A boy for you and a girl for me-- Worksheets for baking kids

‘Tea for Two’ is one of my favourite songs of all time. With its catchy tune, it describes a life most girls dream about. (for those anti-domesticity feminists out that, note that this is a very very general statement). One of the lines in the song goes, “We would raise a family, a boy for you and a girl for meee, Can’t you see how happy we would be!.” This is Ryan’s ideal of kids, a boy and a girl! In fact my mum used to say that if you have a girl and a boy, it spells “hao” (good) in Chinese.

I probably stop here at this point to assure everyone that I am currently NOT pregnant. However many of my friends are having cute little ones a long the way and this definitely makes me think about parenthood. Besides I feel that parenthood is a state you need to prepare for and one needs to research and experiment before you get Mr Stork to deliver the goods. Ryan and I were wondering if boys or girls would be easier to take care of (not that we would ever have a choice).We decided to conduct a little experiment where we would have to baby sit our nephews and niece on two separate occasions. The common task we did with both of them was well, baking.

As I pretty muched AWOLed my science exam papers under the advice of my principal, I must admit that this experiment is purely unscientific. Lets just call this a wacky social experiment

Case Study 1

Name:	Ariel!
Sex:	Girl!
Accompanying help:	Cousin Kieffer (16 years old), great buddy of Ariel
Loves:	Barney the purple dinosaur, Dora the explorer and all Disney Princesses Movies
Task:	To bake and decorate a jar of cookies for her mummy.

The process

Concentrration!

Using edible food markers to decorate cookies

Ariel loves butterfly shaped cookies

Cookies in a row!

Ariel wrote I heart mum so sweet!

Case Study 2

Name:	Ryan and Rayson!
Sex:	Boyzz
Accompanying help:	My sister and her helper (fine we were not entirely babysitting)
Loves	Barney duh purple dinosaur, Pixar movies especially Finding Nemo and Cars and now Toy Story 3
Task:	To make fondant decorations for vegan cupcakes

The process

what better way to start baking by eating the frosting

Ryan's finished product!

The tuptakes !

The report:

Ariel was real excited to bake the cookies. It was almost as if she had this vision from the start when she arrived the night before, she just wanted to touch the cookie dough. It was almost as if Barney was banished to the sidelines for awhile. To cut a long story short, Ariel did sit down for about four hours making those cookies. She really enjoyed herself.

The naughty:

She did not do anything particularly naughty, was just a little cheeky and sneaky. For example, I told her not to dust the icing sugar on the carpet. However she was caught on camera doing this by Ryan (yes we monitor our subjects very carefully). She was also not the most hygienic baker, we caught her eating the sugar sprinkles and then attaching them with her saliva to the cookies (Its ok, only her mummy was going to eat them).

Awwwww moment: When Ariel decorated a “I <heart> mum” cookie with her edible food marker and when she made a “black” coloured cookie for her grand Auntie J, yup wicked ahah

Ryan and Rayson had zero concept of what a cupcake (or tuptake according to Rayson) was. We did vegan cupcakes because my sister’s family was sometimes vegetarian. Even though they were moderately excited about tuptakes they were also blown away by the prospect of swimming, Barney watching and hitting each other.

The naughty: Was constantly distracted by each other and the perennial question of “how do I hit my brother?” constantly tormented them. Oh yes the  crazy chiming of “ta bian” (shit in chinese). Come on focus on the right kind of cake making boys!

The Awww. Factor: Boys are just so mischievous and they are so funny! I think I just loved it when Ryan tasted the vegan chocolate frosting and went  BANANAS! So no sweet messages for mummy but lots of fun!

The verdict—still dunno leh. What do you guys think? Are boys or girls easier kids? Of course all kids are different so this discussion is purely general. Post your comments and my favourite comment will win a little surprise gift! (will be posted to you)

I am going to end this post with the activity which I did with all three kids. You can download and print the worksheet for the kiddies to do while you are making the sugar cookies. (The recipe for the sugar cookies are in the worksheet) CLICK TO DOWNLOAD WORKSHEET

What you need;

1)      Cookie jar,

2)      Cookie cutters,

3)      Fondant (Pettinice brand)

4)      Edible food markers

5)      Corn Flour

6)      Rolling Pin

You can get a range of pretty cutters from Daiso at reasonable prices. I got my jars from Daiso too you can get fondant and edible food markers from either Phoon Huat or Kitchen Capers.

1)      Simply dust corn flour on a your work surface.

2)      Show your kiddo how to roll out the fondant with a rolling pin (or do it for them).

3)      Using the cookie cutters show them how fun is it to cut out shapes with the cutters, get them to do it as you roll out the fondant for them

4)      Wait for the fondant cut outs to dry for abit (in the air conditioned room in sg, it would take about 15 minutes)

5)      Get them to decorate the cut outs with their edible markers and sugar sprinkles (or anything edible you can find),

6)      Attach these fondant cut outs on to your cupcakes or to your cookies by brushing a little vanilla extract as adhesive.

