So yeah, I thought I'd upload more photos of my baking and stuff *grins* It does kinda feel like it's turning into a food blog of some sorts, no? But oddly enough I don't feel the need to make this blog into one. Probably coz I'm just trying out recipes and not trying to create my own recipes of the sort...also probably coz there have been too many great food blogs with their recipes and amazing photography out there in the blogosphere. Doubt that anyone would read this little blog of mine...so for now, I'll just be posting photos of the recipes I've tried out, just as a memoir of what I did. Heh!
Focaccia bread, topped with tomatoes, garlic, salt and Italian herbs
After that successful attempt at Italian bread, I had a hankering to try out another kind of bread...this time savory. The thought of tomato focaccia bread crossed my mind and I jumped at it. Problem was, most of the time I can only do my baking in the evenings after work...and one of the best things with bread is to taste it freshly baked from the oven. By the time I'd finish baking it, it'll be midnight and I don't want it to get too cold. Solution? I slept earlier that night and woke up extra early (think 3 am-ish!) to make the bread. By the time I finished, it was around 6-7am and just in time for breakfast. YAY!
Close up on my slice of bread
I loved the taste of this bread...drizzled with some olive oil, it's a healthy yet hearty kind of bread =) With the herbs, it tastes faintly like pizza too...yum!
A while after that I found some butterscotch chips stashed in my fridge! They were gifts from a friend visiting from Canada...I'd forgotten about them when I left them in the fridge. When I found the chips, I looked up recipes for butterscotch chips and found Bakerella's recipe for triple chip cookies! They were AMAZING! Little bit on the sweet side coz of all the chips, but SUPER yum! It's too bad that we can't buy butterscotch chips in Malaysia...else I would have made this recipe over and over and over again. LOL!
Next, I made some rosette cupcakes for my Mom for Mother's Day...wanted to make something for her, but I am not as good as her in the cooking department. So I just baked up some cupcakes and stuck them into a bouquet!
These cupcakes were quite pretty...not a brag on my own skill, but the genious use on the Wilton 1M tip by I am baker to make rosettes was so cool! After trying it out, I find that it really WAS that easy...heh! Tried also to make some little shading on the frosting by painting some gel food coloring in the bag, but they didn't turn out as well as it did...still, all was good though!
The bouquet was done by a florist, not me...hehe! I wish I had the skills, but I didn't so I left it to the pros. They initially advised against me just using the dowels as a guide for the 'flowers' as they wanted to see how big the cupcakes were to figure out placements, but I didn't have my cupcakes with me then so they just had to make do. And boy was it difficult sticking the frosted cupcakes on to the dowels! But thankfully, it was not too bad, and made it to my Mom's hands without much smearing...yay! Excuse the coloring of the cupcakes' frosting. I don't know why but the photos taken with my iPhone changed the pink frosting to peach. LOL!
The rosette cupcake bouquet was done on a Friday evening...I presented the bouquet to my Mom on Saturday morning, then went for the Russell Peters' show on Saturday evening. Came home Sunday morning-ish, then headed out to the PJ Dawn race (yay!). After the race, I slept for like 2-3 hours before I started on another marathon...a cake 'marathon'! LOL! Yes, another friend ordered these cakes for her party. It was quite a last minute order, but I was gung ho and didn't want to pass up on an opportunity to bake so yeah...'clever me'. LOL! This cake was a meatloaf cake for her dog, Buddy who turned 12!
Some little close ups on the cake...I colored the top part of the mashed potato frosting purple (and they turned out blue -_-""). Then I topped it off with some fondant pieces to jazz it up a little. No, fondant shouldn't be eaten by our dogs coz it's all sugar but I've learnt that a little bit of sugar every now and then wouldn't hurt. Plus, it's for his birthday...it's okay *wink*
I quite like the way this cake turned out...the mashed potato made a great frosting to make even (though I do still need practice on this, as you can see). The side of the cake got decorations in the form of ham pieces and cheese *grins* From the feedback I got when the cake was cut by my friend: "The cake smelled so good that even the kids wanted to eat it! I had to stop them by telling them the cake was for the dogs only." LOL! I told her that the cake can also be eaten by humans since I've not used any kind of dog food in it...it's all human-grade ingredients. Just without salt so the cake might taste bland, but hey...dogs taste with their sense of smell first so if it smells good, there's a good chance they'll eat and enjoy it! *wink*
I made this cake on the same day too...chocolate ganache cake! Cake was the chocolate sheet cake by the Pioneer Woman baked in 8-inch round pans then glazed over with chocolate ganache. I was a bit tired by now so the finishing was left to be desired...partly also coz I was too anxious with time and didn't let the ganache set enough to apply it on the cake. Result? The ganache spilled and overflowed almost everywhere. Eep!
Luckily it was salvageable, and I decorated the cake with some fondant mums again =) I loved the colors this time around...the contrast of the cheery colors with the dark dark chocolate background made me go "YAYY!" once I was done *grins*
And in some other unrelated photos, I thought I'd upload some of Scottie and Kenji's photos again....they've been getting 'cute' these days. LOL! Scottie just recently got groomed so he looked presentable (though the beard is still so stained! Eep!). I'm working on making his beard white again so hopefully it'll work in a few months or so...heh!
Well, that's about it for now...I've still got more big projects coming up, and some other updates. So here's to more great and positive updates! YAY!
