Hello Kitty Cake Pops

These Hello Kitty shaped cakes pops are no where near as difficult as they may seem. I made these for a special friend of mine who absolutely loves Hello Kitty. Simply use your favourite truffle recipe and follow the steps. I have used an Oreo truffle to make these cake pops.

To make these Hello Kitty cake pops, roll out truffle into a ball shape and lightly flatten to resemble a disc shape. Hold the truffle in one hand, use the other hand to shape the 'ear' using a pinching motion at a 45° angle. Repeat this process to shape the other ear (roughly 225°). Once your cake pop is starting to form the shape of Hello Kitty head, stick it on a skewer, and dip them into melted white chocolate.  Be sure to generously coat them in the melted chocolate

Allow the white chocolate to harden for about 30 - 45 mins. Now it's time for some painting.... food painting. Using dark or milk chocolate, paint on the eyes using a toothpick (unfortunately I don't have proper cake decorating tools yet so I had to settle with using toothpick). Now draw three lines on each side of the face to represent the whiskers. Mix some yellow food colour into white chocolate and draw a little yellow dot in the centre of the cake pop to represents the nose.

To make the cute little bows you need two little candy love hearts, the ends need to to facing each other and stick then on using melted white chocolate.

Enjoy.

Friands

A Friand is a small French cake, typically made from almond meal and egg whites. It is a very rich little cake and tastes just heavenly. I had fallen in love with friands a few years ago, I first tried them at a coffee shop I would normally get my morning coffee from before going to work. Then one day I had decided to try this interestingly oval shaped cake and from then on I could not resist from getting my daily dose of friands.

Sadly I had to ditch the hazelnut syrup from my latté and settle for a normal latté so I can then enjoy my little friand otherwise it would have been sugar overload.

Friands are dense and moist in texture and make a delightful treat for an afternoon tea or even something to snack on throughout the day (if you want to be naughty). I have added vanilla, lemon juice and rind to give and extra dash of flavour but the variations for Friands are endless. Blueberries and raspberries are amongst popular choice of fruits to add to your friands. Even diced pears and apples would work well too. I personally like adding orange juice and rind to give it a nice citrus flavour.

There are speciality pans available to bake your friands in. they come in metal bake-ware as well as silicon moulds. They can be found in most retail outlets or online. I have used a mini friand pan because I love my treats petit.

Mini Triple Choc Mousse Cake

I just love my desserts in miniature versions. These triple chocolate mousse cake makes the perfect dessert. It has a very light and smooth texture with a great blend of the milk and white chocolate mousses on a dark chocolate base. 

I made these gorgeous little desserts using Bakers Secret Loose Base Dessert Pan. It works great for making individual cakes and desserts.

High Heel Cupcakes

Let's get creative. Whether it's a birthday party, bridal shower or Mother's day, these high heel cupcakes are perfect for any occasion. They are delicious, beautiful and sure to impress your friends. I made these for my mum on her birthday last year and she just loved them.

Dress up your favourite cupcake flavour with the latest trends. The styles and designs are unlimited. For example, if making these for a little girls birthday, I would use edible flowers and butterflies as embellishments on the shoes. 

If making them for bridal shower, I would go with a sophisticated and elegant theme and replicating designer logos and prints. 

The ideas are endless. Get creative and design your favourite shoe.

Mexican cups

Why not put a twist to the way you eat taco with these adorable little taco cups. They require little prep time and are guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser.

I make my taco cups using tortilla wraps. Cut them into round shape, place it in a muffin tin and bake them in the oven for 5 – 10 mins until crispy.

Make your favourite meat or veggie filling using lovely Mexican flavours. Fill the filling into the cups, top with sour cream, three cheeses and a fresh and zesty tomato, avocado and spanish onion salsa.

Cute Easter Treats

These are very cute little Easter treats. I made them during Easter last year. Unfortunately I had no time to come up with some more cute treats this year :(

The bunnies are chocolate truffles dipped in white chocolate. Ears are made from marshmallows and their faces are painted on using food colour.

The chicks in chocolate egg baskets are my favourite treats. I've used a muffin tin to create a basket look. Then placed little Easter eggs and toy chicks in them. 

I have a fantastic idea to create edible chicks. I planned on making them year but had no time. You can make edible chicks by mixing dessicated coconut, condensed milk and some yellow food colour. Roll them into the shape of chicks and paint on face using food colour. Will definitely try this next year.

These make fantastic treats for the kids (and adults love them too). Hope everybody had a fantastic Easter.

Delicious Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs are very quick and easy to make. They can be served at breakfast or as snack. However you choose to make them, they are guaranteed to be a scrumptious treat for the family.

Unfortunately I don't have a recipe for them, I just go by taste but I assure you they are very tasty and simple to make. First, you need to hard boil the eggs (lets say 3 eggs), once they are done cut them in half and scoop out the yolks into a bowl. Mash the yolks and add about 3 -5 tablespoon of mayonnaise, mix unit it resembles a smooth paste. Add a few drops of Tabasco sauce, 1/2 teaspoon of dijon mustard, 1/4 teaspoon paprika and season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Then you can either spoon the mixture into the egg white shells or pipe then in as I did in the photos. Secure a star  nozzle into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag). Fill the bag with the yolk mixture and gently pipe into the hard boiled egg white into a circular motion. Top with chopped chives and enjoy :)

Chocolate explosion!! Nutella filled choc-chip cookies

Lemon Cheesecake with summer fruits and berries

Did somebody say cheesecake? 

A few years ago I was not a very big fan of cheesecake. Then I got married and everybody in my family loves cheesecake. I was then determined to find a good recipe. After looking through many recipes, I finally found one that I like. It is a baked version and quite simple to make and most of all, everybody loves them.

I like the idea of making individual cheesecakes. They look so elegant and bring a lot of character on the plate when served to guests. The cheesecake itself is smooth and has a hint of lemon in it.

Dress the cheesecakes up with seasonal fruits and apply warmed apricot jam on them. The apricot jam gives the fruits a nice glaze and helps maintain freshness of the fruits when kept in the refrigerator over days.

Valentines day cookies

 It's valentines day. I've never really been a huge fan of the idea of valentines day. Everyday is a wonderful and special day with my hubby therefore everyday is valentines day to me. However I couldn't help but making these super cute 'I love U' cookies this year.

My plan was to make a huge batch of home-made, hand-crafted and personalised cookies for my friends and family for V-day this year. Unfortunately I could not do that as I had an Estate Planning exam the day before and would not have been able to cope with making so many cookies.

Luckily enough I did manage to bake and hand craft a small amount of cookies for my colleagues to give to their partners. These pictures are from a trial I made a week prior to valentines day. I experimented with a few more designs with the cookies I made for my colleagues and they turned out beautiful and also had the names of their partner's on them.

Christmas Treats

Mr Snowman has so much personality.