On Break...

It's been a great year of baking and trying out new recipes for me.  I really enjoyed baking for my friends out there too.  I'll be off on vacation from next week so my oven and kitchen will be taking a rest until next year.  Do check back in January for new offers!

In the meantime, have a great CHRISTmas and a wonderful time with family and friends.

Choir Camp!

Four weeks have quickly passed since I joined the church choir.  This evening we begin Day 1 of the choir camp which runs through Sunday.  We are rehearsing for this week's beautiful anthem New Jerusalem (sung by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir), worship songs plus our carolling songs!  What makes this experience really special is that my daughter Alethea is joining us for carolling.  It's been fun practising at home. 

To commemorate this weekend, I decided to bake a treat for the members who have been working SO hard.  Here's what I made...

I used a sweet dough for the crust using my French butter which turned out really nice.  Not oily at all, fragrant and light.

After the crust cooled completely, I melted my 57% Valrhona chocolate and lined the bottom of the crust for just a nice hint of chocolate.  Then I spread my French cream cheese that was beaten with French butter, icing sugar, vanilla extract and a little Brown Brothers Cienna wine.

Then I topped with whatever fruits I had.  Colourful, eh?  I love it!

Since I baked 4 tarts for the choir, each was decorated differently.  I only photographed two.

For my leftover dough, I made mini tarts for ourselves to "test."  Alethea had a grand time decorating them and I think she ate 3 in an hour!  We had a blast practising our songs and decorating our tarts.  Now the weekend will be complete if only it will snow...

Oatmeal Sandwich

You will remember I was on a baking spree this week!  This morning, I toasted two slices of my homemade oatmeal multigrain bread and made a luncheon meat omelette.  It was delicious!  For this lot of baking I added flaxseed, almond and sunflower kernels for added fibre and nutrients.  It didn't change the taste nor texture of the bread.  In fact, it added a bit more flavour.

I made the loaves of bread smaller than store bought size because I find it much easier to handle. This sandwich is only the size of my palm (minus the fingers!).  Homemade bread seems to be much more substantial than store bought ones.  Two slices leave me quite full.

If you haven't tried baking bread, do try it out!  It's therapeutic, healthy and satisfying.  Let me know how it goes!

American Carrot Cake (specially for Li Ling)

Cake Batter
300 gms flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon powder
100 gms white fine sugar
200 gms Muscovado sugar
269 gms safflower oil
200 gms eggs without shells
2 tsp vanilla extract
454 gms coarsely shredded carrots
142 gms raisins

This recipe will make two 9x2-inch round cakes.  Prepare cake pans with butter and parchment paper for the bottom.  Pre-heat oven to 175 dec C.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon together. 

In the mixing bowl beat the two sugars, oil, eggs and vanilla on medium speed for about 2 minutes or till lighter colour.  Add the flour mixture and beat on low speed until just incorporated.  Add the carrots and raisins/nuts and beat for about 12 seconds.  Scrape down the sides.  Divide the batter into half, scrape into the cake pans and smoothen out the top.  It should be under half full.

Bake for 35-45 minutes or until a cake tester in the centre comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in the centre.    Let the cakes cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then unmold them.  Cool completely on the rack (make sure the cakes are upright).

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 packs of Philadelphia cream cheese (cool)
1/3 cup good quality unsalted butter (softened)
Icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Beat the cream cheese and butter till smooth and start adding the icing sugar a little at a time (half cup) until you get the sweetness you want.  Too little sugar will cause the cream cheese to be less stable or too soft to frost the cake.  Last of all add the vanilla extract.

Make sure the cakes are absolutely cool when you frost them.

Banana Bread (Quick Bread)

This morning, my son had to wake up at 5.30am for his school attachment and since I had a few very ripe bananas in my kitchen, and I had some time before my gym class, I decided to bake banana bread!  Sorry I forgot to take photos except for these.

One recipe yielded 3 small loaves as seen here.  I can't believe the bread is SO light, it feels like chiffon cake!!  I've tried many recipes before and some were better than others, but this one must be the best.  Since last week I've been using Elle & Vire or President butter for all my baking, and so far the cakes and breads have turned out much nicer, more tender, tastes so much better and not so oily.

You can see the lighter colour bits are the bananas.  I added raisins too.