7)      Enjoy watching the kiddos marvel at their creations!

Do take some pictures of your little ones’ creations! Send them to me and I will post it on this blog! Remember to share your views! There is a surprise Prize to be won!

Sugar-Rocks now has an order form! Thanks to my aunt.

In my last post, I mentioned that I made some Nutella swirled butter cakes for my aunts. However I only managed to get hold of one of them and I do love people to eat my cakes within two hours of baking! Optimal cake eating timing turned out to be terrible timing because I found my aunt in her living room staring at two computer screens and her TV screen. Yup she was multi-tasking, writing her thesis and watching some sappy serial at the same time. The conversation went roughly like that

Oli: Hey Ee Ee remember how we used to eat Nutella together? I made a Nutella cake!!!

Auntie J: Did you make a cake for my neighbour? I owe her a gift.

Oli: Why don’t you buy a cake from me for her?

Auntie J: No, you make the cake for her for free.(very fierce voice and starts eating the cake eyes still glued on the screens)

Oli:  I can’t make things for free for you to give away to your friends anymore! My friend and manager  L----s said NO MORE FREE CAKES. Hey I wanted to show you my website, remember how you told me I should market my cakes online? (grabs a computer that looks seemingly idle)

Auntie J: (For the first time her head turns towards me) : DON”T TOUCH THAT!!!

Oli: Just wanted to show you my website. (quickly types the sugar-rocks website before screaming unfolds)

Auntie J: Where are these pictures from? You took them off the internet?

Ryan : Muahhahahahahaa

 Oli: (stunned) Sheesh, these are my cakes, I took those photos! Look carefully can’t you even recognise our friggin house and plates!!!!

Auntie J: Hmm, actually you should start selling these cakes.They are really nice!

Ryan is just rubbing his head in his hands at this moment

Oli: EeEee I am selling these cakes. Just like you told me to a month ago!!! You are staring at the website where I am selling my cakes. That’s why no more free cakes for your random friends!

Auntie J:You sure you didn’t take them off the internet.

At this point I started to get slightly paranoid, not just because of my Aunt’s little faith in me, but also because perhaps people are unaware that I am selling these cakes. So I got Ryan to make an order form for me (thank you thank you thank you). You can access it from here so just click here. It is also on the top bar of the blog, under the header order. At the moment here are the following cakes available

1)      Some Like it Hot—Chilli Chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and a candied chilli padi (hot!)

2)      Like a girl—White cake filled with raspberry jam topped with cream cheese and a strawberry  (12 for $35)

3)      Roomantique—Lemon and Lavender cake with chocolate ganache filling and topped with a toasted meringue (8 for $25)

4)      Cruella De Vil—Natural Red Velvet Cake with Cream cheese frosting and chocolate chips sprinkles

5)      My Fav Bunny—Classic carrot cake with walnuts and raisins, cream cheese frosting and a little fondant carrot as a topper

6)      Guilt in a mini cake—Dark dark chocolate cake with a surprise centre, topped with a glossy chocolate ganache ( we can pipe words on the cakes)

7)      Where hasn’t Vanilla bean?—Vanilla bean cake with vanilla bean buttercream frosting

8)      A Chocolatey Affair—Dark Chocolate cake (brownie consistency) with a chocolate buttercream frosting

9)      Cococonut—Chocolate cake topped with a Marshmallow frosting and chocolate coconut ganache, grated coconut is sprinkled on the top (something like Rocky Road)

10)  Nutellen’ ya—The cake I brought my aunt.. Nutella swirled rich butter cake with Mocha and baileys frosting (baileys optional)

Sugar- Rocks does vegan cakes too, so please indicate if you have such a request. All cakes can be customised and made into whole cakes.

Oh to end that story with Auntie J, she sent Ryan running out of the house with the following words, “I think I want to do my last semester for my Masters in Melbourne but I will wait till you re-locate there then I CAN LIVE WITH YOU!

Here is an example of packaging I do for my cake orders. Enjoy! (BTW it is a “I Love Malaysians” cake complete with the twin towers)

card for the cake

Nutella and a few of my favourite things

Yesterday was my mother’s birthday. She would have been 59 this year. I still get really down when I think of my parents and hence I try to think about the happy times we had together and all our favourite things. I suppose I am writing this because I just wanted to let anyone out there who is feeling really hurt and angry that they have lost someone that while the pain does not ever go away, there are still good things in life, there are still blessings in your life. Count ‘em, that is what I am going to do! Life is so precious and so short, I am determined to live this pursuing my loves and treasuring my relationships. My brother sent me something from Australia for my birthday. He wrote on his Facebook wall that I would either love it or hate it. Well, LOVED IT! Check it out

A wedding cake charm from Frans!

