ink pen too...my calligraphy needs work. LOL!

 My one (and only) attempt at brush embroidery. Got so inspired by a tutorial (link here) on it that I tried it with glaze icing...only to find that glaze icing doesn't hold its shape so much like royal icing =( I'm going to need to try royal icing again some time!


Since I couldn't do brush embroidery, I decided to do some other stuff with the icing...'cherry blossoms'! Yes, I know it didn't have any pink on it, and the colors are appalling, but what to do...I was lazy to make more colors, so I just used these as practice. Hehe! Dots are so fun!


I also tried out some tree designs...at first, it was a little weird, but as I got used to how to pipe and all, the end result weren't too bad =)


These cookies were made with royal icing together with my good friend and fellow baking enthusiast, Justina! We initially wanted to do so many patterns, but we kinda made the icing a little too runny so we had to improvise...wet-on-wet technique it is!



 I tried out the cherry blossom thing again after watching some videos on how to do it using only a toothpick as a tool....it could definitely be improved on, but I like how the initial results turned out! Will try again next time =D


 Justina did some cupcakes....aren't they cute?


 I tried out a design that I saw Sweetsugarbelle did on her Youtube channel...but I forgot that this 'present' cookie had a bow. LOL! Oh well...Justina's blue polka dot one is pretty!



 And some other stuff that we did....I tried to emulate a Valentine's design at some point but it came out disastrous. Sigh...guess I'm not Valentine material. LOL!


My more recent endeavour....another big cake, this time around for Arte e Vida's studio anniversary =) They wanted a coconut cake paired with chocolate, so I looked up some coconut cake recipes. Not many sounded quite good as they felt more like cake loaves rather than the light, airy cake that I pictured in my head. =/ Then, I Googled for Brazilian coconut cake (since the instructors are Brazilian, I figured...why not?) and found a cool recipe! It was light and had a great taste to it, what with having some condensed milk and coconut milk soaking a little into it (Yum!). Instead of doing it like in the recipe though, I put chocolate ganache in between the layers of cake and topped it with whipped cream and desiccated coconut. The logo is fondant that I hand cut. Quite tedious work, but when it all came together it was so satisfying! I got rave reviews about the cake, so it was a keeper! *grins*


I didn't manage to taste the cake though the other day, coz I was in a rush....so as an excuse, I made another cake. LOL! This time around, I used my mini springform pans to try them out....they turned out so cute! But I poured a little too much batter into the pans so they overflowed a little =/ Leveling cakes were my disaster...I have no idea how to level them properly so my cake was lopsided. *sigh* But I did enjoy the experience though...icing a cake is not easy, but once it's done, it's sooo satisfying! Hopefully, I'll be able to bake more for practice *crosses fingers*