Yumi’s Birthday Cake (daycare)

Hi this is KK, Sushi Artist/ Healthy Muffin Maker / Mum 🙂

Thank you for visiting my blog.

 

This is the second birthday cake I made for Yumi this year, and it was for her daycare. Yumi was lucky enough to have her special day celebrated with her friends.

 

She didn’t request anything, but I decided to do an Elmo cake, since this is one of her favorite characters. And it was interesting for me to make.

 

 For base, I used my No egg, No butter, No sugar cake, and used a bowl to make the shape.

When I made the Cookie Monster Cake, I used the same bowl, and some marshmallows for the eyes, but it took forever to consume the leftover marshmallows so I decided to use sponge for it this hear.

 

Can you guess the size from Elmo’s nose?

 

That’s an apricot.

 

It is filled with apricot jelly (better to use up the can because I only wanted 1 for the nose) and I used 300g full cream for the decoration. Takes a while for the jelly to set, to better bake the cake the day before, and do the decoration in the morning (Piping only took about 10min).

 

We enjoyed it with 10 small friends (Yumi is the eldest in her class) plus the staff, but I had to take about a quarter home. Daddy enjoyed it for dessert after dinner! I wonder what I should do on Saturday, for a family birthday party…

Yumi’s Brthday Cake (playgroup)

Hi this is KK, Sushi Artisit / Healthy Muffin Maker / Mum 🙂

Thank you for visiting my blog.

My dearest daughter Yumi turned 2 on Sunday, and we did a special Sydney marathon that day, but before and after the big event, I had some birthday cakes to bake.

Here is the one that I made for playgroup. Can you tell what it is?

 

 

It’s an Alpaca!

Ever since we met an alpaca at Shoalheaven, Yumi fell in love with this animal.

She talks about it, she dreams about it, and for her birthday, she decided to eat it!

The base is using my No egg, No butter, No sugar cake recipe, I used some full cream as a decoration with as little raw sugar as possible. If you don’t like the cream, you can take it off, it’s only for the special occasion.

Shared between 12 little friends and parents, this was a perfect size for a happy day!

 

 

*I’ve been asked how much cream is required, I whipped 300g full cream with 30g sugar, this was enough to cover the cake and 2, with some remaining. Maybe 250g is enough.

Panda family!

 

 

 

 

A great way to teach Yumi how to count and Eat!

She was saying “Papa Panda, Mama Panda, Yumi Panda, Panda one, two, three” and started to eat from the ears.

CUTE!

 

Rabbit and Heart Sushi Art

Hi this is KK, Sushi Artist / Healthy Muffin Maker / Mum 🙂

Thank you for visiting my blog.

 

Today was Sushi Art class for April, and even in this WET WET WET weather, we had plenty of fun! It was so fun, I forgot to take photo during the class, but here is what we made!

 

When Yumi came home from child care and found this sushi on the table, she started singing

“Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit!”

in a funny tune, grabbed hold of the rabbit face, and took a large bite from it.

 

 

Quite amazing to see a 19 month old baby eating sushi on her own in such happiness. I guess it is easy for her to eat because she can hold it in her hand, and shove it in when necessary. Everything is precooked, and already has a taste, so no need for soy sauce!

 

I hope we have lots of fun tomorrow too!

Celebrating HINA-MATSURI

Hi this is KK, Sushi Artist / Healthy Muffin Maker / Mum 🙂

Thank you for visiting my blog.

3rd or March was HINA-MATSURI, a day to celebrate hapiness and healthy growth of a girl. Traditionally in Japan, we decorate the house with HINA-NINGYO (Hina dolls), and have some nice meals with families and friends.

I brought the dolls from Japan, which were given to me from my parents and grandparents, and celebrated the day for Yumi. She is turning 18 months soon, and is a very happy healthy child.

On this day, we usually eat Chirasi-sushi, a sushi served on a plate decorated with vegetables, eggs and sometimes sashimi fish. We also eat Temari-sushi, a bitesize sushi made into a Temari(small ball) shape. Also, things like clam come into season in Japan, so we will make soup from that. For adults, sake is served too!

It is not always easy to celebrate festivals at the same time in Japan, especially when you want to cook for it because some indredients are out of season! We celebrated HINA-MATSURI with sushi, tempura and sashimi. Yumi enjoyed her sushi as usual, and hopefully next year, she will be able to eat other things too!

Yumi’s birthday cake

Hi this is KK, Sushi Artist / Healthy Muffin Maker / Mum 🙂

Thank you for visiting my blog.

 

I don’t make “Sweet” cakes very often, but it was different for my daughter’s birthday. I wanted to do something special, and ended up making a teddy bear cake for her.

 

The cake tin is from Wilton, so I didn’t make it into a teddy shape myself, but did all the icing. Not bad for first attempt?

The recipe that came with the tin instructed me to use “cake mix and bake according to the packet” which, of course is not something I allow myself to do. So instead, I tried several recipes and decided on this one:

Chocolate Cake Recipe for Wilton Teddy Bear (by KK)

2 cups Organic plain flour

2 cups Organic raw sugar

3/4 cup Organic cocoa powder

1 1/2 teaspoon Aluminium free baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

 

1/2 cup Oil

1 cup Organic milk

2 teaspoon Organic vanilla extract

1 cup boiling water

 

It’s a simple three step recipe:

Preparation:  Grease the tin with extra oil and dust it lightly with flour (not included in the ingredients), Preheat the oven to 180 C.

Step 1:  Shift all dry ingredients into a large bowl.

Step 2: Mix all the wet ingredients EXCEPT the boiling water in a medium size  bowl.

Step 3: Add wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, mix well, pour boiling water and mix;  pour in tin and cook on 180 C oven for 30 min, or until the skewer comes out clean.

 

When you bake this cake, like normal cake the center part will rise higher than the arms and legs. While cooling it on the cake rack, be sure to cut this “mountain” before you open the cake on plate. If you don’t do this (like me, for the first time) the arms and legs of the teddy will break off from its body 😦 !

 

Other than that, it is not difficult to make, so please give it a try. The recipe is simple and goes well with any tin, so it doesn’t have to be a teddy bear cake 🙂

 

For the icing, you can use buttercream icing or whipped cream, either is fine, I used buttercream because it was going to be eaten at Yumi’s playgroup, and whipped cream don’t last very long on a hot day!

It did take a looooong time to do the icing, but was well worth the effort. The only down side (?) was that my daughter didn’t show interest and had no bite of it! I guess she is so used to my Healthy Muffins, that sweet cakes don’t tickle her fancy!

 

Well, her friends and mothers from playgroup enjoyed it, so it was good after all!

Hope you enjoy baking a special cake for your special someone too 🙂

Why I cook

I cook because I love to, it’s so fun and stimulating for me.

For some people, it may be considered as a chore,

something you want others to do for you,

but for me, being in the kitchen brings joy and pleasure.

 

The oldest memory of cooking for me is when I was three.

I still remember how I was so proud to chop some carrots for my mother,

using a REAL knife!

 

Since that day, I have cooked for my families and friends,

made wedding cakes, done catering parties,

made 100 obento (Japanese style lunch box) for picnics,

and a lot of other things that  other people would say,

“Why did you do that!?”

in a shocked voice:-)

The answer is quite simple.

Because I love it.

 

 

These days, I cook to make my family happy.

Especially my daughter, Yumi.

Looking at this smile, I can put on an apron and stand in the kitchen,

baking a batch of muffin for her breakfast any morning.