2 eggs

1 cup Muscovado sugar

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups cake flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup nuts or raisins (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F and use a 9x5 inch loaf tin.

Use the creaming in method.  Bake for an hour or so.

I am presuming you know how to bake so am not adding the method here. 

For my friends out there who love to bake a great cake, I challenge you to know more about your ingredients before choosing a recipe or even changing anything in the recipe.  I learned so much in the past few weeks, especially about butter (there are different grades with diffferent percentages of fat), cheese, sugars, leavening and flours.  There's lots of information on the internet so take advantage of that. 

Meanwhile, I'll continue my research and will post recipes when I feel that I've found a great one.  If you know of great recipes, share them with me too!

Breakfast!

Remember I made a large oatmeal with wholemeal loaf (no cinnamon) on Monday?  Well, I kept it in an air tight box until this morning.  It was a dream to slice.  I toasted two slices, slathered on a little bit of olive oil margarine and homemade marmalade (sorry no photos!).  It was delish!  Here's a photo after I sliced it.

It had a light, airy texture, some crunch to it but not too much, and was a little heavier than the regular brand of store bought bread but nonetheless very satisfying.

I think I'll experiment with more grains.  This means I don't have to fortify the bread with chemical vitamins.  Try to make your own bread and let me know how it goes!

Oatmeal and Wholemeal Bread

Yes, I'm afraid I've been smitten by the bread baking addiction bug!  It's a lovely cool day today and bread baking is usually not recommended but I went ahead anyway.  I used the same recipe as last night's but made some changes like using some wholemeal flour and darker brown sugar (Muscovado).  Here are the photos!

After heating up the milk, I poured it into my mixing bowl where I already had my oatmeal, butter and sugar.  I stirred occasionally so the brown sugar could dissolve properly.  I waited for about 30 minutes or till the mixture is warm to the touch but not hot.  Then I added 2 cups of flour, the yeast and beat till mixed.

I then kept adding cup after cup of flour using the mixer hook until the mixture was sticky but not wet (low speed please otherwise your kitchen and you will turn white!).  Then on medium speed I kneaded it for 8 minutes. This is what it looked like after 8 minutes.

I transferred the dough to my table with lots of flour.  The mixture was quite sticky but I just made sure I had enough flour under the dough.  I then covered it with a damp tea towel until it double in size, about 90 minutes.

Here you can see how the dough has doubled.

I poked holes with fingers to show you how airy it had become.  I then measured out the dough on my digital weighing machine (yes, I'm a perfectionist!).

Here's a mini oval loaf just put in...

Here's what it looked like after 30 minutes.

I made one in a tart pan (the ones with the removeable bottom).

After baking, it looked really nice.

Here's the mini oval loaf.

And the one in the tart pan.  Nice, eh?

One thing to note about baking bread with no stabiliser (chemicals).  It may be a bit denser than what you're used to buying from the store.  But the good thing is, you know exactly what you put in it!  For me, I used organic ingredients.

I hope you get inspired to try it out!  Don't be discouraged if you don't get the exact results you want.  Try again and again.  Get used to working with the bread dough.  It's really fun to make and to eat too!  Let me know how it goes.

Oatmeal Cinnamon Bread

Thank you to those who responded to my breadmaking day!  You've asked for the recipe, here it is.  I presume you know how to make basic bread.  Do remember that your mixture cannot be too hot otherwise you will kill the yeast!  Too cool and it won't rise so much.

DOUGH

4 cups (32 fluid oz) very hot milk (not boiling)


2½ cups (11 oz/311 g) old-fashioned oats

1/2 cup (2 oz/62g) oat bran or extra oats

1/2 cup (3½ oz/96 g) packed brown sugar

1/4 cup (1/2 stick/2 oz) unsalted butter ( used Elle & Vire because it's not so oily and tastes wonderful but you can use any good quality butter)




1 Tablespoon (3/8 oz/11 g) instant yeast (the kind in the box)

6 to 7 cups bread flour (6 cups = 1 lb, 15 oz/871 g)

1 Tablespoon (5/8 oz/20 g) salt




1.  Combine oats, oat bran, brown sugar, and butter in a very large mixing bowl. Add hot water and stir until combined. Let it sit until about 80°F, about 30 minutes or warm to the touch.