Yeah he got me Juicy Couture bling! *show off a bit can*. I really like it that it is a charm, my mother used to give both of us charms. I do not think that it is superstitious or anything, but rather as reminders. I am going to keep this little charm from my brother close to me, to always remind myself to follow my dreams and use whatever gifts I have been given by The Almighty to help all those around me. Ok I am going to lay off before all the Care bears come sliding down that monstrous rainbow thing and this becomes such a nauseating self-help post. Eww

I anticipated that I would get a little funky and cranky during the week following to my mother’s birthday; hence I decided to spend it thinking about the fun stuff I used to do as a child. My mother is much older than both my aunties (10—13 years difference). My parents hence had to take care of both my aunties and they lived with us (their boyfriends too) for quite some time. My aunties are NUTS and I think they just never ever get old. When we used to live in Denmark, we would go for walks and see beautiful fruit from other people’s trees. We would actually form like a human ladder just to steal those fruit. (Naughty right) I used to get so tickled when were doing that that I would giggle and be real slow at picking the fruit. Another naughty thing we used to do was to walk to the provision store almost every night and each buy a sachet of Nutella and just eat it using the little spreader thing it comes with. We would never eat it at home; my mum would have just screamed if she knew! I think Nutella must be everyone’s favourite treat. Ros,a friend of mine specifically requested for a cake with Nutella in it. I have created a rich and dense buttery cake with a ribbon of Nutella swirled on top. I have chosen a Mocha buttercream infused with Baileys (you can skip the Baileys if you just don’t do booze) for the frosting of the cake (Swirled with an 1M tip).

Folds of gleaming buttercream...yummy

The little balls of decoration are fondant dusted with a mauve and gold shimmer dust. Oh WARNING: This cake is real rich and is meant to be like comfort food, you know trips to the mini mart, butter pound cake for tea with Milo, so avoid it if you like light tasting cakes. If you are too lazy to make this, you can purchase it from Sugar Rocks. It is $3 per cupcake with a minimum order of 12 cupcakes. They will be packed nicely in a box and with a gift card!


Enjoy!


Recipe for Nutellen’ ya (Nutella swirled butter cake with Mocha and Baileys butter cream)
This recipe yields 12 regular size cupcakes or a nine inch loaf tin
Ingredients for Nutella swirled butter cake

1) 3 eggs (room temperature)
2) 3 tablespoons of milk (room temperature)
3) 1 ½ teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
4) 1 1/2 cups of sifted cake flour
5) 1 teaspoon of baking powder
6) ¼ teaspoon of salt
7) ¾ cup caster sugar
8) 200 grams of unsalted butter
9) 12 teaspoons of Nutella (yummy)

Method

1) Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees
2) Melt the butter in heat proof bowl (like Pyrex) and set it aside to cool
3) \Mix eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a bowl and set aside
4) Place all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt and sugar) in your electric mixer bowl (you can use a hand mixer too) and blend all the dry ingredients on low for 30 seconds. This actually helps to extract the juices of the dry ingredients to keep the cake moist
5) Add cooled melted butter into the dry ingredient mix (step 3) and blend till mixture moistens.
6) Add mixture of eggs milk and vanilla extract (Step 2) and gradually beat till all the ingredients are incorporated
7) Scoop batter into cupcake liners or loaf tin
8) Place one teaspoon of Nutella in each cupcake liner filled with batter (or 12 teaspoons in the loaf)
9) Using a tooth pick swirl the nutella so that a marbled design appears at the top of the batter
10) Bake for 22—25 minutes for cupcakes or 50-55 minutes for loaf tin
11) Cool for at least 30 minutes before frosting

You can actually just eat it as a muffin if you are not too worried about the frosting below

Ingredients for Mocha Buttercream infused with Baileys

1) Instant Mocha sachet (I used one which I bought from Marks and Spencers)
2) 3 tablespoons of milk
3) 75 grams of butter
4) 75 grams of Crisco (You can substitute this for butter, I use butter flavoured Crisco to make the buttercream more stable)
5) 1 teaspoon of Baileys (You can substitute this with vanilla extract or add more for a boozy effect)
6) 230 grams of icing sugar


Method
1) Heat up milk and empty mocha sachet Stir furiously until combined. Set aside to cool.
2) Soften butter and Crisco by beating them with your mixer for about 2 minutes
3) Gradually add icing sugar till the butter and Crisco stiffens up.
4) Add Mocha mixture (Step1) and Baileys or vanilla extract into the mixture
5) Add more icing sugar till it stiffens.
6) Your butter cream is ready when it is not gritty when you rub it between your fingers.