Christmas in August!

I.love.Christmas.

Seriously, in my opinion, it is the best time of year (primarily because of presents and baked goods!)

So when my aunt had a recipe for what is called a "Dundee Cake" (essentially a fruit cake) I jumped at the opportunity to try it out!

This is the product of my foray into Cake City. What makes it particularly delicious is that the fruit was soaked in whiskey and orange juice :) Mmmm! This cake is definitely one of those items that just gets better the longer it sits around. I, however, wouldn't know since there is scarcely a slice left in the tin!

That's all for now, folks!

Later Days!

A Garden of Cupcakes

Hello, everyone!

Don't you just love those midnight ideas that end up turning into some of your loveliest creations? That's the story behind a cupcake I like to call "Zoyah's Chocolate Orange".

This melt-in-your-mouth cupcake is chocolate with orange rind and juice for a real infusion of orange flavour.

We injected the cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting infused with orange and lemon rind.

For the sake of ease we used the fondant cut-outs and dragees for decoration. I think the colours really sing summer (so fitting for such a beautiful day!).

We are going to take this plate of cupcakes to khane tonight and since we had a couple of the coconut lemon flutterbys left over, we put them in the centre and the plate instantly screamed garden! Love it!

I will blog again soon, folks!

Have a happy, sunny day! :)

Seeing Red

Good evening, all!
Decided to try red velvet cupcakes, today. I've been toying with the idea for a while, and finally decided to give it a go.

The cupcakes definitely need to be perfected and I think I will try them again but at a later date.

I decorated them with a cream cheese frosting and decided to go the simple route with some fondant cut-outs and dragees.

I went a little more complicated on one below with a red dress on it. The name "red velvet" reminds me of velvet dresses that little girls wear and so that's where that idea came from :)

Anywho, that's all from me today! If you can believe it, I'm cupcaked out for the moment. Maybe I'll attempt something tomorrow!

Till then, happy cooking/baking/eating!

PS - Angry chicken representing the Southern origin of Red Velvet courtesy of my aunt :)

Mumti Masi's Coconut Lemon Flutterbys!

Greetings from the best kitchen in the world! Man, I love it here in Calgary!

To thank my Mumti Masi for her kind heart and infinite generosity, we decided to bake up a batch of cupcakes dedicated especially to her! Thanks for everything, Mumti Masi!

That's how these light-as-air coconut lemon flutterbys came to be. They consist of a fluffy coconut cake topped with a tangy lemon buttercream (courtesy o' Mehny). I decided, since they are so light, to top them with a butterfly piped with white chocolate (some of it I coloured purple).

Okay, off I go! Today, I'm planning on baking another two batches so I'd better get a move on!

I'm sure I'll post, again, in a few hours!

Chocolate Chip Cookies for Farhan, Dabir and Al

Hey everyone!

Today is a good day! The sun is shining, the kitchen is spotless and I will soon be off for another shopping adventure!

I woke up this morning and decided that no Bake-ation would be complete without a batch of my famous chocolate-chip cookies :)

Instead of the usual plain chocolate chips, I added half milk chocolate and half white chocolate chips and threw in a handful or two of chopped walnuts for a treat that anyone would love to enjoy with a tall, cold glass of milk!

I also decided to make these cookies jumbo for my cousins Farhan, Dabir and Al to enjoy!

Till soon, I'm sure!

Strawberry Gateaus (Ghettos) and Giftboxes

Hello from Calgary, everyone!
I must say, the lack of humidity here is definitely helping with the baking! No sticky fondant!



These strawberry gateaus are a tribute to my sister, Mehny's blog (Strawberry Ghetto...or Gateau). They are a plain, white cake with strawberry jam and coconut in between the layers and a strawberry jam cake glaze on top. I topped them with some fresh strawberries!

Something you must know about me is that I do not tell lies. With that being said, covering square cakes for the first time after a day of shopping is not the best idea in the world! It was, however, quite a humbling experience (there is so much I have yet to learn!). These gift boxes are the same plain cake as the strawberry gateaus and have a layer of chocolate ganache in their centre, a gift I think I would be quite thrilled with!

Well, off I go to do some more shopping! (Only one tax is shopping heaven!)

More treats to come as Bake-ation 2009 continues :)

Tea-Time Treasures

Hey Everyone!

We've been busy packing and baking all at the same time (headed to Calgary to see the fam, tomorrow).

Last night, we decided to bake instead of packing (surprise, surprise).

When better to try something tedious and difficult than when you clearly have more pressing matters at hand, right? With that in mind, I decided to try my hand at making fondant roses!

Here's the product! They still need some work, but not bad for a first try. What say you?

I call these cupcakes my tea-time treasures! They are English Toffee cakes (ah, memories of London) with peanut butter cream. My sister (who is quite the peanut butter aficionado) likens the butter cream to the inside filling of a Reese’s Peanutbutter Cup!

We made these as Sufro for Beej so we decided to make them really delectable with the roses on some cupcakes and a quilt pattern similar to the Quilt Cake on the others. We think the quilt cupcakes would be perfect for a Christening, Bayat or even a wedding!

Well, I should be off!

Keep checking the blog, though. My aunt in Calgary has the best kitchen known to man (granite countertops, people!) so Calgary is going to be my dream Bake-ation! I will be updating frequently!

Till cowtown!

Cabana Boys

There's nothing I'd rather do on a rainy day than bake!
If the weather is not going to bring the sunshine, I might as well do it myself with what I call my Cabana Boys!

A true representation of any sunny island, these chocolate-coconut cupcakes bring with them the feeling of being on a beach when you eat them.

All you need is a pina colada and a real cabana boy to bring them over, and you're all set! (Anyone have one of those?)

As a special punch of flavour, I toasted the coconut on top and doing this really brings out its nutty flavour!

Enjoy, everyone, a virtual cupcake for you all!

Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes are the Best Medicine

Happy Marvelous Monday, everyone!

You know that saying "Laughter is the Best Medicine"? Well, I would like to petition to change it to "Coconut Vanilla Cupcakes are the Best Medicine". Too long?

My workoholic, accountant uncle (he's such a suit!) has been under the weather for a little while now and I have decided to take his recovery into my own hands!

I decided to bake him a batch of coconut cupcakes with a vanilla buttercream frosting to induce a speedy recovery (or a speedy weight-gain, whichever happens first...). I aptly decorated them with all things accounting (even the name of his company!).

So feel better, Nakoo Mama! <3

My Botanicals

Hey all!

Happy Rainy Sunday!

So these cupcakes were a Saturday morning-before the exam inspiration. What better way to alleviate exam stress than to decorate some cupcakes?

I am dedicating these blueberry botanicals to two special people:

1. Krystyna

Thank you so much for the lovely blueberries! I am generally not a blueberry person but I love these ones!

2. Sikina

Since it would be really hard to ship these babies all the way to the UK, I hope you enjoy your virtual birthday treat! :)

Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

For a Good Cause

Hey all!

So these are some more of the infamous henna tops that we made for a family friend! We decided to make them a little more special than usual and went the extra mile to do these reverse henna tops. We thought it fitting to go the extra mile for him since he frequently goes the extra mile for others!

And on another note, I always feel that I forget to thank my ever-talented mother who can whip up a batch of these cupcakes before I can say, "fondant". So thanks, mum! And for those of you who know me, you know that if I was taking pictures of these decadent confections, they would always have the omnipresent thumb-on-the-lens. For these pictures, I have my wonderful technology-savvy sister to thank who gets into the most awkward positions to "get the shot" so thank you, Mehny...and she also makes a mean buttercream!