2.  Combine yeast with 2 cups of flour and stir into oat mixture. Continue stirring in flour one cup at a time until a soft dough forms. Either transfer dough to a well floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes or use the hook attachment of your mixer and beat for 8 minutes.

3.  Sprinkle flour in the dough bowl, place the dough in it, liberally dust it with flour, and cover it with a damp tea towel.

4.  Ferment (first rise): Approximately 1½ hours if dough is at an optimal 70 to 75°F. When the dough is ready, you should be able to push your finger deep into it and leave an indentation that does not spring back.


5.  Divide and shape into loaves (mine were 310gm for tiny loaves, 550gm for medium loaves and the rest went to the normal loaf).  You can shape it into anything you like!  For the cinnamon bread, see below.


CINNAMON SUGAR

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 tblsp ground cinnamon

Soft butter


1.  Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside until the dough is ready to be shaped.  (Turn on your oven to about 160 deg C or 325 deg F).

2.  After measuring out the dough, use your hands to flatten into a rectangular shape.  Add small scraps of soft butter to the dough, leaving one short end clean.  Use a spoon to sprinkle the cinnamon sugar on the rest of the dough.

3.  Starting from the top short end (the clean end is to seal the dough), roll tighhtly until the clean end and use your fingers to press and seal the dough.

4.  Turn the shaped dough so the sealed end is at the bottom and put into the buttered loaf tin or parchment paper on a pan.

5.  Cover with a damp tea towel and let it prove (2nd rise) until double its size.

6.  Bake for about 30 minutes, making sure the top doesn't burn.  Different ovens heat differently.  If the top starts to burn, use a small piece of aluminium foil to put lightly on top.  Adjust your oven heat accordingly.

7.  I usually know the bread is ready from the wonderful smell!  If you tap it, the bread will sound hollow.

8.  When the bread is ready, brush some butter on top to make it shine.  Cool for at least 30 minutes before enjoying the fruit of your labour!

Sorry I've no step-by-step photos.  Will try to take some when I make my next batch!

Baking Day

My usual Monday routine is spending time with my husband, going to the gym and having a leisurely lunch to catch up.  However, today turned out to be an extra busy day for him starting at 9am and ending at 9pm or later.  So to keep myself occupied, I decided that I would try out new recipes!

This was what I baked in the morning.

 
I baked a rich, chocolate bundt cake. It turned out really well. It was moist, tender and very fine. Since my son was going to school late today, I decided to pack 16 slices drenched with icing sugar and chocolate syrup for his friends. He came home and reported that they really liked it.  Unfortunately I had to pack the cake for him very quickly and forgot to take photos.


 

In the evening I baked BREAD!  It's been a long time since I made bread and it turned out to be a success as well.  I tried an oatmeal cinnamon twist bread recipe and like it so much I think I will use this often.  

Here's a small loaf and a tiny loaf (single serving).

This recipe yields quite a lot of dough so I made a large (normal size) oatmeal plain loaf for those who don't like cinnamon,  4 small cinnamon twists loaves and 5 tiny ones (picture above).  I had expected oatmeal bread to be a little dense but these turned out to be quite light and airy.  If I have guests for dinner and am serving a western style soup, I'd probably baked tiny loaves so each person has a personal loaf of bread to accompany the soup course!

I must say the smell of bread baking in my kitchen is quite addictive!  I feel like making MORE bread!  Maybe I'll make some for the choir this Sunday.  How does 60 tiny loaves sound?

New Baking Supplies

After weeks of experimenting with butters, sugars, cheeses and chocolates, I've decided on what I'd use in all my future baking.  It was quite a fun and interesting journey for me going to many places to try different cakes and desserts.  Some well known cafes didn't even know what their cakes are made of!   I suppose we can't blame them because they don't bake their own goods.  It also boils down to what we really want in our food.  Cheap may not mean good, and expensive may also not mean good!

Anyways, from now on, if you order any of my cakes you can expect these new ingredients because I liked them the best.

This package comes only in 1.36kg size!  I'd have to make plenty of cheesecakes or frosting using this one pack!

I really love the taste of this butter and will use it for buttercreams.  It is one of the more expensive brands around.

This butter will be used in all my butter cakes.  It's less oily, light, sweet, fresh, fine and makes a lovely cake.  When I bake with this butter, the whole house smells amazing (my teenager daughter will wake up from her sleep to come out to investigate what's baking in the oven!) and I simply love it.

In the next couple of weeks, I'll be revising my cake prices and also coming up with new flavours.  Stayed tuned!

Cheesecake Survey

For the past few days I've been trying cheesecake from many different places including cafes, bakeries as well as supermarkets.  Prices ranged from S$3.20 to $5.60 per slice.  So far I've not found a good one, although some are not too bad.  Here's my survey:

1.  Do you like/love cheesecake?  If you do, what makes it WOW for you?
2.  Do you usually buy from cafes, bakeries or supermarkets?  Which is your favourite cheesecake shop and why?
3.  When you buy cheesecake, what do you look for?  Presentation?  Taste?  Fruits/toppings?
4.  If I baked a cheesecake for you, what would you like it to taste and look like?
5.  Are you prepared to pay slightly more for a good quality cheesecake?  How much more?

Your comments will help me as I plan to bake my cheesecakes.

Please leave your comments on my blog.  Everyone who leaves a comment will be eligible for a lucky draw.   Last comment by next Saturday midnight!   Your gift will be a cake baked by me!

First Order for the Week Done!

I had an order of 4 desserts for 50 people today.  Started baking the American Carrot Cupcakes and Cookies n Cream cheese cupcakes yesterday and left them in the fridge to chill.  This morning I woke up early to make the Apple Cinnamon Struesel Cupcakes and the Decadent Chocolate Cakes.  My kitchen was filled with the amazing smells of cinnamon and chocolate!

The weather started heating up and by lunch time it was so hot I was wondering how on earth I would be able to keep the frosting cool.  I had to refrigerate all the desserts and they took up 80% of the space in my regular sized fridge!  I ended up freezing my cheesecakes which was an excellent idea.

I didn't take process photos but I did take the finished products.

American Carrot Cupcakes, taller than usual just to be a bit whimsical! 

The Decadent Mocha Chocolate mini cakes with mocha cream cheese frosting.

Cookies N Cream (aka Oreo) Cheese Cupcakes.  Doesn't she look great?  Alethea and I each "tested" one!

Apple Cinnamon Struesel Cupcakes. It's low fat and healthy with apples and raisins in the cake.  The topping is butter (okay, a little bit unhealthy...), cinnamon and sugar.  Smells divine!

Here are the cakes all packed and ready to be picked up.  I hope the folks enjoy the desserts for supper tonight!

I'm Back and here's a fruitcake recipe!

Phew!  It's been such a hectic two weeks for me.  Last week I helped my son to pack up his room (thank goodness no painting required!) which took about 4 days and 4 black trashbags of junk.  Then this week my daughter went to Indonesia with her school for an Overseas Immersion Programme in dance and I took the opportunity to help her spring clean her room.  It was such a mess it took me quite a few days to get organised, with the help of my Mum and son.  After painting 4 coats of wall paint and 8 black trashbags later, the room is looking decent again.  She's coming back tomorrow.  I really miss her.

DARK FRUITCAKE
One of you asked me for a dark fruitcake recipe.  Here's one I used for many years and really liked it because it's quite simple to make. Have fun! 

This is for a 6-inch square tin or 7-inch round tin.  Please note that this is a dense fruitcake.  For this reason, it will not be wise to change the weightage of any of the ingredients otherwise you may end up with a crumbly cake from too much fruit and too little cake which is needed to bind the fruits together. 

Some of my friends request for less sugar in their cakes from time to time.  Sugar is very important to provide flavour and colour, as well as weaken the gluten strands in the flour thus having a softer cake.  Sugar also serves as a preservative and acts as a foaming agent since there's no baking powder in fruitcake.  So if you don't like sweet things, this is not the cake for you!

Glaced cherries(red and green)             75gm
Plain flour                                         200gm
Currants                                           175gm
Sultanas                                           250gm
Raisins(I use 2 colours)                      75gm
Mixed peel                                        50gm
Chopped nuts(I use almonds               25gm
Butter                                              175gm
Brown sugar                                      175gm
Weight of eggs                                  175gm     

Vanilla essence, almond essence, lemon oil, orange oil, dark Jamaican rum (the real thing!), ground mixed spice, Glad wrap, aluminium foil and airtight plastic container.


Halve and wash cherries, weigh the fruits and put in large container.  Soak the fruits and nuts in about 4-5 capfuls of rum, preferably a few days before or overnight (no need to use too much because you will have to throw away the excess).

On day of baking, heat oven to 150 degC (for my oven I use only 140 degC). Grease and line cake tin.  Sieve flour with mixed spices.  Make sure the rum soaked fruits do not have excess liquid in them.  Add flour and mix, set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Gradually add the eggs which have 1/2 tsp of the assorted essence in them.  Beat well after each addition.  If the mixture starts to curdle, add a little of the flour mixture.  Mix the rest of the flour/fruits and butter mixture using a wooden spoon.  Put in cake tin and use a spoon to level the top of the mixture.  The cake will rise only a tiny bit.  Put cake tin in oven and reduce the heat to about 140 degC.  Cook for about 1-1.5 hours.  If the cake browns too quickly, turn down heat only a little and put a piece of aluminium foil loosely on top of the cake tin.  You will know the cake is done when it is firm, a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean, the fruits look plump and the cake smells great!

Remove from oven and allow to cool in the tin.  Remove cake and pour about 2 capfuls of rum over the top of the cake.  Make sure you get the whole top of the cake.  Wrap in Glad Wrap and then aluminium foil and keep in the airtight container, leaving it in a cool, dark place.  Check every 2-3 weeks, adding more rum if necessary (usually I don't because I don't like an overpowering taste or smell of rum!).  The cake will be ready to eat in about 8-10 weeks.

Christmas Fruitcake Baking Spree

Dear Friends,

At the beginning of the week, my husband and I went shopping for baking supplies to make my yearly Christmas fruitcakes. We could only manage to buy half of the supplies because it came to more than 30kg!
Each year I spend more than one week baking, baking, baking. This year will be the same, except I suspect I will be baking more. Anyways, after 2 days of baking I made 6 recipes. My goal is 20 recipes so I still have a ways to go.

These fruitcakes are dense and moist. I've cut down on the sugar to almost minimum, letting the fruit sugars take over.

Thank you to those who have sent in your early orders. Your cakes have been made and are happily mellowing in my boxes. For those of you who would like to order the fruitcakes, here's the sizes and prices.

Star: 4 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches height, 150gm, $8

Cupcake: 3 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches height, 150gm, $8

Small oval: 4 1/4 x 3 1/4 x 1 3/4 inches height, 250gm, $12

Round: 4 3/4 x 2 1/4 inches height, 500gm, $25

Small oval

Cupcake

Small oval

Large oval: 8 1/2 x 4 x 1 3/4 inches height, 800gm, $35

All fruitcakes are mellowed in dark rum for 10-12 weeks. They are wrapped in plastic wrap, aluminium foil and then Christmas fabric with a nice ribbon to complete the look.

If you would like a cake larger than the 800gm one, you will have to let me know as soon as possible. Last day for orders will be Wednesday, 29th September 2010.

Vanilla Cupcakes (specially for Levine)

From time to time I get requests for a good cupcake recipe.  Here's one I enjoyed using for many years:

8 oz (225gm) softened butter
8 oz (225gm) castor sugar
8 oz (225gm) self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
4 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

Preheat your oven to about 175 deg C.  Place about 18 paper cupcake cases (regular size) into muffin tins.

Sift flour and baking powder in a bowl.  Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.  Add in eggs one at a time, beating well in between eggs and scraping mixing bowl down.  Add vanilla essence.  Turn mixer speed down to minimum and fold in flour (don't take too long otherwise the cake will be tough).  Alternatively, fold in flour by hand.

Sppon the mixture into the cupcake cases (about 3/4 full) and bake for about 20 minutes.  I usually turn the tins about 10-15 minutes into baking (don't do it too soon otherwise the cakes may collapse).  Test doneness with a skewer.  If the skewer comes out clean, cake is done.

Remove from oven and cool for 5 minutes.  Then remove the cupcakes and cool on a rack.  If you plan to frost the cake, a butter cream frosting will be good.  You can store the cool cakes in an air tight container for up to 3 days.  If you choose to keep the cakes in the fridge, take them out 15-20 minutes before eating.

You can also make smaller cupcakes which means your yield will be higher. 

Enjoy!

Recipe for Pate a Choux (specially for Dotz!)

This recipe is taken from the book On Baking (A Textbook on Baking and Pastry Fundamentals), page 412.
The recipes in this book are meant for restaurant or hotel kitchens which means the portions are large.  Here is the halved recipe and my tweaked version:
Milk                   120ml (if you want a crisper version replace milk with water)
Water                120 ml
Salted butter      105gm
Plain flour           150gm
Sugar                 2 teaspoons (can omit but I prefer it with a bit of sugar)
Eggs                   5 with 1 tsp vanilla extract

Turn on oven to 180deg C.

1.  Place milk, water and butter in a pot.  Bring to boil.  Make sure the butter is full melted.
2.  Remove from heat and immediately add in all the flour.  Vigorously beat trhe dough by hand.  Put the pan back on the heat and continue beating the dough until it comes away from the sides of the pan.  The dough should look relatively dry.
(N.B.  I used a non-stick pot so cut down the process quite a bit).
3.  Transfer the dough to your mixer and beat at medium speed for a few seconds.  Begin to add the eggs one at a time
4.  Continue beating to add the eggs one by one until the mixture is shiny and silky but firm.
(N.B. This step is very important because beating adequately will incorporate enough air for the puff to rise).
5.  Put the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a plain tip and pipe onto non-stick sheet pans.
6.  Bake at 180deg C (varies with different ovens but it doesn need to be hot initially to rise properly) until pastries are dry and crisp, or golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
7.  Let pastries cool on a rack before filling.

Enjoy!

Profiteroles!

Here's what I had for afternoon tea today. 
I know.  I know. 
You are wondering why there's more ice-cream than cream puff?
Well, my generous daughter scooped the ice-cream.
What can I say?
It's not much, really.  It's quite a small profiterole.
I enjoyed it very much.

Pate a Choux (Choux Pastry)

My daughter simply loves profiteroles and has been asking me to make her some.  A few days ago I made them using my old recipe from 35 years ago!  It was still great.  However, since my husband bought me a professional baking book (yes, the academic kind!) I decided to try the recipe in there today.  Choux pastry is used for cream puffs and eclairs. It is quite unique because it is cooked before baking.  Here's what I did:

First, I combined the butter, milk and water in a pot and heated it to a boil to melt the butter.

Then I added the flour to the butter, milk and water mixture and hand beat the dough until the mixture left the sides of the pot.

Next I transferred the hot dough to my mixer and added the eggs one at a time while beating the mixture till it was smooth and silky.

I then put the dough into a piping bag and piped the shapes I wanted.  Here's the regular cream puff shape.

Here's the eclair shape.  I popped these into the oven for about 25 minutes or till golden brown.

Here's my three shapes and sizes of puffs.  They were so delicious on their own I ate 3!  My son squeezed chocolate syrup in one and popped it into his mouth!!  Now I'm waiting for my daughter to come home from school and eat her cream puffs with vanilla ice-cream (profiteroles).

Baking for a small event

I baked for a small event (20 people) yesterday.  The first time I baked for DS a few weeks back, I made mini pizzas and American carrot cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.  Since she requested for my mini pizzas again, I decided to go with two kinds of miniature cupcakes, Coffee with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting (most people love this frosting) and "Resistance is Futile" cupcakes which is my triple chocolate recipe.

I used two kinds of fresh sausage meat, three colours of capsicum and two kinds of cheeses for the mini pizzas.  Here's one ready for the oven.

Halfway through cooking in the oven, the cheeses are nicely melted and the pizza looks good!

Packed in the box!  Colourful, aromatic and simply yummy!

The Coffee and chocolate chip miniature cupcakes turned out well.  I added a mocha chocolate coffee bean on top to complete the look.

Don't they look cozy all together? 

If you have a small event (maximum 30 people)) and need a few varieties of desserts (the only savoury item I make now are mini pizzas) let me know and I'll see if I can help.  Prices start from $4 per person (2-3 miniature items).  I will need at least a week to plan and prepare since I don't stock everything at home. For orders above $100 I will send the cakes to you.

For larger events, I will need even more time to block out my schedule, plan and prepare.  The largest group I've baked for is 140 people.

Come October I'll be baking 4-5 types of desserts for 50 people. It's going to be fun planning the taste, texture and colours for this event.

Now I'm off to bake some cream puffs!